Testing Techniques for Sexing the Subadult Pelvic Remains of Modern Humans from the African Diaspora

Estimating the sex of skeletal remains is an important component of forensic investigations (Spradley, 2016) and in archeological studies that attempt to reconstruct the lives experienced by past individuals and identify demographic patterns (Larsen, 2002; Agarwal and Glencross, 2011). However, before the onset of puberty, when secondary sexual characteristics appear, sex estimation from skeletal remains is more difficult. Because of this, subadults, and especially juveniles, have been largely overlooked in archaeological contexts and understudied in forensic anthropology (Baker, Dupras, and Tocheri, 2005). Sex estimation from skeletal remains is also population specific. Previous studies have addressed populations from Hungary, England, Portugal, and North America, and have also examined collections that consisted of Chilean mummies, “American White”, and “American Black” individuals (Boucher, 1955; Boucher, 1957; Cardoso and Saunders, 2008; Fazekas and Kósa, 1978; Holcomb and Konigsberg, 1995; Hunt, 1990; Shutkowski, 1993; Sutter, 2003; Vlak et al., 2008; Weaver, 1980). However, there is a dearth of population specific research on populations from South America, Africa, Australia, and Asia. This study applies metric and non-metric methods to samples of individuals from the African diaspora settled in America to test the hypothesis that subadult pelvic traits are sufficiently sexually dimorphic to be of utility for assessing the sex of isolated pelvises.

Author

• Riley-Horst, Ayla

Language

• en

Keyword

• Sex estimation
• Fetal
• Subadult

Date created

• 2020

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Human Paleobiology

Degree

• M.S.

Advisor

• Wood, Bernard A
• Ubelaker, Douglas H

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/df65v8598