Graduation Date

Spring 2017

Document Type

Thesis

Program

Master of Arts degree with a major in Applied Anthropology

Committee Chair Name

Dr. Marissa Ramsier

Committee Chair Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Second Committee Member Name

Dr. Marisol Cortes-Rincon

Second Committee Member Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Third Committee Member Name

Ariel Gruenthal-Rankin

Third Committee Member Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Keywords

Stature, Body mass, Juvenile, Estimation, Skeleton, Forensic anthropology, Femur

Subject Categories

Anthropology

Abstract

There are increasing numbers of unidentified persons in the U.S. and abroad. To generate positive identifications, forensic anthropologists and others working in the medicolegal field employ a variety of methods to produce biological profiles to match to case files and missing persons databases. Body mass, and stature are two important components of a biological profile, and both can be estimated using regression formulae derived from skeletal metrics. In cases of unidentified juvenile remains, these are particularly important metrics, as it is difficult or impossible to determine sex in prepubescent remains, and the quality of ancestry estimation is currently under debate in the anthropological community. This study presents new formulae for estimating juvenile body mass, and stature utilizing femoral measurements, and medical records from a modern American population. In this study, organizational systems such as age class and sex were less strongly associated with osteometric measurements. However, this was likely because of the smaller sample sizes, given that standard errors were less when taking these organizational systems into account. Additionally, race, and ethnicity as organizational systems are explored in this thesis.

Citation Style

APA

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