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
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
Recommended Citation
Pinkston, Erin F E, "Juvenile remains: predicting body mass and stature in modern american populations" (2017). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 30.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/30