Masters Theses

Date of Award

6-1987

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Anthropology

Major Professor

William M. Bass

Committee Members

R.L. Jantz, P.S. Willey

Abstract

A total of 175 adult human crania from an Arikara Indian skeletal sample are used in this evaluation of a discriminant function analysis for determining the sex of fragmentary crania. The method used was developed by Holland (1986b) and employs nine cranial base measurements. Only crania with associated innominates are used for development of the discriminant functions and a total of 26 crania without innominates are used as a test sample.

A test of measurement error indicates an average of 17.5% of variation due to measurement error for all measurements except the Distance between Foramina (DF). Data from the DF measurement indicated as much as 70% of variation between measurements due to measurement error, and thus DF was excluded from all other statistical analyses.

Four discriminant functions were developed that sexed the sample correctly with 73-76% accuracy, and the test sample was correctly classified with only 48-56% accuracy. Holland's discriminant function based on four measurements correctly classified the sample with 52.5% accuracy.

This evaluation supports the argument that discriminant functions should be developed from the population expected to be used, as the discriminants developed in this study are much more appropriate than Holland's for use with the Arikara sample. Although the results may be somewhat useful in sex determination of fragmentary crania, they demonstrate the need to further evaluate Holland's sex discriminants by testing them on larger, more diverse populations before they can be applied with accuracy to forensic cases.

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