ObjectiveSocially constructed ethnic identities are frequently rooted in beliefs about common des... more ObjectiveSocially constructed ethnic identities are frequently rooted in beliefs about common descent that form when people with disparate cultures, languages, and biology come into contact. This study explores connections between beliefs about common descent, as represented by ethnic nomenclatures, and histories of migration and isolation ascertained from genomic data in New Mexicans of Spanish‐speaking descent (NMS).Materials and MethodsWe interviewed 507 NMS who further identified using one of seven ethnic terms that they associated with beliefs about connections to past ancestors. For groups of individuals who identified using each term, we estimated biogeographic ancestry, fit admixture models to ancestry distributions, and partitioned genetic distance into admixture and drift components.ResultsRegardless of which ethnic term they used, all NMS had appreciable Native American (avg. 27%) and European ancestry (avg.71%). However, individuals who identified using terms associated ...
Recent research has indicated a dramatic acceleration of dental development in 20th century Europ... more Recent research has indicated a dramatic acceleration of dental development in 20th century European Americans in Tennessee and Arizona, resulting in developmental stages being reached at earlier calendar ages. In order to determine whether this rate change is also observed in New Mexico, radiographs from two cohorts of European American female orthodontic patients with known ages were used to compare age by stage of development. The cohorts date to the 1970’s (n=101) and the 1990’s (n=93) and were between 5-11 years of age. Dental developmental stages were recorded for five mandibular teeth.The average calendar age difference between cohorts per tooth and developmental stage combination was less than one month, but varies among tooth/stage combinations by up to 13 months. A Pearson’s chi square test found no significant difference between the two cohorts for the 22 tooth/stage combinations. However, Cox Hazards Analysis demonstrated significant differences between the cohorts for f...
A previously unreported morphological variant, elongated premolar, is described and analyzed. The... more A previously unreported morphological variant, elongated premolar, is described and analyzed. The elongated premolar is mandibular and may affect the anterior or posterior premolar in the field. It appears phenotypically to be more rectangular (with the long axis mesiodistal) than ‘normal’ premolars. Dentitions of European Americans, African Americans, and an admixed group of Native African/European Americans were examined for the presence of this characteristic. Elongated premolars were found in 19 teeth in the 458 individuals included in the study. Mesiodistal diameter, buccolingual diameter, and cusp distance were measured for 14 affected and 22 unaffected anterior premolars. Principal components analysis shows that elongated and non-elongated premolars differ primarily in shape and not size, with elongated premolars attaining their overall shape due primarily to an increase in the mesiodistal dimension. Thus, the suggested description of this feature is elongated premolar (refer...
One of the main uses of dental morphological data is to study patterns of affinities among popula... more One of the main uses of dental morphological data is to study patterns of affinities among populations. Many different approaches to this purpose are available, each one having its own strengths and weaknesses. For this study, observations were made of the morphology of 614 African American and 327 European American dentitions (n = 941). Each of these samples was divided into three groups based on the time in which they lived. Affinities among the resulting six groups were estimated based on the frequencies of dental morphological characteristics, by the use of both the Mean Measure of Divergence and a Pseudo-Mahalanobis’ D2. The results of these analyses are compared using a Procrustes transformation that rotates and scales coordinates derived from distances until achieving the best fit. The two statistics produce similar, although not identical results. The appropriate use and relative value of each approach is discussed.
Abstract The Richards site is attributed to the Philo phase of the Fort Ancient tradition of the ... more Abstract The Richards site is attributed to the Philo phase of the Fort Ancient tradition of the Ohio Valley area. Human skeletal material from the site shows evidence of peri-and post-mortem taphonomic changes, including cut marks, burning and fracturing. Previous analyses have discussed explanations for these changes, including secondary burial, ritual destruction and cannibalism. Researchers have theorised that, allowing for differences in anatomy among species, humans and animals butchered for the same purpose ( ...
We examined the relationship between continental-level genetic ancestry and racial and ethnic ide... more We examined the relationship between continental-level genetic ancestry and racial and ethnic identity in an admixed population in New Mexico with the goal of increasing our understanding of how racial and ethnic identity influence genetic substructure in admixed populations. Our sample consists of 98 New Mexicans who self-identified as Hispanic or Latino (NM-HL) and who further categorized themselves by race and ethnic subgroup membership. The genetic data consist of 270 newly-published autosomal microsatellites from the NM-HL sample and previously published data from 57 globally distributed populations, including 13 admixed samples from Central and South America. For these data, we 1) summarized the major axes of genetic variation using principal component analyses, 2) performed tests of Hardy Weinberg equilibrium, 3) compared empirical genetic ancestry distributions to those predicted under a model of admixture that lacked substructure, 4) tested the hypotheses that individuals i...
The Southwest United States (US) and Mesoamerica are often thought of as disparate regional netwo... more The Southwest United States (US) and Mesoamerica are often thought of as disparate regional networks separated by Northern Mexico. Chaco Canyon in the Southwest US, Tlatelolco in Central Mexico and Casas Grandes in Northern Mexico, all had large inter‐regional trade centres that economically connected these networks. This study investigated how factors such as geographic distance, shared migration history, trade and political interaction affected biological relationships and population affinities among sites in Mexico and in Southwest US during the Postclassic period (ad 900 ~ 1520). Distances based on cultural and geographic variables derived from archaeological and ethnohistoric data were compared with phenetic distances obtained from dental morphological traits. The results of Mantel tests show trade (corr = 0.441, p = 0.005), shared migration history (corr = 0.496, p = 0.004) and geographic distance (corr = 0.304, p = 0.02) are significantly correlated with phenetic distances, w...
A critical component of the biological profile is sex estimation. Methods commonly used for sex e... more A critical component of the biological profile is sex estimation. Methods commonly used for sex estimation in adults do not work well for juveniles. Population‐specific studies have used cephalometrics to estimate juvenile sex with 80–90% accuracy. Our study attempts to estimate sex in individuals less than 18 years of age using a sample of 1618 lateral cephalograms incorporating all three Angle Class occlusions as well as population diversity. For the sample as a whole, 10 skeletal cephalometrics were found to have significant differences between the sexes. Males and females classify correctly about 50% of the time. Dividing the sample by age groups and race/ethnicity improves results for older age groups and Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. Our results indicate that cephalometrics are not useful in determining sex of unidentified juveniles when age and race are not known.
While human maxillary central incisors are relatively stable, maxillary lateral incisors are high... more While human maxillary central incisors are relatively stable, maxillary lateral incisors are highly variable teeth. We examined 900 dentitions from pre-contact samples from Mexico and the American Southwest for the prevalence of anomalous incisor variants including barrel, congenital absence, mesial marginal curvature (bending), peg, reduced, supernumerary, and talon tooth. We compared the frequencies of these variants among regions to determine which tooth forms were most common, whether anomalous variants tend to co-occur, and whether anomalous variants reflect population histories. Combining all samples, the most common variant is peg tooth (2.9%). The trait that is most common in a single sample is the talon tooth, seen in 12.5% of the Veracruz sample. This is the highest frequency of talon form yet documented. The samples from the Highland Maya and Huasteca regions have the overall highest frequency of incisor variants (6.2% and 6.7% respectively). Higher frequencies of unusual traits are consistently found in samples from smaller populations. We argue that serial founder effects coupled with population isolation may have led to the high frequencies of incisor variants seen in some of these regions.
Comparing thoracic pedicle screw trajectories, screw lengths, and starting points by examining os... more Comparing thoracic pedicle screw trajectories, screw lengths, and starting points by examining osteologic specimens. Describe a medial screw trajectory (MST) compared to a screw trajectory along the anatomic pedicle angle (APA) in terms of trajectory, screw length, and starting point. Although thoracic pedicle screw insertion is commonly used for posterior fusion and instrumentation, there is little data to quantify an MST that avoids the great vessels and allows for greater screw purchase. Thirty adult female skeleton thoracic vertebral columns from the University of New Mexico Maxwell Museum of Anthropology Osteology Collection were photographed from axial and right and left lateral views from T1 to T12. Axial plane measurements included APA and MST (both measured from the midline), screw lengths, and APA/MST intersection on the superior articular facet (SAF). The MST was defined as an insertion angle through the midpoint of the pedicle isthmus intersecting the anterior midpoint of the vertebral body. The intersection of each trajectory with the SAF was measured in relation to the lateral base of the SAF, reported as a percentage of the SAF base width from the lateral SAF border. At every vertebral level, the APA was different from the MST for angle, screw length, and SAF intersection (p < .0001), with the largest difference at T12. The T12 differences were APA versus MST angles (-25.5°, 95% CI -22.7° to -28.4°), screw lengths (11.0 mm, 95% CI 9.2 mm to 12.9 mm), and percentage of SAF width from the lateral border of the SAF base (38.6%, 95% CI 29.1% to 48.1%). The MST was approximately 8° to 10° greater at T1-T10 (19° at T11 and 25° at T12) than the traditional APA insertion angle. This resulted in a much more lateral starting point on the SAF and longer screw length, greatest at T12.
American journal of physical anthropology, Jan 20, 2015
Economic, political, and cultural relationships connected virtually every population throughout M... more Economic, political, and cultural relationships connected virtually every population throughout Mexico during Postclassic period (AD 900-1520). Much of what is known about population interaction in prehistoric Mexico is based on archaeological or ethnohistoric data. What is unclear, especially for the Postclassic period, is how these data correlate with biological population structure. We address this by assessing biological (phenotypic) distances among 28 samples based upon a comparison of dental morphology trait frequencies, which serve as a proxy for genetic variation, from 810 individuals. These distances were compared with models representing geographic and cultural relationships among the same groups. Results of Mantel and partial Mantel matrix correlation tests show that shared migration and trade are correlated with biological distances, but geographic distance is not. Trade and political interaction are also correlated with biological distance when combined in a single matr...
Few human variants are truly population specific, with 100% frequency in one group and 0% in othe... more Few human variants are truly population specific, with 100% frequency in one group and 0% in others. However, for traits to be of use in forensic identification they must be as specific to a population as possible. Forensically, several dental morphological traits have been described as useful for determining an unknown individual's ancestry. For these traits to be of value, they should occur in their associated group in proportions statistically different from all other groups. Furthermore, ancestral groups not associated with the trait should have no significant frequency differences among them. To test this, frequencies of dental morphological traits listed in the forensic literature as useful for ancestry determination were compared among samples of African Americans, European Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans (n=1625). chi2 tests were conducted on dichotomized frequencies of ten trait observations, including incisor shoveling, Carabelli's trait, canine...
Judge John Jelderks found that Kennewick Man cannot be defined as Native American under the Nativ... more Judge John Jelderks found that Kennewick Man cannot be defined as Native American under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. A recent amicus brief in the legal case regarding repatriation of materials from Spirit Cave, Nevada, suggests that the Kennewick case should be used as legal precedent, and that the remains of Spirit Cave Man are also not Native American. We suggest that a precedent in cases of Paleoindian human remains is inappropriate and unnecessary. We provide bioarchaeological, human variation, archaeological, social, and cultural contexts of the Spirit Cave Man remains. These contexts indicate that this case, and likely all of the few Paleoindian cases, is unique. Determinations of repatriation of Paleoindians should be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Historically, forensic anthropology has concentrated on race determination using skeletal morphol... more Historically, forensic anthropology has concentrated on race determination using skeletal morphological variation. Conversely, dental anthropology has been concerned with worldwide patterns of dental morphological variation. This paper represents a synthesis of the goals of forensic anthropology with the methods of dental anthropology. Dentitions of modem African Americans (n = 110) and European Americans (n = 155) were observed using methods based on the Arizona State University dental morphology standards. Of 136 characters observed, eight were found with frequencies that were very different between the groups. Based on these eight characteristics, probability tables were created for determining an individual's social race, using both Bayesian prediction and logistic regression. These tables are applicable for determining the probability that an unknown individual can be categorized as African American or European American. This method was tested on 40 individuals known to belong in one of these two ancestral groups. Correct assignment of race was made in 90% of cases.
The use of dental morphological characteristics to estimate the ancestry of skeletal remains comm... more The use of dental morphological characteristics to estimate the ancestry of skeletal remains commonly includes few traits, combines dental traits with other skeletal characteristics, and is nonstatistical. Here, discriminant function equations for estimating whether an unknown person was African American or European American, or Hispanic American are presented. Equations were developed from observations of 29 dental traits in 509 individuals. These equations were then applied to the original sample and a test sample (n = 40). Correct assignment rates for estimating African or European American versus Hispanic American range from 66.7 to 89.3%. Correct assignment of African Americans versus European Americans is 71.4 to 100%. Correct geographic assignment of Hispanics from South Florida or New Mexico range from 46.2 to 72.7%. Various discriminant equations using combinations of characteristics are provided. Coupled with the error estimates, these equations offer an important step in ...
The term "Hispanic" groups people from Central ... more The term "Hispanic" groups people from Central and South America and the Caribbean, combining disparate cultures, languages, and ancestry, and masking biological differences. Historical and current admixture patterns within these populations and with indigenous and European-, African-, and/or Asian- derived populations complicate the biological picture. Although "Hispanic" has little biological meaning, it is used widely in epidemiology, disease management, and forensics as a biologically significant group. An interdisciplinary approach combining historical, cultural, and biological data can characterize regional and temporal differences between Hispanic populations. We examined biological distances with a population of central New Mexico Hispanics, as a case study of the local specificity of population history. We collected dental morphological trait frequencies from samples of recent Albuquerque-area Hispanic Americans and several ancestral and contemporary groups. To explore regional admixture patterns we calculated biological distances using the modified Mahalanobis D(2) statistic. Our results indicate that Albuquerque Hispanics are more similar to their European and African ancestral groups than to Native Americans in New Mexico. Additionally, their affinity to Native Americans is greater with prehistoric rather than contemporary samples. We argue that these results reflect a local rather than pan-Hispanic admixture pattern; they underscore that populations are better understood at the local and regional levels. It is undesirable to make sweeping biological generalizations for groups known to be geographically and genetically disparate. This research is part of a growing trend in biological research concerning Hispanics and other groups-an emphasis on local samples, informed by historical, cultural, and biological factors.
ObjectiveSocially constructed ethnic identities are frequently rooted in beliefs about common des... more ObjectiveSocially constructed ethnic identities are frequently rooted in beliefs about common descent that form when people with disparate cultures, languages, and biology come into contact. This study explores connections between beliefs about common descent, as represented by ethnic nomenclatures, and histories of migration and isolation ascertained from genomic data in New Mexicans of Spanish‐speaking descent (NMS).Materials and MethodsWe interviewed 507 NMS who further identified using one of seven ethnic terms that they associated with beliefs about connections to past ancestors. For groups of individuals who identified using each term, we estimated biogeographic ancestry, fit admixture models to ancestry distributions, and partitioned genetic distance into admixture and drift components.ResultsRegardless of which ethnic term they used, all NMS had appreciable Native American (avg. 27%) and European ancestry (avg.71%). However, individuals who identified using terms associated ...
Recent research has indicated a dramatic acceleration of dental development in 20th century Europ... more Recent research has indicated a dramatic acceleration of dental development in 20th century European Americans in Tennessee and Arizona, resulting in developmental stages being reached at earlier calendar ages. In order to determine whether this rate change is also observed in New Mexico, radiographs from two cohorts of European American female orthodontic patients with known ages were used to compare age by stage of development. The cohorts date to the 1970’s (n=101) and the 1990’s (n=93) and were between 5-11 years of age. Dental developmental stages were recorded for five mandibular teeth.The average calendar age difference between cohorts per tooth and developmental stage combination was less than one month, but varies among tooth/stage combinations by up to 13 months. A Pearson’s chi square test found no significant difference between the two cohorts for the 22 tooth/stage combinations. However, Cox Hazards Analysis demonstrated significant differences between the cohorts for f...
A previously unreported morphological variant, elongated premolar, is described and analyzed. The... more A previously unreported morphological variant, elongated premolar, is described and analyzed. The elongated premolar is mandibular and may affect the anterior or posterior premolar in the field. It appears phenotypically to be more rectangular (with the long axis mesiodistal) than ‘normal’ premolars. Dentitions of European Americans, African Americans, and an admixed group of Native African/European Americans were examined for the presence of this characteristic. Elongated premolars were found in 19 teeth in the 458 individuals included in the study. Mesiodistal diameter, buccolingual diameter, and cusp distance were measured for 14 affected and 22 unaffected anterior premolars. Principal components analysis shows that elongated and non-elongated premolars differ primarily in shape and not size, with elongated premolars attaining their overall shape due primarily to an increase in the mesiodistal dimension. Thus, the suggested description of this feature is elongated premolar (refer...
One of the main uses of dental morphological data is to study patterns of affinities among popula... more One of the main uses of dental morphological data is to study patterns of affinities among populations. Many different approaches to this purpose are available, each one having its own strengths and weaknesses. For this study, observations were made of the morphology of 614 African American and 327 European American dentitions (n = 941). Each of these samples was divided into three groups based on the time in which they lived. Affinities among the resulting six groups were estimated based on the frequencies of dental morphological characteristics, by the use of both the Mean Measure of Divergence and a Pseudo-Mahalanobis’ D2. The results of these analyses are compared using a Procrustes transformation that rotates and scales coordinates derived from distances until achieving the best fit. The two statistics produce similar, although not identical results. The appropriate use and relative value of each approach is discussed.
Abstract The Richards site is attributed to the Philo phase of the Fort Ancient tradition of the ... more Abstract The Richards site is attributed to the Philo phase of the Fort Ancient tradition of the Ohio Valley area. Human skeletal material from the site shows evidence of peri-and post-mortem taphonomic changes, including cut marks, burning and fracturing. Previous analyses have discussed explanations for these changes, including secondary burial, ritual destruction and cannibalism. Researchers have theorised that, allowing for differences in anatomy among species, humans and animals butchered for the same purpose ( ...
We examined the relationship between continental-level genetic ancestry and racial and ethnic ide... more We examined the relationship between continental-level genetic ancestry and racial and ethnic identity in an admixed population in New Mexico with the goal of increasing our understanding of how racial and ethnic identity influence genetic substructure in admixed populations. Our sample consists of 98 New Mexicans who self-identified as Hispanic or Latino (NM-HL) and who further categorized themselves by race and ethnic subgroup membership. The genetic data consist of 270 newly-published autosomal microsatellites from the NM-HL sample and previously published data from 57 globally distributed populations, including 13 admixed samples from Central and South America. For these data, we 1) summarized the major axes of genetic variation using principal component analyses, 2) performed tests of Hardy Weinberg equilibrium, 3) compared empirical genetic ancestry distributions to those predicted under a model of admixture that lacked substructure, 4) tested the hypotheses that individuals i...
The Southwest United States (US) and Mesoamerica are often thought of as disparate regional netwo... more The Southwest United States (US) and Mesoamerica are often thought of as disparate regional networks separated by Northern Mexico. Chaco Canyon in the Southwest US, Tlatelolco in Central Mexico and Casas Grandes in Northern Mexico, all had large inter‐regional trade centres that economically connected these networks. This study investigated how factors such as geographic distance, shared migration history, trade and political interaction affected biological relationships and population affinities among sites in Mexico and in Southwest US during the Postclassic period (ad 900 ~ 1520). Distances based on cultural and geographic variables derived from archaeological and ethnohistoric data were compared with phenetic distances obtained from dental morphological traits. The results of Mantel tests show trade (corr = 0.441, p = 0.005), shared migration history (corr = 0.496, p = 0.004) and geographic distance (corr = 0.304, p = 0.02) are significantly correlated with phenetic distances, w...
A critical component of the biological profile is sex estimation. Methods commonly used for sex e... more A critical component of the biological profile is sex estimation. Methods commonly used for sex estimation in adults do not work well for juveniles. Population‐specific studies have used cephalometrics to estimate juvenile sex with 80–90% accuracy. Our study attempts to estimate sex in individuals less than 18 years of age using a sample of 1618 lateral cephalograms incorporating all three Angle Class occlusions as well as population diversity. For the sample as a whole, 10 skeletal cephalometrics were found to have significant differences between the sexes. Males and females classify correctly about 50% of the time. Dividing the sample by age groups and race/ethnicity improves results for older age groups and Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. Our results indicate that cephalometrics are not useful in determining sex of unidentified juveniles when age and race are not known.
While human maxillary central incisors are relatively stable, maxillary lateral incisors are high... more While human maxillary central incisors are relatively stable, maxillary lateral incisors are highly variable teeth. We examined 900 dentitions from pre-contact samples from Mexico and the American Southwest for the prevalence of anomalous incisor variants including barrel, congenital absence, mesial marginal curvature (bending), peg, reduced, supernumerary, and talon tooth. We compared the frequencies of these variants among regions to determine which tooth forms were most common, whether anomalous variants tend to co-occur, and whether anomalous variants reflect population histories. Combining all samples, the most common variant is peg tooth (2.9%). The trait that is most common in a single sample is the talon tooth, seen in 12.5% of the Veracruz sample. This is the highest frequency of talon form yet documented. The samples from the Highland Maya and Huasteca regions have the overall highest frequency of incisor variants (6.2% and 6.7% respectively). Higher frequencies of unusual traits are consistently found in samples from smaller populations. We argue that serial founder effects coupled with population isolation may have led to the high frequencies of incisor variants seen in some of these regions.
Comparing thoracic pedicle screw trajectories, screw lengths, and starting points by examining os... more Comparing thoracic pedicle screw trajectories, screw lengths, and starting points by examining osteologic specimens. Describe a medial screw trajectory (MST) compared to a screw trajectory along the anatomic pedicle angle (APA) in terms of trajectory, screw length, and starting point. Although thoracic pedicle screw insertion is commonly used for posterior fusion and instrumentation, there is little data to quantify an MST that avoids the great vessels and allows for greater screw purchase. Thirty adult female skeleton thoracic vertebral columns from the University of New Mexico Maxwell Museum of Anthropology Osteology Collection were photographed from axial and right and left lateral views from T1 to T12. Axial plane measurements included APA and MST (both measured from the midline), screw lengths, and APA/MST intersection on the superior articular facet (SAF). The MST was defined as an insertion angle through the midpoint of the pedicle isthmus intersecting the anterior midpoint of the vertebral body. The intersection of each trajectory with the SAF was measured in relation to the lateral base of the SAF, reported as a percentage of the SAF base width from the lateral SAF border. At every vertebral level, the APA was different from the MST for angle, screw length, and SAF intersection (p < .0001), with the largest difference at T12. The T12 differences were APA versus MST angles (-25.5°, 95% CI -22.7° to -28.4°), screw lengths (11.0 mm, 95% CI 9.2 mm to 12.9 mm), and percentage of SAF width from the lateral border of the SAF base (38.6%, 95% CI 29.1% to 48.1%). The MST was approximately 8° to 10° greater at T1-T10 (19° at T11 and 25° at T12) than the traditional APA insertion angle. This resulted in a much more lateral starting point on the SAF and longer screw length, greatest at T12.
American journal of physical anthropology, Jan 20, 2015
Economic, political, and cultural relationships connected virtually every population throughout M... more Economic, political, and cultural relationships connected virtually every population throughout Mexico during Postclassic period (AD 900-1520). Much of what is known about population interaction in prehistoric Mexico is based on archaeological or ethnohistoric data. What is unclear, especially for the Postclassic period, is how these data correlate with biological population structure. We address this by assessing biological (phenotypic) distances among 28 samples based upon a comparison of dental morphology trait frequencies, which serve as a proxy for genetic variation, from 810 individuals. These distances were compared with models representing geographic and cultural relationships among the same groups. Results of Mantel and partial Mantel matrix correlation tests show that shared migration and trade are correlated with biological distances, but geographic distance is not. Trade and political interaction are also correlated with biological distance when combined in a single matr...
Few human variants are truly population specific, with 100% frequency in one group and 0% in othe... more Few human variants are truly population specific, with 100% frequency in one group and 0% in others. However, for traits to be of use in forensic identification they must be as specific to a population as possible. Forensically, several dental morphological traits have been described as useful for determining an unknown individual's ancestry. For these traits to be of value, they should occur in their associated group in proportions statistically different from all other groups. Furthermore, ancestral groups not associated with the trait should have no significant frequency differences among them. To test this, frequencies of dental morphological traits listed in the forensic literature as useful for ancestry determination were compared among samples of African Americans, European Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans (n=1625). chi2 tests were conducted on dichotomized frequencies of ten trait observations, including incisor shoveling, Carabelli's trait, canine...
Judge John Jelderks found that Kennewick Man cannot be defined as Native American under the Nativ... more Judge John Jelderks found that Kennewick Man cannot be defined as Native American under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. A recent amicus brief in the legal case regarding repatriation of materials from Spirit Cave, Nevada, suggests that the Kennewick case should be used as legal precedent, and that the remains of Spirit Cave Man are also not Native American. We suggest that a precedent in cases of Paleoindian human remains is inappropriate and unnecessary. We provide bioarchaeological, human variation, archaeological, social, and cultural contexts of the Spirit Cave Man remains. These contexts indicate that this case, and likely all of the few Paleoindian cases, is unique. Determinations of repatriation of Paleoindians should be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Historically, forensic anthropology has concentrated on race determination using skeletal morphol... more Historically, forensic anthropology has concentrated on race determination using skeletal morphological variation. Conversely, dental anthropology has been concerned with worldwide patterns of dental morphological variation. This paper represents a synthesis of the goals of forensic anthropology with the methods of dental anthropology. Dentitions of modem African Americans (n = 110) and European Americans (n = 155) were observed using methods based on the Arizona State University dental morphology standards. Of 136 characters observed, eight were found with frequencies that were very different between the groups. Based on these eight characteristics, probability tables were created for determining an individual's social race, using both Bayesian prediction and logistic regression. These tables are applicable for determining the probability that an unknown individual can be categorized as African American or European American. This method was tested on 40 individuals known to belong in one of these two ancestral groups. Correct assignment of race was made in 90% of cases.
The use of dental morphological characteristics to estimate the ancestry of skeletal remains comm... more The use of dental morphological characteristics to estimate the ancestry of skeletal remains commonly includes few traits, combines dental traits with other skeletal characteristics, and is nonstatistical. Here, discriminant function equations for estimating whether an unknown person was African American or European American, or Hispanic American are presented. Equations were developed from observations of 29 dental traits in 509 individuals. These equations were then applied to the original sample and a test sample (n = 40). Correct assignment rates for estimating African or European American versus Hispanic American range from 66.7 to 89.3%. Correct assignment of African Americans versus European Americans is 71.4 to 100%. Correct geographic assignment of Hispanics from South Florida or New Mexico range from 46.2 to 72.7%. Various discriminant equations using combinations of characteristics are provided. Coupled with the error estimates, these equations offer an important step in ...
The term "Hispanic" groups people from Central ... more The term "Hispanic" groups people from Central and South America and the Caribbean, combining disparate cultures, languages, and ancestry, and masking biological differences. Historical and current admixture patterns within these populations and with indigenous and European-, African-, and/or Asian- derived populations complicate the biological picture. Although "Hispanic" has little biological meaning, it is used widely in epidemiology, disease management, and forensics as a biologically significant group. An interdisciplinary approach combining historical, cultural, and biological data can characterize regional and temporal differences between Hispanic populations. We examined biological distances with a population of central New Mexico Hispanics, as a case study of the local specificity of population history. We collected dental morphological trait frequencies from samples of recent Albuquerque-area Hispanic Americans and several ancestral and contemporary groups. To explore regional admixture patterns we calculated biological distances using the modified Mahalanobis D(2) statistic. Our results indicate that Albuquerque Hispanics are more similar to their European and African ancestral groups than to Native Americans in New Mexico. Additionally, their affinity to Native Americans is greater with prehistoric rather than contemporary samples. We argue that these results reflect a local rather than pan-Hispanic admixture pattern; they underscore that populations are better understood at the local and regional levels. It is undesirable to make sweeping biological generalizations for groups known to be geographically and genetically disparate. This research is part of a growing trend in biological research concerning Hispanics and other groups-an emphasis on local samples, informed by historical, cultural, and biological factors.
Migration patterns in pre-European contact México are complex, but local population affiliations ... more Migration patterns in pre-European contact México are complex, but local population affiliations might be detectable on a microevolutionary scale using dental morphological trait data, as they have been in other areas of the world. We compared four local cultural groups in adjacent regions of México to illuminate local population differences: the Toltecs and Aztec Mexicas from the Valley of México, the Totonacs from the Gulf Coast lowlands of Veracruz, and the Maya from the northern lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula. Samples dated to Classic and Post-Classic time periods. Pseudo-Mahalanobis D2 distance statistics were calculated using 14 dental morphological traits in order to test three hypotheses regarding how culture group, geography, and time may have structured population relationships.
Cluster analysis and principle components of the distances show differences among the Aztec Mexica, Totonac, and Mayan/Toltec archaeological samples. Mayan and Toltec populations were difficult to distinguish from one another, a result in concordance with previously published work. Results indicate that the dental morphological trait data is sensitive enough to detect biodistance data over relatively small time and space dimensions in México, and that phenotypic similarities better reflect culture group variation than geographic or temporal variation. Seeing patterned variation in dental traits at this level is a necessary step before deepening analysis to include more sites, regions, and temporal periods. While more samples are needed, demonstrating that these groups are distinct at this broad level of analysis is heartening for future work on tracing past migration patterns in México.
This study was funded in part by Central Michigan University, Faculty Research and Creative Endeavors #48821.
Uploads
Papers by Heather Edgar
Cluster analysis and principle components of the distances show differences among the Aztec Mexica, Totonac, and Mayan/Toltec archaeological samples. Mayan and Toltec populations were difficult to distinguish from one another, a result in concordance with previously published work. Results indicate that the dental morphological trait data is sensitive enough to detect biodistance data over relatively small time and space dimensions in México, and that phenotypic similarities better reflect culture group variation than geographic or temporal variation. Seeing patterned variation in dental traits at this level is a necessary step before deepening analysis to include more sites, regions, and temporal periods. While more samples are needed, demonstrating that these groups are distinct at this broad level of analysis is heartening for future work on tracing past migration patterns in México.
This study was funded in part by Central Michigan University, Faculty Research and Creative Endeavors #48821.