The femur has been studied successfully by physical anthropologists for many years. Such traits as femoral head diameter and bicondylar width have been examined extensively and are of great value to forensic anthropologists and other skeletal biologists in sex identification. A number of studies over the past decade by the author and his former students have shown marked racial differences in the shape of the proximal femur and in at least one trait of the distal femur—intercondylar notch height. Anteriorposterior (AP) diameter of the proximal femur is much greater among Whites and Blacks than among East Asians and American Indians. Blacks have slightly greater intercondylar notch height than Whites. Other features, such as torsion, also differ between the major geographic racial populations. Current analysis suggests that the East Polynesians fall close to the American Indians and East Asians in the degree of flatness of the proximal femur.
One study has tracked the degree of change in flatness during individual development, and finds little change within major populations from the youngest to the oldest individuals. Temporal changes within populations are likewise minimal. Two studies have examined sex differences within populations, which are also found to be very slight. Racial differences, on the other hand, are quite significant, and individuals of admixed ancestry fall intermediate between the two parental populations. Such suggestions of high heritability in the shape of the proximal and distal femur make these traits very useful in assessing ancestry in forensic contexts.
Successful approaches to race determination of unidentified human remains have been developed by anatomists and physical anthropologists, but few quantitative methods are available for distinguishing American Indian crania from those of whites. The leading method in use today is particularly ineffective in its placement of American Indian skulls from the western regions of the United States. Recent development and testing of a new metric method suggests a much more effective technique. The method involves six breadth and projection measurements of the midfacial skeleton, the calculation of three indices, and a simple direct reading of results. The method has the additional advantage of use in the autopsy room with minimal dissection of soft tissue required. Based upon a less extensive test of East Asian and Arctic Mongoloid crania, the method appears to be even more effective in separating them from the sharp featured whites. Larger samples of American blacks and Polynesians are presently under study and these also appear to separate quite readily from whites using the same or similar sectioning values.
Throughout much of the western region of the United States the traditional metric method for discerning Amerindian skeletal remains from those of Whites or Blacks, that is, the Giles-Elliot discriminant function approach [2], has simply been shown to be ineffective [3,4]. It also seems to fail at correctly identifying the crania of Black males [19]. The region of the West that produces the lowest percentages of correct placement of American Indian skeletons appears to be the Northwestern Plains (Wyoming, Montana). For this reason, in that area of the West a number of new methods have emerged (both metric and non-metric) in recent years. The effectiveness of each of these approaches in the process of skeletal identification varies, but most of them appear to be quite useful in forensic contexts. It is also suggested that some additional new approaches which seem to hold much promise for the future, be tested objectively as well, in order to ascertain their effectiveness in forensic casework.
Preferences of 482 Caucasian female college students for males' beardedness were investigated through a questionnaire. Observed low levels of liking for beardedness contrast markedly with earlier research on other college populations. The influence of region and rurality on political and social conservatism was discussed as a possible explanation for variation among studies of reaction to male beardedness.
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