Ancestry in Human Remains Analyses

Flashcards covering key vocabulary related to ancestry analysis in human remains, forensic anthropology methods, and the socio-cultural implications of race.

Ancestry

The ancestral geographical origin of an individual.

Bioprofiling

Methods used to estimate biological profiles, including ancestry, from human skeletal remains.

Cranial Metrics

Quantitative measurements of skull dimensions used in ancestry estimation.

Cranial Nonmetrics

Qualitative traits of the skull that vary by ancestry and can be scored statistically.

Osteoprofiling

Analyzing skeletal remains to determine biological characteristics such as ancestry, sex, and age.

Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA)

A statistical method used to classify groups based on measurements, often used in cranial ancestry estimation.

Morphoscopic Traits

Qualitative skeletal traits used to estimate ancestry based on morphology.

Admissibility in Court

The standard necessary for evidence or testimony to be accepted in legal proceedings; issues arise with ancestry estimations.

Three Region Model

A framework for classifying human populations into three geographic regions for ancestry estimation.

Social Labels

Categorization based on societal perceptions of race and ancestry, influencing how individuals are identified.

Eugenics

A historical movement that sought to improve the genetic quality of human populations, often associated with racist ideologies.

Biological Race

A debunked concept suggesting that distinct biological races exist among humans, perpetuated by historical scientific racism.

Skin Color Variation

Physical differences among populations largely linked to environmental adaptations, not indicative of distinct biological races.

Missing White Woman Syndrome

A term describing media bias that disproportionately covers cases of missing Caucasian women compared to others.

Cranial Nonmetric Estimation

A method that assesses qualitative cranial traits to estimate the ancestry of skeletal remains.

Cultural Construct of Race

The notion that race is shaped by social contexts and historical power dynamics rather than biological differences.