Assignment #2 – Sex and Ancestry- 30 points
On August 19, 2003, a Lost Towns Project staff member, Erin Cullen, uncovered the top, or crown, of a human skull with one stroke of the trowel. This was the first time any member of the Lost Towns team had discovered any human remains in a trash pit, including more than two dozen similar trash pits dating from the 1660s through the 18th and 19th centuries. As the body was uncovered, it became clear it was intentionally stuffed into the cellar pit.
The excavation team invited Dr. Doug Owsley, a Smithsonian forensic anthropologist, and his colleagues to the site to document the body in situ and to advise on removing it from the pit. The remaining soil supporting the skeleton was removed and the bones carefully collected. They were taken to the Arundel County Archaeology Lab in Annapolis, Maryland. After cleaning and documenting, the remains were transferred to Dr. Owsley at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
Sex – Morphological (9pts)
| 1. Score the following traits of the cranium following Buikstra and Ubelaker (1994; Figure 8.8 in textbook). (4pts) | |
| a. Nuchal crest b. Mastoid process c. Supraorbital margin* d. Supraorbital ridge e. Mental eminence | a. b. c. 4 d. e. |
| 2. Based on your scores, would you say this skull is male or female? (1pt) | |
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*This is very difficult to assess from a photograph, so I have filled it in for you.
| 3. Score the following traits of the os coxa following Klales et al. (2012; Figure 8.4 in textbook). (3 pts) | |
| Subpubic concavity (use left image)Ischiopubic ramus (use right image)Vental arc (use left image) | |
| 4. Based on your scores, would you say this os coxa is male or female? (1pt) | |
| à | |
Sex – Metric (5pts)
| 5. Using the sectioning points (SP) provided by Spradley and Jantz (2011) in your textbook, determine whether the following measurement indicates male or female and provide the classification rate for each measurement. (6 pts) | ||||
| American Blacks (Table 8.5) | American Whites (Table 8.6) | |||
| Male or Female? | Classification Rate? (Ex: 87%) | Male or Female? | Classification Rate? (Ex: 87%) | |
| b. Humerus head diameter = 45mm | ||||
| c. Radius maximum length = 248mm | ||||
| d. Femur epicondylar breadth = 82mm | ||||
| 6. From the measurements above, which would you rely on the most for determining sex? Why? [HINT: what is a classification rate?] (1 pts) |
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Ancestry – Morphological (12pts)
| 1. Score the following traits following Hefner’s (2009) OSSA method using the images below (Figures 9.9-9.8 in textbook will be helpful). These are the same skull, so your Then provide the Binary Score (Hefner and Ousley 2014) that is used to classify as Black vs White (Figure 9.9 in textbook). (10 pts) | ||
| Feature | Score | Binary Score |
| Anterior Nasal Spine (ANS)Inferior Nasal Aperture (INA)*Interorbital Breadth (IOB)Nasal Aperture Width (NAW)Nasal Bone Structure (NBS)Post-bregmatic Depression (PBD) | 4 | 1 |
| Summed Binary Score= | ||
| 2. Based on the summed binary score, would you classify this skull as Black or White? (1pt) | ||
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3. What is the disadvantage to using the OSSA scoring method vs the “trait list” used in #1 of this assignment? [HINT: think about your options for classifying the skull for each.] (1 pt)
FAR sections (4 points)
Write up your summaries for the following sections as you would in a forensic anthropology report. See FAR example in Module 1 for guidance.
- Sex (2 points)
- Ancestry (2 points)
Provide your assignment as an attachment (Word doc only). Work submitted via the Written Submission button or Comments text box will not be accepted. You will have one attempt for this assignment.