Canine Size: An Aid in Sexing Prehistoric Amerindians

Sciulli, Paul W.; Williams, John A.; Gugelchuk, Gary M.

doi:10.1177/00220345770560112801

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…The male average was larger than the female average for all 32 variables. The most sexually dimorphic dimensions were the buccolingual diameters of the maxillary and mandibular canines, a finding consistent with other studies (Ditch and Rose, 1972;Sciulli et al, 1977;Rao et al, 1989;Viciano et al, 2011). Across all variables, males averaged 0.31 mm larger than females.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 89%

Odontometric determination of sex at Mound 72, Cahokia

Thompson

2013

American J Phys Anthropol

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The mortuary context of Mound 72 at the Cahokia site is one of the most unusual ever described in prehistoric North America. Previous skeletal analyses suggested that four large mass graves within the mound contained only female skeletons. However, these findings were complicated by extremely poor bone preservation that limited the number of skeletal observations that could be made. Furthermore, most skeletons were aged in the 15-25 year range, a time when sexually dimorphic bony traits may still be developing. In this study, dental remains were used to examine sex in the four presumably all-female mass graves in Mound 72. Additional sources of information, including the original field/laboratory notes and new sexing data based on modern standards, were gathered to fully evaluate the dental estimates. Initially, discriminant function analysis was performed on odontometrics using the original Mound 72 sex assignment. Inconsistent results indicated that some of the skeletons may have been misclassified in the original analyses. To overcome this issue, discriminant function equations were generated using a large pooled skeletal sample from two sites in close temporal and geographic proximity to Cahokia. Application of the equations to Mound 72 revealed that each of the four mass burial groups contained individuals classified as male. These assignments were checked against the skeletal remains and the original field/laboratory notes. Discussion centers on how the results affect previous archaeological interpretations as well as the methodological considerations associated with this study.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 89%

Odontometric determination of sex at Mound 72, Cahokia

Thompson

2013

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…As a method of sex determination, odontometric analysis has been investigated over a long period of time (Garn et al,1967,1977; Sciulli et al,1977; Rösing,1983; Rao et al,1989; De Vito and Saunders,1990; Beyer‐Olsen and Alexandersen,1995; Lund,1999; Muller et al,2001; Pettenati‐Soubayroux et al,2002; Işcan and Kedici,2003; Kondo et al,2005; Okazaki,2005; Ateş et al,2006; Karaman,2006; Acharya and Mainali,2007; Vodanovíc et al,2007; Cardoso,2008), demonstrating that dental dimensions can be used successfully in sexual diagnosis in both living individuals and in skeletal remains in poor and/or fragmented condition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The crowns of permanent teeth are formed at a very early stage and as a result, odontometric characteristics can be used for sex determination after dental eruption even in immature individuals in which sexually osteological characteristics are not yet discernible (Cardoso,2008; Teschler‐Nicola and Prossinger,1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several metric and nonmetric methods have been proposed for determining the sex of subadult skeletal remains. Some of the methods that are based on postcranial measurements have been found to be of limited use for accurate sex determination (Weaver,1980; Schutkowski,1987; Holcomb and Konigsberg,1995), whereas methods based on descriptive characteristics of the skeleton (Schutkowski,1993; Molleson et al,1998; Loth and Henneberg,2001) and dental measurements (Rösing,1983; De Vito and Saunders,1990; Beyer‐Olsen and Alexandersen,1995; Teschler‐Nicola and Prossinger,1998; Okazaki,2005; Cardoso,2008) have shown greater promise.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, one of the main drawbacks of such methods is that they tend to be sample specific. When an odontometric method based on the permanent dentition is applied to a population that differs significantly from the population whose metric data were used to develop the method, the discriminant function formulae developed give poor or biased results (Teschler‐Nicola and Prossinger,1998).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Odontometric sex discrimination in the herculaneum sample (79 AD, Naples, Italy), with application to juveniles

Viciano

Aguilera

D’Anastasio

et al. 2011

American J Phys Anthropol

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Sex determination of subadult skeletal remains with satisfactory accuracy represents one of the most important limitations of archaeological research and forensic practice. Teeth are one of the most durable physical elements of an individual that remain after death, and constitute a potential source of information about the biological sex of that individual. This study was based on the skeletal remains of 117 individuals from the ancient city of Herculaneum (Naples, Italy), victims of the eruption of the nearby volcano Vesuvius on 24/25 August, 79 AD. It has been possible to develop discriminant function formulae based on dental dimensions of adult individuals whose sex had previously been determined based on descriptive osteologic criteria. These formulae were subsequently applied to the permanent dentitions of immature individuals of the same population in order to estimate their sex. The results show that the canine is the tooth with the greatest sex dimorphism in adults, providing percentages of correct assignment of sex between 76.5% and 100% depending on the dimension used. Of the 30 subadult individuals in the target sample, estimation of sex was possible for 22 individuals. Sex assignments matched those determined from descriptive characteristics of the ilia and mandible in 73.33% of the cases. The results provide some optimism that this method may be applicable to juvenile archaeological samples.

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2012

Pathology of the Hard Dental Tissues

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Canine Size: An Aid in Sexing Prehistoric Amerindians

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

Odontometric determination of sex at Mound 72, Cahokia

Odontometric determination of sex at Mound 72, Cahokia

Odontometric sex discrimination in the herculaneum sample (79 AD, Naples, Italy), with application to juveniles

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