Development and Assessment of Postcranial Sex Estimation Methods for a Guatemalan Population

Abstract

This study tests whether postcranial sex estimation methods generated from Hispanic, and mainly Mexican samples, can be successfully applied to other increasingly common migrant populations from Central America. We use a sample of postcranial data from a modern (1980s) Guatemalan Maya sample (n = 219). Results indicate a decrease in classification accuracies for previously established univariate methods when applied to the Guatemalan study sample, specifically for males whose accuracies ranged from 30 to 84%. This bias toward inaccuracies for Guatemalan males is associated with the smaller skeletal sizes for the Guatemalan sample as compared to the samples used in the tested sex estimation methods. In contrast, the tested multivariate discriminant function classification yielded less sex bias and improved classification accuracies ranging from 82 to 89%. Our results highlight which of the tested univariate and multivariate methods reach acceptable levels for accuracy for sex estimation of cases where the region of origin may include Guatemala.

Forensic anthropology casework performance: Assessing accuracy and trends for biological profile estimates on a comprehensive sample of identified decedent cases

“…In the case of Fordisc [43], small sample sizes for the Hispanic reference groups are potentially at play (reported as n=31 in the help file), as well as antiquated populations from the Terry collection for the American Black reference sample. For Hispanic populations, our current methodologies have failed to capture both diversity in stature within and among Hispanic populations, and secular changes between skeletal populations and more modern cases [61,62].…”

“…For Hispanic populations, our current methodologies have failed to capture both diversity in stature within and among Hispanic populations, and secular changes between skeletal populations and more modern cases [61,62]. Furthermore, the more commonly used ancestry estimation methods also do not include reference samples that represent many of these groups, yet may often yield acceptable typicality probabilities [64].…”

The macromorphoscopic databank

“…Another important contribution to the modern American database is the sample of Southwest Hispanic individuals identified by the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (PCOME). Currently the MaMD contains data for 34 identified individuals from the PCOME, a number expected to grow exponentially as that office improves identification strategies for unidentified border crossers (Anderson, ; Anderson & Parks, ; Baker, ; Bartelink, ; Beatrice and Soler, ; Crider, ; Figueroa‐Soto & Spradley, 2013; Fowler and Hughes, ; Fulginiti, ; Galloway, Birkby, Jones, Henry, & Parks, ; Galloway, Birkby, Kahana, & Fulginiti, ; Hefner et al, ; Hinkes, ; Hurst, ; Hughes, Algee‐Hewitt, Reineke, Clausing, & Anderson, ; Martinez, Reineke, Rubio‐Goldsmith, & Parks, ; Reineke and Anderson, ; Soler and Beatrice, ; Spradley, 2014; Spradley, Anderson, & Tise, ; Spradley and Jantz, ; Tise, Kimmerle, & Spradley, ; Tise, Spradley, & Anderson, ;). Unidentified, or circumstantially identified, individuals from the PCOME (n = 120) with data in the MaMD are periodically updated as new identifications are made.…”

Age-at-Death Estimation for Modern Populations in Mexico and Puerto Rico through the Use of 3D Laser Scans of the Pubic Symphysis

“…Only recently have studies sought to produce information estimation criteria for individuals of Mexican nationality. Yet, they have been constrained to the study of sex and ancestry using metric skeletal data from positively identified US-Mexico border crosser fatalities (Fowler and Hughes 2018;Hughes et al 2018;Ross et al 2014;Spradley et al 2015;Spradley et al 2008;Tise et al 2013). Due to the small numbers and lack of demographic information (i.e., true age) for these highly targeted analyses, other parameters requiring osteological estimation, such as age-at-death have not been thoroughly examined and validated against the most well-established aging techniques even for these samples.…”