Abstract of Christine Foltz’s 2011 undergraduate honors thesis
Extensive work has been done with sexing through discriminant function analysis of crania.
Additionally, research on cranial deformation and its effect on cranial morphology has
received much attention. In order to better understand the effects of cranial deformation on
sex estimation from crania, a sample of 39 deformed crania from the American Southwest
was observed and measured. The sex estimated from the pelves of the individuals was
compared to that of the crania estimated both visually and by discriminant function analysis
through the Fordisc 3.0 program’s Forensic Data Bank and Howells world data set. Due to
varying assertions on the effect of cranial deformation on facial morphology, facial and vault
measures were considered both together and then separately. Visually, all except two
individuals were sexed accurately (94.9%). Metrically, a fairly high level of accuracy was
achieved when using the complete set of chosen measures and when processing only the
facial measures. Despite this, the difference in ancestry between the American Southwest
collection and those used for the reference sample of the Fordisc 43.0 program complicates
much of the data collected.