Year of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Anthropology (Forensic and Biological Anthropology)

Department or School/College

Department of Anthropology

Committee Chair

Dr. Randall Skelton

Commitee Members

Dr. Randall Skelton, Dr. Meradeth Snow, Dr. Mark Heirigs

Abstract

Population affinity is the most controversial aspect of the biological profile to assess for forensic anthropologists due to an array of factors, both historical and in application. This has led to many calls for the abandonment of this type of estimation, however, many have challenged this by arguing for the category’s importance in the death investigation process. While the abandonment of population affinity estimation is unlikely, that does not mean that current approaches to population assessment should not be reassessed. This study attempts to reevaluate the category by applying an evolutionary lens to population affinity assessment. This project applied a current population affinity method in Hefner (2009) to bioarchaeological Japanese groups to test if these ancestral individuals would be classified into the forensic “Asian” category to test the method’s applicability outside of forensic contexts. Frequency distributions of morphoscopic traits were also collected in these past populations to determine if there have been any significant changes in trait frequency over time. Regional data between Japanese and Chinese populations were also compared to observe if trait frequency distributions differed between the regional groups. The results of this study challenge the common assumption made by forensic anthropologists that morphoscopic traits utilized in population affinity assessment reliably reflect population history. This raises concerns about the applicability of current population affinity methods in the future.

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© Copyright 2025 Tristan Charnock Hershberger