Poster Session #2: UC South Ballroom
SEX DETERMINATION FROM THE GREATER SCIATIC NOTCH: A MORPHOMETRIC APPROACH
Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Ashley McKeown
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Anthropology
Abstract / Artist's Statement
Determining sex is a critical component in the identification of skeletal remains in forensic and archaeological contexts. Unfortunately, methods used and widely accepted today, specifically visual assessments of the os coxa (pelvic bones), rely heavily on the experience of the anthropologist and the completeness of the coxal bones. Here I propose a new method of sexual determination, which will eliminate the need for experienced anthropologists and a complete pelvis. Using a 3D digitizer, three points on the greater sciatic notch are mapped, and the distances and angles between them are calculated. Quantitative analyses of these distances and angles are then used to classify the sex of unknown remains. This new method will allow a lower level of experience from the anthropologist because of the simplicity of finding the three points, capturing the 3D points, and calculating the values which will estimate male or female. Previous methods also tend to rely on the presence of multiple features of the pelvis in order to estimate sex, which can be problematic in the case of fragmentary remains. This method will allow for sex determination of more fragmentary coxal bones because the region containing the sciatic notch is the thickest portion of the pelvis, and therefore tends to survive longer in archaeological and some forensic contexts.
SEX DETERMINATION FROM THE GREATER SCIATIC NOTCH: A MORPHOMETRIC APPROACH
UC South Ballroom
Determining sex is a critical component in the identification of skeletal remains in forensic and archaeological contexts. Unfortunately, methods used and widely accepted today, specifically visual assessments of the os coxa (pelvic bones), rely heavily on the experience of the anthropologist and the completeness of the coxal bones. Here I propose a new method of sexual determination, which will eliminate the need for experienced anthropologists and a complete pelvis. Using a 3D digitizer, three points on the greater sciatic notch are mapped, and the distances and angles between them are calculated. Quantitative analyses of these distances and angles are then used to classify the sex of unknown remains. This new method will allow a lower level of experience from the anthropologist because of the simplicity of finding the three points, capturing the 3D points, and calculating the values which will estimate male or female. Previous methods also tend to rely on the presence of multiple features of the pelvis in order to estimate sex, which can be problematic in the case of fragmentary remains. This method will allow for sex determination of more fragmentary coxal bones because the region containing the sciatic notch is the thickest portion of the pelvis, and therefore tends to survive longer in archaeological and some forensic contexts.