New identification criteria for the Chilean population: Estimation of sex and stature

In the analysis of human skeletal or otherwise unidentifiable remains the assessment of sex is an initial vital element when rendering a biological profile. As such other aspects of the biological profile are sex-specific (e.g. stature and age) and cannot be successfully determined without this preliminary assessment. In addition, the estimation of stature is an essential parameter of the biological profile, which is often used to confirm or exclude presumptive identifications.The purpose of this study is to present newly developed local identification criteria for the estimation of sex from the postcrania and stature for Chileans. Linear discriminant functions were derived for the humerus and femur. Sexing accuracies of 87%, 86%, and 82% were achieved. Furthermore, new univariate predictive stature equations are presented using a Bayesian approach for the humerus, femur and tibia.     

Guantánamo Bay: Towards Legality?

This article outlines the US Supreme Court's approach to the habeas corpus entitlements of suspected terrorists detained in Guantánamo Bay and argues for the extension of constitutional habeas corpus rights to them. The article considers two ways in which the Supreme Court might carry out this task: first, 'the territorial approach' (based on domestic legal principles of 'unincorporated territories' and principles of leasehold), and secondly, 'the extraterritorial approach' (based on international purposive approaches to the reach of human rights treaties exemplified by the European Court of Human Rights' Article 1 jurisprudence). For reasons of effectiveness of protection, the Article expresses a clear preference for the latter. The House of Lords decision in R (Al-Skeini) v Secretary of State for Defence (2007) is proposed as a template for such a development. Finally the article refutes arguments rejecting such a development based on the 'trade-off thesis' and perceptions of judicial competence.     

Allele frequency distribution for 21 autosomal STR loci in Bhutan

We studied the allele frequency distribution of 21 autosomal STR loci contained in the AmpFlSTR^® Identifiler™ (Applied Biosystems), the Powerplex^®16 (Promega) and the FFFL (Promega) multiplex PCR kits among 936 individuals from the Royal Kingdom of Bhutan. As such these are the first published autosomal DNA results from this country.     

Brazilian National Identity at a Crossroads: The Myth of Racial Democracy and the Development of Black Identity

This article aims at coping with the 2003 implementation of affirmative action policies favoring blacks and “browns” in public-funded universities in Brazil. We are especially interested in coming to terms with some of the most resounding controversies over this type of “race”-based policy, which in our view are to be seen as reactions to some core aspects of Brazil’s national identity. The key question that has pervaded this debate is: Should the State apparatus, by means of these non-universalist policies, foster racial identities in a society that has historically imagined itself as racially mixed and, as such, able to deal with race-based conflicts in a quite positive way? As we will strive to demonstrate, these controversies gained momentum as multiculturalism started to inform identity-oriented social movements, which in recent years excelled in challenging the image of Brazil as a successful case of a melting-pot society by denouncing deep-seated social inequalities grounded in racial lines. We want to investigate whether popular resistance to race-based public policies will propel the rise of a sort of resented form of nationalism in Brazil’s public scene.