Metric forensic anthropology decisions: Reliability and biasability of sectioning-point-based sex estimates

Subjective decisions make human cognitive processes more susceptible to bias and error. Specifically, research indicates that additional context biases forensic anthropologists’ morphological analyses. To address whether metric analyses are also subject to bias, we conducted a pilot study in which 52 experienced osteologists measured a difficult-to-classify human femur, with or without additional contextual information. Using a metric sectioning-point sex-estimation method, participants provided a sex estimate for individual skeletal element(s) and, when given multiple elements, the combined skeletal assemblage. Control group participants (n = 24) measured only the femur. In addition to the femur, bias group participants (n = 28) either measured a female humerus and viewed a female-biasing photograph (n = 14) or measured a male humerus and viewed a male-biasing photograph (n = 14). We explored whether the experts in the different groups would differ in: (1) femoral measurements; (2) femoral sex-estimation conclusions; and (3) final sex-estimation conclusions for the skeletal assemblage. Although the femoral measurements and femoral sex estimates were comparable across groups, the overall sex estimates in the female-biased group were impacted by contextual information—differing from both the control and male-biased groups (p < 0.001). Our results demonstrate that cognitive bias can occur even in metric sex-estimation conclusions. Specifically, this occurred when the metric data and single-element sex estimates were synthesized into an overall estimate. Thus, our results suggest that metric methods are most vulnerable to bias when data are synthesized into an overall conclusion, highlighting the need for bias countermeasures and comprehensive statistical frameworks for synthesizing metric data to mitigate the effects of cognitive bias.     

骨龄自动化评估的研究进展

骨龄是反映人体生长发育的一项重要指标,能够较为客观地反映个体生长发育水平及成熟度。传统的人工骨龄评估通常是将左手腕X线片与参考标准进行比较,从而获得相应的骨龄值,该方法既耗时又存在观察者间的差异。近年来,随着计算机科学的不断发展,促使骨龄评估开始由传统的人工评估向自动化评估转变。虽然骨龄自动化评估的研究已相当多,但大部分仍处于实验阶段。本文综述了近年来国内外学者在骨龄自动化评估方面的相关研究与进展,以期为相关研究人员提供参考与研究思路。     

人类学背景下的语言和言语研究--论语言人类学的研究视野

语言人类学的学科定义以及语言实践、言语行为、指引性和参与性等理论方法的研究视野加深了我们对语言的理解。把语言视作一种交际工具、一种思维模式、一种文化实践 ,即一种行为形式的语言观 ,使得这门边缘学科能够创造性地继续影响它所吸收养分的人文社会学科 ,同时对我们理解语言对于人类的意义有其独特的贡献。语言人类学是人类学背景下的语言和言语研究 ,是把语言作为文化源和言语作为文化实践的研究 ,是语言学的一种人类学阐释。     

历史人类学刍议

历史人类学是文化人类学的一门新兴边缘学科 ,由于这一新兴学科的研究领域是历史上的各民族文化 ,并且在研究过程中需要借助于大量的历史典籍资料 ,容易使人将其与历史学相混。历史人类学是一门具有特定研究领域并具有文化人类学研究传统的新兴分支学科 ,其实质与价值不可能被其他任何学科替代 ,其发展也不会损及其他学科 ,因而应当对这门新兴学科加以积极引进和消化吸收 ,早日形成本土化的中国历史人类学。     

社会区隔:旅游活动的文化社会学本质--一种基于布迪厄文化资本理论的解读

在布迪厄文化资本理论的认识架构内,旅游文化资本由其他类型的资本转换而来,可以区分为旅游文化能力、旅游文化产品和旅游文化制度三种形式.旅游文化资本的存在揭示了旅游活动的基本结构和其中隐含的权力动力学.旅游文化资本在某些条件下是人的社会竞争的有效资源,旅游活动只是社会区隔这一人的社会存在的本质目标的手段之一,社会区隔是旅游活动的文化社会学本质.     

女性人类学发展及其中国本土化尝试

女性人类学就是将女性主义研究理论与人类学研究有机地结合起来,以弥补传统人类学研究和女性主义研究理论的不足和偏颇.同时,女性人类学不局限于对女性的研究,其研究范围是也包括男性在内的社会性别研究、性别关系研究,力图建立一种由女性视角和男性视角交错共视的人文视野.本文简明介绍了女性人类学的发展及学科特点、研究方法,对女性人类学在中国的本土化实践进行了尝试性的探讨.     

When identity is not reached: two cases from Brasilia

When human remains are examined, three questions always need to be answered: who is the deceased, what was the cause of death, and when did the death occur, the former question being the most relevant. The identification of half or fully skeletonized human remains is a complex process and always requires the use of methods that allow individualization beyond any reasonable doubt. However, no matter how vigorous the search for identification, this is not always achieved. Here, the author presents two cases in which identification was exhaustively attempted but not achieved despite the existence of an osteo implanted device in one case and the presence of documents in the other. In one case, we could not find a potential identity for the deceased, while in the other we found a possible identity but not a family member to provide antemortem data to confirm it. Although the scientific literature tends to favour the publication of cases with favourable outcomes, one should also learn from failures, which is the reason why the author decided to publish his unsuccessful experiences. The reasons for the failures are discussed, as well as methodological improvements for future cases.     

Anthropological analyses of 30 insertion/deletion autosomal markers in five major ethnic groups of Pakistan

We investigated the forensic efficacy of the 30 insertion/deletion (Indel) markers included in the Qiagen Investigator® DIPplex kit in 529 Pakistani individuals from five major subpopulations in Pakistan (Punjabi, Pashtun, Sindhi, Saraiki, and Baloch). In the Sindhi population, the distribution of HLD81 and HLD97 alleles deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium after Bonferroni correction. The combined match probability ranged from 2.0E-12 (Pashtun and Baloch) to 1.0E-12 (Sindhi), and the mean paternity exclusion power varied from 0.995 (Punjabi, Sindhi, and Saraiki) to 0.996 (Pashtun and Baloch). The high combined power of discrimination (0.999 999 999 999 97) and low combined match probability (1.7E-12) for all subpopulations studied support the utility of the 30 Indel markers for forensic identification in the studied subpopulations. The allele frequencies of the Indel markers in the Pakistani subpopulations were compared with those from 18 other populations. The results show that the populations clustered according to geography. The subpopulations investigated in this work showed a close genetic relationship with others from Pakistan, as well as with South Central Asian and Middle Eastern populations. The results suggest that the Investigator^® DIPplex kit can be useful as a supplementary tool for human identification in the five Pakistani subpopulations investigated in this study.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/20961790.2021.1933366 .