142 Forensic dentistry
through the canal stretches ligaments transecting the pelvic outlet, resulting
in pitting on the dorsal surface(s) of the pubic bones, modification (lipping)
of the sacroiliac joint, and deepening of the preauricular sulcus, producing a
tr ia d of par ity.23–26 Establishment of parturition gains added importance in the
era of DNA analyses. Offspring will bear the maternal and paternal nuclear
haplotypes as well as the mtDNA signature of the mother, the latter being of
added significance when the bones are badly degraded. All determinations
of sex should be accompanied by a statement of statistical confidence of the
diagnosis based upon the technique(s) used. The determination of sex in
skeletonized fetuses, neonates, and children prior to adrenarche is difficult
at best. In these instances, evaluation of the amelogenin locus is the most
reliable method.
8.2.4.2 Ancestry
The question here is “How would others have classified the decedent?” as to
group, type, race, or some other folk typology during life. From the anthro-
pologist’s perspective, the task is assignment of the decedent to a population
or biotype in the biological/genetic sense. In practical terms, this amounts to
describing a set of phenotypic characteristics that falls within a folk taxon-
omy regardless of its biological reality. Complicating the task is the fact that
investigative agencies operate within a different vernacular and simply want
to know whether the decedent was Black, Hispanic, Asian, etc.—categories
that lack any real biological meaning in the genetic sense, but which have
found their way into official reporting formats around the world. In cur-
rent practice, most anthropologists have abandoned the term race in favor
of biotype, population, or ancestry, terms that denote as closely as possible
the genetic relationship of an individual to a group that shares genes within
itself. Close gene sharing (i.e., breeding by distance) produces characteristic
average features that might place a living individual within a more broadly,
if unscientifically, recognized group. The most difficult cases to assess are
those involving admixture, e.g., Negro plus Mexican Indian, or Negroindio;
Amerindian plus French/European plus Negro, or Creole; etc. As in the case
of sex, population characteristics are shaped by natural selection. Most of the
consistently observable skeletal differences between human populations, e.g.,
stature, limb proportions, facial characteristics, and the like, are the result
of climatic adaptations to the environments in which these populations
originally evolved. Thus, bodies with high surface area (e.g., long legs and
arms, tall stature, long heads, etc.) should typify original equatorial popula-
tions, while those adapted for heat retention (think of Northeast Asians and
other arctic indigenes) should have rounded bodies on short skeletal frames
with attenuated extremities, rounded skulls, and flattened facial profiles.
Numerous other nonmetric variations can also be associated with populations
as allele frequencies for those traits increase as a result of gene sharing within