Ancestry estimation is a key component when analyzing skeletal remains and, typically, one must estimate ancestry prior to sex and stature because of the population-specic nature of sexual dimorphism. Walker (2008) demonstrated that when using cranial nonmetric traits for sex estimation via discriminant function analyses, one must use population-specic data. Stature estimation methods are oen considered population-specic (Frutos 2003; Jantz, Kimmerle, and Baraybar 2008; Jantz and Ousley 2005; Kimmerle et al. 2008; Walker 2008) because sexual dimorphism in limb proportions may be expressed dierently within a single population group (Holliday and Falsetti 1999). To date, there have been many published methods of ancestry estimation using both metric and nonmetric data (Giles 1970; Finnegan 1978; Gill and Rhine 1990; Holliday and Falsetti 1999; Jantz and Ousley 2005; Anderson 2008; Wescott and Srikanta 2008). e cranium is thought to provide the best estimator of ancestry because of the heritability of craniofacial morphology (Howells 1973; Devor 1987; Perez, Bernal, and Gonzalez 2007; Hajek, Cerny, and Bruzek 2008). Although research in secular change in the craniofacial complex has been demonstrated (Angel 1976; Smith, Garn, and Hunter 1986; Cameron et al. 1990; Jantz and Meadows Jantz 2000; Jantz 2001), Relethford (2004) pointed out that it does not obscure the underlying genetic structure.
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