Ancestry

Question 1

What does ancestry mean

Answer 1

Ones family or ethnic decent or genetic line of decent

Question 2

How does SWGANTH (Scientific working group for Forensic Anthropology) define ancestry

Answer 2

Ancestry refers to an individuals ancestral geographic region of origin - No references to culture, behaviour, language or history

Question 3

Why do we estimate ancestry

Answer 3

To establish a biological profile, narrows down a pool of people, different populations express different features and it is helpful to know this

Question 4

Which methods do we still look at and use for ancestry estimation

Answer 4

Broca, Boas, Rhine, Hefner and fordisc

Question 5

Brielf explain Broca

Answer 5

He used skull measurements to rank superiority plus mental capabilities and grouped these into ancestral groups

Question 6

Briefly explain Boas

Answer 6

He wanted to include environmental and non metric factors. Looked at 18,000 individuals from 7 different populations

Question 7

Briefly explain Rhine

Answer 7

He looked at only 87 skulls and classified these using traits (Mainly from the nose and skull) into American Caucasoid, A South Western, A Mongoloid and A Black

Question 8

Briefly explain Hefner

Answer 8

He looked at visual traits from multiple populations and provided character states for 11 traits. He is an improvement from Rhine as he’s included intergroup variations and stated there is a relationship between trait expression and populations

Question 9

Briefly explain fordisc

Answer 9

A program that determines ancestry through discriminant function analysis of cranial measurements (Mainly US data so still Biased)

Question 10

What are some of the problems with ancestry estimation

Answer 10

It is highly controversial, can be harmful to some groups, bad methods, missing white woman syndrome etc