Skeletal biological distance studies in American physical anthropology: recent trends

Biological distance analysis, the dominant type of skeletal biological research during the 19th century, has become less visible in recent years. Although the proportion of American Journal of Physical Anthropology articles and published abstracts focusing on biodistance has remained fairly constant over the three decades between 1955 and 1985, the proportion of biodistance contributions relative to other skeletal biology studies has decreased. Emphasis in skeletal biology has shifted from the analysis of biological variation to investigations of health and diet, and within biodistance studies methodological issues have assumed prominence over purely analytical approaches. This paper investigates trends in biological distance analysis through a survey of articles and meetings abstracts published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology from 1955 to 1985. The survey provides the historical context for five symposium papers on skeletal biological distance presented at the 1986 meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.     

Multivariate analysis in biological anthropology: Some considerations

The relation between modern multivariate statistical analysis and common objectives in biological anthropology is discussed. Many formal statistical assumptions should be satisfied to fully justify multi-variate analysis, but rarely are. Their failure does not have as adverse an effect upon scientific research as some procedural errors in research design. These include the treatment of single specimens as if they are samples, and the failure to separate considerations of size and shape. The superiority of elaborate multivariate distances over simpler quantitative techniques, inferred from the former's consideration of trait intercorrelations, is unwarranted from both theoretical and practical aspects. Based on these points and several comparative examples of analyses, it is argued that simpler, non-statistical approaches such as those of the school of numerical taxonomy have much to offer primato-logical studies. Classic multivariate statistics, while useful for studying closely similar living populations, are considerably more limited in usefulness and significance for paleoanthropological studies.     

Applications of Tree-Maps to hierarchical biological data

SUMMARY: A brief overview of Tree-Maps provides the basis for understanding two new implementations of Tree-Map methods. TreeMapClusterView provides a new way to view microarray gene expression data, and GenePlacer provides a view of gene ontology annotation data. We also discuss the benefits of Tree-Maps to visualize complex hierarchies in functional genomics. AVAILABILITY: Java class files are freely available at http://mendel.mc.duke.edu/bioinformatics/ CONTACT: mccon012@mc.duke.edu SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: For more information on TreeMapClusterView (see http://mendel.mc.duke.edu/bioinformatics/software/boxclusterview/), and http://mendel.mc.duke.edu/bioinformatics/software/geneplacer/).     

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Paleopathology

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Paleopathology. Arthur C. Aufderheide and Conrado Rodriguez-Martin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1998. 478 pp.     

Physical anthropology and ethnicity in Asia: the transition from anthropometry to genome-based studies

Initial physical anthropology studies into ethnic diversity were largely dependent on comparative whole body and craniometric measurements, and through time assessments of ethnic diversity based on these measures exhibited increasing statistical sophistication. Since the 1990s, in Asia as elsewhere in the world, human diversity studies have increasingly utilized DNA-based analyses, with Y-chromosome and mtDNA markers providing complementary perspectives on the origins and gene pool structures of different ethnic groups. This approach is illustrated in a study of population genetic structure in PR China, in which DNA samples from the Han majority and eight ethnic minorities were analyzed. The Y-chromosome and mtDNA data showed multiple paternal geographical and ethnic origins but restricted maternal ancestries. However, interpretive problems were apparent in the definition of a number of the ethnic study populations, which appear to reflect political as well as genetic influences. In all anthropological studies, whether based on anthropometry or genomic analysis, unambiguous and appropriate community identification is a prerequisite.