Multivariate Statistical Methods in Physical Anthropology: A Review of Recent Advances and Current Developments

432 Pages·1984·10.08 MB·English

by  W. W. Howells (auth.)

Multivariate Statistical Methods in Physical Anthropology
Multivariate
Statistical Methods in
Physical Anthropology
A Review of Recent Advances and
Current Developments
Edited by
G. N. VAN VARK
Department of Anatomy and Embryology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
and
W. W. HOWELLS
Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, U.S.A.
D. REIDEL PUB,LtIS HING COMPANY
A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP
DORDRECHTI BOSTON I LANCASTER
library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Multivariate statistical methods in physical anthropology.
Includes index.
1. Physical anthropology-Statistical methods-Congresses.
I. Vark, G. N. van (Gerrit Nanning), 1931- II. Howells,
William White, 1908-
GN56.M8 1984 573' .072 84-2007
ISBN-I3: 978-94-009-6359-7 e-ISBN-I3: 978-94-009-6357-3
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-6357-3
Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company,
P.O. Box 17,3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland.
Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada
by Kluwer Academic Publishers,
190 Old Derby Street, Hingham, MA 02043, U.S.A.
In all other countries, sold and distributed
by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group,
P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, Holland.
All Rights Reserved
© 1984 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner
CONTENTS
Preface vii
List of Contributors ix
Introduction
w.w. Howells 1
Interpretation of Metrical Variables in Multivariate Analysis
R.S. Corruccini 13
Some Recent Advances in Multivariate Analysis Applied to
Anthropometry
J.C. Gower and P.G.N. Digby 21
Incomplete Samples from Multivariate Normal Distributions
with the Same, Known Covariance Matrix
W. H. V. de Goede 37
Use of Diversity and Distance Measures in the Analysis of
Qualitative Data
C. Radhakrishna Rao 49
Multivariate Distances and Hultivariate Classification
Systems Using Non-Metric Traits in Biological Studies
M. Finnegan and R.M. Rubison 69
Generalized Distance in Familial Studies of Anthropometrical
Characters
C. Susanne 81
Generalized Distance between Different Thigh-bones and a
Reference Population
E. Defrise-Gussenhoven and R. Orban-Segebarth 89
The Use of Multivariate Distances for Non-Classificatory
Purposes in Anthropobiology
J. Hiernaux 101
CONTENTS
Interval Estimates for Posterior Probabilities, Applications
to Border Cave
A.W. Ambergen and W. Schaafsma 115
Cluster Analysis, History, Theory and Applications
F.W. Wilmink and H.T. Uytterschaut 135
Some Aspects of Allocation and Discrimination
N.A. Campbell 177
Interpretation and Testing in Multivariate Statistical
Approaches to Physical Anthropology: the Example of Sexual
Dimorphism in the Primates
C.E. Oxnard 193
A Report on the Heritability of Some Cranial Measurements
and Non-Metric Traits
T. Sj¢vold 223
Improving the Sensitivity, Specificity, and Appositeness
of Morphometric Analyses
J.G. Rhoads 247
Towards an Understanding of Data in Physical Anthropology
S.R. Wilson 261
Data Banks and Multivariate Statistics in Physical
Anthropology
I. Schwidetzky 283
Biological Evolution and History in 19th Century Portugal
J.-P. Bocquet-Appel 289
On the Determination of Hominid Affinities
G.N. van Vark 323
Multivariate Analysis and Cranial Diversity in
Plio-pleistocene Hominids
A. Bilsborough 351
From Multivariate Statistics to Natural Selection:
A Reanalysis of Plio/Pleistocene Hominid Dental Material
D.W. Read 377
Subject Index 415
PREFACE
Physical anthropologists, like other research workers, are
recognizing that the standard multivariate statistical techniques
of recent decades are in need of refinement and greater precision.
Increasingly it is felt that more sophisticated methods are called
for, specifically designed for the materials and problems at issue.
To this end the editors were asked by organizers of the First
Intercongress of the International Union of Anthropological and
Ethnological Sciences to develop a symposium on this general
subject. With the title of this book, the symposium was held in
Amsterdam on April 23-25, 1981. Invited were mathematical
statisticians who were known to have an acquaintance with and
interest in anthropological problems, together with anthropologists
and human geneticists who consider multivariate methodology
essential for their research.
This volume constitutes an updated and revised selection
from among the papers presented, together with a few supplementary
papers by authors who were not present but whose work fills out
the intended coverage and makes the volume more complete with
respect to the state of affairs in the field.
The papers are devoted both to new methodology and to its
practical application. Mathematical statisticians may wish to
know more about the biological nature and the kinds of materials
and samples on which mathematical thinking can be exercised.
Anthropologists as practitioners may not be fully aware of the
possibilities and limitations in particular mathematical models
and methods. Our purpose has been to bring the two groups
together, for personal discussions across disciplinary lines as
well as within disciplines.
The papers provide instances of practical application of new
methodology, showing how these may lead to new interpretations
viii PREFACE
and hypotheses of significance. They should also indicate the
directions in which methods have been moving. It is hoped that
the book will serve as a practical guide to physical anthropologists
and kindred researchers, and as a stimulus to further understanding
and refinement.
The editors wish to thank all those who have contributed to
making this publication possible, in particular Mr. Don Kuizenga
and Drs. S.K. Hazewindus who took a considerable part of all of
the varied tasks editors turned out to have, Mrs. G.T. Hoogenberg
for her assistance with the extensive correspondence, and
Mrs. Th. Deddens and K. van Linschoten for their assistance with
making the drawings.
G.N. van Vark W.W. Howells
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
A.W. Ambergen, Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Universiteit van
Amsterdam, Kruislaan 413, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel, Centre National de la Recherche Scien
tifique, Laboratoire d'Informatique pour les Sciences de 1 'Homme.
54, Boulevard Raspail, 75270 Paris Cedex 06, France.
Alan Bilsborough, Department of Physical Anthropology, University
of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, U.K.
N.A. Campbell, Division of Mathematics and Statistics, C.S.I.R.O.,
Private Bag, P.O. Wembley, W.A. 6014, Australia.
Robert S. Corruccini, Department of Anthropology, Southern
Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois 62901, U.S.A.
Elisabeth Defrise-Gussenhoven, Centrum voor Biomatematika, Vrije
Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
P.G.N. Digby, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts,
AL5 2JQ, U.K.
M. Finnegan, Osteology Laboratory, Kansas State University,
Manhattan, Kansas 66506, U.S.A.
W.H.V. de Goede, Afdeling Mathematische Statistiek, Rijksuniversi
teit Groningen, Postbus 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands.
J.C. Gower, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts,
AL5 2JQ, U.K~ ,
Jean Hiernaux, Equipe d'Ecologie Humaine, Universite de Paris,
Equipe de Recherche du C.N.R.S., Tour 16, 3e etage, 2, Place
Jussieu, 75230 Paris Cedex 05, France.
W.W. Howells, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology,
Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts
02138, U.S.A.
Rosine Orban-Segebarth, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie et de
Genetique Humaine, C.P. 192, 50 Avenue F. Roosevelt, B-I050
Brussels, Belgium.
Charles E. Oxnard, Office of the Dean, University of Southern
California, Uni versi ty Park - ADM. 302, Los Angeles, California
90007, U.S.A.
C. Radhakrishna Rao, University of Pittsburgh, Center for
Multivariate Analysis, 913 Schenley Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15260,
USA
ix
x LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Dwight D. Read, Department of Anthropology, University of
California, 405, Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90024.
U.S.A.
John G. Rhoads, Department of Anthropology. Yale University-,
Box 2114, Yale Station, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, U.S.A.
R.M. Rubison, Department of Statistics, Kansas State University,
Manhattan, Kansas 66506, U.S.A.
W. Schaafsma, Afdeling Mathematische Statistiek, Rijksuniversiteit
Groningen, Postbus 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands.
Ilse Schwidetzky, Anthropologisches Institut der Johannes Gutenberg
Universitat, Saarstrasse 21, 6500 Mainz, Germany.
Torstein Sj~vold, Osteologiska Forskningslaboratoriet, Ulriksdals
Kungsggrd, S-17171 Solna, Sweden.
C. Susanne, Laboratorium voor Anthropogenetica, Vrije Universiteit,
Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
Hilde Uytterschaut, Laboratorium voor Anatomie en Embryologie,
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Oostersingel 69, 9713 EZ Groningen.
The Netherlands.
G.N. van Vark, Laboratorium voor Anatomie en Embryologie,
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Oostersingel 69, 9713 EZ Groningen,
The Netherlands.
F.W. Wilmink, Laboratorium voor Anatomie en Embryologie,
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Oostersingel 69, 9713 EZ Groningen,
The Netherlands.
Susan R. Wilson, Department of Statistics, The Australian National
University, Mathematical Science Building. P.O.Box 4, Canberra
ACT 2600, Australia.
INTRODUCTION
W.W. Howells
Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology,
Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts, USA
In the mid-eighteenth century Dr. Johnson (quoted by D'Arcy
Thompson, 1942) wrote: "The mathematicians are well acquainted
with the difference between pure science, which has only to do
with ideas, and the application of laws to the use of life, in
which they are constrained to submit to the imperfections of
matter and the influence of accident". Two hundred years have
not outdated this observation although, in specifics, both mathemat
ical statistics and the anthropological study of populations have
progressed long distances in parallel. Each has done what it was
able to do, halting at times because of limits in ideas or tech
niques, and again moving into fresh pastures when such barriers
were removed. Anthropology has, as is well known, depended more
and more on mathematical statistics and on statisticians, while
statisticians have, as is also well known, found human material,
expecially crania, particularly suited to their purposes. Such
reciprocal advance is necessary but difficult: the mathematics
are now rather demanding for most untrained anthropologists and
repellent to some. And statisticians do not always see biological
questions with the eyes of an anthropologist.
It has been the purpose of our symposium to reflect present day
connections and possible future ones. Various of those present
have in recent years published important critical papers on
anthropological uses of statistics, papers which regrettably cannot
be reprinted here. However, their present contributions serve as
extensions along the same lines, and this is what we have sought.
G. N. van Vark and W. W. Howells (eds.), Multivariate Statistical Methods in Physical Anthropology, 1 ~ 11.
© 1984 by D. Reidel Publishing Company.