A statistical approach to entheseal changes analyses to infer sexual differences in human remains
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31048/1852.4826.v10.n2.16836Keywords:
bivariate analysis, partial correlations, generalized linear models, entheses, sexual differencesAbstract
Entheseal changes have been analyzed through several statistical approaches. This methodological variability hinders cross-comparisons. The aim of this work is to present and discuss the results of a statistical set of analyses commonly applied in the study of sexual differences in entheseal changes with the final objective of suggesting the most effective method. For this purpose, it was applied the following statistical tests: frequency distribution, arithmetic mean and standard deviation, Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, t-Student, Spearman simple and partial correlations and generalized linear models. The sample investigated was composed by 40 adult individuals of both sexes from hunter-gatherer populations from lower Paraná wetlands. Most statistical tests showed significant differences between both sexes. However, since entheseal changes have a multifactorial etiology, it is recommended to apply statistical tests that control the effect of some variables, such as partial correlations and generalized linear models.Downloads
References
Acosta, A., B. Mazza. 2016. Restos óseos humanos y faunísticos: su relación en el espacio mortuorio en contextos de cazadores-recolectores del humedal del Paraná inferior. Pesquisas Antropologia, 72: 185-207.
Aguado, I., M. Porta Serra, M. Miralles, F. García Benavides y F. Bolúmar. 1990. La cuantificación de variabilidad en las observaciones clínicas. Medicina Clínica, 95: 424-429.
Alves Cardoso, F., C. Henderson. 2010. Enthesopathy formation in the humerus: Data from known age-at-death and known occupation skeletal collections. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 141: 550-560.
Auerbach, B., C. Ruff. 2010. Stature estimation formulae for indigenous North American populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 141: 190-207.
Barceló, J. 2009. Arqueología y estadística. Introducción al estudio de la variabilidad de las evidencias arqueológicas. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Servei de Publicacions, España.
Brooks, S.T., J.M. Suchey. 1990. Skeletal age determination based on the os pubis: a comparison of the Acsádi-Nemeskéri and Suchey-Brooks methods. Human Evolution, 5: 227-238.
Buikstra, J., D. Ubelaker. 1994. Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Arkansas.
Caggiano, M.A., O.B. Flores, M.G. Méndez y S.A. Salceda. 1978. Nuevos aportes para el conocimiento antropológico del Delta del Paraná. Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología, XII: 155-174.
Currell, G. 2015. Scientific data analysis. Oxford University Press, Inglaterra.
Chrisletta, P., D. Spini. 2004. An introduction to generalized estimating equations and an application to assess selectivity effects in a longitudinal study on very old individuals. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 29: 421-437.
Hagaman, K. 2009. “Activity-induced musculoskeletal stress marker analysis of the Windover population”. Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Anthropology, Estados Unidos, 130 p.Degree of Master of Arts. Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations.
Henderson, C. 2013a. Technical note: Quantifying size and shape of entheses. Antropological Science, 121 (1): 63-73.
Henderson, C. 2013b. Do diseases cause entheseal changes at fibrous entheses? International Journal of Paleopathology, 3: 64-69.
Henderson, C., E. Nikita. 2015. Accounting for multiple effects and the problem of small sample sizes in osteology: A case study focussing on entheseal changes. Archaeological Antropological Science, DOI 10.1007/s12520-015-0256-1.
Hurvich, C. M., C. L. Tsai. 1989. Regression and time series model selection in small samples. Biometrika, 76: 297-307
Jurmain, R., F. Alves Cardoso y C. Henderson. 2012. Bioarchaeology's holy grail: the reconstruction of activity. Grauer, A.L. (ed.), A Companion to Paleopathology, pp. 531-552. Blackwell, New York.
Kim, S. 2012. ppcor: Partial and Semi-partial (Part) correlation. R package version 1.0. http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ppcor.
Kramer, M., A. Feinstein. 1981. Clinical biostatistics. LIV. The biostatistics of concordance. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 29 (1): 111-123.
Krantz, G.S. 1981. The process of human evolution. Schenkman Publishing Company Inc., Cambridge.
Loponte, D. 2008. Arqueología del Humedal del Paraná Inferior. Acosta, A., D. Loponte (eds.), Arqueología de la Cuenca del Plata. Serie Monográfica 1. Ediciones del Riel, Buenos Aires.
Loponte, D., A. Acosta. 2011. Informe de avance de la investigación en el sitio El Cazador sitio 3. Secretaría de Cultura de la Nación, Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano.
Loponte, D., A. Acosta y P. Tchilingurian. 2015. El sitio arqueológico Escuela 31. Revista del Museo de la Plata, Arqueología, 14 (89): 27R.
Lothrop, S. 1932. Indians of the Parana Delta, Argentina. Annals of the New York Academy of Scienses, 33: 77-232.
Lovejoy, O., R. Meindl, T. Pryzbeck y R. Mensforth. 1985. Chronological metamorphosis of the auricular surface of the ilium: A new method for the determination of adult skeletal age at death. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 68: 15-28.
Mariotti, V., F. Facchini y M.G. Belcastro. 2004. Enthesopathies - Proposal of standardized scoring method and applications. Collegium Antropologicum, 28: 145-159.
Mariotti, V., F. Facchini y M. Giovanna Belcastro. 2007. The Study of Entheses: Proposal of a Standardised Scoring Method for Twenty-Three Entheses of the Postcranial Skeleton. Collegium Antropologicum, 31: 291-313.
Mazza, B. 2010. Cerro Lutz: Aproximaciones al estudio de las prácticas mortuorias de las sociedades cazadoras-recolectoras del humedal del Paraná inferior. Revista La Zaranda de Ideas, Revista de Jóvenes Investigadores en Arqueología, 6: 91-116.
Mazza, B. 2015. Colecciones antiguas, datos nuevos: Primeros resultados del análisis de las colecciones bioarqueológicas del humedal del Paraná inferior. Revista del Museo de Antropología, 8 (1): 133-146.
McCullagh, P., J.A. Nelder. 1989. Generalized linear models. 2da edición. Chapman and Hall, Londres.
Meindl, R., O. Lovejoy. 1985. Ectocranial suture closure: A revised method for the determination of skeletal age at death based on the lateral-anterior sutures. Journal of Physical Anthropology, 68: 57-66.
Molnar, P. 2010. Patterns of physical activity and material culture on Gotland, Sweden, during the Middel Neolithic. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 20: 1-14.
Nikita, E. 2014. The use of generalized linear models and generalized estimating equations in bioarchaeological studies. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 153: 473-483.
Nikita, E. 2017. Osteoarchaeology. A guide to the macroscopic study of human skeletal remains. Academic Press, Amsterdam.
Niinimäki, J. 2012. The relationship betwwen musculoskeletal stress markers and biomechanical propierties of the humeral diaphysis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 147: 618-628.
Notelovitz, M. 2002. Androgen effects on bone and muscle. Fertility and Sterility, 77 (4): S34-41.
Peterson, J. 1998. The Natufian hunting conundrum: spears, atlats, or bows? Musculoskeletal and armature evidence. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 8: 378-389.
Phenice, T. 1969. A new developed visual method of sexing in the os pubis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 30: 297-301.
R Core Team. 2014. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL http://www.R-project.org/.
Raxter, M., B. Auerbach y C. Ruff. 2006. Revision of the fully technique for estimating statures. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 130: 374-384.
Resnick, D., G. Niwayama. 1983. Enthesis and enthesopathy: anatomical, pathological and radiological correlation. Radiology, 146 (1): 1-9.
Robb, J. 1998. The interpretation of skeletal muscle sites: A statistical approach. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 8: 363-377.
Scheuer, L., S. Black. 2000. Developmental Juvenil Osteology. Elsevier Academic Press, Londres.
Sugiura, N. 1978. Further analysis of the data by Akaike’s information criterion and the finite corrections. Communications in Statistics, A7: 13-26.
Vignati, M.A. 1960. El indigenado en la pcia. de Buenos Aires. Anales de la Comisión de Investigación Científica, I: 95-182.
Weiss, E. 2003. Understanding muscle markers: aggregation and construct validity. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 121: 230-240.
Weiss, E. 2007. Muscle markers revisited: activity pattern reconstruction with controls in a central California amerind population. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 133: 931-940.
Weiss, E., L. Corona y B. Schultz. 2012. Sex differences in musculoskeletal stress markers: problems with activity pattern reconstructions. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 22: 70-80.
Zar, J. 2010. Bioestatistical analysis. Pearson Education, Estados Unidos.
Zumwalt, A. 2006. The effect of endurance exercise on the morphology of muscle attachment sites. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 209: 444-454.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Those authors who have publications with this Journalaccept the following terms:
a. Authors will retain their copyrights and guarantee the journal the right of first publication of their work, which will be simultaneously subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License (Licencia de reconocimiento de Creative Commons) that allows third parties to share the work as long as its author and his first publication in this journal.
b. Authors may adopt other non-exclusive licensing agreements for the distribution of the version of the published work (eg, deposit it in an institutional electronic file or publish it in a monographic volume) provided that the initial publication in this journal is indicated.
c. Authors are allowed and recommended to disseminate their work on the Internet (eg in institutional telematic archives or on their website) before and during the submission process, which can lead to interesting exchanges and increase citations of the published work. (See The Effect of Open Access - El efecto del acceso abierto)
How to Cite
