The Aleut-Eskimo Mandible

• Other Authors: Frøhlich, Bruno (Creator), Laughlin, W. S. (Major Advisor), Harper, A. B. (Associate Advisor), Poole, A. E. (Associate Advisor), University of Connecticut (Degree grantor)
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: University of Connecticut 1979
• Subjects: Greenland; aleut; eskimo*; greenlandic; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/20002:860670543; https://digitalcollections.ctstatelibrary.org/islandora/object/20002%3A860670543/datastream/TN/view/Aleut-Eskimo%20Mandible.jpg

This study analyses mandibular variation related to sex, bilateral asymmetry, spatial and temporal variation using two well defined population groups with a large body of known biological and cultural data. The initial hypothesis is that the human mandible is conservative and informative. It changes less over time and distance than the cranium and provides a large body of information amenable to sex, age, shape, function, and phylogenetic studies in human populations. The population groups inhabiting the end terminals of the Aleut-Eskimo population distribution are used to analyze mandibular variation for the following reasons: First, the Aleuts and the Eskimos derive from the same basic population. Second, they form a continuous linear coastal distribution from the western Aleutian Islands to the east coast of Greenland, resulting in a low rate of gene flow between the end terminals because of the intervening large geographical distance. Third, the Aleuts and the Greenland Eskimos have been living in well defined geographical areas without many biological and cultural influences from the outside until the arrival of the Europeans in the eighteenth century. Fourth, these two end terminals are inhabited by populations which display temporal and spatial variations, respectively. Fifth, the Aleuts and the Eskimos are well studied and large skeletal series are available. One hundred and sixty-six Aleut mandibles are used to determine the temporal divergence between the Paleo-Aleuts and the Neo-Aleuts; and 466 Greenlandic Eskimo mandibles are used to determine the divergence between four geographical isolates. Sixteen metric variables and five non-metric observations are used in the analysis. Univariate and multivariate statistics are used to determine the variation for each metric variable and for the overall variation using all the metric variables as a whole. The Tukey-Freeman teta transformation is used in the estimation of the non-metric variation. The following results are obtained: First, sexual dimorphism ...