Sex Estimation of the Human Skeleton: History, Methods, and Emerging Techniques

Sex Estimation of the Human Skeleton is a comprehensive work on the theory, methods, and current issues for sexing human skeletal remains. This work provides practitioners a starting point for research and practice on sex estimation to assist with the identification and analysis of human remains. It contains a collection of the latest scientific research, using metric and morphological methods, and contains case studies, where relevant, to highlight methodological application to real cases. This volume presents a truly comprehensive representation of the current state of sex estimation while also detailing the history and how we got to this point.

Divided into three main sections, this reference text first provides an introduction to the book and to sex estimation overall, including a history, practitioner preferences, and a deeper understanding of biological sex. The second section addresses the main methodological areas used to estimate sex, including metric and morphological methods, statistical applications, and software. Each chapter topic provides a review of older techniques and emphasizes the latest research and methodological improvements. Chapters are written by practicing physical anthropologists and also include their latest research on the topics, as well as relevant case studies. The third section addresses current considerations and future directions for sex estimation in forensic and bioarchaeological contexts, including DNA, secular change, and medical imaging Sex Estimation of the Human Skeleton is a one-of-a-kind resource for those involved in estimating the sex of human skeletal remains.