Review
The Atlas of Human Cranial Macromorphoscopic Traits is a book that many forensic anthropologists have been waiting for. It is the first book exclusively devoted to cranial macromorphoscopic traits, skeletal morphologic features that are scored by their presence, development, or absence versus metric, or measured, features. This is significant because of the role these traits play in the assessment of biological ancestry, one of the critical determinations for forensic anthropologists. For much of the past century, this assessment was based on traits that could be seen; for example, shape of the palate. In the 1930s, E. A. Hooten and his students documented that the expression of these traits varied across the world with geographic patterning and could be used to differentiate among “races,” in the terminology of the day. Hooten’s descriptions and recording forms were passed down among his anthropological disciples and their future students, including this reviewer.
In more recent times, as these traits and their value in assessment of ancestry came under scientific scrutiny, problems were pointed out. There were no good standardized definitions of each trait, the range of variation was unknown, and there was not a statistical framework to associate traits with geographic origin. Success in using the traits depended on the experience of the user. Other anthropologists turned to craniometric features they could measure with calipers, based on defined landmarks on the skull, and they developed sophisticated statistical programs, such as FORDISC, to assign a skull to a likely ancestral group based on the measurements.
But the macromorphoscipic traits were not forgotten and continued to be used by some forensic anthropologists, especially in the southwestern United States. Eventually, these traits caught the attention of Joe Hefner, and since 2002 he has devoted his research to thoroughly understanding these traits and their range of variation and developing an objective method of assigning a skull to a particular ancestral group. There is no one more qualified to write this book. Hefner’s research has involved looking at these traits in crania from around the world. He has built a macromorphoscopic databank (MaMD), with observations on over 7500 individuals from 20 populations, including African, American Black, American White, AmerIndian, Chinese, Colombian, Salvadoran, Eskimo, European, Guatemalan, Japanese, Mexican, Pacific Islander, Peruvian, SW Hispanic, and Thai. His research narrowed down the list of possible traits to the 17 that seem to work best in assessing ancestry.
The book begins with the historical development of macromorphoscopic traits, followed by a chapter of brief definitions for the traits, which are mapped on skull drawings in the frontal, lateral, and basilar views. A chapter is devoted to each of the 17 traits: anterior nasal spine, inferior nasal aperture, interorbital breadth, malar tubercle, nasal aperture shape, nasal aperture width, nasal bone contour, nasal bone shape, nasal overgrowth, nasofrontal suture, orbital shape, palate shape, postbregmatic depression, posterior zygomatic tubercle, supranasal suture, transpalatine suture, and zygomaxillary suture. For each trait, there is a detailed description with discussion of nomenclature, gross anatomy, growth and development, functional morphology, and population variation, with abundant figures and photographs of the character states (degrees of expression). The authors’ goal is to standardize trait descriptions and make comparisons across populations, so that forensic anthropologists can have more confidence in this tool for the assessment of ancestry.
The penultimate chapter is devoted to the analytics of decision-making. There needs to be a statistical model that will classify unknown crania into one of the reference groups and will also calculate the likelihood of correct classification and the error rate. Discontinuous traits such as the 17 discussed here can be difficult to manipulate in order to assess which combination of trait expressions characterize a particular population. The authors present six analytical approaches, with R code provided in the Appendix. Later this year, Hefner plans to present his own user-friendly analytical program, known as MMS (macromorphoscopic traits) program. Then the project will be complete.
But this is not the end of the research. The authors urge forensic anthropologists to continue to test, refine, and validate the data, and contribute data from their own cases. And there needs to be more research into how these traits are influenced by genes and the environment. Only then will anthropologists have a fuller understanding of what these traits mean.
This reviewer appreciated the format and editing of the book. There is an extensive bibliography and reading list, a virtual history of the use of macromorphoscopic traits. There are nearly 400 figures and blackand-white photographs, all of excellent quality. These are critical to being able to successfully score the character states.
As a forensic anthropologist, this reviewer has been a long-time fan of macromorphoscopic traits over the craniometric ones and has watched Hefner’s work with unconcealed joy. This book is invaluable for experienced forensic anthropologists as they see their favorite traits fully described. This is also a significant training manual for new forensic anthropologists, even those more interested in craniometric traits. It is not possible to interpret the metrics without a good understanding of the morphology behind them. This book should be in every forensic anthropologist’s reference library.
Madeleine Hinkes PhD D-ABFA
Forensic Anthropologist
NAAG Pathology Labs, San Diego CA