Craniometric Variation of Diverse Populations in Florida

Identification Challenges Within a Border State

Bibliographic Data

ID7634906
AuthorsMeredith L Tise (0000-0003-4615-7479, University of Lincoln, corresponding author), Erin H Kimmerle (University of South Florida), M Katherine Spradley (0000-0002-6056-9712, Texas State University)
Year2014
Volume38
Issue1
Pages111-123
Publication date2014-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnnals of Anthropological Practice (BOOK_SERIES)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2153-957X • E-ISSN: 2153-9588
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/napa.12046
OpenAlexW1688730490
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited14

The state of Florida is commonly ignored as a border state when it comes to issues and challenges in migrant death investigations. In the 2010 U.S. Census, Florida held the third largest Hispanic population in the United States, with almost 19 million individuals self‐identifying as Hispanic, following behind California and Texas (Ennis et al. ). Undocumented workers that arrive in the United States frequently migrate to Florida for labor, such as on produce farms, and many of these workers are children, traveling alone, or under circumstances that make them an at‐risk group. Endangered, missing, and unidentified persons in Florida are growing problems, with significant numbers of affected persons from the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. This research explores the variation among six diverse groups that are found in Florida and throughout the United States, especially along the border. These groups include four groups considered Hispanic (Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Cuba), as well as American white and black. Based on canonical discriminant function and Mahalanobis distance ( D 2 ) analyses, the Mexican and Guatemalan samples are the two most similar groups when comparing only the four groups considered Hispanic ( D 2 = 2.581) and among all six groups ( D 2 = 2.645). Within the four groups considered Hispanic, the Puerto Rican and Cuban samples are the second most similar groups ( D 2 = 4.690). However, when comparing all six groups, the Cuban and American black samples are the second most similar groups ( D 2 = 3.289). These results reflect a shift in similarities in cranial morphology when including the American black and white samples. By improving our understanding of the historical and current biological relationships among diverse groups living in close proximity, forensic anthropologists can better utilize ancestry data into their biological profiles for human identification

Census · Ethnic group · Geography · Population · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Anthropology · Demography · Forensic and Genetic Research · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Race, Genetics, and Society

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