How can the race of person be identified?

Question

how can the race of person be identified by their skeleton,ie a multiracial person?

Answer 1

the importance we attribute to "race" based on absurd physical qualities is a joke to science...all humans are identical and race is some absurd custom that is meaningless as we all share identical dna! race is used by politicals to divide and conqueur....

Answer 2

usually you check the face and curv of the body

Answer 3

well, most of the time facial structure, if you notice, take a look at every race that's around you, Oriental, hi cheek bones, black... not sure, but Tongan, Samoan big bones, then again for example if your mixed with black and Mexican... black is the most dominate gene so the black would show up more than Mexican gene,,, so to make a long story short the answer is facial structure

Answer 4

I have been told by several medical examiners, and I saw it once on a medical investigation reality show on the Discovery Channel or somewhere like that, that if you take the femur of the skeleton of a black man and lie it flat on the table, you will not be able to get your fist under it.  The femur of a white man will bow sufficiently so that you can get your fist under it.  This is because people of African descent, no matter how far back in their family trees, have tougher bones and they don't bow under the weight of the body like caucasions' bones do.

I know this sounds crazy, but it must be true because I've heard it from so many different expert sources.

*** To the guy below me, sometimes a forensic scientist will want to know what race of person a skeleton came from in an effort to help identify the body.  Other times, anthropologists might want to know what race populated an ancient village.  Please don't turn this question into a "race" thing.  All that will do is insult the questioner and show your ignorance in having such a knee-jerk reaction without looking at all the possibilities of what she could mean.

Answer 5

I'm not an ME, but I believe it has something to do with the facial bones.  But the more mixed you get, the less difference there is in the bones.

Answer 6

You can try to determine the race of a person by looking at their skull.  There are features that are have a higher propensity to have than other races.  For instance, American Indians' incisors are cupped in the back that we really don't see in other races.  Some races are more robust while others are more gracile.