Skull Shape?

Question

Is the theory of different skull shapes determining race true?Is it true that you can assign a human being to categories Mongoloid,Africoid,or Caucasoid based on a thorough analysis of the skull? Could any experts on here or anyone inclined to this subject give me a bit of insight on this? I would also appreciate those that disagree to present their opinion also.Believers and non-believers alike present an intelligent argument and prove your point worthy to be given.I would appreciate both sides of the story.This is why I exclude noone.

Answer 1

Different skull shapes don't determine race....it's the other way around.  Race determines the skull shape.

It's simply another example of passed on traits ie genetics.  If two parents have the characteristic of a flat nose or low brow, and those are dominant traits, then the child will have them too.  Put those folks alone in a location and eventually, every person from that place will have those same traits, too.  If *only* those folks from that place have those traits, then those traits become a means of determining if a person is from that place.  It's no different than a regional accent or dialect.

Of course, in today's world, more and more folks are mixing race etc and those racial characteristics are slowly being eradicated.  In another generation, such things as accents may not even exist.

Answer 2

skull shapes are like so goth

Answer 3

mmm, its indeed true.. although they tend to use the word "ethnicity" or "ethnic identity" rather than "race"

its not 100% accurate, but there are alot of traits on a skull that can be used to judge ethnicity... they arent things like "is x present or absent" but things like "there is marked nasal guttering on this skull" or "there is a strong bregmatic depression visible"

theres a long list of traits on the skull that can be used, too many for me to have remembered them all.. lol... stuff like shape of eye orbits, shape/width of nasal aperture, distance between eye orbits, shape of the cranium, etc

Answer 4

There is no "opinion" involved.  Properly trained scientists can determine race by examining the characteristcs of a skull.    This is really nothing new.   A little research on the Net will answer all your questions about this.

Answer 5

More or less, but going by skull shape North East Africans, like Ethiopians, come into the normal range for Caucasians, and are virtually impossible to tell apart. It's not a good guide to skin tone.

Also, some ethnic groups are very closely genetically related, like the Ainu are to other mongoloids, but their skull shapes also look Caucasian. So it's a bit hit and miss. But generally it's reasonably accurate, it's used to reconstruct faces for the police all the time, and it works.

DNA tests however, are dead accurate. There's a company in the US that will tell you the exact ethnic group of an unknown  suspect by a DNA test.

Answer 6

Yes it is possible to determine race by certain characteristics, check out any forensic anthropology book and they can tell you the basic attributes.  Of course, mixing will make it harder to identify any set 'race' and there are differences in skeletal structures for males and females.

For example, the nose cavity of the different races are shaped differently.  

Caucasoid - A frame

Mongoloid - Sagging tent

Africoid (though the term ******* is still used as well) - Quonset hut

Mongoloids have a wider mandible than either Africoids and Caucasoids as well, higher cheekbones, and an overall smaller and delicate features when compared to Caucasoid and Africoid.  In fact, many early scientists mistook male Mongoloid skulls for female Caucasoids.

Answer 7

Not skull shape alone, but skull shape in conjunction with DNA, can give Forensic experts a virtual 100% match...enough to stand-up in court, and as good as a paternity test.

They can even determine mixed-races, based on a combination of studying those two elements alone!

Answer 8

It's my understanding that there are minor structural differences in things like overall facial shape, orbital size & orientation (eye socket), nasal bones, etc. Interracial breeding tends to blur some of these, however, so they may not be used as strict racial features, unless you're dealing with an isolated society with little or no chance of interracial mixing.

Certainly some outdated concepts such as cranial size related to intelligence have no racial validity. Much as you can determine gender by some parts of the skeleton, you can get a fairly good guess of race, but that does not imply that any one race is 'better' or 'worse' than any other. It's simply small differences that can be understood as commonly found with people of a certain race, just like pigmentation, eye folds in Mogoloids, etc.