ABSTRACT
Within the past few decades, especially with the advent of new scientific techniques for the assessment of “race” in skeletons, the use of craniometry—the determination of “race” by the outward appearance of the skull—has somewhat fallen by the wayside. However, several research studies have still used this method of analysis to draw conclusions about the origin of Native Americans in the New World, from Fueguians and Peruvians to Kennewick Man (Chatters 2000; Frisancho and Baker 1970; Hernandez, Fox, and Garcia-Moro 1997). Craniometry has been used in such cases, either because of a lack of access to more in-depth information on the individual, or because some still believe that a basic “racial” distinction can be made from the cranial features alone to allow for accurate assessment of an individual's ethnic affiliation.
