ABSTRACT
In this chapter we deal with non-metric variation in the bones and teeth. That is variation that consists of minor anatomical variants that are normally recorded as present or absent rather than being measured. Some of these traits, especially in the teeth, have a genetic component in their causation so we can use them to investigate small-scale kinship relationships, as well as for wider-scale biodistance studies. Others, particularly variations in the morphology of muscle attachments onto bone, appear to be related to biomechanical forces so potentially provide another window on activity patterns in the past.
