ABSTRACT
Modern surface anthropometry evolved from late nineteenth-century anthropology. It was heavily bone-based, static and taxonomic. Many of our current anthropometric practices-the logic of landmarking, for example-descend in a direct line from this tradition. This tradition is not well adapted to modern anthropometric disciplinesergonomics and apparel design, computer simulations and biomedical research-which require estimates of soft-tissue dimensions, shape characteristics, functional and dynamic properties, and which can handle and analyse gigantic datasets.
