Abstract

MORLESIN, Milena  and  GURAIEB, Solana García. Determinación del sexo a partir de carpos y metacarpos de la colección arqueológica del lago Salitroso (Santa Cruz, Argentina). Intersecciones antropol. [online]. 2022, vol.23, suppl.1, pp.67-80. ISSN 1850-373X.  http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.37176/iea.23.especial1.2022.711.

When archaeological human remains are incomplete skeletons, mixed assemblages or poorly preserved, the estimation of the minimum number of individuals and their sex and age assignment is more difficult. In particular, sex determination may not be possible using morphological methods based on the most dimorphic structures of the coxal and skull. In these cases, metric methods, where dimorphism is based on differences in size rather than shape, are useful. However, population differences in the manifestation of sexual dimorphism and the difficulty of applying metrics generated in other populations are also relevant. Therefore, it is necessary to generate predictive metric functions in collections from individuals sexually estimated by conventional methods. In this work, 21 carpal and 25 metacarpal measurements were taken from 12 late Holocene adult individuals from Lake Salitroso (Santa Cruz). Binary logistic functions were generated and applied to seven sexually indeterminate individuals, which allowed us to estimate five as probably male, one as possibly female and one remained indeterminate. The results confirmed the marked sexual dimorphism of the population. The functions obtained here have the potential to be applied to other Patagonian archaeological collections from biologically related populations.

Keywords : Sex assessment; Sexual dimorphism; Hunter-gatherers; Patagonia; late Holocene.