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Numerous postcranial discrete characters and cranial and postcranial metric traits are compared among skeletal samples derived from four east-central Arizona Western Pueblo sites that were inhabited from the 12th through the 14th centuries A.D.: Grasshopper, Kinishba, Point of Pines, and Turkey Creek. Pearson's Lambda Criterion and discriminant analysis are used to reveal patterns of morphological variation among the four groups from which their biological relationships could be inferred. It is concluded that both discrete and metric skeletal traits should be used for biologically differentiating human skeletal series. After all traits were checked for intraobserver error, preliminary data analyses were conducted to elicit appropriate traits for differentiating the groups. Based on these analyses, it is notable that (1) the discrete traits of the postcranium used in this study are relatively independent of age, sex, robusticity, and each other, (2) craniofacial metric traits are influenced little by either occipital or lambdoidal deformation, (3) several postcranial metric traits significantly differ between younger and older adults, though this is not so for cranial metric traits, and (4) correlations among postcranial metric traits are moderate to strong; among cranial metric traits they are rather weak, and very weak among cranial and postcranial metric traits. For both metric and discrete traits, biological distance results obtained from analyses of axial and appendicular skeletal data are discordant. For the axial skeleton, excluding the mandible, the four Western Pueblo groups are relatively biologically homogeneous. For the appendicular skeleton the opposite is the case. Distance results provided by metric and discrete traits, respectively, of the axial skeleton are much more consistent than are those yielded by metric and discrete traits, respectively, of the appendicular skeleton. It is suggested that the axial skeleton, omitting the mandible, is probably less plastic than is the appendicular skeleton and is the appropriate unit of analysis in studies of biological differentiation of skeletal samples.

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 19, 2010). Thesis advisor: Dr. Daniel Wescott. Includes bibliographical references.

Cranial and post-cranial non-metric variants are used to examine 664 individuals from the Grasshopper Pueblo skeletal series. The pueblo was inhabited from the 12th to the 14th century A.D. A variety of statistical analyses are utilized to examine patterns of morphological variation which can be used to assess whether biological differences can be demonstrated on the basis of non-metric trait frequencies. All traits are examined for frequency of occurrence, and trait frequencies are then tested to determine if they vary by side of the body, sex, age, type of cranial deformation or association with one another. A series of skeletons are re-tested in order to test intra- and inter-observer reliability. A refined list of traits developed from these analyses is then used to examine trait frequency distributions among the three major room blocks at the site. The full battery of traits used in this study are found to be free of the effects of side of the body, sex, type of cranial deformation and associations with one another, but are affected slightly by age. Intra- and inter-rater reliability are low for this sample and battery of traits. The conclusion is that individuals from the Pueblo do not aggregate into groups which are distinguishable on the basis of non-metric traits.