Stature estimation from digit length, bi-acromian and bi-illiac length: a study among two populations from eastern and north eastern India

Abstract

Recognition of human remains is an indispensable element in medico-legal aspects and at the same time one of the major undertaking by the forensic anthropologist is the identification of fragmentary and mutilated remains. The identification of stature of the deceased, and comparisons with the ante-mortem data and age and sex assessment, has been subject matter of many forensic anthropology researches over the time and space.1,2 The process of identification is generally imperative in cases of mass disasters, explosions, and assault cases where the body is fragmented and establishing the identity of the victim being the challenge for investigator.3 It is here that accurate sexing of the human remains has the potential to primarily narrow down the search to a particular sex thereby giving sense of direction to the ongoing forensic investigation. Although genetic analysis of human population does not support concepts of innate racial differences with respect to innate abilities or characteristics, but human as polytypic and allopatric species demonstrate wide range of morphological, quantitative, polymorphic variations across the word. Being at the crossroads of migration, Indian populations have undergone complex and ancient admixture events over a long period4‒6 and have been the melting-pot of disparate ancestries originating from different parts of Eurasia and South-East Asia.6 Although the date of entry of modern humans into India remains uncertain but it is reasonable to consider by the middle Paleolithic period (50,000–20,000 years before present [ybp]), humans appear to have spread onto many parts of India.7 Contemporary ethnic India is a land of enormous genetic, cultural, and linguistic diversity.8,9 A more recent study exploring Indian genomic