The sex of an individual is a basic biological attribute as well as a source of variation that must be taken into consideration in human population studies. Skeletal samples from archaeological and forensic contexts present unique problems for the estimation of adult sex. The only biological features that consistently represent the individual are osseous elements, but these elements may be fragmentary or poorly preserved in many settings. Methods that yield accurate sex estimates for individuals from skeletal samples are thus crucial for more complete characterizations and studies of past human populations.
The present study evaluates characteristics of pelvic morphology (Bruzek, 2002) for discriminating adult males and females in Late Prehistoric Ohio Valley Native American skeletal samples. The skeletal samples are from the 17th century A.D. Grantham site (N = 41) located in northeastern Ohio and the 14th – 17th century A.D. Buffalo site (N = 77) in northern West Virginia. The pelvic characteristics used include morphology of the preauricular surface, greater sciatic notch, composite arch, inferior pelvis, and ischio-pubic proportions. Various aspects of each characteristic are also assessed. A logistic discrimination analysis evaluates the utility of each characteristic in sexing the individual. Results indicate that non-pubic bone features of the pelvis, as defined by Bruzek (2002), are not consistent with pubic bone estimators of sex in the samples from these Native American skeletal series.