ACCURACY OF SEX DETERMINATION USING MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF THE HUMANPELVIS

This study assesses the accuracy and reliability of 17 individual morp hological traits of the pelvis frequently used to determine the sex of human skeletal remains. A sample of 49 right and left adult hip bones and sacra of documented individuals were available from an historic c hurch cemetery dating from the 19th century. A hypothetical ranking of the accuracy of traits was drawn from the literature. Next, individua l traits were evaluated for precision and accuracy of observations, an d combinations of two and three traits were evaluated for their collec tive effectiveness as sex indicators. The effect of age on the accurac y of traits for sex determination was also examined. Precision of trai ts was generally good. Several combinations of three criteria produced higher levels of accuracy than the trait list as a whole. A total of six traits was judged to be most effective as sex discriminators becau se of low intraobserver error levels and better than 83% accuracy rate s. There was no indication of an age effect on the precision or accura cy of these traits although sample sizes are small.