Sexing North American Eskimo and Indian innominate bones with the acetabulum/pubis index

The acetabulum/pubis index was tested on American Eskimo and Indian samples of innominate bones to which sex had been assigned by visual inspection. The index alone sexed 91 and 89% of the Eskimo and Indian samples, respectively. Subsequent sorting of misclassified specimens with femur head diameter resulted in 96 and 99% rates of classification. The index and a measurement of ischial height were used in a discriminant function model which correctly identified the sex of 93% of the Eskimo and 92% of the Indian bones. Using femur head diameter to sort those specimens which were misclassified by their discriminant function score yielded classification rates of 96 and 98%. These results are compared to a range of 92 to 100% obtained with the index in earlier studies of American black and white pelvic bone samples.