The Ciboney and the Taino in the Context of Craniometric Variation in Native American Population

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Abstract

The article examines two cranial samples representing the pre-Columbian population of Cuba (the Ciboney and the Taino), in the general context of craniometric variation in the indigenous population of the American continent. Published craniometric data from various sources were used for comparison by the canonical discriminant analysis and calculation of pairwise squared Mahalanobis distances. The question is raised about the possibility of including artificially deformed crania (of which the Taino and many other American samples are entirely composed) in the analyses using only the metrics of the facial skeleton. When analyzing samples without artificial deformation, similarities were found between the Ciboney and South American groups, mainly from the West, which may indicate their origin from an ancient and less differentiated type that inhabited Central and northwestern South America in ancient times. The results of the analysis combining deformed and non-deformed samples are more difficult to interpret, which may indicate a significant influence of cranial vault deformation on the morphology of the facial skeleton, but they do not contradict the conclusions of studies of related sciences about the South American origin of the Taino.

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About the authors

Taisiya A. Syutkina

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: syuttaya@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6222-4929

младший научный сотрудник центра антропоэкологии

Russian Federation, 32a Leninsky prospekt, Moscow, 119991

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2. Fig. 1. Geographical location of the places of origin of the series involved in the comparative analysis. A: North and Central America. B: South America

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3. Fig. 2. The location of male series of undeformed skulls in the space of the first two canonical vectors. 1 - Central America; 2 - north and northeast of South America; 3 - Andes; 4 - Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia; 5 - subarctic and northwest coast of North America; 6 - central North America; 7 - southwest of North America; 8 - southeast of North America

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4. Fig. 3. The arrangement of female series of undeformed skulls in the space of the first two canonical vectors. Territorial groups as in Fig. 2.

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