Size and shape in similarity coefficients based on metric characters

✍ Scribed by Robert S. Corruccini

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1973
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 842 KB
• Volume: 38
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0002-9483
• DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.1330380313

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

A variety of quantitative measures of distance and similarity have been used in physical anthropology, often without sufficient prior testing of their usefulness and understanding of their meaning. A variety of such coefficients were compared by applying them to an odontometric sample. It was found that Penrose's size‐shape dichotomy extends not only to his coefficients but to all other similarity measures as well, such as the coefficient of racial likeness, generalized distance, canonical variates, and Q‐mode correlation. Only size differences were detected by the C.R.L., Penrose's size distance, D^2^, and canonical variates, and as a result these methods failed to produce an accurate classification. Penrose's shape distance and Q‐mode correlation coefficients produced better results due to their determination of similarity on the basis of more important shape and morphological differences. The D^2^ and canonical variates methods were converted to shape measures through Q‐mode standardization of the raw data, whereupon they also produced more meaningful results.