Forensic Anthropology: Sex Estimation and Intersex Remains

Title

Forensic Anthropology: Sex Estimation and Intersex Remains

Author

Kairo Mojsiewicz-Shahin

Faculty Sponsor

Jerielle Cartales

Abstract

Intersexuality has been defined as an “umbrella term used to describe a wide range of innate bodily variations in sex characteristics” (Monro et al., 2021). In life, these characteristics are often limited to soft tissue sex organs; in forensic anthropology, the focus is on an individual's bone structure. This is because the bones of males and females have distinct differences attributed to the biological mechanisms for which they are tailored, such as childbirth or walking, and on account of the effects different hormones have on bone growth and development. It is understood that an estimate of "female" would eliminate all "male" individuals from a pool of potential matches, thereby streamlining the identification process of a descendant. These methods can be as simple as visual analysis or as complex as metric analysis and population statistics (Christensen et al., 2014; Moore, 2013). However, intersex people may not have distinct traits from either sex, or they may have a mix of male and female traits. They can therefore present an interesting challenge to sex estimation. Recent anthropological studies have examined the topic of intersex remains, revealing blind spots in many of the standard methods and our own understanding of sex.

Keywords

anthropology

forensics

intersex

Rights

In Copyright.

https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

volume

14

Date Published

7/15/2025

Identifier

PURE_07152025c