Anthropometry Journal

Every Bone Tells a Story

Laura Bohannan

is an Anthropologist.

An anthropologist is a

person who studies

bones. The Tiv

people live is West

Africa. She wanted to

learn about the

ceremonies that they

celebrate. Hamlet is

connected to being an

anthropologist

because

anthropologists study

bones after people

have died, and in

Hamlet, everyone

dies. Shakespeare

was understood, but

they had very

different thoughts

than Americans do. I

learned that many

other people think

different about things

in a way that we

would never think of.

Anthropometry in Literature

If the King were to die the

King’s brother should not

take the throne, instead

the king’s son would take

the throne.

We believe that a widow

should not remarry until

she has mourned for 2

years

The King only has one

wife

We know that ghosts don’t

exist but that they are in

stories

We know that some people

will kill themselves

We know that water can

kill you

They think that the King’s

brother should take the

throne rather than the

King’s son

They think that 2 years is

too much to wait to be

remarried.

They think that the King

should have more than one

wife

They don’t believe that

ghosts can be in stories

They don’t think that

anyone has a reason to kill

themselves

They think that water is for

bathing and drinking only.

They do not think that you

can die from water.

Anthropometry in Global Studies

Everyone needs protein to have a healthy bone

structure, but some people in our world do not have access

to food, therefore they are malnourished. When someone

does not have enough

food to live, it is called

malnutrition.

Malnutrition effects how

much your bones grow;

therefore, many children

are going to be stunted

for the rest of their lives.

Many children suffer from malnutrition because their

mother's did

not have

enough

protein, so they

were born

malnourished.

Since Africa is

a poor country,

many of their people are malnourished; many babies there

who are malnourished die before the age of one. A group of

doctors has come up with a solution for malnutrition; it is

called Plumpy Nut. The problem with Plumpy Nut is that if

your child is over a year old and suffering from malnutrition,

it is too late. In America, we do not have to worry about

malnutrition. The majorities of American’s live a healthy

lifestyle and do not have to worry about not having enough

food for dinner. We should take this for granted, and think

about the people in our world who do not have those

benefits.

Anthropometry in Science First, we measured ourselves with our partner Then, we measured the masks to determine who they

were Next, we guessed who the masks were. My group

guessed Rory for mask one, Kennedy for mask two, Victoria for mask three, and Eli for mask four.

Then, we drew ourselves on graph paper according to our measurements.

Lastly, we found out whom the mystery masks belonged to!

How well were you able to identify the masks by using the measurements?

It was hard to identify the masks because we did not know if we had measured wrong or the other person might have measured wrong, therefore it made it hard to identify the masks.

How does each cast compare to the model’s actual face?

I think that some masks were more obvious who they were than others. You have so many options to choose from that it makes it hard.

Are the measurements the same, close, or very different?

I think that our measurements were not very close. I think that is why we did not get any of the masks right.

What might have caused the difference?

I think that we should have taken more time to measure and measured more carefully.

Anthropometry in Math

In math class, we were asked to measure our partners and

ourselves. Then, we made a

graph of all the people in the

class and their measurements.

We measured our height and

radius the first day, and

then, the third day we

measured our tibia and

humerus. On our graphs, you

put a dot for each person.

The y-axis is the height in

inches, and the x-axis is the

radius in inches. You would

put a dot where the person's

radius and height met each

other on the graph. Then, we

repeated this for all the

students in the class. Next,

we made a line from the right

corner of the graph, through

the middle of the dots, and up

to the top of the graph. I

learned how to use information

in a different way than I

thought. I have done so much

with a little bit of

information, and I am sure

that I will use some of these

methods in the future.

1. How close were your results to the actual heights? On most of the problems, I was two inches or less off from the actual heights.

2. Does one formula predict heights better than others do? Explain. I think that the humerus formula works best for both men and women.

3. What advice would you give to a forensic scientist or archeologist about predicting heights from bone length?

My advice to a forensic scientist or an archeologist is that you should measure at least two times to make sure that you have the correct measurement. If the two measurements are different, you should measure another time. Then, I would take my time multiplying because you do not want to get it wrong!

Anthropometry Final Reflection In the past week, we have been working on an interdisciplinary anthropometry unit in science, literature, math, and global studies; anthropometry is the study of the human bones. In science, we measured some mystery masks and ourselves; then, we tried to guess whom the masks belonged too. When the masks were revealed, I found out that none of my guesses were correct. First, in literature, Mr. Gehrer read us the story of Hamlet; then, we were asked to make a summary paragraph of how anthropometry relates with Hamlet. Next, we had to make a chart of the way that the Tiv people understand the story, and how we understand the story. Then, in global studies, we learned about malnutrition; next, we had to write a summary paragraph about malnutrition and how it

affects our world. Finally, in math, we measured our tibia, humerus, and our radius; then, we made a graph of everyone's tibias and actual heights. We used formulas to predict our heights using the measurements of our tibias, humerus, and radius.

Global studies was the easiest class for me to do, because all you had to do was take good notes, and then put them into a paragraph. I thought that measuring in science and math was the hardest thing to do, because if your measurements were wrong, it would mess up everything. Learning about malnutrition was the most

meaningful thing to me, because I could really understand how others live, and how we are so lucky to have food and water every day. Anthropometry is used to find out whom someone is, to make houses, to make desks and chairs, to find out how tall someone is, and many other things. There will become a time in everyone’s lives where they will have to use anthropometry, and now that I know how to use it, I am sure that I will be able to use it!