Further evidence to show population specificity of discriminant function equations for sex determination using the talus of South African blacks

Several studies have shown that osteometric differences exist between different population groups. Thus, discriminant function equations derived for the determination of sex from skeletal elements are population specific. In a previous study, the authors derived such equations from nine measurements of the talus of South African whites with high levels of average accuracies. The validity of some of the equations was tested on data collected from a South African black sample that consisted of 120 tali, equally distributed by sex, derived from the Raymond A. Dart Collection of Human Skeletons. The average accuracies dropped significantly. This necessitated the derivation of new equations for the South African black population and the average accuracies obtained ranged between 80% and 89%. The validity of the equations derived from the present study was tested using the leave-one-out classification and two independent samples (1 and 2). The applicability of the equations with very high classification rate from the present study was tested on Independent sample 1 of 10 white tali with poor results. The result of the validity of these equations on an Independent sample 2 of 10 black tali revealed acceptably high average accuracies in correct classification thereby supporting earlier observations on population specificity of discriminant function equations.