Cephalic index

[citation needed] The cephalic index was defined by Swedish professor of anatomy Anders Retzius (1796–1860) and first used in physical anthropology to classify ancient human remains found in Europe.

Cephalic indices are grouped as in the following table: Technically, the measured factors are defined as the maximum width of the bones that surround the head above the supramastoid crest (behind the cheekbones), and the maximum length from the most easily noticed part of the glabella (between the eyebrows) to the most easily noticed point on the back part of the head.

The usefulness of the cephalic index was questioned by the Italian anthropologist Giuseppe Sergi, who argued that cranial morphology provided a better means to model racial ancestry.

[2] Boas argued that if craniofacial features were so malleable in a single generation, then the cephalic index was of little use for defining race and mapping ancestral populations.

In 2002, a paper by Sparks and Jantz re-evaluated some of Boas's original data using new statistical techniques and concluded that there was a "relatively high genetic component" of head shape.

For example, they point out that Sparks and Jantz look at changes in cranial size in relation to how long an individual has been in the United States in order to test the influence of the environment.

[14] Because of health issues brachycephaly is regarded in some countries as "qualzucht", which literally translates to "torture breeding"[15][16][17][18] as it often leads to brachycephalic airway obstructive syndrome.

When dealing with animals, especially dogs, the more appropriate and commonly used term is not "mesocephalic", but rather "mesaticephalic", which is a ratio of head to nasal cavity.