Browsing by Author "Friedling, Louise J"

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    Dental modification practices on the Cape Flats in the Western Cape
    (2003) Friedling, Louise J; Morris, Alan G
    The people living on the Cape Flats in the Western Cape have been practicing dental modification for a number of years. A systematic survey of eight adjoining areas in the Northern suburbs was done to investigate the prevalence, motivation and possible historical time depth of this practice. The survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire. A total of 2167 individuals participated in this study of which 41 % had modified their teeth. More males (44.8%) than females (37.9%) were involved in this practice. Residential area and pay class had an impact on dental modification practices as the incidence increased within lower income areas. Six styles of modification were identified, of these; the removal of the upper four incisors (style 400) was often the style of choice (93. 7%). There were four stated reasons (peer pressure, fashion, gangsterism and medical/other) for dental modification of which peer pressure (in males) and fashion (in females) were the most popular. Dentists did most of the extractions. Three quarters of the entire study sample had family members with dental modifications. More than half (69.8%) of individuals with modifications wore dentures. Not only coloured people were modifying their teeth, some study subjects who had self-classified themselves as black or white also practiced it.
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    Facial fatness as a complicating factor in facial reconstruction
    (2015) Clarke, Carrie Anna-Marie; Friedling, Louise J; Morris, Alan G
    Although it is a reasonable assumption that a significant proportion of the variation in facial tissue thicknesses comes from anatomical differences between populations, we do not know how much of normal variation is caused by including the full range of individual obesity or slimness. Current population standard soft tissue thickness data used in facial reconstructions ignores the variation between individuals which, in theory, could be greater than the variation between populations or sexes. The aim of this study was to test if facial tissue thickness is due to the amount of sub - cutaneous fat, sex or racial origins. Methods currently used do not give a true reflection of the individual because they ignore the variation in fatness. An initial study determined if a corrective value for the non - linear distortion found between radiographic images and the physical tissues was needed. This was done by imaging cadaver heads and taking measurements from the images and the physical heads. The results demonstrated that measurements taken from LODOX® images are analogous with soft tissue measurements. Volunteers were then sought from the student body and had physical measurements and X - rays taken. The measurements allowed for both BMI and body fat percentage to be calculated. Analysis showed that body fat percentage had less of an impact than BMI, with the areas of the face most affected by change in fatness being around the chin, jaw and cheek. Analysis of the variances showed that fatness has a low impact on the soft tissues of the different ancestry groups, while having a greater impact on the soft tissues of the different sexes. The effect of changing fatness on the soft tissues is not seen in all areas of the face, but to ignore it in facial reconstruction ignores that the success of a reconstruction is not exactness but in its ability to incite recognition and lead to potential identification of the unknown target individual.
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    Grave tales : an osteological assessment of health and lifestyle from 18th and 19th century burial sites around Cape Town
    (2007) Friedling, Louise J; Morris, Alan G
    Two unwalled 18th and 19th century colonial burial sites, Cobern Street and Marina Residence, were assessed osteologically and dentally to reconstruct the life histories and activity patterns of the poorer people living at the Cape. This was done to add to the history and knowledge of the descendants of these people, as little other information exists on them. Questions pertaining to diet, stress, activity patterns and trauma were investigated. Visual (standard and novel macroscopic methods e.g. distal humeri method), metric (femoral neck method) and histological (proximal anterior femur) techniques were tested and employed to estimate age and sex, as the skeletal material was fragmentary and incomplete. Only adults were assessed and analysed (n = 86 and n = 75 for Cobern Street and Marina Residence respectively) as the infant, juvenile and sub-adult skeletal material was too badly preserved and fragmentary to attempt reconstruction. Mortality profiles reveal that the two study sites were different in community dynamics. They led hard active lives as seen from their muscle marking and degenerative joint disease patterns. Osteoarthritis was not only very frequent within the groups but was found in much of the younger adult skeletal material. Stress and trauma were relatively low within the two populations. Dental disease was relatively high within the two study groups. This was as a result of a carbohydrate rich diet and poor oral hygiene. Thus the food they were consuming as well as the activities they were involved in had a huge impact on their lives. The first possible cases of syphilis, tuberculosis and Paget's disease at the Cape were found within these two study groups.
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    The importance of a protocol in the recovery and handling of burned human remains in a forensic context
    (2016) Schwab, Petra; Friedling, Louise J; Maistry, Sairita
    Fire-related fatalities pose many investigative challenges, in part due to their fragility. This can be managed with the creation of protocols, specific to the environment in which they are implemented. Currently, no protocol for the recovery and handling of fire-related fatalities exists in Cape Town, South Africa. Additionally, the challenges, risk factors, and resources present at forensic scenes in the area have not been documented. From April to December of 2015, fire-related death scenes were attended with Salt River Forensic Pathology Laboratory, which serves the West Metropole of Cape Town. Details of the fatal fire scenes were noted, including the challenges faced, and the settings in which the fires occurred. Emphasis was placed on methodologies used to recover, handle, and transport remains, and the availability and utilisation of resources. The affect these methodologies had on the condition of the remains between scene and autopsy was assessed. In total 32 fire-related death scenes were attended, with 48 decedents recovered. Males predominated (64.6%), and the majority were young adults (75%). Accidental deaths were most prevalent (79.2%), however a fire-related suicide and homicides highlighted the importance of thorough investigation. Informal housing constituted 68.8% of the fatal fire scenes and presented unique scene constraints, including no direct road access at 50% of these scenes. Investigative limitations included: inadequate interagency communication, resulting in a lack of collateral information available at autopsy; deficient scene and contextual documentation; non-standardised recovery methodologies; insufficient availability and utilisation of resources (including safety equipment); and no specialised personnel (e.g. forensic pathologists/ anthropologists) conducting scene recovery. The majority of cases (60.4%) were further fragmented or fractured by time of autopsy, illustrating the necessity for improvement of current methodologies and the importance of the involvement of forensic anthropologists in recovery of fragmentary remains.
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    A statistical shape analysis of the neurocranium and long bones
    (2016) Maass, Petra; Friedling, Louise J
    Morphological variation of skeletal elements, and the potential use of such variation in distinguishing among demographic groups, is often investigated using traditional metric or non-metric assessments. Traditional approaches, however, often fail to sufficiently capture the "true" shape of features, thus also failing to identify potentially important feature characteristics. The development of geometric morphometrics has allowed more comprehensive and accurate three-dimensional data capture which maintains the geometric properties of an object while isolating the effect of size from the data. The aim of this study was to employ the geometric morphometric approach to a 3D digitized sample of 1132 South African individuals from the skeletal collections of the Universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Witwatersrand and Pretoria. Morphological variation among demographic groups was assessed using Generalized Procrustes Analyses applied to the individual bones of the neurocranium and the long bones of the limbs. The ability to distinguish groups based on the detected variation was assessed using Discriminant Function Analysis. The results show that, when size is isolated from the data, only a few elements show sexual dimorphism, while all examined elements show high accuracy in distinguishing among ancestry groups (>74%). When variation is assessed using both parameters, classification accuracies of 70-83% are obtained. Comparison of the different elements shows that the best classification accuracies are based on the frontal bone (84% average) and the humerus (81% average). This study shows that the morphologies of the neurocranium and long bones vary among sex and ancestry groups. This allows assessment of how the combination of variable intrinsic and extrinsic influences can manifest on different parts of the skeleton. In a population as genetically and historically complex as that of South Africa, understanding of the impact of such influences may inform forensic assessments of skeletal material, which is especially valuable considering the high rate of violent crimes and increasing number of unidentified remains being discovered in the country.
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    Stature estimation: evaluating regression equations for different population groups in South Africa
    (2018) Arendse, Liesl Margo; Friedling, Louise J
    Stature estimations from regression formulae are used by forensic anthropologists in constructing a biological profile from unidentified human remains. Regression formulae are used to calculate total skeletal height or living stature when incomplete, fragmentary or burned human remains are recovered. This study aimed to evaluate the reliability of the total skeletal height regression formulae from (1) Lundy and Feldesman (1987), and (2) Dayal et al. (2008) when compared to total skeletal height from the full anatomical method (Fully’s method), in a contemporary South African population. The use of these regression formulae to estimate total skeletal height of South Africans of Mixed Ancestry was investigated as no population-specific standards exist for this group. Additionally, the reliability of the generic femur/stature ratio (Feldesman et al., 1990) to estimate living stature for all three population groups was investigated. Measurements were taken from 229 individuals comprising of South Africans of Mixed Ancestry, African Descent and European Descent from South African skeletal collections. ANOVA’s and paired t-tests were used to determined if there was a significant difference (p<0.05) between (1) estimated total skeletal height from regression formulae and that from Fully’s method, and (2) the estimated living stature from the femur/stature ratio and a calculated living stature from Fully’s total skeletal height with soft tissue and age correction factors. No significant difference (p>0.05) was found between South Africans of African Descent and Mixed Ancestry’s calculated total skeletal height, but both were significantly different (p<0.000) to individuals of European Descent. Results indicate that the Lundy and Feldesman (1987) regression formulae should be re-assessed for contemporary South Africans of African Descent and results from the Dayal et al. (2008) regression formulae indicate that the formulae are still relevant for contemporary South Africans of European Descent. Additionally, new regression formulae should be developed to enable forensic or physical anthropologists to estimate total skeletal height of Mixed Ancestry individuals. The femur/stature ratio’s living stature were significantly different (p<0.000) from the calculated living stature, and generally overestimated it for maximum femur lengths greater than 50cm.