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Of Typicality And Predictive Distributions In Discriminant Function Analysis, Lyle W. Konigsberg, Susan R. Frankenberg

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

While discriminant function analysis is an inherently Bayesian method, researchers attempting to estimate ancestry in human skeletal samples often follow discriminant function analysis with the calculation of frequentist-based typicalities for assigning group membership. Such an approach is problematic in that it fails to account for admixture and for variation in why individuals may be classified as outliers, or non-members of particular groups. This paper presents an argument and methodology for employing a fully Bayesian approach in discriminant function analysis applied to cases of ancestry estimation. The approach requires adding the calculation, or estimation, of predictive distributions as the final step …