Anthropology Commons^™

The Human Skull: Definition By Integrationist And Modular Models, John Y. Anderson

Anthropology ETDs

The human mandible and cranium are parts of an integrated cranial complex. These regions are also major components of the modular system, which comprises multiple semi-autonomous areas within the body. Integration and modularity express structure and function across various hierarchical levels of organization in the body and are thus definable as two non-exclusive ways of viewing somatic structure. What is integrated at one level may be a separable, modular unit at another. This dissertation statistically examines the interface between integration and modularity as partitioned through various hierarchical levels in the human skull, including the mandible. This examination is framed as …