At first glance looks like a nice addition to the existing research which highlights between subject variation in structural anatomy/morphology (and ultimately function). Would have been just as interesting as a piece looking at n=total and discussing variance in my opinion. Not sure what "typing" the feet brings to the party, but then I havent read full text yet. Anyone know how they "typed" the feet?
Just pulled full text and had a cursory glance. Interesting methodology. Used an unvalidated typing procedure (see attached screenshot) and out of a sample of 40 people there was exactly n=10; in each category....hmmm... could happen I suppose.
Why only use 65 individual feet though? Anyone better at research than me care to comment?
Ian, their words are so vague, their data is lacking in landmarks. Typically, all interlandmark distances need to be defined around pre-defined body plane positions. History abounds with these - eg Lisowski Albrecht & Oxnard 1974, or many since. Look at the works of this, or of Kidd et al since then, you will find references to body planes of various interlandmark distances of the talus, navicular, calcaneus and cuboid. Reference to foot types has always got the problem of cause of, or caused by. With post mortem specimens, one is presented with a morphology; how it got there is a mystery to many, including to me. (I wrote this before your last post - have not read it yet)
Thanks Rob. I'm just looking deeper into individual variation for some work I'm doing and actually the foot "type" is not important to me at all - more the emphasis on how much we all potentially differ. Thanks for pointing me in the direction of the early/key work. I may come back to you if I'm struggling to locate it!
I was cut off half way - if you get two version of this, please forgive me. You need to get down to the NHM in South Kensington to look at the Spitalfields collection, and the Poundbury collection. The former is Georgian-Victorian UK, the latter in Romano British. You also need to get down to Kent to Birchington on sea - the Powell Cotton Museum. There you will find the greatest African primate collection in the world - 500 each of chimps and gorillas + all the rest.
The bottom line is, that the more you get into hominid evolution, the more it grabs you - have fun!
Jan Bruckner and I overlapped as PhD students - she was well into her work when I started in the late 80's. I seem to remember we both presented at the 1994 AAPA conference in Denver