Analysis of Cranial Modification in Coastal Ecuador

This thesis analyzes cranial modification from various sites and locations within coastal Ecuador. This research aims to identify the various types of tabular cranial modification and understand the methods used to classify each subtype of tabular modification. From this, I discussed the different types of modification and then used that information to contrast between North American and South American bioarchaeological methods of classifying cranial modification. Additionally, I reconstructed the biological profiles of some of the crania. The importance of this research is to introduce a method of identifying cranial modification that has been previously used in South American bioarchaeology to North American bioarchaeology. Furthermore, information on cranial modification regarding the coastal populations of Ecuador is lacking. The data in this thesis contributes a significant amount of knowledge about this practice, allowing this project to provide new information to the field of anthropology and the country of Ecuador.