Craniology

Craniology is a general term referring to the study of cranial (skull) form. Today, biological anthropologists and bioarchaeologists use measurements of human and nonhuman primate skulls (craniometry) to study a variety of phenomena, such as taxonomy, phylogeny, evolutionary processes, and population relatedness. However, craniology has a long history within anthropology, particularly as it relates to the creation and justification of human “racial types.” A combination of these racially-motivated endeavors and a growing interest in comparative anatomy catalyzed the 19th-century creation of large museum collections of primate skulls, as well as detailed schemes for measuring and characterizing variation in (primarily human) crania. Although the philosophical approach to craniology has changed dramatically over the past 250 years, anthropologists still make use of the cranial collections, specialist equipment (e.g., cranial calipers), and measuring schemes that resulted from these early craniological studies.