Photogrammetric analysis of Petrus Campers facial angle among adult Urhobo subjects

Abstract

Petrus Camper gained international repute among renaissance anthropologists, evolutionists and proponents of divisive scientific racism for his theory of the "facial angle" which they used as a vital cephalometric variable to validate their claim to racial and intellectual superiority. Standardized left lateral facial cephalograms of 1000 Urhobo subjects, between the ages of 18 – 60 years, were collected over a 3-year period and subjected to geometric angular analysis to determine the magnitude of their respective facial angles. The mean value of Campers facial angle among sampled Urhobo subjects, 100.27º±4.06 (males: 100.43º±4.34; females: 100.11º±3.78), was higher than that reported for European subjects (100º) by a numeric value of 0.27º. Analysis of obtained mean values of facial angle in this investigation showed that this craniometric variable was gender specific and may be show significant ethnic differences. These large numbers of cephalometric measurements provide a scientific basis for evaluation of physical variations in morphological human traits, not differences in human intelligence and brain complexity as was once proposed.

Keywords: Petrus Campers, Facial Angle, Photogrammetric Analysis, Urhobo