Research problems in Biological Anthropology: Flaws in sampling and in methods of results analysis

Abstract

Anthropology has as ambition the study of the whole of humanity. It includes several specialties and sub-specialties that, despite their differences, offer an overall perspective that requires a holistic research approach. In Biological Anthropology, one of its specialties, anthropologists study biological variations in contemporary human populations in order to reveal their characteristics and their genetic relationships and to try, on the basis of analysis of these variations and those revealed in human fossils, to trace the evolution of human lineage through time. In this report, I provide an overview of some research major problems met in biological anthropology. I evoke especially the problems of the use of uncertain results analysis methods and those of incorrect samplings. In addition to the presentation of these problems and their consequences I present alternatives and suitable solutions. I also explain how some classic considerations resulting from some of these problems could hinder scientific progress in the topic in question. Hence, I believe it is time to avoid these problems, to eradicate the resulting considerations and to follow the most realistic research tracks.