The Ciboney and the Taino in the Context of Craniometric Variation in Native American Population

The article examines two cranial samples representing the pre-Columbian population of Cuba (the Ciboney and the Taino), in the general context of craniometric variation in the indigenous population of the American continent. Published craniometric data from various sources were used for comparison by the canonical discriminant analysis and calculation of pairwise squared Mahalanobis distances. The question is raised about the possibility of including artificially deformed crania (of which the Taino and many other American samples are entirely composed) in the analyses using only the metrics of the facial skeleton. When analyzing samples without artificial deformation, similarities were found between the Ciboney and South American groups, mainly from the West, which may indicate their origin from an ancient and less differentiated type that inhabited Central and northwestern South America in ancient times. The results of the analysis combining deformed and non-deformed samples are more difficult to interpret, which may indicate a significant influence of cranial vault deformation on the morphology of the facial skeleton, but they do not contradict the conclusions of studies of related sciences about the South American origin of the Taino.