J o u r n a l o f A n t h r o p o l o g y R e p o r t s Journal of Anthropology Reports OPEN ACCESS Freely available online Research Article 1 J Anthropology Rep, Vol. 3 Iss. 1 No: 119 Anthropological Assessment of Foot Dimensions of the South-East Ancestral Divisions of Nigeria Vidona WB 1 *, Anibeze CIP 2 , David LK 3 and Monday AB 3 1 Department of Anatomy, Edo University, Iyamho, Nigeria; 2 Department of Anatomy, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria; 3 Department of Anatomy, Gregory University, Uturu, Nigeria ABSTRACT Background: Sex, age, stature, and ancestry are considered the pillars of identity and primary characteristics determined to establish the biological profile of an individual. Forensic podiatry being a novel research branch of anthropometry involving human identification of the foot through understanding and measurement of the morphological shapes and dimensions has great application for physical identity during calamity or disasters like plane crash, and earth quakes terror, crime scenes, demographic identity of determining individuals peculiar to a unique population when collating census data occasioned in times of controversies due the individuality and infinite morphological variation of the human foot. Aim: The aim of the study is to anthropologically assess the dimensions of foot of the stratified ancestral groups of South-east Nigerians with a view to identify the morphometric and morphological differences in the sub-groups. Methods: The research was carried on 1200 adult population comprising of 662 male and 572 female of age range from 21 to 70 year chosen randomly from South-east geopolitical zone of Nigeria in two geographical Ancestral division of the – Igbo-western ancestral tribe predominantly grouped as Akwa-Nsukka block; and the Igbo-eastern ancestral tribe predominantly grouped as Afikpo-Owerri block across inhabitants of selected rural communities of the region. Measurements of foot length (FL), foot breadth (FB) and toe length (TL) were done, while three parameters were calculated as: Foot Index calculated as Foot breadth/Foot lengthx100; Toe shape calculated as toe length/foot length x100; and Foot shape was determined by calculation of foot index as Slender type: FI*<FI- SD (X-SD), Standard type: FI-SD<FI*<FI+SD (X ± SD), Broad type: FI*>FI+SD (X+SD). Data analysis included descriptive and inferential statistics of mean and standard deviation. Also Anova-test was done to compare the foot size dimensions on the right and left side value. Confidence level was set at 95%, as p-values ≤ 0.005 were considered significant. Results: Result showed Sex differences to be highly significant (p<0.005) with regarding the foot shape, proportion of standard and broad foot was higher among the males of Igbo-eastern; however, the slender foot types were higher among the females of Igbo-western which should be considered in shoe industries and forensic investigations The females had the better prediction for ancestry comparison than the males. By this inference dimensions of foot length and toe length are highly significant and better correlated with sex and ancestry of an individual and can be accurately used in the prediction of same. Other parameters did not significantly predicted ancestry (p>0.05). Conclusion: Conclusively the study showed that foot parameters are morphometrically and morphologically sex and ethnic specific. This study confirms that correlation of the factors and parameters are better in young female Igbo- western than Igbo-eastern but better in male Igbo-eastern at all age groups. Keywords: Anthropometric, Foot dimensions, Foot shape, Foot length, Foot breadth, Toe shape, Ancestry, Ethnicity. INTRODUCTION Determination of personal identity is the first and the most important step in forensic science from number system to advanced biometrics. This identification follows two stage processes, the first stage involves the construction of a biological profile and the second is an attempt at a positive match. Forensic podiatry a novel research branch of anthropometry involving human Correspondence to: Vidona WB, Department of Anatomy, Edo University Iyamho, Nigeria, Tel: +2348038690470; E-mail: Wills_bills@yahoo.com Received: February 28, 2019; Accepted: March 20, 2019; Published: March 27, 2019 Citation: Vidona WB, Anibeze CIP, David LK, Monday AB (2019) Anthropological Assessment of Foot Dimensions of the South-East Ancestral Divisions of Nigeria. J Anthropology Rep 3:119. Copyright: © 2019 Vidona WB, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.