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The quantification of human proportions has a long history. As far back as the Middle Kingdom (c. 1986–1633 BC), Egyptian artisans used square grids and standard proportions to produce consistent depictions of human (and other) figures, even establishing different formulae for males and females (Robins, 1994)(Figure 1). The German anatomist Johann Sigismund Elsholtz formalized the scientific measurement of living individuals,“anthropometry,” in his 1654 Doctoral dissertation (Kolar and Salter, 1996), and his particular interest in symmetry would appeal to many presentday anthropologists and general biologists. From the 19th century to the present day, the measurement and analysis of human beings and their skeletal remains have been a central theme in anthropology, though not always with beneficent motivation (eg, Gould, 1981). During this time, anthropologists have often taken advantage of the state …