Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI)
The minimum number of individuals, abbreviated MNI, estimates the smallest number of whole animals that could account for the bones identified in a faunal assemblage. Where NISP counts identifiable pieces, MNI translates those pieces into a defensible lower bound on the number of animals by exploiting the fact that each animal has a fixed inventory — only one left femur, two scapulae, and so on. The basic procedure, introduced by Theodore White in 1953 and refined since, takes the most abundant element after accounting for side and age and divides by its frequency in a complete skeleton. As Reitz and Wing explain and Lyman analyzes critically, MNI tames NISP's fragmentation bias but introduces a bias of its own: it depends on how the assemblage is aggregated into analytical units, the so-called aggregation problem.
Registro de origen
Citas copiadas textualmente del registro de origen del método. No se infiere ninguna verificación a nivel de afirmación de ellas.
- Reitz, E. J., & Wing, E. S. (2008). Zooarchaeology (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. · ISBN 9780521673938
- Lyman, R. L. (1994). Vertebrate Taphonomy. Cambridge University Press. · ISBN 9780521458405
Afirmaciones curadas
Afirmaciones persistidas en el libro mayor de evidencia, cada una con su propia evaluación.
Esta vista no inventa una evaluación de afirmación si el libro mayor no tiene ninguna.
Métodos relacionados
Generado a partir del grafo de métodos y mostrado como relaciones sugeridas por la máquina; no se infiere ninguna afirmación de evidencia.