Relating to the measurement of the skull and its dimensions, using scientific methods to study bone structure.
From cranio- (Latin cranium, skull) + -metrical (from Greek metron, measure). The term emerged in 19th-century anthropology when scientists began systematically measuring skulls to study human variation.
In the 1800s, cranial measurement became a major pseudoscience used to rank human 'intelligence' by race—a deeply flawed practice that shows how measurements without proper context can be twisted to support harmful biases.
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