Grigorescu Cătălin Cicerone, Tihan Eusebiu Jean, Forna Norina Consuela, Grigorescu Șerban Maxim
Abstract
Prognathism, a pronounced protrusion of the mandible or maxilla, has had a winding semantic path: from a supposed “racial marker” of “primitivism” in 19th-century anthropology, to a normal phenotypic variation within the human species, and finally to a medical condition with specific functional implications. This article deconstructs this conceptual evolution. By integrating medical, evolutionary, and biocultural perspectives, we argue that differences in the degree of prognathism primarily reflect adaptations to diet and population history, varying continuously without delimiting discrete human groups. A meta-analysis of recent literature confirms the scientific consensus that rejects any racial taxonomy based on this trait, reframing it as a subject of interest for orthodontics, orthognathic surgery, and evolutionary anthropology.
DOI : 10.62610/RJOR.2025.4.17.7
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