Mountain Village Females live shorter than the Males

Abstract

Ten years before we published our first report of this problem in the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Nippon, Vol. 66, No. 1, 1957. As the 2nd report on the same problem the present paper is to report much more data extensively and decidedly.
We surveyed 13 villages in all, the total population of which amounted to about 56, 000. We classified these villages into groups by topographical and living conditons : the Group-I (Etigo-Miomote, Aidu-Hinoemata, Ettyu-Toga, Etizen-Itosiro, Nisi-Iya, Higasi-Iya Kumano-Hongu, Titibu-Ootaki and Kiso- Nakawa) contains typical mountain villages, the topographical conditions of which is the worst ; the villages lie on very steep slopes. The villages of Group-II (Hida-Sirakawa, Kiso-Kaida, Etigo-Totio and -Hirose) are either plainlike namely lie on rather flat parts though surrounded by mountains or even if lie on steep slope, in which the females have no needs to work heavily-they do only some light agricultural works. In theses villages the females live as long as in plain villages or in towns as the tables show. (Table 6, 7 and 8)
As shown in the Table 6, 7 and 8, in the Group-I villages the females of 80 years and over are very few.
We classified the hamlets or communities belonging to the Group-I villages into 4 groups : A-Group contains hamlets of worst condition, viz, the hamlets lie on steep mountain slopes and the peoples are to go up and down steep slopes or mountain roads when they want to visit their neighbors or to go working to their fields. The D-Group contains communities lying on rather flat terraces or on small table lands; the condition is as good as in plain lands. The B- and C- Groups stand in intermediate conditions; the B-Group is rather closer to the A- Group and C-Group to the D-Group.
As shown in the Tables 7 and 8, in the A-Group we find no females of 90 years and more, and on the other hand the D-Group shows as much old females of 60 years and more as in the plain villages or in towns, especially the ratios of the females to the males of 80 years and over are almost the same with the towns.
In lower collumn of the Table 8 shows the average age of the eldest males and females in the hamlets by the Groups : in the A-and B-Groups the average age of the males are higher than that of the females, but in the C-and D-Groups the females than the males. So far as our data concern the steeper the mountain slopes, the shorter the life span of the peoples. From above facts we want to say that, in the typical mountain villages, the females live shorter than the males.