Anthropometry of the Amami Japanese

Abstract

The Oshima, Kikai and Okierabu groups of the Amami Japanese were measured in 1973. The MARTIN's methods for measurements were applied on stature, standing height to iliospinale an.t, biacromial breadth, biiliac breadth, cephalic length, cepalic breadth, chest girth, arm girth and body weight.
Two kinds of thickness of skinfolds were measured by the Harpenden's caliper on triceps and scapula and indicated as skinfold I and II respectively. For the normal distributions of the measurements of skinfolds, the following transformation was applied
Skinfold transform=l00×log10 (reading in 0.1mm-1.8)
The Table 1 showed the measurements of adult Oshima, Kikai and Okierabu groups.
The Table 2 showed those of adult Kinai Japanese in 1968-1969.
The following physical traits of the Amami Japanese were indicated by the present studies,
1. The Okierabu group revealed short stature and moderate wide biacromial and biiliac breadth among the Amami groups. The Amami groups were more stunted than the Kinai Japanese but the differences of relative leg length were not significant between the Amami and Kinai Japanese.
2. The cephalic traits of the present three groups and other Amami groups had revealed tolerable identities on an anthropometrical basis.
3. Thickness of skinfold of the Okierabu group showed larger thickness than those of the Amami groups. The three Amami groups had revealed a more prominent thickness than those of the Kinai Japanese.
4. The average heights of the children in the Amami islands had increased during the last decades. (Table 3 and 4, Figure 1, 2 and 3)
5. Distribution of Human Leucocyte Antigen was surveyed on the present groups and high frequencies of HL-A2, HL-A9, HL-A10, HL-A5, and W-10 were detected.