Based on my own work among the Ainu in northern Hokkaido and ethnographic literatures for many modern hunting-gathering societies in northern Pacific rim in particular, this paper presents that such societies are classified into “Every-Male-the-Hunter” type and “Not-Every-Male-the-Hunter” type, which are distinctive from each other in their ecological and socioeconomic adaptive mechanisms; here, hunter refers to a big-game hunter. This occupational differentiation of males, reflecting different levels of sociocultural complexity, is judged to play a significant role in social evolution. This classification is considered in relation to hominization process.

View full abstract

Stature, body weight, and the body mass index (BMI) in cross-sectional sample of Philippine children aged 7-17 were studied in a rural region, Isabela Province (531 boys and 571 girls), and in an urban region, Metro Manila (984 girls and 1003 boys). Each region consisted of a poorly-off group and a well-off group. Children of well-off families were taller and heavier than those of poorly-off families in both rural and urban regions, and growth of the rural well-off group coincided with that of the urban poorly-off group. Compared with average Japanese children, Quezon City (QC) children (the well-off group in Manila) were taller and heavier up to ages 7-9 in both sexes, whereas at ages 12-14, average Japanese children exceeded QC children. This Japan-QC difference seems to be widened through the post-pubertal period. Sensitivity to environmental stress in boys is suggested not only for stature but also in the BMI. The post-pubertal boys' predominance of stature seems to be related to a shorter duration of the adolescent girls' predominance. The age at maximum age-class difference occurs earlier with the greater difference being one of a taller and heavier body constitution in the well-off QC group. The time lag for these ages between QC and Makati, the poorly-off group, was shorter in the boys than in the girls, and about 3 years earlier in the girls than in the boys in Makati, and only about 1 year earlier in QC.

View full abstract

The polymorphism of factor H (HF, β1H globulin) was investigated in 296 unrelated Chinese individuals using isoelectric focusing followed by immunoblotting. The allele frequencies were HF^*A=0.433, HF^*B=0.488, HF^*Q0=0.062 and HF^*A1=0.017. The population data conformed to the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The distribution was almost similar to that for Japanese.

View full abstract

Presence or absence of 22 nonmetric traits was recorded in the crania from the islands of Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima of the Ryukyu Islands. Their trait-frequency patterns were compared with the samples from East/Southeast Asia and the world using Smith's Mean Measure of Divergence (MMD) statistic, principal coordinate analysis, and neighbor-joining clustering algorithm. The results indicated that the Ryukyuan samples aligned with the East/Southeast Asian “Mongoloid” cluster and are far distant from the Jomon/Ainu cluster. These results do not support the prevailing view which favors a common origin of the Ainu and Ryukyuan peoples. Moreover, evidence based on morphological and genetic data supporting the present conclusion, and populational uniqueness of the Jomon and Ainu were discussed.

View full abstract