Journal of the Anthropological Society of Nippon
Online ISSN : 1884-765X
Print ISSN : 0003-5505
ISSN-L : 0003-5505
Volume 95, Issue 4
Displaying 1-9 of 9 articles from this issue
  • Momoko UETAKE
    1987Volume 95Issue 4 Pages 421-432
    Published: 1987
    Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In order to classify and evaluate leanness/obesity from the viewpoint of clothing design, somatometric measurements on 251 unmarried Japanese females aged 20 to 25 years are carried out and analyzed. The subjects are classified into 4 clusters by cluster analysis of 27 variables after a transformation of measurements to eliminate body size factor. This classification is considered to express how lean or how obese a human body appears and the combination of only three variables, which are waist girth, upperarm girth, and calf girth, can correctly discriminate 89.24% of individuals.
    In this study, the new concept of "apparent leanness/obesity" is defined in contrast to leanness/obesity determined by the subcutaneous fat thickness. Apparent leanness/obesity, judged not by body fat but by the contour of human body, has no close relation with subcutaneous fat thickness except the subjects who are judged to be obese by appearance. Means of measurements and indices exemplify the clear difference of body shape between the 4 clusters.
    In conclusion, the concept of apparrent leanness/obesity, different from leanness/obesity defined by body fat, has a very important value in practice as well as in the theory for designing clothing patterns.
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  • Tadakatsu OHNAKA, Shinya YAMAZAKI, Masatoshi TANAKA, Yuji TAKASAKI, Yu ...
    1987Volume 95Issue 4 Pages 433-441
    Published: 1987
    Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The physique and physical fitness of the urban and the mountainous rural schoolchildren were compared. The subjects were elementary schoolchildren aged from 9.2 to 12.8 years. The urban samples were 154 boys and 163 girls in an elementary school located at Meguro-ku in central Tokyo. The rural samples were 94 boys and 92 girls from 8 elementary schools in Shiiba village in the Miyazaki Prefecture.
    The results obtained are as follows:
    1) There were no great differences between the urban and the rural children in physique, but the skinfolds of the rural children were smaller than those of the urban group.
    2) As for physical fitness, the rural children were superior to the urban children in endurance ability and agility, but the urban children were superior in muscular power.
    3) The greater difference of physique and physical fitness between the regions were found in females as compared with males by the principal component analysis. The urban girls were inferior to the other groups in physical fitness in spite of the largest body size among the groups.
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  • Yo WADA, Jiro IKEDA, Takao SUZUKI
    1987Volume 95Issue 4 Pages 443-456
    Published: 1987
    Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The purpose of this paper is, first, to present the brief outline of human treponematoses in the World, and second, to appreciate the clinical, osteological, and epidemiological manifestations of treponematosis (endemic syphilis) in Mesopotamia (Iraq) with the paleopathological descriptions on new two skeletons of the Islamic period.
    The two human skeletal remains which had been excavated from Tell Gubba in the Himrin basin of Iraq showed remarkable pathological changes probably by endemic syphilis. They were of a young adult male and of a mature adult female and were well-preserved. The skull, scapula, ribs, radius, ulna, metacarpal bones, femur, tibia, fibula, and metatarsal bones in the skeletons were involved. The lesions revealed various appearances such as discoloured and pitted or only irregular external surface, striae formation of the compact bone, and deformation of the bone due to circumferential or partial expansion of the compact bone in the macroscopic observations, and as thickening of the compact bone and slight narrowing of the medullary cavity in the roentgenograms.
    There is little accumulation of the paleopathological data on the endemic diseases in Mesopotamia. Therefore, this description is necessary to appreciate the osteological manifestation, prevalence, and, if possible, history of treponematosis in Mesopotamia.
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  • Ryutaro OHTSUKA, [in Japanese], Tsukasa INAOKA, Toshio KAWABE, Tsuguyo ...
    1987Volume 95Issue 4 Pages 457-467
    Published: 1987
    Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Maximum grip strength and body composition were measured in 136 Gidra-speaking adults in Papua New Guinea. The subjects inhabited two ecologically contrasting villages, one observing traditional ways of living and one influenced by modernization. Grip strength correlates with fat-free mass and body weight in all sex/village groups. Grip strength is greater in modernized villagers than in traditional villagers, but grip strength per unit body weight is greater in traditional villagers because of their lean body composition. Regression analysis reveals that an increase of 1 kg grip strength is gained by an increase of 1.34kg and 1.67kg body weight for males and females, respectively, for traditional villagers. The corresponding values for modernized villagers are higher (1.81kg and 4.41kg), although when the individuals with body mass index greater than 24 are excluded the values become close to those for traditional villagers. On the basis of comparison with Japanese standards, grip strength per body weight of the modernized villagers, at least in males, is judged to represent the pattern in industrialized populations.
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  • Makiko KOUCHI, Kazuro HANIHARA
    1987Volume 95Issue 4 Pages 469-476
    Published: 1987
    Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    A somatometric research on 13 year-old boys was conducted from 1976 to 1986 in a private junior high school in Tokyo. The 518 subjects were divided into 4 groups according to the year of observation. The following results have been obtained :
    1) Compared to the data given by the Ministry of Education, both height and weight of the present subjects are greater than those of the average 13 year-old boys in Tokyo: 1-2 cm higher and 1-5 kg heavier. The percentage of obese boys is also higher than the national average. A possible reason for the fact may be that they belong to well-to-do families.
    2) Secular change in height and brachycephalization are not observed.
    3) Trunk length is observed to become shorter.
    4) Variance becomes greater in head length and seven somatic measurement items. This may be related to the increasing number of obese boys. The percentage of obese boys doubles between group 1 and 2.
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  • Iwataro MORIMOTO
    1987Volume 95Issue 4 Pages 477-486
    Published: 1987
    Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    A detailed technique of decapitation by the sword in the Middle Ages could be elucidated from the skulls with the upper cervical vertebrae of two males from Imakoji-nishi site, Kamakura, Kanagawa Pref., Japan, which dated back to the Nanbokucho or early Muromachi period, i. e. the latter half of the 14th century. The observations showed that in both males the sword cut deep into the 4th cervical vertebra from the posterior right side and came a short stop halfway in the vertebral column, followed by a secondary cut added to the 3rd cervical vertebra in a male to sever his head from the body. Old Japanese tradition said that the anterior skin of the neck of the convicted person should be left intact in decapitation. This seemed to indicate that the old Japanese saying and the real technique of beheading in the Middle Ages agreed with each other. In comparison with Iron Age specimens from Sutton Walls, Great Britain, it was suggested that the Japanese way of decapitation by the sword might be distinguishable from the old European by a primary clean but halfway cut deep into the neck from behind to lop the head.
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  • Yuji TAKASAKI, Shigeo NAKAKURA, Sadamu ANZAI
    1987Volume 95Issue 4 Pages 487-495
    Published: 1987
    Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Body build indices derived from height (H) and weight (W) as the form of W/Hp were assessed for suitability or validity in children. Approximately 8, 000 schoolboys and girls aged 6 to 17 years living in northern Kyushu were analyzed. The ideal power of p was determined according to a general consensus that the best body build index shows the lowest correlation with height and the highest correlation with fatness. Based on allometry, it was found that girls have two critical points where the power of p should change, that is, at the height of 135 and 150cm corresponding to mean ages of 9.9 years and 14.2 years, respectively. On the other hand, correlation coefficients of W/H, the QUETELET index, and the ROHRER index (using the most common form of W/Hp) with height and skinfold thickness were compared. From a practical point of view, results showed in general that the best body build index for boys and girls was the ROHRER index although, in the strict sense, the QUETELET index was preferable for preand post-puberscent girls. In addition, interrelationships of various kinds of body build indices were examined.
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  • Hisao BABA, Satoru ONODERA, Moriharu ETO
    1987Volume 95Issue 4 Pages 497-513
    Published: 1987
    Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This is the first full description of an infant Jomon (Neolithic) skeleton, which was excavated in 1982 from the Usuiso shell-mounds site in Fukushima Prefecture, northeast Japan. Archeologically the shellmounds are presumed to be formed mainly in the Latest Jomon period.
    The age of this skeleton was estimated at about 10 years based on the sequence of permanent tooth eruption. Its sex is unknown. Compared to the average adult, the relative sizes of the bones were smaller; 90-100% in the braincase, 80-90% in the face, 70-80% in the postcranials.
    The overall shape of the skull conforms to those of present day infant skulls ; the cranial vault is round and the face is low. However, this skull already exhibits some of the typical features of adult Jomon skulls ; such as a prominent glabella (to a slight degree), a thick frontal process of the maxilla, and a wide mandibular ramus. In addition, it has rectangular orbits and a marked alveolar prognathism, which differ from those of the adult Jomon skulls. These two characteristics might indicate a tentative condition common during the childhood.
    Although most of the limb bones are strikingly slender, the fibula is rather robust having marked muscle reliefs, which implies strong leg muscles. The humerus and the fibula show marked diaphyseal flatness as seen in most Jomon adults, but the femur and the tibia do not. In the arm the lower segment is relatively long as in most Jomon adults. In the leg, unlike most Jomon adults, the lower segment is relatively short. The so-called squatting facets on the neck of the talus are well developed showing habitual squatting.
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  • Goichi ISHIMOTO, Hideaki UDA
    1987Volume 95Issue 4 Pages 515-518
    Published: 1987
    Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Macaque salivary proteins corresponding to human proline-rich proteins showed monomorphic in all0 38 salivas, but another far-anodally migrating protein, absent in parotid salivas, exhibited a polymorphism in the samples of Macaca fuscata.
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