Journal of the Anthropological Society of Nippon

The Characteristics of Walking in Old Men Analysed from the Ground Reaction Force

Tadatoshi YAMADA, Kazuo MAIE, Shiro KONDO

1988 Volume 96 Issue 1 Pages 7-15
Published: 1988
Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1537/ase1911.96.7

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The ground reaction forces during walking were investigated to detect the characteristics of walking in old men. The sixty-six subjects of ages ranging from twenty-three to seventy-eight years walked on the force plate with barefoot at their ordinary speeds and gait styles. The normalized impulses of brake and acceleration of the sagittal force (Fy) were decreased in old men. The side sway peak value and its normalized impulse were slightly increased in old men. The first and the second peaks of the vertical force (Fz) were decreased and the polar minimum value of Fz was increased in old men. The step length, speed and grip strength showed the clear decrease in old men. It was concluded that the characteristics of walking in old men were the walking with slow speed, short step length, weak Fy forces and normalized impulses and little vertical movements. It was also concluded that the interpretations of each principal component from the principal component analysis were almost the same in age groups in one's 20's, 30's, and 40's, and they were different from one another in age groups in one's 50's, 60's, and 70's, suggestinng that the walking became to change at one's 50's.

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Morphological Studies of Okhotsk Crania from Omisaki, Hokkaido

Hajime ISHIDA

1988 Volume 96 Issue 1 Pages 17-45
Published: 1988
Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1537/ase1911.96.17

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Metrical and nonmetrical data were taken of the cranial series of the Okhotsk culture unearthed from the Omisaki site, Hokkaido. The Omisaki crania were compared in terms of metrical data with the crania of the Ainu, Moyoro Okhotsk, Jomon, recent Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Northern Mongoloids. It was shown that the Omisaki crania possess the characteristics of Northern Mongoloids, and that the Moyoro and Omisaki are of an identical group. This Okhotsk group has a close resemblance in cranial measurements to the Nanays and Ulchs in the lower basin of the Amur as well as to the Asiatic Eskimos, while the Troickoe crania of the Mo-ho culture in the Amur basin have little metrical resemblance to the Okhotsk crania. The cluster analysis applied to the individual cranium of the Hokkaido Ainu and Omisaki Okhotsk suggested that a few of the crania excavated at the Okhotsk burials resemble the Ainu crania, though there is a basic difference in total cranial morphology between the Ainu and Okhotsk populations.

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Cook Islands Populations Today, in Relation to European Mixtures and Inter-island Crossbreedings

Kazumichi KATAYAMA, Akira TAGAYA, Hiroyuki YAMADA, Keiichi KAWAMOTO

1988 Volume 96 Issue 1 Pages 47-59
Published: 1988
Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1537/ase1911.96.47

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As a preliminary study for analysing human biology data, recently collected from Cook Islanders, the reliability of the data in representing the indigenous population of the pre-European period has been assessed in three islands of the Cook group, Rarotonga, Mangaia, and Pukapuka, in terms of the population changes since European contacts and the ongoing process of mixture with foreign strains and of inter-island crossbreeding among the residents. All the islands surveyed suffered a decline in population after European contacts to a moderate extent, but the degree was far slighter than many islands in Eastern Polynesia, suggesting that random genetic drift did not so seriously affect these island populations as to change the genetic compositions significantly. Concerning gene flow from outside through European admixtre and inter-island crossbreeding, the effect appeared to have advanced profoundly on Rarotonga, slightly on Mangaia, but rather negligibly on Pukapuka. It has been concluded that the present-day populations of Pukapuka and probably of Mangaia are still qualified enough to represent the prehistoric indigenous populations, but that on Rarotonga, even living pure-blood Polynesians cannot be considered as representative of the pre-European Rarotongan population.

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The Relationships of Head Length and Breadth in Tokyo Children

Kumi ASHIZAWA

1988 Volume 96 Issue 1 Pages 61-70
Published: 1988
Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1537/ase1911.96.61

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I measured the head length, head breadth and stature of 140 boys and 141 girls in Tokyo, aged 7 to 13. Head size increased according to age, but head form was constant. The boys' heads were wider (rounder) than the girls'. Compared with data obtained in Shikoku in 1928, there was no secular change in head length, whereas the present children had significantly broader heads. The regression lines of Y=aX+b, log Y=aX+b, and log Y=alogX+b, in which Y was head length or breadth and X was stature, presented nearly the same linearity. The correlation cofficients between head length and stature, and head breadth and stature were about 0.4 in both sexes, which was statistically significant. But there was no correlation between head length and breadth. Comparing regression lines obtained from individual data (age-independent regressions) and those from mean values (age-dependent regressions), the latter correlation coefficients were naturally higher than the former, while slopes and intercepts were nearly the same in head length or breadth/stature relationships, but different in head breadth/head length relationships.

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Affinities of the Protohistoric Kofun People of Japan with Preand Proto-historic Asian Populations

Yuji MIZOGUCHI

1988 Volume 96 Issue 1 Pages 71-109
Published: 1988
Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1537/ase1911.96.71

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For the affinity with the protohistoric Kofun people of Japan, 295 male and 190 female skeletal samples from pre- and proto-historic sites scattered over Asia were searched on the basis of seven cranial measurements. MAHALANOBIS' distances calculated for them suggest the coexistence of the natives of Japan and the immigrants of North Asian origin and/or intensive hybridization between them in protohistoric Japan. It should be noted, however, that the Kofun people do not resemble the Neolithic Northern Chinese who have been suggested to be extremely close to most of the modern Japanese in cranial morphology.

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Identification of Common Millet from the Toyosato Site in Hokkaido by Means of a Scanning Electron Microscope

Akiko MATSUTANI

1988 Volume 96 Issue 1 Pages 111-117
Published: 1988
Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1537/ase1911.96.111

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Among the three types of millet, "awa", "hie" and "kibi", which were cultivated in ancient Japan, the common millet, "kibi" (Panicum miliaceum L.), was less popular. Hence the samples of "kibi" reported from the archaeological sites were fewer than the other two types. As noted in the previous reports (MATSUTANI 1986b, 1987) grains of these millets are so small that their identification is often difficult, especially when carbonized, unless their cell structures are observed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). So the carbonized grains of these millets might often be identified as "awa", which was the most popular one. The present study reports the discrimination of common millet among the carbonized grains from a site in Hokkaido belonging to the Satsumon period (9c.-12c.) using SEM. Formerly, these grains were considered as "awa" (Setaria italica (L.) Beauw. ).

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Demographic Comments on the HANIHARA's Estimation of the Overseas Migrants to Ancient Japan

Kazumasa KOBAYASHI

1988 Volume 96 Issue 1 Pages 119-123
Published: 1988
Released on J-STAGE: February 26, 2008

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1537/ase1911.96.119

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HANIHARA estimated the number of overseas migrants to ancient Japan during the 1, 000 years from the third century B. C. to the seventh century A. D. by employing a population growth model in conjunction with a morphological change model (J. Anthrop. Soc. Nippon, 95(3) : 391-403). Demographic comments in this article regard 1) the consistency in the equation for population simulation, 2) adequacy in hypothesizing annual migrants in the equation, 3) ways of evaluating the probable range of population growth rate during the thousand years, 4) the smooth connection of the population growth curve for the period concerned, in terms of the preceeding neolithic Jomon, and the succeeding historic times, and 5) others.

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