Dermatoglyphics is the study of dermal ridges. Since dermatoglyphic characters are recognized as a unique individual trait and follow a multifactorial or polygenic pattern of inheritance, it is necessary to understand the variations leading to this pattern. The present paper, through appropriate descriptive approach, has revealed the variation in the pattern of inheritance in the TFRCs of the Dumagat-Remontados from Puray, Rodriguez, Rizal, Philippines. The study also reported a large discrepancy on the total fingerprint ridge count among the Dumagat-Remontados compared to established researches. Also, the increased heterozygosity due to genetic admixture led to the dominant occurrence of the loop pattern (ulnar) in the fingerprints of this group of indigenous people as compared to few established data stating that the frequency of whorl patterns dominates the universal population and other Asian racial groups. In this study, a special feature on the fingerprint patterns of the pure Dumagat-Remontados was reported. Aside from the high frequency of loops and whorls, a distinct club dent, concluded to be a unique feature found among this tribal population, was noted from at least one of the fingers of the majority of the pure sample.

Sally B. Gutierez

John Lou S. Lucenario

Mark Jason T. Yebes

Dermatoglyphic Studies among the Dumagat-Remontado Tribal Population of the Philippines

The application of combined techniques such as aerial imagery, sediment coring, down-hole magnetic susceptibility, and mechanized trench excavation can provide critical information on landscape formation and mound stratigraphy, specifically if they can be used to understand mound sequences and development. This paper reviews preliminary findings from recent coring and test excavations at the Carson mounds site (22CO505) in Coahoma County, Mississippi. Aerial imagery assisted in the characterization of a crevasse ridge flood deposit underlying the site and detailed field descriptions of the pedology corroborated its existence. Subsequent sediment coring and trench excavation revealed the nature of flooding in prehistory, indicating that high-intensity floods were responsible for the formation of the crevasse ridge and that lower intensity floods were potentially responsible for interruptions in mound building at the site. This suggests that the Carson settlement was initiated on an actively flooding landform. Down-hole magnetic susceptibility correlated effectively with the pedology; however, it also helped discern anthropogenic surfaces (i.e., occupational layers) that are difficult to identify visually, such as those we found in Mound C. Findings from this pilot study demonstrate the utility of sediment coring and magnetic susceptibility as effective and feasible methods for developing hypothesis-driven research.

Jayur Madhusudan Mehta

Kelsey M. Lowe

Rachel Stout-Evans

John Connaway

Moving Earth and Building Monuments at the Carson Mounds Site, Coahoma County, Mississippi

Since it was first adopted in the 1980s, the Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) approach has played a significant role in environmental management. This paper argues that for the CBNRM approach to be relevant, functional, and sustainable, it has to be based on existing local institutional (authority) structures, which may have to be adapted, and it may even require new institutions to be created to comply with the requirements of sustainable nature conservation. The main aim of this paper is to propose a CBNRM model based on existing local community (authority) structures and to investigate its usefulness in an African setting. The Langa Ndebele chiefdom in the Limpopo Province of South Africa serves as a case study because it displays all the features necessary to explore the possible application of the proposed CBNRM model. Data was gathered by means of field research which involved detailed interviews and discussions with functionaries of the relevant institutions at grassroots level. Specific recommendations relating to the use of the model are made.

C. C. Boonzaaier

Towards a Community-Based Integrated Institutional Framework for Ecotourism Management: The Case of the Masebe Nature Reserve, Limpopo Province of South Africa

While human sexual dimorphism is generally expected to be the result of differential reproductive strategies, it has the potential to create differences in the energetics of locomotion and the speed at which each morph travels, particularly since people have been shown to choose walking speeds around their metabolic optimum. Here, people of varying sizes walked around a track at four self-selected speeds while their metabolic rate was collected, in order to test whether the size variation within a population could significantly affect the shape of the optimal walking curve. The data show that larger people have significantly faster optimal walking speeds, higher costs at their optimal speed, and a more acute optimal walking curve (thus an increased penalty for walking at suboptimal speeds). Bigger people who also have wider bitrochanteric breadths have lower metabolic costs at their minimum than bigger people with a more narrow bitrochanteric breadth. Finally, tibia length significantly positively predicts optimal walking speed. These results suggest sex-specific walking groups typical of living human populations may be the result of energy maximizing strategies. In addition, testable hypotheses of group strategies are put forth.

Cara M. Wall-Scheffler

Size and Shape: Morphology's Impact on Human Speed and Mobility

In 2008, during an archaeological excavation on the medieval site of Montecorvino (Foggia, Puglia, Italy), ten individuals were found buried near the principal church. The tombs were dated to the 13th-14th centuries AD, except for one attributable to the 11th century AD. The individual from tomb MCV2 shows some bone changes in the rhinomaxillary area. The most probable diagnosis is that she suffered from a type of near-multibacillary leprosy. Although leprosy has been documented in Italy from the first millennium BC and well described in the first millennium AD, its presence seems to be confined to Northern and Central Italy. This is the first case of leprosy in southeastern Italy and the second in Southern Italy overall. At the moment, the interesting datum is that leprosy seems to appear in Southern Italy only after the first millennium AD. All this could be because of the First Crusade with the opening of new trade and pilgrimage routes to the Near East or simply because other cases of leprosy have still not been found in osteoarchaeological context.

Mauro Rubini

Valentina Dell'Anno

Roberta Giuliani

Pasquale Favia

Paola Zaio

The First Probable Case of Leprosy in Southeast Italy (13th-14th Centuries AD, Montecorvino, Puglia)

The culture of a people is their identity as it affords them due recognition. This paper therefore is aimed at examining the causes and consequences of rapid erosion of cultural values in nigeria. Social change theory was used in this paper. This study was carried out in ado-odo/ota lga, with a sample size of 203. Simple statistics like frequency distribution, percentile were used. Chi-square statistics was used in testing the hypotheses. The study found out that there is a positive relationship between social forces such as colonialism, westernization and erosion of cultural values. Also, it was found that there is a positive relationship between the local family structure and the foreign culture. The study concludes that forceful imposition of foreign culture should be discouraged.

E. O. Wahab

S. O. Odunsi

O. E. Ajiboye

Causes and Consequences of Rapid Erosion of Cultural Values in a Traditional African Society

Bangladesh is not an exception from the global phenomenon of demographic aging. It is a relatively new issue in the country as its demographic transition started recently. An important issue on aging study is the support facility to the elderly. The support system to the elderly is gradually decreasing in this country though the burden does not reach the alarming situation. This paper tries to show the future path of demographic support capacity for the elderly based on secondary (1981&#8211;2001) and projected (2011&#8211;2071) data. The study shows a future gloomy picture of the elderly support facility in terms of both economic and caring aspects. This dimension of future inevitable aging problem needs proper attention to the policy makers for taking sustainable aging policies. Introduction of this agenda to the nation’s five-year planning will be effective to face the problem phase by phase.

M. Nazrul Islam

Dilip C. Nath

A Future Journey to the Elderly Support in Bangladesh

Among the unique traits of human mandibles is the finding of relatively greater utilization of cortical bone with respect to other hominoids. The functional significance of this trait is not plausibly linked to masticatory demands given the diminution of the masticatory musculature in human evolution and the behavioral
universal of extraoral food preparation in recent humans. Similarly, the presence of more mandibular bone is not a correlated effect of systemic skeletal robusticity, since gracilization of the skeleton is a feature diagnostic of modern humans. The mandibular symphysis in modern humans is manifested as the chin, and it is here where cortical bone hypertrophy is most pronounced. The potential covariation between the expression of the chin and bone hypertrophy is explored in an attempt to clarify their respective biomechanical roles. Current developments in skeletal biomechanics implicate low magnitude, high frequency strains in bone hypertrophy. The physiology of speech production likely produces strains in mandibular bone of greater frequency and lesser magnitude than those associated with mastication.
Consequently, language acquisition plausibly accounts for cortical hypertrophy in modern human mandibles. Its role in the evolution and development of the chin is less clear.

David J. Daegling

The Human Mandible and the Origins of Speech

A specific kind of obesity that occurs in young women who appear thin but who have relatively greater percentage of body fat than is normal for their weight is called “masked obesity.” The definition of masked obesity is nutritionally and anthropometrically clear: body mass index (BMI) <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo><mml:mn>25</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:math> kg/m2 and percentage of body fat (%BF) <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mo>≥</mml:mo><mml:mn>30</mml:mn></mml:math>%. However, this definition allowed obesity to be underestimated. Thus, we determined that when mathematically analyzing the relationship between BMI and %BF, the equation %<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mtext>BF</mml:mtext><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mi>a</mml:mi><mml:msup><mml:mtext>BMI</mml:mtext><mml:mtext>b</mml:mtext></mml:msup></mml:math> could be applied, where a (i.e., %BF/<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>BMI</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>b</mml:mtext></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:math>), converted by logarithmic function, is defined as an index for masked obesity (MOI). The MOI equation (a) was thus %BF/BMI2.12. We measured the height, weight, and %BF of 8,068 young women from all over Japan. The percentage of subjects with masked obesity above the defined criteria (BMI <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo><mml:mn>25</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:math> kg/m2 and %BF <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mo>≥</mml:mo><mml:mn>30</mml:mn></mml:math>%) was 7.4%. The mean MOI was 0.0444 in the masked obesity group and we determined additional cases of masked obesity if the MOI was greater than 0.0444. The percentage of additional masked obesity cases within the standard scale was 10.4%, and thus, the percentage of masked obesity was 17.8% in the young Japanese women tested.

Yoshiyuki Fukuoka

Hatsumi Ueoka

Nahoko Koya

Yoshihiko Fujisawa

Masaru Ishii

Anthropometric Method for Determining “Masked Obesity” in the Young Japanese Female Population

The aim of the present study was to determine the glucose-6-phostphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency in scheduled caste (SC) population of eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. After taking clearance certificate from the Institutional Ethics Committee, blood samples were collected from total 200 healthy individuals belonging to scheduled caste. G6PD deficiency analysis was done by methemoglobin test according to the method of Brewer et al. (1962). Out of 200 samples, 20 individuals were glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficient and 22 samples were heterozygous that is, carriers. The percentage of G6PD deficient (Gd+/+) and G6PD carrier (Gd+/Gd−) phenotypes were 10% and 11%, respectively. The frequency of mutant allele (Gd−) was observed 0.172. Early detection and prevention is the key strategy for successful management and control of this genetic disease.

Vandana Rai

Pradeep Kumar

Epidemiological Study of Glucose-6-phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency in Scheduled Caste Population of India

The objective of the study was to ascertain the influence of various maternal factors like age, BMI, anthropometry, parity, and so forth on body dimensions of newborn and to discover determinants of neonatal subcutaneous fat distribution pattern. 94 Khatri and Arora new borns along with their biological mothers hailing from upper/middle socioeconomic status families were selected against several criteria: only liveborn, healthy full term babies (37–41 gestational weeks), singletons, born through vaginal delivery and for whom all data were available, for the study. Numerous biometric variables were chosen for this study: weight, stature (for mothers), birth length (for neonates), circumferences (head, chest, abdomen, hip, upper arm, and wrist), and skinfolds at different sites (biceps, triceps, subscapular, suprailiac, chest, thigh anterior, and calf posterior) along with newborn’s birth weight. All LBW infants were found to be significantly associated with maternal nutritional status and age, when controlled for other factors. Chances of having an LBW infant varies with mother’s nutritional status as determined by BMI and MUAC. Fat profiling has genetic implications because fat tracking patterns have shown that, irrespective of maternal nutritional status and age, most neonate skinfolds are guided by mother’s skinfold thicknesses. We conclude that early teenage pregnancies should be discouraged so as to reduce the incidence of LBW and larger ethnic-specific studies should be taken to find determinants of subcutaneous fat pattern in neonates.

Satwanti Kapoor

Prerna Bhasin

Meenal Dhall

Deepali Verma

Shilpi Gupta

Mary Grace Tungdim

Maternal Predictors of Newborn Somatometrics

The articles argues that due to the rapid development of new technology the boundaries of life and death, as well as the different phases of our physical, social and spiritual life are getting less clear-cut and evident than they have been before in the Western, traditionally dualistic cultural and historical experience. Thus, at the moment we are in a transitional stage in our understanding of &#x201c;human life&#x201d; is gaining new dimensions in form of &#x201c;post-humanism&#x201d; and &#x201c;trans-humanism&#x201d;. The current neo-holistic view of the universe and the human place in it requires us to consider the &#x201c;existential risks&#x201d; and seriously ponder the effects of the technological evolution to our social, cultural, ethical and metaphysical frameworks and normative principles.

Sirkku K. Hellsten

&#8220;The Meaning of Life&#8221; during a Transition from Modernity to Transhumanism and  Posthumanity

About this journal

Journal profile

Meet the editorial board

Editor spotlight

Find out more

This journal's articles appear in a wide range of abstracting and indexing databases, and are covered by numerous other services that aid discovery and access. Find out more about where and how the content of this journal is available.

Journal of Anthropology