Moscow University
Anthropology
Bulletin
Anthropology
Bulletin
Institute of History of NAS Belarus, 1 Akademicheskaya Street, Minsk, 220072, Republic of Belarus
Pomazanov N.N., e-mail: pomni_k@tut.by; Salivon Inessa Iv., Ph.D., D.Sc., e-mail: innasalivon1937@mail.ru
The given work is dedicated to peculiarities of the spatial organization of human skull as an integrated construction with the help of structural analysis of the cephalic index. Among the anthropological characteristics of body shape the cephalic index of a population is one of the differentiating morphological characteristics of race classification. In spite of the fact that cephalic index plays an important role in morphological research of human population, it has some drawbacks like any other anthropological indicator. Though cephalic index gives the idea about similarity in the appearance of head contours, it doesn’t reflect the diversity of combinations of the elements that define its form. The same cephalic index at the individual or group level doesn’t mean the uniformity of head forms. That’s why morphological analysis should be supplemented with the classification of head forms, which is based on the dividing according to absolute sizes of head diameters. The exposure of the smaller details of debrachycephalization process within modern populations with the usage of morphotypological approach is the main aim of this morphological research. In order to study the morphological variability of the cerebral part of the head we took the population of Minsk region and made a comparative analysis of cephalometric peculiarities in two groups of the Belarusians. The first group consisted of country people – 112 men (aged 18–35) and 71 women (aged 18–25). The anthropometric measurements were conducted during 1970–1980. The second group consisted of the Belarusians aged 16–18 (102 young men and103 girls) who took part in the research in 2004–2006. The last group was formed by the urban people from small and average cities, whose parents were born in the rural area. The measurements of the cerebral part of the head were conducted according to the generally accepted method of R. Martin. While analyzing the distribution of different head forms within a group we used the classification of V.V. Bunack. At the beginning of the 21st century one can observe the process of debrachycephalization in the central region of Belarus because of the increasing number of dolichocephalic and mesocephalic individuals and the reduction of brachycephalic individuals among men and women. All the changes between generations are concentrated within the limits of wide and medium-width variants. Moreover, within both these variants one can see a definite constant frequency gradient, which is directed from medium-length to short variants. During the quarter of the century there has been a reduction of wide types because of the increasing number of medium-width types. Medium-width medium-length-head morphologic types start to predominate over wide medium-length-head morphotypes, i.e. the debrachycephalization process is accompanied by reduction of horizontal diameter of the cerebral part of the head. The main time changes of morphological peculiarities of the head in mesocephalic and brachycephalic men are directed from wide types to medium-width types, i.e. to reduction of horizontal diameter. The debrachycephalization process in mesocephalic and brachycephalic women is also progressing as reduction of wide-head morphotypes and increase of medium-width morphotypes. The debrachycephalization process is more intensive in women if compared to men. Medium-width medium-length-head morphotype is considered to be the dominant one in both genders, but women turned out to be less brachycephalic. The usage of this morphotypological approach let us to find out the peculiarities of the debrachycephalization process in the indigenous population of the central region of Belarus and to set the differences of this morphologic phenomenon in both genders.
longitudinal and transverse diameters of head, head index, morphological types of head, debrachycephalisation
Цит.: Pomazanov N.N., Salivon I.Iv. Morphotypological aspects of debrachycephalisation of the population of the central Belarus in the beginning of the 21st century // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2010; 1/2010; с. 66-75
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