Áèîëîãè÷åñêèå íàóêè/8. Ôèçèîëîãèÿ ÷åëîâåêà è
æèâîòíûõ.
Vyrezkova
A. V.
Irkutsk National Research Technical University, Russia
Anthropometry refers to the measurement of the human individual. An early tool
of physical anthropology, it has been used for identification, for the
purposes of understanding human physical variation,
in paleoanthropology and in various attempts to correlate physical with
racial and psychological traits. Anthropometry involves the systematic
measurement of the physical properties of the human body, primarily dimensional
descriptors of body size and shape.
Today, anthropometry
plays an important role in industrial design, clothing design, ergonomics and
architecture where statistical data about the distribution of body dimensions
in the population are used to optimize products. Changes in lifestyles,
nutrition, and ethnic composition of populations lead to changes in the distribution
of body dimensions (e.g. the obesity epidemic), and require regular
updating of anthropometric data collections.
The history of
anthropometry includes and spans various concepts,
both scientific and pseudoscientific, such
as craniometry, paleoanthropology, biological
anthropology, phrenology, physiognomy, forensics, criminology,
phylogeography, human origins, and cranio-facial description, as well as
correlations between various anthropometrics and personal identity, mental
typology, personality, cranial vault and brain size, and
other factors.
At various times in
history, applications of anthropometry have ranged vastly—from
accurate scientific description and epidemiological
analysis to rationales for eugenics and
overtly racist social movements—and its points of concern have been
numerous, diverse, and sometimes highly unexpected.
The French savant,
Alphonse Bertillon, coined the phrase "physical anthropometry" in
1883, to include an identification system based on unchanging measurements of
the human frame. Through patient inquiry, Bertillon found that several physical
features and dimensions of certain bony structures within the human body
remained considerably unchanged throughout adulthood.
From this, Bertillon
concluded that when recording these measurements systematically, a single
individual could be perfectly distinguished from another. When the value of
Bertillon’s discovery was fully realized, his system was quickly adapted into
police methodology in hopes of preventing false identifications and
arrests.
Bertillon’s system
divided the measurements into eleven categories, including height, stretch (as
defined by the length of the body from left shoulder to right middle finger),
bust (as defined by the length of one’s torso from the head to the seat, when
seated), head width (measured from temple to temple), the length of one’s right
ear, the length of one’s left foot, the length of one’s left middle finger, the
length of one’s left cubit (or the extension from one’s elbow to the tip of one’s
middle finger), the width of one’s cheeks and finally, the length of one’s
little finger.
The initial system in
Paris involved collecting these details onto some 100,000 cards. This allowed
an official to sort specific measurements, until they were able to identify the
certain individual. The system of information was contained in one cabinet
designed to facilitate a search as efficiently as possible. Measurement records were without individual names, and final
identification was achieved by means of a photograph attached to an
individual's measurement card.
Human height varies greatly between individuals and across
populations for a variety of complex biological, genetic, and environmental
factors, among others. Due
to methodological and practical problems, its measurement is also subject to
considerable error in statistical sampling.
The average height in genetically and
environmentally homogeneous populations is often proportional
across a large number of individuals. Exceptional height variation (around 20%
deviation from a population's average) within such a population is sometimes
due to gigantism or dwarfism, which are caused by
specific genes or endocrine abnormalities.
In the most extreme
population comparisons, for example, the average female height
in Bolivia is 142.2 cm (4 ft 8.0 in) while the
average male height in the Dinaric Alps is 185.6 cm
(6 ft 1.1 in), an average difference of 43.4 cm (1 ft
5.1 in). Similarly, the shortest and tallest of
individuals, Chandra Bahadur Dangi and Robert Wadlow, have
ranged from 1 ft 9 in (53 cm) to 8 ft 11.1 in
(272 cm), respectively.
Human weight varies extensively both individually and across
populations, with the most extreme documented examples of adults
being Lucia Zarate who weighed 4.7 pounds (2.1 kg), and Jon
Brower Minnoch who weighed 1,400 pounds (640 kg), and with population
extremes ranging from 109.3 pounds (49.6 kg) in Bangladesh to
192.7 pounds (87.4 kg) in Micronesia.
Adult brain size varies from
974.9 cm3 (59.49 cu in) to
1,498.1 cm3 (91.42 cu in) in females and
1,052.9 cm3 (64.25 cu in) to
1,498.5 cm3 (91.44 cu in) in males, with the average being
1,130 cm3 (69 cu in) and
1,260 cm3 (77 cu in), respectively. The right cerebral
hemisphere is typically larger than the left, whereas the cerebellar
hemispheres are typically of more similar size.
Human beauty and physical attractiveness have been
preoccupations throughout history which often intersect with anthropometric
standards. Cosmetology, facial
symmetry, and waist–hip ratio are three such examples where
measurements are commonly thought to be fundamental.
Anthropometric studies are used in the design of modern aircraft,
preparation for cosmetic surgery, estimations of general health, and more. In addition,
anthropometry is also paired with ergonomics, the scientific design of
equipment, to craft office workstations, aircraft cockpits, and home furniture.
Anthropometry is also used in safety design, specifically for infants and
children. In its wide expansion, the field of anthropometry has
recovered from a controversial history which perpetuated discrimination.
Reference list
1. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Anthropometry
2. http://www.medfriendly.com/anthropometry.html
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropometry