Chumakova Anna Mikhailovna

Introduction. The article presents the results of the development data on kefalometry of the complex South Sinai anthropological expedition.

The purpose was to study the variability of cephalometric traits in South Sinai Bedouins. Objectives: to identify possible phenotypic differences between the tribes, to assess the position of the Bedouin tribes against the background of the Middle Eastern and North African populations according to literary data; to create male composite photo portraits (CPP) from Bedouin tribes Awlad Said and Gebeliya.

Materials and methods. Cephalometric data from three tribal samples were used: the tribes of Gebeliya, Muzeina and the combined group "other tribes", which includes data on the Awlad Said tribe. To identify intertribal differences, analysis of variance was applied. Literature data on Middle Eastern and North African samples were used for comparative analysis by the method of multidimensional scaling. To create composite photographic portraits (according to F. Galton´s method), an improved program "Face to face" by Syroezhkin-Maurer (by superposition of three points) was used. Full-face and profile individual Bedouins photographic images from the tribes of Gebeliya (N = 21), Awlad Said t (N=21) and Muzeina (N=19, only frontal) were selected for the work.

Results. Statistically significant differences between the Bedouin tribal samples were revealed in such traits as: minimal forehead breadth and mandibular diameter, facial index, height of the lower facial segment and head circumference. Composite full-face and profile photo portraits of Bedouin men of the Awlad Said and Gebeliya tribes, full-face portraits of representatives of the Muzeina tribe were obtained. The results of biometric analysis on the latitudinal traits of the face partly coincide with the analysis of visual information on composite photo portraits. According to the measurement data of the face and head, it was revealed that Bedouin tribes form a compact cluster that differs from neighboring populations.

Conclusion. In the male part of the combined Bedouin sample, for a number of cephalometric features, significant intertribal differences were revealed both by statistical methods and visually (when considering full-face and profile male composite photo portraits). It is shown that endogamous Bedouin tribes of the South Sinai Peninsula are very close to each other by a combination of cephalometric traits, and they significantly different from other neighboring populations. The South Sinai Bedouins form a kind of unique aggregation, whose peculiarity, probably, was formed under the influence of certain socio-historical and environmental factors. © 2023. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license

Introduction. A number of studies have shown that the Khalka rural pastoral population of Mongolia leading a traditional lifestyle is not characterized by acceleration of development and a secular trend in somatic characteristics of the body. The purpose is to study the morphological variability of head and face features in the adult rural Khalkha-Mongolian population against the background of variability of the same features in the Chuvash group and try to catch acceleration trends based on measuring head features.

Materials and methods. The data (370 men and 355 women aged 18-60) was obtained during anthropoecological expeditions in 1986-1990 in 4 Khalkha-Mongolian somons. As a comparative material, data on the Chuvash of Bashkiria were used. Regression analysis was applied. The age-related variability of normalized values of cephalometric traits was assessed using variance analysis. For the Mongolian and Chuvash populations, the coefficients of sexual dimorphism of individual features of the face and head (according to V. Deryabin`s formula), as well as the Mahalanobis distance between female and male samples were determined.

Results and discussion. For the studied characteristics (head length and breadth, the minimal forehead breadth and facial breadth, face height, facial and head indexes) in men, no reliable links were found between the variability of these traits and age. Variance analysis of normalized values of cephalometric signs revealed no differences in either the male or female Mongolian sample. The Mahalanobis distances calculated from the complex of head and face signs between the female and male Mongolian subsamples are noticeably smaller than the corresponding values obtained for the Chuvash group.

Conclusion. Comparative studies of the age dynamics of a number of measuring features of the head for about one and a half generations of the twentieth century in Khalkha-Mongols (adapted groups) and Chuvash (populations with impaired adaptation due to changes in socio-economic environmental factors) showed weakly pronounced morphological changes in the features on the head and face in the studied population groups. There were no significant age differences in the complex of features of the face and head in the Khalkhas populations. Data on sexual dimorphism of facial and head features in Mongols and Chuvash have been introduced into scholarly discourse, and in the Mongolian population the values of indicators of sexual dimorphism of cephalometric signs are less than in Chuvash sample. © 2023. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Introduction. In the range of topical problems of modern human morphology, the doctrine of bodily constitution occupies an important place, but there is a shortage of data on population variability of somatotypes in the literature. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to study age and sex variations in body composition components using the Heath-Carter method in the Chuvash rural population examined in several villages in the Mariinsky-Posad, Morgaushsky and Yadrinsky districts of Chuvashia and Chuvash villages in the Aurgazinsky and Bizhbulyaksky districts of Bashkiria. The tasks included the determination and analysis of somatotypes according to Heath-Carter of men and women in age subgroups of adult Chuvash and assessment of age-related variability of sexual dimorphism of somatotype scores.

Materials and methods. The study sample consists of 802 men aged 18–89 years (M = 46.9) and 738 women aged 18–90 years (M = 48.6) examined in 1994, 1999 and 2002. Age and sex differences were assessed using one-way analysis of variance. Mahalanobis distances were used to rate the sexual dimorphism of somatotype components.

Results and discussion. Sex differences in the assessment of somatotype variations in the Chuvash population turn out to be most significant for the characteristics of endomorphy, with higher values in women. The values of endomorphy in men after 30 years practically did not change, but in women it continued to increase until the 6th decade, and then decreased with age. There were practically no differences in the mesomorphy; very small differences were found in ectomorphy between men and women aged 18-30 years.

Mesomorphy increases from 18-30 years to 50 in both sexes; the ectomorphy shows opposite age trends. A leveling of sex differences in all body composition components was recorded in the older part of the combined sample (70 – 80 years old).

Conclusions. Local patterns of age-related variability in body composition components for ethnic Chuvash are shown. For the first time, using representative material, indicators of sexual dimorphism have been determined for the complex of components of endomorphy, mesomorphy and ectomorphy in the Chuvash, showing the maximum intersexual differences in the age range of 41-60 years. A predominance of endomesomorphic body types in both sexes was revealed, with a tendency towards balanced mesomorphy in men (the youngest male subgroup is characterized by an ectomesomorphic somatotype). © 2024. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license

Introduction. One of the central tasks of ethnic anthropology is to describe the phenotypic variability in modern human populations. In recent years, the number of publications visualizing the morphological features of a human face at the population level has increased significantly. The purpose of the article is to show the latest achievements of Lomonosov Moscow State University’s anthropologists, made by using the composite photo portrait (CPP) method.

Materials and methods. The material for the article was the works of the Moscow University’s anthropological scientific school in recent years (from 2009 to 2024), made using the composite photo portrait method.

Results and discussion. Recently, several innovations have been introduced: it has become possible to create CPP in profile and ¾ norms; a transition has been made in creating a photo portrait from combining individual images at 2 points to pulling them together at more points; the optimal number of photographic images for creating CPP has been mathematically determined; it has become possible to characterize human populations with a series of ontogenetic portraits. The gallery of composite photo portraits has been replenished with photographs of the peoples of the Volga-Ural region, the Caucasus, North, Central, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, as well as countries of Africa and Latin America. The application of the CPP method in paleoanthropology has begun.

Conclusion. A qualitative leap has been made in the Lomonosov Moscow State University’s Research Institute of Anthropology in the research and development of photographic materials with the help of CPP: a software application for the CPP formation has been created and significantly improved; the gallery of photo portraits of ethnic groups around the globe has been seriously expanded. For the first time a series of photo generalizations characterizing human populations at different stages of ontogenesis were created. The composite photo portrait method remains a promising scientific tool that opens up wide opportunities for studying various aspects of the phenotypic variability of ancient and modern human populations. © 2024. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license