Flatness of Facial Skeletons of Ryukyuans.

要旨

Following the method of Yamaguchi (1973), a series of facial flatness measurements were taken from crania from the islands of Amami, Okinawa and Sakishima of the Ryukyu Islands. These measurements were compared with each other and with measurements of cranial series from other Japanese Islands, insular and continental Northeast Asia and Europe. Among the three Ryukyuan samples, the facial skeletons of Sakishima are least flattened. Nevertheless, the Ryukyuans as a whole show far flatter faces than Ainu. The extent of Ryukyuan facial flatness is comparable to that of the so-called “Northern Mongoloid”. In addition to the previous cranial nonmetric study (Dodo and others, 1998), the present study of facial flatness also does not give any indication of a close affinity between the Ainu and Ryukyuans.

主題