Morphometric Analysis and Traditional Occupations

Research has been conducted on four traditional occupational groups of Punjab, viz., Tailors, Farmers, Carpenters and Blacksmiths with a view to exploring differences in body morphology, body composition, somatotype amongst these groups and also to find out bilateral asymmetry in them. Attempt has also been made to find out the prevalence of hypertension in traditional occupational groups.The anthropometric and physiological investigation on 800 adult males (200 in each group) ranging in age from 30 to 40 years were carried out.Twenty-eight anthropometric measurements of different body parts including height, weight, skin folds,circumferences,segmental lengths and body breadths were taken.Bilaterally represented measurements were taken on both left and right side of the body.The inter-group comparison shows that the physique and body composition are specific in the subjects involved in different occupations and differences existing among all the occupational groups in one way or another. Thus it appears that there is some specific advantage of typical physical characteristic in each occupational group.