Authors
Deepika Kakkar, Dr. K.P.S Kushwaha
Abstract
Human Hand act as a sensory and motor organ which is a versatile part of human body. Hand measurements are used in the fields of, forensic anthropology, bio-metrics, ergonomics, and reconstructive surgeries, mechanical studies and clinical practice. Many studies have been conducted to correlate hand index with the personality of the person and also to the predisposition to certain diseases. The main objective of this study was to classify Hand Index of the male Khatris. It was carried out on 160 apparently healthy male Khatris of age group 18-50yrs residing in Delhi. Sliding caliper was used to measure hand length (from interstylion to dactylion of middle finger) and hand breadth ( from metacarpal radialis to metacarpal ulnare). Data was statistically analyzed and compared with that of other Indian populations as well as of the populations of other countries reported earlier. In this study hand lengths ranged from 15.20 cm to 22.10 cm (mean value =18.29±1.12) and hand breadth from 6.50 cm to 9.60 cm ( mean value of 8.05 ± 0.49) .The mean hand Index of males belonging to Khatris was 44.13 falling in the category Mesocheir as per classification proposed by Martin and Seller (1957). It can be concluded that the male Khatris can be classified as Mesocheir who have long fingers with short palm. The morphological characteristic of hand belonging to any category depends on gender, ethnicity, socio-cultural domain, environment & genetic factors which differ from region to region. These studies greatly help in forming human anthropometric Atlas useful in the fields of criminal investigation and evolutionary studies. Hand dimensions are also useful in the identification of mutilated remains in disaster cases, in tracing the ethnicity and geographical origin of the person. Keywords: Hand Index, Ergonomics, Human Identification, Criminal investigation, Hand Classification, Mesocheir
Introduction
Being sensory as well as motor organ, human hand is a versatile part of the body which comprises 27 bones and 15 joints. Many studies have been carried out on the anthropometric dimensions of various body parts and also on hand dimensions. The study carried out by Davies et al., (1980) measuring 28 hand landmarks on 92 Europeans and made a comparison of hand sizes with different ethnic groups and found that the hand dimensions of European females were significantly smaller than those of their West Indian counterparts. Imrhan et al., (1993) studied the hand dimensions of Americans of Vietnamese origin, Bangladeshi males and compared with those of Mexican males (Imrhan et al., 2006) and concluded that hand dimensions of Bangladeshi men were significantly smaller than the Mexican men.
Similarly, the study was carried out by Mandahawi et al., (2008) on hand anthropometric among 235 Jordanian populations and compared with other populations viz Bangladeshis, Nigerians, Vietnamese Americans, Hong Kong, Chinese, United Kingdom residents, Americans, and Mexicans. The results showed significant differences between Jordanians and the other populations. Therefore, it can be inferred that the anthropometric dimensions vary across gender, race, and ethnic groups and also within a particular group due to environment, nutrition, physique & nature of work.
Anthropometric study of hand dimensions play a pivotal role in criminal investigations, biometrics, ergonomics, reconstructive surgeries, mechanical studies, clinical practice personality assessment and in the identification of mutilated remains
Various indices have been formulated and assessed to determine the race and sex of an individual such as cephalic index, facial index, mandibular canine index and hand index.
Chandra et al., 2015 carried out a study for estimating hand index for male industrial workers for the designing of hand tools and equipments.
Based upon hand index (Martin and Saller, 1957) classified shape of the individual hand into five categories viz Hyperdolichocheir, Dolichocheir, Mesocheir, Brachycheir, and Hyperbrachycheir.
Methodology
Subjects
The study was conducted on 160 healthy male Khatris selected randomly from the age group of 18 – 50 years from Delhi, India. The volunteers with any kind of deformity in hand was excluded from the study. All the subjects were informed about the study design, measurements and privacy of data collected. Consent was taken from each subject before obtaining measurements.
References
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| APA Style | Kakkar, D., & Khushwaha, D. K. P. S. (2021). Hand Index of the Male Khatris of Delhi (India). Academic Journal of Anthropological Studies, 04(01), 01–07. |
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