A study to correlate cephalic index of various caste/races of Gujarat State.

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out in various communities of Gujarat state which are still occupying particular locations of various districts in different regions. Total six communities were selected randomly. These were Sindhi, Patel, Rabari, Kharwa (fisherman), Bhil and Siddi( negro ). Only male subjects who belonged to 21 - 50 years of age and who were not having any history of inter-caste, inter-religion marriage of their parents uptill at least 3 generations were included. The study subjects were divided into 3 age related groups Group A 21 to 30 years, Group B 31 to 40 years and Group C 41 to 50 years. 30 subjects, 10 per aforesaid age-groups (A, B and C) were studied from each community. This was followed by head measurements i.e. head length and width were obtained from each study subject ( total being 180) and by cephalic index of each study subject was determined by Hrdlicka’s method. The data were then analyzed by statistical software and to determine statistical significance chi-square and Kruskal Wallis tests were applied. The features observed were co-related with the data of cephalic indices of respective communities.