What is Somatometry?

Medical Definition of somatometry : a branch of anthropometry that is concerned with measurement of parts of the body other than the head.

What are the applications of Somatometry?

Somatometric techniques are employed in the measurement of the living body and cadaver and help in studying biological variations in humans. Such techniques are useful in forensic/anthropological investigations to estimate the chronological age and even stature of a given population or individual.

What is Somatoscopy and Somatometry?

Somatometry quantitatively expressing the morphology of human body and somatoscopy is the qualitative expression of human body. Not only this, the findings of human physical variation are widely used in the fields of education, health, forensics, genetic counselling, industry etc.

Which end of the instrument is used in Somatometry and why?

One end of the tape is held on glabella (g) point by left hand. The other end is held with right hand and taken round following the opisthocranion (op), and again taken back to glabella (g). The tape around the head (g – op – g) should be kept in the same plane and opisthocranion is to be located beforehand.

How is anthropometry used today?

Today, anthropometry plays an important role in industrial design, clothing design, ergonomics and architecture where statistical data about the distribution of body dimensions in the population are used to optimize products.

What is Somatometry in anthropology?

Somatometry is thus defined as a systematic technique to measure living body including head and face. Anthropologists have used number of measurements for unfolding the morphology of man. These measurements are based on defined anatomical landmarks and have been in practice for ages.

How does Somatoscopy help in personal identification?

Somatoscopy tries to investigate body qualities such as lip shape, skin color, which are not numerically measured. During the identification of the victim’s identity, if the victim’s body is still new, somatoscopic qualities can be determined from skin color, nose-like shape and structure to fingerprints.

Why is Somatoscopy used?

Somatoscopy is used by Physical Anthropologists to evaluate morphological diversity in humans including the characteristics of skin color, hair, and iris. The aim is to know the variation in characteristics both between individuals and in groups or populations.

Is Somatometry and anthropometry same?

Anthropometry is the measurement of the human body. It is distinct from osteometry, which is the measurement of skeletal material. Anthropometry is sometimes subdivided into craniofacial anthropometry (measurement of the head and face) and somatometry (measurement of the body).

What are the tools used in the different anthropometric measurements and their uses?

Basic components include the anthropometer, personal scale, spreading caliper, pelvimeter, sliding caliper, soft metric tape and caliper. These are accurate, standardized instruments designed to measure the height, length, width and perimeter and determine the skinfold thickness.

What are anthropometric methods?

Excerpt. Anthropometric measurements are noninvasive quantitative measurements of the body. The core elements of anthropometry are height, weight, head circumference, body mass index (BMI), body circumferences to assess for adiposity (waist, hip, and limbs), and skinfold thickness.