Mashina D.A.   Batsevich V.A.  

The growth and development of Tuvan school-age children in the new environmental conditions

Reporter: Mashina D.A.

ABSTRACT: The issues of biological and cultural adaptation in various populations of Homo sapiens are extremely relevant. In the years 1976-1979 employees of the Research Institute of Anthropology under the direction of T. Alekseeva conducted a comprehensive anthropoecological study of the Tuvan population. Due to environmental and sociocultural changes in the Republic of Tuva, similar research is particularly relevant to assess the degree and direction of adaptive changes in modern Tuvan populations. In 2018 and 2019, with the support of the RFBR grant, anthropoecological studies of the Tuvan children were carried out through two expeditions. The studies were carried out in the city of Kyzyl and in the village of Toora-Khem of the Todzhinsky kozuun. The total number of examined was 789 children, including 373 boys and 416 girls. This study examined indicators of children's physical development, such as body length, width of the pelvis and shoulders, chest circumference, and body weight. As a result of the study, it was possible to identify that boys from Toora-Khem were ahead of boys from Kyzyl by the length of the body, the width of the pelvis and shoulders, and chest circumference until they reached the age of 16, and later the picture changed to the opposite. In terms of body weight, rural boys were ahead of their peers until they were 12 years old. Girls showed fewer differences in indicators such as body length and width of the shoulders and pelvis, while rural girls turned out to be larger than urban peers in terms of chest circumference and body weight, but this difference was small. In conclusion, it is worth noting that urban and rural children differ slightly. In general, the modern populations of Kyzyl and Toora-Khem are at the beginning of the process of change under the influence of environmental factors, which is also especially noticeable in the male part of the population.


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