Sunday, December 3, 2006

Satakunta - Summary

Professor Niilo Pesonen researched the population of the Satakunta and Savolax region and performed conclusions on the Duodecim-magazine and later also published his work in German. The study on Satakunta was published in 1935. The studied region had been divided into 5 areas. Average height of men was 170,79cm and women 159,96cm. Cephalic index of males averaged around 80,5 and women at 81 (table 10)
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Out of men and women 55% were narrow faced (extremely narrow faced 25%), medium width (mesoprosop) 27% among men and 23% among women. The majority (80%) also had a narrow nose. The study of hair and eye-colour also pointed that the people of Satakunta were mainly blond. Among men 85,5% had light eyes (blue,gray,yellowish or greenish). Brown-eyes were found in 11% of men. The frequency of brown-eyes was higher amongst women (17%). Brown haired men and women were equally found 40% among the studied individuals. Extremely blond or dark-blond (majority of light-haired people) were around 40% Red hair was rather rare. Dark men rarely had dark eyes. The most common combination was dark-blond or brown hair and light-eyes. Height and blondness did not correlate each other. Among men under the height of 154,9cm the majority had light eyes (86,4%) and men above 175cm tall 90,7% had light-eyes. Large men more often seemed to have dark hair, not blond. However the difference was small. Tall women however more often had very blond hair and light coloured eyes. The same goes for cephalic indexes. Men with higher cephalic index more often had the lightest eyes (79,5-82,4=92% and 85,5-88,4=95,8%) Dark-brown and black hair was found among individuals who were extremely brachycephalic or rather dolichocephalic. Similar figures and conclusions were made about the women. The researchers were interested in if according to the old theories short people were more often dark haired and dark eyed and if tall people were meso/dolichocephalic and blond more often. Of course the study results didn't support this theory.

Niilo Pesonen, Anthropologische Untersuchungen an Bewohnern der Landschaft Satakunta (Helsinki, 1935)

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