著者

今村 豊 池田 次郎

出版者

日本文化人類学会

雑誌

民族學研究 (ISSN:24240508)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.14, no.4, pp.311-318, 1950 (Released:2018-03-27)

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According to Dr. Kiyono, the modern Japanese are the result of physical change, having developed out of a prehistortc type, through a protohistoric intermediate type, with some Korean admixture. The Ainu, being different from the peoples either of prehistoric or protohistoric periods, had nothing to do with the formation of the modern Japanese. These conclusions are said to be derived, with statistical procedures, from a survey of skeletons of all those periods. Thus, if there were defects in his chronology of skeletons and his anthropometrical methods, his conclusions would be questionable. In the first place, because of insufficient description of the excavations and the relation to other relics excavated, the chronology of skeletons is ambiguous. Furthermore, several errors can be pointed out. In the second place, there are defects in his anthropometric methods. When measurements are compared, the characteristics compared are not always of the same kind, and therefore the basis of comparison fluctuates. The "mittlere Typendifferenz" is calculated only between the most convenient materials, and general conclusions are drawn in spite of the fact that the interrelations between all materials have not been exhaustively worked out. On the basis of Dr. Kiyono's own anthropometrical data, the reviewers have calculated the "Typendiffirenz" between all materials exhaustively, and reached the following results : 1) Though Dr. Kiyono concludes that the difference between the modern Japanese and their adjacent peoples is greater than that between local types of the modern Japanese, his evidence, especially with reference to the relation of the modern Japanese to the Koreans and Northern Chinese, cannot be validated. 2) On the basis of Dr. Kiyono's anthropometrical data, the Ainu, rather than the protohistoric Japanese, would more probably be regarded as the intermediate type between the modern Japanese and the prehistoric people. 3) Statistical evidence as to the mixture with the Koreans is lacking. In short, even provided that the chronology of materials were exact, it would be impossible to draw Dr. Kiyono's own conclusions from his own statistics.