Abstract

Introduction: Cephalic index, the percentage of breadth to length in any skull. Cephalic index is useful in establishing ethnic differences and affiliations and very useful to find out racial differences. Materials and Methods: The present study consisted of acquisition of anthropometric data for Gond tribe and non-tribe boys from the same area. A total number of 279 Gond tribe boys and 282 non tribe boys were examined for the Head length & Head Breadth using spreading caliper. The index was calculated from measurement of the diameters of the skull. Descriptive analysis was carried out and comparative statistics was used to observe difference between Gond tibe boys and Non-tribe boys on various anthropometric measurements and mean, standard deviation, student, t- test, p value was computed to see the relationship between anthropometric variables. Results: Most of the Gond Tribe boys were Mesocephalic (26%) and Brachycephalic (31%), while most of the Non- Tribe boys were Mesocephalic (27%), Brachycephalic (27%) and hyper Brachycephalic (27%). Few among both Gond tibe boys and Non-tribe boys were Hyperdolicocephalic and Ultra-brachycephalic. Conclusion: In the present study we conclude that not a single head form can be defining attributes of the two groups. As head form of both GT and NT were overlapping most of them were Mesocephalic & Brachycephalic type. There is need to conduct anthropometric & genetic studies to backup these observed anthropometric similarities. Such data is of great medico legal and forensic importance which indicates that Cephalic Index can be used as marker of ethnicity, and race as it is an important parameter in forensic medicine, anthropology and genetics to know the sex and racial differences between individuals.

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