Abstract
Two mountain villages of Nagano Prefecture, Kawakami and Kawashima, situated in the central mountain district of Honshu, are similar in that both have comparatively high culture and livelihood inspite of their geographical handicap especially isolation, but are different from one another in the adaptation to geographic feature and climate. Kawakami villagers are so active that they adopted a new agriculture and forestry suitable to the continental climate, while Kawashima villagers are passive and conventional in industry, so that the younger generation has a tendency to leave the village.We examined the motor performance and strength of about 480 male and female villagers over the age of twenty years, for (1) tapping, (2) match board test, (3) reaction time, (4) grip strength, (5) back muscle strength, (6) pull strength of shoulder and arm, (7) static balancing and (8) closing-one-eye test (refer to KoHARA'S reports, J. Anthrop. Soc. Nippon, Vol. 63 and 64). Results are shown in talbes and figures in the text. The curve which shows the age difference and the relation between males and females of motor capacities in two villages are not different from the results in Sata and Aogashima. But inhabitants of two villages of Nagano Prefecture surpass those from Sata and Aogashima in many respects. Declining tendency with advancing age in balancing and other tests in Nagano Prefecture is notablly slower. Kawakami and Kawashima inhabitants are almost alike except in the age group of 20-34 years in male. Male youths of Kawakami show excellent results in (1), (2) and (3), and the inhabitants of the village are more agile than those of Kawashima in reaction time test. These differences may be explained by the facts that villages of Kawakami is more adaptive to natural environment than those of Kawashima, and that individuals in the former village look smarter and more intellectual to adopt new mode of life and industries.
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