| Abstract: |
Dr. Shigekazu HIGUCHI
`Living Environments and Human Biological Rhythms'
Human biological clock makes a turn in a cycle of about 25 hours when
there is no clue to know the passage of time. However, the earth
rotates in a cycle of 24 hours, repeating light and darkness. Many
social activities are based on a 24-hour cycle. Therefore, we are
unconsciously adjusting our biological clock from a 25-hour cycle to a
24-hour cycle. Living environments play a significant role in this
adjustment of the biological clock. Factors that help us adjust the
clock are called synchronizers. The synchronizer with the largest
impact on the clock is light. Other than that, working, meals, and
other social activities act as a synchronizer to some extent. This
adjustment mechanism of human biological rhythm would be acquired
though a history of evolution.
On the other hand, humans living in modern societies are surrounded by
factors that make it difficult to adapt our biological rhythms to a
24-hour cycle. These factors include loss of difference between day
and night, exposure to bright lights at night, shift working, the
service industry open at mid nights, and the spread of the
Internet. While sleep disorders and other undesirable effects due to
these factors have been reported, humans in fact live or propagate in
such living environments. Surely, humans have acquired a certain level
of biological adaptability to 24-hour active societies. However, it
should also be noted that there are individual differences in the
adaptability and that these changes in lifestyles might have negative
effects on children in a growth period. My interests as a
physiological anthropologist are to examine the effects of living
environment on human biological rhythm and to determine the human
biological adaptability to 24-hour societies. I believe that these
researches can contribute to our healthy life in 24-hours societies.
Dr. Yuko TSUNETSUGU
`Between Art and Nature: Wooden Habitat'
Because of the very long history of evolution in the natural
environment, human physiological functions, including nervous system,
circulatory system, motor system, and sensory system, has been made up
for adaptation to the natural environment. It should be natural for
people, having this background, to feel a sense of comfort or unity
with the natural environments.
About 2/3 of the land in Japan is covered by forests, and wood is one
of the oldest and most familiar materials for constructing our
residence. Even in modernized residential buildings constructed by
steel and concrete, people prefer to use wood for interiors, which
seems like they prefer to have small pieces of the nature in their
dwelling environment.
Dwelling comfort has been approached by measuring the physical and
mechanical properties of the buildings or their components. But
recently, an increasing interest is in the approaches focusing humans'
responses. Our team is conducting studies on physiological responses
of humans to the natural materials in living environment.
In this presentation, a study on visual effect of rooms with wooden
interior will be introduced. Pulse rate, blood pressure, and cerebral
blood flow were measured while the subjects spent 90 seconds in the
rooms with various interior designs. The results suggested that the
different wooden interiors caused different physiological
responses. Also, ideas of sensitivity and individual differences will
be introduced.
Ms. Fumiko ISHIKAWA
`Thoughts Concerned with Triadic Model: "Two is a company, three is a crowd"'
The concept of group is essential for human life. What is a group?
One thing is clear: a group has to involve two or more individuals.
It is often said, "Two is a company, three is a crowd". In fact, the
dyadic interaction, within the framework of family and classroom, in
the domain of developmental psychology have been studied to a greater
deal extent than the triadic interaction. What differences does it
make by adding just one individual to two individuals?
To investigate this issue, I applied and used the Family Triad Model
first introduced Parke, Power and Gottman (1979). I formed six girl
triads and six boy triads consisting of unacquainted children aged
between 24 and 36 months. Each triad was videotaped for 25min and was
subsequently observed and coded using a predetermined set of
categories. I confirmed some researchers claim that most interaction
between young children involves two individuals.
Is this finding then legitimate to assume that the dyad would be the
predominant form observed within larger groups? In fact, there is
plenty of opportunity for us nowadays to observe systematically
intra-group interaction. For example, we can watch ³Big Brother² on
TV where eight unacquainted individuals, consisting of four females
and four males, participating to live together for a short period of
time. If the actual interaction taking place most of the time could
well be one-to-one dyadic, one could systematically analyse, for
example, the effect of a particular dyadic interaction to the
individuals involved and/or to the rest of the group. Alternatively,
one could apply the triadic model into a larger framework, such as
religious groups or nations. Thus, group represents a phase of human
ecology. It is therefore vital to investigate phenomena that any
group involves.
Dr. Mikiko ASHIKARI
`The Theory of the Relation between Skin Tone and Birthplace in Japan:
an environmental adaptation or a cultural adaptation?'
There was a theory about skin tone among Japanese people, regarding
the relation between skin colour and birthplace in Japan. The people
from the northern part of Japan have white skin, while those from the
southern part have dark skin. My informants often attributed the
differences in skin tones among them to their birthplaces. In Japan,
the population which lives in the overcast, snowy northern prefectures
is often characterised by white skin. They say that people from Akita
and Niigata are thought to have beautiful snow-white skin, and the
labels Akita bijin (an Akita beauty) or Tohoku bijin (a Tohoku beauty)
are widespread. On the other hand, the people from the southern part,
such as Ky sh and Shikoku, are believed to have darker skin. Japanese
people believe that their skin tones vary, more or less, according to
the location of their birthplaces. This theory happens to reveal a
racial element in the notion of skin colour among Japanese people,
and, more importantly, it provides an example of how culture or
society appropriates environment. Environment and human beings appear
to be inseparable in the contexts of everyday life.
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