Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 80. (Budapest 1988)

Gladkova, T. D. ; Tóth, T.: Ethnic dermatoglyphics of Hungarians

In Table 4 we give the intergroup range of variability (minimum-maximum) of Hungarian finger and palm patterns in comparison with Kazakhs and Russians, and also with the mean of 26 Hungarian groups. Table 4 shows that the mean of Hungarian frequencies in most traits lies between the Kazakhs, representives of the south-Siberian anthropological type, and the Europoid Russian group. The table has shown that though Hungarians occupy a position intermediate between the Kazakhs and the Russians, at the same time they are very close to the Russians in the majority of dermatoglyphical characteristics. In our previous works (see References) we discussed the dermatoglyphics of Hungarians in connection with their ethnogenesis. It has been shown that the Hungarians in dermatoglyphical traits are on the whole within the variation characteristic for Caucasoid peoples and are close to those of southern Europeans. The extreme variability, dispersity and crossing similarity between the different groups of present Hungarians reflect the completed historical process of the anthropological type formation of the Hungarian people. Let us find the correlative position of each of the 26 local Hungarian groups studied by us against a background of Kazakhs and Russians. For the comparison of the Hungarian groups we devised a complex of some traits, the frequency of which is evidently different in Mongoloids and Europoids. In this complex we have included the following traits: archs, loops (radial and ulnar) and whorles on the fingers; the patterns on hypothenar, interdigital pads III and IV, the type 11 D, the carpal axial triradius (t) — on the palms. From the above-mentioned traits we calculated the mean sums of positive and negative deviations from the conventional zero-group Kazakhs. This is the method of the middle taxonomical distance of A. A. ZUBOV & I. M. ZOLOTARIEVA (1980) for estimation of the degree of likeness and the difference among the ethnic groups. We have also given the deviation of the Russians from the zero-group, linked by a straight line (Fig. 2). 8 Fig. 2. The arrangement of the studied groups according to eight finger and palm traits (see Fig. 1. for the names of the groups; 27 = Hungarian mean, 28 = Russians)