Finger dermatoglyphics of the Rarhi Brahmins of Bengal

Abstract

The finger prints of 138 individuals belonging to the subcaste Rarhi Brahmin have been analyzed. In males whorls are more frequent in the right hand than the left, while it is just the reverse in case of loops and arches. Females, however, show higher frequency of loops and lesser frequency of whorls in the right hand than the left, while the arches are more frequent on the left hand of females than the right. Arches are found to be more frequent on the thumb in males, while among females it is found mostly in the second finger. The bimanual difference is statistically significant in both sexes. Right hands are found to be more monomorphic than left hands. Monomorphic hands are less frequent among females than males. In the digitwise occurrence of symmetrical combinations of different patterns, the trend is I11 > IV > V > I > I1 in males, and V > IV > I11 > I > I1 in females. Males show highcr ridge counts in all fingers than do females. Ridge counts are usually found to be higher in the right hand than the left. The sex difference for mean total ridge counts is significant ( t = 1.99, 0.05 > P > 0.02, d.f. = 136). The bimanual difference is statistically significant for thumbs in both sexes, while the difference for the other digits is not significant.The Rarhi Brahmin is an endogamous sub-caste of Bengal practicing gotra (clanlike organization) exogamy. They have been studied for morphological and serological characteristics by different investigators (Chattopadhyay, '67a,b; Mitra, unpublished; Bhattacharjee, '56; Das, '58; Mukerjee cf. Das, '66). As far as we are aware, there is no published report on the dermatoglyphics of the Rarhi Brahmins. Hence, the study of dermatoglyphical characteristics was felt to be important, and investigations for finger, palm, sole and toe prints were undertaken by the authors.The present paper deals with the finger dermatoglyphics of the Bengalees, while the characteristics of the sole and toe prints will be reported in a later study. The frequency of main line formulas, pattern types in various palmar configurational areas, and ridge count have been reported elsewhere (Chattopadhyay and Sharma, '66, '67a,b). MATERIAL AND METHODIn the present study, bilateral inked fingerprints of 138 unrelated individuals (100 males and 38 females) have been analyzed. The identification of patterns and ridge counts have been done according to Cummins and Midlo ('61). Chi-square (x') figures have been calculated by using Woolfs ('57) G-test, and probabilities have been determined from Fisher and Yates' table ('54). RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONTables l a and l b show the frequency of different patterns among males and females, respectively. It is observed that simple arches are more frequent than tented arches, the frequency being nearly equal in both hands of both sexes. Radial loops are found to be more frequent in the second (index) finger, a fact which has also been noted by other workers (Bhattacharjee, '55; Biswas, '57; Kumbnani, '65; Singh, '56). The frequency of radial loops is the sam...

Digital dermatoglyphics: A study on Muslim population from India

“…Loop, Arch and Whorl). The core results of our study are in partial accordance with the studies conducted by various other researchers 4,[6][7][8]10,[15][16][17][19][20][21][22][23] who also found loop pattern to be most common in the various populations studied by them (as shown in Table 3). Also, the results of our study are found to be in contrast to the studies conducted by some researchers 9,[11][12][13][14]18 who reported whorls to be the most common pattern, followed by loops and arches in both the hands of male and females.…”

“…In the past, attempts have been made by researchers to study the distribution of fingerprint patterns in various populations and ethnic groups. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] The present study was aimed to determine the detailed frequency distribution of various fingerprint patterns, establish the most and least predominant patterns and to find out existence of any statistically significant gender differences in the Central Indian Muslim population.…”

Dermatoglyphic Patterns Among Lebanese Medical Students of Bau

“…The previous results were in accordance with five Indian studies [8,9,28,29,30], two Nigrean studies [15,31], two Sri Lanka studies [21,32], Bengal [33], Tunisia [34], Black Americans (USA) [35], Vietnamese [36], and Caucasian [37] where loops were more prevalent than whorls. On the other hand, the present results were in contrast to the studies conducted by some authors in Australia [38], New Zealand [18], and India [7,39] where the whorls predominate over the ulnar loops in both hands of males and females.…”

Sexual dimorphism in digital dermatoglyphic traits among Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka

“…Nithin et al [9] , in their study on South Indian people, observed that UL was the most common pattern followed by PW, DLW, CPL, PA, TA, RL and AW in males while UL was the most common pattern followed by PW, DLW, CPL, PA, TA, RL and AW in females. Similarly, studies done by Chattopadhyay et al (among Rarhi Brahmins of Bengal) [6], Namouchi (among Tunisians) [16], Qazi et al (among Black Americans) [17], Boroffice (among Nigerians) [18] and Igbigbi et al (among Indigenous black Zimbabweans) [14], observed that loop was the most common pattern followed by whorl and arch in both hands of males and females.…”

“…Chattopadhyay et al . [6], in their study on Rarhi Brahmins in Bengal, found that loop pattern was the most common pattern followed by whorl and arch in both males and females. However Biswas [7], in his study, found that whorl pattern was the most common pattern among Dhimals of North Bengal followed by loop and arch and Banik et al .’s [8] study on Rengma Nagas of Nagaland in India, observed that whorl pattern was most common followed by loop and arch in both gender.…”