Ghazala Javed Mulla
Z V M Unani Medical College & Hospital, India
Title: Temperament (Mizaj) patterns versus somatotypes: Concordance or coincidence
Biography
Biography: Ghazala Javed Mulla
Abstract
Human classification or race can be described as a group of people who share similar and distinct physical characteristics. It is a social concept by which one group of human beings identifies and distinguish themselves from other group. The term race was initially confined to groups of people speaking common language later the term referred to national association. By 17th Century race is refer to physical (Phenotypical) traits. In Unani System of Medicine, ancient hakeems have identified ten phenotypic features and called them Ajnas-e-Ashra. Based on these features they classified human being into four groups viz., Damwi Mizaj, Balghami Mizaj, Safrawi Mizaj and Saudawi Mizaj. American psychologist William Sheldon (1898-1977) has also classified human beings into three types of personalities and termed them somatotypes. Sheldon’s somatotypes are also based on physical characteristics or physique. He has expressed them numerically and named them endomorphs, mesomorphs and ectomorphs. Sheldon’s body types can be assessed by ten anthropometric measurements. A pilot study has been conducted to explore the different Mizaj types and Somatotypes of the same subjects and to find out any relationship between these two methodologies and to point whether this relationship is merely a coincidence or a statistical correlation.