Anthropological research in reference to ergonomics.

Abstract

Ergonomic anthropology is a complex synthesis of studies which was formed at the borderline of anthropology, physiology and psychology. The subject of the studies is the psychosomatic status of working men interacting with techniques by means of technical tools. This status has a dual display: first, through somatometric features, known as ergonomic dimensions; second, through the subjective feelings (proprioreceptive) of a working person on the level of comfort or discomfort of the soma. The ergonomic dimensions of the body serve as a basis for calculations of the parameters of working places and reflect posture and movement activity. Three groups of methodological tasks are tested. 1. Adaptation of the anthropometric method and discovery of its specificity for ergonomics tasks. 2. Elaboration of principles and rules of applying ergonomics measurements of the body for constructing techniques. 3. The choice of objective and subjective methods of somatic comfort evaluations.