• Login
    View Item 
    •   UoN Digital Repository Home
    • Journal Articles
    • Faculty of Agriculture & Veterinary Medicine (FAg / FVM)
    • View Item
    •   UoN Digital Repository Home
    • Journal Articles
    • Faculty of Agriculture & Veterinary Medicine (FAg / FVM)
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Energetic cost of carrying loads: have African women discovered an economic way?

    Thumbnail
    Date
    1986-02
    Author
    Maloiy, GMO
    Heglund, NC
    Prager, LM
    Cavagna, GA
    Taylor, CR
    Type
    Article
    Language
    en
    Metadata
    Show full item record

    Abstract
    When travelling in East Africa one is often surprised at the prodigious loads carried by the women of the area. It is not uncommon to see women of the Luo tribe carrying loads equivalent to 70% of their body mass balanced on the top of their heads (Fig. 1). Women of the Kikuyu tribe carry equally large loads supported by a strap across their foreheads; this frequently results in a permanently grooved skull. Recent experiments on running horses, humans, dogs and rats showed that the energy expended in carrying a load increased in direct proportion to the weight of the load for each animal at each speed, that is, carrying a load equal to 20% of body weight increased the rate of energy consumption by 20% (ref. 1). The purpose of the present study was to determine whether these African women use specialized mechanisms for carrying very large loads cheaply. We found that both the Luo and Kikuyu women could carry loads of up to 20% of their body weight without increasing their rate of energy consumption. For heavier loads there was a proportional increase in energy consumption, that is, a 30% load increased energy consumption by 10%, a 40% load by 20% and so on. We suggest that some element of training and/or anatomical change since childhood may allow these women to carry heavy loads economically.
    URI
    http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v319/n6055/abs/319668a0.html
    http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/23601
    Citation
    Nature. 1989 Feb 20-26;319(6055):668-9.
    Publisher
    Nature Publishing Group
     
    Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology, University of Nairobi
     
    Subject
    Energetic cost
    Carrying loads
    Women
    Africa
    Economic aspect
    Description
    Journal article
    Collections
    • Faculty of Agriculture & Veterinary Medicine (FAg / FVM) [5427]

    Copyright © 2019 
    University of Nairobi Library
    | UoN Quality Policy | Send Feedback
     

    Browse

    All of UoN Digital RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Copyright © 2019 
    University of Nairobi Library
    | UoN Quality Policy | Send Feedback