ACTIVITY MONITORING OF THE INHABITANTS IN TAUWEMA, A TRADITIONAL MELANESIAN VILLAGE - REST ACTIVITY BEHAVIOR OF TROBRIAND ISLANDERS (PAPUA-NEW-GUINEA)/

The inhabitants of Tauwema village represent a traditionally living so ciety. Altogether, 39 inhabit ants belonging to seven families were in cluded in this study. Families or people living in one household were preferentially chosen for monitoring particularly the effects of socia l zeitgebers and synchronization within families. They were observed c ontinuously for 7 consecutive days using microelectronic actometers th at register locomotor activity with a sampling period of 2 minutes and a resolution of 7 bit. The activity data obtained showed that in youn g infants circadian patterns develop out of ultradian components domin ating in the first months of life. The rhythmicity of the adults was w ell-related to the natural light-dark cycle, combined with a strong so cial component which is reflected in a comparatively small intra-and i nter-individual variability in the time of the end of the main sleep s pan in the morning, while the variability in the beginning of the main sleep period in the evening is much greater. The mean sleep duration of the younger infants (up to 11 months; n = 4) varied between 9 and 1 2 h per day and that of the adults (n = 23) between 7 and 10 h. Gender -specific differences occurred in married couples with wives having a longer sleep duration in 7 out of 9 cases.