Abstract: In May 2005, somatoscopic and anthropometric features of 462 adults of the“Guomao” Shui population living in the Sandou Shui nationality, autonomous county of Guizhou were recorded. The sample of adults aged between 20 to 55 years old included 238 males and 224 females. Parents, grandparents and maternal grandparents were studied. Twenty-eight observations and 64 measurements were made. The results of the survey are summarized briefly asfollows: The average stature of males is 1 606.23 mm, and females is 1 488.88 mm. The span of the arm is longer than that of stature in both sexes. Most of the individuals belong to the anthropometric categories of brachycephaly and platyrrhiny; leptoproscopy for males, mesoproscopy for females, wide hand, narrow shoulder, mesatiskelic type, thin and tall type for males versus medium body type for females. The stature of the “Guomao”Shui type is of sub-medium for male and short for female. The“Guomao”Shui clearly belong to the South Asian type of Mongoloid race. On the basis of the dendrogram of the“Guomao” Shui and of 24 other minorities living in southern China, the physical character of the“Guomao”Shui is most closely related to the Dong in Hunan, Baiku Yao living in Libo county of Guizhou and Nandan county of Guangxi, and the Maonan in Guizhou.

Key words: Somatoscopy; Anthropometry; Physical anthropology;“Guomao”Shui population; Shui nationality