[Tasks and methods of industrial anthropology. A review]

In the course of the industrialization of our work-environment, and in conjunction with the mass production of consumer goods, it has proven necessary to determine systematically the body-measurements important to this area, and to develop a constellation of technical aspects for their application. This has required the development of new measuring methods which go beyond those of classical anthropology; the acquisition of data concerning the distribution of body size and proportion in the various regional and social sub-populations; and finally, determination of the parameters of work-environment which are dictated by human form and function. Industrial anthropology has developed more and more in the past few years as a field of study whose object is the interaction between people and their technical environment.