North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler.

  • Clark Wissler
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    146/160 (page 138)
    ORIGINS. This brief sketch of the anthropology of the Plains naturally raises a few quite fundamental questions: How did these tribes come to be here? How long have they been here? What was the origin of their cultures? While no satisfactory answers can be given for these, some progress toward their solution has been made. We have seen that no definite correlation seems to exist between language, culture, and physical type, since the distribution maps for each have little in common. Taking the cultural classification as our point of view, we see that Plains Indians are not peculiar in stature or head form, but seem to fall into two unequal groups with many representatives in other parts of the continent. The shorter western tribes ranging from 165 to 170 cm. fall into a large group of low statures including most of the Californian, Plateau, North Pacific Coast, and Southeastern Areas. The Comanche who speak a language of Shoshonean stock widely distributed over the Plateau area are also relatively short. The greater part of the typical and village tribes, however, range from 170 to 175 cm.,