The races of man and their distribution / A.C. Haddon.

  • Alfred Cort Haddon
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The races of man and their distribution / A.C. Haddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE BASIS OF CLASSIFICATION 9 among the same people, though a tall people will not contain very short individuals, except pathologically (dwarfs), and a pygmy people will not include members of tall stature. Torday found that certain Congo BaTwa pygmies, near the Kasai river, left the forest two generations ago and took to agricul¬ ture and a settled life. They have attained a stature far superior to that of the average pygmy, though not equal to that of their BuShongo neighbours, with whom intermarriage is out of the question. Torday suggests that sunshine, air and regular life have been the main factors in this change, but another explanation may be found more in accordance with the teaching of genetics. A people may be temporarily dwarfed by unfavourable conditions of life, but they increase in stature when the conditions are improved, as is shown in the case of the Limousin district in France (p. 75 and cf. p. 51). High stature is partly dependent upon the retardation of maturity, thus allowing of long-continued growth. An open wandering life seems to be favourable to increased stature if the conditions are not severe. Speaking broadly, peoples with stunted stature are frequently found in heavy forest country, and also in excessively cold and notably infertile areas where life is hard. But every case must be taken by itself, as there is always a possibility that a given short people may have been driven by a taller, stronger people into the region where it is now found. FORM OF THE HEAD A very valuable character is the general form of the head. When looked at from above some heads are seen to be long and others short, the former are also generally narrow and the latter broad. This distinction is illustrated by the Cephalic Index (c.i.), which is the ratio of the breadth of the skull or of the head to its length, the latter being taken as 100. When the ratio falls below 75 the skull is termed dolichocephalic, or narrow-headed, when it is between 75 aud 80, it is meso- cephalic, or medium-headed, when it exceeds 80 it is brachy- cephalic, or broad-headed. Sometimes only two groups are recognised, the dolichocephaHc, - 78, and the brachycephalic, 78 +. When only dealing with the skull it is better to speak
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