The choice of a mate.

  • Anthony Ludovici
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details
    457/546 (page 427)
    MALE AND FEMALE STATURE the difference was 12.49 cm -> i.e. about 5 ins., the men being 68.63 bis. an d the women 63.71 ins. 1 The same investigator found among the whites in the south west of the United States and Northern Mexico, the difference was one-sixteenth of the male stature, which is a slightly smaller difference than that given for Old Americans. Vierordt says the difference is 8 to 16 cm., and Topinard says 12 cm. In Italian women with stature 100, their men are 106.5, an d in Russian women with stature 100, their men are 108.3. 1 2 Wieth-Knudsen makes the difference between the men and women of northern European stock 5 ins., of France, 4.7 ins., and of Belgium, 4.3 ins. 3 Schadow makes it only 2 ins., pre sumably for Germany. 4 Quetelet found his Belgian women shorter by one-eighteenth of the male’s stature. 5 Turning now to less-civilized races, Dr. Georg Buschan found the women of the Australian aborigines 4 ins. smaller than the men, the latter having an average height of 167.8 cm. (about 5ft. 7ms.). 6 Dr. Rodenwaldt found a difference of over 4 ins. between the men and women among his hybrids ; 7 W. H. L. Duckworth computes the difference between the Eskimos of Labrador and their women at a little over 3 ins. (the men are 157 cm. and the women 149 cm.) ; 8 and, according to Darwin, the difference between male and female Javans is 21.8 cm., or about 9 inches. 9 Thus, although the difference tends to decline with stature, we find that there are notable exceptions ; for the disparity among the Javans is two and a quarter times as great as among the Australians. Havelock Ellis confirms the more important findings above, when he states that the difference between English men and women averages about 5 ins. 10 So we may conclude that, although the difference in stature between the average male and female is not constant throughout the various races of man, it usually declines with average stature, and something between four and five inches is roughly the normal 1 The Old Americans, p. 69. 2 Buschan Illustrierte Völkerkunde : Physiological and Medical Observa tions Among the Indians of the S.W. U.S.A. and Northern Mexico, p. 135. 3 F., p. 31. 4 Polyclet, pp. 61-65. 6 A., pp. 116 and 204. 6 Op. cit., II, Part I. See, however, D.O.M., p. 559. 7 M.A.K., p. 159. 8 Op. cit., p. 272. 9 D.O.M., p. 559. 10 M.W., p. 39.