Part 26

Meanwhile W. H. Dall has published (1877) his monograph on the "Tribes of the Extreme Northwest,"[113] in which he includes Wyman's and also some of Otis's data on the Eskimo (and Aleut) skulls from Alaska and Asia. The Tshuktshi are now classed as Asiatic Eskimo, the Mahlemuts as Eskimo from St. Michael Island. The total number of skulls described in the former series is 11, in the latter series 6 (of Aleuts the number of skulls measured is 27 adults and 7 children). The means of the principal measurements of the Eskimo series, both sexes together, are as follows:

JEFFRIES WYMAN'S AND OTIS'S MEASUREMENTS OF WESTERN ESKIMO CRANIA

+--------+---------+--------+--------- Crania (both sexes) | Length | Breadth | Height | Cranial | | | | index --------------------------+--------+---------+--------+--------- | (11) | (11) | (7) | (11) Asiatic Eskimo | 17.8 | 14.1 | 13.2 | _79.3_ | | | | | (6) | (6) | (6) | (6) Northwest American Eskimo | 17.5 | 13.2 | 13.1 | _75.1_ --------------------------+--------+---------+--------+---------

There were also taken the weight, capacity, circumference, longitudinal arch, length of the frontal, parietal, and occipital, "zygomatic diameter," and in two specimens of each series the facial angle. To-day these data have but a historical value.

In 1882, Quatrefages and Hamy,[114] in their "Crania ethnica" (p. 440) give the measurements of two male Kaniagmiouts (Kodiak Indian, A. Pinart, collector) and one female Mahlemiout. The principal measurements of these skulls are as follows:

+----------+----------- | Males (2)| Female (1) ----------------------+----------+----------- Skull: | | Length | 18.6 | 17.9 Breadth | 14.2 | 13.9 Height (bas.-bg.) | 14.3 | 13.2 Cranial index | _76.34_ | _77.65_ Nose: | | Length | 5.9 | 5.1 Breadth | 2.3 | 2.3 Nasal index | _38.98_ | _45.09_ Facial index, total | _77.69_ | _70.37_ Orbital index | _92.68_ | _90.24_ ----------------------+----------+-----------

In 1883 Dr. Irving C. Rosse, in his "Medical and Anthropological Notes on Alaska,"[115] refers to his examination of a number of Eskimo skulls from the St. Lawrence Island brought to the Army Medical Museum.[116] There are no measurements outside of a reference to the capacity, but there are two excellent chromolithographs showing two female crania, besides a number of outline drawings.

The next data on the western Eskimo skull are in rather unsatisfactory condition. They are those of Boas. In his report on the "Anthropologie der nordamerikanischen Indianer,"[117] Doctor Boas mentions the cranial index of the Alaska Eskimo to average _77_; and on page 397 he reports the same index as secured on 37 "Alaska Eskimo" skulls, apparently of both sexes. The only note relating to these figures is found on page 393, where it is stated that these results proceed from measurements that had been made for the author at the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, the American Museum, New York, the Academy of Sciences, Philadelphia, and the United States Army Medical Museum, Washington; and that he utilized also the measurements of Barnard Davis and Otis. On 22 of the above western Eskimo skulls there is also given the length-height index of _76.6_. There is no information as to either sex or locality. There are no other measurements.

Deniker (1901) and later Martin (1914) repeat the data given by Boas.

In 1890 Tarenetzky[118] publishes measurements and observations on four Koniag (Kodiak) skulls and one Oglemute (Aglegmute, Alaska Peninsula). The main measurements (pp. 70-71) are:

+----------+-------+-------+-------+---------+---------- Koneage[119]Koneage|Koneage|Koneage|Means[120] | | | | | of the | Aglegm- | | | | |four from| jute | | | | | Kodiak | (Alaska | | | | | Island |Peninsula) -----------------+----------+-------+-------+-------+---------+---------- Skull: | | | | | | Length | 17.1 | 16.4 | 17.2 | 16.8 | 16.88 | 19.0 Breadth | 13.8 | 15.7 | 15.8 | 14.4 | 14.93 | 13.7 Height | 13.1 | 14.4 | 14.0 | 13.2 | 13.68 | 14.1 Cranial index| _80.7_ | _95.7_| _91.8_| _85.7_| _88.4_ | _72.1_ Nose: | | | | | | Length | 4.7 | 5.3 | 5.7 | 5.9 | 5.40 | 5.8 Breadth | 2.4 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 2.3 | 2.45 | 2.3 Nasal index | _51.0_ | _47.1_| _46.6_| _39.0_| _45.4_ | _39.6_ Orbital index| _87.5_ | _97.6_| _92.7_| _80.9_| _89.7_ | _88.1_ -----------------+----------+-------+-------+-------+---------+----------

In 1900 Sergi[121] reports on four Kodiak skulls that he examined in Paris. Two of these are probably Aleut (or Indian). The cranial indices were, respectively, _75.8_, _78.3_, _88_, and _88.2_.

In 1916 E. W. Hawkes presented a thesis on the "Skeletal Measurements and Observations on the Point Barrow Eskimo, with Comparisons from other Eskimo Groups."[122] The number of skulls measured was 27, of which 14 were identified as adult males, 5 adult females, 6 adolescents, and 2 infants. In addition there are measurements by Ralph Linton of other skeletal parts than the skull of three skeletons.

The measurements, though the first taken by this author, have evidently been taken in a painstaking manner and according to modern methods, and are therefore of some value. An abstract of those on the adults follows:

PRINCIPAL MEASUREMENTS OF POINT BARROW CRANIA, BY HAWKES

+------------+------------- | Males (14) | Females (5) -------------------+------------+------------- Vault: | | Length | 18.91 | 17.86 Breadth | 13.73 | 13.58 Basion-bregma | | height | 13.86 | 13.30 Cranial index | _72.65_ | _76.06_ Height-length | | index | _73.24_ | _74.45_ Height-breadth | | index | _100.68_ | _98.01_ Face: | | Diam. bizygom. | | max | 14.10 | 13.40 BF:BH | | proportion | _102.6_ | _98.7_ Chin-nasion | (6) | (3) height | 13.15 | 11.60 Alveolar | (14) | (5) point-nasion | 7.42 | 6.80 Facial index, | | total | _92.13_ | _52.48_ Facial index, | | upper | _86.20_ | _54.05_ Nose: | | Height | 5.66 | 5.24 Breadth | 2.30 | 2.18 Index | _40.69_ | _41.62_ Orbits: | | Height | 3.76 | 3.59 Breadth | 4.13 | 4.05 Index | _91.3_ | _88.5_ Dental arch: | | Length | 5.31 | 6.27 Breadth | 4.96 | 6.06 Index | _93.4_ | _96.7_ -------------------+------------+-------------

In 1923 Cameron[123] published the following data on six western Eskimo skulls from Port Clarence, collected by the Canadian Arctic Expedition:

POST CLARENCE (SEWARD PENINSULA) ESKIMO CRANIA

+------------------------------ Vault | Nose -------------+-------+------+--------+------+-------+------+-------- Length |Breadth|Height| Cranial|Length|Breadth|Nasal |Orbital | | | index | | |index | index -------------+-------+------+--------+------+-------+------+-------- Males: | | | | | | | 18.9 | 13.9 | 14.1 | _73.5_ | 5.9 | 2.5 |_42.4_| _86.4_ 18.7 | 14.3 | 13.7 | _76.5_ | 5.3 | 2.5 |_47.2_| _85.7_ 18.8 | 13.25 | 14.2 | _70.2_ | 6.0 | 2.2 |_36.7_| _86.4_ 17.8 | 13.0 | 13.3 | _73.4_ | | | | _88.9_ 19.2 | 13.7 | | _71.4_ | | | | Mean: 18.68 | 13.63 | 13.82| _72.97_| 5.73 | 2.40 |_41.9_| _86.9_ Female: 17.85| 13.1 | 12.8 | _73.1_ | | | | -------------+-------+------+--------+------+-------+------+--------

The last contribution to the craniology of the western Eskimo before the present report are the data embodied in my "Catalogue of Human Crania in the United States National Museum Collections," published in 1924.[124] These data are embodied in those of the present report.

For ready survey the old records on western Eskimo crania are given in the following table. A sex distinction in the earlier reports was mostly impracticable or remained doubtful.

PREVIOUS MEASUREMENTS OF WESTERN ESKIMO SKULLS

+-------------------------------- | Vault +------+-------+------+---------- |Length|Breadth|Height| Cranial | | | | index ---------------------------------------+------+-------+------+---------- 1 Icy Cape, ♀ (Morton, 1839) | 17.02| 12.70 | 12.70| _74.6_ 6 Asiatic Eskimo ("Tschuktchi"): | | | | mean (Daniel Wilson, 1862) | 17.60| 13.59 | 13.77| _77.2_ 3 Port Clarence (Barnard Davis, | | | | 1867) | 17.86| 13.64 | 13.59| _76.4_ 2 Kotzebue Sound, ♀ (Barnard | | | | Davis, 1867) | 17.40| 13.35 | 13.60| _76.6_ 11 Asiatic Eskimo (Wyman and Otis, | | | | 1868-1876) | 17.80| 14.10 | 13.20| _79.3_ 6 N. W. Amer. Eskimo (St. Michael | | | | Island) (Wyman and Otis, 1868-1876) | 17.50| 13.20 | 13.10| _75.1_ 2 Kodiak Island, ♂ (Quatrefages and | | | | Hamy, 1882) | 18.60| 14.20 | 14.30| _76.35_ 1 Kodiak, ♀ (Quatrefages and Hamy, | | | | 1882) | 17.90| 13.90 | 13.20| _77.65_ (37 western Eskimo)[125] (Boas, 1895) | | | | (_77_) 4 Kodiak Island, ♀[126] (Tarenetzky, | | | | 1900) | 16.88| 14.93 | 13.68| _88.4_ | | | |{2:_77.1_ 4 Kodiak Island,[127] (Sergi, 1900) | | | |{2:_88.1_ 14 Point Barrow, ♂ (Hawkes, 1916) | 18.91| 13.73 | 13.86| _72.65_ 5 Point Barrow, ♀ (Hawkes, 1916) | 17.86| 13.58 | 13.30| _76.1_ 5 Port Clarence, ♂ (Cameron, 1923) | 18.68| 13.63 | 13.82| _73_ 1 Port Clarence, ♀ (Cameron, 1923) | 17.85| 13.10 | 12.80| _73.1_ ---------------------------------------+------+-------+------+----------

+---------------------+------- | Nose | +------+-------+------+Orbital |Length|Breadth|Index |index | | | | ---------------------------------------+------+-------+------+------- 1 Icy Cape, ♀ (Morton, 1839) | | | | 6 Asiatic Eskimo ("Tschuktchi"): | | | | mean (Daniel Wilson, 1862) | | | | 3 Port Clarence (Barnard Davis, | | | | 1867) | | | | 2 Kotzebue Sound, ♀ (Barnard | | | | Davis, 1867) | | | | 11 Asiatic Eskimo (Wyman and Otis, | | | | 1868-1876) | | | | 6 N. W. Amer. Eskimo (St. Michael | | | | Island) (Wyman and Otis, 1868-1876) | | | | 2 Kodiak Island, ♂ (Quatrefages and | | | | Hamy, 1882) | 5.9 | 2.3 |_39_ | 1 Kodiak, ♀ (Quatrefages and Hamy, | | | | 1882) | 5.1 | 2.3 |_45.1_| (37 western Eskimo)[125] (Boas, 1895) | | | | 4 Kodiak Island, ♀[126] (Tarenetzky, | | | | 1900) | 5.4 | 2.45 |_45.4_|_89.7_ |} | | | 4 Kodiak Island,[127] (Sergi, 1900) |} | | | 14 Point Barrow, ♂ (Hawkes, 1916) | 5.66| 2.30 |_40.7_|_91.3_ 5 Point Barrow, ♀ (Hawkes, 1916) | 5.24| 2.18 |_41.6_|_88.5_ 5 Port Clarence, ♂ (Cameron, 1923) | 5.73| 2.40 |_41.9_|_86.9_ 1 Port Clarence, ♀ (Cameron, 1923) | | | | ---------------------------------------+------+-------+------+-------

FOOTNOTES:

[105] Voyage pittoresque autour du Monde, by Louis Choris, Paris, 1822, pp. 15, 16.

[106] Wilson, Daniel, Prehistoric man. Two vols. Lond., 1862; II, pl. 15; 3d ed., 1876, II, 192, 15.

[107] Wilson, Daniel, Physical ethnology. Smithsonian Report for 1862, Washington, 1863, pp. 261-262. The measurements of the Tchuktchi are given in the Prehistoric Man, vol. II, Table 16.

[108] Observations on Crania. Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XI, 440-462. Boston, 1868.

[109] Topinard, P., Mesures craniometriques des Esquimaux. Rev. d'Anthrop., 1873, II, 499-522.

[110] List of the specimens in the Anatomical Section of the Army Medical Museum. Washington, 1880.

[111] Rae, John, Eskimo skulls. J. Anthrop. Inst. Gr. Brit, London, 1878, VII, 142.

[112] Rep. U. S. Geogr. Surv. W. of 100 Merid., vol. VII.

[113] U. S. Geog. and Geol. Surv. Rocky Mt. Reg. Contributions to North American Ethnology, I. Washington, 1877, p. 63 et seq.

[114] Quatrefages, A. de, and Hamy, E. T., Crania ethnica. Paris, 1882, 438, 440.

[115] Cruise of the _Corwin_ in 1881. Washington, 1883, p. 38.

[116] Now in the Division of Physical Anthropology of the U. S. National Museum.

[117] 1895, Verh. Berliner, Ges. Anthrop. p. 367 et seq.

[118] Tarenetzky, Al., Beitrüge zur Craniologie der Ainos auf Sachalin. Mem. Acad. imp. Sc. St. Pétersb., 1890, XXXVII, No. 13, 1-55.

[119] Most if not all the Kodiak skulls are doubtless females, the Oglemute a male. Quite probably also the Kodiak skulls are those of Aleuts and not of Eskimo.

[120] By present author.

[121] Sergi, G., Crani Esquimesi. Atti della società Romana di antropologia, Roma, 1900, VII, 2, 93-102.

[122] Am. Anthrop., 1916, XVIII, 203-244.

[123] Cameron, John, Osteology of the western and central Eskimo. Rep. Canad. Arctic Exp., 1913-1918. Ottawa, 1923. With a report on the teeth by S. G. Ritchie and J. S. Bagnall. Table and means by the present writer.

[124] No. 1: The Eskimo, Alaska and Related Indians, Northeastern Asiatics. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1924, LXIII; sep., 51 pp.

[125] No details; series comprises specimens measured by Wyman, Otis, and Barnard Davis.

[126] Probably Aleuts, not Eskimo.

[127] Not the same with those of Tarenetzky; two probably Aleut.

PRESENT DATA ON THE WESTERN ESKIMO

THE LIVING

Barring the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands in the south and the Chukchee territory in the west, the Bering Sea is wholly the sea of the Eskimo, the Indians occupying the inland but reaching nowhere to the coast. There is doubtless much of significance in this remarkable distribution. It is now quite certain that the Eskimo has not been pressed out by the Indian; there are as a rule no traces of him farther inland than where he has been within historic times. On the other hand no Indian remnants or remains are known from any part of the coasts or islands within the Eskimo region; though the study of the older sites in these regions has barely as yet begun, besides which (see Narrative) it is a serious question whether really old sites could now be located in these regions at all even if they had once existed. At all events the Eskimo appears from all indications to be the latest comer, and judging from his remains his occupancy here is not geologically ancient; it is one to be counted, apparently, in many hundreds of years rather than in thousands. The Aleuts in the south are, as I have pointed out in the Catalogue (No. 1, 1924, p. 39), not Eskimo but Indians, related to the general Alaska Indian type; and the Pribilof Islands appear never to have been occupied until fairly recently, when a good number of Aleuts, mostly mixed bloods, have been transported and established there in the interest of the seal fisheries.

MEASUREMENTS OF LIVING WESTERN ESKIMO

Thanks to Moore, Collins, and Stewart, all of the National Museum, instructed by me and working with the same instruments, we now have several small to fair series of measurements on the living western Eskimo of both sexes. They are tabulated below. They are the first made on these groups and will be of much interest both in general and in connection with the measurements made on the skulls and bones of most of the same people. The main points shown are as follows:

_Stature._--The stature of the males ranges from markedly to moderately submedium. There is a considerable similarity. Only the Yukon group and that of Togiak reach near or slightly above medium, the general human medium for males approaching 165 centimeters. The female stature on the St. Lawrence Island averages 12 centimeters less than that of the males, which is about the difference found in most other peoples. At Hooper Bay, and especially at the Nunivak Island, the difference is less, indicating either that the males are slightly stunted or that the growth of the females is somewhat favored.

_Height sitting._--The height-sitting-stature index ranges from slightly to quite notably higher than it is in other races, indicating a tendency toward a relatively long trunk and somewhat short limbs. A study of the long bones shows that this is due especially, if not wholly, to the relative shortness of the tibia; and the subdevelopment of this bone may, it seems, be ascribed to a great deal of squatting both at home during the long winters and in the canoes. The male Eskimo show more difference from other males in this respect than the Eskimo females show from other females.[128]

_Arm span._--Relatively to the stature the length of the arms in the Eskimo males is shorter than it is in other racial groups, though there appears to be some inequality in this respect. This shortness would be especially marked if we compared the arm span with the height sitting. It is due essentially to a shortness of the distal half of the upper limbs. The males once more show this disproportion more as compared to other males than the females compared with others of their sex. (See comp. data in Old Americans.) This may be connected in some way with the male Eskimo work and habits; or it may be an expression of a correlative subdevelopment with that of the lower limbs. It is a good point for further study.

_The head._--The head, especially when taken in relation to the stature, is of good size, particularly on the Nunivak Island and on the Yukon. This agrees with what is known of the Eskimo head, skull, and brain elsewhere.

The size of the Eskimo head--which is not caused by a thick skull--will best be appreciated by contrasting it with that of civilized whites. In whites in general the mean head diameter or cephalic module ranges in males from approximately 15.70 to 16.40; in the male western Eskimo groups the range is 15.87 to 16.08, and 16.11 in the group at Marshall on the Yukon. The percentage relation of the module to stature in 12 groups of male whites, including the old Americans, averages _9.31_ to _10.11_; in the male Eskimo groups it is from _9.57_ to _9.94_. In females, the cephalic module is 15.57 in the old Americans, 15.36 to 15.68 in the Eskimo; the relation of the module to stature in the former being _9.59_, in the latter _10.15_ to _10.25_.

In the western Eskimo woman the head dimensions are particularly favorable. In the old American whites the mean head diameter in the female is to that of the male on the average as _95_ to 100; in the two main groups of the western Eskimo it is as _96.1_ and _96.7_ to 100. Nothing is known as to the cause of this apparently favorable status of the Eskimo woman; it is another interesting point for further inquiry.

In shape, the head of the western Eskimo is highly mesocephalic to moderately brachycephalic and of only fair height, and it seldom approaches the scaphoid or dome-shaped. It is not the narrow, high, keeled skull of the northeastern and often the northern Eskimo. The physiognomy, the characteristics of the body, and the mentality and behavior, are in general typical Eskimo; but the form of the vault is substantially different. It is a form which approaches on one side that of the northwesternmost Indian, and on the other that of the northeastern and Mongoloid Asiatics. More must be said about this when we come to consider the skull.

_The forehead._--Anthropometric studies have shown repeatedly[129] that the height of the forehead is not a safe gauge of intelligence, as commonly believed, but is controlled by the variable height of the hair line. Thus the common full-blood American Negro laborer and servant show a slightly higher forehead than the educated old American whites.

Something of a similar nature is found in the Eskimo. As seen in the following table, in the males the western Eskimo forehead is absolutely, and especially relatively to stature, higher than it is in the whites. In the females the absolute height in the two races is identical, but relatively to stature the Eskimo again shows a clear though somewhat lesser advantage. The condition is apparently not due to the size of the head, for this is not greater than in the whites, in the males; while in the females, where the Eskimo shows a slightly larger head than the white in relation to stature, the forehead fails to correspond.

DIMENSIONS OF FOREHEAD