Page:The American Indian.djvu/362

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300
THE AMERICAN INDIAN

face. This belief is, in the main, justified, when we review the measurements that have been made. The studies of Boas[1] and Jenks[2] upon mixed-blood Indians in the United States, show that the relative width of face among these is still greater than in case of whites, while reference to the accompanying table shows a very positive difference between the whites and full-blood Indians, in both North and South America. Thus, it is generally true that the New World peoples are characterized by broad faces. This feature is strongly accented in the Eskimo, but not sufficiently to place them in a class by themselves. Of Old World peoples, the broad faces are chiefly among Asiatics.

VALUES OF FACE-BREADTH HEAD-BREADTH INDEX FOR MALES

(Compiled from Jenks[3])

Nationality Number Index
Scotch 50 90.34
French 100 90.85
Mixed-Indian 60 94.68
Mixed-Indian 8 92.14
Mixed-Indian 12 92.52
Mixed-Peruvian 24 90.40
Ojibway 24 97.19
Mexican 2300 94.90
Apache 148 94.30
Pima 51 98.63
Peruvian 124 95.30


FLATTENING OF THE FEMUR

Another anatomical trait supposed to characterize native Americans is an excessive flattening of the femur, or platymeria. A résumé of the literature, however, leaves one in doubt that any such variation can be definitely assigned to the New World as a whole, though some reports of Hrdlicka[4] suggest that Indians differ from whites and negroes. The same can be stated for flattening of the tibia, or platycnemia. If the theory of Manouvrier that the phenomenon is dependent upon the muscular development of the individual, is accepted, then these flattenings of the shafts have no racial significance. (For a brief résumé, see Duckworth.[5])

  1. Boas, 1895. I.
  2. Jenks, 1916. I.
  3. Jenks, 1916. I.
  4. Hrdlicka, 1916. I.
  5. Duckworth, 1904. I, p. 317.