Abstract
CALIFORNIAN ANTHROPOMETRY.—A valuable contribution to the physical anthropology of the American-Indian people is made in a comprehensive study of the available measurements on the living and on crania which is published by Mr. Edward Winslow Gifford as Part 2 of vol. 22 of the University of California Publication in American Archæology and Ethnology. The aborigines of California fall into two main groups, one low-faced, the other high-faced. The low-faced group constitutes the Yuki type, with high nasal index, relatively low cephalic index, and short stature. The high-faced group is variable in nasal and cephalic index and medium to tall in stature. This group is divided into a broad-headed sub-group of wide distribution—the Californian type, divisible into narrow - nosed, broad - nosed, and tall; and secondly, a narrow-headed, narrow-nosed sub-group, the Western Mono type. The cranial material is not so representative in distribution as the measurements from the living; but it affords seven types, of which three may be local specialisations of a fundamental type with medium facial, medium to high cephalic, and medium nasal indices. This fundamental type appears to have as its nearest living representative the Californian type. Unfortunately a comparison between living and cranial measurements is impossible, as the two classes of material do not coincide in distribution. In the case of the Yuki, where there is adequate material, there is practically no difference between living and dead. Nowhere is there any indication of stratification of types. In the matter of extra-Californian relations, Boas reports a type from the coast of British Columbia with cephalic index 77–81, which resembles the Yuki, while the Californian type suggests Boas's brachycephalic type, the Tinneh. His Kwakiutl and Shuswap suggest the narrow-nosed sub-type of the Californian. The Athabascans of California do not correspond to this type, such of them as the Wailaki and the Kato being of the Yuki type.
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Research Items. Nature 117, 767–769 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/117767a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/117767a0