Abstract
Anthropology of Carpathian Ruthenia.?A study of the racial characters of the Ruthenian inhabitants of the upland valleys of the Carpathians has been made by Prof. V. Suk, of which a preliminary report has been published (No. 150, Pub. Fac. Sci. Univ. Masaryk). The native Sclavonic population lives in long narrow villages which often extend for several miles along the deep valleys of the mountains. They fall into two groups, between which there are considerable cultural differences. They speak the same language but with dialectical variation. The Huculs, the eastern group, have dark hair, eyes, and skin, and are of tall stature, averaging five feet eight to nine inches, many men reaching six feet. The head is brachycephalic (av. index 84). Dinaric faces are not rare? but these have green-blue or dark blue eyes. Other members of this population have features approaching the Alpine? but the average complexion is darker than is usual in?alpine? countries. On the whole, they are healthy. Tuberculosis is rare? but goitre is common. The western group, known by different names locally, is much poorer and of lower status. The skin is lighter than in the east and at times shows a yellowish tinge. The eyes are brown, green-brown, and blue, the latter usually with brown hair of the lighter shades. The stature is lower and the Dinaric face is absent, but faces of Laplander type are common. There is also a number of indeterminate types, some of which approach the?alpine? type, though with lighter complexions. The people are much less healthy than the Huculs. Tuberculosis is common, in some villages rising so high as forty per cent among the children. Adults without goitre are rarely seen.
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Research Items. Nature 130, 171–173 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130171a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130171a0