Alaska -- Antiquities; Eskimos; Eskimos -- Anthropometry; Indians of North America -- Alaska; Indians of North America -- Yukon
A comparison of considerable interest is also that of the cranial
module or mean diameter, to the capacity of the same skulls. This
comparison reveals an important sex factor.[148] Relatively to the
module, the capacity is very appreciably smaller in the female than
it is in the male. This is a universal condition to which, so far as
known, there are occasional individual but no group exceptions. It
appears very clearly in the Eskimo. In 283 western male Eskimo skulls
in which we have so far measured the capacity,[149] the module averages
15.38 centimeters, the capacity 1,490 cubic centimeters; while in 382
female skulls thus far gauged the former averages 14.82 centimeters,
the latter 1,337 cubic centimeters. The percentage relation of the
capacity to the module, the numbers taken as a whole, is _96.8_ in the
males but only _90.2_ in the females. This means that relatively to the
external size of the skull the female Eskimo brain is 6.66 per cent
smaller. Similar sex disproportion exists in other American groups as
well as elsewhere. Some day when suitable data accumulate it will be of
much interest to study this condition on a wider scale.
FOOTNOTES:
[148] See writer's "Relation of the Size of the Head and Skull to
Capacity in the Two Sexes," Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 1925, VIII, No. 3.
[149] All measured de novo by my aide, T. D. Stewart; for procedure see
my "Anthropometry."
ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON CRANIAL MODULE
Before we leave this subject, it may be well to point out two
noteworthy facts apparent from the data on the northwestern and
northeastern groups. The first is that the figures on both sexes
from Barrow and Point Barrow are very nearly the same, suggesting
strongly the identity of the people of the two settlements; and the
Point Hope group is in close relation. The second fact is the curious
identity of the old Igloo group, 8 miles southwest of Barrow, with the
Greenlanders. The import of this will be seen later.
SKULL SHAPE
Utilizing the materials of the Otis and Barnard Davis Catalogues and
with measurements taken for him on additional specimens in several of
our museums, Boas, in 1895 (Verh. Berl. anthrop. Ges., 398), as already
mentioned, reported the cranial index of 37 "western Eskimo" skulls
of both sexes (without giving localities or details) as _77_. He also
reports in the same place (p. 391) the cephalic index of 61 probably
male living "Alaska Eskimo," again without locality, as _79.2_. These
rather high indices and the relatively elevated stature (61 subjects,
165.8 centimeters) lead him to believe (p. 376) that both are probably
due to an admixture with the Alaskan Indian, though the report contains
no measurements of the latter.
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