Man, Past and PresentKeane, A. H. (Augustus Henry)
History
Man, Past and Present
Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry)
Anthropology; Ethnology
The differences of opinion between Hrdli[vc]ka and other students is
probably more a question of nomenclature than of fact. The eastern
Asiatics and Polynesians are mixed peoples, and if there were numerous
migrations from Asia, spread over a very long period of time, people of
different stocks would have found their way into America. "It is indeed
probable," Hrdli[vc]ka adds, "that the western coast of America, within
the last two thousand years, was on more than one occasion reached by
small parties of Polynesians, and that the eastern coast was similarly
reached by small groups of whites; but these accretions have not
modified greatly, if at all, the mass of the native population[750]."
The inhabitants of the plains east of the Rocky Mountains and the
eastern wooded area are characterised by a head which varies about the
lower limit of brachycephaly, and by tall stature. This stock probably
arrived by the North Pacific Bridge before the end of the last Glacial
period, and extended over the continent east of the great divide.
Finally bands from the north, east and south migrated into the prairie
area. The markedly brachycephalic immigrants from Asia appear to have
proceeded mainly down the Pacific slope and to have populated Central
and South America, with an overflow into the south of North America. It
is probable that there were several migrations of allied but not similar
broad-headed peoples from Asia in early days, and we know that recently
there have been racial and cultural drifts between the neighbouring
portions of America and Asia[751]. Indeed Bogoras[752] suggests that
ethnographically the line separating Asia and America should lie from
the lower Kolyma River to Gishiga Bay.
Owing to these various immigrations and subsequent minglings the cranial
forms show much variation, and are not sufficiently significant to serve
as a basis of classification. In parts of North America the round-headed
mound-builders and others were encroached upon by populations of
increasingly dolichocephalic type--Plains Indians and Cherokees,
Chichimecs, Tepanecs, Acolhuas. Even still dolichocephaly is
characteristic of Iroquois, Coahuilas, Sonorans, while the intermediate
indices met with on the prairies and plateaux undoubtedly indicate the
mixture between the long-headed invaders and the round-heads whom they
swept aside as they advanced southwards. Thus the Minnetaris are highly
dolicho; the Poncas and Osages sub-brachy; the Algonquians variable,
while the Siouans oscillate widely round a mesaticephalous mean.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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