The mind of primitive man : $b A course of lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., and the National University of Mexico, 1910-1911Boas, Franz
Science
The mind of primitive man : $b A course of lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., and the National University of Mexico, 1910-1911
Boas, Franz
Ethnopsychology; Race
There is only one exception to this rule. In all cases in which the
anthropometric traits undergo very considerable changes during the
period of growth, the influence of favorable or unfavorable causes makes
itself felt. The investigations conducted by Gould and Baxter during the
war of the Rebellion have shown that the representatives of European
nationalities born in America have statures higher than the
representatives of the same nationalities born in Europe; and it has
been assumed that better nutrition, or perhaps better hygienic and
economic conditions in general, might increase the stature of a people.
These conclusions were confirmed by Bowditch’s measurements of the
school-children of Boston, and by Peckham’s anthropometric work in
Milwaukee. These changes in stature, due to changed conditions, have
recently been demonstrated also in Europe, where Ammon has shown that
the population of Baden has materially increased in size during the last
thirty years. Other corroborative evidence has been obtained from the
study of various social classes, in which Bowditch found an increase of
stature, beginning with the children of unskilled laborers, and
increasing among those of skilled laborers, members of the mercantile
class and of the professional class; and from the observations showing a
correlation between the character of streets occupied by the well-to-do
and the poor, and the stature of their inhabitants (Ripley).
Nevertheless these changes of stature were not interpreted as changes in
type, because they may well be understood to be due to the elimination
of retarding influences, which prevent many individuals from attaining
their normal growth.
The results of the observations on stature are substantiated by other
anthropometrical studies of various occupations. The best-authenticated
fact, because based on the greatest number of observations, is the
difference in type between sailors and soldiers who were measured during
the war of the Rebellion. It was found that sailors had legs as long as
those of the negroes, and correspondingly a shorter trunk, while their
arms were equally as long as those of the soldiers of the army. We may
also call to mind the investigations carried on in the gymnasiums of our
colleges, which show that a series of measurements which depend largely
upon the functions of groups of muscles change very rapidly under the
influence of practice. It will be acknowledged at once that differences
in the use of muscles during childhood, and continued in later life,
must result in differences of structure, either permanent, or at least
temporary.
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