FOOTNOTES:
[142] Skeletal Measurements and Observations of the Point Barrow Eskimo, Amer. Anthrop., n. s. XVIII, pp. 203-244, Lancaster, 1916.
[143] In 1928 Mr. Collins brought another important accession to these collections.
SKULL SIZE
The external size of the skull is best expressed by the cranial module or mean of the three principal diameters; the internal size, respectively the volume of the brain, by the "cranial capacity."
The module among the southwestern and midwestern Eskimo averages 15.44 centimeters in the males and 14.77 centimeters in the females. For people of submedium stature these are good dimensions. Fifty-two male and 40 female skulls of the much taller Sioux (writer's unpublished data) give the modules of only 15.25 and 14.27 centimeters; while 6 male and 9 female Munsee Indians, also tall,[144] give practically the same values as these Eskimos, namely 15.48 centimeters for the males and 14.75 centimeters for the females.
Not all the western groups, however, give equally favorable proportions. In general, the coast people below Norton Sound, and especially below the Yukon, give, so far as the males are concerned, the lowest values. It is interesting to note that it is precisely these people who among the western Eskimo are reputed to be about the lowest also in culture. The Togiak and near-by Kulukak males showed, as seen before, also about the smallest head in the living. The St. Lawrence Island males stand just about the middle, but the females of this island, as, interestingly, also in the living, show markedly less favorably. The Nunivak skulls, as with the living, are somewhat above the average, while in the small Pilot Station (Yukon) group, just as in the near-by contingent of Marshall among the living, the males have the largest heads in this western territory. The lower Yukon Eskimo were also shown, it may be recalled, to be of a higher stature than the majority of the coast people. It is a group that deserves further attention.
The module of the female skull does not evidently stand always in harmony with that of the male. The most striking example of this is shown, as already mentioned, by the St. Lawrence Island females, both skulls and the living. The females of this isolated island are also unduly short, but their small head is not entirely due to the defective stature. There must exist on this island, it would seem, some conditions that are disadvantageous to the female. In the small groups, such as that from the Little Diomede, the disharmonies are doubtless partly due to small numbers of specimens, but there may also be other factors, such as the bringing in of women from other places.[145]
Taking the mean of all the groups equalizes conditions, and it is seen that the module in both sexes is almost identical with that of the more northern groups, to Point Barrow. But the north Arctic and northeastern groups give a cranial module that in both sexes is somewhat higher, though their stature, according to the available data (Deniker, Boas, Duckworth, Steensby, Thalbitzer), is not superior.
A very remarkable showing is that of the percentage relation of the female to male skull size in the three large groupings. In the first two it is identical, in the third it differs less than could confidently be expected among the closest relatives. Another remarkable fact is that this important relation is found to be much like that in the Eskimo in various groups of Indians; thus it was 96 in the Indians of Arkansas and Louisiana,[3] 95.5 in the Munsee of New Jersey,[146] and 96.4 in the Indian skulls of California.[147] But it is only 93.6 in the Sioux (52 male, 40 female skulls) and differs more or less also in other tribes and peoples. A comprehensive study of this relation, with due respect to age, will some day well repay the effort.
| Southwestern and midwestern | ||
|---|---|---|
| Males | Females | |
| (5) | (7) | |
| Togiak | 15.21 | 14.73 |
| (4) | (6) | |
| Mumtrak | 15.22 | 14.68 |
| (3) | (2) | |
| Southwestern Alaska | 15.25 | 14.90 |
| (9) | (4) | |
| Hooper Bay | 15.30 | 14.68 |
| (8) | (6) | |
| St. Michael Island | 15.30 | 14.72 |
| (5) | (7) | |
| Little Diomede Island | 15.33 | 15.09 |
| (14) | (20) | |
| Pastolik and Yukon Delta | 15.34 | 14.83 |
| (145) | (128) | |
| St. Lawrence Island | 15.42 | 14.27 |
| (4) | (2) | |
| Golovnin Bay to Cape Nome | 15.52 | 14.65 |
| (46) | (70) | |
| Nunivak Island | 15.53 | 14.90 |
| (13) | (16) | |
| Indian Point (Siberia) | 15.54 | 14.88 |
| (3) | (2) | |
| Chukchee | 15.56 | 15.05 |
| (4) | (1) | |
| Port Clarence | 15.57 | (14.57) |
| (9) | (16) | |
| Nelson Island | 15.59 | 14.64 |
| (3) | (3) | |
| Pilot Station, Yukon | 15.91 | 15 |
| (275) | (290) | |
| General averages, approximately | 15.44 | 14.77 |
| Females vs. males (M=100) | 95.7 | |
| Northwestern | ||
| (2) | (1) | |
| Kotzebue Sound | 15.05 | (14.67) |
| (12) | (8) | |
| Shishmaref | 15.19 | 14.71 |
| (132) | (84) | |
| Point Hope | 15.37 | 14.72 |
| (47) | (52) | |
| Point Barrow | 15.45 | 14.75 |
| (35) | (34) | |
| Barrow and vicinity | 15.46 | 14.66 |
| (27) | (24) | |
| Old Igloos near Barrow | 15.52 | 14.72 |
| (19) | (14) | |
| Wales | 15.66 | 14.86 |
| (274) | (217) | |
| General averages, approximately | 15.39 | 14.73 |
| Females vs. males (M=100) | 95.7 | |
| Northern and northeastern | ||
| (49) | (52) | |
| Greenland | 15.51 | 14.72 |
| (5) | (2) | |
| Hudson Bay and vicinity | 15.55 | 14.57 |
| (16) | (17) | |
| Baffin Land and vicinity | 15.55 | 15.04 |
| (6) | (10) | |
| Northern Arctic | 15.63 | 14.85 |
| (9) | (6) | |
| Southampton Island | 15.65 | 15.18 |
| (7) | (2) | |
| Smith Sound | 15.81 | 15.15 |
| (92) | (89) | |
| General averages, approximately | 15.62 | 14.92 |
| Females vs. males (M=100) | 95.5 | |