FOOTNOTES:
[154] Thomson, Arthur, The correlation of isotherms with variations in the nasal index. Proc. Seventeenth Intern. Cong. Med., London, 1913, Sec. I, Anatomy and Embryology, pt. II, 89; Thomson, Arthur, and Buxton, L. H. D., Man's nasal index in relation to certain climatic conditions, Journ. Roy. Anthrop. Inst., LIII, 92-122, London, 1923. Additional references in these publications; also in the latter an extensive list of data on nasal index in many parts of the world.
THE ORBITS
In many American groups the orbits are notoriously variable, yet their mean dimensions and index are of value.
The Eskimo orbits have long been known for their ample proportions. Their mean height and breadth are larger than those of any other known people and the excess is especially apparent when proportioned to stature. Taking the family as a whole, the mean height of the two orbits in males averages approximately 3.64 centimeters, the mean breadth 4.03 centimeters; while the males of 23 Algonquian tribes give for the same items 3.42 and 3.93, and those of 12 Siouan tribes 3.58 and 3.96 centimeters.
The general averages for the female Eskimo approach for orbital height 3.52 centimeters, for breadth 3.89 centimeters, dimensions which also surpass those in the females of any other known human group.
These large dimensions of the Eskimo orbit are, however, on closer examination into the matter, found not to be racial characters except in a secondary way. They are the direct consequence of the high and broad face. The correlation of the orbital height and breadth with the height and breadth of the face are shown by the following figures. These figures indicate also some additional details of interest.
| MALES | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Height | Breadth | Index | ||||
| Right | Left | Right | Left | Right | Left | |
| (145) | (145) | (145) | ||||
| St. Lawrence Island | 3.67 | 3.68 | 4.05 | 4.01 | 90.7 | 91.8 |
| (41) | (41) | (41) | ||||
| Nunivak Island | 3.59 | 3.59 | 4.05 | 4.— | 88.7 | 89.7 |
| (120) | (120) | (120) | ||||
| Point Hope | 3.63 | 3.63 | 4.05 | 4.01 | 89.6 | 90.5 |
| (46) | (46) | (46) | ||||
| Greenland | 3.64 | 3.65 | 4.02 | 3.96 | 90.6 | 92.1 |
| FEMALES | ||||||
| (128) | (128) | (128) | ||||
| St. Lawrence Island | 3.62 | 3.60 | 3.92 | 3.89 | 91.7 | 92.6 |
| (58) | (58) | (58) | ||||
| Nunivak Island | 3.50 | 3.52 | 3.88 | 3.84 | 90.2 | 91.6 |
| (70) | (70) | (70) | ||||
| Point Hope | 3.54 | 3.54 | 3.91 | 3.88 | 90.5 | 91.4 |
| (45) | (45) | (45) | ||||
| Greenland | 3.55 | 3.56 | 3.86 | 3.83 | 91.9 | 92.9 |
The general orbital index of the Eskimo is close to 90 in the males, 90.5 in the females. Such orbits are classed as also relatively high or megaseme, a character in which they resemble many of the American Indians. Thus the male crania of the Siouan tribes give the practically identical general index of 90.5.
The slightly higher index in the females is the rule to which there are but few exceptions, and those in individual groups where the numbers of specimens may not be sufficient. The same tendency is observable in the Indians, and appears in fact to be panhuman. It is due to slightly lesser relative height as compared to the breadth of the orbit in the males, which condition is due in all probability to the greater development in the males of the frontal sinuses and supraorbital arches.
Individual variation in the orbital index of the Eskimo is extensive, reaching from slightly below 80 to well over 100. It extends more or less over the whole Eskimo area, without conveying definite indication anywhere of either a mixture or of a special evolutionary tendency. Yet it occasions group differences that eventually might prove evolutionary, though they may merely represent the next or higher order of variability, namely, that of groups within a family.
| Area | Males | Females | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean height | Mean breadth | Mean index | Mean height | Mean breadth | Mean index | |
| (13) | (13) | (13) | (13) | (13) | (13) | |
| South and Midwestern | 3.63 | 4.01 | 90.6 | 3.56 | 3.87 | 92.1 |
| (6) | (6) | (6) | (6) | (6) | (6) | |
| Northwestern | 3.62 | 4.02 | 90.1 | 3.51 | 3.92 | 89.7 |
| (5) | (5) | (5) | (5) | (5) | (5) | |
| Northern Arctic and northeastern | 3.65 | 4.07 | 89.5 | 3.54 | 3.91 | 90.6 |
The group differences in the orbital index of the Eskimo skull are shown in the next table. They elude a satisfactory explanation, unless recourse is had to the above suggested theory of normal group variability within a family. They have about the same range in the three large areas, which would seem to support this theory.
Group relations are indicated in the cases of Pastolik-Yukon Delta-St. Michael Island; Point Barrow-Barrow; and Old Igloos-Greenland.
| Southwestern and midwestern | |
|---|---|
| (10) | |
| Mumtrak | 88.4 |
| (11) | |
| Little Diomede Island | 89.4 |
| (6) | |
| Cape Nome and Port Clarence | 89.7 |
| (101) | |
| Nunivak Island | 90.1 |
| (31) | |
| Indian Point (Siberia) | 90.3 |
| (5) | |
| Chukchee | 90.6 |
| (6) | |
| Pilot Station, Lower Yukon | 91.0 |
| (5) | |
| Southwest Alaska | 91.4 |
| (271) | |
| St. Lawrence Island | 91.7 |
| (24) | |
| Nelson Island | 91.9 |
| (13) | |
| Hooper Bay | 92.5 |
| (29) | |
| Pastolik | 93.2 |
| (7) | |
| Togiak | 93.3 |
| (4) | |
| Yukon Delta | 93.8 |
| (13) | |
| St. Michael Island | 94.4 |
| Northwestern | |
| (3) | |
| Kotzebue | 86.1 |
| (20) | |
| Shishmaref | 88.9 |
| (34) | |
| Wales | 89.4 |
| (85) | |
| Point Barrow | 90.3 |
| (200) | |
| Point Hope | 90.4 |
| (53) | |
| Barrow | 91.1 |
| (43) | |
| Igloos north of Barrow | 91.1 |
| Northern and northeastern | |
| (9) | |
| Smith Sound | 87.6 |
| (13) | |
| Southampton Island | 88.4 |
| (28) | |
| Baffin Land and vicinity | 90.0 |
| (16) | |
| Northern Arctic | 91.0 |
| (94) | |
| Greenland | 91.6 |
| (7) | |
| Hudson Bay and vicinity | 92.3 |
THE UPPER ALVEOLAR ARCH
The dental arches correlate with function (use), with stature, with the dimensions of the face, and with those of the teeth. The western as well as other Eskimo show arches that are about equal in absolute dimensions to those of our taller Indians, such as the Munsee, Arkansas, and Louisiana;[155] but relatively to stature the Eskimo arch is decidedly larger.
The upper dental arch index L×100
B, now being used in preference to the unwieldy "uranic index" B×100
L of Turner, is rather high, showing that the arch is relatively, as well as absolutely, broad. The same index in the Munsee averaged in the males 82.8, in the females 82.7; in the Arkansas and Louisiana mound skulls 84.4 in the males and 85.1 in the females. Data are needed here for more extensive comparisons.
| Males | Females | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| External length | External breadth | Module (mean diameter) | Index L×100 B | External length | External breadth | Module (mean diameter) | Index L×100 B | |
| 11 groups: | ||||||||
| Southwestern and Midwestern | 5.56 | 6.66 | 6.11 | 83.5 | 5.34 | 6.38 | 5.86 | 83.8 |
| 6 groups: | ||||||||
| Northwestern | 5.63 | 6.61 | 6.12 | 85.1 | 5.38 | 6.31 | 5.85 | 85.2 |
| 5 groups: | ||||||||
| Northern Arctic and northeastern | 5.68 | 6.75 | 6.21 | 84.2 | 5.37 | 6.28 | 5.83 | 85.6 |
| Southwestern and Midwestern | |
|---|---|
| (5) | |
| Pilot Station, Lower Yukon | 79.4 |
| (8) | |
| Togiak and vicinity | 80.5 |
| (4) | |
| Chukchee | 81.1 |
| (12) | |
| Hooper Bay | 81.7 |
| (9) | |
| Mumtrak | 81.7 |
| (9) | |
| Little Diomede Island | 82.2 |
| (234) | |
| St. Lawrence Island | 83.0 |
| (10) | |
| St. Michael Island | 84.3 |
| (22) | |
| Pastolik | 84.4 |
| (90) | |
| Nunivak Island | 84.4 |
| (4) | |
| Southwest Alaska | 84.7 |
| (5) | |
| Cape Nome and Port Clarence | 84.9 |
| (22) | |
| Indian Point (Siberia) | 85.0 |
| (22) | |
| Nelson Island | 85.5 |
| Northwestern | |
| (39) | |
| Igloos north of Barrow | 84.1 |
| (14) | |
| Shishmaref | 84.4 |
| (171) | |
| Point Hope | 84.6 |
| (31) | |
| Wales | 84.9 |
| (38) | |
| Barrow | 85.8 |
| (66) | |
| Point Barrow | 87.1 |
| Northern and northeastern | |
| (9) | |
| Smith Sound | 82.7 |
| (13) | |
| Southampton Island | 83.7 |
| (7) | |
| Hudson Bay and vicinity | 84.4 |
| (23) | |
| Baffin Land and vicinity | 85.7 |
| (89) | |
| Greenland | 85.9 |
| (10) | |
| Northern Arctic | 86.5 |
Sex differences in the index are small, nevertheless the females tend to show a slightly higher index, due to relatively slightly smaller breadth of the arch.
The size of the arch and its index differ but little over the three main areas of the Eskimo territory, yet there are slight differences. They appear plainly in the following table. Notwithstanding the fact that on the whole the southwestern and midwestern groups are somewhat taller than those of the far north and northeast, the largest palate, in the males at least, is found in the latter area.
In the southwest and midwest the upper alveolar arch is relatively (as well as absolutely, barring one group) somewhat broad and short. This may be in correlation with the broader head in this area, just as the absolutely slightly longer palates over the rest of the Eskimo territory and particularly (in males) in the northeast may correlate with the longer heads in those regions. This point may be tested on our splendid material from St. Lawrence Island. Taking the broadest and the narrowest skulls from this locality, the following data are obtained for the proportions of the upper dental arch:
| Males | Females | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Narrowest skulls (C. I. 70.7-73.5) | Broadest skulls (80.6-83.1) | Narrowest skulls (70.3-74.2) | Broadest skulls (80.9-83.8) | |
| Length | 5.68 | 5.58 | 5.52 | 5.20 |
| Breadth | 6.83 | 6.77 | 6.66 | 6.36 |
| Index | 83.2 | 82.4 | 82.9 | 82.7 |
| Mean diameter | 6.26 | 6.18 | 6.09 | 5.78 |
| Mean cranial diameter (cranial module) of same skulls | 15.61 | 15.49 | 14.97 | 14.73 |
| Percentage relation of mean dental arch diameter to the mean diameter of the skull | 40.1 | 39.8 | 40.7 | 39.2 |
| Length of same skulls | 19.21 | 18.10 | 18.35 | 17.25 |
| Percentage relation of length of dental arch to that of skull | 29.5 | 30.8 | 30.1 | 30.1 |
The above figures show several conditions. The first is that the arch is quite distinctly larger in the narrow than in the broad skulls in both sexes. The second fact is that the skull (vault) itself is slightly larger in the narrow-headed. The third is that the length of the arch is somewhat greater in the narrow and long skulls than it is in the broad and shorter, relatively to the skull size. The fourth is that there appears a close correlation, more particularly in the females, between the length of the arch and that of the skull.