Long Bones in Eskimo and Stature
One of the most desirable of possibilities in the anthropometry of any people, but particularly in groups now extinct, is a correct estimation of their stature. For this purpose the most useful aid has been found in the long bones, and various essays have been made by Manouvrier, Rollet, Topinard, Pearson, and others[198] at preparing tables or arriving at methods that would enable the student to promptly and satisfactorily obtain the stature as it was in life from the length of the long bones. But all these essays were based on observations on white people, and it has always been recognized that they could not with equal confidence be applied to other racial groups. They would in all probability be especially inapplicable to the Eskimo with his relatively short forearms and legs; yet the possibility of estimating the stature in many localities of the Eskimo territory, where no living remain, would be of real value. Fortunately for this purpose there are now some data on hand which make this possible.
In 1910, in my Contributions to the Anthropology of the Central and Smith Sound Eskimo, I was able to report both the stature and the length of the long bones in two normally developed adult males and one adult female from Smith Sound. To this it is now possible to add larger though less direct data from the group of St. Lawrence Island. We have the stature of many of the living from this place and also the measurements of numerous long bones from the dead of the same group. The relations of the two are given below, together with corresponding data from Smith Sound. There is in general such a striking agreement in the relative proportions that the latter may, it would seem, be used henceforth for stature estimates also in other parts of the Eskimo region.