In shape, the head of the western Eskimo is highly mesocephalic to moderately brachycephalic and of only fair height, and it seldom approaches the scaphoid or dome-shaped. It is not the narrow, high, keeled skull of the northeastern and often the northern Eskimo. The physiognomy, the characteristics of the body, and the mentality and behavior, are in general typical Eskimo; but the form of the vault is substantially different. It is a form which approaches on one side that of the northwesternmost Indian, and on the other that of the northeastern and Mongoloid Asiatics. More must be said about this when we come to consider the skull.
The forehead.—Anthropometric studies have shown repeatedly[129] that the height of the forehead is not a safe gauge of intelligence, as commonly believed, but is controlled by the variable height of the hair line. Thus the common full-blood American Negro laborer and servant show a slightly higher forehead than the educated old American whites.
Something of a similar nature is found in the Eskimo. As seen in the following table, in the males the western Eskimo forehead is absolutely, and especially relatively to stature, higher than it is in the whites. In the females the absolute height in the two races is identical, but relatively to stature the Eskimo again shows a clear though somewhat lesser advantage. The condition is apparently not due to the size of the head, for this is not greater than in the whites, in the males; while in the females, where the Eskimo shows a slightly larger head than the white in relation to stature, the forehead fails to correspond.
| Western Eskimo | Old Americans | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | Male | Female | |
| cm. | cm. | cm. | cm. | |
| Height, nasion to hair line | 6.86 | 6.45 | 6.59 | 6.45 |
| Percentage relation to stature | 4.23 | 4.23 | 3.78 | 3.80 |
| Breadth: Diameter frontal minimum | 10.58 | 10.54 | 10.59 | 10.12 |
| Percentage relation of diameter frontal minimum to breadth of face | 71.1 | 73.7 | 76.4 | 77.8 |
| Forehead index (H×100) (B) | 64.8 | 61.2 | 63.7 | 62.1 |
With the lower breadth of the forehead, conditions are also interesting. The absolute figures for the two races show a reversal. The height of the forehead is larger in the Eskimo than in the white males, equal in the females; the lower frontal breadth is equal in the males but larger in the Eskimo than in the white female. Proportionately to stature, which is so much lower in the Eskimo, both sexes of the latter show an advantage in the dimension over the white.
The percental relation of the breadth of the forehead to that of the face reflects the excess of the latter in the Eskimo, particularly the male. There is evidently not a full direct correlation between the two dimensions. Yet relatively to its height the face is broader in the females than in the males (see below), which is doubtless not without influence on the lower breadth of the forehead in the former.
To summarize, the western Eskimo forehead exceeds in area that of the American whites, in both sexes, and that particularly in relation to stature. As to the individual measurements, the male Eskimo forehead as contrasted with that of the white is especially high, the female especially broad.
To which should be added that in the Eskimo the spheno-temporal region is often remarkably full, almost bulging, so that, contrary to what may be observed in the Negro, the frontal maximum diameter is also probably larger than in the whites, all of which doubtless has significance, even though this is not yet fully understood.
The face.—The principal measurements and relations are given below. They show a face large and especially broad. Moreover, relatively to its height the face is especially broad in the Eskimo female, in connection doubtless with the well-known excess of the work (in softening leather, etc.) of her jaws, with consequent development of the muscles of mastication, which in turn broaden the zygoma.
| Western Eskimo | Old Americans | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | Male | Female | |
| Height, menton-nasion | 12.67 | 11.64 | 12.15 | 11.09 |
| Females to males (M=100) | 91.9 | 91.3 | ||
| Diameter bizygomatic maximum | 14.88 | 14.30 | 13.87 | 12.99 |
| Females to males (M=100) | 96.1 | 93.6 | ||
| Facial index, anatomic | 85.2 | 81.4 | 87.6 | 85.4 |
| Facial module (or mean diameter), anatomic | 13.77 | 12.97 | 13.01 | 12.04 |
| Female to male (M=100) | 94.2 | 92.5 | ||
| Percentage relation of female and male to stature | 8.49 | 8.50 | 7.46 | 7.44 |