Some years ago I proposed a classification of the human races, based solely on physical characters.[330] Taking into account all the new data of anthropological science, I endeavoured, as do the botanists, to form natural groups by combining the different characters (colour of the skin, nature of the hair, stature, form of the head, of the nose, etc.), and I thus managed to separate mankind into thirteen races. Continuing the analysis further, I was able to give a detailed description of the thirty sub-divisions of these races, which I called types, and which it would have been better to call secondary races, or briefly “races.” A mass of new material, and my own researches, have compelled me since then to modify this classification. This is how it may be summarised in the form of a table, giving to my former “types” the title of race or sub-races, and grouping them under six heads—
My table contains the enumeration of the principal somatic characters for each race. Arranged dichotomically for convenience of research, it does not represent the exact grouping of the races according to their true affinities. It would be vain to attempt to exhibit these affinities in the lineal arrangement of a table; each race, in fact, manifests some points of resemblance, not only with its neighbours in the upper or lower part of the table, but also with others which are remote from it, in view of the technical necessities of construction of such a table. In order to exhibit the affinities in question, it would be necessary to arrange the groups according to the three dimensions of space, or at least on a surface where we can avail ourselves of two dimensions. In the ensuing table (p. [289]) are included twenty-nine races, combined into seventeen groups, arranged in such a way that races having greatest affinities one with another are brought near together. Seven of these groups only are composed of more than one race. They may be called as follows (see the table):—XIII., American group; XII., Oceanian; II., Negroid; VIII., North African; XVI., Eurasian; X., Melanochroid; IX., Xanthochroid. This table shows us clearly that the Bushman race, for example, has affinities with the Negritoes (short stature) and the Negroes (nature of the hair, form of nose); that the Dravidian race is connected both with the Indonesian and the Australian; that the place of the Turkish race is, by its natural affinities, between the Ugrians and the Mongols; that the Eskimo have Mongoloid and American features; that the Assyroids are closely related to the Adriatics and the Indo-Afghans; that the latter, by the dark colour of their skin, recall the Ethiopians, and the Arabs by the shape of the face, etc. Here are, moreover, some details of the twenty-nine races (marked by their numbers of order) of the first table, and of the seventeen groups of the second (marked in Roman figures).
I. 1. The Bushman race is found in a relative state of purity among the people called Bushmen (Fig. [24]), and less pure among the Hottentots (Fig. [143]). The presence of the Bushman type may be detected among a great number of Negro peoples to the south of the equator (for example, among the Bechuana and Kiokos, etc.).
II. The Negroid group comprises three races: Negrito, Negro, and Melanesian.
2. The Negrito race may be split up into two sub-races: a, the Negrilloes of Africa, of which the pure representatives are the Akkas, the Batuas, and other sub-dolichocephalic pigmies; and b, the Negritoes of Asia (Andamanese, Fig. [124], black Sakai, Fig. [123], Aetas, etc.), mesocephalic or sub-brachycephalic, of a little taller stature than the Negrilloes. The presence of Negrito elements has been noticed among different Bantu negroes (for example, among the Adumas). As to the influence of the Negrito type on that of the Malays, the Jakuns, certain Indonesians, etc., it is perfectly well recognised.
3. The Negroes may likewise be sub-divided into two sub-races: a, the Nigritians, of the Sudan (Fig. [140]) and of Guinea (Fig. [9]), more prognathous (more “negroid,” if we may thus express it) than b, the Bantus of sub-equatorial and southern Africa (Figs. [47], [141], and [142]). The Negro element is strongly represented in the mixed populations of Africa (certain Berbers and Ethiopians, islanders of Madagascar). The majority of the Negroes of America belong to the Negritic sub-race.
4. The Melanesian race differs from the Negro race especially in having less woolly hair with broader spirals (see p. [39]), and the skin a lighter colour. It comprises two variations or sub-races: one with elongated ovoid face, hooked nose, especially prevalent in New Guinea (Papuan sub-race, Figs. [53] and [152]), and the other with squarer and heavier face, which occupies the rest of Melanesia (Melanesian sub-race properly so called, Fig. [153]).[331] The first of these sub-races enters into the composition of several mixed tribes of Celebes, Gilolo, Flores (Figs. [146] to [148]), Timur, and other islands of the Asiatic Archipelago situated farther to the east.
III. 5. The Ethiopian race forms by itself the third group. It is preserved fairly pure among certain Bejas (Fig. [138]) and the Gallas, but is modified by the admixture of Arab blood among the Somalis, Abyssinians, etc., and by Negro blood among the Zandehs (Niam-Niams, etc.), and especially among the Fulbé or Peuls, though among the latter fine Ethiopian types, almost pure, are still met with (Fig. [139]).