A Racial Study of the Fijians

by Norman E. Gabel

Ear-Lobe Type

	Soldered	Attached	Free	Total
	No. %	No. %	No. %
Fiji I	80 10	531 65	202 25	813
Interior	47 31	74 48	32 21	153
East	3 3	85 71	32 27	120
Coast	9 4	141 67	59 28	209
N.W.	5 6	52 66	22 28	79

Ear-Lobe Size

	Subm.	+	++	+++	Total
	No. %	No. %	No. %	No. %
Fiji I	176 22	457 56	178 22	2 0	813
Interior	49 32	66 43	38 25	0 0	153
East	16 13	76 63	27 23	1 1	120
Coast	31 15	123 59	55 26	0 0	209
N.W.	20 25	47 59	12 15	0 0	79

Ear Protrusion

	Absent	Subm.	+	++	Total
	No. %	No. %	No. %	No. %
Fiji I	2 0	262 32	463 57	86 11	813
Interior	1 1	47 31	90 59	15 10	153
East	0 0	31 26	77 64	12 10	120
Coast	1 0	75 36	114 55	19 9	209
N.W.	0 0	26 33	49 62	4 5	79

Ear Slant

	Absent	Subm.	+	Total
	No. %	No. %	No. %
Fiji I	416 51	332 41	65 8	813
Interior	78 51	67 44	8 5	153
East	55 46	52 43	13 11	120
Coast	118 56	74 35	17 8	209
N.W.	38 48	39 49	2 3	79

The Fijian ear is a moderately distinctive appendage from a racial standpoint. The helix shows moderate development on the whole and is submedium otherwise except for a 9 per cent incidence of pronounced appearance. Regional variation is small.

The Darwin's point is noted in a number of cases: 4 per cent to a submedium degree and 2 per cent medium.