Indian types of beauty

by Robert W. Shufeldt

The men among the Mojaves, too, are generally splendid examples of muscular development, and have finely proportioned figures, whereas it is the exception to find, in this interesting tribe, any women that we would even consider to be at all good-looking. My figure presents two Mojave women; the one sitting down is Sowatcha, and the other standing at her side is Luli-pah. They are both married, as is indicated by the vertical tattoo lines upon their chins, and a glance is sufficient to satisfy us that they are very different appearing from any of the Indian women we have thus far examined. Sowatcha typifies her sex as we find them among this tribe. Her costume consists solely of a half dozen coils of beads worn as a necklace about her neck, and a calico skirt made fast at the waist by a string, and falling as far as the feet. Luli-pah, her companion, even lacks the necklace, otherwise her dress is the same (Fig. 7).

These women have heavy heads of black hair, which they bang square across just above the eyes, to points immediately in front of the temples; here it falls again down the sides of the face and head, being cut squarely off below at a level with the shoulders. Sowatcha has a broad, homely face, with very high cheek-bones, made the more conspicuous by the horizontally disposed figures she has painted upon them. The redeeming feature is the nose, which is straight and aquiline, and of just proportions; and the eyes beam with good nature and merriment, and these Mojave women are noted for dispositions that fully respond to both these characteristics.

Younger than Sowatcha, Luli-pah is far better looking, a fact that is principally due to a lack of prominence of her cheek-bones, and her regular suboval face. She has also a better mouth and nose, and is decidedly more shapely in other particulars.

Unconfined by any of the contrivances for the distortion of the figure in use by the sex of our own people, the forms of these Mojave women are from Nature’s own mold, and in contour correspond to all that Nature has designed. Take Luli-pah as an example, and it will be seen that she has a fine chest and shoulders, and what is still more remarkable, her waist has a natural girth about equaling in circumference that of her chest. Judged in the light of what critical anthropometric law often demands, such a figure must be considered quite symmetrical, and in some respects should delight the eye of the anthropologist. Her arms are decidedly well formed, the wrists and hands small, and the fingers tapering, and, as we might naturally expect, these native gifts are sustained by a harmony in outline for the remainder of her figure.

Fig. 7. MOJAVE WOMEN.

Mojavian history, both past and present, is replete with interest; their traditional myths; their religious practices and dances; the very meaning of all their various corporeal tattooings; their medical arts, manufactures, pictographs, and notions of the universe being by no means behind in this particular those of the other tribes of Indians herein enumerated. I cannot, however, dwell upon them in this place; but must pass to the consideration of those differences seen in the appearances of a woman coming from the tribe of the Yumas. Such a one is shown in an accompanying illustration, and, whatever the male representatives of these remarkable Indians may think of her claims to beauty, I am constrained to believe, that we must draw the line here. Indeed, as we gaze upon the features and costume of this Yuma squaw, it must seem strange to many of us that she is in reality an inhabitant, with many of her kind, of the same country as ourselves. Her hair is worn much in the same style as we found it among the Mojave women, but has been allowed to grow longer at the sides. She has painted it across in four horizontal bands—one near the top of the head, one an inch or more above her bangs, another on the line of the mouth, and the last one on the ends. The two latter, of course, are interrupted by the face and neck. This paint is usually made of ochre, clay, charcoal and oil, but the various paints they use, their methods of preparing them, and their reasons for using them, would form quite a long chapter of itself. This woman has also painted certain significant lines upon her chin, and cross-marks upon her cheeks. Her face seems to wear an expression of sadness, and to me has nothing attractive in it, although some of the individual features are not bad. She wears a calico dress—waist and skirt, and is ornamented by a mass of beads around her neck, a bracelet of the same surrounding the left wrist. Silver rings are upon the middle finger of either hand, one on each, and a large silver ornament is suspended from her neck by a bead chain, which allows it to hang down as far as the waist in front (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8. A YUMA SQUAW.

The Yumas never have as good looking women among them as there are to be found among the Mojaves, and in my opinion, the prettiest and most intelligent faces of all are possessed by the young unmarried girls of the Pueblos, especially those of Moqui, Laguna and Acoma.