To observe the actions of the larger animals, a telescope or field-glass will be necessary. The traveller should bear in mind, if a microscope is needed in his journey, that by unscrewing the tubes of the telescope in which all the small glasses are contained, a compound microscope of considerable power may be produced.
V.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
By the late Sir E. B. Tylor, D.C.L., F.R.S.
The characters of men’s bodies and minds being matters of common observation, Europeans not specially trained in anthropology, who have happened to be thrown among little-known tribes, often bring home valuable anthropological information. Though explorers, traders, and colonists have made their way into almost every corner of the earth, it is surprising to find how many new facts may still be noted down by any careful observer. If familiar with anthropological methods, he will, of course, observe more and better. The hints here given will serve to draw attention to interesting points which might otherwise be overlooked. Directions for such investigation, drawn up in much greater detail, will be found in the small British Association manual entitled: ‘Notes and Queries on Anthropology’ (Royal Anthropological Institute, 50, Great Russell Street, W., 4th edition (1912), price 5s.) For fuller details see the international agreement for the Unification of Anthropometric Measurements to be made on the living subject. English translation of the official version, W. L. H. Duckworth.
Physical Characters.—On first coming among an unfamiliar race, such as the Negroes, the traveller is apt to think them almost alike, till after a few days he learns to distinguish individuals more sharply. This first impression, however, has a value of its own, for what he vaguely perceived was the general type of the race, which he may afterwards gain a more perfect idea of by careful comparison. Among tribes who for many generations have led a simple uniform life and mixed little with strangers, the general likeness of build and feature is very close, as may be seen in a photograph of a party of Caribs or Andamaners, whose uniformity contrasts instructively with the individualised faces of a party of Europeans. The consequence is that a traveller among a rude people, if he has something of the artist’s faculty of judging form, may select groups for photography which will fairly represent the type of a whole tribe or nation. While such portrait-groups are admirable for giving the general idea of a race, characteristic features belonging to it should be treated separately. For instance, to do justice to the Tartar eye or the Australian forehead, the individual feature must be carefully sketched or photographed large.
How deceptive mere unmeasured impressions of size may be is shown by the well-known example of the Patagonians, who, though really only tall men (averaging 5 feet 11 inches), long had the reputation of a race of giants. Such measurements as any traveller can take with a measuring-tape and a three-foot rule with sliding square are good if taken with proper precautions. As the object of the anthropologist is to get a general idea of a race, it may be in some respects misleading to measure at random one or two individuals who are perhaps not fair specimens. If only a few can be measured, they should be selected of ordinary average build, full-grown but not aged. What is much better is to measure a large number (never less than thirty) of persons taken indiscriminately as they come, and to record the measurements of each with sex, age, name, locality, etc. Such a table can afterwards be so classified as to show not only the average or mean size, but the proportion of persons who vary more or less from that mean size; in fact, it represents on a small scale the distribution of stature, etc., in the whole people. Gigantic or dwarfish individuals, if not deformed, are interesting, as showing to what extremes the race may run. The most ordinary measurements are height, girth round chest, fathom or length of outstretched arms, length of arm from shoulder and leg from hip, length of hand and foot. The traveller may find that such measuring of another race shows very different stature and girth from that of his own companions, who, if they are well-grown Europeans, may stand 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet, and measure 34 to 36 inches round the chest. Beyond this, he will find that the relative proportions of parts of the body differ from those he is accustomed to. An example of this is seen by placing Europeans and negroes side by side, and noticing how much nearer the knee the negro’s finger-tips will reach. It will be found that body measurement needs skill in taking the corresponding points, and in fact all but the simplest measures require some knowledge of anatomy. This is especially the case with skull measurements. There are instruments for taking the dimensions of the living head, and with care and practice the untrained observer may get at some of the more conspicuous, such as the relative length and width of the skull as taken by hatters. This roughly indicates the marked difference between dolichocephalic or long-headed peoples, like the African negro, and brachycephalic or short-headed peoples, like the Kalmuks and other Tartars. Attention should be paid also to the degree of prognathism or projection of jaw, which in some races, as the Australian, gives a “muzzle” unlike the English type. Where practicable, native skeletons, and especially skulls, should be sent home for accurate examination. How far this can be done depends much on the feeling of the people; for while some tribes do not object to the removal of bones, especially if not of their own kinsfolk, in other districts it is hardly safe to risk the displeasure of the natives at the removal of the dead—a feeling which is not only due to affection or respect, but even more to terror of the vengeance of the ghosts whose relics have been disturbed.
In describing complexion, such terms as “brown” or “olive,” so often used without further definition in books of travel, are too inexact to be of use. Broca’s scale of colours (see Final Report of British Association Committee on Anthropometric Method. R. Anthrop. Institute, 1909) gives means of matching the tints of skin, hair and eyes; if this is not forthcoming, the paint-box should be used to record them. Among rude tribes, the colour of the skin is often so masked by paint and dirt that the subject must be washed to see the real complexion. Hair is also an important race-mark, varying as it does in colour from flaxen to black, and also in form and size of the hairs; for instance the American Indian’s coarse straight hair seems almost like a horse’s tail in comparison with the Bushman’s hair with its natural frizz of tiny spirals. Locks of hair should therefore be collected. The traveller, however, will often find some difficulty in getting such specimens, from the objection prevalent in the uncivilised world of letting any part of the body, such as hair and nail-clippings, pass into strangers’ hands lest they should be used to bewitch their former owner. Even in such countries as Italy, to ask for a lock of a peasant-girl’s hair may lead to the anthropologist being suspected of wishing to practise love-charms on her.
Differences of temperament between nations are commonly to be noticed; for instance, in comparing the shy and grave Malays with the boisterous Africans. It is an interesting but difficult problem how far such differences are due to inherited race-character, and how far to such social influences as education and custom, and to the conditions of life being cheerful or depressing. Nor has it yet been determined how far emotions are differently expressed by different races, so that it is worth while to notice particularly if their smiling, laughing, frowning, weeping, blushing, etc., differ perceptibly from ours. The acuteness of the senses of sight, hearing and smell, among wild peoples is often remarkable, but this subject is one on which many accounts have been given which require sifting. The skill of savages in path-finding and tracking depends in great measure on this being one of their most necessary arts of life to which they are trained from childhood, as, in an inferior degree, gipsies are with us. The native hunter or guide’s methods of following the track of an animal, or finding his own way home by slight signs, such as bent twigs, and keeping general direction through the forest by the sky and the sheltered sides of the trees, are very interesting, though when learnt they lose much of their marvellous appearance. The testing of the mental powers of various races is an interesting research, for which good opportunities now and then occur. It is established that some races are inferior to others in volume and complexity of brain, Australians and Africans being in this respect below Europeans, and the question is to determine what differences of mind may correspond. Setting aside the contemptuous notions of uneducated Europeans as to the minds of “black-fellows” or “niggers,” what is required is, to compare the capacity of two races under similar circumstances. This is made difficult by the fact of different training. For instance, it would not be fair to compare the European sportsman’s skill in woodcraft and hunting with that of the native hunter, who has done nothing else since childhood; while, on the other hand, the European, who has always lived among civilised people, owes to his education so much of his superior reasoning powers, that it is mostly impossible to get his mind into comparison with a savage’s. One of the best tests is the progress made by native and European children in colonial or missionary schools, as to which it is commonly stated that children of African or American tribes learn as fast as or faster than European children up to about twelve, but then fall behind. Even here it is evident that other causes besides mental power may be at work, among them the discouragement of the native children when they become aware of their social inferiority. The subject is one of great importance, both scientifically and as bearing on practical government.
Both as a matter of anthropology and of practical politics the suitability of particular races to particular climates is of great interest; sometimes this depends on one race being free from a disease from which another suffers, as in the well-known immunity of negroes from yellow fever. Or it may be evident that tribes have become acclimatised, so as to resist influences which are deadly to strangers; for instance, the Khonds flourish in the hills of Orissa, where not only Europeans but the Hindus of the plains sicken of the malaria in the unhealthy season. That such peculiarities of constitution are inherited and pass into the nature of the race, is one of the keys to the obscure problem of the origins of the various races of man as connected with their spread over the globe. As yet this problem has not passed much beyond the stage of collecting information, and no pains should be spared to get at facts thus bearing on the history and development of the human species. European medical men in districts inhabited by uncivilised races have often made important observations of this kind, which they are glad to communicate, though being occupied with professional work they do not follow them up. In all races there occur abnormal varieties, which should be observed with reference to their being hereditary, such as Albinos, whose dead-whiteness is due to absence of pigment from the skin. Even such tendencies as that to the occurrence of red hair where the ordinary hue is black, or to melanism or diseased darkening of the skin, are worth remark. It is essential to discover how far these descend from parents to children, which is not the case with such alterations as that of the Chinese feet, which, in spite of generations of cramping, continue of the natural shape in the children.