HEAD FORM AS A CRITERION OF RACE

Towards the middle of the last century students realized that there was considerable difference in the shape of the head and that this seemed to be pretty permanent, generation after generation. Usually the head is longer than it is broad, and by dividing the breadth by the length and multiplying the result by 100 we get what is called the cephalic index. The actual range of this index in observed cases is from 62 to 103. Heads with an index of under 75 are called long (dolichocephalic); between 75 and 80 are medium (mesocephalic); and above 80 are broad or round (brachycephalic).

The Races of Europe

Ripley used this cephalic index in his great study of the Races of Europe. He says:

The most conspicuous feature of our map of cephalic index from western Europe is that here within a limited area all extremes of head form known to the human race are crowded together. In other words the so-called white race of Europe is not physically a uniform and intermediate type in the proportions of head between the brachycephalic Asiatics and the long-headed Negroes of Africa. A few years ago it was believed that this was true. In the high Alps of northwestern Italy are communes with an average index of 89, an extreme of round-headedness not equaled anywhere else in the world save in the Balkan Peninsula and in Asia Minor. This type of head prevails all through the Alps, quite irrespective of political frontiers ... yet within three hundred miles as the crow flies, in the island of Corsica, are communes with an average cephalic index of 73. Nor is this all. Pass to northern Scandinavia, and we find the Lapps, again, one of the broadest-headed people of the earth.3.

In no other part of the world, save modern America, is such an amalgamation of various peoples to be found as in Europe. History, and archaeology, long before history, show us a continual picture of tribes appearing and disappearing, crossing and recrossing in their migrations, assimilating, dividing, colonizing, conquering or being absorbed. It follows from this, that, even if

the environment were uniform, our pure types must be exceedingly rare. . . . We are thus reduced to the extremity in which my friend Dr. Ammon, of Baden, found himself when I wrote asking for photographs of a pure Alpine type from the Black Forest. He has measured thousands of heads, and yet he answered that he really had not been able to find a perfect specimen in all details. All these round-headed men were either blond, or tall, or narrow-nosed, or something else they ought not to be.*

Recently Pittard, in one of the very best books on race for the general reader, has written:

Pangermanism and panslavism may be linguistic formulae in which political desires are enwrapped; they are not expressions of race. German-speaking people belong to many races. There is at least as much difference between a Pomeranian from the Baltic coast and a Bavarian from the Ammer massif as there is between a horse and a zebra. As for panslavism, it incorporates individuals who differ in another way as regards race. We shall see here, without quitting European soil, representatives of the Lapponic race, those of the tall dolichocephalic (Nordic) race; of the east European race (a large number of Russians); of the Ugrian race (Votiaks, for instance), and of the TurkiTatar (Crimean Tartars) and Mongolian (Kalmuks) races. How many races, even languages and how many sociological states, squeezed into one single, redoubtable word! For us who are ethnologists it is interesting to note that these imperialistic notions were born before the great anthropological researches were undertaken."

The Nordic Theory

From the time of Gobineau to the recent works of the Germanized Englishman, Chamberlain, and the American, Madison Grant, there has been cultivated a theory of the inherent superiority of the Nordics, tall and blond, to whom we are alleged to be indebted for the best in modern civilization. Naturally it has been sought to show that these Nordics were typical of the population of northern Europe. Unfortunately the facts supporting the theory are scanty. In all investigations made in Germany they appear in the minority

and Pittard more than hints that an important German research was practically suppressed because the findings were unwelcome. Hertz, a recent German critic of this theory, cites an investigation made by Nystrom, who measured 500 Swedes and found that those of the upper classes were predominantly brachycephalic while those rising to prominence from the lower classes were chiefly brachycephalic. The same author quotes Wirth to the effect that the so-called German characteristics are to be found in only about 10 per cent of the Germans. During the late war the German prisoners in England were studied. Their average cephalic index was 82.5 and the representatives of no part of Germany fell below 80, while the index in England is stated to be 78.24. The skull capacity of the German soldiers was higher than that of the English, higher even than that of English students. The dark pigmentation of the representatives of the lightest part of Germany was from 38 to 50 per cent, and among the south Germans was from 77 to 99 per cent."

It is most desirable to know the head forms and other traits of all people but it is most dangerous to jump to conclusions as to the mental capacity of the owners of heads of any shape. What a pity that Kant, Goethe, Beethoven, Michelangelo, and Francis of Assisi, La Place, Voltaire, and Rousseau were not Nordics! What a pity that Ibsen, Björnsen, Luther, Schopenhauer, Reuter, Schubert, Schumann, Helmholtz, Rembrandt and Balzac were at best mixed-bloods! says Hertz. How much greater the pity that a scientific effort to determine facts should become the basis of propaganda of preconceived ideas!

Does Head Form Change?

It is possible that the head form may not be as stable a character as has been thought. Under the direction of Boas the heads of 2,422 males and 635 females of American-born Hebrews were measured and compared with 1,689 foreign

born males and 1,253 females. Some Sicilians were measured also.

"It appears that the longer the parents have been here the greater is the divergence of the descendants from the European type.

"The length of head of the Hebrew is increased, the width of the head and the width of the face . . are decreased. "Among the Sicilians the changes are, on the whole, of an inverse order." 8

It is surprising that the study of Boas has not been followed up by others. A recent inquiry made in Philadelphia by one of his students appears to corroborate his findings. It is possible that a partial explanation may lie in the mixed ancestry of the persons studied. Most students appear to doubt the finality of the observations.

THE SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF RACE

Race Prejudice

In the last decades some American writers have given a pseudoscientific basis to the growing mass of race prejudice held by those already convinced of the inferiority of the Negro and anxious to believe that the older American groups

from northwest Europe were the special favorites of God. Until the advent of the mental tests during war-time these writers but rehashed material long familiar to those who knew the writers of Europe. It should be noted that the essence of their argument to-day is the attempt to correlate mental qualities with physical stigmata. The student has no right to assume that such a correlation does not exist— that is the thing to be demonstrated. The conclusions so widely broadcast over the country are weakened by the fact that they correspond to the prior beliefs of their authors. This means that they cannot be taken as final, regardless of the amount of truth they may contain.

The reason for the attitude here taken is shown by an experiment conducted by an associate in charge of a course on race problems. At the beginning of the term each student was asked to make a list of all the races and nationalities he could recall and then divide them into five groups on the basis of their assumed mental ability. This was done again at the end of the term. The table below shows in interesting fashion the results, with many amusing locations for certain groups, and shows also how immune our minds are to evidence when emotions are involved.

At the first of the term 231 students turned in their answers, and 234 at the end. These young men represent a fair cross section of the student body of our eastern colleges. At the opening, 26 boys thought the races about equal mentally and at the end of the course 43 had come to this conclusion. In all, over 600 students have been given these test questions and their answers have been very uniform.

Recognizing, then, certain dangers involved, what evidence is offered as to the capacity of the Negro as compared to the white? For obvious reasons evidence based on the general achievement of the groups is ruled out. It will be admitted in advance that the fool and the genius may be found in any race. The problem concerns race averages,