Anthropology; An Introduction to the Study of Man and Civilization (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER 115. RACES OF MANKIND. Differences of Race, 56 Stature and Proportions, 56 Skull, 60 Features, 62 Colour, 66 Hair, 71 Constitution, 73 Temperament, 74 Types of Races, 75 Permanence, 80 Mixture, 80 Variation, 84 Races of Mankind classified, 87. In the first chapter something has been already said as to the striking distinctions between the various races of man, seen in looking closely at the African negro, the Coolie of India, and the Chinese. Even among Europeans, the broad contrast between the fair Dane and the dark Genoese is recognised by all. Some further comparison has now to be made of the special differences between race and race, though the reader must understand that, without proper anatomical examination, such comparison can only be slight and imperfect. Anthropology finds race-differences most clearly in stature and proportions of limbs, conformation of the skull and the brain within, characters of features, skin, eyes, and hair, peculiarities of constitution, and mental and moral temperament. In comparing races as to their stature, we concern ourselves not with the tallest or shortest men of each tribe, but with the ordinary or average-sized men who may be taken as fair representatives of their whole tribe. The difference ofgeneral stature is well shown where a tall and a short people come together in one district. Thus in Australia the average English colonist of, ft. 8 in. looks clear over the heads of the 5 ft. 4 in. Cninese labourers. Still more in Sweden does the Swede of 5 ft. 7 in. tower over the stunted Lapps, whose average measure is not much over 5 ft. Among the tallest of mankind are the Patagonians, who seemed a race of giants to the Europeans who first watched them striding along their cliffs draped in their skin cloaks; it was even ...