Original Book Cover
THE CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE SERIES.
EDITED BY HAVELOCK ELLIS.
THE RACES OF MAN.
Naga of Manipur in gala costume, with caudiform appendage.
(Phot. lent by Miss Godden.)
THE RACES OF MAN:
AN OUTLINE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
AND ETHNOGRAPHY
BY
J. DENIKER, Sc.D. (PARIS),
Chief Librarian of the Museum of Natural History, Paris; Honorary Fellow of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain; Corresponding Member of the Italian Anthropological, Netherland Geographical, and Moscow Natural Science Societies, etc.
WITH 176 ILLUSTRATIONS AND 2 MAPS.
LONDON
WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED
PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1900
PREFACE.
My object in the present work has been to give in a condensed form the essential facts of the twin sciences of anthropology and ethnography. The very nature of such an undertaking condemns the author to be brief, and at the same time somewhat dogmatic; inevitable gaps occur, and numerous inequalities in the treatment. To obviate, partly at least, such defects, I have endeavoured not merely to present the actual facts of the subject, but also to summarise, with as much fidelity as possible, the explanations of these facts, in so far as such may be educed from theories among which there is often sufficient perplexity of choice. In many cases I have ventured, however, to give my personal opinion on different questions, as, for instance, on the signification of the laryngeal sacs among anthropoid apes, on many questions of anthropometry in general, on the classing of “states of civilisation,” on fixed and transportable habitations, on the classification of races, on the races of Europe, on the Palæ-American race, etc.
My book is designed for all those who desire to obtain rapidly a general notion of ethnographic and anthropological sciences, or to understand the foundations of these sciences. Thus technical terms are explained and annotated in such a manner that they may be understood by all.
Those who may wish for further details on special points will be able to take advantage of the numerous bibliographical notes, at the foot of the pages, in which I have sought to group according to plan the most important or accessible works. I believe that even professional anthropologists will be able to consult my work profitably. They will find condensed in it information which is scattered over a vast crowd of notes and memoirs in all languages. I trust also that they may appreciate the Appendices, as well as the lists in the text itself, in which are collected from the best sources some hundreds of figures relating to the chief dimensions of the human body.
The illustrations which complete and elucidate the text have been selected with very great care. With two or three exceptions, the “types” of the different peoples are photographs of well-authenticated subjects, often such as have been observed and measured by competent authorities, or by myself.
I attach
I desire also to thank in this place Dr. Collignon, Mr. Havelock Ellis, and M. Salomon Reinach, for the trouble they have taken in revising the proofs of certain parts of my work.
J. DENIKER.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION. PAGE ETHNIC GROUPS AND ZOOLOGICAL SPECIES 1 Difficulties in applying to Man the terms of zoological nomenclature—Criterion of species—Terms to give to the “Somatological Units” constituting the genus Homo—Monogenesis and Polygenesis—The “Ethnic Groups” are constituted by the different combinations of the “Somatological Units” or “Races”—Somatic characters and ethnic characters. CHAPTER I. SOMATIC CHARACTERS 12 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS OF MAN AND APES.—Monkeys and anthropoid apes—Erect attitude—Curvature of the spine—Brain—Skull—Teeth—Other characters—Differences less accentuated in the fœtus and the young than in the adult. DISTINCTIVE MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS OF HUMAN RACES.—Stature: Individual limits—Dwarfs and giants—Average stature of different populations—Influence of
CHAPTER II. 1. MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS (continued) 53 Cranium or Skull: Cranial measurements—Orbits and orbital index—Nasal bone and nasal index—Prognathism—Head of the living subject: Cephalic index—Face—Eyes—Nose and nasal index in the living subject—Lips—Trunk and Limbs: The Skeleton—Pelvis and its indices—Shoulder blade—Thoracic limb—Abdominal limb—Proportions of the body in the living subject—Trunk and neck—Curve of the back—Steatopygy—Various Organs: Genital organs—Brain—Its weight—Convolutions—The neuron—Its importance from the psychical point of view. CHAPTER III. 2. PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS 105 Functions of nutrition and assimilation: Digestion, alimentation, growth, temperature of the body, etc.—Respiration and circulation: Pulse, composition of the blood, etc.—Special odour—Functions of communication: Expression of the emotions, acuteness of the senses, etc.—Functions of reproduction: Menstruation, menopause, increase in the number of conceptions according to season, etc.—Influence of environment: Acclimatation—Cosmopolitanism of the genus Homo and the races of mankind—Cross-breeding. 3. PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.—Difficulties of studying them—Immunities—Nervous diseases of uncivilised peoples. CHAPTER IV. ETHNIC CHARACTERS