Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/699

 RACE

623

RACE

the shape of the cranium or hair, the colour of the skin) as the principle of classification, or have used a combination of several characteristics. Finally ethnological peculiarities (especially the language and degree of civilization) were invoked for aid in charac- terization. Linnsus differentiated four varieties of the homo diurnus (a sub-division of the homo sapiens) : (1) American; (2) European; (3) Asiatic; (4) African. Not only were the colour of the skin and eyes, the colour and form of the hair, and the form of the nose used as criteria of these four divisions, but the different temperaments of the four races were also distinguished, other criteria being their peculiari- ties of character, mode of dress, and whether the in- dividual races were governed by customs, laws, be- liefs, or arbitrary rule.

Blumenbach already attempted to group the races of mankind on the basis of purely somatological peculiarities, selecting five typical forms of the cra- nium as the criteria of the five races of men. He took as the normal type the skull of the Caucasian race, which is distinguished by harmony of the individual parts, none being unduly prominent: with roundness (mesocephaly) are united a massive high forehead, narrow check-bones, round alveolar arch, and an orthognathous upper jaw. To the Caucasian type belong: Europeans (except the Lapps and Finns), Western Asiatics, and North Africans. Around this type are grouped the others, which are related both to it and one another. The Mongolian race includes most Asiatics, the Finnish tribes, the Lapps and the Eskimo; it has an almost square skull (exceedingly brachycephalic), flat nose, flat projecting malar bone, somewhat broad alveolar arch, and projecting chin. The American race has a higher forehead, highly developed superciliary arch, deeply sunken bridge of the nose, cheek-bones strongly projecting sidewards, and high, broad, and strong lower jaw. In this race Blumenbach included all aboriginal Americans except the Eskimo. The skull of the Malay race is brachycephalic; the parietal bones project strongly sidewards, the nose and cheek-bones are flat, and the upper jaws slightly prognathous. To this race belong the inhabitants of Malacca in Asia and the natives of the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The Ethiopian race includes the inhabitants of Africa except the Caucasian Africans in the north; the skull is dolichocephalic, the forehead full, the cheek- bones prominent, the nostrils wide, the alveolar arch narrow and prominent, the jaws prognathous, and the lower jaw large and strong. Blumenbach added to these craniological criteria others of a general somatological character, deduced from the observa- tion of the members of the body, chiefly of the head and its parts. Blumenbach's cUissification still has adherents, B. P. Ehrenreioh, for example, being a vigorous supporter of it. He adds to the classifica- tion, however, those races that have become known or at least better known since Blumenbach's time. These are mainly the blacks of Asia and the aborigi- nal races of Australia and Oceania. According to Ehrenreich, the classification is: (1) Caucasian- Mediterranean; (2) African-Nigritian; (3) Mongo- lian; (4) American; (5) Malay Polynesian; (6) Australian. In addition there is (7) the Papuans and the blacks of Asia, including the Dravidians and the Kolarian tribes of India, whose position in Ehrenreich's anthropological system must still be regarded as uncertain.

Blumenbach's classification was based on obser- vation and description. There now followed a series of attempts to determine the different types by meas- urements. For the determination of the variations in the facial i)art of the skull Camper had already settled by measurement the facial angle, that is the angle made by the profile line and the auriculo-sub- pasal line (the line from the ear orifice to the lowest

part of the nose). A. Retzius introduced the word orthognathism to signify an almost right facial angle (90°), and called the more acute facial angle prog- nathy. Having noticed that in Sweden the Ger- mans had narrow skulls, while the skulls of the Lapps were broad, Retzius sought to determine these shapes mathematically by the length-breadth index. He combined tfie groups of dolichocephalic and brachy- cephalic crania gained in this way with the groups of facial angles, and thus arrived at four main types of crania; orthognathous dolichocephalic, orthog- nathous brachycephalic, prognathous dolichocepha- lic, and prognathous brachycephalic. However, this classification of the shapes of the cranium was un- satisfactory, even when mesocephalic crania were separated from the others, since the various forms appear witliin every race, although perhaps with vary- ing frequency. Welcker's investigations proved that crania ranging from dolicho(Ti)halic to hypcrbrachy- cephalic are found in the Mediterranean, Malayan, and American races; the Monoglians appear to be rather niesobrachycephalic and hyperbrachycephalic, while the black races incline more to dolichoeephaly. J. Kollmann also based his racial classification on the shape of the skull and face. He supposed six sub-species: chamseprosopous dolichocephalic, chamae- prosopous mesocephalic, chama;prosopous brachyce- phalic, leptoprosopous dolichocephalic, leptoproso- pous mesocephalic, leptoprosopous brachycephalic. The.se sub-species have, through migrations and pene- trations, spread over the entire world, and may be grouped into eighteen varieties according to the nature of the hair (smooth, bristly or coarse, and woolly).

Besides the shape of the skull, other somatological peculiarities have been employed by P. Topinard in the cliissification of races. Following Cuvier's classi- fication, he takes as his main divisions the white, yellow, and black races, which he characterizes mainly by the shape of the nose. The narrow-nosed (leptor- hine) white race has wavy hair with oval cross- section. Of those with dolichocephalic crania, one division is blonde and large (Anglo-Scandinavian or CjTTiric) ; another large with red hair (first type of the Finns); a third brunette and relatively small (Medi- terranean races). The mesocephalic type with brown hair and relatively small stature is found in the Semites and Egyptians. The brachycephalic type is composed of the little Lapps and Ligurians with brown hair, and the Celto-Slavs of medium height. The yellow race with nose of medium width (mesor- hine), coarse, straight hair of round cross-section, also contains dolichocephalic, mesocephalic, and brachy- cephalic types. The Eskimo are small, dolichoce- phalic, and have a yellow skin; the Tehuelches are large, dolichocephalic, and have a reddish skin; the Polynesians are large, mesocephalic, and have a red- dish skin. The brachcycephalic type is represented by the Quaranni and Peruvians, the former being of medium size with yellow skin, and the latter small with olive skin. The broad-nosed (platyrhine) black race was divided by Topinard into one group with straight hair of oval cross-section, and a second group with woolly hair of elliptical section. The first group, comprising the aboriginal Australians, are dolichocc|)lialir, tull, and have a black .skin: all three types of skiill appear in the si-conil group. The very small yellowish Bushmen, the large black Melanesians, and the African negroes are dolichocephalic, the medium-sized black Tasmanians mesocephalic, the small black Negritos brachycephalic.

A summary according to somatological principles has been given lately by J. Deniker (cf. "The Races of Man", p. 22.5), a Frenchman, who has selected the divisions of the earth as the principle of classification in the description of the several races and tribes.

A, Frizzly hair, broad nose, — (a) yellow skin: (1^