Page:The American Indian.djvu/389

Rh that the data and conditions under which this map must be made do not permit of such clear-cut distinctions as were possible in the preceding chapters. The determining characters used here were stature, pigmentation, head, and face form. Proceeding, then, with these limitations, we find, first of all, that the Eskimo are fairly distinct. Again, centering in the North Pacific area, we have another type, and stretching east and above the Great Lakes and out to the Atlantic, is a third. The centering of 4, 5, 6, and 7 on our map is approximately coincident with culture areas. Central America seems to be a separate area, but the data are meager.

South America is still more vague, but we have the suggestion of the following: First, an upper Andean region including the greater part of Ecuador and Colombia; second, the great Amazon Basin; third, eastern and southern Brazil, with a possible extension into Peru; fourth, the Patagonian-Araucan group; and finally, the Fuegians.

It should be understood that somatic identity is not claimed, for such is improbable outside of the social groups we have designated as the fundamental units, but that a general similarity exists. Additional data will surely modify the boundaries we have designated, but it is unlikely that the areas as a whole will be effaced.

In the preceding, we have assumed the same attitude as in the other initial classifications, viz., treating all as if contemporaneous in origin. This is, of course, the only attitude to assume toward observations upon the living, but skeletons from burials may belong to very widely separated periods. We must, therefore, give some consideration to the chronology of somatic types. In the first place, no skeletal remains have so far been found to which positive antiquity can be assigned, at least, not to the satisfaction of the critical. A considerable number of fragmentary skeletons have come to light, and achieved literary fame, among which are the Lansing Man, the Calaveras Skull, the Nebraska Loess Man, and the Homo pampæsus proposed by Ameghino. The claims of all these to