448 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



And here arises the more important question, by what right 

 are so many and such diverse peoples grouped 

 E e s *; ent together and ticketed "Caucasians"? Are they 

 to be really taken as objectively one, or are they 

 merely artificial groupings, arbitrarily arranged abstractions ? Cer- 

 tainly this Caucasic Division consists apparently of the most 

 heterogeneous elements, more so than perhaps any other except 

 the Ethiopic. Hence it seems to require a strong mental effort 

 to sweep into a single category, however elastic, so many different 

 peoples Europeans, North Africans, West Asiatics, Iranians and 

 others all the way to the Indo-Gangetic plains and uplands, whose 

 complexion presents every shade of colour, except yellow, from 

 white to the deepest brown or even black. 



But they are grouped together in a single division, because 

 their essential properties are one, and because, as pointed out by 

 Ehrenreich, who himself emphasises these objections, their sub- 

 stantial uniformity speaks to the eye that sees below the surface. 

 At the first glance, except perhaps in a few extreme cases for 

 which it would be futile to create independent categories, we 

 recognise a common racial stamp in the facial expression, the 

 structure of the hair, partly also the bodily proportions, in all of 

 which points they agree more with each other than with the other 

 main divisions. Even in the case of certain black or very dark 

 races, such as the Bejas, Somali, and a few other Eastern Hamites, 

 we are reminded instinctively more of Europeans or Berbers than 

 of negroes, thanks to their more regular features and brighter 

 expression. "Those who will accept nothing unless it can be 

 measured, weighed, and numbered, may think perhaps that accord- 

 ing to modern notions this appeal to the outward expression is 

 unscientific. Nevertheless nobody can deny the evidence of the 

 obvious physical differences between Caucasians, African Negroes, 

 Mongols, Australians and so on. After all, physical anthropology 

 itself dates only from the moment when we became conscious of 

 these differences, even before we were able to give them exact 

 expression by measurements. It was precisely the general picture 

 that spoke powerfully and directly to the eye 1 ." The argument 



1 Anthrop. Studien, p. 15, "Deise Gemeinsamkeit der Charakteren beweist 

 uns die Blutverwandtschaft" (ib.). 



