THE HUMAN SPECIES 



527 



The Polynesians, Pacific islanders living within the great triangle formed by 

 New Zealand, Hawaii, and Easter Island, are tall, large-boned, large-featured, 

 and light brown in color. There is some variation from group to group, but 

 morphologically the Polynesian race is remarkably uniform. Coon makes it a 

 primary group, but in nearly all other classifications it is considered a well- 

 blended composite race. Boyd says that their blood-group gene frequencies are 

 not constant enough to permit the Polynesians to be placed with an}- other race 

 or defined genetically as a race by themselves. They seem to contain an evident 

 "White" element, manifest in the gene- 

 ral build, facial traits, wavy hair and 

 beards. A Mongoloid strain is also 

 present and probably as important 

 as the "White," though harder to 

 detect and affecting chiefly the size 

 and form of the face. In some popula- 

 tions there is a trace of Negroid — not 

 enough to darken the skin, but bring- 

 ing in genes that broaden the nose 

 and make the hair frizzy. 



The origin of the Pohmesians is 

 another racial mystery. Their legends 

 and genealogies agree that they came 

 from the west in a great migration 

 that began after the time of Christ. 

 We can deduce that they came from 

 somewhere in Indonesia ; but they left 

 no traces. 1 They could have acquired 

 their Mongoloid element in Indonesia, 

 but where did the "White" (Medi- 

 terranean?) component come from? 

 The Negroid strain was doubtless 

 added during their passage through 

 Melanesia but is so slight that the 

 migrant peoples must have hurried through or largely by-passed that region. 



The Basques are an interesting people who live at the western end of the 

 Pyrenees in France and Spain. They are linked together by a most remarkable 

 language, which is utterly unlike any other in Europe and is thought to be a 

 survivor of the tongues spoken in that region before the spread of the so-called 

 "Aryan" languages. Most racial classifications ignore the Basques as a biological 

 group, dividing them among Alpines and Mediterraneans. Boyd, however, finds 

 them distinctive in blood-group gene frequencies. They have the highest incidence 

 of rh of any tested group, probabty no B, relatively high Rhi and A 2 , and appar- 



1 The theory that the Polynesians came from Peru on balsa rafts has been per- 

 suasively presented by Thor Heyerdahl in his book Kon-Tiki, and he and his com- 

 panions have demonstrated that such voyages could have been and perhaps were made. 

 Anthropologists, however, feel that the evidence for an Asiatic origin of these peoples 

 is overwhelmingly strong. 



Fig. 31.14. A Bushman of the Kalahari Des- 

 ert, South Africa. {Courtesy Chicago Natural 

 History Museum.) 



