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REPORT UPON PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF NILOTIC NEGROID TRIPES 
Method of 
examination 
Nilotic tribes 
Physical C' h a r, a v t e k s 
The method of investigation into the physical characters, which was followed by 
Hr. Pirrie, is practically that which has been drawn up by the Anthropometric Committee 
of the British Association, and to that report I would refer any traveller Avho desires 
information on the best methods of carrying out such an examination of native tribes. 
The scheme of measurement includes an examination of the head, trunk, and limbs, and it 
is highly desirable that the measurements recommended by the Committee should be 
followed carefully.' 
Physical anthropologists have been handicapped by the fact that measurements have 
not been made hitherto on a uniform plan by travellers. 
The Nilotic negro or negroid peoples are divided into many tribes, many of which are 
very large in size. They include the whole native population “ extending from the western 
frontier of Abyssinia across the Nile Ahilley, through the Bahr-El-Ghazal region westwards 
to the Centi-al Niger, and from about 200 miles south of Khartoum to the north-eastern 
shores of the Victoria Nyanza.”- It is impossible to form an estimate of the total number of 
people included in this great area, for even the total number of tribes inhabiting it is 
unknown, and many of them are numbered bj’ millions of individuals. Along the frontier 
of this vast region, the races show traces of intermixture with the natives of adjoining 
lands, the Abyssinians, the Hamites, the Bantu negroes, and the Kansas, and variations 
have arisen ; but among the tribes in the central parts also differences in colour, stature, 
head-shape, language, customs, diet, and occupation are found. These differences are so 
marked that it is hardly possible to reconcile them with any theory of a uniform descent 
for all. 
The travellers who have described the physical characters of these peoples include such 
well-known names as Speke and Grant, Petherick, Schweinfurth, and Sir Harry Johnston, 
and all of them agree in recognising tribal differences which are of the greatest value to the 
jihysical anthropologist. To the descriptions of these writers 1 am greatly indebted for 
additional information beyond that obtained from Dr. Pirrie’s notes. 
To what extent the tribes are remaining “ pure forms a very difficult question. 
As in other parts of the world, the tendency towards intermixture is increasing, and more 
than one of the individuals measured by Dr. Pirrie owned to a mixed parentage — such as 
mother a Shilluk, father a Dinka. But it is not difficult at the present time to find 
individuals who illustrate in a jmre and unmixed form the physical characters of the 
various tribes to which they belong. 
When a series of such individuals is examined, even superficially, it is at once evident 
that there is hardly a single feature of jihysical character which is common to all of them. 
The stature varies within wide limits — “ in this and in an adjacent part of Africa are found 
tribes who may be considered among the tallest, and others who are among the shortest of 
human beings, r.i/. the Dinkas on the one hand, and the Akkas on the other.” 
In such an important feature as colour also wide variation is found, from the almost 
jet Idack of the Dinkas, Nuers, etc., to the reddish colour of the Bongos. 
In shape of head the differences are less marked, and the majority of tribes show 
dolichocephalic characters, Imt, again, another condition is also found in other tribes, and a 
jironounced degree of mesaticephaly shows itself. 
In length of face, in the degree of prognathism, and in the characters of the nose also, 
similar variations to a minor degree are found among the various tribes. 
' llcjioi't of Ihc Anthrojioiiif'fi'ic (Joninutfrc ot the BrifiAi Asaocidf ion, 
Jolinston, Sir Harry. ‘'Tho U^'aiida Protectorate.” 
