2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 85 



cling to ; that eyebrows exist for the purpose of keeping sweat from 

 running down into the eyes ; that men are bearded to protect their 

 throats from cold weather ; that women are beardless because they 

 look better that way. All of which gives evidence of ingenuity if of 

 nothing else. 



But not one of the explanations that I have been able to find in 

 print has taken into consideration the zoological possibility that many 

 features of the human hair system may be generalized primate 

 traits instead of specifically human developments. By this I mean 

 the possibility that they may be characteristics that are forced on 

 man because they are common property of the Primates, the animal 

 group to which man pertains. Their explanation, in that event, would 

 have to be made less in terms of human activities and requirements 

 than in terms of the great heritage of characteristics that man shares 

 with all his primate relatives. Each one of these creatures has modi- 

 fied his portion of this heritage in such a way as to make it his own ; 

 or, in more technical language, each one of the 800-odd kinds of 

 living apes, monkeys, and lemurs has developed " specific " characters 

 by which it can be distinguished from all the others while remaining 

 none the less a primate among primates. That,, man should have done 

 the same thing would be far from strange. 



This paper is a brief summary of a study on which I have been 

 engaged for several years with the result that I have become con- 

 vinced that the chief peculiarities of human hair are best and most 

 simply explained as special examples of primate " patterning." 



WHAT IS MEANT BY "PATTERNING" 



Patterning is familiar to every systematic zoologist because it is 

 seen in every group of animals. It consists in the arrangement of 

 (a) contrasted colored areas on the surface of the body, or (b) 

 contrasted long and short outgrowths from the surface of the body, 

 or (c) combinations of colors and outgrowths, in such a manner that 

 the resulting patterns of color or form are sufficient to distinguish 

 one related species from another. 



Familiar examples of patterning are furnished by the color mark- 

 ings of butterflies, or of the American wood warl)lers, by the minute 

 surface sculpture on the shells of some mollusks, and by the spiny 

 outgrowths on the back and head of the different species of iguana 

 and horned-toad. Among mammals, striking instances are provided by 

 cats and squirrels with their diverse stripes, spots, mottlings, and plain 

 colors, and by African antelopes with their stripes and spots as well 

 as their maned necks, fringed throats and briskets, and tufted tails. 



