NO. 10 HUMAN HAIR AND PRIMATE PATTERNING MILLER 9 



that Stands out against its pale surroundings. Still another gibbon 

 has the hair of this region so greatly lengthened that, in adult males, 

 it may form a tassel reaching almost to the knees. A South American 

 monkey {Oreonax hendcei) has a long yellow hair tuft in the male 

 and two shorter tufts in the female. In both sexes the tufts are 

 rendered very conspicuous by contrast with the dark belly and thighs. 

 By specializing the hair of this region man has, therefore, merely 

 followed one tendency of his tribe. 



The last conspicuous hair-pattern feature of man is the tuft in the 

 arm pit. This, perhaps, comes the nearest of all the patterns to being 

 an exclusively human trait ; I have not yet seen an exactly similar 

 development in any other primate. But, on gently blowing the hair 

 of the axillary region of a freshly dead African monkey, Cercopithe- 

 cus aethiops, I once found that the hairs growing in the deepest part 

 of the pit tended to separate themselves from the surrounding fur 

 by a slight difference in quality and in the direction of growth. More 

 recently I have been able to see, in several adult chimpanzees,* that 

 these animals have a definitely specialized axillary tuft confined to 

 the region of greatest glandular activity. To produce the human 

 condition it would merely be necessary to suppress the long surround- 

 ing hair. 



SOME OTHER FEATURES OF HUMAN PATTERNING 



A few other points about human patterning require brief mention. 



(a) The general bareness of the human body. 



Why the human body lacks a protecting general coat of fur is a 

 question that has been often asked and variously answered. A final 

 explanation seems to be as remote now as ever ; but it is possible 

 to recognize the fact that human bareness is only an exaggeration 

 of a tendency that is found in other primates," and that it is no more 

 essentially mysterious than the bare face of one tropical American 

 monkey (pi. 2, fig. 5) when compared with the fully haired face of 

 another (pi, 2, fig. 7). In neither instance can it be shown that a 

 special need of the species is served by the bare skin ; but in both it 

 is evident that the tendency found throughout the primate group to 

 form patterns by contrasting long-haired areas with short-haired areas 

 has been carried to an extreme. 



^ At the Yale University Anthropoid Experiment Station, Orange Park, Fla., 

 an opportunity for which I have to thank Professor Yerkes and Dr. Tinklepaugh. 



^On this subject see Schultz, Human Biology, vol. 3, pp. 303-321, September, 

 1931, and Sci. Monthly, vol. 33, pp. 392-393, November, 193 1. 



