NO. 13 SOVIET ANTHROPOLOGY — FIELD I7 



type are located where the given conihiiiatiun of features is replaced 

 1))' another, for example, an increase in heigiit when considered accord- 

 ing to territory is accompanied by a darkening of eye color. The race, 

 as a systematic category, is far from being the only taxonomic cate- 

 gory. It is necessary to distinguish great races, simple races, sub- 

 races, and local races. In such a consecutive subdivision the dynamic 

 essence of the category "race"' is revealed. A most important cri- 

 terion in determining the race or suhrace is the alteration of features 

 according to territory. Those races which by anthropological analysis 

 have been reconstructed in tiie modern epoch reflect groups that arose 

 in the distant past. Evidently the types of great races arose in the 

 Xeolithic period. Outlines of tiie most primitive forms of some races 

 are found in the Metal Age. 



Such are the general views in the study of the race as a historical 

 and dynamic category developed in the above-mentioned works as 

 well as in a number of special investigations (concerning alterations in 

 the length of the body, in the form of the skull, the general conditions 

 of the alteration of the average index in population, the correlation of 

 ethnic and somatic types, etc.). 



Among the latest works on general problems in the .study of races 

 it is necessary to mention a series of mathematical investigations con- 

 ducted by M. V. Ignatev, concerning the significance of cross-breed- 

 ing, isolation, the conditions of the distribution of newly arising traits. 

 G. G. Roginskii investigated the distribution of blood groups from the 

 same viewpoint. 



In the study of the geographical distribution of variations of ridge 

 patterns of the fingers, N. V. \'olotskoi used the "delta index" which 

 expresses the total number of so-called deltas [triradiij per lo fingers. 

 Plotting the magnitudes of this index on world geographical maps 

 revealed most important and more or less constant ditTercnces in 

 racial groups. 



C. V.\RI.\TIOXS IN THE STRUCTURE OF lUMAN BODIES 



The physical types of ancient and modern man is one of the main 

 -ubjects of study in physical anthropology. However, no less im- 

 portant for this science is wide research in the variation of structure 

 and the laws determining these variations. Only on the basis of a 

 knowledge of ontogenetic alteration, the laws of correspondence and 

 growth of parts of the body, and comparative anatomy can correct 

 racial analyses be made and the earlier stages of the evolution of man 

 be explained. 



