124 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, 1 10 



but deviating from the classical Armenoid type. Such are the immi- 

 grants from Western Asia, the Central Asiatic Jews, who differ by 

 their general Armenoid traits not only from the brachycephalic Euro- 

 peoids of Central Asia, the Uzbeks and Tajiks, but also from the 

 classical Armenoid type in their rounded occiput, rather low and 

 slightly bulging forehead, and less fleshy nose with its considerably 

 narrower base. 



Among other peoples the specific Western Asiatic characters, such 

 as abundant body hair and Armenoid features in the structure of the 

 soft parts of the face, combine with an absolutely non-Armenoid, 

 dolichocephalic skull. Such are the markedly dolichocephalic Iranis 

 (Persians) and Azerbaijanis with their abundant hair growth and 

 typically Armenoid form of nose. 



It is only when an anthropometric survey of Western Asia,^^ and 

 more particularly of Iran, has been completed, as well as the excava- 

 tion of accurately dated crania, that we shall be able to attack the 

 problem of the origin and differentiation into local types of the whole 

 racial complex of Western Asia. 



2. The second great problem arising in connection with the study 

 of the Iranian tribes of the Pamirs is the distribution of brachycephalic 

 and dolichocephalic European types throughout Asia. If the data 

 obtained by Oshanin and his colleagues are compared with those from 

 India, Tibet, and eastern Turkestan, the Hindu Kush appears as a 

 geographic barrier. To the south there have expanded dolichocephals 

 represented by the Indo-Afghans, which, according to Turner and 

 Deniker, penetrated into the province of Khams in Tibet, and even 

 to Yunan and Szechwan. On the other hand, to the north of the 

 Pamiro-Altai mountain system there have spread brachycephalic 

 Europeans represented by the above race of the Central Asiatic Duab. 

 To judge from Stein's data, this race has also penetrated deep into 

 eastern Turkestan where it forms the basis of the population in oases 

 bordering the desert of Takla-Makan. 



In the narrow gorges of the Piandzh, squeezed between the Pamiro- 

 Altai and the Hindu Kush, the brachycephalic Iranian tribes have 

 settled. Their position intermediate between the Armenoids and the 

 peoples of the Duab has already been mentioned. 



3. The third problem is that of the Mediterranean race in Asia. 

 As stated above, to the south of Hindu Kush there has expanded the 

 Indo-Afghan race, of which typical representatives are Sikhs, investi- 



^^ See publications by Buxton, Coon, Field, Huzayyin, Shevket Aziz Kansu, 

 Keith, Krogman, Pittard, Shanklin, and Bertram Thomas. 



