NO. 13 SOVIET ANTHROPOLOGY — FIELD 1 25 



gated by von I'ickstcdt.'' lArklio, in liis work" on the Turkomans 

 of Khwarazm noted a similarity between the Turkomans on the one 

 hand and the Sikhs of I'unjab and the Rifs *® of Morocco on the other. 

 Oslianin's tables fully confirm this similarity, and the crania obtained 

 by Pumpelly at Anau in 1904 and studied by Sergi show that the 

 Mediterranean racial complex appeared at a very early date in Central 

 Asia.-" In conclusion, Oshanin states that this appears to be a tall 

 variety of the Mediterranean race, which is now represented only by 

 the following separated groups : the Rifs of Morocco, the Kabyls, 

 certain Beduin tribes, the Turkomans of the Transcaspian steppes, 

 and the Indo-Afghan race. 



According to N. G. Malitskii's theory, which on the basis of an- 

 thropological and ethnohistorical data Oshanin developed into a 

 working hypothesis, the dolichocephalic European type, now common 

 among the Turkomans of the Transcaspian steppes, was in the past 

 an element of the Scytho-Sarmatian tribes, or Sacae, of Central Asia. 



MOUNTAIN TAJIKS 21 



There is no uniformity in the descriptions of the Tajiks, owing to 

 the subjective approach of the older scholars. Most of the older and 

 many of the current scholars, basing their conclusions on the Indo- 

 European theory of the origin of the languages, accept the Tajiks 

 to be more or less pure descendants of the "Aryans," who, according 

 to some of the adherents of that theory, originated in Central Asia. 



In the majority of the descriptions there is a tendency to idealize 

 the Tajik type, to endow it with positive moral and physical characters, 

 and to contrast it with the other peoples of Central Asia. 



Scholars have been attempting to isolate a specific "Tajik." A 

 typical exponent of this school was Shishlov, according to whom the 

 Tajiks are "the most solid basic Iranian type." Shishlov admits that 

 sometimes it is difficult to distinguish the specific Tajik type from the 

 Persian variety and even from the Central Asian Jews, at the same 



>' von Eickstcdt, E., Rasscnelcmcnte dcr Sikh. Zcitschr. Ethnol., pts. 4-5. 

 Berlin, 1931. 



" I.\rkho, A. I., Die .Mterverandcrungen dcr Rasscnmcrknialc bci den 

 Erwachsenen. Anthrop. Anz., vol. 12, pt. 2, 1935. 



*" Coon, Carlcton, The tribes of the Rif. Harvard African Studies, vol. 9, 

 Peabody Mus. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass., 193 1. 



-" Pumpelly, R., Explorations in Turkestan, vol. 2, pp. 445-44^1, Washington. 

 1905. Excavation of Anau was recommenced in 1946. (H. F.) 



2* Ginzburg, V. V., Gomye Tadzhiki [The Mountain Tajiks: ^faterials on 

 the anthropology of the Tajiks of Karatcgin and Darvaz]. Trudy. I.\E. vol. 16, 

 1937. 



