142 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IIO 



the inhabitants of the western Pamirs have best retained their original 

 ancient type. This is particularly true of Rushan where, because of 

 the extreme isolation of the region the purest type of Homo alpinus 

 is represented among the Galchas. To the north of lAngulem and 

 Vanch the Turkish element begins to be felt, both in the physical type 

 and in the culture. The material collected by Stein includes 55 indi- 

 viduals from Vakhan, 34 from Shikashim, 40 from Shugnan, 58 from 

 Rushan, 20 from lAngulem, 23 from Vanch, 25 from Darvaz, 26 

 from Karategin, and 16 Plains Tajiks from the oases of Bukhara. 



This material was published by T. A. Joyce, who comes to the 

 conclusion that it is possible to divide the Tajiks from the western 

 Pamirs into two groups: 



1. Northern and northzvesterly. — lAngulem, Vanch, Darvaz, and 

 Karategin : characterized by relative dolichocephaly, narrow noses, 

 euryprosopy, and small stature. 



2, Southern and southeasterly. — Shugnan, Ishkashim, and Vakhan : 

 relatively brachycephalic, long-nosed, leptoprosopic, and tall. 



The Tajiks from Rushan stand between the two types, forming 

 the connecting link. This is explained by the fact that they represent 

 the best-preserved type of the original inhabitant of the region. Homo 

 alpinus, which was changed to the north and the south under the in- 

 fluence of the broad-nosed and the narrow-nosed Turko-Mongolian 

 type. Plains Tajiks are also basically Homo alpinus, transformed 

 under the influence of a wide-nosed Mongolian type (represented by 

 the Kirghiz). In using the term "Alpine type" Joyce specifies that it 

 does not imply the presence of any sort of kinship between the 

 Pamirians and Alpines, but only a similarity of physical characteristics. 



The nasal and facial measurements recorded by Joyce are much 

 smaller than any other, probably owing to the fact that Stein and 

 Joyce were not using the standard methods for this measurement. 

 Joyce's method of mechanically summarizing the coefficients of racial 

 similarity in the presence of small samples may lead to erroneous 

 conclusions. 



Several investigators, including Shishlov, Kapusto, and Shirokova- 

 Divaeva, have studied the physical development of school children. 

 Attention is also being paid to the study of blood groups of various 

 peoples of Central Asia (lAsevich, lArkho, Vishnevskii, Petrov, 

 and others). Unfortunately much of the material collected has not 

 been published. 



