NO. 13 SOVIET ANTHROPOLOGY — FIELD TO"] 



of the Turkomans is dolichocephalic, having the smallest cephalic 

 index (75.0) known in the U.S.S.R. 



There are some historical data showing that the dolichocephaly 

 of the Scytho-Sarmalian tribes, and also of the Turkomans, may 

 have been caused by a peculiar local method of artificial cranial de- 

 formation, resulting in the change in the cephalic index. During the 

 expedition 12. G. Libman and D. lomudskaia studied the use of the 

 felt headgear put on the heads of the nursing babies and demonstrated 

 that the use of such a hood could not result in a dolichocephalic change 

 of the skull, and that the children were naturally dolichocephalic. 



In applying the fact of negative interracial correlation of the head 

 length and breadth discovered by Pearson and Czepurkowski to 

 Central Asiatic groups, we find that some groups possessing great 

 head length have, at the same time, a smaller head breadth. The 

 Turkomans belong in the lower left-hand corner of the correlation 

 grid, having the greatest length and the smallest breadth. In the 

 upper right-hand corner belong the Uigurs. According to lArkho 

 and Debets, tlie lack of positive correlation between the length and 

 breadth of a group indicates its mixed character. In this connection 

 two facts are of interest: (a) great positive correlation of lomuds ; 

 and (b) impairment of correlation of Khwarazmian Chaudyrs. The 

 first verifies the racial, and not artificial, character of the Turkoman 

 dolichocephaly. The small size of the index excludes the possibility 

 of significant participation of any Europeoid brachycephalic type. It 

 is possible to claim that the Europeoid base of all investigated Turko- 

 mans is homogeneous. This is explained socially by strict endogamy, 

 national, tribal, and clannish, of the Khwarazmian Turkomans. In 

 the Caucasus the Turkomans mix with the Turkish Nogais, Europeoid 

 Tatars, who apparently have a Europeoid element comparable to that 

 of Turkomans. Eormerly, they used to mix with Kazakhs and 

 Kalmyks. 



A STUDY OF THE TURKISH PEOPLES, 1924-1934 



In a posthumous article," edited by G. Debets, A. I. lArkho " pub- 

 lished a summary of a systematic anthropomctrical survey continued 

 for 10 years among the Turkish peoples of the Soviet Union. 



»i I.\rkho, \. I., Kratkii obzor antropologichcskogo izuchcniia Turctskikh 

 narodnostci SSSR za 10 let (1924-1934) |.\ brief review of the anthropological 

 study of the Turkish peoples of the U.S.S.R. during tlie 10 years 1924- 1934]. 

 AZH. No. I, pp. 47-64. 1936. 



»2 lArkho's death in Turkestan during 1935 came as a great shock to his 

 colleagues throughout the world, since he was one of the foremost Soviet 

 physical anthropologists. His work will be quoted in many text books still 



