Hrdlicka: The Peopling of America 



85 



The Eskimo have been generally 

 considered as apart from the Indian, 

 some holding that they preceded and 

 others that they followed him. They 

 have been connected generally with the 

 north-eastern Asiatics, but there are 

 also those who see a close original rela- 

 tion between the Eskimo and the Lapps, 

 and even between the Eskimo and the 

 Paleolithic Europeans. 



These are, in brief, the various more 

 or less speculative opinions that so far 

 have been advanced in an effort to 

 explain the ethnic identity and the 

 place of origin of the American Indian; 

 and it is only logical that the next word 

 on these problems be given to physical 

 anthropology, which deals with what 

 are, on the whole, the least mutable 

 parts of man, namely, his body and 

 skeleton. 



The somatology of the Indians, which 

 barely saw its beginnings in the time of 

 Humboldt and Morton, has now ad- 

 vanced to such a degree that at least 

 some important generalizations con- 

 cerning the American aborigines are 

 possible. We have now at our disposal 

 for comparison, in American museums 

 alone, upwards of 20,000 Indian crania 

 and skeletons from all parts of the 

 continent, while several thousand similar 

 specimens are contained in European 

 collections. A considerable advance, 

 particularly in North America, has also 

 been made in studying the living 

 natives. Unfortunately, we are much 

 less advantageously situated in regard 

 to comparative skeletal material as well 

 as with respect to data on the living 

 man from other parts of the world, 

 particularly from those regions where 

 other indications lead us to look for 

 the origin of the Indian. 



THE FACTS IN THE CASE. 



What can be stated in the light of 

 present knowledge concerning the Amer- 

 ican native with a fair degree of positive- 

 ness is that : 



1 . There is no acceptable evidence, nor 

 any probability, that man originated on 

 this continent; 



2. Man did not reach America until 

 after attaining a development superior 

 to that of late Pleistocene man in 

 Europe, and after having undergone 

 advanced and thorough stem, and even 

 racial and tribal, differentiation; and 



3. While man, since the peopling of 

 the American continent was commenced, 

 has developed numerous secondary, 

 sub-racial, localized structural modifica- 

 tions, these modifications cannot yet 

 be regarded as fixed, and in no important 

 features have they obliterated the old 

 type and sub-types of the people. 



We are further in a position to state 

 that, notwithstanding the various sec- 

 ondary physical modifications referred 

 to, the Ainerican natives, barring the 

 more distantly related Eskimo, present 

 throughout the Western Hemisphere 

 numerous important features in com- 

 mon, which mark them plainly as parts 

 of one stem of humanity. These fea- 

 tures are:^* 



1. The color of the skin. The 

 color of the Indian differs, according 

 to localities, from dusky yellowish- white 

 to that of solid chocolate, but the 

 prevailing color is brown. 



2. The hair of the Indian, as a rule, 

 is black, medium coarse and straight; 

 the beard is scanty, especially on the 

 sides of the face, and it is never long. 

 There is no hair on the body except in 

 the axillae and on the pubis, and even 

 there it is usually sparse. 



3. The Indian is generally free from 

 characteristic odor. His heart-beat 

 is slow. His mental characteristics are 

 everywhere much alike. The size of 

 the head and of the brain cavity is 

 comparable throughout, averaging some- 

 what less than that of white men and 

 women of similar stature. 



4. The eyes, as a rule, are dark brown 

 in color, with dirty yellowish con- 

 junctiva in adults, and the eye-slits 

 show a prevailing tendency, more or less 



1899, pp. 1-28: Hallock, Charles, "The Ancestors of the American Indigenes," Amer. Antiquarian, 

 xxiv, No. 1, 1902, and the publications of the Jesup Expedition of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, New York. 



'5 The remarks apply to the Indian not affected by sedentary habits and other conditions due 

 to changed mode of life attending the process of civilization. 



