NOT THE MEANEST MAN, BUT A REALLY MEAN ONE 



To anthropologists, the "mean man" of a race is an imaginary 

 ideal, as a circle is to a geometer. Each of his features 

 measures the mean or average of that feature in all the indi- 

 viduals of his race. He is in every respect an average man. 

 The above diagram, drawn to scale from Hrdlicka's data 

 by C. H. Popenoe, shows the mean man of the old white 

 American stock. It is a highly specialized face which, 

 according to ordinary ideas, is of a very superior type. The 

 most conspicuous peculiarities of the type are the almost 

 oblong outline of the face, and the high, well-developed 

 forehead. 



According to many anthropologists, the mean man is the 

 standard of beauty of a people. Any feature — mouth or nose, 

 for example- — is admired in proportion as it approximates in 

 its measurements the mean or average of that feature for the 

 race. The face which is most admired is that which has the 

 fewest exceptional peculiarities — which is in every respect the 

 most mediocre, as a statistician would say. The idea of a 

 mean man is therefore of much importance not only to 

 students of anthropology, but to students of aesthetics. 

 (Fig. 1.) 



