ORIGIN OF AMERICAN INDIAN — HRDLICKA 489 



America, and their presence, with the absence of other such routes 

 elsewhere, gives strong support to the view that those who eventually 

 became the American aborigines reached this continent from north- 

 eastern Asia. 



Let us now turn to racial evidence. We have passed above in 

 brief review the principal physical and physiological characteristics 

 that distinguish the American aborigines. Where, in the Old World, 

 are there or ever were there people who approach this type most 

 closely ? 



This was surely not in Africa, for there is lj^tle in common be- 

 tween the Negro and the Indian. It was not in historic Europe, 

 which, during that time and barring a few Asiatic incursions, was 

 peopled only by the white race. If we turn to Asia, however, we 

 see that large parts of Siberia and the eastern coast of the continent, 

 with much of Malaysia and even Polynesia, were and still are peo- 

 pled by nations and tribes which differ more or less from one an- 

 other, owing to admixtures and local differentiation, but which on 

 the whole are of a type that in most of its essentials resembles, or 

 is practically identical with, that of the Indian. This type persists 

 to this day with particular purity in certain parts' of the Philippine 

 Islands (such as among the Igorrots), in Formosa, in portions of 

 Tibet, in parts of western China, in Mongolia, and over many parts 

 of Siberia. It can frequently be met with in China proper, in Korea, 

 and in Japan. It is a type which is characterized by the same range 

 of color, as well as the quality and peculiarities of distribution of 

 the hair; by the same dark-brown eyes with yellowish conjunctiva 

 and slight to moderate slant; by similar prominence of the cheek 

 bones and characteristics of other parts of the face; by similar fre- 

 quency of the hollowed-out upper front teeth; by close resemblance 

 in the rest of the body; and, in addition, by similar mentality 

 and behavior, with close affinities in other functions, as well as in 

 numerous habits and customs. The physical resemblances between 

 some members of the Asiatic groups and the average American 

 Indian are such that if a member of one or the other were trans- 

 planted and his body and hair dressed like those of the tribe in the 

 midst of which he was placed, he could not possibly be distinguished 

 physically by any means at the command of even a scientific observer. 



Such resemblances can not possibly be fortuitous. They show that 

 eastern Asia has been and in large measure still is peopled by a type 

 of humanity which, while no more homogenous than for example 

 the white race, stands nevertheless on the whole nearest of all the 

 human types to that of the American aborigines. Given the close 

 proximity of the two continents, which would permit the passage 

 from one to the other of people even in a relatively primitive state 



