HAWKES] SKELETAL MEASUREMENTS, POINT BARROW ESKIMO 2O5 



Thus, the Point Barrow Eskimo have not been subject to 

 Athapascan influence, like the interior Alaskan tribes, nor to the 

 mixture of Northwest Coast and Russian customs present on the 

 Yukon, nor directly to the strong Siberian influence in Bering strait. 

 Consequently, they offer distinct advantages as a pure Alaskan 

 group. 



For purposes of comparison the Southampton island Eskimo 

 have been accepted as typical of the central group. Their situa 

 tion precludes any possibility of Indian contact and they very 

 rarely met even other Eskimo tribes. Furthermore, we have an 

 excellent intensive physical study of these people by Dr. Hrdlicka, 1 

 which is a great aid in comparison. In our comparative tables we 

 have followed the accepted routes of Eskimo migration, which 

 appear to reveal certain well-defined tendencies in physical type as 

 well as culture. 



The Eskimo are particularly valuable as offering a fairly constant 

 racial type for comparison with widely different Indian tribes 

 throughout their extent. Their physical influence on two Indian 

 stocks as different as the Athapascan and Algonkian is fully as 

 significant as their cultural influences. Dr. Boas has suggested 

 the strength of this influence in the east. 2 



On the other hand, it would appear from our investigation that 

 the influence of the Indian on the Eskimo type in Alaska, at least 

 in the northern section, has been overestimated. In the crania avail 

 able we find that the majority of Alaskan Eskimo approximate the 

 central type, and in individuals the racial characteristics, as the 

 broad face, narrow nose, etc., are as strongly developed as in that 

 area. Possibly the superior stature of the western group may be as 

 much due to better food, clothing, and housing conditions as to an 

 intermixture with Indian tribes, an assumption which has not yet 

 been proven. 



Particular attention has been given in this investigation to 

 sexual differences which were found to be considerable. We find 



1 &quot;Contribution to the Anthropology of the Central and Smith Sound Eskimo&quot; 

 (Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. V., part i). 



2 Franz Boas, &quot;Physical Types of the Indians of Canada.&quot; (Annual Archaeolog 

 ical Report, p. 88. Ontario, 1905.) 



