354 ON THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG-BARROW PERIOD 



show the disproportionate smallness of the females even more 

 strikingly than the bones already alluded to. Professor Busk has 

 recorded the small size and delicate form of the clavicles from the 

 Gibraltar caves \ 



To the relative size of the skulls in the two sexes in prehistoric 

 times, the doctrine laid down by Retzius in 1845 2 , and re-affirmed 

 in 1854 by Huschke 3 , as to the upper and lower classes of modern 

 society, and the civilised and uncivilised races of modern days, is 



Gustav Fritsch, in his work, 'Die Eingeborenen Siid-Afrikas,' s. 17, gives r7i-8 cm. 

 (5 feet 7| inches) as the average stature of men of that race of Kaffirs just mentioned, 

 and at p. 24 he says of the females: 'Pflegen die weiblichen Individuen in der 

 Entwickelung den mannlichen nachstehen was wohl in der unterdriickten politischen 

 Stellung der Frauen seinen Grund hat ; ' but he does not give their exact stature. 

 At p. 216 this author says, ' Die Frauen der Ova-herero erscheinen in gleicher Weise 

 wie der ubrigen Sud-Afrikanischen Nigritier in Vergleich mit den Mannern un- 

 bedeutend/ and at p. 277 he gives 160.4 cm. (5 feet 3 inches) for the average stature 

 of ten male Hottentots, as against 144*2 (4 feet 8 inches) for the average attained 

 from measuring four females of the same tribe. When, however, the stature of the 

 male members of a race falls as low as that just given for the female Hottentot, the 

 stature and other dimensions of the sexes appear to be nearly identical. This is the 

 case with the Bushmen (see p. 398, 1. c). The measurements, however, given by 

 Weisbach in the Anthropological part of the ' Reise der Novara,' 1867, p. 216, do 

 not show that the discrepancy between the stature of the sexes of savage races rises in 

 a direct proportion with their savagery, the greatest difference put there upon record 

 being that between Java men, 1679 mm., and Java women, i46i'2, and amounting to 

 8 1 inches, whilst the difference recorded between Australian men and Australian 

 women is only 65 mm. (2^ inches). A similar disproportion, and one even greater 

 than that recorded by Weisbach for the Javanese males and females, has been reported 

 to me as the rule amongst the Japanese ; whilst, on the other hand, a ' Report on the 

 Aborigines of Victoria,' 1859, p. 45 (cit. Davis, 'Thesaurus Craniorum,' p. 364), 

 gives 5 feet 6 inches as the average height of eleven Australian men, as against 4 feet 

 io| inches of an Australian woman. (See, however, Davis, 'Phil. Trans.' for 1868, 

 p. 524.) The honourable position assigned to, or obtained by, the female sex amongst 

 the Germanic races may be considered as testified to by the near approach to equality 

 in stature which, even in ancient times (see 'Smith's Dictionary of Geog.,' art. 

 'Germania'), was observed to exist between the sexes. Liharzig, however, most 

 surely under- estimates the difference when, in part following Quetelet and Bednar, he 

 gives, in his great work, 'Das Gesetz des Wachsthumes,' p. 4, Taf. i, ii, iii, iv, 175 

 cent. (68-899 inches) as the average male stature, and 173 cent. (67a 11 inches) as 

 the average female stature. The rationale of all this lies in the earlier attainment of 

 puberty by the female sex in our species, and the consequent early consignment of the 

 females, in savage varieties of it, to child-bearing and hard labour. Mr. Dobson's 

 paper on the ' Andamans and Andamanese,' published in the preceding number of the 

 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, p. 457, furnishes a good illustration of this 

 principle. (See especially Plate xxxi.) 



1 'Trans. Internat. Congress Prehist. Archaeology,' 1869, p. 158. 



2 'Muller's Arch.,' 1845, p. 89. 



3 ' Schadel, Hirn uad Seele,' p. 48. 



