240 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA 



[ETH. ANN. 40 



In shape, the head of the western Eskimo is highly mesocephalic 

 to moderately brachycephalic and of only fair height, and it seldom 

 approaches the scaphoid or dome-shaped. It is not the narrow, high, 

 keeled skull of the northeastern and often the northern Eskimo. 

 The physiognomy, the characteristics of the body, and the mental- 

 ity and behavior, are in general typical Eskimo; but the form of the 

 vault is substantially different. It is a form which approaches on 

 one side that of the northwesternmost Indian, and on the other that of 

 the northeastern and Mongoloid Asiatics. More must be said about 

 this when we come to consider the skull. 



The forehead. — Anthropometric studies have shown repeatedly 95 " 

 that the height of the forehead is not a safe gauge of intelligence, 

 as commonly believed, but is controlled by the variable height of 

 the hair line. Thus the common full-blood American Negro 

 laborer and servant show a slightly higher forehead than the edu- 

 cated old American whites. 



Something of a similar nature is found in the Eskimo. As seen 

 in the following table, in the males the western Eskimo forehead is 

 absolutely, and especially relatively to stature, higher than it is in 

 the whites. In the females the absolute height in the two races is 

 identical, but relatively to stature the Eskimo again shows a clear 

 though somewhat lesser advantage. The condition is apparently not 

 due to the size of the head, for this is not greater than in the whites, 

 in the males; while in the females, where the Eskimo shows a 

 slightly larger head than the white in relation to stature, the fore- 

 head fails to correspond. 



Dimensions op Forehead 



With the lower breadth of the forehead, conditions are also inter- 

 esting. The absolute figures for the two races show a reversal. 



"■" Sep 01(1 Americans ; also the writer's The natives of Kharga Oasis. Egypt, Smiths. 

 Misc. Coll., Washington, 1912 ; Anthropology of the Chippewa, Holmes Anniv. Vol.. 

 Washington, 1916 ; and Measurements of the Negro, Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 1928, xn, 

 No. 1. 



