INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTHERN MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL — OBERG 



131 



members, and since prehistoric times have main- 

 tained themselves against hostile neighbors (Lip- 

 kind, 1948, p. 188). 



APPRAISAL OF ANTHROPOMETRIC 

 TECHNIQUES 



Oberg followed Sullivan (1923) in teaching his 

 students to measure, and added head height, mini- 

 mum frontal and bigonial diameters, sitting height 

 and several other dimensions (tables 1, 2). A 

 Martin-type anthropometer, and sliding and 

 spreading calipers were used. Oberg instructed 

 his students to press the instruments quite tightly 

 over the soft parts in taking a measurement. He 

 periodically checked Onaga's measurements and 

 found they compared very closely with his own. 



Oberg suspected that his own location of nasion 

 was low, since he selected the deepest point at the 

 root of the nose. The low means for facial and 

 nasal heights in the Umotina, Nambicuara, and 

 Iranxe series bear out this suspicion. Oberg also 

 felt that perhaps he did not achieve a true mini- 

 mum in the minimum frontal diameter. This 

 seems likely, since the means of the present series 

 are high for this dimension. Head height was 

 taken with the detached segment of the anthro- 

 pometer from tragion to vertex. For sitting 

 height, the Umotina subjects were seated on a 

 chair, with their feet on the ground. The Nambi- 



cuara and Iranxe sat on a table for the measure- 

 ment, and presumably had no footrest. In table 1, 

 arm length was calculated by subtracting dactylion 

 height from acromial height; leg length, by sub- 

 tracting sitting height from stature. The latter, 

 somewhat unorthodox, procedure was used to 

 achieve figures comparable to those of Ranke. 



The techniques of the other investigators are 

 more comparable to those of Oberg and Onaga 

 than might be expected. Ehrenreich chose a 

 low location for nasion, on the average of 6 mm. 

 below that of Ranke (1910, p. 95). Judging by 

 Roquette-Pinto's low means for facial and nasal 

 heights (table 1), he also deviated in that direc- 

 tion. It seems most probable that the facial and 

 nasal dimensions measured by Onaga, Ehrenreich, 

 and Roquette-Pinto are closely comparable, al- 

 though Ranke's higher location for nasion is more 

 in line with orthodox modern procedure. After 

 consulting Ehrenreich, Ranke felt that the only 

 strictly comparable measurements between them 

 were stature, head length, head breadth, bizyg- 

 omatic breadth, and nasal breadth (Ranke, 1910, 

 p. 98). He considered Ehrenreich's arm lengths 

 overlong and his biacromial breadths overwide, 

 suggesting that Ehrenreich did not get close enough 

 to the bony landmarks. If anything, Oberg's 

 techniques were in the same direction. 



Table 1.- 



-Male means for 



various northern Mato Grosso tribes 



I 













Tribe and investigator indicated 



Measurements and indices 



Iranse 



Aueti 



Trumai 



ParessI 



Bacairi 



Oberg 



Ranke 



Ehrenreich 



Banke 



Ehrenreich 



Ehrenreich 



Ehrenreich 





No.' 



Mean 



No. 



Mean 



No. 



Mean 



No. 



Mean 



No. 



Mean 



No. 



Mean 



No. 



Mean 



Stature (in cm.) 



5 



5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 E 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 6 

 5 

 5 



153.6 

 78.6 

 34.2 

 70.3 

 75.0 

 181.2 

 143.4 

 121.2 

 102.8 

 109.8 

 133. 

 97.2 

 48.2 

 39.4 

 79.2 

 66.9 

 84.4 

 82.1 

 81.9 



24 

 24 

 24 

 24 

 24 

 24 

 24 



158.1 

 81.3 

 37.0 

 68.9 

 76.8 

 185.6 

 148.8 



14 



159.9 



14 

 14 

 14 

 14 

 14 

 14 

 14 



159.9 

 80.7 

 35.5 

 70.5 

 78.8 

 182.0 

 149.0 



7 



159.2 



9 



160.5 



10 



160.8 



Sitting height (in cm.) 





Biacromial breadth (in mm.).. 



14 



14 



39.0 

 73.3 







9 



9 



40.1 

 75.8 



10 



10 



37.7 



Arm length (in mm.).. 







74.0 



Leg length (in mm.) 









Head length (jn mm.) 



14 

 14 

 14 

 14 

 14 

 14 

 4 

 4 

 4 

 14 

 14 

 14 

 14 

 4 



187.1 

 148.4 

 122.3 

 108.9 

 115.6 

 134.2 

 103.2 

 45.4 

 39.0 

 79.6 

 65.3 

 82.2 

 86.3 

 76.1 



7 

 7 

 7 



7 

 7 

 7 



179.0 

 145.4 

 126.1 

 105.2 

 111.1 

 131.4 



9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 

 9 



188.1 

 145.9 

 117.9 

 108.9 

 116.9 

 135. 7 

 100. 2 

 49.6 

 39.2 

 77.5 

 62.4 

 80.8 

 85.9 

 79.2 



10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 



186. 5 



Head breadth (in mm.) 



147.0 



Head height (in mm.).._ 



120.6 



Minimum frontal diameter (in mm.) . 











108.0 



Morphological face height (in mm.) 



24 

 24 



121.3 

 137.0 



14 



14 



122.7 

 134.6 



117.1 



Bizygomatic breadth (in mm.) 



132.2 



Bigonial breadth (in mm.) 



97.8 



Nasal height (in mm.) 



24 

 24 



24 



66.1 

 39.0 

 80.2 



14 

 14 

 14 



55.3 

 40.4 

 81.9 







47.5 



Nasal breadth (in mm.) 







39.6 



Length-breadth index 



7 

 7 

 7 

 7 



81.6 

 70.6 

 86.7 

 84.6 

 75.fi 



79.0 



Length-height index 



65.6 



Breadth-height index 











82.0 



Morphological face index 



24 

 24 



88.5 

 69.5 



14 



14 



91.2 

 73.1 



88.2 



Nasal index 



84.7 







