Physical Characteristics of the Copper Eskimos b47 



of Mr. Stefansson's arguments, that derived from the proportion between the 

 face breadth and head breadth, is purely illusory, as I shall show later on in 

 this paper. Not one of the four features he cites, therefore, lends the slightest 

 support to his theory. Even on historical grounds it might reasonably be 

 rejected, for while there is abundant evidence for movements of Eskimos 

 from the west into Greenland, there is absolutely none for any movement from 

 Greenland westward, at least not until the close of the nineteenth century. 

 Any SMch migration as Mr. Stefansson postulates must have taken place after 

 the middle of the 15th century and before the close of the 16th, which marked 

 the opening of the great era of Arctic exploration; but a westward migration 

 during these years is hardly conceivable, since this was the very period when 'the 

 Eskimo tribes were working their way eastward into Greenland and establishing 

 themselves along its coast-line. 



The theory of any European admixture among the Copper Eskimos may 

 be rejected without further consideration. But the possibility of a slight infusion 

 of Indian blood cannot be dismissed so summarily. It is true that from at least 

 the middle of the 18th century until a very few years ago the two peoples stu- 

 diously avoided each other, and the rare encounters of which we have any 

 record were always hostile ones. Yet even during this period it is not impossible 

 that young Indian girls were taken captive on a few occasions and married 

 among the Eskimos. In the long centuries that preceded the historic period, 

 centuries when the homes of many of the Eskimo tribes were certainly not the 

 same as at present, it seems not unlikely that there were periods of peaceful 

 intercourse and perhaps intermarriage between the two peoples. There are 

 certain customs and beliefs common to them both that must surely have origin- 

 ated in a single source, and the very fact that Indians and Eskimos have blended 

 on the lower Yukon makes it all the more probable that they have mixed else- 

 where, though not to the same extent. We know that the Eskimos taken as a 

 whole are not a homogeneous unit, for there are considerable differences in 

 stature and in head and body proportions among the different tribes; but how 

 far these differences can be co-ordinated with differences among adjacent Indian 

 tribes we have yet to learn, since the northern Indians are even less known 

 than the Eskimos. In fact, so scanty are our data concerning the physical 

 characteristics of these Indiaos that in the ensuing discussion I shall lay very 

 little stress on their possible admixture with Eskimos, except in Alaska, but 

 try merely to throw some light on the variations among the Eskimos themselves 

 by relating the facts given in Section I of this monograph with what we already 

 know of other tribes; and since the osteology of the western Eskimos is to be 

 made the subject of a special report the present discussion will be confined 

 mainly to observations on the living. 



The comparative material available for this purpose is rather limited. From 

 the west we have Boas' figures for the statures and cephalic indices of the Eskimos 

 of Alaska as a whole, Ray's measurements of the statures and weights of 51 

 men and 30 women of Point Barrow, and Stone's head and trunk measure- 

 ments of 11 men and 5 women from the Noatak river region. The last traveller 

 has also measured 12 men and 6 women in the Mackenzie delta. Farther east, 

 from Hudson bay, we have Parry's figures for the statures of 20 men and 20 

 women of Iglulik, various measurements from 35 men on Southampton island 

 recorded by Tocher, and the statures and weights of 9 Aivilik men and 12 

 Aivilik women given by Boas. Labrador is represented by the measurements 

 of 11 men and 10 women recorded by Duckworth and Pain and the statures 

 of 26 men and women given by Boas. In Greenland there are Steensby's measure- 

 ments of 8 men and 10 women in Smith sound, while from south-west and east 

 Greenland we have the rather extensive information pubhshed by S<^ren Hansen. ^ 



'Ray, op. cit.; Boas, Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, Bd. 27, 1895, and Bulletins, American Museum of 

 Natural History, Vol. XIV, 1901, and Vol. XV, Pt. 1, 1901; Parry, op. cit.; Tocher, Man, 2, 1902;; Duck- 

 worth and Pain, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Vol. X, 1900, and Journal of the 

 Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. XXX, 1900; Steensby, Meddelelser om Gr^nland, Vol. XXXIV, 

 1910; S0ren Hansen, Meddelelser om Gr^nland, Vol. XXXIX, 1914. 



