Physical Characteristics of the Copper Eskimos 



FACIAL INDEX— CORONATION GULF 



b61 



The only available figures from other living Eskimos are from Labrador, 

 where Duckworth and Pain obtained 51-4 as the facial index for men and 50 ■ 7 

 for women. My three Mackenzie delta men gave 50-5, and the three Point 

 Hope men 51. Hansen's figures from Greenland are not comparable, owing 

 to the different method used in computing the length of the face. 



Peopobtion of Breadth of Head and Breadth of Face 



This proportion is of some interest because it has been used by Mr. Stef- 

 ansson to support his theory of European infusion among the Copper Eskimos.^ 

 He relied upon Boas' statement,'' that the fundamental feature of the Eskimo 

 skull consists in great breadth of face as compared to narrowness of skull, and 

 the head is everywhere narrower than the face except in Labrador and West 

 Greenland, where there is a strong infusion of white blood. The theory has 

 been criticized already by Hawkes, who points out that there appears to be a 

 slight sexual difference, the face in female skulls being, if anything, slightly 

 narrower than the head.' Information on the subject is scarce, as very few 

 anthropologists have made use of this index. Moreover, the question has been 

 greatly confused by comparing measurements taken on the living with skull 

 measurements, although the index given by the former seems to be several 

 points lower than the corresponding skull index. Thus, in Smith sound, a place 

 free from European admixture as far as adult Eskimos are concerned, Steensby's 

 measurements of 18 natives give a combined index of 97 (8 men 96-7, 10 women 

 97 • 6) although 85 skulls from the same region measured by Bessels give an index 

 of 103.^ Eskimo skulls from other places closely resemble those from Smith 

 sound, and as their indices never greatly exceed 100 we may be sure that the 

 indices of the living Eskimos fall normally below that figure, just as it does 

 in Smith sound. That is to say, broader heads than faces is the rule in living 

 Eskimos, and so cannot be interpreted as a sign of European admixture. 



'Stefansson, My Life with the Eskimo, p. 194 f . 

 ^Boas, op. cit., p. 59 f. 

 'Hawkes, op. cit., p. 226. 



<Steensby, Meddel. om Gri^nland, Vol. XXXIV, p. 389; 

 1875, pp. 116 ei seq. 



Besael, Archiv tUr Anthropologie, Band 8, 



