156 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



Our author questions the alleged greater similarity of primitive 

 than of modern types of man to the anthropoid apes, showing 

 that this is true only of certain selected features, while in some 

 other respects modern types show greater similarity than primi- 

 tive types to their sub-human forbears. 1 Granting that on the 

 whole the brain of modern man is larger and heavier than that 

 of primitive man, he refuses to grant to this fact a proof of greater 

 mental capacity. 2 



Boas discusses at length the influence of environment upon 

 human types and shows how climate, food and labor have regis- 

 tered their effect. 3 The permanency of somatic characters, so 

 emphasized by Gumplowicz and Deniker, is refuted by our 

 author, not only on the authority of Wiedersheim, 4 but by reason 

 of modern measurements by Bowditch, Peckham, Amnion, and 

 Ripley 6 as well as by his own measurements of immigrants to 

 America and their descendants. In this study the traits selected 

 for examination were head-measurements, stature, weight and 

 hair-color, and the ethnic groups chosen were the South Italians, 

 representing the Mediterranean type of Europe, the Central 

 European type, the Northwest European type, and the East 

 European Hebrews. " The results of our inquiry," he says, 

 " have led to the unexpected result that the American-born 

 descendants of these types differ from their parents; and that 

 these differences develop in early childhood, and persist through- 

 out life." G 



Our author is unable to explain these somatic changes from the 

 type, but holds that they prove that human types are plastic 



1 " The European shares lower characteristics with the Australian, both retain- 

 ing in the strongest degree the hairiness of the animal ancestor, while the specifically 

 human development of the red lip is developed most markedly in the negro. The 

 proportions of the limbs of the negro are also more markedly distinct from the 

 corresponding proportions in the higher apes than are those of the European," 

 Mind of Primitive Man, p. 22. 



2 Ibid., pp. 24-28. 



3 Ibid., pp. 23, 27, 40, 116. "I am inclined to believe that the influence of 

 environment is of such a character that, although the same race may assume a 

 different type when removed from one environment to another, it will revert to 

 its old type when replaced in its old environment," ibid., p. 76. 



4 Ibid., p. 41. 6 Ibid., pp. 45 f. 6 Ibid., p. 54. 



