RACE CHARACTERISTICS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17954, 5 June 1920, Page 10

RACE CHARACTERISTICS

THEIK CLASSIFICATION AMD OMGIN.

The series of University lectures in Anthropology were continued at tho Museum classroom last night by JLr 11. D. Skinner, who first briefly reviewed the ground already covered. The lecturer said he proposed to leave the fascinating region of the past and to turn attention to the more humdrum subject of the characteristics of present-day races. Ho referred to tho fact that tho period from the date of the earliest fossil remains to the present day was probably 500 times as long as tho period from Pil; down man (tho first homo sapiens) to the present. The period from Piitdown man to the present, again, was probably 50 times as long as the whole period! of recorded history. Touching on the differences between' tho and past, ho referred to the fact that rapid.ty and speed of movement and production had come in to characterise the present. The great outstanding difference from tho past was that tho present was a period of rapid change. Wo concluded that knowledge and invention proceeded at an ever-accelerating speed. 'Away m the old stone age man and nature were locked m a deadly embrace in an undecided struggle, but in the neolithic age man might be said to have " turned the corner" and 'definitely to have mastered nature. From that time, h's progress became ever more rapid, io the pal-eoluhic age belonged-only one race that modern civilised men had ever seen, the early lasmaniaus. There wrs no doubt they bolenged to tho stone age. In malting a broad classification of tho races of mankind we hnd to depend not on cultural but 011 physical differences. Thero was great difficulty in finding a satisfactory basts for raco classification, but the best classification depended on physical characteristics. Arts and crafts, however, threw considerable light on race relationships, for where the same types of buildings or of decorative art- were found a common race origin might fair yb ? inferred. More important than social culture and oven than reliction in do lorminmg race relationships was kinship ,in language. It was possible, however, to attach too much importance to Iho evidence of language as had been done by the school 11 'J :k , Midler was the most distinI'ar more important than • y of these matters he had mentioned wero the physical characters, of which the most lmjioTtant were skin colour, stature, shape T f Ure ° f hair ' aud the form, ihe chief measurement ussd in determining ivMo ° a o , rn \ as the cephalic index. Speaking of the fekin colour, the lecturer said that pigmentation showed ereat persistence as m the case of the American ?•' a l ier BeneratioM i I temperate ohniate, showed no tendenev to blanching.. The nose was of special importc^Tr, m nf ie^ 1 j? lnin s relationship of the f ii, Indla ~the lower the caste the broader ihe nose. Hair was probablv tlio most satisfactory characteristic to use "as a bas!s of classification. It could b? div-'ded as straight, wavy, and woolly, each of 4k* had its own characteristics. -Taking hair as 51 evt t classification, skin colour as the wfet™ important factor, and other eliaracth« ' 1S C f or ' V6! "? l 3 t ' ho P r °ceeded to classify hotel f I man,nn<l - Under the haired branch came dark-skinn,;d and short 0 ne e r °es and Bantus, Papuans and Jlelanesians, dark-skmncd and short peoples like negrittos and jellow-skmned and short peoples like the' Bush men and Hottentots. Under the division oarao long-lieadted peoples, including : ? raned r r T CCS a<s tho Pre-Dravidisnl and Dravidians of Ind'ia, intermediate shades such as Indo-Afghans, Indonesians, and Poly'awny whites such as Somites and -l falr People like the *?. The wavy-haired peoples had another mam division called broad-headed of which the Ainu and Alpines were examples. Under the third great branch, or straighthaired people, came Ihe broad-headed division including Ural' Altaians. Chinese, ar.d finds (i.e., American Indians), and the longheaded, including some branches of the Amerinds and the Esquimaux. Touching on theories to account for racial characteristics, the lecturer explainedl Professor Arthur Keith's recent theory of the influence of the five glauds on human growth and characteristics. Tho pituitary gland, for instance, is directly concerned in determining stature, shape of head, characteristics of hair and otlior important racial characteristics' According to Professor Keith, we Europeans! for instance, owe the fairness of our skins to a greater activity in our supra-renal glands. According to Keith our racial variations bably originated in variations in the intensity of activity in one or more of the glands