DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16243#0056
22
PEOPLE OF INDIA
Southern India and the Kanets of Kulu and Lahoul; * by my
anthropometric assistants, Rai Sahib Kumud Behari Samanta
and Mr. B. A. Gupte, who have carried out under my instruc-
tions an extensive series of measurements in Baluchistan,
Rajputana, Bombay, Orissa, and Burma; and by Lieutenant-
Colonel Waddell, c.b., c.i.e., of the Indian Medical Service, who
has published some valuable data for Assam, and parts of
Bengal in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.t
It is clearly impossible, within the compass of this sketch,
to enter upon a full analysis of all the measurements which
have been collected. I have therefore selected three characters,
the proportions of the head, the proportions of the nose, and
the stature, and have included them in the tables appended to
this volume. For two groups I have also taken the orbito-
nasal index, which affords a very precise test of the comparative
flatness of face, determined mainly by the prominence or
depression of the root of the nose in relation to the bones of
the orbit and cheek, which is a distinctive characteristic of the
Mongolian races. The measurements are arranged under the
seven types, into which I now propose to divide the popula-
tion ; in every case the average and the maximum and minimum
indices or dimensions are shown; and for each type diagrams
are given, showing the sedation of the data for the tribes or
castes selected as characteristic of the type. It need hardly be
added that the conclusions which I have ventured to put
forward are necessarily provisional, and will be of use mainly
as a guide to research, and as an indication of the progress
made up to date in this line of enquiry. During the next few
years the data will be greatly added to by the ethnographic
survey, and we may then hope to be in a position to make
some approach to a final classification of the people of India on
the basis of their physical characters.
Meanwhile, it may be of service to point out that no natural
classification of the varieties of the human species has as yet
General classifies beea arrived at- Certain extreme types can,
tion of mankind: the of course, be readily distinguished. No one
three primary types. can ^ tQ rec0gnize the enormous struc-
tural differences between an Andamanese and a Chinaman,
an Englishman, and a Negro, or a Patagonian and a Hottentot.
[* Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal, Vol. LXV., Part III., 1901, p. 59 el sea. Journal
Anthropological Institute, Vol. XXXII., 1902, p. 96 et seq.]
t J. A. S. B., Vol. LXIX., Part III., 1900.
PEOPLE OF INDIA
Southern India and the Kanets of Kulu and Lahoul; * by my
anthropometric assistants, Rai Sahib Kumud Behari Samanta
and Mr. B. A. Gupte, who have carried out under my instruc-
tions an extensive series of measurements in Baluchistan,
Rajputana, Bombay, Orissa, and Burma; and by Lieutenant-
Colonel Waddell, c.b., c.i.e., of the Indian Medical Service, who
has published some valuable data for Assam, and parts of
Bengal in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.t
It is clearly impossible, within the compass of this sketch,
to enter upon a full analysis of all the measurements which
have been collected. I have therefore selected three characters,
the proportions of the head, the proportions of the nose, and
the stature, and have included them in the tables appended to
this volume. For two groups I have also taken the orbito-
nasal index, which affords a very precise test of the comparative
flatness of face, determined mainly by the prominence or
depression of the root of the nose in relation to the bones of
the orbit and cheek, which is a distinctive characteristic of the
Mongolian races. The measurements are arranged under the
seven types, into which I now propose to divide the popula-
tion ; in every case the average and the maximum and minimum
indices or dimensions are shown; and for each type diagrams
are given, showing the sedation of the data for the tribes or
castes selected as characteristic of the type. It need hardly be
added that the conclusions which I have ventured to put
forward are necessarily provisional, and will be of use mainly
as a guide to research, and as an indication of the progress
made up to date in this line of enquiry. During the next few
years the data will be greatly added to by the ethnographic
survey, and we may then hope to be in a position to make
some approach to a final classification of the people of India on
the basis of their physical characters.
Meanwhile, it may be of service to point out that no natural
classification of the varieties of the human species has as yet
General classifies beea arrived at- Certain extreme types can,
tion of mankind: the of course, be readily distinguished. No one
three primary types. can ^ tQ rec0gnize the enormous struc-
tural differences between an Andamanese and a Chinaman,
an Englishman, and a Negro, or a Patagonian and a Hottentot.
[* Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal, Vol. LXV., Part III., 1901, p. 59 el sea. Journal
Anthropological Institute, Vol. XXXII., 1902, p. 96 et seq.]
t J. A. S. B., Vol. LXIX., Part III., 1900.