DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16243#0057
PHYSICAL TYPES
23
But owing to the tendency of individuals to vary, and to the
intermixture of races, which has gone on more or less at all
times, and is continually increasing with modern improvements
in communications, the apparently impassable gulf between the
extreme types is bridged over by a number of intermediate or
transitional forms, which shade into each other by almost
imperceptible degrees. It is therefore practically impossible
to divide mankind into a number of definite groups in one or
other of which every individual will find a place. Even as
regards the primary groups there has been great diversity of
opinion, and the number suggested by different writers ranges
„ Irom two to more than sixty. In the main, however, as Flower
has pointed out, there has always been a tendency to revert to
the four primitive types sketched out by Linnaeus—the Euro-
pean, Asiatic, African, and American, reduced by Cuvier to
three by the omission of the American type. Flower himself
is of opinion "that the primitive man, whatever he may have
been, has, in the course of ages, divaricated into three extreme
types, represented by the Caucasian of Europe, the Mongolian
of Asia, and the Ethiopian of Africa," and " that all existing
.individuals of the species can be ranged around these types, or
somewhere or other between them." He therefore adopts as
the basis of his classification the following three types :—
I. The Ethiopian, Negroid, or black type with dark or
nearly black complexion ; frizzly black hair, a head
almost invariably long (dolicho-cephalic); a very
broad and flat nose; moderate or scanty development
of beard ; thick, everted lips; large teeth; and a
long forearm.
The Negroid type is again sub-divided into four groups,
with only one of which we are concerned here. This is the
Negrito, represented within the Indian Empire by the Anda-
manese enumerated for the first time in the Census of 1901 and
possibly by the Semangs of the jungles of Malacca, some of
whom may have wandered up into the Mergui district of
Burma.* In respect of colour and hair, the Andamanese
closely resemble the Negro, but they have broad heads, their
facial characters are different,, and they form a very distinct
group which has not been affected by intermixture with other
races.
II. The Mongolian, Xanthous, or yellow type, with yellow
t* For the physical characteristics of the Semang, see W. W. Skeat, C. O. Blagdcn,
he Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, 1906, Vol. I., p. 19 et sea.]
23
But owing to the tendency of individuals to vary, and to the
intermixture of races, which has gone on more or less at all
times, and is continually increasing with modern improvements
in communications, the apparently impassable gulf between the
extreme types is bridged over by a number of intermediate or
transitional forms, which shade into each other by almost
imperceptible degrees. It is therefore practically impossible
to divide mankind into a number of definite groups in one or
other of which every individual will find a place. Even as
regards the primary groups there has been great diversity of
opinion, and the number suggested by different writers ranges
„ Irom two to more than sixty. In the main, however, as Flower
has pointed out, there has always been a tendency to revert to
the four primitive types sketched out by Linnaeus—the Euro-
pean, Asiatic, African, and American, reduced by Cuvier to
three by the omission of the American type. Flower himself
is of opinion "that the primitive man, whatever he may have
been, has, in the course of ages, divaricated into three extreme
types, represented by the Caucasian of Europe, the Mongolian
of Asia, and the Ethiopian of Africa," and " that all existing
.individuals of the species can be ranged around these types, or
somewhere or other between them." He therefore adopts as
the basis of his classification the following three types :—
I. The Ethiopian, Negroid, or black type with dark or
nearly black complexion ; frizzly black hair, a head
almost invariably long (dolicho-cephalic); a very
broad and flat nose; moderate or scanty development
of beard ; thick, everted lips; large teeth; and a
long forearm.
The Negroid type is again sub-divided into four groups,
with only one of which we are concerned here. This is the
Negrito, represented within the Indian Empire by the Anda-
manese enumerated for the first time in the Census of 1901 and
possibly by the Semangs of the jungles of Malacca, some of
whom may have wandered up into the Mergui district of
Burma.* In respect of colour and hair, the Andamanese
closely resemble the Negro, but they have broad heads, their
facial characters are different,, and they form a very distinct
group which has not been affected by intermixture with other
races.
II. The Mongolian, Xanthous, or yellow type, with yellow
t* For the physical characteristics of the Semang, see W. W. Skeat, C. O. Blagdcn,
he Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, 1906, Vol. I., p. 19 et sea.]