|
(Photographic Supplement, Plate 35)
From France to Macedonia, and from Istanbul to Samarkand, are found populations in which the majority of persons present a characteristic morphology of the head and face; with a brachycephalic skull, often flattish in the occipital region, the foramen magnum and auricular passages set disproportionately far to the rear, the forehead often sloping, the face frequently elongated, and the nose salient and frequently convex. People who possess these characteristics have been lumped together in one or more races; the Dinaric in Europe, the Armenoid in Asia, and the Noric to include the blond varieties. It is biologically unsound, however, to postulate any historic unity for individuals of these so-called races, since they are products not of an historical association but of a biological principle. That principle is as follows: A mixture of a Mediterranean stock with a 33 per cent, more or less, solution of Alpine may bring about a differential inheritance in the majority of the offspring; from the Alpine side is inherited brachycephaly, often greater than that of the Alpine ancestral factor; the dimensions of the pre-auricular part of the head are derived from the long-headed strain, hence the posterior position of the ear; the breadths of the median sagittal sector of the face are inherited from the narrower-faced ancestor, often in exaggerated degree, and this applies especially to the width of the upper segment of the nose and to the interorbital distance; meanwhile the face often becomes longer than in either parent stock, and the nose, in response to the shortening of the antero-posterior length of the entire head, becomes salient. This process occurs in varying degrees with individuals and with local racial entities of different origin. If the solution is saturated either with Alpines or with Mediterraneans, phenotypically pure members of whichever stock is predominant appear in considerable numbers. If the solution is correct, such apparently pure individuals still occur, but with relative infrequence. This principle, studied in this work in reference to whites, applies to hybrids of other races as well. It may readily be seen that the Dinarics, Norics, and Armenoids have no ethnic or historic unity, but are for the most part parallel results of the same process repeated with similar materials in different places. They are related only insofar as the parent stocks are related. There is one important exception to this rule, however; during the Bronze Age Dinaricized Mediterraneans spread with the knowledge of metal from an eastern Mediterranean source to the western Mediterranean Countries, to central Europe, and to the British Isles. In this instance Dinarics of a Near Eastern variety did actually invade Europe, and their descendants may be distinguished today in countries like England where, owing to the absence of an Alpine substratum, the process of Dinaricization has not been locally at play. In this and the following plates, an attempt will be made to illustrate degrees and
types of Dinaricization throughout the white racial area of the Old World.
Fig. 2 (3 views). A Noric from Berlin; the shallow nasion depression, and the great height and salience of the nose are especially noticeable here. Norics are extremely common in eastern Germany.
Fig. 3 (3 views). A Noric Pole from Galicia. This type is characteristic of many of the southern and western Poles.
Fig. 4 (3 views). A Komi or Zyrian, member of the northernmost of the East Russian Finnish tribes. This individual illustrates the essential Nordic character of the Finns, brachycephalized by some unknown agency.
|
