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Maori and Polynesian: their origin, history and culture

The Head-form marks off Races best. In the Caucasian — it is Medium, in the Negroid Long, in the Mongoloid — Short. But the Caucasian is also generally Much-haired, Wavy-haired, Light-complexioned, and — Maritime

The Head-form marks off Races best. In the Caucasian
it is Medium, in the Negroid Long, in the Mongoloid
Short. But the Caucasian is also generally Much-haired, Wavy-haired, Light-complexioned, and
Maritime

(9) The most constant mark of a race is the shape of the head. On that chiefly do anthropologists rely for the differentiation of sections of mankind. It is this that has enabled them to overturn the old idea that the Jew is the purest type of man in the world. Though his face-form does not vary much, his head-form varies almost with every nation in which page 17he is found. There is no distinctive Jewish head, although the features are ever recognisable. It is the feminine imagination of the race that keeps the ideal face true through hundreds of generations; as a rule, if left to itself, it will accept in marriage only the humanity that comes nearest to that. But the head-form is not the subject of amorous choice, concealed as it is beneath hair, and in most circumstances hat. It is one of the last results of anthropology, therefore, to prove that the Jew has always mingled with the people amongst whom he is settled.

(10) Now, though through the mountainous centre of Europe there is a wedge of broad-headed people, the general mark of the Caucasian and European is the moderately long head. That mountaineering race doubtless came in from the East, and, like the Finns and Magyars and even the Turks, have taken on European features and fair skin, whilst they have retained the head-form they brought with them. The negro, it is true, has also a long head. But his cast of features marks him off from the Caucasian not only in the living face, but in the skull when he is dead; the latter has in the average plenty of hair both on face and head, and that generally wavy, light-complexion, small cheekbones that never project laterally, narrow straight nose, and lips full and well-shaped. Wherever we find the long head with most of these characteristics, we may be sure that we have come across a people that has Caucasian elements in it. If they are also maritime and long-voyaging, there is little doubt that we have a true mark of Mediterranean origin. Some peoples have become continental and unmaritime, even though they are largely Caucasianised. This is due sometimes to their absorption by a continental people, sometimes to their being driven far inland, sometimes, if they live on the coast, to the lack of timber for building sea-going boats, sometimes to the complete lack of sheltered havens on the coast which they inhabit.