The races of man : an outline of anthropology and ethnography / by J. Deniker.

  • Deniker, Joseph, 1852-1918.
Date:
[1900]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The races of man : an outline of anthropology and ethnography / by J. Deniker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    522/668 (page 494)
    to be found among them. The frequency of individuals with a skin relatively fair, chocolate colour, especially in the south-east of the island (British New Guinea), joined to the frequency of wavy and straight hair, which, in the case of the children, is sometimes chestnut or sandy at the ends and black at the roots, has given the impression that there was a strong infusion of Polynesian blood in the veins of the Papuans; but this idea has been refuted by all ethnologists who have studied the populations on the spot—Miklukho-Maclay, Finsch, Haddon. According to the last, the evidence is in favour of some intermixture with the Melanesians, who, in general, are fairer than the Papuans, and have often wavy hair.1 Some anthropologists (Miklukho-Maclay, Meyer, Hamy, Mantegazza) have also pointed out the presence of Negritoes or Negrito-Papuan cross-breeds in New Guinea, basing their opinion on the study of skulls. These Negrito-Papuans appear to be localised at a single spot on the island, at the mouth of the river Fly.2 It should also be said that some Polynesian customs, kava drinking, tattoo by pricking, the possession of outrigger 1 It is ako to be noted that the supposed Papuan-Polynesian cross-breeds of the south-east of New Guinea neither drink kava nor know the art of pottery, unlike true Polynesians. Besides, their language approximates more nearly to the Melanesian dialects and presents no affinities with Polynesian languages (Ray, “ Languages of Brit. N. Guinea,” Journ. Anthr. Inst., vol. xxiv., p. 15, 1894). 2 Papuan skulls are generally very dolichocephalic (av. cepffi ind. 73), and the presence of brachycephalic skulls in the series of New Guinea origin is certainly of significance, only their proportion is very slight. Out of 500 New Guinea skulls described I have been able to find only 36 brachycephalic, or seven per cent. More than half of these skulls come from one and the same locality, the Kiwai and Canoe Islands in the delta of the Fly. Either a Malay colony may therefore be assumed there, a remnant of Negritoes, or that it was a centre of the custom of deforming the head, a custom which in fact obtains in the neighbourhood of the mouth of the Fly. On this question see my summary of 1882 cited above, and Haddon, toe. citSchellong, “Anthr. d. Papus,” Zeit. f Ethn., p. 156, 1891; J. Chalmers, “ Anthropometr. observ., etc.” Journ. Anthr. 1nst.t -ol. xxvii. (1897).