Hercus Monte
12-04-2013, 11:25 AM
Whereas the Letts have long been in close contact with Finnish peoples, and have absorbed whole Finnish tribes, the Lithuanians have been in contact rather with Slavic peoples, especially Poles and Russians. German influence has been important in each, while in Lithuania there is a not inconsiderable Jewish population. In Lithuania, however, we begin to arrive in that complex part of Europe in which a village of one ethnic and linguistic type is alternated with that of another; in which many kinds of people live side by side, but between whom wholesale mixture is infrequent. Among the Lithuanians themselves there are two linguistic divisions; the Jmouds or Samogitians, who number nearly half a trillion and live in the western part of the Kaunas district, near the East Prussian border, and the Lithuanians proper, who number more than three millions.
Except for Hesch's study of war prisoners, the anthropometric sources on the Lithuanians are old, and less complete than those on the Letts.111 They show, however, that the Lithuanians averaged two centimeters less in stature than the Letts, both in the Russian census of 1874-83, and during the World War. If they have increased in pace with the Letts, their present stature mean should be 168 or 169 cm. If not, it should fall between 166 and 167 cm. Despite a shorter stature, the Lithuanians have slightly broader shoulders and hips than the Letts, and these differences are magnified in the indices of bodily proportions. The span is both absolutely and relatively shorter, with an index of 105.6. The trunk length of the Lithuanians is greater, and the lower arm segment shorter. Thus in body build the Lithuanians frequently approach a thick-set constitutional type, while the Letts are more characteristically linear.
In head and face measurements, the Lithuanians differ from the Letts only in sagittal and vertical dimensions; the Lithuanian head is shorter, with a mean length of 188 mm., while the cephalic index has a mean of over 82; the facial breadths are similar to those of the Letts, while both total and upper face heights are a millimeter less; both facial and upper facial indices show a greater tendency to euryprosopy. The nose, at the same time, is a little shorter; the interorbital diameter slightly wider. In the interorbital, Hesch finds modes in his total. series at 31 mm. and 34 mm.; the former seems to be Nordic, the latter East Baltic or Neo-Danubian.
In pigmentation the Lithuanians are less frequently blond than the Letts. This is true in skin color as in hair and eye shades, for over 70 per cent of Lithuanians have skin darker than von Luschan # 10, while only 46 per cent of Letts were listed in this category. Dark brown hair (Fischer #4-5) is found in 40 per cent of Hesch's Lithuanian series, as against 21 per cent for his Letts. Of the remaining shades, ash-blond is the most frequent, and the darkest grade of ash-blond (Fischer #26), is the most frequent of all single numbers. Larger series observed without scales agree essentially with Hesch's material, but ,give the Lithuanians about 7 per cent of black or nearly black hair. The vast majority of Lithuanians have mixed eyes; only 10 per cent have pure light irises (Martin #15-16), as compared to 25 per cent for Letts; at the same time pure brown eyes number but 3 per cent. On the whole, therefore, one cannot say of the Lithuanians, as of the Finns, Esths, Livs, and Letts. that they are as blond as Scandinavians, but they are still predominantly light. There are probably regional variations of which our present data give us little positive indication.
A comparative study of hereditary landed aristocrats and of small land owners112 shows, however, that class differences in physical type must be even greater. The privileged class had, in 1912, a mean stature of 172.8 cm., the small land owners of 164.8 cm.; there was a slight difference in pigmentation, with the gentry running to brown hair and blue eyes, and their economic inferiors to lighter hair and mixed or brown eyes. The head size of the upper class was much larger, but the head form, face form and nose form were the same in each.
In hair form the Lithuanians, like the Letts, are almost all in the straight category. Three per cent of Lithuanians have curly hair, as against 7 for the Jmouds, indicating that the farther east one goes, the straighter the hair becomes. Among Lithuanians proper and Jmouds, and among Letts as well, curly hair is almost always blond or light brown.
In observations of general head and forehead form the Lithuanians resemble the Letts, except that rounder heads with broader foreheads are more frequent. The nasal root is less frequently high, but little different in breadth; the bridge is somewhat broader, and runs to more convex and concave extremes in profile. The tip points upward in 35 per cent of cases, and is definitely snubbed in 22 per cent. In the high frequency of this broad, up-tilted form the Lithuanians exceed the Letts by two to one. On the whole the frequencies are greater at the extremes in the Lithuanian sample than in that of the Letts, and indicate a greater diversity of nose form.
The lips of the Lithuanians arc somewhat thicker membranously, and more frequently evened than those of the Letts, although still they must be considered as medium. Great differences are found in tire soft parts of the eye, for while an external fold occurs in 55 per cent of Letts, only 17 per cent of Lithuanians have it. Some degree of upward obliquity of the eye slit is found in 40 per cent of casts, slightly higher than with Letts. The chin form is usually rather wide and rounded. Although we have no comparative data on malars, the indication is that they are no less prominent, in any event, than those of the Letts. Although the Lithuanians arc clearly less Nordic morphologically than are the Letts, they are at the same time less typically East Baltic in the Finnish sense in the total contour of the face, for more elliptical and fewer rectangular shapes are found among them.
The Lithuanians differ again from the Letts in having much less body hair, on chest and on arms and legs. Only 25 per cent have a medium mustache thickness, as judged by ordinary European standards, while the proportions on chin and cheek fall to 17 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. The unusual glabrousness of the Baltic-speaking peoples, as best exemplified by the Lithuanians, totally differentiates it from central European brachycephals of Alpine inspiration.
Talko-Hryncewicz, in his time one of the most assiduous students of race in eastern Europe, measured a series of so-called Lithuanian Tatars, the descendants of those Tatars who were brought into Lithuania for military purposes during the Middle Ages.113 They differ physically from the Lithuanians in many respects, and thus show that their absorption has not yet been completed. In skin color more than one-fourth are brownish, and an equal number yellowish, while less than half may be classed as light or white; less than 30 per cent are light or light brown haired, and over 70 per cent dark brown or black in hair color. In eye color almost half are classified as brown, and very few appear to be pure light. Although these Tatars are not purely brunet, they are much more brunet than the Lithuanians, and the light elements among them may not wholly be accounted for as the result of recent or local mixture.
In stature they are appreciably shorter than the Lithuanians, with a mean of 162.8 centimeters. Their head form, with a cephalic index of 81.9, is no different from that of the Lithuanians, although the absolute dimensions of the head, 183.6 and 151.4 millimeters, are smaller. Although the facial measurements are not comparable, the forehead is even broader than that of the Lithuanians, and the nose, while identical in breadth, is even shorter, with a nasal index of 69.4. As nearly as one may judge, these Tatars seem to have preserved in large measure the characters of their ancestors.
The deviation of the Lithuanians from their Lettish kinsmen cannot, however, be attributed in major degree to the absorption of Tatar blood. The Lithuanians are more southerly in habitat than the Letts, and are in contact with different neighbors; they form as a national group a branch of the greater East Baltic race, but a somewhat different variety from that of the other peoples living on the eastern side of the Baltic Sea. Their divergence in a racial sense points to the populations which we will study later in eastern Germany, Poland, and western Russia.
-Coon
Except for Hesch's study of war prisoners, the anthropometric sources on the Lithuanians are old, and less complete than those on the Letts.111 They show, however, that the Lithuanians averaged two centimeters less in stature than the Letts, both in the Russian census of 1874-83, and during the World War. If they have increased in pace with the Letts, their present stature mean should be 168 or 169 cm. If not, it should fall between 166 and 167 cm. Despite a shorter stature, the Lithuanians have slightly broader shoulders and hips than the Letts, and these differences are magnified in the indices of bodily proportions. The span is both absolutely and relatively shorter, with an index of 105.6. The trunk length of the Lithuanians is greater, and the lower arm segment shorter. Thus in body build the Lithuanians frequently approach a thick-set constitutional type, while the Letts are more characteristically linear.
In head and face measurements, the Lithuanians differ from the Letts only in sagittal and vertical dimensions; the Lithuanian head is shorter, with a mean length of 188 mm., while the cephalic index has a mean of over 82; the facial breadths are similar to those of the Letts, while both total and upper face heights are a millimeter less; both facial and upper facial indices show a greater tendency to euryprosopy. The nose, at the same time, is a little shorter; the interorbital diameter slightly wider. In the interorbital, Hesch finds modes in his total. series at 31 mm. and 34 mm.; the former seems to be Nordic, the latter East Baltic or Neo-Danubian.
In pigmentation the Lithuanians are less frequently blond than the Letts. This is true in skin color as in hair and eye shades, for over 70 per cent of Lithuanians have skin darker than von Luschan # 10, while only 46 per cent of Letts were listed in this category. Dark brown hair (Fischer #4-5) is found in 40 per cent of Hesch's Lithuanian series, as against 21 per cent for his Letts. Of the remaining shades, ash-blond is the most frequent, and the darkest grade of ash-blond (Fischer #26), is the most frequent of all single numbers. Larger series observed without scales agree essentially with Hesch's material, but ,give the Lithuanians about 7 per cent of black or nearly black hair. The vast majority of Lithuanians have mixed eyes; only 10 per cent have pure light irises (Martin #15-16), as compared to 25 per cent for Letts; at the same time pure brown eyes number but 3 per cent. On the whole, therefore, one cannot say of the Lithuanians, as of the Finns, Esths, Livs, and Letts. that they are as blond as Scandinavians, but they are still predominantly light. There are probably regional variations of which our present data give us little positive indication.
A comparative study of hereditary landed aristocrats and of small land owners112 shows, however, that class differences in physical type must be even greater. The privileged class had, in 1912, a mean stature of 172.8 cm., the small land owners of 164.8 cm.; there was a slight difference in pigmentation, with the gentry running to brown hair and blue eyes, and their economic inferiors to lighter hair and mixed or brown eyes. The head size of the upper class was much larger, but the head form, face form and nose form were the same in each.
In hair form the Lithuanians, like the Letts, are almost all in the straight category. Three per cent of Lithuanians have curly hair, as against 7 for the Jmouds, indicating that the farther east one goes, the straighter the hair becomes. Among Lithuanians proper and Jmouds, and among Letts as well, curly hair is almost always blond or light brown.
In observations of general head and forehead form the Lithuanians resemble the Letts, except that rounder heads with broader foreheads are more frequent. The nasal root is less frequently high, but little different in breadth; the bridge is somewhat broader, and runs to more convex and concave extremes in profile. The tip points upward in 35 per cent of cases, and is definitely snubbed in 22 per cent. In the high frequency of this broad, up-tilted form the Lithuanians exceed the Letts by two to one. On the whole the frequencies are greater at the extremes in the Lithuanian sample than in that of the Letts, and indicate a greater diversity of nose form.
The lips of the Lithuanians arc somewhat thicker membranously, and more frequently evened than those of the Letts, although still they must be considered as medium. Great differences are found in tire soft parts of the eye, for while an external fold occurs in 55 per cent of Letts, only 17 per cent of Lithuanians have it. Some degree of upward obliquity of the eye slit is found in 40 per cent of casts, slightly higher than with Letts. The chin form is usually rather wide and rounded. Although we have no comparative data on malars, the indication is that they are no less prominent, in any event, than those of the Letts. Although the Lithuanians arc clearly less Nordic morphologically than are the Letts, they are at the same time less typically East Baltic in the Finnish sense in the total contour of the face, for more elliptical and fewer rectangular shapes are found among them.
The Lithuanians differ again from the Letts in having much less body hair, on chest and on arms and legs. Only 25 per cent have a medium mustache thickness, as judged by ordinary European standards, while the proportions on chin and cheek fall to 17 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. The unusual glabrousness of the Baltic-speaking peoples, as best exemplified by the Lithuanians, totally differentiates it from central European brachycephals of Alpine inspiration.
Talko-Hryncewicz, in his time one of the most assiduous students of race in eastern Europe, measured a series of so-called Lithuanian Tatars, the descendants of those Tatars who were brought into Lithuania for military purposes during the Middle Ages.113 They differ physically from the Lithuanians in many respects, and thus show that their absorption has not yet been completed. In skin color more than one-fourth are brownish, and an equal number yellowish, while less than half may be classed as light or white; less than 30 per cent are light or light brown haired, and over 70 per cent dark brown or black in hair color. In eye color almost half are classified as brown, and very few appear to be pure light. Although these Tatars are not purely brunet, they are much more brunet than the Lithuanians, and the light elements among them may not wholly be accounted for as the result of recent or local mixture.
In stature they are appreciably shorter than the Lithuanians, with a mean of 162.8 centimeters. Their head form, with a cephalic index of 81.9, is no different from that of the Lithuanians, although the absolute dimensions of the head, 183.6 and 151.4 millimeters, are smaller. Although the facial measurements are not comparable, the forehead is even broader than that of the Lithuanians, and the nose, while identical in breadth, is even shorter, with a nasal index of 69.4. As nearly as one may judge, these Tatars seem to have preserved in large measure the characters of their ancestors.
The deviation of the Lithuanians from their Lettish kinsmen cannot, however, be attributed in major degree to the absorption of Tatar blood. The Lithuanians are more southerly in habitat than the Letts, and are in contact with different neighbors; they form as a national group a branch of the greater East Baltic race, but a somewhat different variety from that of the other peoples living on the eastern side of the Baltic Sea. Their divergence in a racial sense points to the populations which we will study later in eastern Germany, Poland, and western Russia.
-Coon