Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/711

This page needs to be proofread.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
607
ANTHROPOMETRY.

ogies between the genus Homo and both simian and pithecoid genera were discovered; later the methods and objects of measurement were extended, and anthropometry became prominent in scientific thought and literature; and during recent years the study of structures and functions of the human body has taken definite form under the term somatology (q.v.). Concurrently the study of functions, especially those of neural and cerebral character, has made great progress under the designation of experimental psychology. Meantime certain observers of men and tribes became impressed with the collective characteristics of the genus, characteristics so striking as to lead to the recognition of the group, rather than the individual, as the true unit of anthropology. This collective unit is called the socius by Giddings, and the ethnos or demos (according to the degree of development) by other investigators. The recognition of collective units was soon followed by recognition of collective functions, i.e., of the fact that what men do is of incomparably greater moment than what they merely are; and this led to the definition, largely by Powell, of the science of demology, or the science of collective human activity. The activities themselves have been classified as those pertaining respectively to arts, industries, laws, languages, and philosophies; and corresponding subsciences have been defined as esthetology, technology, sociology, philology, and sophiology. In this arrangement of the subdivisions of anthropology prehistoric technology becomes practically equivalent to the branch of knowledge long pursued as archæology, while sophiology embraces folk-lore and the study of primitive faiths or mythology; and when the activities are classified with a view to the definition of races and peoples, the product is ethnology. The general subject of anthropology is treated under the designation of the object matter of the science, Man, and the subdivisions of the science are entered under their proper heads.


ANTHROPOLOGY, Criminal. See Criminology.


ANTHROPOLOGY, Theological. A theological system which considers man as being the subject of sin and grace. It consequently considers his natural powers, so far as these relate to moral action and states — the moral intuitions, conscience, the affections, the will, habit — the original sin of Adam and its effects upon himself and upon his posterity, the corruption of nature, technically called "original sin," and the fall, heredity, the bondage of the will, and imputation. To these topics certain others are often added, such as the origin and antiquity of man, the origin of the soul (whether by creationism or traducianism), and the unity of the human race. See these various heads for discussion of the topic.


AN'THROPOM'ETRY (Gk. ἄνθρωπος, anthrōpos, man + μέτρον, metron, measure). A method of measurement pursued in anthropology. The primary measurements are those of the normal body at rest, and include stature, weight, circumference of head, reach (or span of extended arms), circumference and expansion of chest, length of arm and leg. sitting height, circumference of waist, limbs, hips, and shoulders, length of forearm and thigh, size of foot, length of fingers, size and position of ear, facial angle (i.e., degree of prognathism), shape of head, size

and form of nose, position and attitude of eyes, etc. Of these elements of the human body, only a few are commonly regarded as of ethnic sig- nificance, or of use in describing and comparing peoples or races considered collectively; the ele- ments commonly so employed comprise stature, size and shape of head, facial angle, relative length of limb, attitude of eyes, etc. Some or all of the other elements receive special consid- eration in studies and comparisons of selected classes of population, e.g., school-children of various ages or grades; and certain of the ele- ments are customarily recognized in the study of individuals, such as athletes, criminals, etc. With these definitely quantitative measurements, other individual or typical attributes of the hu- man body are commonly correlated; chief among these are color (of skin, hair, eyes, mucous membrane, nails, etc.), character of pelage (scalp hair, beard, axillary and pubic hair, body hair), local and general texture of integument, form and mobility of features, etc. Other measure- ments of common use in anthropologic studies are those of the skeleton, particularly the skull, jaws, and long bones. Various anthropologists, like Manouvrier and Deniker, have devised for- mulas for determining stature from the length of femur, tibia, humerus, and other long bones; and the relative dimensions of the different bones of the skeleton are commonly regarded as ethnic indications. The forms of certain bones are also deemed ethnic criteria; the flattening of the tibia (platycnemism) and the perforation of the humerus in the olecranon fossa have received especial consideration in this connection. The measurement of the skull has been developed into a system known as craniometry, which in some schools has been held to constitute a large if not controlling part of anthropology, although others regard the cranial measurements as ex- pressing little more than individual variations of trifling value in ethnology and general anthro- pology. A leading feature in this aspect of an- thropometry is the cranial index, i.e., the breadth of the skull in proportion to its length as viewed from above (in the norma verticalis); and three types are commonly defined as dolichocephalic or longhead, mesocephalic or round-head, and bra- chycephalic or broad-head varieties of the genus Homo, the ratios of breadth to length being about 70:100, 80:100, and 85:100, respectively.

Another important feature of the system is the capacity of the brain-case, measured by means of liquid or fragmental substances (water, glycerin, sand, fine shot, or small seeds), poured into the cavity and afterward weighed or gauged, or by aid of a thin, elastic, and impervious bag inserted through the foramen magnum and afterward filled with liquid; and connected with such determinations is the direct weighing or measurement of the brain itself. Still another feature is the facial angle, i.e., the angle subtended by the bones of face and forehead with the base of the cranium, viewed from the side (norma lateralis), or in vertical antero-posterior section (norma mediana). There are several modes of defining this angle, those of Camper, Cloquet, Jacquart. and Cuvier being best known; and the progressively increasing angle from the lower animals to the anthropoids, and thence from the lowest races to the highest type of humanity, is among the striking facts brought out by scientific inquiry. The facial index is another feature of modern anthropometry, and affords arbitrary