Carleton Stevens Coon - The Races of Europe
Introduction
The present book is offered to the College audience as a text in a specific branch of physical anthropology. In it an attempt is made to trace the racial history of the white division of Homo sapiens from its Pleistocene beginnings to the present. Although six chapters are specifically devoted to a study of skeletal material by consecutive cultural periods, the main emphasis is placed upon the racial identification and classification of living white peoples. If there is one consistent theme in this book, it is that physical anthropology cannot be divorced from cultural and historical associations, and that there is no such thing as "pure" biology, at least in reference to human beings.
In writing a book of this character it has been necessary to employ a number of technical terms; the reader will find these defined in the glossary. Statistical tables have been purposely omitted from the text, but since many of the conclusions and identifications made in the chapters of skeletal history are novel, it has seemed advisable to document them by means of tabular material. For this reason the fifty-three columns of basic cranial means have been included as Appendix I.
References to all sources from which material, anthropometric or otherwise, has been drawn are given in footnotes in the sections in which specific data are mentioned. Although over four thousand titles have been consulted in the preparation of this volume, the author makes no pretense to have covered the entire literature of the subject. A number of unimportant references have been purposely omitted, and many others which are important have without doubt been overlooked. Except for materials used with special permission in advance of publication, no reference is made to data appearing later than July, 1938.
Two collateral phases of physical anthropology have, for adequate reasons, been completely avoided: the study of blood groups and the question of racial intelligence or racial psychology. The science of blood groups has, by 1938, developed a prodigious bibliography of its own, and will soon be treated in a special survey by Professor Wm. Boyd of Boston University. So far as specialists in this field have yet determined, there is no genetic linkage between blood group types and anthropometric phenomena. The subject of racial intelligence has, on the other hand, not progressed far enough to merit inclusion in a general work of racial history; it has furthermore provided too ready a field for political exploitation to be treated or interpreted as a side issue with scientific detachment. Races, in the present volume, are studied without implication of inferiority or superiority.
In the financing of the work, in the collection of data, and in the preparation of the manuscript, many persons have participated. The initial work of collection and preparation was financed, for two years, by generous grants from the Milton Fund and John G. Clark Bequest of Harvard University. Further financing which permitted its completion was provided by my father, Mr. John Lewis Coon, by The Macmillan Company, and by Mr. Lloyd Cabot Briggs. For the original suggestion that I be chosen to write the book, for his support in obtaining the original research funds, and for his continual advice and encouragement, I am deeply indebted to my teacher, Professor Earnest A. Hooton, who initiated me to physical anthropology and to whom I wish to render here an expression of homage and appreciation not only as my personal mentor but also as the spiritual father of American physical anthropology.
Of the many assistants who helped with the tedious labor of translating, abstracting, calculating, plotting, checking, and typing, four deserve especial credit: Mrs. Mary Ruby Gardner, Miss Anna Szugzda, Mr. Eugene C. Worman, and Mr. Jens Yde. Mr. Elmer Rising, who prepared all of the maps, charts, and line drawings, made the task of illustration easy with his experience and cooperation. Mr. Frederick P. Orchard and Miss Marion Lambert assisted in the preparation of the photographic illustrations.
Miss Constance Ashenden, Librarian of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, under whose direction every article in the scientific periodicals included in the library has been separately catalogued by author, subject, and country, placed at my disposal her great knowledge of the bibliography of anthropology, as well as her time and patience. To her and to Mr. Francis Gould, her assistant, I owe an especial debt of gratitude.
The following persons have permitted me to make use of unpublished anthropometric materials: Dr. Gordon T. Bowles, Mr. C. Wesley Dupertuis, Mr. Robert W. Ehrich, Dr. Henry Field, Mr. James Gaul, Mr. Herbert R. Glodt, Dr. Earnest A. Hooton, Dr. Byron O. Hughes, Dr. Frederick P. Hulse, Dr. W. Marion Krogman, Mr. Homer H. Kidder, Mr. Martin Luther, Dr. Theodore W. McCown, Dr. Geoffrey M. Morant, Dr. Carl C. Seltzer, Dr. William Shanklin, Professor Boris N. Vishnevsky, Mrs. Ruth Sawtelle Wallis, Professor Franz Weidenreich. Each of these persons will be further accredited in reference to the specific material used. It is hoped that a cursory mention of their data in this volume will stimulate interest in their detailed monographs which will follow. Needless to say, none of them is to be held responsible for any erroneous or unwarranted interpretations which I may have placed on their materials. I wish also to thank in this place those persons and institutions which have permitted me to reproduce photographs and paintings. Individual Credit will be given in each instance. The majority of the photographs used in this book, however, were taken by the author, with the generous assistance of many people. These include especially Miss Marion Blackwell, director of the International Institute in Boston, and her assistant Miss Olga St. Ivanyi; Mr. Arthur Megerdichian; Mr. Phillip Way and Mr. Merico Petrolati, of the Ludlow Manufacturing Company, Ludlow, Mass. ; Mr. Bror Tamm, Mr. H. W. Johnson, and the owners of the shipbuilding firm of George Lawley and Son; Mr. Ian Drysdale of the A. C, Lawrence Leather Company of Peabody, Mass.; Mr. Michel Abourjaily, of Boston; M. Dumas, of the Dumas Bookshop, Boston; Mr. Heinrich Wolff, manager of Gundlachs Hofbrauhaus in Boston; Father Jan Kozitsky; Mr. John Brunswick and the officers of the Czechoslovakian Club of Boston; Mr. James Stragunas; and numerous others, including all whose photographs appear in the plates illustrating racial types.
For specific advice and assistance, I have especial reason to be grateful to the following: Professor Glover Allen, for advice concerning fauna; Dr. Gordon T. Bowles, for the preparation of Map 16, and for information concerning the peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, and India; Professor Kirk Bryan, for information concerning Pleistocene and post-Pleistocene climate; Professor V. Gordon Childe, for reading the manuscript of Chapters II through VII, and for suggesting many important changes; Dr. Vladimir J. Fewkes, for preparing Maps 2 and 3, and for much advice upon the European archaeology of the Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and for data and advice on the subject of Slavic history; Dr. H. O'Neill Mencken, for advice concerning the archaeology of the Iron Age, and of the British Isles in particular; to Mr. Gabriel Lasker, for aid in preparing the glossary; Dr. J. R. de la H. Marett, for ideas and stimulation on the subject of human evolution; Professor William M. McGovern, for permitting me to read the manuscript of his "Early Empires of Central Asia," and for advice on the subject of Central Asiatic history; Dr. Hallam L. Movius, for assistance in the preparation of Map 1 and Figure 16, as well as in the writing of Chapters II and III; Dr. Robert W. Pfeiffer, for data on early Jewish history; Professor J. Dyneley Prince, for expert opinion on the question of Sumerian linguistics; Professor George Sarton, for advice on the handling of references; Mr. Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Mr. Charles Harding, for advice and data on the subject of the Norsemen; Mr. Lauriston Ward, Mr. James Gaul, and Mr. D. W. Lockard, for supervision and assistance on the subject of Near Eastern archaeology; Professor Harry Wolfson, for an elucidation of Jewish history and assist ance in preparing the sections on the Jews. To this list must be added the names of Professor M. F. Ashley-Montagu, Professor W. M. Krogman, and Dr. H. L. Shapiro, who read the book in galley proof and are responsible for many necessary changes, deletions, and additions.
As the reader will readily perceive, the experts listed above, most of whom are already renowned as illustrious scholars, have had no small part to play in the preparation of this volume. To them singly and collectively I owe a debt which it will be impossible for me to repay, and to them I offer my apologies if I have betrayed their generosity and their competence.
To Their Majesties the Kings of Yemen and Albania, and to His Highness the Sultan of Mukalla, I also wish to express my gratitude for permission and assistance in the collection of data which are here presented for the first time.
Finally, to the officers and staff of The Macmillan Company, I am deeply indebted for their generosity, cooperation, and forbearance.
C. S. G.
Sudbury, Massachusetts, February, 1939.