Читать книгу Race, Language and Culture - Boas Franz - Страница 13

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An investigation of the bodily forms of the individuals constituting a race, homogeneous or heterogeneous, shows that they differ considerably among themselves in every single feature, such as pigmentation, form of hair, size and proportions of the body, physiological reactions. These differences are measurable and express the degree of variability of the race. A complete presentation of the characteristics of a race would contain a statement of the relative frequency of each particular bodily form which occurs among the individuals constituting the race. When comparing, from the point of view of anatomical or physiological characteristics, the racial types of Europe which constitute the bulk of the American population, it appears that the range of variation for the different types is of such a character that a great many individuals belonging to one type correspond to other individuals belonging to another type. In other words, there are certain forms common to all populations of Europe. To give an example: We find strongly contrasting head forms in northern Italy and in Sardinia. Nevertheless an investigation of the distribution of head forms in each one of these districts shows that 27 per cent of the population may belong either to Sardinia or to northern Italy. In other words, there is a very considerable amount of overlapping of bodily form between neighboring types, and it is only when we consider races that are fundamentally different that we find certain characteristics that do not overlap. Comparing, for instance, the blond north European White and the dark Sudanese Negro, there is no overlapping with regard to pigmentation, form of hair, form of nose, form of lips, etc. If, on the other hand, we proceed by steps from northern Europe to the Sudan, a great many intermediate and overlapping steps between these extreme forms will be found, so that only the extremes would really be entirely separate. While it may be that two races are quite distinct with regard to certain features, there are always other features with regard to which the differences are so slight that the assignment of any one individual to either one race or the other would be beset with doubt.

It has been customary to express the differences between racial types by the difference between the averages of each type or between the modes (the most frequent values) that are characteristic for each type. It is easily shown that such a description in misleading. If we wish to express the difference between two individuals, each of whom has constant characteristics, we may proceed in this manner. If one individual measures 170 cm. and another 165 cm., the difference between them is 5 cm. If, however, a certain population has an average stature of 170 cm., and another population an average stature of 165 cm., we cannot say that the difference between the two is 5 cm., because if there is a wide range of variability there will be a large number of individuals among the taller population who have exactly the same statures as individuals of the shorter population. To give arbitrarily selected figures, the one may range perhaps from 150 to 190 cm., the other from 145 to 185 cm. In this case an individual that measures anywhere between 150 and 185 cm. might belong to either class. It must, therefore, be clear that if we speak of differences between two races we do not necessarily mean differences between individuals, and these two concepts must be kept clearly apart. The bulk of our modern literature concerning racial differences is open to misinterpretation owing to a lack of a clear understanding of the significance of the term “difference” as applied on the one hand to individuals and on the other hand to races. The generalization, which is often made (to use our previous instance), that the one population is 5 cm. shorter than the other is often interpreted as meaning that this implies a characteristic of all the individuals of a race, while actually a single selected individual of the shorter race may be much taller than a single selected individual of the taller race. This is equally true of all those anatomical, physiological, and psychological characteristics which exhibit overlapping of individuals. It is also true of those that show no overlapping, because the difference between two selected representative individuals may vary within wide limits. If it is stated that the Whites have larger brains than the Negroes, this does not mean that every White person has a larger brain than any Negro, but merely that the average of the Negro brains is lower than the average of the brains of the Whites. With regard to many characteristics of this kind, we find that the difference between the averages of different races is insignificant as compared to the range of variability that occurs within each race.

An additional point should be considered in connection with this phenomenon. Most of the anatomical characteristics of the body are stable throughout adult life, until senile degeneration begins. On the other hand, physiological and psychological functions are not the same in the same individual at all times. They vary strongly with environmental conditions and particularly with different demands made upon the organism. The variability of physiological and psychological responses is therefore much greater than the variability of anatomical form, because the two former combine the variability due to the difference in the functioning in various individuals with the variations of response under varying conditions. When comparing racial types we must therefore avoid expressing a difference of types simply as a difference of averages.

Another point must be considered which may be illustrated by an example. Let us assume that in one area the color of the hair varies from black to dark brown with an average value on a certain definite shade, and that in another population the color of the hair varies from dark blond to very light blond with an average on a certain shade of blond. In this case the two distributions will not overlap at all. On the other hand, let us assume that we have two populations with the same average shades of brown and of blond as before, but in the one a variation which begins with black and extends into blond shades, and in the other a pigmentation which begins with a very dark brown and extends into very light blond, so that the two overlap. Obviously the two differences will not impress us as the same, notwithstanding the fact that the two averages remain the same. It is therefore indispensable that in an investigation of this kind the significance of the difference between two populations should be clearly expressed, and that the impression should be avoided that the difference between racial types is identical with the difference between individuals.

Still another point deserves attention. Many writers assume that an individual of a certain type represents the same biological type regardless of the racial group to which he belongs. To give an example: a round-headed person of the Tyrols is equated with a round-headed person of southern Italy, at least in so far as the form of the head is concerned. Even if we assume that the round-headedness of the two individuals is of the same kind, this inference is not tenable. It is true that by chance the two individuals may belong to the same lines of descent, but a study of a series of homologous individuals shows that genetically, and therefore physiologically, they are not the same notwithstanding the sameness of the particular trait that is made the subject of study. When we select, for instance, individuals with the same head index of 82 in a population that has the average head index of 85, the children of the selected group will be found to have an average head index of 84; when we select individuals with the same head index of 82 in a population that has the average head index of about 79, the children of the selected group will be found to have an average head index of about 80, for the reason that there will be in each case reversions to the average type of the population to which the selected group belongs. In other words, the individuals which are selected from any population must always be considered as part of this population and cannot be studied as though they were an independent group.