One of the most desirable of possibilities in the anthropometry of any
people, but particularly in groups now extinct, is a correct estimation
of their stature. For this purpose the most useful aid has been found
in the long bones, and various essays have been made by Manouvrier,
Rollet, Topinard, Pearson, and others[198] at preparing tables or
arriving at methods that would enable the student to promptly and
satisfactorily obtain the stature as it was in life from the length
of the long bones. But all these essays were based on observations on
white people, and it has always been recognized that they could not
with equal confidence be applied to other racial groups. They would
in all probability be especially inapplicable to the Eskimo with his
relatively short forearms and legs; yet the possibility of estimating
the stature in many localities of the Eskimo territory, where no living
remain, would be of real value. Fortunately for this purpose there are
now some data on hand which make this possible.
In 1910, in my Contributions to the Anthropology of the Central and
Smith Sound Eskimo, I was able to report both the stature and the
length of the long bones in two normally developed adult males and
one adult female from Smith Sound. To this it is now possible to add
larger though less direct data from the group of St. Lawrence Island.
We have the stature of many of the living from this place and also the
measurements of numerous long bones from the dead of the same group.
The relations of the two are given below, together with corresponding
data from Smith Sound. There is in general such a striking agreement in
the relative proportions that the latter may, it would seem, be used
henceforth for stature estimates also in other parts of the Eskimo
region.