Difficulty of
applying his
system in the
present case.
Comparison
of a classification
on
Prof. Sergi's
system with
the results
obtained
by other
methods.
will make it clear to the reader that the characteristics assigned by Professor Sergi to
each of his groups are the very characteristics expressed in other and more familiar
phraseology by the terms Dolichocephalic and Brachycephalic. And since Dolichocephaly
may be regarded as a characteristic of at least some amongst the Negro races, while
Professor Sergi recognizes that the Negroes are wholly distinct from his long-headed
Eurafricans \ it is difficult to see how, without invoking other aid than that of his own
system, he will succeed in differentiating this third unit from the ‘ species' which he has
already established.
Meanwhile we admit the advantage of such precise descriptive terms, though we
hesitate to accept the view that they denote unchanging types.
In Table xm is given a complete analysis of all the specimens of which photographs
were submitted to Professor Sergi for classification. The same specimens, which form
but a small proportion of our total material, have also been divided by ourselves into the
two groups to which reference has already been made. We may here remind the reader
that we have assigned to Group i the following characteristics, short broad face and
broad nose; and to Group n, long narrow face and slender nose. The following list
(derived from Table xiii) shows at a glance how the varieties enumerated by Professor
Sergi are distributed within our two groups.
Thus in Group I there are:
13 Ellipsoids (8 5 ¥ )
10 Pentagonoids (5 c?, 5 ¥)
9 0.voids (5 c?, 4 ¥)
2 Spheroids ( id , 1 ?)
Total . . . . 34
And in Group II there are :
25 Ellipsoids (14d, 11 ¥.)
8 Pentagonoids (3 d, 5 ¥)
19 Ovoids ( i7 d ,2 ¥ )
3 Beloids (2d, 1 ¥)
4 Sphenoids (all ¥)
Total . . . . 59
To assist the reader to understand the Sergian classification outlines are here
appended of the chief types referred to above.
Ellipsoid. Pentagonoid. Ovoid. Beloid. Sphenoid.
So that if we compare the results obtained by Professor Sergi’s methods on the
one hand, and by our own analysis on the other, it is evident that his method gives only
1 A fr ica , p. 391.
a slight hint of the remarkable contrasts which our analysis has revealed between the Comparison
specimens composing the two respective groups. «Son on’6
In the main no doubt this is due to the fact that the essential contrasts between the Prof* SerC s - , .. . . . . . . , system with
groups are based primarily on their facial and not on their cranial features, whereas it is the results
with the cranial form that Professor Sergi’s system is mainly concerned K brother
His classification, however, does seem to bring out certain points of importance methods-
when the different periods are compared together. Thus it can be seen from the
digest in Table xm, which includes not only the members of our two groups but also
all intermediates and hybrids as well as a certain number of isolated unpublished
specimens, that there are striking differences between the various periods. In the
Early Predynastic time the Ellipsoids compose 48^ per cent, of the series, but in the
New Empire (i. e. the several series of the Eighteenth Dynasty and those of the Thirtieth)
they are barely 22 per cent.; the Ovoids and Pentagonoids are relatively more numerous
in the latest than in the earliest period, and the ‘ Eurasian ’ forms which occur at most
twice in the whole archaic period, apart from the Royal Tombs, are represented by
several specimens in the Royal Tombs and in the subsequent periods2. The subjoined
table will make this and other points of the same kind clearer.
T A B L E X I I .
E ilig- Fen/-%?0' Ovoids. Beloids. Rhomboids.
Sphenoids.
Cuboids.
Absolute
Num ber 0/
Specimens.
Early Predynastic........................
Percent
48-5
Percent.
21-6
Per cent
19
Percent
6-6
Percent Percent
2-5
Percent
87
Late Predynastic....................... 56-5 21-6 21.6 87 1
First Dynasty....................... 62 24 14 29
Royal Tombs of First and Second
Dynasties................................. 44-6 18>5 23} 8 10-5 88
Third and Fourth Dynasties from
Regagnah ................................ 20 7 46.5 7 20 15
Eighteenth and Thirtieth Dynasties 22 29 31 8-5 •5 9 4 55
Now so far as this is equivalent to saying that the periods after the archaic exhibit
less dolichocephaly the results are no more than would have been obtained by the
ordinary methods of the cephalic index, and indeed they are fully in accord with what
has already been found by those methods. But it must be admitted that there is a distinct
gain in precision, and that the Sergian classification here brings out details in the relative
composition of the several series which might have been obscured if only lists of indices
had been employed, and would certainly have been lost if the tabulation had been
1 W e are fully aware that Professor Sergi has emphasized the importance o f facial features and has attempted
to classify the contours o f the face in the same way as those o f the skull. T h e attempt, however, has been far
less successful, and it is not without reason that most anthropologists have confined their attention to his cra n ia l
orms. A n d in any case there is a special difficulty in applying such a classification on any considerable scale to
the specimens in museums from which the lower jaw is so frequently absent.
T h e re has been some artificial selection in the formation o f the series o f Eighteenth Dyn asty photographs
which ought to be stated, though it is so slight that it can hardly have affected the results to any appreciable
extent. I t applies only to the specimens marked with the letter J . T h e se were photographed in the field at
Abydos, and, as it was impossible to photograph e very specimen found, such a selection was made as would comprise
all the various forms. In the J series therefore it is possible that the forms o f most common occurrence
whatever they ma y be, are somewhat under-represented. But o f course this has nothing to do with the fac t that
in the earliest periods the sphenoidal and similar forms are almost absent.