OCR Text |
Show CHAPTER XVII CHARACTER AND FUTURE OF THE INDIANS ( 1904) T^ HE most striking facts with regard to the \ American Indian are his physical uniformity and his cultural diversity. In physical type the differences which characterize the tribes are slight, when compared with the common features xof the natives of both North and South America. \ The causes of such physical variations as do appear must be sought in the causes of zoological variation everywhere, and it is impossible to come to a conclusion as to the exact and immediate influences. Environment and mode of life, moreover, so affect physical types that when a general truth seems to emerge, a contradictory fact is sure to be forthcoming. The Eskimo of the arctic are usually cited, for example, as proofs of the stunting effects of excessively rigorous climate and life, and it is certainly true that as a rule they are undersized; but the Eskimo of the Mackenzie region are tall, active, and muscular, and remain so under exactly the same conditions as their shorter relatives, a local trait which may be of as much significance .262 |