THE MICHIGAN DAILY
THI
XA
I I
IE MICHIGAN DAILY
Is Anthropology Still Fettered By
The Pseudo-Science Of The Slave Era?
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The editorials published In The Michigan
Daily are written by members of the Daily
staff and represent the views of the writers
only.
It is important for society to avoid the
neglect of adults, but positively dangerous
for it to thwart the ambition of youth to-
reforrm the world. Only the schools which
act on this belief are educational 1tli-
tions in the best meaning of the term.
-Alexander . Ruthven.
A Lesson
For Education .-'.
FDUCATION IS STILL in the pioneer-
E °ing stage. Dr. L. W. Keeer of the
School of Education was only agreeing with
wores of liberal-minded educators throughout
the nation when he said last week that "educa-
tio1 is still an extremely wasteful process."
But, unlike many movements, enterprises, and
ideas that have been pioneered in the past, edu-
cation may draw from suggestions from methods
used in other fields which are similarly operated.
Ignoring such criticism is worse than mere
stnight-laced conservatism. It is sheer laziness.
jAnd educators today are guilty of sheer laziness
when they flaunt modern curricula as designed
for the individual, The truth is that the typical
modern curriculum is basic, and any invidual
variations that may exist are variations in quan-
tity, not in content of work. The child whose
work is not quite up to par is not required to do
quite.-as much, or he may be given special assist-
ance. The superior student is required to com-
pllete the standard curriculum and, possibly some
extra assignment. But on the whole there is no
variation whatsoever in content of work accom-
plished.
-Of course, we must remember that in the field
of special education for the mentally and physi-'
cally handicapped, great strides have been, and
are being taken, Our neighbors at Ypsilanti soon
may be working in cooperation with our School
of- Education to help devise and apply the best
possible curricula for the handigapped. But the
plight of the particularly gifted student is still
pathetic. He is forced to do the same work every-
one else in his class does. He may advance
through a standard curriculum in less time
than his fellows, but if he does he is forced into a
high school, college, or business world to which he
is poorly adjusted because of his age. New York
City educators are beginning to realize his plight,
and have generated a spa k of realization that
may some day light the torch that will point the
way to individual training..
-For that is just the problem: to teach the
individual, not the class. Mr. Gerald Bush of the
Michigan State Parole Board tells us that in-
dividual education in its strictest sense is actually
accomplished in this state in the training and
rehabilitation of all persons confined in institu-
tions. This education is based on a case history
report that is compiled by an expert board, made
up of sociologists, psychologists, teachers, and
doctors. The typical case history used in a
Michigan penal institution treats of all the fac-
tors that enter into the makeup of the individual
from his childhood on. With such reference ma-
terial as this, it is but a short step to an educa-
tion that considers only the particular back-
ground and aptitudes of the individual.
Compiling such a case history for the public
school student would not be the herculean task.
that it might appear. It would be merely a, matter
of keeping a running record of the student's
progress, supplemented by studies of. his home life
and- outside contacts. A start toward such a
record has been made with the so-called "longi-
tudinal studies" being developed by Dr. S. A.
Courtis. This longitudinal type of study is all
By Thomas B. Smith
Editor's Note: The following article was written by
Mr. Smith. a teacher in the WilliamsPenn High
School, High Point, N. C., and was delivered before
the science division of North Carolina Negro Teach-
ers Association in Apri. In preparing the material
for this paper, the author measured only 244 people,
but he feels that -a generalization is possible from
the results because of the facthat the 244 were
quite representative of American Negroes. The study
was made over a period of two years.
There are no Negroes in the United States if
such "highly reputable works" as Encyclopedia
Britannica, Encyclopedia Americana, Dr. Rich-
ard Goldschmidt's "Ascaris, The Biologist's
Story of Life", and most biology and geography
textbooks used in the public schools are to be
taken as criteria in defining race. I have arrived
at this' apparently strange conclusion after a
careful study of such works as just mentioned
over a period of two years, and by an anthropo-
metric study of 244 so-called American Negroes
from laborer to professionAl. Before giving the
results of the measurements and the reasons for
the. conclusion that I have drawn, let us view the
characteristics of the Negro as given by the refer-
ence books I have given.
The 14th edition of Britannica, which states
that it is a survey of universal knowledge, has
much to say about the characteristics of the
Negro. In giving Camper's Angle, commonly
known as the Facial Angle (the projection of
the jaw beyond a perpendicular line dropped from
the forehead) it says that the two extremes are
from the Negro to the .Grecian Antique. Going
further it says that with an angle of 70 degrees
you have the Negro; less than 70 degrees and
you have an Orangutan (one of the anthropoid
apes); lessen it still more and you have the head
of a dog. It gives the facial angle of the European
as 93 degrees and that of the New Guinea Native
as 75 degrees. In other words, according to Bri-
tannica, there is more resemblance between the
face of a Negro and-that of an ape than there
isbetween the face of a Negro and that of a
Caucasian. Yet both Negro and Caucasian be-
long to the same species, Homo sapiens, and
there is no other animal in the same classifica-
tion with man after leaving the order to which
he belongs-Primates.
In the, matter of cephalic index (the ratio of
the idth of the head to its length) both Britan-
nica and Americana speak of the Negro as being
dolichocephalic or long headed, having a cephalic
index of 70, and of the European as mesocephal-
ic, having a cephalic index of 80. Americana fur-
ther states that Negroes have long, protruding
jaws, abnormally long arms that sometimes
reach the knee-pan, and a somewhat prehensible
large toe (opposable large toe). Dr. Goldschmidt,
professor of Zoology at the University of Cali-
fornia, states in his book, "Ascoris," that the
African Negro has no typical calf of the leg; that
is, that the Negro has a long, straight, non-bulg-
ing muscle in the leg. He further states that no
matter how much a Negro may exercise his leg
muscle never bulges and that the Negro has a
long heel bone.
From these works, then, we get a picture of the
Negro as a person with a long narrow head, full
protruding jaws more apelike than manlike, long
apelike arms, a large toe almost opposable to the
other digits of the foot, and a straight non-bulg-
ing leg.
Now let us look at the results of my investiga-
tion, bearing in mind that I made the measure-
ments on about as heterogeneous a group as can
be found among American's tenth man. I found
the average head index to be 78.3, which is 8.3
higher than that given by Britannica and
Americana and only 1.7 less than that given for
Europeans. An index of 78.3 is definitely meso-
cephalic or medium headed. I found the average
facial angle to be 88 degrees, just 18 degrees
above that given by Britannica. The lowest angle
found was 82 degrees and the possessor was a
cripple obviously deformed in the face. The
highest angle found was 93 degrees.
In the leg measurements I did not find one
with the straight, nonbulging leg described by Dr.
Goldschmidt. Everyone had a bulging calf that
narrowed into a long tendon attached to a short
heel bone and not a long one as Dr. Gold-
schmidt said. The average curvature of the leg
or ratio of the lower part to the calf is practic-.
ally the same as that of white Americans as I
measured the legs of white people to check on this
point. Dr. Goldschmidt infers that a Negro ath-
lete's leg will not develop a bulging calf no mat-
ter how much it is exercised. Yet, when I was a
student at Wilberforce University, which draws
its students from practically every section of
the United States where Negroes live, the West
Indies, South and Central America, the sixty or
more boys who yearly went out for football
always presented evidence of calves being en-
larged due to exercise. And, may I add that they
were a representative cross section of the student
body.
The matter of the prehensile large toe men-
tioned by Americana may be dismissed also.
While I did not make any measurement-of the
toes of those investigated (confining myself solely
to legs, face, and head) yet I have watched bare-
foot boys and girls playing in the streets and
barefoot college men in the bathrooms and I
have yet to see a prehensile or apelike toe. In
fact, unless Americana is prepared to go all the
way and call the Negro an anthropoid ape this
statement could not be true because the matter
of the large toe is one of the criteria upon which
man is differentiated from the anthropoids; that
is, man has a large toe that is not opposable to
the other digits of the foot while the large toe of
the anthropoid is opposable to the other digits of
the foot.
Of course, one might attempt to explain my
findings by saying that the American Negro is
not of pure Negro ancestry. And I very readily
agree that he is not of pure Negro ancestry, that
is, not all American Negroes are. But let us care-
approximately 20%. If this is true, then we
should find this same percentage of the popula-
tion exhibiting the characteristics enumerated
by Britannica, Americana, and Dr. Golgchmidt.
Let us bear in mind that only 10.2% are doli-
chocephalic and that even they have an average
index of 72.14 or 2.14 above that given by Britan-
nica. Stating it in another way, only 1.6% of
the heterogeneous 244 had cephalic indices that
fell below Britannica's 70 or exceeded it by one
or less. Yet, according to the source books, I
should have found approximately 20% with an
average index, of 70, which means that many,
would have had indices of less than 70. The obvi-
ous conclusion is that something is wrong and I
assure you that it does not lie with my figures or
methods. The point is even more striking when
we review the difference between Britannica's
facial angle of 70 degrees and the average of 88
degrees that I found. Again it is strking in that
not one was found to have the typical African
Negro leg as Dr. Goldschmidt calls it. Of equal
importance is the fact that the individuals pos-
sessing the most pigment or the darkest color
were not confined to one facial or head grouping,
but were interspersed throughout the whole just
as the ones of obviously mixed ancestry were.
In fact, the most brachycephalic person that I
measured was about as dark in color as is found
in America. His index was 85.5. How can such
variations be reconciled with the statements of
the source books?
Returning to Americana a moment we note
that it says that the head index is the least
changeable of all body characteristics under the
mutable. conditions of environment and that it
gives the final stamp of racial distinctions, in its
dolichocephalic and brachycephalic classifica-
tions. It, therefore, appears that the Am rican
Negro is not a Negro, especially if being a Negro
means meeting the requirements laid down in
Britannica and Americana.
It is not my purpose to prove that the American,
Negro is identical in every respect with the Cau-
casian, though the anthropometric measure-
ments are far more similar than dissimilar as
reference books might lead one to believe. My
purpose is merely to point out the fact that he
does not fit the straight jacket prepared for him
and to dispell some of the false ideas held by
some Negroes themselves and many Caucasians
due to the false information that was circulated
by the pseudo-scientists of the Slave Era. To be
sure there is a slightly greater protrusion in the
jaw of the so-called Negro than in that of the
Caucasian; but why call this a more apish charac-
teristic than the thin lips of the Caucasian tapes
have thin lips) or the greater amount of hair
present on the body of the Caucasian? These are
facts, yet no source book proclaims that he is just
one jump ahead of the anthropoids. Moreover,
all men bear resemblances to the higher apes in
skeleton, muscles, teeth, position of eyes, struc-
ture of the hand, and even motions and facial
expressions. Then how can one of these be
pointed out as being little more than an Orang-
utan without saying the same thing about all?
Just as Clark Wissler states in his "An Intro-
duction to Social Anthropology", this false infor-
mation got its start due to the conflict between
those who held slaves and those who contended
that it was against the teachings of both God
and man. The non-slave holders hurled at the
slave holders that they were keeing men in
bondage against the teachings of the Bible. The
latter could not swallow that. They forthwith
called to their defense the anthropologists who
proceeded to find what they were expected to
find-that the Negro was not really human but
more apelike than manlike and possessed of a
childlike mind that could never be developed to
do anything worthwhile and it was therefore
permissable in the sight of God to enslave him
just as the mule or horse.
This trash has tenaciously held on in litera-
ture and pseudo-scientific works ever since it was
It Seems To Me
By HEYWOOD BROUN
STAMFORD, Conn., Aug. 3. - It
must be that there is a carbon in my
sensitivity to news. By now I am re-
conciled to the fact that nobody will
ever call me a
first class report-
er. I wouldn't
even go that far
myself.t
When a hurri-
cane hit Florida
at an odd mom-
ent a few years
ago I was trap-
ped like a fish in,
an underground cafe and was com-
pelled to drink my way through the,
storm, seeing nothing.1
But until yesterday I did think II
could feel an earthquake if I hap-
pened to be in the middle of it. Ac-
cording to the Rev. Father Joseph
Lynch, S. J., director of Fordham's
seismological observatory, the very
center of the temblor lay along the
line of hills which run between Rye
and Stamford.I
My manor, Well Enough, on Hunt-
ing Ridge, must have felt the full
force of the impact. And yet I was
shocked not at 5:02 a.m. but well
along in the afternoon when I got
the evening papers from New York I
and learned that I had been the vic-
tim of an earthquake.f
Of course, I might laugh off the de-
linquency by saying that I had been
participating in the night life of New
Canaan and that I dropped off to
slumber so oafishly that naught but
Gabriel's trumpet could have roused
me. The only trouble with this ex-
cuse is that there is no truth in it.
* * *
A Clean Breast Of It
For two months I have been train-
ing assiduously for an athletic con-
test. I did my six miles of road work
a little late and retired early. It
might be just as well to make a clean
breast of the whole shameful busi-
ness. Long before 5 in the morning
I was up and at my typewriter work-
ing on a novel.
It's a good time to work, for no
phone bells ring, and the whippoor-
wills have ceased from troubling.
Even the frogs in the pond have
stopped.croaking their chant of "Ga-
lumph, Galumph." Chang, the mixed
police and Airedale, was putting on
his howling act, but I am used to
that, and the mournful cadence was
in accord with the theme which I was
trying to handle. Foulke's roosters
were warming up, but that also served
to establish the mood of the piece in
front of me.
The current chapter happened to
concern Peter in the house of the
high priest.
".And about the space of one hour
after,danother confidently affirmed,
saying, 'Of a truth this fellow also
was with Him, for He is a Galilean.'
And Peter said, 'Man, I know not
what thou sayest.' And immediately,
while he yet spake, the cock crew."
It must have been about this time
the earthquake struck Stamford. It
was thunderstorm weather. There
was lightning over High Ridge and
distant growling.
Thunder On The Right
This time I didn't mind so much,
even though it was thunder on the
right; which is the worst quarter. I
was looking for the right phrase, and
suddenly I thought I had it and
hammered the words home on the
machine with two fingers. The type-
writer, and even the table, seemed to
give a little, but I misconstrued the
fact and thought the slight sway was
merely an indication that I didn't
know my own strength. Indeed, I
said to myself (a very bad habit),
"I must have been good when I wrote
that."
Along about 2 or 3 in the after-
noon, the newsdealer came all the
way over to Potato Patch to hand
me the Home Edition with Opening
Wall Street prices.
"What did you thnik of the Re-
publican landslide?" he asked.
"What landslide?"
"The earthquake," he answered,
roaring with laughter. "I was sleep-
ing in my cot in the store, and it
dumped me out. If I hadn't lit on
a bundle of Herald Tribunes I might
have bustedI myneck. There it is
on the front page of your paper. I
thought you were a reporter and
maybe you sent in the item."
ning-all of the background material
being packed into the opening dia-
logue between Mrs. Geoghegan
(Claribel Baird) and one of her
daughters, Kate (Helen Eden), who.
fumbled among the dishes on the
table until they were relieved of their
recitations. But with the entrance of
Whitford Kane, the old but practical
lover, and his antics with Nancy
Bowman, who to save the family's
"face" talked herself into a marriage,
the action and subsequently the in-
terest increased.
The playing of Mr. Kane and Miss
Bowman deserves special mention for
their work kept the drama alive, and.
the audience acknowledged these
performances with several rounds of
THURSDAY, AUG. 4, 1938
VOL. XLVIH. No. 33
"The Soviet Union Faces Japan and
China." Lecture by Prof. George B.
Cressey at 4:30 p.m. today in the Lec-
ture Hall of the Rackham Building.
Luncheon of the Graduate Con-
ference' on Renaissance Studies,,
Thursday, Aug. 4, 12:15 p.m. at the
Michigan Union. Mr. Eugene 'Power
will speak on "Photographic Repro-
ductions and Photographic Processes
As Aids to Research in Renaissance
Materials." Make reservations at the
English Office, 3221 Angell Hall.
Professor J. H. Hanford's lecture,
"John Milton's Workshop," which has
been scheduled for Aug. 5 will be giv-
en on Thursday, Aug. 11, at 4:30 in
the Main Auditorium of the Horace
H. Rackham School. Mr. Samuel
Putnam's lecture on Rabelais is can-
celled.
Graduation Recital. Tom Kinkead,
irganist, of Cheyenne, Wyo., will an-I
pear in recital in partial fulfillmentl
of the requirements for the Master of
Music degree, Thursday evening, Aug.
4, at 8:15 o'clock, in Hill auditorium.
The public is invited to attend with-
out admission charge.
Stalker Hall. Swimming part,, and
picnic, Thursday. Meet at Stalker
Hall at 5 p.m. Transportation will
be furnished. Small charge for food
and swimming. For reservations, call
6881 before Thursday noon. This is
important.
Summer Session French Club: The
next meeting of the Club will take
place on Thursday, Aug. 4, at 8 p.m.,
at "Le Foyer Francais," 1414 Washte-
naw.
Mr. Didier Graeffe of Belgium, and
now at Lawrence Institute of Tech-
nology, Highland Park, will speak.
The subject of his talk will be "Un
Voyage en Nigerle." Songs, games,
refreshments.
Linguistic Institute Luncheon Con-
ference, 12:10 p.m, Thursday, in
Room 222 of the Michigan Union. Dr.
Murray B. Emeneau will discuss
"Parts of Speech and Types of Predi-
cation in Dravidian."
Dr. C. 0. Davis will - sak at 4:05
;his afternoon on "Travel ii Mexico,"
in the University High Schoc Audi-
torium. This replaces Dr. Belt's lec-
ture which was scheduled for the
time.
Vagabond King: Orchestra rehear-
sal tonight at Lane Hall, second floor,
(Continued on Page 4)
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until 3:30; 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.
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They HIT
p - -
.. M- - Nr
presented during the slave era. And
(Continued on Page 3)
instead of
THEATREF
Whiteheaded Boy
A twenty-four hour long Irish family squabble
almost bogged down in the first act of "The
Whitebheaded Boy" at the Lydia Mendelssohn
Theatre last night until Whitford Kane's second
act entrance stimulated the cast as well as the
audience into an appreciation of what the play
was intended to be.
It has always been maintained by the author,
Lennox Robinson, and Mr. Kane bears him out,
that the play was meant to be, and is, a simple
Irish comedy, nothing more or less, despite num-
erous attempts by critics to attach political or
economic significance to it. As this the audience
received it and was treated to an entertaining
and satisfying performance, such as was "Broth-
er Rat," presented several weeks ago by the Rep-
ertory Players.
When the Geoghegans met the Duffys (of
rather dubious and inconsistent Irish brogues
last night) a good fight to the finish seemed im-
minent, but everything ended happily, with a
couple of marriages. The whiteheaded boy was
one of Mrs. Geoghegan's sons, Denis, (Morlye
Baer) who had been sent to Dublin to be a doc-
tor. When Denis failed for the third tme, the
family, led by the breadwinner son, Peter, (Steph-
en Filipiak) decided to oust this boy who had
been given the reputation of being clever princi-
pally by Mrs. Geoghegan, and send him off to
Canada to give the other five children a break.
But in walked John Duffy (Mr. Kane) with a
breach of promise suit for his daughter (Evelyn
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III