Nordics altered by mixture with south­western borreby and alpine elements

In southern Netherlands and in Belgium, as well as in northern France, there is a large-headed brachycephalic element transitional between the Borreby and Alpine forms. (See Plate 13, Fig. 4.) In mixture with Nordics this produces a large-headed brachycephalic or sub-brachycephalic type of only moderate blondism and medium stature.

Fig. 1 (3 views). Southern Netherlander from North Brabant. An excellent exam­ple of this altered Nordic type.

Fig. 2 (3 views). A Fleming from West Flanders, Belgium; a light haired and equally representative example. The Flemish people incline more to the Nordic type in east­ern Flanders, more to the brachycephalized variety in the west.

Fig. 3 (3 views). A German Swiss from Bern; like many of the Swiss of the Rhine drainage, he is largely Nordic slightly brachycephalized by Borreby or Alpine admix­ture, or both. These Swiss are more Nordic, as a whole, than the South Germans.

Fig. 4 (3 views). A northern Frenchman, whose father came from the Vosges moun­tains, and mother from the Department of Indre. Blond, highly brachycephalic, and Nordic in most facial features, this man represents a major element in the population of northern France. This is the type which some French authors call “Galatian.” Histori­cally the Nordic element is mainly of Keltic introduction.

The principle of dinaricization

From France to Macedonia, and from Istanbul to Samarakand, are found popula­tions in which the majority of persons present a characteristic morphology of the head and face; with a brachycephalic skull, often flattish in the occipital region, the foramen magnum and auricular passages set disproportionately far to the rear, the forehead often sloping, the face frequently elongated, and the nose salient and frequently convex. People who possess these characteristics have been lumped together into one or more races; the Dinaric in Europe, the Armcnoid in Asia, and the Noric to include the blond varieties. It is biologically unsound, however, to postulate any historic unity for indi­viduals of these so-called races, since they are products not of an historical association but of a biological principle. That principle is as follows: A mixture of a Mediterranean stock with a 33 per cent, more or less, solution of Alpine may bring about a differential inheritance in the majority of the offspring; from the Alpine side is inherited brachy- ccphaly, often greater than that of the Alpine ancestral factor; the dimensions of the pre-auricular part of the head are derived from the long-headed strain, hence the posterior position of the ear; the breadths of the median sagittal sector of the face are inherited from the narrower-faced ancestor, often in exaggerated degree, and this ap­plies especially to the width of the upper segment of the nose and to the interorbital dis­tance; meanwhile the face often becomes longer than in either parent stock, and the nose, in response to the shortening of the antero-posterior length of the entire head, be­comes salient. This process occurs in varying degrees with individuals and with local racial entities of different origin. If the solution is saturated either with Alpines or with Mediterraneans, phenotypically pure members of whichever stock is predominant ap­pear in considerable numbers. If the solution is correc t, such apparently pure indi­viduals still occur, but with relative infrequence. This principle, studied in this work in reference to whites, applies to hybrids of other races as well.

It may readily be seen that the Dinarics, Norics, and Armenoids have no ethnic or historic unity, but are for the most part parallel results of the same process repeated with similar materials in different places. They are related only insofar as the parent stocks are related. There is one important exception to this rule, however; during the Bronze Age Dinaricized Mediterraneans spread with the knowledge of metal from an eastern Mediterranean source to the western Mediterranean Countries, to central Europe, and to the British Isles. In this instance Dinarics of a Near Eastern variety did actually invade Europe, and their descendants may be distinguished today in countries like England where, owing to the absence of an Alpine substratum, the process of Dinaricization has not been locally at play.

In this and the following plates, an attempt will be made to illustrate degrees and types of Dinaricization throughout the white racial area of the Old World.

Fig. 1 (3 views). A Dinaricized German from Heidelberg; although his face shows in exaggerated degree all of the criteria of Dinaricization, the great size of his cranial vault is unusual for Dinarics and implies the presence of unreduced Upper Palaeolithic fac­tors. This individual might be called a Noric, since the Mediterranean element con­cerned is unquestionably Nordic, and probably Nordic of the Corded variety.

Fig. 2 (3 views). A Noric from Berlin; the shallow nasion depression, and the great height and salience of the nose are especially noticeable here. Norics are extremely common in eastern Germany.

Fig. 3 (3 views). A Noric Pole from Galicia. This type is characteristic of many of the southern and western Poles.

Fig. 4 (3 views). A Komi or Zyrian, member of the northernmost of the East Russian Finnish tribes. This individual illustrates the essential Nordic character of the Finns, brachycephalized by some unknown agency.