A Study of the Crania of the Moriori, Or Aborigines Of
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A STUDY OF THE CRANIA OF THE MORIORI, OR Downloaded from ABORIGINES OF THE CHATHAM ISLANDS, NOW IN THE MUSEUM OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS. BY EVELINE Y. THOMSON, Cxewdson-Benington Student in Craniometry, http://biomet.oxfordjournals.org/ Biometric Laboratory, University CoUege, London. 1. Introductory. The fact that pure bred Morioris are now very rare if not extinct renders of special value any study of such crania of them as still exist. In papers referred to below Dr Scott* deals with 50 and Dr Duckworthf with 10 Morion crania. Professor Thane possesses two specimens and there are a few scattered through various British and Continental museums. Hence the 63 crania in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons almost double the available number. Yet if we pool the present measurements with such of Dr Scott's series as are homo- at University of Michigan on September 1, 2015 geneous, our results are still too slender to warrant the publication of more than the measurements themselves and their mean values. As one of the best uses of methods of treatment which do not extend beyond the mean the type sections of the Morion crania have been reconstructed. By most kind permission of Professor Arthur Keith I have been able to study the collection of Morion skulls in his charge, and he most readily provided faculties for the photographing of a considerable number of the crania. Although the collection has been for a considerable time in the Royal College of Surgeons no complete set of measurements appears to have been published J. Dr Duckworth in the paper just cited makes some remarks on a few of the abnormal skulls. Forty-four crania were purchased by the Royal College as "from the Chatham Islands" in 1892, i.e. 7651 to 765", six, 765" to 765s0, appear to be later additions, while thirteen, 758-760,7601,760*. 761-765, seem to have an earlier origin, as well as the three 1015,1015A and 1016 from the Barnard Davis collection. The very remarkable character of the Moriori skull is not folly accounted for by the outlying character of their island, although anthropologists naturally look to such islands for the survival of primitive types. Chatham * Contribution to the Oitealogy of the Aborigine* of New Zealand and of the Chatham Ialands. Transactions of New Zealand ImtitoU, VoL XXYI. pp. 1—6*. Wellington, 1894. f On a collection of Crania of the Morion, Journal of On Anthropological Institute, VoL xix. p. 141 Ct ttq. 1*rr\<)nT*_ 1900. X Eight have certain measurements given in Flower'i Catalogue of Ae Boyal QoUege of Surgeons. Barnard Dsrii gives measurements of three others in his Tkesaunts Cmicnm. EVELINE Y. THOMSON 83 Island lies to the east of New Zealand. According to their own traditions the Morion reached their present home direct from Hawaiiki, so that they are not degraded Maoris but form a special branch of the Polynesian race. Never numerous, they were mostly slaughtered in the year 1838—two years previous to the first British colonisation of New Zealand—by a party of Ngatilawa landed on the island by a whaler. This party enslaved the few survivors. Some years ago the remaining Morion were stated to be reduced to fifty, and these were probably not of Downloaded from pure race * There was nothing of special note in their occupations, habits or beliefs. Most of their life was utilised in procuring food, making garments and sleeping mats, or in shaping stone implements in which they showed considerable ingenuity. Fish hooks, fish spears and gaffs in constant use were cleverly shaped out of bone-. The dwellings were ordinary conical huts constructed out of fern tree and thatched http://biomet.oxfordjournals.org/ with toi-toi grass; they were often sufficiently large to accommodate twenty or thirty persons. Some of them were ornamented with rude carvings, but most of these places have been demolished by the Maori, or perished from age, so that no specimens of their art are now obtainable. They lived peaceably, chiefly along the coast, spending their time as a rule in procuring supplies of fish, fern roots, nuts, wOd duck, etc. Periodically they put off in rafts or large canoes for the hunting of seal and albatross. They are said to have had a confused notion of good and evil spirits and to have invoked numerous deities prior to any under- taking of importance f. In short, such accounts as we have of them do not at University of Michigan on September 1, 2015 seem to differentiate them markedly from the inhabitants of many other Poly- nesian islands. They stand out differentiated rather by their cranial than by their cultural characters. 2. Measurements and Methods of Measurement. The measurements I have taken are similar to those adopted by previous biometrio craniologists. They were made in the manner described by Fawcett (Biometrika, Vol. i. p. 416) and Macdonell (Ibid. Vol. m. p. 200). The measurements are as follows: C = capacity taken with mustard seed, packing in skull and in measuring glass, not by our usual laboratory method of weighing as no fine chemical balance was available, the work being done away from the Laboratory. In the tables it will be seen that I have given two figures for each capacity. The seed was tightly packed into the skull and then tightly packed into the measuring glass. This is the standard method. It involves the great labour of double packing; the second packing is avoided in our laboratory use of the balance. It occurred to me to be worth while trying loose packing in the measuring glass and correlating the results for tight packing and loose packing with the view of saving the time employed in the second tight packing on another occasion. The loose packing consisted in taking the seed from the skull, gently pouring it into the measuring glass and then giving a slight shake sufficient to obtain a level surface for reading. The * K. Lydekker, Lnina Baeu of Mankind, VoL L p. 72. t Extracted from Note* on the Chatham Ialanda by J. W. WHIiuni, of WaHangi Wert, Chatham Island. Journal of tie Anthropological Institute, VoL nra. p. 343. London, 1897. 6—S 84 A Study of the Crania of the Moriori results are given ill the footnote below *; it suffices to remark here that for practical purposes it appears approximate enough if we deduct one-twentieth from the volume of the loosely packed seed in order to obtain the volume of the tightly packed. My corrected results from loose packing are given in brackets in the tables. The means are: Tight packing, <J 1422-07; Loose packing, <J 1423-03, 91310-73; „ „ $1308-47. Downloaded from The mean difference (regardless of sign) of the results obtained from loose packing from those obtained from tight packing is, however, 8 cm.8 How much of this is due to variation in the tight packing in the measuring glass, how much to fortuitous settlements in the loose packing it is not possible to say. The differences suggest at any rate that a method may well be devised by which tight packing http://biomet.oxfordjournals.org/ in the measuring cylinder may be avoided. Further measurements made are: F — Flower's Ophryo-occipital length. L' = glabellar horizontal length. L — maximum length from glabella to occiput. B = maximum horizontal breadth. B1 — least forehead breadth from one temporal crest to the other. H = Basio-bregmatic height. OH •=• auricular height as measured on the * Let C, be the capacity from tight r"^"g. Ot from loose packing; let a- be a standard deration, V a coefficient of variation and ra the correlation of C, and Ct, then in oubio centimetre*: at University of Michigan on September 1, 2015 for malt crania. /or female crania. Mean C, = 1422-07 Mean 0,= 149811 Mean C(=> 1S10-74 Mean 0| = 1377-37 c, = 110-188 113-263 98-268 90-122 V, = 7-78 F,= 7-86 ^« = 6-89 ^l = 6-81 rfl > -9938 r« = W69 It will be aeon that the correlations are very high. The regression line* giving Ct for Ct are: 0, = -966C4 C, - 25-91 for male., C, = -99847 Cx - 64-63 for femalo. We uhould have expected the same line to have resulted from the two seriei, a* it does not it is olear that the coefficient of Ct i» a function of Cj. To determine the nature of loose packing a little further we took the regression lines of (0, - CJ/Ct and C, or equations of the form (C, - Cy/C, =« AC, + B. There resulted: (C, - CJ/C, = O6843 - -0000,1173 C, for males, (Cj - OJ/O, = -066939 - -0000,0619 C, for females. These may be written: C, o C, (-93167 + -0000,1173 C,) for males, C, = -0, (-94306 + -0000,0619 CJ for female*. The terms depending on Ct* are so small that we may insert in them for C,, the mean ralues in each case, when we find: C, = C, (-94914) for male*, C, = Ct (-95189) for females. The differences are now not unreasonable oonsideimg the paucity of the data, and we see that very approximately it Suffices to take for both sexes, C, - (7, (1 - VV). the role given above. The whole matter is to be reconsidered on more ample material. It is not clear at present how far it depends on personal equation in tight and loose p""H"g of different »™n.^ and how far on the diameter of the measuring glass, Le. the pressure varying with height or with (7t and so affecting the looseness of the loose packing.