The Finnic Question and Some Baltic Problems. Author(s): Harold Peake Source: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 49 (Jul. - Dec., 1919), pp. 181-203 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2843439 Accessed: 28-12-2015 16:25 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Wiley and Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 194.27.18.18 on Mon, 28 Dec 2015 16:25:06 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 181 THE FINNIC QUESTION AND SOME BALTIC PROBLEMS. By HAROLD PEAKE. As is wellknown, the vast majorityof the peoples ofEurope, ofwhatever race, speak languagesbelonging to the groupknown as Aryanor Indo-European; the exceptions are not numerous. Amongthese are the inhabitantsof Finland, the Finns or Suomi, and dialects allied to the Finnic are spoken also south of the Gulf of Finland by Tchouds,Esths and Jmouds,and also by manytribes, such as the Mordvins,Bashkirs and Cheremiss,who live near the junction of the Volga and the Kama and in the region of the Middle Volga lying between Nijni Novgorod, Samara and Perm;' languagesmore distantly allied are also spokenby the Lapps and Samoyeds in the north. These languages have Asiatic affinities,being closely allied to some of the tonguesspoken in WesternSiberia, and it is claimed by some writersthat they are more distantlyconnected with the speech of peoples livingstill fartherto the east, as farindeed as Korea and perhapsJapan. 2 It is natural,therefore, that studentsof ethnologyhave taken special interestin the racial affinitiesof a people who appear to have intrudedinto Europe from NorthernAsia, and as the problemis not altogetherapart fromthat of the early Baltic people, who have supplied some of the most vigorouselements to our own population,its solutioncannot be a matterof indifferenceto Britishethnologists. - Until recentyears it was generallysupposed that the Finns,like the Lapps and Samoyeds,were an Asiatic people withMongol affinities, or at least resemblingthe Mongolsin certainimportant features, and theyhave been describedas a Mongoloid -ace. This termis admittedlyvague, forit has been applied to all those people in whichMongol features are presentin a dilutedform, whether such dilutionis believed to have been due to hybridizationwith other races, or whetherto other causes. Such, however.was the view held generallyabout five-and-twentyyears ago and advanced by Beddoe in his Rhind lecturesin 1891; 3 and it is still held as a matter of courseby manyanthropologists, including Dr. Hrdliicka,who has recentlyrestated this case.4 1 Ripley,W. Z., The Races ofEurope, London, 1900, pp. 341, 358, 361. 2 Castren,M. A., Ethnolo(.Vorlagn. ii. d. altaischenVolker, nebst samojed. Marchen it. tatar Heldensaqen,St. Petersburg,1857. 3 Beddoe,J., The AnthropologicalHistory of Europe, Paisley, 1893. Hrdlicka,Ale?' "The Races of Russia," SmithsonianMiscellaneous Collections, LXIX, xi, pp. 1, 17 VOL. XLIX. 0 This content downloaded from 194.27.18.18 on Mon, 28 Dec 2015 16:25:06 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 182 HAROLDPEAKE.-The Finnic Questionand some Baltic Problems. During the last quarter of a centurya differentview has been advanced,and verygenerally accepted by studentsin the Baltic regionand in Germany. Ripley, followingG. Retzius, 1 Bonsdorff, Elisyeef2 and Mainof,3thus describes these people:- " These latter Finns are among the tallest of men, with fair skin, flaxen or tow- colouredhair, and blue eyes. [The map] shows us among the Esths on the Baltic coast, throughthe Cheremisson the Volga and clear beyond the Ural mountains among Ostiaks and Voguls in Siberia,a long-headednessnot a whitless pronounced than throughoutTeutonic Germany."4 It is clear that Ripley believes the Finns to be of the Nordic race, or closely allied to them. The same view, or one very nearlyapproaching it, is held by Giuffrida-Ruggeri,5on the authorityof Zaborowski, Tschepouskooskyand Drontschilow. Ruggeri believes that Proto-Nordics,Proto- Finns and Proto-Mediterraneansare branchesof a commonstock, which originated on the confinesof Europe and Asia. But a referenceto Ripley'smap (p. 362) showsus that the inhabitantsof Finland are by no means long-headed. On a narrowcoastal stripwe findindices of 78 and under; fartherinland, to a depth of about 90 miles,the average index is 79; in the next 60 milesit is 80; beyondthat, throughout the greaterpart of the country, it averages82; and in the extremenorth it is 83 and 84. The Tchuds and Esths, to the southof the Gulfof Finland,have an averageindex of 79, and the Livs of 80. A map of the head-formof the presentinhabitants of Finland,given in the new Atlas de Finland, is even morestriking. It showsthat in the norththe broad heads -i.e., those with an index of 80 and upwards-are from90 to 100 per cent. of the population,while throughoutthe greaterpart of the rest of the countrythe pro- portiondoes not sinkbelow 50 per cent. Two small exceptionsalone occur; thereis a coastal stripin the south-west,and anotherrather farther north, where the pro- portionof broad heads sinksto lowerfigures, varying in differentcommunes from 49 to 30 per cent.6 These two areas are notedin othermaps as possessinga considerable numberof Swedish-speakingpeople and Swedish sQhools,showing that they haqve received an appreciable quantity of immigrantsfrom Scandinavia duringrecent centuries. Ripley gives no figuresfor stature, as none had been publishedwhen he wrote, but the new atlas gives a map of these too, and it is scarcelyless strikingthan that of the head-form. In the northand east the stature ranges from1636 mm. to 1650 mm. (5 feet 4 inchesto 5 feet5 inches),while in the south-west,including 1 Retzius,M. G., Finska Kranier,Stockholm, 1878. 2 Elisyeef,A. B., On theAnthropology of theFinns, 1887. In Russian. 3 Mainof,V. N., AnthropologicalResults from the Races of theMordva, 1879; On theAnthro. pologyof the Mordva, 1891. In Russian. 4 Ripley,W. Z., op. cit.,pp. 359-360. 5 Giuffrida-Ruggeri,V., " Antropologiae archeologiain taluni riguardidella preistoria europea,"in Archivioper l'antropologiae la etnologia,XLVI, 1916,pp. 32, 33. 6 Atlasde Finland,1910, Texte, ii, p. 54. This content downloaded from 194.27.18.18 on Mon, 28 Dec 2015 16:25:06 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 60-S9-1 31-40 10-10 s -6o 4_ .,~~~~~~~~~~~~~4 1.-MAP OF SOUTH FINLAND, SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF HEAD-FORM. (COMPILED FROM THE Atlas de Finland, 1910.) 2.-MAP OF SOUTH FINLAND, SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGES. (COMPILED FROM THE Atlas de Finland, 1910.) o 2 This content downloaded from 194.27.18.18 on Mon, 28 Dec 2015 16:25:06 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 184 HAROLD PEAKE.-The Finnic Questionand some Baltic Problems. the two narrow-headedSwedish areas and the region between them, the average staturevaries from 1661 mm.to 1700 mm. (5 feet6 inchesto 5 feet7 inches). The naturalconclusion from these maps is that whilethe bulk of the population of Finland is short and broad-headed,tall long-headedimmigrants, speaking the Swedishlanguage, have partiallyousted the Finnish populationfrom two areas on the coast, and have slightlyaffected the head-formand considerablyaflected the staturethroughout the whole of the south-westerncorner. ----- - lad, . I6 G- m is 71- ISOOP 3.-MAP OF SOUTH FINLAND, SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF STATURE. (COMPILED FROM TIUFE Atlas de Psinland,1910.) In Russia, whilegreat stature is foundamong the Tchuds and Livs, the average declinesas we go eastwards, and veryrapidly after we pass Novgorodand enterthe upper basin of the Volga. Ripley admitsthat besideshis fairtype there is a broad-headeddark type, which reaches its greatestintensity in Lapland, but is found also among the Samoyeds, Kareles, Mordvinsand other peoples speakingFinnish dialects. "These people," he says, " correspondclosely to what we popularlyregard as Mongolian. They are all dark or black haired with swarthyskins; they are peculiarlybeardless. With the round face, bullet head, high cheek-bones,squint eyes and lank hair, they This content downloaded from 194.27.18.18 on Mon, 28 Dec 2015 16:25:06 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HAROLD PEAKE.-The Finnic Questio-.and some Baltic Problems. 185 constitutean unmistakabletype." " Many of these people," he adds, "speak Finnic languages,so that in a sense it is stillproper to class themas Finns."1 It is clear,then, that in the area occupiedby Finnish-speakingpeople we have two stocks; one tall, blonde and long-headed,the other of variable stature,dark, broad-headedand Mongoloidin appearance. To which,then, should we attribute the term Finnic ? Now it is generallybelieved that the termFinn is a name given by outsiders, probablyby the Nordicpeople of Scandinavia,to a people whomthey recognized as differentfrom themselves, and who inhabitedthe Fen region,which we now know as Finland. Whetherthis be true or not, one thing is certain,which is that the people of Finland have always called themselvesSuomi. As we have seen, these Finnic peoples have a commontongue; theyhave also a commonbody of traditionand folk-lore,and possess in commonthat series of ancient national songs publishedunder the name of the Kalevala ; 2 this collection, while it makes no claim to inspiration,is in realitythe poetical expressionof the Finnic religion.