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Anthropology is a comparatively recent science. Barely
a century has elapsed since the beginning of its serious
work. The material thus far collected by anthropological
science, while it might seem immense to some, is, neverthe-
less, still small, and what is even more important, irregular.
Concerning some races and peoples the science has many
thousands of measurements at its command, while other
races and peoples are known from very few measurements.
For this reason the science of anthropology is still a long
way removed from an exact knowledge and perfect des-
cription of different races and peoples. Even in Europe,
where anthropological investigations have been based on a
study of the greatest number of human individuals, the
distribution of various anthropological racial character-
istics in different peoples and tribes of the continent were,
until recently, very hard to interpret and to understand.
It is the pioneer work of investigation of Deniker, Hamy
and others, that has made it possible to divide the popu-
lation of Europe into so-called anthropological races.
Pure-blooded peoples, all of whose individuals possess
the same anthropological characteristics, exist nowhere.
Hardly in the most inaccessible corners of the globe, are
small primitive peoples found who approach the ideal of
pure-bloodedness. The great civilized peoples of the earth
are all of them more or less heterogeneous peoples, and
show no uniform anthropological type. This is true
especially of the Western and Central European cultured
peoples: French, English, Spanish, Italians, even Germans.
Continued commixtures, which can certainly be proved
historically, have entirely eradicated the original anthropo-
logical characteristics of these civilized nations. No
wonder, then, that anthropogeography, in view of these
most apparent examples, has almost given up designating
anthropological characteristics as the characteristics of
nations.
But, in considering an Eastern European nation, such
misgivings of anthropogeographical science cannot be
justified. Just as the physico-geographic conditions of
Western and Central Europe are measured by other
standards than those of Eastern Europe, so the anthropo-
geographical problems of this region, too, must be
approached differently. Just as the physico-geographical
variety of Western and Central Europe gives way to
Eastern European uniformity in Ukrainian territory, so
the anthropological variety gives place to greater unity.
Vast areas of the Ukraine, even without any great natural
hindrance, were always unfavorable to separation into
classes, and did not encourage the development of physical
differences. And foreign admixtures are almost out of the
question. For the foreign peoples which, since the earliest
beginnings of history, traversed or even dominated the
region of the Ukraine, were first of all too small in number
to make any noticeable impression on the anthropological
type of the Ukrainians. And, besides that, the foreign
races — almost all nomad peoples — came into the land as
fierce enemies, with whom there existed no voluntary
peaceful relations. For these reasons the Ukrainian nation
reveals a much greater uniformity in its anthropological
aspect than the nations of Western and Central Europe,
which, in the course of history, were visited by innumerable
peoples of the most varied anthropological types, who
stayed there and were assimilated. If, therefore, in these
peoples, anthropological characteristics can have no
particular significance, the matter is quite different with
the Ukrainians and many other Eastern European
nations. Here, anthropological peculiarities still have con-
siderable weight as distinguishing characteristics of nations.
Investigations concerning the anthropology of the Ukrai-
nians began more than half a century ago. But they were
made, without any system, in different regions of the great
national territory selected, quite without a plan, and for a
long time gave no acceptable results. Not until the 20th
Century was enough material gathered to at least make
it possible to determine the main anthropological type of the
Ukrainians. The most important investigators in this
field are: Hopernitsky, Protzenko.Welker, Popov, Hilchenko,
Krasnov, Petrov, Erckert, Emme, Talko Hrincewich,
Diebold, Biloyid, Anuchin, Ivanovsky, Vovk and
Rakovsky.
To be sure, according to these investigations, the
Ukrainians, too, are anthropologically a mixed race, just
as the other nations of Europe. But the formation of this
mixed race took place in a very distant prehistoric past
and later admixtures have been too insignificant to visibly
change the original racial type of the Ukrainians. From
the Vislok to the Kuban, from the Pripet to the Black Sea,
the Ukrainian people constitute a uniform anthropological
type. This type has preserved itself in its purest state in
one wide zone which embraces the Ukrainian Carpathian
Mountain lands, Pokutye, Podolia, Dnieper Plateau and
Dnieper Plain, the Donetz Plateau and the Kuban sub-
Caucaeus country. Tall stature, with long legs and broad
shoulders, strongly pigmented complexion, dark, rich,
curly hair, rounded head and long face with a high and
broad brow, dark eyes, straight nose, strongly developed
elongated lower part of the face, medium mouth and small
ears; that is the type. Outside the described main zone of
distribution of the Ukrainian racial type, these character-
istics become less and less sharply defined, altho at all
parts of the ethnographic boundary the anthropological
differences of the Ukrainians from their neighbors, especially
from the Poles, White Russians and Russians, are very
clearly marked.
The mean stature of the Ukrainians is 1670 mm.
Consequently the Ukrainians are among the tallest peoples
of Europe, and in this respect they surpass their neighboring
nations by a great deal. The average height of the White
Russians is only 1651 mm., the Poles 1654 mm., the Russian
1657 mm., of 100 individuals among the Ukrainians, 53 are
taller than the average, 47 shorter; among the Poles and
Russians 51% taller and 49% shorter. Right here we see
a great difference between the Ukrainians and their
neighbors, as well as a great similarity of these three
peoples.
The tall stature of the pure Ukrainian racial type is
pretty regular in the above-mentioned main zone. The
tallest stature is that of the Kuban Ukrainians of the
sub-Caucasus country (1701 mm.). It is due to the fact
that the Ukrainians of that region are, to a great extent,
descendants of the Zaporog Cossacks, who for centuries
represented the flower of the physical power of the Ukrain-
ian people. Barely below that is the stature of the Hutzuls
(1693 mm.), of the Podolians, Volhynians and Dnieper
dwellers. In Central Galicia, Podlakhia, Polissye, in the
Don country, that is in direct proximity to the Poles,
White Russians and Russians, the stature of the Ukrainians
decreases appreciably. But, even in these border countries,
the Ukrainian people form a strong contrast, with their
higher stature, to their neighbors, especially to the Russians,
with their heavy mixture of the small grown Finnish-
Mongolian elements. Anuchin emphasizes expressly that
in those parts in any Russian "Government" into which
the smallest tip of Ukrainian territory extends, the average
height of the recruits is noticeably increased. Because of
their fine stature many Ukrainians in Russia are stationed
in the regiments of the guard.
In the Ukrainians, the tall slender form is coupled
with breadth of shoulders and great chest-measurement.
From the material gathered by Ivanosky, it is evident
that in this respect the Ukrainians surpass all their neigh-
bors. The average chest-measurement of the Ukrainians
is 55.04% of the length of the body, of the Poles
54.11, of the White Russians 53.84, of the Russians
only 52.18.
In respect of length of arms and legs, the Ukrainians again
occupy an independent position among the nations of
Eastern Europe. In the White Russians, the length of the
arms is 45.1% of the length of the body, in the Poles and
Ukrainians 45.7, in the Russians 46.0. The length of the
legs is greatest in the Ukrainians (53.6%), much less in the
Poles (52.1) and White Russians (51.7), and least in the
Russians (50.5), which again indicates considerable mixture
of Finnish-Mongolian blood. (The length of leg of the
Mordvines is only 49%, that of the Altaic Tartars 48.6).
The most important anthropological characteristic
was for a long time thought to be the shape of the skull.
The Ukrainians belong (as do all Slavs, for that matter)
to the class of Brachicephalites (short heads) . The average
skull index in the Ukrainians amounts to 83.2. Among the
neighboring peoples, the Poles (82.1) are least short-headed,
then follow the Russians, almost the same as the Poles
(namely 82.3), and then further away the Ukrainians
(83.2). The greatest Brachicephalousness appears in the
White Russians (85.1). The height of the skull is greatest
in the Ukrainians (70.3), smaller in the Russians (70.1),
smallest in the White Russians (66.1).
The skull index of the Ukrainians shows a similar
territorial distribution as the stature. The greatest
brachicephalousness is found in the Hutzuls; it decreases
continually as we go northeast and east, so that in the Don
and Kuban region the skull index is smallest. Besides, the
shortness of head of the Ukrainians decreases regularly on
the Polish and Russian borders, as a result of centuries of
proximity. In the Russians the shortness of head is
much less marked than in the Ukrainians, because of the
Finnish strain, in the Poles because of the commixture with
Finns and a primeval European long-headed and light-
haired race.
Just as in the shape of the skull, so also in the form of the
nose, the Ukrainians reveal distinct differences from their
neighbors. In the Ukrainians the nose is usually straight
and thin. The nasal index is 67.7, and consequently
somewhat greater than in the Poles (66.2). Then follow
the Russians (68.5) and the White Russians (69.2).
The width of the face in the Ukrainians is on the
average 180, that of the Poles 181, of the Russians 182, of
the White Russians 186; the facial index in the Ukrainians
78.1, in the White Russians 76.2, in the Poles 76.3, in the
Russians 76.7. Here, too, we note the great difference of the
Ukrainians from their neighbors and the similarity of these
to one another.
The color of hair and eyes is by far not so sure an
anthropological characteristic as the above-mentioned, yet
constitutes an important complement. In this respect, too,
the position of the Ukrainians among their neighbor
nations is just as independent as in regard to the above
discussed characteristics. Among the Ukrainians dark
shades predominate, so that out of 100 individuals only
29.5% have light hair and eyes, 35%jnedium color, and
35% dark. In the Russians the percentages run 37% light,
41% medium, 22% dark; in the Poles 35% light, 46%
medium and only 19% dark. Thus the light type is much
more common in the neighboring races than in the Ukrai-
nians.
In the distribution of color of eyes and hair in the
Ukrainians the same territorial law holds as in the distri-
bution of stature and shape of skull. In the main zone of
the Ukrainian racial type, but especially in the southwest,
the color of hair and eyes is most characteristically repre-
sented. Near the Polioh, White Russian and Russian
borders, the Ukrainian type loses much of its peculiarity.
This short anthropological sketch of the Ukrainians,
despite its scanty 1 and general character, enables us to
perceive very clearly that the Ukrainians show extremely
little anthropological similarity to the Poles, White Russians
and Russians. On the other hand, all of these neighboring
races of the Ukrainians are very similar, and closely related
to each other. The Pole, the White Russian and the
Russian, stand very close to one another, while the Ukrain-
ian is very different from all his neighbors and, from an
anthropological point of view, holds an entirely independent
position.
The vanity of the impression that the Ukrainians are
Polonized Russians or Russified Poles, therefore, becomes
apparent at once. The "unity theories," Polish and
Russian, which are based on perverted V historical and
philological phrases, are here opposed by a natural science,
with its exact results of investigations.
But anthropology discredits not only these theories
which are still dominating European science. Several
Polish historians have recently evolved a new theory of
the origin of the Ukrainians and spread it thru Europe.
According to this theory the Ukrainians are a mixture of
Slavs and the Mongolian-Turkish nomad tribes which
traversed and commanded the Ukrainian steppes for
centuries; they are a semi-nomadic steppe people, incapable
of culture, whose development might bring with it the
greatest dangers for European civilization.
The science of anthropology, however, robs this theory
of its very foundation. The Mongolian-Turkish nomad
tribes were almost all distinguished by low stature, short
legs, long arms and round heads. The same characteristics
should therefore appear very distinctly in the Ukrainian
racial type. But the Ukrainians have a higher stature
than any of the neighboring peoples, the longest legs, and
arms of medium length. And the brachicephalousness of
the Ukrainians is least just in the east, where mixing
with the Mongolian tribes could proceed most easily.
The anthropological type of the Ukrainians, then,
reveals complete individuality as opposed to the Polish,
White Russian and Russian type, and betrays no noticeable
trace of a Mongolian admixture. The difference of the
Ukrainian type from the types of other Eastern Slavs
caught the attention of the great geographer, Reclus,
in the eighties of the past century. At that time he noticed
the closer relationship of the Ukrainians to the Southern
Slavs. Toward the end of the 19th Century, Hamy divided
all the Slavs into two large groups, a tall brachicephalous
group with dark hair, and a short, less brachicephalous
group with light hair. In the first group he included the
Serbians, Croatians, Slovenes, Czechs and Ukrainians;
in the second the Polabians, Poles, White Russians and
Russians. A similar division was accepted also by Deniker.
According to his view the Ukrainians belong to the so-called
Adriatic (Dinaric) Race, while the Poles and the Russians
belong to the two closely related races, the Vistula Race
and the Oriental Race, respectively. The Adriatic Race
has recently come to be considered by many the specifically
Slavic Race. However, it has remained comparatively
pure only in the case of the Southern Slavs and the Ukrain-
ians, while the Northern Slavic races reveal strong foreign
admixtures.
Anthropology shows us, in the Ukrainians, a finely
grown, physically sturdy race of men. Another character-
istic of the Ukrainian People is its great fecundity. Wher-
ever the Ukrainian People has not yet degenerated thru
social pressure and the spread of pauperism, it shows
remarkably high birth figures, which, despite the high
infant mortality resulting from the low grade of culture,"
occasion a very rapid increase in population. The birth
rate and rate of increase (1900-1904) for the central districts
of the Ukraine in European Russia are on the average
yearly: Volhynia 4.5% and 2%, Podolia 4.3% and 1.8%,
Kiev 4% and 1.4%, Kherson 4.5% and 2%, Tauria
4.2% and 1.9%, Katerinoslav 5.6% and 2.8%, Chernihiv
4.6% and 2%m, Poltava 4.3% and 1.9%, Kharkiv 4.9%
and 2%. Galicia, in the early years of the century, has
had a yearly increase in population of 1.6 to 1.8%. These
figures, which are much higher than the corresponding
figures in Polish or Russian national territory, constitute
one of the less agreeable facts which enable us to look
with confidence toward the future of the Ukrainian nation.
For the greater increase of the Ukrainians is not due to a
higher state of culture of the neighbor nations. The
Polish and Russian peasantry is not only not superior to
the Ukrainan in respect to culture, but, on the contrary,
inferior. The greater increase of the Ukrainians is con-
nected only with their superior racial qualities.
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