Physical anthropology of the Lenape or Delawares, and of the eastern Indians in general

Tibia

The results of the several measurements obtained on the Munsee tibiæ are shown below.

The mean length of the bone, taking the two sides together, is 38.5 cm. in the males and 35.3 cm. in the females. The length of the female bone stands to that of the male as 91.7 to 100, which is lower than was obtained on the tibiæ from Louisiana, where the proportion was 93.7, or than that prevailing among whites, where it is even slightly higher (94.6 in miscellaneous New York whites). The Munsee female tibiæ are therefore relatively somewhat short, paralleling to some extent what was found with reference to the radius. Lesser differences of the same nature is found in probably all larger racial groups. Why the feature should be more pronounced in the Munsee than in other Indians is difficult of explanation; but, as will be seen later, this is not the only peculiarity of the female Munsee tibiæ.

LI.  MUNSEE: TIBIÆ

• LEGEND:
• A = Length[59]
• B = Diameter[60] antero-posterior at middle (a)
• C = Diameter[61] lateral at middle (b)
• D = Index of shaft at middle (b×100/a)
• E = Tibio-femoral index (T×100/F)

As to the two sides, the Munsee left tibia averages somewhat longer in the males than the right, which on the whole in slight measure is also the condition among the whites, but to which individual and even group exceptions are not infrequent. In the Munsee females, on the other hand, the average length of the left tibia is slightly less (by 1 mm.) than that of the right.

The percental relation of the length of the tibia with the bicondylar length of the femur, or the tibio-femoral index, averages in whites approximately 82 in the males and slightly less in the females. In the Munsee it is somewhat more elevated in both sexes. As in the whites and other racial groups, a moderate excess of the male over the female index is present on both sides, indicating the slightly greater relative shortness of the female leg bones aforementioned. Judging from the available data on the tibio-femoral index among other Indians,[62] that in the Munsee comes very near to the average of the race.

The strength of the Munsee tibia (and the same is probably true of many other Indian tribes) is surprising, being nearer that of the whites than is the case with either the humerus or the femur. The antero-posterior diameter of the Indian tibia is, in fact, in almost all the Indian groups somewhat greater than in the whites. The index of the shaft is invariably and quite perceptibly lower in the Indians than in the whites, excepting the Munsee females, in whom, curiously enough, the index is relatively quite high, exceeding both that of the other Indians available for comparison and of the whites. No satisfactory explanation of this and other exceptional features of the Munsee tibia can be given. The condition can scarcely be regarded as accidental, for on examining the individual shaft indexes it is observed that in but one of the female bones is the index below 60, giving thus a pronounced platycnemy; in five it is between 60 and 70; in ten between 70 and 80, and in no fewer than eleven it rises to 80 or over. Among the twenty-nine male Munsee tibiæ there is but one that gives a shaft index of slightly above 80.

LII.  MEAN DIMENSIONS OF THE TIBIA
(THE TWO SIDES BEING TAKEN TOGETHER)
IN THE MUNSEE AND OTHER INDIANS,
AND IN WHITES

• LEGEND:
• A = Mean diameter antero-posterior at middle[63] (a)
• B = Mean diameter lateral at middle[64] (b)
• C = Module[65]
• D = Index of shaft at middle (b × 100)/a
• E = Tibio-femoral index (T × 100)/F

The Munsee tibiæ, barring a few moderate inflammatory lesions referred to in another section, are normal throughout and free from anomalies. The inclination of the head is in no case especially marked.

As to the shape of the shaft at middle, conditions were found as follows:

LIII.  MUNSEE TIBIÆ: SHAPE OF SHAFT AT MIDDLE[66]

It is interesting to note that in the female Munsee tibia, type 1 is decidedly frequent and much more common than in the males; type 3, which is usually associated with considerably developed leg muscles, is absent in the females; type 4 is relatively frequent in both sexes; type 6 is wholly absent.

In the next table are shown for comparison the proportions of the different types found by the author in different racial groups. For the purpose of elucidating these data, both sexes are taken together. It is seen that well-differentiated type 1 is most common in the Indians; that type 2 is relatively scarce in the negro; type 3, most common in the white (laboring class), was not met with in a pronounced form in the negro; type 4 is decidedly more common in the Indian than in the other two races; and type 6, absent in the Indians and rare in the whites, is fairly frequent in the negro. These differences show that the shape of the shaft of the tibia, as that of the femur, humerus, and other bones, has a considerable racial significance, which, as our data are increased, will doubtless become accentuated.

LIV.  COMPARISON OF MUNSEE AND OTHER INDIAN WITH
WHITE AND NEGRO TIBIÆ WITH REFERENCE TO
SHAPE OF SHAFT AT MIDDLE[67]

Fibula

While of secondary importance, the fibula often presents interesting features which make it worthy of closer attention than it usually receives. One of these features concerns its length on the two sides of the body, which, in some Indians at least, is more uniform than that of its companion bone, the tibia. It was found so by the writer in the skeletal collections from Arkansas and Louisiana mounds, and the feature appears again in the Munsee. The slight differences presented by the Munsee fibulæ in this particular harmonize with those of the tibiæ.

The percental relation of the female to the male fibula averages 93.5 (the male bone = 100), while in the tibia it was only as 91.7 to 100.[68] This anomaly is due to the unexplained relative shortness of the female Munsee tibiæ.

As to the shape of the shaft, which in the fibula differs more than in any other bone, the prevalent tendency, as in the Arkansas and Louisiana specimens, is toward type 2, or the lateral prismatic; a good many of the bones, however, show also a more or less marked fluting of one or two of the surfaces. The details are given in the following table:

LV.  MUNSEE FIBULA: LENGTH

LVI.  MUNSEE AND OTHER INDIAN FIBULÆ—
SHAPE OF SHAFT AT MIDDLE[69]

Clavicle

The Munsee clavicle, in paired bones and in average, measures 15.3 cm. in length on the right and 15.25 cm. on the left in the males, and 13.7 cm. on the right with 13.9 cm. on the left in the females. This gives the ratio of 90.4 (female) to 100 (male), which is lower than that in any of the long-bones and indicates a relative shortness of the clavicle in the Munsee females.

The right clavicle is very slightly longer than the left in the male, but is perceptibly shorter than the left in the female skeletons. One pair of the male and a pair of the female bones show pronounced curves; otherwise there is nothing special. The strength of the bones is moderate to medium; none is massive.

LVII.  MUNSEE CLAVICLE: LENGTH

Sternum

The total number of sterna present is 14, 8 males and 6 females. In 13 of these specimens the manubrium is completely detached, which in general is the most usual condition, while in the 14th there is partial attachment. Much the same condition was found by the writer in the Indian sterna from Arkansas and Louisiana.

The measurements of the sternum, given in the next table, are found to be moderate throughout. Unfortunately there are few available measurements of the sternum in other races for comparison.

LVIII.  MUNSEE STERNUM: DIMENSIONS

As to the rib facets, two of the 11 sterna in which the notches can be counted show seven on each side; in female skeleton no. 285,307, with normal number of ribs, there are seven notches on the right and but six on the left; in female no. 285,311, with 24 regular ribs and a right cervical, there are six facets on the right and seven on the left, and all the facets on the right side are situated perceptibly higher than those on the opposite side of the bone; in four instances there are six facets on each side; in two (male no. 285,301 and female no. 285,330, the former with the normal number of ribs and the latter uncertain) the sternum shows six facets on the right and but five on the left side; finally, in female no. 285,310, with 24 ribs, we find but five sternal facets on each side—this subject, however, was not fully adult. These details show that there are considerable irregularities in the sternal facets among the Munsee, even in the presence of the normal number of ribs.

The antero-posterior curvature of the Munsee sternum ranges from slight to moderate. The xiphoid appendix is attached to the body of the sternum in only one instance—a male. In one male (no. 285,314) the left clavicular facet is considerably larger than the right.

Three of the male and one female sterna show on one or both sides attached episternal tubercles. In three of the cases the anomaly is unilateral—twice left and once right—while in one of the males it is bilateral, but the tubercle is more pronounced on the left.

The breadth-length index of the sternum shows considerable individual variation in both sexes, but on the average it is higher in the females, the bone in this sex being relatively shorter.

Scapula

GENERAL FEATURES

This is one of the most interesting bones of the body, and although it has been reported on by a number of observers, it presents a variety of features that deserve further study. It is a bone which in all particulars shows great individual variation, but on close scrutiny it is found that these variations differ more or less from group to group and are therefore of anthropological importance, and that they are subject to certain laws which evidently are universal to human kind.

In collections derived from graves, such as those of the Munsee, the scapulæ, on account of their frailness, are often damaged, so that relatively few specimens are available for examination. There are nevertheless in the Munsee collection five male and nine female bones in fair condition, and their study gives some satisfactory results. To contrast these results properly the writer presents in the following table data not only of the Munsee, but also those on several other Indian groups as well as on the whites and the United States negroes.

LIX.  MUNSEE SCAPULÆ: COMPARISON

• LEGEND:
• A = Infra-spinous height
• B = Breadth
• C = Scapular index
• D = Infra-spinous index

†† M. Livon, De l’omoplate, etc., Thèse, Paris, 1879, pp. 41-42.

The above data show that the Indian scapula is on the whole somewhat smaller than that of either the whites or the American negroes, except in the females, where the bone, while shorter, is slightly broader than that in the other two races. The Munsee scapulæ compare fairly well with those of other Indian tribes, the apparent differences being doubtless due in a measure to the small number of specimens.

The scapular index in the Munsee is high, indicating that the shortness of the bone is both absolute and relative. The different Indian tribes offer considerable variation in this respect, but, as will be noted, except in the Peruvians, the index in all is above that of the whites and in the majority of cases even above that of the negroes. These high scapular indexes in the Indian approximate those of the anthropoid apes, but it remains to be determined if the phenomenon in the two genera is homologous.

In the female Munsee the scapular index is perceptibly higher than in the males, and this characteristic, owing to a relatively greater breadth of this bone in the females, is common to all the other given groups, excepting the negro.

The infraspinous index is also high in the Munsee as compared with other Indians, the whites, and even the negroes. This is particularly the case in the males, in whom the infraspinous height is exceptionally low.

The female index again exceeds that of the males in the Munsee and in all other Indian groups, as well as in the whites, owing to the relatively greater breadth of the female scapula. The negroes show here once more an exception to the rule, and it would be interesting to trace how far this peculiarity may be prevalent in that race.

High indexes, such as those of the Indians, have been reported by Livon, Broca, Ranke, and others,[73] among some of the African negroes, the Melanesians, the Malays, the Guanches, and the Egyptians.

DESCRIPTIVE FEATURES

The principal points for visual observation to which attention has been given in this instance were (a) the shape of the scapula as a whole, with the development of the teres major region; (b) the form of the superior border of the bone; and (c) the development of the notch in the superior border.

Type of body.—The scapula as a whole may be more or less neatly triangular or wedge-shaped, which form will be designated as type 1. Again, it may be more acutely wedge-shaped, with both its axillary and vertebral border markedly concave, a type which the author classes as 3.[74] It may be quadrilateral, type 4, with the axillary border augmented by a shorter but well-marked inferior border, due to a development of a process or angle by the influence of the teres major muscle. It may be pentagonal, when the preceding type is augmented by a distinct angle in the axillary border at or above the spine, which divides it into two well-marked borders—type 5. Finally, we may have a shape resembling that in many lower mammals and characterized by marked convexity of the axillary border, which will be referred to as type 6.

Among the 19 Munsee scapulæ, a large majority show types 4 and 5, the few remaining specimens approaching type 1. There is no instance of the relatively rare type 3, nor of type 6, which is quite common in other Indians, particularly the males. The following table gives several series of records for comparison, including that of United States whites. Analysis of the data shows some marked sexual as well as racial differences, the full value of which can not, however, be determined in the absence of more ample records. It is very plain, however, that type 1, or a close approach to it, and types 3 and 5 are, on the whole, more common in the females than in the males; while type 6 is decidedly more frequent in the males. Type 3 is relatively frequent in the whites, type 5 relatively scarce. In all probability the Indians differ considerably among themselves with respect to the shape of the scapulæ, as shown by the Munsee and Peruvian males, though the two series of specimens are very unequal in numbers. Minor differences in records of this nature can not be given any weight, for naturally the matter of classification of the different shapes is less perfect than that of accurate measurements.

LX.  THE FORM OF THE SCAPULA:
MUNSEE AND COMPARATIVE

Superior border.—The form of the superior border of the scapula can be divided for purposes of description into (1) horizontal or slightly rising and forming a right or nearly right angle with a vertical line passing upward from the base of the coracoid; (2) moderately rising or oblique and straight or but slightly curved, forming with the coracoid vertical an angle of between 85 and 55°; (3) markedly oblique, forming with the coracoid vertical an angle of less than 55°; (4) angular or deep saddle-shaped, which is of special importance anthropologically; and (5) markedly concave or semilunar (see pl. 25). In rare instances a form (6) occurs, in which the border is low and moderately convex, and another (7) in which it is markedly concavo-convex; and, finally, there occurs now and then an indeterminate form (I), which can not be classified.