Hrdlicka Dingwall Artificial Cranial Deformation AA.1932.34.2.02a00190

This document contains summaries of two book reviews. The first review summarizes a book on artificial cranial deformation, praising the extensive data and coverage but noting the lack of conclusions on the original causes of the practices. The second review summarizes a volume on Finno-Ugrian peoples, containing surveys on their physical anthropology, ethnography, linguistics, archaeology and history.

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Hrdlicka Dingwall Artificial Cranial Deformation AA.1932.34.2.02a00190

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BOOK REVIEWS 343

veniently minimized. The seeker after philosophical scientific truth will be gratified
by the largess of axioms and comments of an epistemological nature which have
been generously scattered through the text.
FORREST E. CLEXENTS
Societal Evolution: A study of the Evoluiionary Basis of the Science of Socicty. ALBERT
GALLOWAY KELLEP.(Revised ed., New York, Macmillan, 1931. ix, 419 pp.
$2.50.)
This is a revised edition, but there appears to be no very fundamental revi-
sion. The thesis of the earlier book is repeated here, practically without change. That
thws is the amenability of society and social laws to the categories used in nine-
teenth century biology-adaptation, selection, counter-selection, Variation, etc.
No type or types of social evolution are described, but rather types of social
change. The author gives few long run trends but indicates many ephemeral
modifications.
W. D. WALLIS

PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Arlijcial Cranial Deformation. E. J. DINGWALL, (John Bale Sons & Danielsson,
London, 1931. XVI, 313 pp., 55 pls., 5 maps. 3. 10s.)
The book a t hand marks a substantial step forward in the study of one of the
most widespread, peculiar and, so far as physical anthropology is concerned, noxious
practices of man on his own body. It presents data on head deformation from all
over the world, and contains much sensible discussion. Without exhausting the sub-
ject it covers the field so that it becomes at once the main work in this line.
I n detail the author deals with artificial cranial deformation in Europe, Asia,
Africa, Indonesia, New Guinea,Melanesia, Polynesia, New Zealand, Mexico, Cen-
tral America and the West Indies, and amongst other American Indians. This is
followed by a chapter of Observations and Conclusions. There are many historical
references, exhaustive literature, and much detail as to the methods used by differ-
ent peoples.
The conclusions are quite limited. On this score the author says:
It may be thought that after such a lengthy and tedious discussion as that which is now
brought to a close some more definite conclusions ought to be attained. If that be so then my
readers may come to them by themselves. I have tried to present the facts fairly and have,
I hope, given a representative selection of the literature, not excluding those authors on whose
testimony I myself place little reliance. From this material they can draw any further informa-
tion that they require. But I must be excused from making up their minds for them.
This can only mean that with all this great gathering of data the true original
causes and meanings of these practices are still doubtful. They have in fact in the
course of time been forgotten, to be replaced now, when inquiries press, by guesses
or lame opinions of those who keep on these practices from inherited duty or as
cthe thing t o do, but who have received no reliable tradition as to the reasons.
344 A M E R I C A N ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S . , 34, 1932

The book impresses one with the amount of involved labor. I t w i l l certainly be
useful. But it should form a basis for a future still more systematized volume and
one from which unreliable data were excluded. And there are a few other desiderata
for the future edition: The maps should be more distinct; and a map of the world,
showing in distinct colors the three main classes of deformation (fronto-occipital,
circular, occipital) would be very helpful. Plate 38 involves an error; the skull it
shows is not deformed. In various plates the reference leaves out the collector. The
quotation from Otis (page 190) is incorrect; there was no artificial deformation of
any sort in the Aleutians, or in any other part of Alaska save the Kodiak island
(slight to moderate occipital compression). Not enough attention is given to the
local individual variation of the methods and results. Some rather irrelevant matters
are included, as for instance, on pages 163, 220-221, etc. The list of authors should
be provided with page references. The subjects of chronology and introductions,
of effects of the deformation on the child and of the consequences of the several
types of deformation on the original form of the vault base and face of the skull,
call for separate chapters And in general, more originality in observations would en-
hance the value of the volume.
In connection with the last item, the reviewer can not but wish that the deserv-
ing author may find it possible to avail himself of the enormous and highly instruc-
tive materials on cranial deformation now in the American collections, particularly
that of Washington, where the numbers of deformed skulls reach into the thousands.
ALESHRDLICW

EURASIA

Finns-Ugrian Volume. (Works of the Committee for the study of the ethnic con-
tents of the U.S.S.R. and adjoining countries, volume 15, with an introduction
by S. F. OLDENBURG. U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, Leningrad, 1928. 348 pp.,
1 map. R. 3.50.)
The Finno-Ugrian section of the C.S.E.C. was formed in March, 1927, and an
immediate decision arrived at to survey the achievements of Russian saentists
among the Finno-Ugrian tribes in the U.S.S.R. and adjacent countries in the fields
of physical anthropology, ethnography, linguistics, archaeology, and history. The
result is this volume. I t contains six separate surveys, each with an adequate bibli-
ography. They comprise a summary of the Russian work in physical anthropology
on the Finno-Ugrian population, by D. A. Zolotarev; an ethnographical study of the
Finno-Ugrians, by N. N. Poppe; a survey of Finnish linguistics, by D. V. Bubrich;
archaeological investigations in the northern part of the U.S.S.R., by A. V. Schmidt;
historical investigation of the Finno-Ugrian population, by A. I. Ardreev; and a
map of the distribution of the Finno-Ugrian tribes, by D. A. Zolotarev.
A more or less detailed history of each investigation is given, segregating, where
possible, permanent contributions from tentative conclusions. Especially impressive
is the history of archealogical investigation. The author defined the territory of his
survey, the north of Russia, as the forest region lying north of a line drawn from