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CHAPTER 6
RACIAL CHARACTERISTICS
I. Physical Traits
In our discussion of ^^racial” characteristics, which is only a brief
summary, we are separating those traits which are physical from those
which are psychic, thus following the traditional division between anthro-
pology and psychology. In presenting the facts, particularly on the physical
traits, but also on the psychic traits, we have to build upon studies mainly
concerned with those traits in which Negroes differ from whites, which, by
itself, represents a biased statement of the problem tending to exaggerate
differences and minimize similarities. We are, furthermore, limited almost
to what we have ourselves criticized—namely, presenting differences
between the means of the two groups—^because these are practically all the
facts available. The dispersion around the means is usually measured only
by standard deviation and other abstract indices which do not allow an inten-
sive study of the concrete distribution and of overlapping. Still worse, the
available data are so weak that even the differences between means cannot
be said to be satisfactorily established.
Ascertaining the differences between Negroes and whites in respect to
physical traits involves not only measurements of Negroes but also the
establishment of a ^Standard” set of. measurements of whites. No anthropo-
metric measurements of the American population have ever been under-
taken on such a large scale and with such methodological precautions that
valid comparisons between one sub-group and the rest of the population
are made possible. Nearest the ideal in regard to large number of cases
was the Army study,^ but the technique of measurement had several weak-
nesses.^
There are, however, a large number of studies on small samples of
American Negroes and various groups of whites. For the Negroes, Hersko-
vits’ study is by far the best available. During his investigations, Herskovits
tried to determine the representativeness of his sample j
we have in the
preceding chapter accounted for the general reasons why we cannot accept
his claims. The investigators of white samples have not even made efforts
to get representativeness.
Apart from this question of representativeness, which is particularly
*37
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