The morphological specificity of Caucasian peoples according to craniological materials

Abstract

Nineteen recent craniological samples from the Caucasus were analysed by multivariate methods on the basis of 14 metrical characters including four angle measurements. The main problem was in the analysis of the morphological specificity of the Caucasian people. The following statistical methods were applied to the material: (1) The rank correlation was calculated for the averages of the 19 samples. Part of these correlations corresponded to the functional connection; other correlations were higher than the functional ones or even had another direction. This points to racial genetical processes. A special part is the cephalic index. (2) General distances have been calculated. The average distance of each sample from the other samples is the measurement for morphological specificity. It is particularly marked for the Udens. Only very weak correlations of the physical anthropological differentiation to linguistic and geographical aspects exist: only three Ossete samples with their Iranic languages are very close to one another. On the other hand, the groups with Daghestanian languages are particularly heterogeneous. If the groups are arranged according to the distances themselves we find eight taxonomic groups. Representives of the Kafkasonic, the Kaspic, Pontic and Near-East population groups may be distinguished. The importance of these results for the problems of Caucasian ethnogenesis is discussed; e.g. an old Caucasian substratum which has been ethnically differentiated by historical processes of linguistic change is to be seen. Though connections between all Indo-European groups (Ossetes, Armenians) are reflected by the Penrose form distance, the Armenians do not seem to have changed their physical anthropological structure by the linguistic Indo-Europeanization.