Abstract
Anthropology and Blood-Groups.—In Man for November, Dr. H. Woollard and Dr. J. B. Cleland discuss the evidential value of the blood-groups in anthropology as an indication of race. Their view differs fundamentally from that now generally held, and is primarily based upon investigation of the blood-group in the Australian aboriginal. It has been observed that the A group is the most frequent in the aborigines who belong to Central and South Australia, and when the results are those of natives whose purity is above suspicion, it is found that the Australian aboriginal contains no B factor. On this evidence it has been suggested that the Australian has Nordic affinities, while other investigators, finding the evident discrepancies in the group percentages of closely related peoples, have been tempted to ignore blood-groupings. Obviously percentage grouping is only one racial character which no more suffices to distinguish race than any other single character. Taking the evidence afforded by the blood-grouping of the anthropoids, the American Indian, and the Australian, it is here suggested, contrary to the view hitherto put forward, that the original human family contained all four groups. Instead, then, of this single anthropological character being expected to stamp each variety of man, the problem is rather to explain how the existing varieties of man obtained their present percentage, and indeed how a human type escaped an inheritance of all four groups and comes to possess one only. Thus the high frequency of the A factor in the Australian aboriginal implies no close affinity with Nordic man, who also possesses a high percentage of the A factor. The constitution of a grouping such as that in the Australian would force the assumption that their ancestors started with this genetic constitution, that they were few in number, and that they have lived for a long period in isolation.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Research Items. Nature 124, 889–891 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/124889a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/124889a0