Abstract
Blood Groups and Physiognomy Prof. R. Ruggles Gates has recently received from Dr. L. D. Livingston the photographs of six out of eleven Eskimo of Pond Inlet (lat. nearly 73° N.) tested by him for blood-groups, who were regarded as “practically full-blooded Eskimo”. The photographs are published in the March issue of Man. On inspection by several anthropologists and laymen, two out of the six were selected as pure-blooded, while of the remainder one was singled out by one observer who had experience of Canadian Indians as having Indian blood. The remaining three were regarded by all observers as having European blood. This classification agrees with the blood groups. The two individuals selected as pure Eskimo belong to the 0 group, the remainder to the A group. In the instance of the individual showing Indian admixture, this must be explained as due to a remote white strain, which does not show in the features. Otherwise the evidence of physiognomy agrees entirely with the evidence of the blood groups, as usually accepted for American aborigines. The striking fact which emerges is that while the pure-blooded are O, those of mixed ancestry are all A. It is pointed out that a European who has the A group is more likely to be heterozygous than homozygous for A. Any white man who is heterozygous for A would have an equal chance of transmitting to his offspring in a cross with an Eskimo the genes for European features combined with either blood-group A or O. One must conclude, therefore, that while crosses between a white father who was heterozygous for A and an Eskimo woman would in many cases be expected to produce a child of O blood-group combined with some European features, yet on the other hand the presence of A in the offspring can be taken as confirming the evidence from physiognomy that a cross has taken place.
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Research Items. Nature 135, 476–477 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135476a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135476a0