Chapter LVIII: Munsee Sternum: Dimensions

MALES
---------+------+---------------+--------+---------+----------
| | Total | | |
|Number|length (less |Greatest|Sternal |Maximum
|of |xiphoid and |breadth |Index |thickness
|bones |episternals)[70]|of body |(b×100)/a|of body
| | (a) | (b) | |
---------+------+---------------+--------+---------+----------
Average: | | _cm._ | _cm._ | | _cm._
Paired | (6) | 15.7 | 3.7 | 23.8 | 1.2
All | -- | 15.7 | 3.7 | 23.8 | 1.2
Minima | All | 14.6 | 3.4 | 21.1 | 1
Maxima | All | 17.5 | 4.2 | 25.8 | 1.3
---------+------+---------------+--------+---------+-----------
FEMALES
---------+------+---------------+--------+---------+----------
Average: | | | | |
Paired | (6) | 13.8 | 3.5 | 25.7 | 0.9
Average| All | 13.8 | 3.5 | 25.7 | 0.9
Minima | All | 12.8 | 2.8 | 21.5 | 0.8
Maxima | All | 16.2 | 3.9 | 30.5 | 1
---------+------+---------------+--------+---------+----------

[70] Where present and attached to upper sternal tubercle (three instances).

As to the rib facets, two of the 11 sterna in which the notches can be counted show seven on each side; in female skeleton no. 285,307, with normal number of ribs, there are seven notches on the right and but six on the left; in female no. 285,311, with 24 regular ribs and a right cervical, there are six facets on the right and seven on the left, and all the facets on the right side are situated perceptibly higher than those on the opposite side of the bone; in four instances there are six facets on each side; in two (male no. 285,301 and female no. 285,330, the former with the normal number of ribs and the latter uncertain) the sternum shows six facets on the right and but five on the left side; finally, in female no. 285,310, with 24 ribs, we find but five sternal facets on each side—this subject, however, was not fully adult. These details show that there are considerable irregularities in the sternal facets among the Munsee, even in the presence of the normal number of ribs.

The antero-posterior curvature of the Munsee sternum ranges from slight to moderate. The xiphoid appendix is attached to the body of the sternum in only one instance—a male. In one male (no. 285,314) the left clavicular facet is considerably larger than the right.

Three of the male and one female sterna show on one or both sides attached episternal tubercles. In three of the cases the anomaly is unilateral—twice left and once right—while in one of the males it is bilateral, but the tubercle is more pronounced on the left.

The breadth-length index of the sternum shows considerable individual variation in both sexes, but on the average it is higher in the females, the bone in this sex being relatively shorter.

SCAPULA

GENERAL FEATURES

This is one of the most interesting bones of the body, and although it has been reported on by a number of observers, it presents a variety of features that deserve further study. It is a bone which in all particulars shows great individual variation, but on close scrutiny it is found that these variations differ more or less from group to group and are therefore of anthropological importance, and that they are subject to certain laws which evidently are universal to human kind.

In collections derived from graves, such as those of the Munsee, the scapulæ, on account of their frailness, are often damaged, so that relatively few specimens are available for examination. There are nevertheless in the Munsee collection five male and nine female bones in fair condition, and their study gives some satisfactory results. To contrast these results properly the writer presents in the following table data not only of the Munsee, but also those on several other Indian groups as well as on the whites and the United States negroes.