Chapter LXVI: Sacrum: Comparative Data

LEGEND:
A = Number of specimens[82]

-----------------------------+------------------------------------
| Males
People +---------+--------+---------+-------
| (A) | Height | Breadth | Index
-----------------------------+---------+--------+---------+--------
| | _cm._ | _cm._ |
Munsee | (6) | 10.7 | 11.6 | 108.2
Arkansas and Louisiana | | | |
mounds | (18) | 10.95 | 12.2 | 111.6
Southern Utah cliff-dwellers | (22) | 10.8 | 11.55 | 106.9
Southwest and Mexico | (15) | 10.7 | 11.36 | 106.2
United States whites | | | |
(various nationalities)[83] |[84](56) | 10.62 | 11.67 | 109.9
-----------------------------+---------+--------+---------+-------
-----------------------------+-------------------------------------
| Females
People +-----------+--------+---------+------
| (A) | Height | Breadth | Index
-----------------------------+-----------+--------+---------+------
| | _cm._ | _cm._ |
Munsee | (7) | 9.9 | 11.7 | 118.5
Arkansas and Louisiana | | | |
mounds | (22) | 10.2 | 11.96 | 117.2
Southern Utah cliff-dwellers | (10) | 10.1 | 11.33 | 112.2
Southwest and Mexico | (18) | 10.4 | 11.5 | 110.6
United States whites | | | |
(various nationalities) | (25) | 10.18 | 11.75 | 115.4
-----------------------------+-----------+--------+---------+-------

[82] Five-segment sacra only.

[83] There were two separate series which gave remarkably similar results:

(_a_) Males: (26) H. 10.6, B. 11.7, Ind. 115; females: (12) H. 10.2, B. 11.73, Ind. 115.

(_b_) Males: (30) H. 10.63, B. 11.64, Ind. 115.8; females: (13) H. 10.16, B. 11.77, Ind. 115.8.

[84] Forty-six additional five-segment adult sacra, both sexes together, gave the writer—height 10.4, breadth 11.76, index 113.

SEGMENTS

Among the eight male Munsee sacra in which determination of the number of segments is feasible, six show five and two show six vertebræ, while among the 12 female bones there are 10 with five and two with six segments. We have thus four six-segmented sacra in 20, or 20 per cent. Emmons, in 217 female Indian pelves, found six segments in 19.8 per cent of the cases.

Among additional specimens examined by the writer, in 53 sacra of the southern Utah cliff-dwellers, five vertebræ were present in 37, or 70 per cent; six in 15, or 28 per cent; and seven in one, or 2 per cent. Of 42 sacra of Southwestern and Mexican Indians, 31, or 74 per cent, showed five; 10, or 24 per cent, six; and one, or 2 per cent, seven segments. As to whites, among 503 sacra of miscellaneous Americans of both sexes, five segments were present in only 66.4 per cent of the bones; six segments in 31 per cent; seven segments in 2 per cent, and eight in 0.4 per cent, while the whole coccyx was attached, non-pathologically, in one instance. The frequency of more than five vertebræ in the sacrum is therefore slightly to decidedly less in probably all the tribes of Indians than in the United States whites.

CURVATURE

The curvature of the sacrum in the Munsee can be described in 18 of the 20 specimens as medium, while in two (one male and one female) it is submedium. This agrees closely with the author’s observations on this feature in other Indians. In the United States whites the proportion of regular and medium forms is smaller, while not infrequently there exists in the sacrum of whites a pronounced curvature, which is very rare in the Indian. Among 115 Indian sacra from Arkansas, Louisiana, the Southwest, and Mexico, the writer found moderate or medium curvature in 75, or 65 per cent; submedium to slight in 24, or 21 per cent; and pronounced (though never excessively) in 16, or 14 per cent. Among the 217 specimens examined by Emmons, moderate or medium curvature was present in 148, or a little more than 67 per cent; submedium in 52, or 24 per cent; and pronounced in 18, or 8 per cent.

FEMALE MUNSEE SACRUM SHOWING UNILATERAL ARTICULATION WITH THE LAST FIFTH LUMBAR]

The curve of the sacrum begins in the Munsee (and the same is true of other Indians) in a majority of cases with the first or upper-most segment, but in numerous instances with the second vertebra. More in detail, among the 20 Munsee sacra, in 13, or 65 per cent, the curve began with the first; in six, or 30 per cent, with the second; and in one, or 5 per cent of the cases, with the third vertebra. Among 113 sacra of both sexes from Arkansas, Louisiana, the Southwest, and Mexico, examined by the writer, the curve began in 52, or 46 per cent of the cases, with the first; in 42, or 37 per cent, with the second; in 14, or 12 per cent, with the third; and in five, or 4 per cent, with the fourth vertebra. In the female series studied by Emmons, the curve began in 41.5 per cent of the cases with the first; in 27 per cent with the second; in 22.5 per cent with the third; in 7.4 per cent with the fourth; and in 1.8 per cent with the fifth segment. Among whites, in 224 sacra of five segments examined by the writer, the curve began with the first vertebra in 87 per cent; with the second in 5.4 per cent; and with the third in 7.6 per cent of the cases. It is therefore evident that the anterior curve of the sacrum begins more frequently higher up in the whites than in the Indians. This peculiarity is probably connected with a somewhat greater curvature, even on the average, in the sacrum of whites.

OSSA INNOMINATA AND PELVIS

THE OSSA INNOMINATA

The total number of adult innominate bones of the Munsee, available for examination and measurement, is 37, and in general the bones are remarkable for their regular development, with complete freedom from pathological conditions and from the more important anomalies. They are also of medium dimensions and weight throughout.

The measurements of the bones show that in the paired specimens, in both sexes, they are of nearly the same dimensions on the two sides. The male bones exceed those of the female in both height and breadth, and especially in the former, but relatively to its height the female innominate is broader than that of the male, as a result of which the innominate height-breadth index is higher in the females.