THE EAST BALTIC RACE

THE EAST BALTIC RACE

Fig. 120 – Tavastland Finn

THE East Baltic race is of about the same, or only a little greater, height as the Alpine race, and, like it, is stocky and broad. The breadth and stockiness is even more pronounced in the East Baltic race than in the Alpine; and there is, furthermore, the certain coarseness of bone which is so characteristic of it. The relatively great breadth of shoulder in the East Baltic race is particularly marked, and gives a coarsening effect. The legs, hands, and feet are short and heavy as in the Alpine race.

The East Baltic head, too, gives a broad and coarse-boned effect. It is relatively large and heavy, and in particular the face has a massive effect compared with the cranial portion. This is heightened by the characteristic under jaw, which is massive and heavy, and broad, short, and bony in structure, with an unprominent chin. The cephalic index is on the whole somewhat lower than in the Alpine race; this would seem to arise from the fact that while the East Baltic head has an equally remarkable breadth, the back of it is slightly more arched out. The facial index is somewhat higher than in the Alpine race, because while the face has the same remarkable breadth, it is a little higher than in the latter. This is due to the higher under jaw in the East Baltic face, and the greater height of both jaws in the region of the alveoli (tooth-sockets).

The countenance has a dull cast, as in the Alpine race. It has, however, characteristics of its own: the forehead is not so much arched backwards as set backwards, but at a small angle. The root or upper part of the nose lies even flatter than in the Alpine race, but in its middle and lower parts the East Baltic nose rises on the whole more from the face than the Alpine. The East Baltic nose is bent in, and has a particularly 'ugly' effect in that it is at the same time turned up at the lower part, and lies broader across its opening than is usually seen in the Alpine race. Now and then very short noses are seen in East Baltic men and women (cp. Figs. 133 and 135).

Figs. 121-124 – East Baltic or predominantly East Baltic

The position of the jaws (upper against lower) shows a tendency in the East Baltic race to a forward set, while in the other European races the jaws lie more or less one against the other. The massive, heavy under jaw has an unprominent, blunt chin; its lower outline, and the outline behind, meet more nearly at a right angle than in the other European races. Seen from the front the cheek-bones stand somewhat apart from one another (in a lateral and at the same time forward direction). The front view shows, too, the (according to the general ideas of beauty in Europe) 'ugly' nose, with its nostrils visible from the front and the broad flat-lying cartilage; it shows too, again, the breadth of the under jaw, which, especially in the region of the submaxillary angle, is very considerable. The front view also shows how the jaws are set slightly forward.

Figs. 125a, 125b – Sweden (East Baltic)
Figs. 126a, 126b – Finland. Predominantly East Baltic
Figs. 127a, 127b – Finland – Nordic with East Baltic Strain

The fleshy parts show fewer deposits of fat than in the Alpine race; the coarseness of the skull bones is not hidden. The wrinkles from the cartilage of the nose towards the corners of the mouth seem often to be rather deep, and meet (apparently oftener in the women) in a Gothic arch rounded at the top, this being due to the fact that they seem to meet on the bridge above the lowest third of the nose. The nose is often markedly uptilted just in the region of the wings.

The opening between the lids rises a little (more clearly in the woman) towards the outside; it is, as in the Alpine race, narrower and shorter than in the narrow-faced races of Europe, for which reason, too, the East Baltic eye looks small. The distance between the inner corners of the eyes is greater in the East Baltic race than in the other European races; the opening of the mouth looks broader, the lips wider and their line less clear.

In old age there is a strong tendency to form wrinkles as in the Alpine race.

The skin is fair, but not rosy; it does not let the blood glimmer through, so that it never looks to have the life or brightness of the Nordic skin. There is always a grey under-tone to the East Baltic skin, which may often be so strong that one would hardly call this skin fair; not seldom it seems to have an 'olive-grey' (Retzius) colouring.

The hair has a hard, even a stiff, texture. Each hair is (as in the Alpine race) thick. The hair of the beard, too, is stiff; it grows thin, although the individual hairs may grow fairly long. The East Baltic hair is fair, but more inclined to be ash-blond than gold-blond. The golden or reddish undertone of the Nordic race is wanting; in its stead a grey undertone is shown, which may be more, or may be less, decided. Thus the East Baltic hair shows shades from faded blond shot with grey down to more or less dark ash-blond. East Baltic hair might be called ash-blond as against the gold-blond Nordic hair. In childhood both the Nordic and the East Baltic race often show whity-yellow flaxen hair. All over the east of Europe, where the latter race is more strongly represented, red hair is less often found than in North-west Europe, where the Nordic race is more strongly represented.

The colour of the eyes in the East Baltic race is grey, grey-blue, or blue; blue seems rarer, the blue East Baltic eye being mainly watery blue, or even bluey-white (the 'white-eyed Finns' is a saying). That brightness, or even radiance, which belongs to many Nordic eyes, is lacking in the East Baltic eye. Its expression is often sullen, not seldom it is gloomy, but withal stronger or at least harder than in the Alpine race.

Gallery
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