The Negrito and Allied Types in the Philippines and The Ilongot or Ibilao of Luzon   By: David Prescott Barrows (1873-1954)

By David P. Barrows

[Reprinted from the American Anthropologist, Vol. 12, No. 3, July Sept., 1910.]

Nine years of residence and travel in the Philippines have produced the conviction that in discussions of the ethnology of Malaysia, and particularly of the Philippines, the Negrito element has been slighted. Much has been made of the "Indonesian" theory and far too much of pre Spanish Chinese influence, but the result to the physical types found in the Philippines of the constant absorption of the Negrito race into the Malayan and the wide prevalence of Negrito blood in all classes of islanders has been generally overlooked.

The object of this paper is to present some physical measurements of the Negrito and then of several other pagan peoples of the islands whose types, as determined by measurement and observation, reveal the presence of Negrito blood.

The physical measurements here given were taken by me at various times between 1901 and 1909. They were taken according to the methods of Topinard (Éléments d'Anthropologie Générale) and are discussed in accordance with his system of nomenclature.

The first Negritos measured are members of a little community on the south slope of Mount Mariveles in the province of Bataan. They are of a markedly pure type. While it is usual to find Negrito communities considerably affected by Malayan blood, in this case I doubt if there is more than a single individual who is not of pure Negrito race. Nine men and ten women, all adults, practically the entire grown population of this group, were measured. Although this is a small number, the surprising uniformity of characteristics in all practically assures us that in these individuals we have the normal, pure type of Negrito, which may be used as a standard for comparison with other peoples.

The stature of these nine men and ten women arranged serially appears below:

Men Women 1374 1266 1381 1292 1435 1305 1439 1326 1440 = mean 1341 1467 1375 1495 1385 1526 1396 1532 1400 1460

These figures give an extreme variation of 158 mm. for the men and 194 mm. for the women. The mean stature for men is 1440, the average 1454, and for the women 1341 1375 and 1354 respectively. These, it scarcely need be said, are extremely low statures, perhaps as low as have ever been recorded on any group of people. According to Topinard's nomenclature they are all distinctly "pigmy."

In every individual the extreme reach of the arms ("grande envergure") exceeded the stature. In the men the excess varied from 30 mm. to 139 mm. and in the women from 23 mm. to 102 mm. This measurement shows the Negritos to have unusually long arms. In yellow races the arm reach is about equal to the stature, and in the white race it is usually a little above. I think we may take this excessive reach of arms to be a truly Negrito character.

The cephalic and nasal indices for both men and women are next given:

Cephalic Index

Men Women [1] 80 78 80 79 80 81 80 81 82 82 82 87 82 93 87 88

Nasal Index

Men Women 84 79 90 86 90 90 91 92 95 92 97 92 98 97 98 98 100 98 109

Topinard's nomenclature for cephalic index is as follows:

Long heads (dolichocephalic) 74 and below Medium heads (mesaticephalic) 75 to 79 Broad or round heads (brachycephalic) 80 to 90