1941: Anthropology

Anthropological investigations during 1941 were few in number due to existing world conditions.

The Sterkfontein Paranchropus.

In South Africa, however, at Sterkfontein, Dr. Robert Broom of the Transvaal Museum, Pretoria, has discovered a fossilized lower jaw of a child about four years old. This belongs to the species named Paranthropus. It has been possible to compare this new discovery with the fragmentary jaw of a somewhat older Australopithecus child in the same museum. The molars of this Paranthropus jaw are described as markedly human, with five cusps, and a tiny extra cusp, found on other human molars. Dr. Broom believes that these teeth have a nearer resemblance to human teeth of the same developmental stage than do similar teeth in young apes. Also according to Dr. Broom, the man-like ape known as Plesianthropus transvaalensis had hands like those of a human. Broom's conclusions are based on a study of a wrist bone of one of these man-like apes found at the Sterkfontein Cave. A comparison of this wrist bone with that of gorilla, chimpanzee, baboon, as well as with modern Bushmen, leads him to the opinion that this latest fossil find definitely resembles the human form, more specifically that of the Bushmen, and the presumption follows that the function is similar. This announcement has stirred up considerable discussion in England. Sir Arthur Keith believes that the bone not only resembles, but is a human bone, and that specifically it is so like Bushmen and so unlike other races, that it probably represents a prehistoric Bushman. If this latter opinion is not accepted, then we must believe with Dr. Broom that the Sterkfontein ape had a human hand very much like that of a Bushwoman.

Folsom Man.

The latest evidence for the existence of Folsom Man in America is now reported by Dr. D. I. Bushnell, Jr., of the United States National Museum, a long distance from the hitherto known sites of Folsom finds. A campsite on the Skyline Drive of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, yielded two dart points of the Folsom type. Other isolated finds of this style of point have been found in the east, but thus far no correlation has been made with the geological strata. The debris at this site contained finished and unfinished stone tools, many with flaking resembling that on Folsom points. In addition there were found here both projectile points and potsherds similar to those of the so-called Round Grave people of Kentucky and Tennessee, thus far the oldest known inhabitants of this area. Further study of this site, particularly its geological setting, may make it possible to correlate these Folsom points chronologically with the Western finds.

See also ARCHAEOLOGY.