Dolichocephalic or Brachycephalic?

[Gefjon]

How would you qualify between these?

dolichocephalic =
having a relatively long skull (typically with the breadth less than 80 (or 75) per cent of the length).

brachycephalic =
having a relatively broad, short skull (typically with the breadth at least 80 per cent of the length).

mesocephalic=
having a head of medium proportions, not markedly brachycephalic or dolichocephalic.







Which would you say is more progressive? If you are of a certain type, would you prefer your children to inherit this type?

[Þoreiðar]

My cephalic index is between 72 and 74. From what I can tell, dolichocephalics have an index under 76, while brachycephalics are over 81.

Couldn't find a way to calculate facial (prosopic) index, though. Does anybody know?

[Juthunge]

My cephalic index is between 72 and 74. From what I can tell, dolichocephalics have an index under 76, while brachycephalics are over 81.

That would be quite long-headed for a modern European, even for a Scandinavian.

This map isn't all that modern being from the 1930s or relying on even older data but the general trend should be the same:



On the other hand, my area is supposedly in the 80-81 range and I have about 76-77 or so. These are averages for whole populations, after all and there are bound to be outliers.

Couldn't find a way to calculate facial (prosopic) index, though. Does anybody know?

Total face height x 100 / bizygomatic breadth

Total face height is measured from the point between your eyebrows to the underside of your chin. The bizygomatic breadth is the distance between your cheekbones.
An index higher than 88 on living people is leptoprosopic/long-faced.

I tried to take my measurements years ago, total face height sort of was the hardest to take accurately. But seems like I'm on the lower border of leptoprosophy.

[Þoreiðar]

Are there any implications of cephalic indices, from the viewpoint of anthropological science? Like any association with specific ancestry, biological/mental properties, etc...

[Þoreiðar]

Total face height x 100 / bizygomatic breadth

Total face height is measured from the point between your eyebrows to the underside of your chin. The bizygomatic breadth is the distance between your cheekbones.
An index higher than 88 on living people is leptoprosopic/long-faced.

I tried to take my measurements years ago, total face height sort of was the hardest to take accurately. But seems like I'm on the lower border of leptoprosophy.

Using a foldable meter ruler as a caliper as you suggested, I got between 99 and 101. The lowest index by shutting my jaw as much as possible, and the highest index by keeping my jaw in a relaxed position. Odd, because I would have guessed that I rather was somewhere between lepto- and mesoprosopic.

Do you know of any maps of Europe divided by prosopic index?

[Juthunge]

Using a foldable meter ruler as a caliper as you suggested, I got between 99 and 101. The lowest index by shutting my jaw as much as possible, and the highest index by keeping my jaw in a relaxed position. Odd, because I would have guessed that I rather was somewhere between lepto- and mesoprosopic.

You most likely did something wrong here. With such a high facial index you would look quite "horse-faced" and that doesn't seem to be the impression from your profile pic.
Did you measure up to your top hairline instead of the point between your eyebrows?







This guy has a facial index of 102, for example:

FIG. 3 (3 views). A Nordic Dane of Jutish parentage who also shows Corded predominance. His face is of extreme length, a trait common among ancient Corded crania. This individual is the son of the classic Borreby man shown on Plate 5, Fig. 1; this is graphic evidence of the fact that ancient racial types may be repeated in toto in individuals of mixed racial ancestry. Only through the agency of such segregation is it possible to present this collection of basic European racial photographs.

He has a face height of 140 mm and a breadth of 137 mm. The breadth is quite average or even small but the face height is up to 19 mm higher than that of

What are your raw measurements?

Do you know of any maps of Europe divided by prosopic index?

[Þoreiðar]

You most likely did something wrong here. With such a high facial index you would look quite "horse-faced" and that doesn't seem to be the impression from your profile pic.
Did you measure up to your top hairline instead of the point between your eyebrows?

Yes, I followed those measuring points. But I get a bit different measurements depending on how the joints of the meter is angled. I also got a bit different measurements depending on measuring from the mid-point between my eyebrows, or from the "crease" in the skull between the root of the nose and the forehead.

What are your raw measurements?

Trying to be as precise as possible, lining up the ruler perfectly perpendicular and measuring from the crease at the top of the nose (instead of the point between the eyebrows), I get 11.5 cm for total face height, and 12.4 cm for bizygomatic width. Which translates into 92.7 prosopic index. Probably a more accurate result.

[Juthunge]

Yes, I followed those measuring points. But I get a bit different measurements depending on how the joints of the meter is angled. I also got a bit different measurements depending on measuring from the mid-point between my eyebrows, or from the "crease" in the skull between the root of the nose and the forehead.

Yeah, the "crease" in the skull, nasion, is actually the right spot for measuring that. I have a high-rooted nose so for me that's kind of almost the same spot as the mid-point between the eyebrows, glabella, anyway.
I never understood why the face height is measured from the root of the nose, though, if someone has a smaller, lower nose it hardly makes his overall face smaller.

Trying to be as precise as possible, lining up the ruler perfectly perpendicular and measuring from the crease at the top of the nose (instead of the point between the eyebrows), I get 11.5 cm for total face height, and 12.4 cm for bizygomatic width. Which translates into 92.7 prosopic index. Probably a more accurate result.

Hmm, 115 mm sounds possible, if very small for a northwestern European but 124 mm must be wrong, sorry. Even on the plates of Coon, from a time when people were overall smaller, no northwestern European has such a narrow face, the lowest seems to be about 134 mm and, as a sanity check, not even Small Mediterranids are so narrow faced.

Judging from your profile photo, you appear to have relatively prominent cheekbones, possibly even wider than your head breadth, no? And it's even less possible that you have a head breadth lower than 124 mm.

Not even the ancient Germanic skulls (those are averages, though) have such a small bizygomatic width or head breadth and that's without accounting for flesh and skin on the living. See 39-45 in the following tables:





You really have to measure it at the broadest point, not the foremost.

[Wulfaz]

Juthunge said I am the living one who has most dolichocephalic what he saw. Well, in the Gymnasium I saw in pictures, that my head is odd, deformed longer the others. Side by side my skull is high like as the Götatypes.

[Þoreiðar]

Hmm, 115 mm sounds possible, if very small for a northwestern European but 124 mm must be wrong, sorry. Even on the plates of Coon, from a time when people were overall smaller, no northwestern European has such a narrow face, the lowest seems to be about 134 mm and, as a sanity check, not even Small Mediterranids are so narrow faced.

Judging from your profile photo, you appear to have relatively prominent cheekbones, possibly even wider than your head breadth, no? And it's even less possible that you have a head breadth lower than 124 mm.

Not even the ancient Germanic skulls (those are averages, though) have such a small bizygomatic width or head breadth and that's without accounting for flesh and skin on the living. See 39-45 in the following tables:

Thanks, I feel like a freak now... I have been told I have a bit of a "small face" before, though.

My cranium is a bit wider than my cheekbones, at 145 mm.

You really have to measure it at the broadest point, not the foremost.

Yeah, I originally measured at the front part of my cheekbones, at the same "level" as my eyes. Measuring more closer to my ears, where my cheekbones are at the widest, I get 130 mm (+/- 1 mm). Which translates into a prosopic index of 88.5.

What individuals are described in those tables?