Toda
Group Indid
- common
- occasional
- rare
Description
Indid subtype, native to the Nilgiri Hills of Southern India. Shows morphological affinities with North Indids and has sometimes been included. Differs from most neighbouring populations and could present an isolate caused by ancient Indo-European migrations. Mostly found in Toda people. Although their numbers have hardly surpassed 1000 during the last century, population is relatively stable.
Physical traits
Medium brown skin, usually wavy black hair. (Rather) tall, mesoskelic, ectomorph. Dolichocephalic, ortho- hypsicranic. Mildly leptorrhine, long, often convex nose. Face high and narrow, lips relatively thick compared to other Indids. Beard and body hair growth is heavy. The chin relatively weak.
Literature
Eickstedt (1929, 1934) described the type in high detail, he regarded it as a typical North Indid. Later (Eickstedt, 1937) he split it off as the southern North Indid subvariety "Toda". Not all included it in North Indid, but it was often regarded as a special local type differing from its neighbours (Lundman, 1967; Vallois, 1971) .
