Pedagogical Anthropology by Maria Montessori (new books to read .TXT) 📖
- Author: Maria Montessori
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In the illustrations facing this page we have portraits of the same person taken at successive ages (Figs. 113, 114, 115, 116), i.e., at the age of six months, one year and a half, seven, and lastly twelve years; it will be seen that the face has steadily lengthened.
In this case the individual happens to be noticeably leptoprosopic; but observe the rotundity of the infantile face at the age of six months.
An analogous observation may be made in the case of the girl represented in Figs. 118 and 119, at the age of ten months and thirteen years respectively.
Even in the case of abnormal children the same law holds good; an examination of the three pictures of an incurable idiot boy, taken at the ages of six, eleven, and sixteen years (Figs. 121, 122, 123 facing page (276)), shows that the face, from being originally rotund has become elongated.[42]
We owe to Binet the most exact and complete studies that exist in anthropologic literature on the subject of the growth of the face. He has made a great number of facial measurements, both of children and young persons of the male sex, from four to eighteen years of age, taking the measurements at intervals of two years. The measurements chosen by Binet are all the possible distances that will serve to give the various widths of the face, the distance of the ear from the various points of the profile, and the heights of the various segments; namely (for an exact understanding of these measurements, see section on Technique), auriculo-mental diameter, auriculo-nasal diameter, auriculo-subnasal diameter, auriculo-ophryac diameter, auriculo-metopic diameter, frontal diameter, biauricular diameter, bizygomatic diameter, length of nose, length of chin, subnase-mental distance, height of forehead.[43]
Binet's conclusions are as follows: the growth of the whole head may be divided into three rhythms: that of the cerebral cranium, that of the face apart from the nose, and that of the nose.
If the total development of the cerebral cranium from the fourth to the eighteenth year shows a proportion of 12 per cent., the facial development shows an increase of 24 per cent. and that of the nose 39 per cent. Consequently the face increases twice as much as the cranium, and the nose three times as much. In the growth of the face, however, the transverse dimensions must be distinguished from the longitudinal dimensions, because the facial index varies greatly according to the age. The width of the face follows very nearly the same rhythm as the cranium, never exceeding the latter's proportional increase; the length of the face, on the contrary, follows the special rhythm of the growth of the face, which lengthens far more than it broadens.
If we consider the distances of the various points in the profile from the auricular foramen, we find that these distances show a greater increase in proportion as the points in question are further from the forehead and nearer to the chin.
The central section (the nose) and the mandible are the portions which contribute most largely to the increase in length of the face.
While in the case of the cranium there is a very slight, and often imperceptible puberal acceleration of growth, the puberal transformations of the head are, on the contrary, most notable in respect to the face.
The entire region of the upper and lower jaws, but more especially the lower, undergoes a maximum increase during the period of puberty.
In regard to the nose, its rapid growth begins at the time immediately preceding puberty; that is, it undergoes a prepuberal maximum increase. When a boy is about to complete his sexual development, the nose begins to gain in size.
The puberal growth of the mandible has long been a familiar fact, and bears a relation to the development of the sexual glands.
A special characteristic noted by Binet and by myself is that the height of the lower jaw in boys who have reached the prepuberal stage is greater in the boys who are least intelligent; just as in the case of these boys the nose is less leptorrhine and the face less broad. This means that at the period of puberty the most intelligent boys not only have a greater development of head, but also certain distinctive facial characteristics. They should have, for instance, a more ample forehead, a broader face, especially in the bizygomatic diameter (between the cheek-bones), and a leptorrhine nose (infantile leptorrhine type). The backward boys, on the contrary, have a longer face, accompanied by a higher mandible and a flat or "snub" nose. Here are the comparative figures:
Fig. 113.—A child at six months.
Fig. 114.—The same child at a year and a half.
Fig. 115.—A seven-year-old boy.
Fig. 116.—The same boy at the age of twelve.
FACIAL MEASUREMENTS
Binet Children from the elementary schools of Paris from 11 to 13 years of age
Montessori Children from the elementary schools of Rome from 9 to 11 years of age
COMPARATIVE FACIAL MEASUREMENTS OBTAINED FROM THE BRIGHTEST AND THE MOST BACKWARD PUPILS IN THE SCHOOLS OF ROME (MONTESSORI)
Measurements and indices in millimetres Brightest pupils Backward pupils Difference Height of mandible 34 mm. 36 mm. 2 mm. Length of nose 47 mm. 45 mm. 2 mm. Width of nose 28 mm. 29 mm. 1 mm. Nasal index 59 mm. 64 mm. 5 mm.These results would seem to prove that there are high and low infantile types of face, analogous, let us say, to types of social caste; and in school life they correspond to the castes of the intelligent and the backward pupils.
Intelligent children tend to preserve the infantile form of face more intact (broad and short) or rather, if we extend our researches to pupils who have reached the prepuberal age, we may conclude that intelligent pupils develop according to the normal laws—the growth is confined to the nose; backward children invert the order of growth—the lower jaw is already enlarged before the nose has even begun the acceleration of puberal growth. This difference remains permanent in the adult, and we have in consequence low types of face characterised by a flat nose and heavy lower jaw.
Facial Expression.—The study of the human face cannot be limited to a consideration of the form alone; because what gives character to it is the expression. Internal thought, sensory impressions and all the various emotions produce responsive movements of the facial muscles, whose contractions determine those visible phenomena corresponding to the inner state of mind.
The teacher ought to understand facial expression, just as a physician must train himself to recognise the facies corresponding to various diseases and states of suffering. The study of expression ought to form a part of the study of psychology, but it also comes within the province of anthropology, because the habitual, life-long expressions of the face determine the wrinkles of old age, which are distinctly an anthropological characteristic.
The facial muscles may be divided into two zones: one of which comprises the frontal and ocular region, and the other the buccal region; corresponding to which are the two upper and lower branches of the frontal nerve.
Accordingly we may speak of a frontal or higher zone of expression and of an oral or lower zone.
The expressions of pure thought (attention, reflection) group themselves around the forehead; those of emotion, on the contrary, call forth a combined action of both zones, and frequently irradiate over the entire body. But as a general rule the man of higher intelligence has a greater intensity of frontal expression, and the man of low intelligence (uneducated men, peasants, and to a much greater degree, imbeciles, idiots, etc.) have a predominance of oral expression.
In children the frontal zone has slight mobility, and the oral zone has a preponderance of expression; infantile expression, however, is diffuse and exaggerated and is characterised by grimaces. Undoubtedly there are certain restraining powers, which develop in the course of time and serve to limit and definitely determine the facial expressions.
Fig. 117.—Profile of a child.
Fig.—118. A child of ten months.
Fig. 119.—The same, 13 years old.
As for the mechanics of expression, they consist of the facial nerve, and the surface muscles stimulated by it, which are: the frontal muscle, which covers the entire forehead and merges above into the epicranial aponeurosis; the superciliary muscle extending transversely along the superciliary arch and concealed by the orbicular muscle of the eyelids (m. orbicularis palpebrarum), which surrounds the eye-socket like a ring; the pyramidal muscle (m. pyramidalis nasi), which is connected with the point of origin of the frontal muscle at the inner angle of the eyebrow, and separates below into four symmetrical fasciæ, two of which are attached to the ala or wing of the nose, and the other two to the upper lip.
Fig. 120.—The Muscles of the Head and Face.
A group of very delicate muscles controlling the sensitive movements of the wings and septum of the nose (m. compressor narium, m. depressor alœ nasi, m. levator alœ nasi, anterior and posterior, and m. depressor septi) have their points of attachment around the nasal alœ (just above the upper incisor and canine teeth). There is a great wealth of muscles surrounding the mouth; no animal, not even the anthropoid ape, is equipped with so many muscles; it is due to them that the human mouth is able to assume such a great variety of positions. The greater number of these muscles are arranged like radii around the mouth; and there is one which, unlike the rest, surrounds the oral aperture like a ring.
The radiating muscles, descending from the sides of the nose down along the chin are: the levator muscle of the upper lip (m. levator labii superioris, starting from the bony margin below the infraorbital foramen); the levator muscle of the angle of the mouth (m. levator anguli oris, starting from the fossa of the upper maxilla); the large and small zygomatic muscles (starting from the anterior surface of the malar bones); the risorial muscle (m. risorius), the smallest of all the facial muscles, which has its origin in the soft surface tissues (aponeurosis parotido-masseterica); the depressor muscle of the mouth angle (m. depressor anguli oris, or m. triangularis) originating on the lower margin of the maxilla; the depressor muscle of the lower lip or quadratus muscle of the chin (m. quadratus labii inferioris or quadratus menti, also originating on the lower maxilla); the levator muscle of the chin (m. levator menti) between the two musculi quadrati, also has its origin in the lower maxilla; the buccinator muscle, hidden beneath the preceding, has its origin behind the molar teeth in the alveolar process of the two maxillæ, and extends horizontally, terminating in the two lips, in such a manner that its two fasciæ; partly cross, so that the upper fasciæ of the muscle starting from the mandible extend to the upper lip, and the lower fasciæ of the muscle starting from the maxilla extend to the lower lip. Consequently the contraction of this muscle stretches the angles of the mouth in a horizontal direction only; it is the most voluntary of all the muscles, and plays a greater part than the others in forced laughter; in consequence it robs this movement of its characteristic charm.
Lastly we must note the orbicular muscle of the lips (m. orbicularis oris or sphincter oris), which constitutes the fleshy part of the lips and surrounds the oral aperture like a ring.
The contraction of these muscles produces antagonistic motorial action; for instance, the orbicular muscle tends to close the mouth into a circular orifice;
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