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ETHNOLOGY
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ETHNOLOGY and ETHNOGRAPHY (from the Gr. Wvos, See also:race, and Xoyor, See also:science, or yp&¢erv, to write), sciences which in their narrowest sense See also:deal respectively with See also:man as a racial unit (mankind), i.e. his development through the See also:family and tribal stages into See also:national See also:life, and with the See also:distribution over the See also:earth of the races and nations thus formed. Though the See also:etymology of the words permits in theory of this See also:line of See also:division between ethnology and ethnoigraphy, in practice they See also:form an indivisible study of man's progress from the point at which See also:anthropology (q.v.) leaves him. Ethnology is thus the See also:general name for investigations of the widest See also:character, including subjects which in this See also:encyclopaedia are dealt with in detail under See also:separate headings, such as See also:ARCHAEOLOGY, See also:ART (and allied articles), See also:COMMERCE, See also:GEOGRAPHY (and the headings for countries and tribes), FAMILY, NAME, See also:ETHICS, See also:LAW, See also:MYTHOLOGY, FOLK-See also:LORE (and allied articles), See also:PHILOLOGY (and allied articles), See also:AGRICULTURE, See also:ARCHITECTURE, See also:RELIGION, See also:SOCIOLOGY, &c., &c. It covers generally the whole See also:history of the material and intellectual development of man, as it has passed through the stages of (a) See also:hunting and fishing, (b) See also:sheep and See also:cattle tending, (c) agriculture, (d) See also:industry. It investigates his See also:food, his weapons, tools and implements, his See also:housing, his social, economic and commercial organization, forms of See also:government, See also:language, art, literature, morals, superstitions and religious systems. In this sense ethnology is the older See also:term for what now is called sociology. At the See also:present See also:day the progress of See also:research has in practice, however, restricted the "ethnologist" as a See also:rule to the study of one or more branches only of so wide asubject, and the word ethnology " is used with a somewhat vague meaning for any ethnological study; each See also:country or nation has thus its own separate ethnology. It becomes more convenient, therefore, to deal with the ethnology as a See also:special subject in each See also:case. " Ethnography," in so far as it has a distinctive See also:province, is then conveniently restricted to the scientific mapping out of different racial regions, nations and tribes; and it is only necessary here to refer the reader to the separate articles on continents, &c., where this is done. The only fundamental problem which need here be referred to is that of the whole question of the division of mankind into separate races at all,which is consequential on the earlier problem (dealt with in the See also:article ANTHROPOLOGY) as to man's origin and antiquity. If we assume that man existed on the earth in remote See also:geological See also:time, the question arises, was this See also:pleistocene man specifically one? What See also:evidence is there that he represented in his different habitats a See also:series of varieties of one See also:species rather than a series of species? The evidence is of three kinds, (I) anatomical, (2) physiological, (3) cultural and psychical. 1. Dr See also:Robert See also:Munro, in his address to the Anthropological See also:section of the See also:British Association in 1893, said: " All the osseous remains of man which have hitherto been collected and examined point to the fact that, during the larger portion of the quarternary See also:period, if not, indeed, from its very commencement, he had already acquired his human characteristics." By " characteristics " is here meant those anatomical ones which distinguish man from other animals, not the See also:physical criteria of the various races. Do, then, these anatomical characteristics of pleistocene man show such See also:differences among themselves and between them and the types of man existing to-day as to justify the See also:assumption that there has ever been more than one species of man? The undoubted " osseous remains " of pleistocene man are few. See also:Burial was not practised, and the few bones found are for the most See also:part those which have by See also:mere See also:chance been preserved in caves or See also:rock-shelters. Of these the three See also:chief " finds," in See also:order of probable See also:age, are the Trinil (See also:Java) See also:brain-cap, the lowest human See also:skull yet described, characterized by depressed See also:cranial See also:arch, with a cephalic See also:index of 70; the See also:Neanderthal (See also:Germany) skull, remarkable for its See also:flat retreating See also:curve with an index of 73—76; and the two nearly perfect skeletons found at See also:Spy (See also:Belgium), the skulls of which exhibit enormous brow ridges with cranial indices of 70 and 75. All these skulls, taken in See also:conjunction with other well-authenticated human remains such as those found at La See also:Naulette (Belgium), Shipka (See also:Balkan See also:Peninsula), Olmo (See also:Italy), Predmert (Bohemia) and in See also:Argentina and See also:Brazil, make it possible to reconstruct anatomically the varying types of pleistocene man, and to establish the fact that in essential features the same See also:primitive type has persisted through all time. The See also:skeleton bones show differences so slight as to admit of pathological or other explanation. What See also:Professor Kollmann says of man to-day was true in the remotest ages. Referring to See also:Cuvier's statement that from a single See also:bone it is possible to determine the very species to which an See also:animal belongs, he says, " Precisely on this ground I have mainly concluded that the existence of several human species cannot be recognized, for we are unacquainted with a single tribe from a single bone of which we might with certainty determine to what species it belonged." Such differences as the bones exhibit are progressive modifications towards the higher See also:neolithic and See also:modern types, and are in themselves entirely incapable of supporting the theory that the owner of the Trinil skull, say, and the ` man of Spy " belonged to separate species. All these " osseous remains belong to the See also:palaeolithic period, and from the cranial indices it is thus clear that palaeolithic man was See also:long-headed. Neolithic man is, speaking generally, See also:round-headed, and it has been urged that round-headedness is entirely synchronous with the neolithic age, and that the long-headed palaeolithic species of mankind gave See also:place all at once to the round-headed neolithic species. The point thus raised involves the physiological as well as, indeed more than, the anatomical proofs of man's specific unity. 2. All physiologists agree that species cannot breed with species. See also:Darwin himself laid it down as a fundamental principle. If then the palaeolithic and neolithic types represented separate species, they would be found to remain distinct through all time. This is not the case. There is evidence that extreme dolichocephaly continued into neolithic times, and was only slowly modified into brachycephaly. In the neolithic caves of Italy, See also:Austria, Belgium, and the barrows of See also:Great See also:Britain, skulls of all types are found. The later See also:cave-dwellers and See also:early dolmen builders of See also:Europe were at first long-headed, then of See also:medium type, and finally in some places exclusively round-headed. In See also:England the round-heads appear to be synchronous with the See also:metal age, as shown by the contents of the barrows, and, as on the See also:continental mainland, the two types gradually blended. Permanent fertility between them in prehistoric Europe is thus proved. And this is the case throughout the habitable globe. An examination of the osseous remains of See also:American man supports the view that the human species has not varied since See also:quaternary times. The palaeolithic type is to be found among modern See also:European populations. Certain skulls from See also:South See also:Australia seem See also:cast in almost the same See also:mould as the Neanderthal. After thousands of years nearly pure descendants of quaternary man are found among living races. And man's mutual fertility in prehistoric is repeated throughout historic times: strict racial purity is almost unknown. Thus the unity of the species man is proved by the test of fertility. 3. The See also:works of early man everywhere present the most startling resemblance. The palaeolithic implements all over the globe are all of one See also:pattern. " The implements in distant lands," writes See also:Sir J.' See also:Evans, " are so identical in form and character with the British specimens that they might have been manufactured by the same hands. . . . On the See also:banks of the See also:Nile, many hundreds of feet above its present level, implements of the European types have been discovered; while in See also:Somaliland, in an See also:ancient See also:river-valley at a great See also:elevation above the See also:sea, Sir H.W. See also:Seton-See also:Karr has collected a large number of implements formed of See also:flint and See also:quartzite, which, judging from their form and character, might have been dug out of the See also:drift-deposits of the See also:Somme and the See also:Seine, the See also:Thames or the ancient See also:Solent." This identity in the earliest arts is repeated in the later stages of man's culture; his arts and crafts, his See also:manners and customs, exhibit a similarity so See also:close as to compel the presumption that all the races are but divisions of one family. But perhaps the greatest psychical See also:proof of man's specific unity is his See also:common See also:possession of language. See also:Theodore See also:Waitz writes: "Inasmuch as the possession of a language of See also:regular grammatical structure forms a fixed barrier between man and See also:brute, it establishes at the same time a near relationship between all See also:people in psychical respects. . . . In the presence of this common feature of the human mind, all other differences lose their import" (Anthropology, p. 273). As Dr J. C. See also:Prichard urged, " the same inward and See also:mental nature is to be recognized in all races of men. When we compare this fact with the observations, fully established, as to the specific instincts and separate psychical endowments of all the distinct tribes of sentient beings in the Universe we are entitled to draw confidently the conclusion that all human races are of one species and one family." It has been argued that stock See also:languages imply stock races, but this assumption is untenable. .There are some fifty irreducible stock languages in the See also:United States and See also:Canada, yet, taking into See also:consideration the physical and- moral homogeneity of the American See also:Indian races, he would be a reckless theorist who held that there were therefore fifty separate human species. If it were so, how have they descended? There are no anthropoid apes-in See also:America, none of the See also:ape family higher than the Cebidae, from which it is impossible to trace men. Again, in Australia there is certainly one stock language, yet there are not even Cebidae. In See also:Caucasia, there are many distinct forms of speech, yet all the peoples belong to the Caucasic division of mankind. Man, then, may be regarded as specifically one,. and thus he must have had an See also:original See also:cradle-See also:land, whence the peopling of the earth was brought about by See also:migration. The evidence tends to prove that the See also:world was peopled by a generalized protohuman form. Each division of mankind would thus have had its pleistocene ancestors, and would have become differentiated into races by the See also:influence of See also:climatic and other surroundings. As to the man's cradle-land there have been many theories, but the See also:weight of evidence is in favour of Indo-Malaysia. Of all animals man's range alone coincides with that of the habitable globe, and the real difficulty of the " cradle-land " theory See also:lay in explaining how the human race spread to every land. This problem has been met by See also:geology, which proves that the earth's See also:surface has undergone great changes since man's See also:appearance, and that continents, long since submerged, once existed, making a See also:complete land communication from Indo-Malaysia. The evidence for the Indo-See also:African See also:continent has been summed up by R. D. See also:Oldham,' and proofs no less cogent are available of the former existence of an Eurafrican continent, while the See also:extension of Australia in the direction of New See also:Guinea is more than probable. Thus the ancestor of man was See also:free to move in all directions over the eastern hemisphere. The western hemisphere was more than probably connected with Europe and See also:Asia, in See also:Tertiary times, by a continent, the existence of which is evidenced by a submarine See also:bank stretching from See also:Scotland through the Faeroes and See also:Iceland to See also:Greenland, and on the other See also:side by continuous land at what is now the Behring Straits.
See also:Acclimatization has been urged as an See also:argument against the cradle-land theory, but the peopling of the globe took place in inter-Glacial if not pre-Glacial ages, when the See also:climate was much milder everywhere, and thus pleistocene man met no climatic difficulties in his migrations.
Probably before the close of Palaeolithic times all the See also:primary divisions of man were specialized in their several habitats by the influence of their surroundings. The profound effect of climate is seen in the relative culture of races. Thus, tropical countries are inhabited by See also:savage or semi-savage peoples, while the higher races are confined to temperate zones. The primary divisions of mankind, Ethiopic, Mongolic, Caucasic, were certainly differentiated in neolithic times, and these criteria had almost certainly occurred not consecutively in one See also:area but simultaneously in several areas. A See also:Negro was not metamorphosed into a Mongol, nor the latter into a See also: These, however, are not the only analogies, for near the See also:coast of South See also:Africa there are developed a series of beds containing the plant fossils in the See also:lower part and marine shells in the upper, known as the See also:Uitenhage series, which corresponds exactly to the small patches of the See also:Rajmahal series along the See also:east coast of India. The few plant forms found in the lower beds of Africa are mostly identical with or closely allied to the Rajmahral species, while of the very few marine shells in the Indian outcrops, which are sufficiently well preserved for See also:identification, at least one species is identical with an African form. These very close relationships between the plants and animals of India and Africa at this remote period appear inexplicable unless there were See also:direct land communications between them over what is now the Indian Ocean. On the east coast of India in the Khasi Hills, and on the coast of South Africa, the marine fossils of See also:late See also:jurassic and early cretaceous age are largely identical with, or very closely allied to each other, showing that they must have been inhabitants of one and the same great sea. In western India the fossils of the same age belong to a See also:fauna which is found in the See also:north of See also:Madagascar, in See also:northern and eastern Africa, in western Asia, and ranges into Europe —a fauna differing so radically from that of the eastern exposures that only a few specimens of world-wide range are found in both. Seeing that the distances between the separate outcrops containing representatives of the two faunas are much less than those separating the outcrops from the nearest ones of the same fauna, the only possible explanation of the facts is that there was a continuous stretch of dry land connecting South Africa and India and separating two distinct marine zoological provinces." 85x discussion of the branches of these three See also:main divisions of Man the reader must refer to articles under race headings, and to NEGRO; See also:NEGRITOS; See also:MONGOLS; See also:MALAYS; See also:INDIANS, NORTH AMERICAN; AUSTRALIA; AFRICA; &C., &C. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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