Page:EB1911 - Volume 01.djvu/859

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ETHNOLOGY]
AMERICA
811

have changed residence have changed stature. The tallest statures are on the plains in both Americas. The mountains of the south-east and of the west reveal the shortest statures. The whole Mississippi valley was occupied by tall peoples. The Athapascans of New Mexico are of middle stature, the Pueblo peoples are short. The Shoshoni, Shahaptin and Salish tribes are of middle stature; on the coast of British Columbia, Puget Sound, in Oregon, and northern California, are the shortest of all the North Americans save the Eskimo, while among them, on the Columbia, are taller tribes. The comparison of cranial indexes is rendered difficult by intentional flattening of the occiput by the hard cradle-board. The Mississippi valley tribes are nearly brachycephalic; the index increases around the Great Lakes, and lessens farther east. The eastern Eskimo are dolichocephalic, the western are less so, and the Aleuts brachycephalic. On the North Pacific coast, and in spots down to the Rio Grande, are short heads, but scattered among these are long heads, frequent in southern California, but seen northward to Oregon, as well as in Sonora and some Rio Grande pueblos.

The same variety of index exists in South America. In the regions of greatest linguistic mixture is the greatest heterogeneity of cephalic index.

The concepts on which the peoples of the Old World have been classified, such as stature, colour, skeletal measurements, nationality, and so on, cannot as yet be used in America with success. The only basis of division practicable is language, which must be kept separate in the mind from the others. However, before the conquest, in no Classification.other part of the globe did language tally so nearly with kinship. Marriage was exogamic among clans in a tribe, but practically, though not wholly endogamic as between tribes, wife and slave capture being common in places. In his family tree of Homo Americanus Keane follows out such a plan, placing the chief linguistic family names on the main limbs, North American on one side, and South American on the other. Deniker groups mankind into twenty-nine races and sub-races. American are numbered thus:—21, South American sub-race; Palaeo-Americans and South Americans. 22, North American sub-race; tall, mesocephalic. 23, Central American race; short, brachycephalic. 24, Patagonian race; tall, brachycephalic. 25, Eskimo race; short, dolichocephalic.

Farrand speaks of physical, linguistic, geographic, and cultural criteria, the first two the more exact, the latter more convenient and sometimes the only feasible bases.

Zoologists divide the earth into biological areas or regions, so both archaeologists and ethnologists may find it convenient to have in mind some such scheme of provinces as the following, named partly after the dominant ethnic groups:—Eskimo, on Arctic shores; Déné (Tinneh), in north-western Canada; Algonquin-Iroquois, Canada Culture provinces.and eastern United States; Sioux, plains of the west; Muskhogee, Gulf States; Tlinkit-Haida, North Pacific coast; Salish-Chinook, Fraser-Columbia coasts and basins; Shoshoni, interior basin; California-Oregon, mixed tribes; Pueblo province, southwestern United States and northern Mexico; Nahuatla-Maya, southern Mexico and Central America; Chibcha-Kechua, the Cordilleras of South America; Carib-Arawak, about Caribbean Sea; Tupi-Guarani, Amazon drainage; Araucanian, Pampas; Patagonian, peninsula; Fuegian, Magellan Strait. It is necessary to use geographical terms in the case of California and the North Pacific, the Caucasus or cloaca gentium of the western hemisphere, where were pocketed forty out of one hundred or more families of native tribes. The same is true in a limited sense of Matto Grosso. That these areas had deep significance for the native races is shown by the results, both in biology and culture. The presence or absence of useful minerals, plants and animals rendered some congenial, others unfriendly; some areas were the patrons of virile occupations, others of feminine pursuits.

Among the languages of America great differences exist in the sounds used. A collection of all the phonetic elements exhausts the standard alphabets and calls for new letters. A comparison of one family with another shows also that some are vocalic and soft, others wide in the range of sounds, while a third set are harsh and guttural, the speaking of them (according to Payne) Language.resembling coughing, barking and sneezing. Powell also thinks that man lived in America before he acquired articulate speech. The utterance of these speech elements in definite order constitutes the roots and sentences of the various tongues. From the manner of assemblage, all American languages are agglutinative, or holophrastic, but they should not be called polysynthetic or incorporative or inflexional. They were more or less on the way to such organized forms, in which the world’s literatures are preserved. As in all other languages, so in those of aboriginal America, the sentence is the unit. Words and phrases are the organic parts of the sentence, on which, therefore, the languages are classified. It is on this basis of sentential elements that Powell has arranged the linguistic families of North America. He has brought together, in the Bureau of American Ethnology in Washington, many hundreds of manuscripts, written by travellers, traders, missionaries, and scholars; and, better still, in response to circulars, carefully prepared vocabularies, texts and long native stories have been written out by trained collectors. A corps of specialists—Boas, Dall, Dorsey, Gatschet, Hewitt, Mooney, Pilling, J. R. Swanton—have studied many of these languages analytically and comparatively. Other institutional investigations have been prosecuted, the result of all which will be an intelligent comprehension of the philology of a primitive race.

Attention is frequently called to the large number of linguistic families in America, nearly 100 having been named, embracing over 1000 languages and dialects. A few of them, however, occupied the greater part of lands both north and south of Panama; the others were encysted in the territory of the prevailing families, or concealed in culs-de-sac Linguistic families.of the mountains. They are, through poverty of material, unclassed languages, merely outstanding phenomena. Factions separated from the parent body developed dialects or languages by contact, intermarriage and incorporation with foreign tribes. To the old-time belief that languages multiplied by splitting and colonizing, must be added the theory that languages were formerly more numerous, and that those of the Americans were formed by combining.

The families of North America, Middle America and South America are here given in alphabetical order, the prevailing ones in small capitals:—

Algonquin, E. Can., N. Atlantic States, middle States, middle western States; Athapascan, N.W. Can., Alaska, Wash., Or., Cal., Ariz., Mex.; Attacapan, La.; Beothukan, Nova Scotia; Caddoan, Tex., Neb., Dak.; Chimakuan, Wash.; Chimarikan, N. Cal.; Chimmesyan, Brit. Col.; Chinookan, Or.; Chitimachan, La.; Chumashan, S. Cal,; Coahuiltecan, Tex.; Copehan, N. Cal.; Costanoan, Cal.; Eskimauan, Arctic North America.province; Esselenian, Cal.; Iroquoian, N.Y., N.C.; Kalapooian, Or.; Karankawan, Tex.; Keresan, N. Mex.; Kiowan, Neb.; Kitunahan, Brit. Col.; Koluscan, S. Alaska; Kulanapan, Cal.; Kusan, Cal.; Lutuamian, Or.; Mariposan, Cal.; Moquelumnan, Cal.; Muskhogean, Gulf States; Natchesan, Miss.; Palaihnihan, Cal.; Piman, Ariz.; Pujunan, Cal.; Quoratean, Or.; Salinan, Cal.; Salishan, Brit. Col.; Sastean, Or.; Shahaptian, Or.; Shoshonean, Interior Basin; Siouan, Mo. Valley; Skittagetan, Brit. Col.; Takilman, Or.; Tanyoan, Mex.; Timuquanan, Fla.; Tonikan, Miss.; Tonkawan, Tex.; Uchean, Ga.; Waiilatpuan, Or.; Wakashan, Vancouver I.; Washoan, Nev.; Weitspekan, Or.; Wishoskan, Cal.; Yakonan, Or.; Yanan, Or.; Yukian, Cal.; Yuman, L. Cal.; Zunyan, N. Mex.

Chapanecan, Chi.; Chinantecan, Oax.; Chontalan, S. Mex.; Huatusan, Nic.; Huavean, Tehuant.; Lencan, Hon.; Mayan, Yuc. and Guat.; Nahuatlan, Mex.; Otomitlan, Cen. Mex.; Raman, Hond.; Serian, Tiburon I.; Subtiaban, Nic.; Tarascan, Mich.; Tehuantepecan, Isthmus; Tequistlatecan, Oax.; Totonacan, Mex.; Triquian, Middle America.S. Mex.; Ulvan, Nic.; Xicaquean, Hond.; Zapotecan, Oax.; Zoquean, Tehuant.

Alikulufan, T. del Fuego; Arauan, R. Purus; Arawakian, E. Andes; Atacamenyan, S. Peru; Araucanian, Pampas; Aymaran, Peru; Barbacoan, Colombia; Betoyan, Bogota; Canichanan, Bolivia; Carahan, S. Brazil; Caribian, around Caribbean Sea; Catamarenyan, Chaco; Changuinan, Panama; Charruan, Paraná R.; Chibchan, Colombia; South America.Churoyan, Orinoco R.; Coconucan, Colombia; Cunan, Panama; Guaycuruan,