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ANTHROPOLOGY FOR THE PEOPLE.

CHAPTER I.

ANTHROPOLOGY.

ANTHROPOLOGY DEFINED.-DIFFERENCES AND CLASSIFICATION OF RACES.-DEFINITION OF SPECIES.-THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN

OF MAN.

NTHROPOLOGY treats of the origin and na

ANTHROPOLOGY of and nor

tural history of mankind. As the science of man, it is closely connected with ethnography, ethnology, zoology, biology, physiology, psychology, philology and sociology, all of which have man for their main subject, but are distinct sciences contributing to the general science of mankind. In this volume, intended for popular use, its limits will be confined, for the most part, to the origin and specific differences of the human races. These differences are such that the classification of the various types of humanity is as necessary as that of the different varieties of animals of the same genus. The numerous classifications made are based on color, hair and anatomical structure. That of Blumenbach, published A. D. 1781, has been most commonly accepted, and is sufficient for popular He reckons five distinct races, viz.: The

use.

Caucasian, white or European; the Mongolian, yellow or Asiatic; the American, red or Indian; the Malay, or brown; and, lastly, the Negro, or black, or African, including the Australian, although the latter is now generally regarded as separate and distinct from the African negro. A simpler classification is that of Cuvier, viz.: Caucasian, or white; Mongolian, or yellow; African, or black.

Professor Huxley divides the human race into four principal types, based on hair, color and form of skull, viz.: Leucous, white people with fair complexions and yellow or red hair; Leucomelanous, white, with dark hair and pale skins; Xanthomelanous, people with black hair and yellow, brown or olive skins; and Melanous, races with black hair and dark-brown or blackish skins. The first two types, composed of white people or Caucasians, he subdivides into Xanthochroi, or fair whites, like the people of Northern Europe, found also in Northern Africa and Western and Southwestern Asia as far as Hindostan; and the Melanochroi, or dark whites of Southern Europe, Arabs, and others of the Caucasian, or white races.

In Blumenbach's classification, the Eskimo, who are sometimes considered as Mongolians, are included in the American or Indian type. The Caucasian is so called from Caucasus, a chain of mountains extending from the Black Sea to the Caspian; but the term has no significance as designating that

locality as the cradle of the white races. It applies to all the Adamic, or Noachic races, Shemites, Hamites and Japhetites; in other words, all the white races. The term Aryan is applied only to the descendants of Japheth; it is a word of Sanskrit origin, meaning "of a good family," and designating the superior classes in India. Iranian, from Iran, the ancient name of Persia, is sometimes used as synonymous with Caucasian. Mongolians, or Turanians, and Malays are generally regarded as being of one stock, and embrace the Chinese, Japanese and other yellow races of Asia and the Eastern Archipelago. The term Ethiopian is frequently applied to all negroes; but in early history Ethiopia, or Æthiopia, designated a large part of Arabia and but a small portion of Africa, and, therefore, "Ethiopian" comprehends others besides negroes; it embraced some who were Caucasians. In Genesis ii. 13, it undoubtedly refers to a part of Asia. Arabia was the Ethiopia of the Greeks, and the latter name was seldom, if ever, applied to the regions of Africa occupied by negroes.

However marked the different species of men may have been originally, these differences have, in some cases, become modified by inter-mixture and other physical causes, such as climate and mode of life, so that it is more difficult to determine distinguishing characteristics; and hence the various and numerous classifications, from the two races of Virey to the sixty

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