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Show PREFACE. vn and by him presented to the Archaeological Institute of America, March 1880, in a " Statement concerning the Objects of an Expedition to New Mexico and Arizona, and of one subsequently to Yucatan and Central America." In many other ways the author is indebted to Mr. Morgan as the pioneer investigator into the sociology of the North American Indians. The section on Kinship especially is a summary and condensation of a portion of his great work on " Consanguinity and Affinity," published by the Smithsonian Institute; but the schedule has been considerably enlarged, and diagrams have been devised with the hope of leading to more exhaustive research and more nearly accurate* records. The writer had prepared a section on the study of materials which was thought might be useful in a more advanced stage of linguistic study than that represented in the collection of the schedules. In this he had discussed, to some extent, methods of analyzing Indian languages; but his own work had been rather that of the pioneer, and in such advanced studies he had taken but little part; and the section as written was unsatisfactory. After it had gone into the printer's hands it occurred to the writer to consult again a paper written some years ago and read by Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull before the American Philological Association.* On reading the paper again it was thought best to cut out what had been written on this subject and to insert in lieu thereof a large portion of Mr. Trumbull's paper. The method of treatment here employed has one characteristic requiring mention. In its preparation, from time to time, illustrations from Indian languages have been more and more eliminated. To the general scholar perhaps this is a fault, but experience has fully demonstrated to the author that illustrations from unknown languages, presented to the working student in the field, serve rather to obscure than elucidate the subject in hand. Illustrations to be of " Value in such cases must come from materials familiar to the student. In incorporating Mr. Trumbull's paper, which was written for scholars rather than for students in the field, the writer did not consider himself authorized to modify in any manner what Mr. Trumbull had said. His matter appears, therefore, with all its wealth of example. * On the Best Method of Studying the North American Languages. By J. Hammond Trumbull. Traus. Am. Phil. Aaso., 1809- 70. Hartford: 1* 71, 8°. pp. T> 5- 79. |