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Show GH DISTINC'l'JONS OBSJ<~HVABLE AMONG directions of tho divers pr~rt.s of tho hcnd, which it would bo so impot·ttmt to lwow well in ordor to !letormino tho dilforenocs that exist between humnn apocios, O!lnnot bo thoroughly indicntcd except in portmilH dono exactly in profile; in tho same manner that tho exo.ct proportions of width cannot bo properly given SlLVO through por·tmits in full front view i and this is pr·ooisoly that which one docs not find but very exceptionally in othnogmphio works, in which hon.ds arc generally ropr·csontcd o.t three-quarter view; with tho intention of mnking kuown nt one 1111tl tho samo time tho proportions of all parts, whereas through such 11rrangemcnt they so. tiHfy nothing; tho throo-qtmrtors not permitting any proportion to be exactly caught, every l'onturo becoming foroshortonod to tho beholder." With full consciousness of these requirements, I had hoped that, throu o-b the multitn<le of worl{s consulted, some kind of uniformity, as r gards front and profile views of the same beau, might havo been achieved for a certain number of races. Here again disappointment was the issue . .Aside fl'Om Dumoutict·'s Antlt?·opologie whceein chiefly Oceanic busts arc thus figured, thcee arc not a dozen instances 593 wh rc pains have been tfLkeu to supply this radical necessity in ethnology. There arc not, out of these, moro than half the number colored,· nor, finally, as illustrative of the poverty of cthnogeaphical resoUI'ccs, out of a collection of some 400 heads of rae s procured, was it possible, on rcdncillg the number even to 54 specimens, to avoid includinoo som faces (such as Nos. 11, 13, 20, 30, 34, &c.) drawn at three-quarters, under the penalty of either a blank in tho series or of fillino- the place with a 1 ss cl1Macteri tic sample. And yet, with an intrepidity whi •h ignorance of these simple facts may explain, but can novct· justify, whole volumes have been wriLtcn to provo" the unity of the bumau species,"-whon science docs not possess half tho requisite materials for ethnogrnphic comparisons, and at the very <lay that tho best naturalists will frankly and honestly tell you how, tlte historical evidences (only scientific cl'itcria) of pe1·manency of type being excluded, they feel rather uncertain where "species" is to be found in any department of zoology. Polygcni. m no less than monoo-cnism, as r gards humanity's origination, depends, therefore, like all similar zoological questions, upon history-itself a science essentially human. 'J'hc whole controversy concerning the nnity or the diversity of mankind's" species" is conscquclltly bounded by a circle, of which, after all, human history can but vagu ly inqicatc the circumference; and the only ullimatc result obtain d from tbo analysis of such arguments resolves itself, as in all circnhw a1·guments, into a question of p1·obabilities. The brothers Humboldt (ubi supra) reject, as ante-historical, all myths, fiction, and t?·ad·ition, that pretend to explain the origin of maul incl. Perfectly coin iding with those 693 My portfolio cmhri\Oes them all, I believe, from the publications of Cuvior, P6ron, D'Or·bigny, D'Avezao, De Middendorf, Siebold, and two or throe others. VARIOUS GllOUPS OF llUMANITY. G15 lu:Uit:arics of our XIXth century in such repudiation of the onl crt~cr~on of "sp~cics" which real .M11tory is powerless to cluciuat ~ bcltcf and unbci.LCf, as to polygcmsm or moHogcnism, scorn to me equally spcculatlVe, equally abortive, in a matter utterly b yond the res arch of human Mstory,-as this term is uudcrstood clurinoo the present solar revolution, ecclesiastically styled A. D. 1857. b I roughly estimate the amount of iconographic stock, availal1lo to ethnoloooy and contained in published works, at about 600 po1-tmits. Of ~hose uot more tlm1~ half arc colored, many of them not reliably; wh1lst a large proporL10n of those uncolored arc more or less c1c£cctivc. In this estimate, European nations of the three types -Teutonic c.clti . and · clavonic-arc of course cxclud cl; b cause biograpliieal: h1st rtcal and ~thor publications, aside from portrait-galleries, furnish abun lance to Illustrate these the most civil ized rnccs of the " ·ol'ld. Some American, portions of African, perhaps all the Australian, the grc.atcr n~unbcr of Polynesian, certain Malayan, Indo- Cllincsc, Chtncso! Japanese, &c., arc well represented; but vast iconogmphic blaHks lll the varied nationalities of Asia and Africa sti ll remain among (( tcrrro i ncogni tro," ethnologically sp aki ng far more than even geographically. For insta.ncc, where has there been publi!:illcd a rcliabl colored portrait of a Yulcagtr? where that of a true Be1·ber ?50 I ?cntml Ar~bian tribes have no authentic repro cntative, save in the ltkcncss of Abd-AllalL ebn Souhood, tbc Wa.h'abcc ;"05 and so on of whole na.tions in othct· regions. Ind eel, by way of testing the accumcy of th1s statement, let the r adcr ~akc the tlti1·d colnm n of our "Tableau," wlt rein an attempt has been made, chkAy through descriptions, to geoup mankind physiologically. Sixty-five distinguishable i~Lmilics, out of p rhaps hundreds unmentioned, arc there enumerated. L t him only try to find for each of these a 1·eliable colored po1·trait, suitable to ethnology (IIam.ilton Smith, Prichard and Latham, inclusive), -his first difliculty will be to settle the diil:'cl·cncc iconographically between a "J.,app" and a "Finn." I have failed in my cftorts to obtain one of the former; of the latter (No. 7) I am by no means ecrtai n. 500 According to modern statisticians, the population of the world is calculated to oxcccd1200 millions. About 600, more or less available, etlmologi ·al portraits arc the limit of my estimate of public icono- 6o• 1'hoAo (~tbout 40, I think) procnrod by tho Exploratio11 8ciwtifique m Algtrie 1u·o incditcd. Very bcantif'ul they nrc, in the Pnrisian 01tlcric A nthropologiquo. It will bo noted that I n~o tho terms "reliable colored ]JOr/rail8" ncccssiblo through publications. 1'ho treasures conto.incd in private portfolios ilo not, of course, on tor into this category, being inacoos&ihlo 696 1\fr.:NOIN, Op. cit. (supm, note 676). 600 Soc what Dr. Meigs says (Chap. III, pp. 267-70, a11te). |
