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Show CHAPTER VI CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OP THE AMERICAN INDIANS ( 1500- 1900) THOUGH there is no universally accepted scheme of classification of the native races of America, their essential unity is always recognized. Viewed broadly, theirjracial relations are closer to V the Mongoloid type of man than to any other. But even essential unity allows wide variation in details, and Nature has seized her privilege in producing the existing confusion of Indian stocks. Anthropologists of to- day determine groups on one / of four sets of characteristics- physical, Jinguistic. v ^ geographical, and general culture. The first two criteria " are the more, exact, and the linguistic classification of North American tribes has been accepted as the most satisfactory for scientific study. The latter two criteria are the more convenient and sometimes the only feasible bases of classification. Hence, for the purposes of this volume, a combination of the geographical and cultural will be followed. Nevertheless, it must never be forgotten that the limits of physical, 88 \ |
