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 NOTES AND NEWS 5^3

such that any suitable term acceptable to ethnologists may be expected to come into use with considerable rapidity. In this, as in other respects, the body of working specialists form the court of last appeal ; and it cannot be doubted that their decision will eventually be adopted by thinkers along other lines.

4. As the most active students of the native American tribes, it would seem to be incumbent on American ethnologists to propose a general designation for these tribes.

5. In view of these and other considerations, the name Amerind is commended to the consideration of American and foreign students of tribes and peoples. The term is an arbitrary compound of the lead- ing syllables of the frequently-used phrase " American Indian " ; it thus carries a connotive or associative element which will serve explicative and mnemonic function in early use, yet must tend to disappear as the name becomes denotive through habitual use.

6. The proposed term carries no implication of classific relation, raises no mooted question concerning the origin or distribution of races, and perpetuates no obsolete ideas ; so far as the facts and theories of ethnology are concerned, it is purely denotive.

7. The proposed term is sufficiently brief and euphonious for all practical purposes, not only in the English but in the prevailing languages of continental Europe ; and it may readily be pluralized in these languages, in accordance with their respective rules, without losing its distinctive sematic character. Moreover, it lends itself readily to adjectival termination in two forms (a desideratum in widely- used ethnologic terms, as experience has shown), viz. : Amerindian and Amerindic, and is susceptible, also, of adverbial termination, while it can readily be used in the requisite actional form, Amerindize, or in relational forms, such as post- Amerindian^ etc : the affixes being, of course, modifiable according to the rules of the different languages in which the term may be used.

8. The term is proposed as a designation for all of the aboriginal tribes of the American continent and adjacent islands, including the Eskimo.

The working ethnologists in the Society were practically unanimous in approving the term for tentative adoption, and for commendation to fellow students in this and other countries.

Amerindian Arrow Feathering — The archeologist is interested in the material and form of the arrowhead, since all other parts of arrows are made of the most perishable material, — sinew, feathers, and soft wood or reed. Among the parts of aboriginal tools which pass

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