Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/729

Rh ETHNOLOGY,] AMERICA 687 erican The American race is distinguished by the form of the n ami skull, which, except in its greater length, resembles the iplexion. Ji ou g i type. The cheek-bones are prominent, but not so angular, as in the Mongol head ; the occiput is rather flat, the cavity for lodging the cerebellum small, the orbits large and deep. The nose is generally aquiline, but in some tribes flat, and the nasal cavities are large. Compared with the head of the Negro, that of the American is broader, and the teeth are less prominent : when placed by the side of the Caucasian head, it is seen to be smaller in size, less rounded and symmetrical, and less developed in the part before the ear. The skull is generally thin and light. There are, however, many deviations from this typical form. The Carib skull and the Araucanian are large ; the Peru vian small, and singularly flattened behind, so as to present a short line from the forehead to the occiput. The colour of the Americans, though it includes a con siderable diversity of shade, is more uniform than that of the inhabitants of Asia or Africa ; and, what is more re markable, its varieties do not bear any visible relation to the temperature of the climate. A brownish yellow, or copper colour, as it has been called, pervades nearly all the nume rous tribes from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn, but still with many different degrees of intensity. The eastern na tions of Chili have but a slight tinge of the brown colour, and the Boroanes are still whiter. On the north-west coast, from latitude 43 to 60, there are tribes who, though embrowned with soot and mud, were found, when their skins were washed, to have the brilliant white and red which is the characteristic of the Caucasian race. But within the tropics, the Malapoques in Brazil, the Guaranis in Paraguay, the Guiacas of Guiana, the Scheries of La Plata, have tolerably fair complexions, sometimes united with blue eyes and auburn hair ; and, in the hot country watered by the Orinoco, Humboldt found tribes of a dark, and others of a light hue, living almost in juxtaposition. It is remarkable, too, that the nations whose colour approaches nearest to black are found in the tempe rate zone, namely, the Charruas of the Banda Oriental, in latitude 33 S., and the Cochimies, Pericus, and Guay- curus, spread over the peninsula of California. These people have skins of a very deep hue, but are not absolutely black ; and they have neither the woolly hair of the Negroes, nor their social and good-humoured disposition. The Charruas, especially, are distinguished by a high degree of that auste rity and stern fortitude which are common to the American nations. The Caribs and some Brazilian tribes have the yellowish hue of the Chinese, and the same cast of features. Among the nations dwelling on the west side of the Alle- ghanies, and near the northern lakes, there is also a con siderable variety of complexion ; but the brown or copper shade is found more or less in them all. It may be said, then, of the American nations, that, with the exception of two or three tribes on the north-west coast, who probably arrived from Asia at a later period than the others, the two extremes of complexion, the white of Northern Europe and the black of Ethiopia, are unknown amongst them; and that, when compared with the Moors, Abyssinians, and other swarthy nations of the Old World, their colour inclines less to the yellow, and more to the reddish brown. Long, black, lank hair is common to all the American tribes, among which no traces of the frizzled locks of the Polynesian,or the woolly texture of the African Negro have ever been observed. The beard is very deficient, and the little that nature gives them they assiduously root out. A copper-coloured skin has been also assumed by most writers as a characteristic distinction of the Americans; but their real colour is in general brown, of the hue most nearly resem bling that of cinnamon ; and Dr Morton coincides in opinion with Dr M Cxilloch, that no epithet derivable from the colour of the skin so correctly designates the Americans as that of the brown race. There are, however, among them occa sional and very remarkable deviations, including all the va rieties of tint from a decided white to an unequivocally black skin. That climate has a very subordinate influence in producing these different hues must be inferred from the fact that the tribes which wander in the equinoctial regions are not darker than the mountaineers of the temperate zone. The Puelches, and other tribes of the Magellanic regions, beyond 55 S. latitude, are darker than the Abipones, Mocobies, and Tobas, who are many degrees nearer the equator ; and the Botocudos are of a clear brown colour, sometimes approaching nearly to white, at no great distance from the tropic ; while the Guiacas under the line are cha racterised by a fair complexion; the Charruas, who are almost black, live at the 30th degree of S. latitude ; and the still blacker Calif ornians are 25 north of the equator. Every where, indeed, it is found that the colour of the American depends very little on the local situation which he actually occupies ; and never, in the same individual, are those parts of the body which are constantly covered of a fairer colour than those which are exposed to a hot and moist atmosphere. Children are never white when they are born, as is the case among even the darkest of the Caucasian races ; and the Indian caciques, who enjoy a considerable degree of luxury, and keep themselves constantly dressed, have all parts of their body, except the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, of the same brownish-red or copper colour. These differences of complexion are, however, extremely partial, forming mere exceptions to the general tint which charac terises all the Americans, from Cape Horn to Canada. The cause of such anomalies is not easily ascertained ; that it is not climate is sufficiently obvious ; but whether or not it arises from partial immigrations from other countries re mains yet to be decided. The Americans of indigenous races might also be divided into three great classes distinguished by the pur suits on which they depend for subsistence, namely, hunt ing, fishing, and agriculture. The greater number of them are devoted to hunting ; the fishing tribes are not numerous, and are wholly destitute of the spirit of maritime adven ture, and even of fondness for the sea. A few tribes were strictly agricultural before the arrival of Europeans, but a much greater number have become so since. Many tribes regularly resort to all these modes of subsistence, according to the seasons ; employing the spring in fishing, the summer in agriculture, and the autumn and winter in hunting. The intellectual facilities of this great family appear to be Intellect! decidedly inferior, when compared with those of the Cauca- faculties. sian or Mongolian race. The Americans are not only averse to the restraints of education, but are for the most part in capable of a continued process of reasoning on abstract sub jects. Their minds seize with avidity on simple truths, but reject whatever requires investigation and analysis. Their proximity for more than two centuries to European in stitutions has made scarcely any perceptible change in their mode of thinking or their manner of life ; and, as to their own social condition, they are probably in most respects exactly as they were at the earliest period of their national existence. They have made few or no improvements in constructing their houses or their boats ; their inventive and imitative faculties appear to be of very humble capacity, nor have they the smallest taste for the arts and sciences. One of the most remarkable of their intellectual defects is the great difficulty they find in comprehending the relations of numbers ; and Mr Schoolcraft, the United States Indian agent, assured Dr Morton that this deficiency was one cause of most of the misunderstanding in respect to treaties en tered into between the United States Government and the