Volume II Part 19 (1/2)

first rose to a flouris.h.i.+ng condition on the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean. The former area of the distribution of this species is expressed by the name of ”Indo-Atlantic” species, whereas at present it is spread over the whole earth, and is overcoming most of the other species in the struggle for existence. In bodily as well as in mental qualities, no other human species can equal the Mediterranean. This species alone (with the exception of the Mongolian) has had an actual history; it alone has attained to that degree of civilization which seems to raise man above the rest of nature.

The characteristics which distinguish the Mediterranean from the other species of the race are well known. The chief of the external features is the light colour of the skin, which however exhibits all shades, from pure white or reddish white, through yellow or yellowish brown to dark brown or even black brown. The growth of the hair is generally strong, the hair of the head more or less curly, the hair of the beard stronger than in any of the other species. The form of the skull shows a great development in breadth; medium heads predominate upon the whole, but long and short heads are also widely distributed. It is only in this one species of men that the body as a whole attains that symmetry in all parts, and that equal development, which we call the type of perfect human beauty. The languages of all the races of this species can by no means be traced to a single common primaeval language; we must at least a.s.sume four radically different primaeval languages. In accordance with this we must also a.s.sume within this one species four different races, which are only connected at their root. Two of these races, the Basques and Caucasians, now exist only as small remnants. The Basques, which in earlier times peopled the whole of Spain and the south of France, now inhabit but a narrow tract of land on the northern coast of Spain, on the Bay of Biscay. The remnant of the Caucasian race (the Daghestans, Tscherca.s.sians, Mingrelians, and Georgians) are now confined to the districts of Mount Caucasus. The language of the Caucasians as well as that of the Basques is entirely peculiar, and can be traced neither to the Semitic nor to the Indo-Germanic primaeval languages.

Even the languages of the two princ.i.p.al races of the Mediterranean species-the Semitic and Indo-Germanic-cannot be traced to a common origin, and consequently these two races must have separated at a very early period. Semites and Indo-Germani are descended from different ape-like men. The _Semitic_ race likewise separated at a very early period into two diverging branches, namely, into the _Egyptian_ and _Arabic_ branches. The _Egyptian_, or _African_ branch, the _Dyssemites_-which sometimes under the name of Hamites are entirely separated from the Semites-embraces the large group of Berbers, who occupy the whole of north Africa, and in earlier times also peopled the Canary Islands, and, finally, also the group of the Ethiopians, the Bedsha, Galla, Danakil, Somali, and other tribes which occupy all the north-eastern sh.o.r.es of Africa as far as the equator. The _Arabic_, or _Asiatic_ branch, that is, the _Eusemites_, also called Semites in a narrow sense, embrace the inhabitants of the large Arabian peninsula, the primaeval family of genuine Arabians (”primaeval type of the Semites”), and also the most highly developed Semitic groups, the Jews, or Hebrews, and the Aramaeans-the Syrians and Chaldaeans. A colony of the southern Arabs (the Himjarites), which crossed the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, has peopled Abyssinia.

Lastly, the Indo-Germanic race, which has far surpa.s.sed all the other races of men in mental development, separated at a very early period, like the Semitic, into two diverging branches, the _Ario-Romaic_ and the _Slavo-Germanic_ branches. Out of the former arose on the one hand the _Arians_ (Indians and Iranians), on the other the _Graeco-Roman_ (Greeks and Albanians, Italians and Kelts). Out of the Slavo-Germanic branch were developed on the one hand the _Slavonians_ (Russian, Bulgarian, Tchec, and Baltic tribes), on the other the _Germani_ (Scandinavians and Germans, Netherlanders and Anglo-Saxons). August Schleicher has explained, in a very clear genealogical form, how the further ramifications of the Indo-Germanic race may be accurately traced in detail on the basis of comparative philology.(6) (Compare p. 331.)

The total number of human individuals at present amounts to between 1,300 and 1,400 millions. In our Tabular Survey (p. 333) 1,350 millions has been a.s.sumed as the mean number. According to an approximate estimate, as far as such a thing is possible, 1,200 millions of these are straight-haired men, only about 150 millions woolly-haired. The most highly developed species, Mongols and Mediterranese, far surpa.s.s all the other human species in numbers of individuals, for each of them alone comprises about 550 millions. (Compare Friederich Muller's Ethnography, p. 30.) Of course the relative number of the twelve species fluctuates every year, and that too according to the law developed by Darwin, that in the struggle for life the more highly developed, the more favoured and larger groups of forms, possess the positive inclination and the certain tendency to spread more and more at the expense of the lower, more backward, and smaller groups. Thus the Mediterranean species, and within it the Indo-Germanic, have by means of the higher development of their brain surpa.s.sed all the other races and species in the struggle for life, and have already spread the net of their dominion over the whole globe. It is only the Mongolian species which can at all successfully, at least in certain respects, compete with the Mediterranean. Within the tropical regions, Negroes, Kaffres, and Nubians, as also the Malays and Dravidas, are in some measure protected against the encroachments of the Indo-Germanic tribes by their being better adapted for a hot climate; the case of the arctic tribes of the polar regions is similar. But the other races, which as it is are very much diminished in number, will sooner or later completely succ.u.mb in the struggle for existence to the superiority of the Mediterranean races. The American and Australian tribes are even now fast approaching their complete extinction, and the same may be said of the Papuans and Hottentots.

In now turning to the equally interesting and difficult question of the relative _connection_, _migration_, and _primaeval home_ of the twelve species of men, I must premise the remark that, in the present state of our anthropological knowledge, any answer to this question must be regarded only as a provisional hypothesis. This is much the same as with any genealogical hypothesis which we may form of the origin of kindred animal and vegetable species, on the basis of the ”Natural System.” But the necessary uncertainty of these special hypotheses of descent, in no way shakes the absolute certainty of the general theory of descent. Man, we may feel certain, is descended from Catarrhini, or narrow-nosed apes, whether we agree with the polyphylites, and suppose each human species, in its primaeval home, to have originated out of a special kind of ape; or whether, agreeing with the monophylites, we suppose that all the human species arose only by differentiation from a single species of primaeval man (h.o.m.o primigenius).

For many and weighty reasons we hold the monophyletic hypothesis to be the more correct, and we therefore a.s.sume a _single primaeval home_ for mankind, where he developed out of a long since extinct anthropoid species of ape. Of the five now existing continents, neither Australia, nor America, nor Europe can have been this primaeval home, or the so-called ”Paradise,” the ”cradle of the human race.” Most circ.u.mstances indicate southern Asia as the locality in question.

Besides southern Asia, the only other of the now existing continents which might be viewed in this light is Africa. But there are a number of circ.u.mstances (especially chorological facts) which suggest that the primaeval home of man was a continent now sunk below the surface of the Indian Ocean, which extended along the south of Asia, as it is at present (and probably in direct connection with it), towards the east, as far as further India and the Sunda Islands; towards the west, as far as Madagascar and the south-eastern sh.o.r.es of Africa. We have already mentioned that many facts in animal and vegetable geography render the former existence of such a south Indian continent very probable.

(Compare vol. i. p. 361.) Sclater has given this continent the name of Lemuria, from the Semi-apes which were characteristic of it. By a.s.suming this Lemuria to have been man's primaeval home, we greatly facilitate the explanation of the geographical distribution of the human species by migration. (Compare the Table of Migrations XV., and its explanation at the end.)

We as yet know of no fossil remains of the hypothetical primaeval man (h.o.m.o primigenius) who developed out of anthropoid apes during the tertiary period, either in Lemuria or in southern Asia, or possibly in Africa. But considering the extraordinary resemblance between the lowest woolly-haired men, and the highest man-like apes, which still exist at the present day, it requires but a slight stretch of the imagination to conceive an intermediate form connecting the two, and to see in it an approximate likeness to the supposed primaeval men, or ape-like men. The form of their skull was probably very long, with slanting teeth; their hair woolly; the colour of their skin dark, of a brownish tint. The hair covering the whole body was probably thicker than in any of the still living human species; their arms comparatively longer and stronger; their legs, on the other hand, knock-kneed, shorter and thinner, with entirely undeveloped calves; their walk but half erect.

This ape-like man very probably did not as yet possess an actual human language, that is, an articulate language of ideas. Human speech, as has already been remarked, most likely originated after the divergence of the primaeval species of men into different species. The number of primaeval languages is, however, considerably larger than the number of the species of men above discussed. For philologists have hitherto not been able to trace the four primaeval languages of the Mediterranean species, namely, the Basque, Caucasian, Semitic, and Indo-Germanic to a single primaeval language. As little can the different Negro languages be derived from a common primaeval language; hence both these species, Mediterranean and Negro, are certainly _polyglottonic_, that is, their respective languages originated after the divergence of the speechless primary species into several races had already taken place. Perhaps the Mongols, the Arctic and American tribes, are likewise polyglottonic. The Malayan species is, however, _monoglottonic_; all the Polynesian and Sundanesian dialects and languages can be derived from a common, long since extinct primaeval language, which is not related to any other language on earth. All the other human species, Nubians, Dravidas, Australians, Papuans, Hottentots, and Kaffres are likewise monoglottonic. (Compare p. 333.)

Out of speechless primaeval man, whom we consider as the common primary species of all the others, there developed in the first place-probably by natural selection-various species of men unknown to us, and now long since extinct, and who still remained at the stage of speechless ape-men (Alalus, or Pithecanthropus). Two of these species, a woolly-haired and a straight-haired, which were most strongly divergent, and consequently overpowered the others in the struggle for life, became the primary forms of the other remaining human species.

The main branch of woolly-haired men (Ulotrichi) at first spread only over the southern hemisphere, and then emigrated partly eastwards, partly westwards. Remnants of the eastern branch are the Papuans in New Guinea and Melanesia, who in earlier times were diffused much further west (in further India and Sundanesia), and it was not until a late period that they were driven eastwards by the Malays. The Hottentots are the but little changed remnants of the western branch; they immigrated to their present home from the north-east. It was perhaps during this migration that the two nearly related species of Caffres and Negroes branched off from them; but it may be that they owe their origin to a peculiar branch of ape-like men.

The second main branch of primaeval straight-haired men (Lissotrichi), which is more capable of development, has probably left a but little changed remnant of its common primary form-which migrated to the south-east-in the ape-like natives of Australia. Probably very closely related to these latter are the South Asiatic _primaeval Malays_, or _Promalays_, which name we have previously given to the extinct, hypothetical primary form of the other six human species. Out of this unknown common primary form there seem to have arisen three diverging branches, namely, the true Malays, the Mongols, and the Euplocomi; the first spread to the east, the second to the north, and the third westwards.

The primaeval home, or the ”Centre of Creation,” of the Malays must be looked for in the south-eastern part of the Asiatic continent, or possibly in the more extensive continent which existed at the time when further India was directly connected with the Sunda Archipelago and eastern Lemuria. From thence the Malays spread towards the south-east, over the Sunda Archipelago as far as Borneo, then wandered, driving the Papuans before them, eastwards towards the Samoa and Tonga Islands, and thence gradually diffused over the whole of the islands of the southern Pacific, to the Sandwich Islands in the north, the Mangareva in the east, and New Zealand in the south. A single branch of the Malayan tribe was driven far westwards and peopled Madagascar.

The second main branch of primaeval Malays, that is, the Mongols, at first also spread in Southern Asia, and, radiating to the east, north, and north-west, gradually peopled the greater part of the Asiatic continent. Of the four princ.i.p.al races of the Mongol species, the Indo-Chinese must perhaps be looked upon as the primary group, out of which at a later period the other Coreo-j.a.panese and Ural-Altaian races developed as diverging branches. The Mongols migrated in many ways from western Asia into Europe, where the species is still represented in northern Russia and Scandinavia by the Fins and Lapps, in Hungary by the kindred Magyars, and in Turkey by the Osmanlis.

PEDIGREE OF SEMITES

Amharites +Moors+ +Jews+ | Tigrites | Samaritans (Hebrews) | Harrarites | | | Phnicians | | | | | | | | | | | | Chaldeans | | -------v------/ | Syrians | ----v-----/ +Abyssinians+ | | | Canaanites Ekilians | | | | (+Palestinese+) | | | ---v---/ | | Himiarites | +Aramaeans+ | | | | | | | | | | | ---v---/ | | | +South+ +North+ ----------v------------/ +Arabians+ +Arabians+ +Primaeval Jews+ | | +North-Semites+ -------v-----------/ | +Arabians+ (+South Semites+) | | | | | ----------------------------------------v-----/ Guanchites +Eusemites+ (+Primaeval Semites+) Schuluhs | Algerians (Semites in a narrow sense) | | Tunese | ------------------------v---/ | | | | | | | | | Tripolitans | ---v---/ | | | | Moroccans ----v----/ | +Tuaric+ | | Cabyles | (+Imoscharh+) | | | | | | --------------v--------------/ | | +Berbers+ (+Amazirh+) | | Gallites | | | | Somalites | | | | | ------------v-------------/ | ---v---/ Bedschites +Libians+ Babylonians +Eusemites+ | | Egyptians | Primaeval | | | | (+Copts+) | Phnicians | a.s.syrians | ----v-----/ | | | | | | +Ethiopians+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------v----------/ -------v------/ | +Ancient Egyptians+ +Mesopotamians+ | | (extinct) | | | | | | | ------------v-----------------/ | +Hamites+ (+Dyssemites+) | | | ---------------v--------------/ +Semites+

PEDIGREE OF THE INDO-GERMANI

Ancient Prussians +Anglo-Saxons+ +High Germans+ Lithuanians| | Low Germans | | Letts | | | Netherlanders | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | -----v----/ | | ----v---/ | | | | Ancient Saxons | | | | | | -------v-/ | | | +Baltic Races+ ------v----/ | Sorbians, or | Saxons Friesians | Wends | | | | Poles | | | | | | | | ----v----/ | Czecs | | | +Low Germans+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | --v-----------/ | Scandinavians -----v------/ West Sclavonians | | Goths +Germans+ | Russians | | | | | South | | | | | | Sclavonians| | ----v----------------------/ | | | | +Primaeval Germans+ Ancient Britons | | | | | | | ---v---/ | | Ancient Scots | Gauls | South-eastern | | +Romans+ Irish | | | | Sclavonians | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --v-/ | | | | | --v-/ Brittanese | | | | | +Latins+ Gaels | ----v----/ | | | | | | +Sclavonians+ | | | | | | | | | --v--/ ----v-----/ | | | Italians +Kelts+ ------v------/ | | | +Sclavo-Letts+ | | | | | --------v---------/ | | +Italo-Kelts+ --v-----------------/ | +Sclavo-Germans+ +Albanese+ +Greeks+ | | | | | | | | | | ----v-----/ | | +Primaeval Thracians+ | | +Indians+ | | | | +Iranians+ -------v-------/ | | | +Graeco-Romans+ | ---v--/ | | +Arians+ | | | | | -----v----------/ | +Ario-Romans+ | | -------v-------/ +Indo-Germans+

On the other hand, a branch of the Mongols migrated from north-eastern Asia to America, which was probably in earlier times connected with the former continent by a broad isthmus. The Arctic tribes, or Polar men, the Hyperboreans of north-eastern Asia, and the Esquimaux of the extreme north of America, must probably be regarded as an offshoot of this branch, which became peculiarly degenerated by unfavourable conditions of existence. The princ.i.p.al portion of the Mongolian immigrants, however, migrated to the south, and gradually spread over the whole of America, first over the north, later over South America.

The third and most important main branch of primaeval Malays, the curly-haired races, or Euplocomi, have probably left in the Dravidas of Hindostan and Ceylon, that species of man which differs least from the common primary form of the Euplocomi. The princ.i.p.al portion of the latter, namely, the Mediterranean species, migrated from their primaeval home (Hindostan?) westwards, and peopled the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean, south-western Asia, north Africa, and Europe. The Nubians, in the north-east of Africa, must perhaps be regarded as an offshoot of the primaeval Semitic tribes, who migrated far across central Africa almost to the western sh.o.r.es. The various branches of the Indo-Germanic race have deviated furthest from the common primary form of ape-like men. During cla.s.sic antiquity and the middle ages, the Romanic branch (the Graeco-Italo-Keltic group), one of the two main branches of the Indo-Germanic species, outstripped all other branches in the career of civilization, but at present the same position is occupied by the Germanic. Its chief representatives are the English and Germans, who are in the present age laying the foundation for a new period of higher mental development, in the recognition and completion of the theory of descent. The recognition of the theory of development and the monistic philosophy based upon it, forms the best criterion for the degree of man's mental development.

SYSTEMATIC SURVEY OF THE TWELVE HUMAN SPECIES.

N.B.-Column A denotes the Average Number of the Population in millions. Column B shows the Degree of the Phyletic Development of the Species, thus Pr = Progressive Diffusion; Co = Comparative Stability; Re = Retrogression and Extinction. Column C denotes the Character of the Primaeval Language; Mn (Monoglottonic) signifies that the Species had one Simple Primaeval Language; Pl (Polyglottonic) a Compound Primaeval Language.

----------------------+--------------------+--------+-------+--------+----------------------------- _Tribe._ | _Human | A. | B. | C. | _Home._ | Species._ | | | | ----------------------+--------------------+--------+-------+--------+-----------------------------

TUFT-HAIRED { | | | +Lophocomi+ { 1. PAPUAN | 2 | Re | Mn { New Guinea and Melanesia, { | | | { Philippine Islands, Malacca (about 2 millions) { 2. HOTTENTOT | 1/20 | Re | Mn { The extreme south of Africa { | | | { (The Cape) | | | FLEECY-HAIRED { 3. KAFFRE | 20 | Pr | Mn { South Africa (between 30 { | | | { S. Lat. and 5 N. Lat.) +Eriocomi+ { 4. NEGRO | 130 | Pr | Pl { Central Africa (between the { | | | { Equator and 30 N. Lat.) (about 150 millions) { | | | | | | { 5. AUSTRALIAN | 1/12 | Re | Mn { Australia { 6. MALAY | 30 | Co | Mn { Malacca, Sundanesia, Polynesia, { | | | { and Madagascar STRAIGHT-HAIRED { | | | +Euthycomi+ { 7. MONGOL | 550 | Pr | Mn? { The greater part of Asia { | | | { and northern Europe (about 600 millions) { 8. ARCTIC | 1/25 | Co | Pl? { The extreme north-east of { MAN | | | { Asia and the extreme north { | | | { of America { 9. AMERICAN | 12 | Re | Mn? { The whole of America with { | | | { the exception of the extreme { | | | { north | | | { 10. DRAVIDAS | 34 | Co | Mn { South Asia (Hindostan and { | | | { Ceylon) { | | | { 11. NUBIAN | 10 | Co | Mn? { Central Africa (Nubia and { | | | { Fula-land) CURLY-HAIRED { | | | { In all parts of the world, { | | | { having migrated from South +Euplocomi+ { 12. MEDITERRANEAN | 550 | Pr | Pl { Asia to North Africa and { | | | { South Europe (about 600 millions) { | | | { | | | | | | { In all parts of the world, 13. HYBRIDS | 11 | Pr | Pl { but predominating in America OF THE | | | { and Asia SPECIES | | | --------------------+--------+ | TOTAL 1350