The lost Atlantis, and other ethnographic studiesWilson, Daniel, Sir
History
The lost Atlantis, and other ethnographic studies
Wilson, Daniel, Sir
America -- Antiquities; Atlantis (Legendary place); Ethnology -- America; Indians of North America -- Antiquities
Yet, on the other hand, many anthropologists insist on the survival of
distinct types, even among approximate races, as shown in the remarkable
persistency of the Jewish type, notwithstanding the modifications that
have resulted from intermarriage with fair and dark races of many lands.
Dr. F. von Luschan, in describing the Tachtadschy,[148] calls attention
to the fact that the Greeks of Lycia represent a mixture of two distinct
types. From this he draws the following inference: “At first glance it
appears remarkable and hardly probable that two disparate types should
remain distinct, although intermarriage has continued without
interruption through thousands of years. But we must acknowledge that it
would be just as remarkable if continued intercrossing should result in
the production of a middle type (_Mischform_). It is true that at the
present time the greater number of anthropologists appear to be of the
opinion that middle forms originate wherever two distinct types live in
close contact for a long time. If this is true at all, it is true only
in a very limited sense, and still needs to be proven. _A priori_, we
rather ought to expect that one or the other of these types would soon
succumb in the struggle for existence. It would become extinct, and give
way to the other type; or both types might continue to co-exist,
although intercrossing might go on for centuries. They would undergo no
other changes than those which each singly, uninfluenced by the other,
would have undergone by the agency of physical causes.”
The evidence we possess of the physical characteristics of the
succession of races in Europe from palæolithic times is already
considerable; and in reference to neolithic and later periods is ample.
Within the recent historic period of the decline and fall of Rome, and
the influx of Northern and Asiatic barbarians, the evidence of admixture
of race is abundant; and the physical, intellectual, and moral changes
resulting therefrom have stamped their ineffaceable impress on history.
But the conditions under which the meeting of the Aryans with
Allophylians, Neolithians, or other prehistoric races took place in
older centuries, can only be surmised; and the many analogies resulting
from the intrusion of the European races on the aborigines of the
western hemisphere are calculated to render useful aid in determining
some definite results.
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