The Natural History of the Varieties of Man — John Shaqi
The Natural History of the Varieties of ManLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Science
The Natural History of the Varieties of Man
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Ethnology
But this is not all. In departing from one type, an individual, a
tribe, or a nation may approach another. This is the case when the
hair of the African becomes straight, his complexion brunette, and
his lips thin. It is also the case when a Mongol becomes light-haired
or blue-eyed. In each of these changes the effect is the same. The
original conformation has become Europeanized. Hence we have--
1st. _Simple sub-typical deviation._--This occurs in the Eskimo. His
face is broader than that of the Mongolian; but, as this increased
breadth merely makes him somewhat unlike the natives of Central Asia,
without approximating him to the African or European, the deviation is
_simple_.
2nd. _Deviation with Transition._--The Finlander has a Mongoliform
skull, but (very often) blue eyes and light hair; so that he agrees
with the European where he differs with the Kalmuk. This is deviation
and something more. It is deviation accompanied with the phenomenon of
a transition in form.
Transitions in form, however, are of two kinds--_a._ those in which
descent plays a part; _b._ those in which causes other than descent
play a part.
_a._ The light-haired Finlander is probably one of three things--
1. The descendant of Mongolians passing into Europeans.
2. The descendant of Europeans passing into Mongolians.
3. The descendant of the common stock from which the Europeans on one
side, and Mongolians on the other, originated. In all these cases his
differential characters are accounted for by the doctrine of _descent_.
_b._ Contrast, however, the case of an Australian Black. He has Mongol
characters and he has Negro characters; so that, looking to his _form_
only, he presents the phenomenon of transition; yet he is in none of
the predicaments of the Finlander, since few ethnologists believe that,
_in the way of descent_, he has any but the most indirect relationship
to the African.
Hence, _transitional forms_ are of two kinds, the first indicates
descent, affiliation, and historical connexion; the second, the effect
of common climatologic, alimentary, or social influences. This last
will be called _quasi-transitional_.
B. _Terms descriptive of differences in the way of language._--At the
present moment, there are three methods by which the relation between
the different words that constitute sentences is indicated:--1. The
method of which the Chinese is a sample; 2. The method of which the
Greek and Latin are samples; 3. The method of which the English is a
sample.
In the way of illustration, though not in the way of history, it is
best to take the second first.
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