Abstract
To those readers whose knowledge of ethnology or anthropology has been derived from a perusal of Prichard's “Natural History of Man,” or the compilations of Wood, Brown, Peschel, or Brace, the present work will present a surprising amount of freshness and originality. They will in fact find themselves introduced to a new and very captivating science. Instead of the disconnected, and often confusing accounts of the numerous races, families, and tribes into which mankind have been divided, with separate details of the appearance, manners, customs, houses, implements, weapons, and ornaments of each, the reader of the present work will be shown how mankind may be studied in a logical, connected, and far more interesting manner, by the method of comparison, and by tracing the growth or development of those faculties which more especially distinguish him from the lower animals. Everywhere he will find proofs of the essential unity of man; whether in the close similarity of the forms of the stone implements and weapons found in the most remote parts of the earth, and among the most varied races; in the identity of signs and gestures, and the striking resemblances even among the most diverse languages; or in the wonderful similarity and often identity, of habits, customs, ideas, beliefs, and religions among all savages, and the curious way in which traces of these can often be found in the very midst of modern civilised society.
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References
"Anthropology: an Introduction to the Study of Man and Civilisation", by Edward B. Tylor, D.C.L., F.R.S. With Illustrations. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1881.)
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WALLACE, A. Anthropology 1 . Nature 24, 242–245 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/024242a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/024242a0