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The Originof Language'and Societyames Burnet(Lord Monboddo)In the preceding book, we have placed mall in a state of society and ofpolit ieal union, can'ying on of common consent, and with joint laoour,. ~ o m c work uecessary for defence, or tIl(' support of life. In this situation,an d this only, could language have been i n v e n U ' ~ d . But mOre was necC's-sary for the uwention of so difficult all art. And, in the first place, UJCpropel' organs of pronunciation were indispensably required. These aregiven t( l some few animals besides man; bu t I believe tLev are in Done soperfect. .

2d1U, They must have been a very long time in this political state; solong at least as to have i m p r o v ~ d illtO an art the busirHO'SS they WNE'carrying On ; by whieh I do not rneau to require. that they should havebeen regular artists, knOWing the causes aile! principles of tbeir art. ami

perating by certain rules which they coold d e l J l o n ~ t r a t c , ~ from thoseprinCiples; but my meaning is. tlwt tbey nlLlst have improved their rudeJractice at first into a Letter practice h ~ , ' observation and experiellce; and,n that way, have fixed a certain method oJ c10ing the thing, which, whent is done by degrees, cUld fm m observation and experiellce, m a ~ ' notmproperly be called an art. For, as T have' alJ"E'adv observed, one of thee


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lutel)' ncc;:essary for l h purposes of politica1liIe; bUI that there are othermethods, as we have seen, which in great part answer those purpose5,and with which. a c < X ~ r d i l 1 g l ) " : other animals that live In the politicnl state,as wdl as man, r ~ l l l i l l n r d ~ a l 1 s f i e d . Of these other methods we arc 1I0W tospeak more partlculllrly: II I or.d('r to tr), whelh!'r from these we very diffcrCllt from what sll(' llsed in communicationwith ~ l t ' r f('lIows 2 ; and some of them, M it is well known. may be taughtto artl('ulllt(" But it Is C'vidcllt. that allthb variet), of crit"s, though it weremuch ~ n ..ter than it rl'

There can be no doubt but that. bMore the invcntion of language.this kind of cxpression, as w('11 as the other by inarticulate cries, would bemuch used. That savage notion which Diadoms Siculus, In the passage I(looted before, calls the Insensll,leJ. conversed in no other way; and th,esavages in North America do at this dll)' S U P p ~ ) ' the d ~ ~ t ~ of t ~ e l r language by a great d!'a! of action and gesticulallon, Bul 11 IS l 1 n p o s ~ l h l e to s l l p p o ~ e , that this art of speaking to UI(' t'ycs could be brought to suchperfection among savages as it was by Roscius ~ R ~ m e , or by ~ h pantomimes In after times, who danced whole t l ~ e a t n c n l P H ~ C e s . accordingto the expression in ancient langung!'; that IS, represented tbem bygestures and movements perfonned to music, without onc word beingu t t c r c d , ~ Even In Greece, where all the other a of plen.sure and entertainment were cultivated. nnd brought to the hIghest d e ~ c c of perfcelion, the art of the pantomime was not carried so fnr as II I R ~ m e , Foralthough thcir players did no doubt,cxpress a grenl d('lll by t l l e ~ r ,action,particularly in the moVt'lIlcnls of tJ1Clr choruses, and their monodIes, therewas no such thing, SO rar 11$ I caD leam. practised a m o n ~ them as dandnga whole pll'C(', or evcn acting a single m o ~ y , without, s p e a , k i ~ g ; atlenst not in the better days of Greece. For III the later hmes It IS notimprobable that they may have a d o p t ~ the pantomim,cs or the R o ~ a n s : and Lucian appears to mc to speak of It R.


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156 Voyagers and Philosophers fLawsgreat length; no farther than to denote sounds, or objects which weredistinguished hy pnrticular sounds, such as beasts and binls of c1iffl'rentkinds.As to thu last method T meutioncd, /JOillting, or (1cliueating an)'object by draWing the figure of it, it lllay have been used before theinveution of language; bu t it could go no farther Lban to C'OJlulll.lllicate thenotion of visible objccts; and, besides, it is of slow and difficult practice.and not at all of so ready usc as language.

Of these four ways of cotlllllunication, it is plain. that only two haveany connection with language. viz. inarticulate cries and imitat ive so unds,which arC' both modifications of the human voice, as well as language,and could alone lead the way to the invention of language. And we arenow to inqllire, whethel', fronl one or othcr, or 1>oth of thesc, that invention ealt be traced.

Notes1 History of KamsctJatkll, p. 128.:! See hefore, hook I. p. 1."lG.a See Lucian, ".Ipl o p x w ~ . w r . I Ildorc tbe [lomans bad pantomime:;, tI,eir adors, such as R o s c i u ~ , played cer-tain parts in dumb show. Those part' were tile monodies, or wnt/ca, as the Lalins call

them. which were ~ o l i l ( > q u J e ; ; sJloken in reeitatioo to music. III such p a r t ~ (If the pIa;'the actor among the nOlllanS only W'slicubtecl, and exprt'ssed lhe SenSe hy his fIction,that is, dfH\Ccd, as thev e a l l ~ d it. while another sung. or 1'1'01l0\111Ced the words t"mnsic: so that it was only in the dlwrbirlm or dialogue that the Homan actor u,cd his\oice. Ho w thiS strange cuslom of diViding the acting llnd spl'aking, ~ I l ( ' h os ne"!?r waspractised in an)' othl'r nation, su far I as know. ('"me In he introduced a 1 l 1 0 n ~ thl'nomans, Livy has info1'lllf'd us, !tb. 7. p. 2.

r. T h,lVl' oftclJ wondered, that llonlce, in his epistle to Augll.'illlS, w l t ~ ] ' ( ' Itflatters lhat prince ~ ml1('b as to eOtl1pare t.hf' nrt, of ROrlw in his time to the ~ l r t s ofGrecl'e, in lhesp lines,

Vellimlls adsllmmunl jor/wllI'; pillginlwI, IltouePsallimus, et luc/omur ,.\chit;i8 clo(:til'S U/lclis

does 1I0t mention thiS pantomime art. which I hdiev(' wa, the only Dll t : jlJ whicb tIl


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- Instructionsfor Philologyeorge GibbsTn vie\v of the importance of a uniform system in collecting words of thevarious Indian languages of North America, adapted to the use of officersof the government, travcllcrs. and others, the follO\ving is recommendedas a STA_I\TIM.RD VOCAIHJLARY. It is mainly the Ollt:: pl"eparecl by tIle la t..HOll. Albert Galbtiu, with a few cllitng


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182 Prolessionalization 01 Anthropologyand sister, hut women usc different words from men iu addreSsing theirrelations; as, for instance, a ma n emplo:,s one word in saying "my father,"and a womnn another. Again, different words are, at least in some languages, used in speaking of ClUe's parents from those used in speakwg tothenl. It is, therefore, necessary eith('r to give eadl form, or to specify bywhat sex and in what SeJlse the words axe used. Further to preventuncerlainty, it is prefemble to cnploy the possessive pronoun iJl connceha n with the word, as given in the vocabulary, e.g., "my father," &c:.; andthis is, in fact, in cousonance with India n practice,

Their languages are dencient in generic terms, or those representingclasses of objects. Thus very few possess words equ iva1ellt to "tree,""bird," "fish," &c., though names will be found for every particularspecies, as each kind of oak and pine, of cluck or salmon; and of certainanimals. such as deer, ! here will ue fonnd, besides the specific name,black or white-tailed deer, as the case may be, separate words signHyingblick, doe, and fawn, as with us. 1t lS, therefore, essent ial in outainingsuch names. to ascertain definitively the ohject intended, and to note thisin the vocabulary.

11Us tendency to particularize extends to almost every class ofobjects. In regard to parts of the body, it bas been found that in manylanguages there is no onc woro for arm or leg, bu t separate ones for theupper ann, rr.nd that below the elbow; for the thigh. and that part belowthe knee. Even of the hands and feet there aJ'e often no names embracingtLe whole. So, too, the words "leaf," "bark," arc represent'l,d hy cli.stinctnames, according to their character, as broad and neecUe-shaped leaves,the woody and fibrous barks. Sheath and pocket knives and the variousforms of canoes have in like manner each their speci.fic names,

In respect to particular "vords, the following points may be noted:Man. This must be carefully distiJlguisbed from the word "person," thcollective of which is "people." i. e., Indians.Boy, Girl, Infant. Th e answer often given for these is ~ j m p l y '1ittJe mall,""little woman," "little one."[ - h l . ~ ' / ; a l l d and wife. Distinct words exist IT] mOst languages for theserelationships; in olhers, it would seem as if thf'1'(' was only "my man," " m ~ ' woman."Indians, l!eople. Care must he taken that the name of the tril.>e is notgiven unless reall)' so deSignated.Head. A vcry common mistake to be guarded agaiJ1st is the substitutionof hair or sculp.Face. 11le name for the forebead or e . v e ~ is, il l some cases, employed forthe whole face.Neck. TIlroat is ap t to be given instead of neck.

George Gibbs 183In naming parts of the hody, as \,,'el1 as relationsllip, it will be fonnel

a \'ery common practice wit h Indians to prefiX the prououll "my" ('0 eachOllf', as "my head." &e. TIle recurrence of the same syllabic at the beginnintr of each word will indicate this.t>Tenon, uil/age. Cf'ncr:ll1:-' speaking, the same word is given as for house.or it is rcunered "mallY houses." In New Mexico, pueblo would have adiHel'Cnt lI1ea ning from the habitations of the wild tribes.\VarriOl'. Among the tTihes of the Paci.c coast, where there is no distinctive e!ass of wClrriors, this is frecluently rendered "strong man," "quarrelsome," &c:.Friend i.s a word of ve q indefinite meaning. Instead of it, "collsin," or"one liked:' will often be ~ i v e n . Sun and moon, Curionsl), enough. these, among several tribes, bear thesamn name and aTe actually supposcrl to be ttl(' s;.lme. Others use forInOOli "nigbt sun."The Seasons. Th(',5e words have been retained, though it is qnestionahle if they ll


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a mass

the circumstance of having portionsportionsrevision

the completeness of the narrative.After

Samuel HavenProfessionalization of Anthropology84

their numerals have different terminations, one class being used in ordi-nary counting, the other applying to men, money, &c.Pronou/ls. The personal pronouns m'e of two classes, one simple orabsolute, the other variousl), called fragmentary and copulative. 111eselast arc used only in composit ion, as in the form of prefixes and suffixes tothe verbs.Verbs. It is a matter of dispute whether the Indian verb has any trueinfinitive mood, as "to go:' "to eat," &c .. and its simplest form appears tobe. in all cases, the third person singnlar present. "he goes," "he eats." Itwill be better, thereforE'. to ohtain either this form or that of th e firstperson, "I go," &c. The last will be found often to he combiued with thecopulativ e pronoulJ.

The Originof the Mound Builders

In the preceding pages we have endeavored t o select and condenseof miscellaneous notes, such materials as would illustmviewS entertained at different periods, and by various writers, upa

jeets relatin g to the archaeology of the United States.This has been done lmeIer whatever c.lisadvantages arc ineicof thE: text printed lJeforc

were written. Had opportunity and leisure been a : f f o r ~of the entire paper, dmnges and additions might ha ..made that would have been likely to improve the consistency asa consideration of statements and speculations t l l ~

failed to present a harmonious result, the milld naturallv craves t faction of heiug able to distinguish acknowledged verities frorn d are problematical, jf it is ouly for the sake of somc solid hasis on \ build new theories. or some fixed point from which future investmay take their departure. The reader will doubtless expect to bein an effort to separate matters of fact frorn inferences and hypot11u recapitulation of the principal points that have been with recertainty established.. .We shall endeavor. while glancing rapidly along the c ll1qU1ry, to ascertain in what direction, and to what extent, thetolerabl>' clear anc! the path tolerably finn.

The comparative geological antiquity of the tWlJ hemisa ~ < : o l l l l t e d by some an clem


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I appear before you lllis cveniug to enter a plea for one of th e mostneglected branches of learning, fm a study Ilsually considered hopelesslydry and ll11productive-thflt of ATnt::rican aboriginal languages, 1

It migLt be thought that Sllch a topic. in America and amongAmeric of longitude. vVe alsoknow that the general trend of migration in tIle northern continent ha sbC'C1l frorn ltorl'11 to south, and that this is tnJ


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209208 Proiessiona/izatlon 01 AnthropologyBut such external information is ouly a small part- of what they are

capable of clisdosiXJg. \Ve CHlJ turn them, like the reflector of a microsl:ope, on th e secrcl and JdeklCll m)'stt:ri_es of th e aboriginal man, andcliscovcr his inmost motives, his impulses, his concealed bopes anel fears,those that gave rise to his customs and laws, his schemes of social life, hissnperstitions and his religions,

Personal names, family names, titles; forms of s alutat ion, methodsof addJess, terms of endearment, respect. and reproach, words expressingthe emotions, these an,' what infallibly reveal the daily socia] family life ofa community, and the way in which its members regard one unot}wl'.They are precisely as correct when applied to the investigation of th eAmerican race as elsewhere, and tbC'y are the more valuable just there,beGaw;t' his deep-seatcd distrllst of the white invaders-for which, let usacknowledge, he had abuudant cause-led the Indian to practice COllcealment and cqllh'ocatioll on these personal topics.

III 110 other wa:-' can the history of the developme11t of his arts bereached. You are doubtless a\vare that diligent students of th e Ary,ullanguages have succeeded in faithfu]]), depicting the refore lTIusthave been in use among the primeval horc1e from which they are alldescended. 1'1)(' method is conclusive, ;:Iud yields positive results. There isno reason why il should not he addressed to Anu:'rican languages. and wemay be slll"e that it v.:ould be most frujtful. Ho w \'alnahle it would be totake even a few woros, as maize, tobacco. pipe. bow. arrr)w, and the like.each representing a widespread art or cllstom, and b.ace their derivationsand affinities through the Innguages of th e whole continent! 'We may hesure thal stTiking anclllllexpected results would be obtained,

These languages also oiler an entertaining iield to the ps)-chologist.Ou account of their transp


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211210 Professionalization of Anthropology

:;0 that vvhile Thomas Campallius, wllO translatl'd the Catechism intoDelaware auout 164.5, 'wrote thaL worel rhcnnus, later writers have givenit li:mno, and translate it "Ulan," TJlis is the \vold whieh we Hllll in thenarne Lenui Lenape, whicb, by its derivation, means '\'1'E', we men." T l l ( ~ antecedent lellni is superfluous. The proper name of th e Vela\vare nationwas an d st-i11 is Len clpe, "we mon," or "our meD," and those critics whohave maintaineJ that this was a misnomer, introJuced by tvh. Heeke\',lelder, have bt."e1J mistaken in their facts."

1 have not done witb tb e root nC. J might go 011 and show yOll howit is at the base of the demonstrative pronouns, this, that, those, in Debware,; how it is the radical of the words for thinking, reflecting, alldmeditating; how it also gives rise to words expressillg sirnilaIity andirlc'ltity; ho w it means to be forenlO,t, tu slalJd ahead of others; auduliallv, hO\',' it signiIips to cOllie to me, to unify or congregate together.But cioubl'lcss I have trespassed on yo m eo'!rs 1 0 0 ~ g ~ l l O U g ~ ; with l l l i f ~ r n i l i a r words.

Such suggestions as these \",,'ill give you some idea of the v;:Llllf' ofAmerican languages to Amer.icall ethnology. Bllt T sbollJd be doing inju


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212 Professiona/ization of Anthropologylecture, but a v"bo!e course of lectures. Yet perhaps I can say enough nowto show yOll how much there' is in them \volih stud) iJlg.

Before J turn to this. however, I should like to combat a prejudicewl.ticu I fear you ma)' entertain. Jl is that same anclc'nt p r ~ i u d i c e whichled th e old Gn'eks to call all those who did not speak their souon)usidioms l.w.rbarians; for that word IneaJlt nothing more nor less tbanbabblers (!3(,A!3t1'AOL), people \vho spoke an unintelligible tongue. \!Iodcrncivilized nations hold that prC'judice yet. in the sense that ead! i.l1sists thathis ow n hlllguage is the best olle extant, the highest i.n the sC:(11e, and thatwherein others differ frOl\) it in structure they arc inferior.

So unfortunately placed is this prejudice with r d ( ' r c n c ( ~ to 111)' subject. th..'ll in the very volume issued by our govemment at \Vashington toencow-age the shld)" of the Indian langllage.,';, thC're is a long essay topro\'e that English is tIl(> noblest. most perfect language i.n the world,while ail t]le native h l l l g l . l a g e ~ are, ill comparisoll, of a very 10\"11 gradeindeedla

The eSS than by an)' other Englishwriter. HC' seemed to divine in such a trait of language vast resources forvaried and pointed expression. I f 1 ma)' vcnture a suggestion as to how itoes confer peculiar strength to expressions, it is that it brings intoespecial prominence the idea of Personality; it direct..'> nll subjects ofiscolUse hy the notion of an individual. a living, personal unit. Thisimparts vividness to narratives, and directness and life to propositions.

Of these pronouns. tbat of Ihe first person is usually the most devel-oprd. From it, in maJlY dialects, arC' derived the dl'monstratives andrelatives. which in Aryan languages were taken from the third person,This prominence of th e Ego, tltis confidellcc: in self, is l\ trait of the raceas well as of their speech. It forms part of that savage independence ofchnl'actcr which prevented them coaleSCing inlo great n a t i ( ) J l ~ . and kdthom to prefer d ~ a t h to servitude'Anothcr characteristic. which at one time was supposed to be univcrsal on this contill(nt. is what Mr. Peter Du Pnncetlu named polysyn-thesis. ITe nwant :lV this a power of running several words into on(:.dropping parts of them an d retaining onl) the significanl syllables. Longuescnptivl' names of all ohject s of civil i7.ed life lIew to the Inmnns werethus coined with the wcatest ease, Some' of t h e ~ 1 ' are curious enough. ThePavant IndHlJl:> call n school house hv one word, which means "'a stopping-plnce where sorcery is practiced". their notion of hook-Iearnillg beingtltat it he-longs to the IUlcanll)' arts. Tlw Delaware' word for horse means"'llw fonr-footell animal which carries 011 his back."

This meUlod of ('oining words IS, however. b 110 means universal inAmerican languages. H prevails in most of tbos(' in Bril ish America andthe United States, ill Aztec :l.l1d various South Amprican idioms; hut inothers. as the dialects found ill Yucatan and Guatemala. and in the Tupiof Brazil. the OtDOli of vlexico. and the Klamath of Ihe Pacific coast. it isscarcely Il r not ,It all present.A1101 her tnut, however, 'vvhicL was con[ouuded with this !>" Mr. f)uPoncC'uu, un t really belongs in a diITerent c a l l ' ~ o r ~ of grammatical sh'ucure, is tml) distinctiVC' of the language:> of the continent, an d 1 am uot

sure that anyone' of them has been shown to he ",hollv devoid of it. Thisis what is c ~ l 1 e d inrorporatiun. I t includes in the "e(fl. or ill the verha1exprnssioll. thl? objt'ct and manner of the action.This is effected b .. making the snbject of tbe verh an inseparahleprefiX, and by illsprting: between it ~ L l l d the vl:'rh itseU, or sometimes


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214 Professionallzalion of Anthropologydirectly in the) lalter, betwccn its syllables, the object dirce:( Or remotean d th e partides indicating mode, Tb e time or tense particles, on tIleother halld, wiIJ be placed at one; eud of this compound. cilher as prefixesor suffix,es, ihuli placing lhe wlJOle exprcssioll strictly Wit/ l i l l th e lirnits of averbal form of speech,

Hoth the above charackristics. I l1Iean Pol.vsynthcsis and Incorpora.tion, ar e llllconscious efforts to carry out ,I certain theory of spe('c!t whidJk lS aptly C'llough bt'(;l1 termed ho{ophmsis, or the putting the whole of aphrasc into a single word. This is {'he aim of ('ach of them, tllOugh eachendcavoTli to a c c o m p l i . ~ h it oy difFen:lJt mcans, lJlcorporation confinr'sitself exclusively to verbal [ o r l l ) ~ . while pol,vsynthesis embraces hothnouns amI verbs.

Suppose WI:" carry (he analysis fnrthcr. and see if Wl ' can ol)taio allanswer to the qll c-r,",-vVh) di d f h i . ~ effort at blending fonlls of 5 p l ~ e c h obtain so widrly? Such all UJCjuiJ} wil! indica.te how I'a(uablc to lingUisticsearch would provl' the stud.,' of I his group of languages,

f thillk t-hen,' is no doubt but Ulaf it points unmistakably' to that vcryancic'llt, to that- primordial period of humau utteram;e WIH':1l mC11 had !lotet learned to connect words info sentellces, when their utmost cHarts at

articulate speech did riot go beyOlJd single' words. whif'h, nickd hygestures and s i g n ~ , served tl i COllVC\' their limiteel intellectual converse,Such single vocaoles di d not uelong to a n ~ ' particnlar part of specchThen" was no gramfnar to that antiqlle tongue. Its d i ~ c o l l n e c t ( ' d cxclamatiom; mean whol


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216 Professionalization of AnthropologyUS now whicu were uttedy unkJlown to the American aborigines, anel Ilotless so to our own forefathers a few centuries ago. It wuuld be very unfairto compare the dictionary of an Indian language with the last edition ofWebster's Unabridged. But taKe th e Ellglish dictionaries of the latter halfof the sixteenth century, before Spenser an d Shakespeare wrote, an dcompare them with the Me.xican vocabulary of Molina, which C:Dntainsabout 13,000 words, or wilh the Maya vocabulalY of the convent ofMotul, which presents over 20,000 both prepared at that date, and yourprocedure will he just, and you will find it not disadvantageous to theAmerican side of the question.

The deficiency in abstract terms is generaHy true of these languages.They did not have them, because thcy ha d 110 use for them-allc1 themore hlessed was their cOll(Ution, EW'opean languages have been loadedwith several thousand such by metaphysics and mysticism> and it hasrequired mallY generations to discover that they aJ'e empty windbags, fullof s01.md and Signifying nothing.

Yet it is weU known to students that the power of fanning abstractsis possessed in a remarkable degreE' by many native languages. Th e mostrecondite formulre of dogmatic religion, such as the definition of th eTrinity and the difference bt>tween consubstantiation and transubstantiation, have bcen h',ll1slated into many of Ulem without introducing foreignwords, and in entire confonnity "vitb their grammatical struc-turc. Indeed,Dr. Augustin de In Rosa, of the University of Guadalajara, says theMexican is pecll.llarly adapted to render t.hese metaphysical subtleties.

I have been astonished that some writers should bring up th eprimary meaning of a '\>vord in an American language in order to infer thecoarseness of its ~ e c o n d m y meaning. This is a str.1.ngel.y unfair proceeding, amI could be directed witb equal effect against our own tongues.Thus, 1 read lately a traveler who spoke hardly of an Indian tJibe becausetheir word for "to Jove" was a nerivative from t1.lat meaning "to huy," andthencE' '

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