Identifier: americanauniver08beac (find matches)
Title: The Americana : a universal reference library, comprising the arts and sciences, literature, history, biography, geography, commerce, etc. of the world
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Beach, Frederick Converse, 1848-1918 Rines, George Edwin, 1860-
Subjects: Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Publisher: New York : Scientific American Compiling Dept.
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
f the historyof the Mediterranean area in the Old World.In both areas we meet with a large number ofpeoples who rose above savagery, but, for somereason or other, failed to develop high stages ofculture. That the more material evidences ofcivilization should be so confined to the Pacificcoast is, to some writers, a significant fact sug-gestive of Asiatic relations; but the intellectualpower of such Atlantic peoples as the Iroquoisand some of the Muskhogean tribes of NorthAmerica, and the moderate but distinct progressmade by a few of the Brazilian tribes of theAtlantic area relieve us from any such theory,environment, and historical incident in Americaquite sufficing to account for the phenomena in-volved. (See Ethnology.) Certain other re-semblances and contrasts in the various aspectsof aboriginal culture in America merit attentionhere. At the extreme north of the continent,one stock, the Eskimo, with closely relatedforms of speech, kindred mythology, and folk- AMERICAN NATIVE RACES
Text Appearing After Image:
INDIANS lore, similar customs and so< ial institutii in i,etc., extends in a narrow line from cast to west,even overflowing into Asia, while at the ex-treme south (much less extensive) the Fue-gians, numbermg altogether less than 10,000,are divided into three distinct linguistic stocl(Yahgans, Unas, Alikulufs). Eastern andnorthern North America, and the corresponding regions in South America, are area-, of wide dis-tributions of single stocks. The Pacific coastof America, as compared with the Atlantic, isa place where, in diverse spots, languages seemto pullulate. This region (including the narrowlimits of Mexico and Central America) con-tained probably more independent tongues thanall the rest of the continent. Indeed, within thepresent bounds of the State of California alone-•_ such tongues are found, with several othersin Nevada, and in Prof. Cyrus Thomas list ofthe stocks of Mexico and Central America, madein 1902, nearly 30 are recognized. The multiplicity of languages in pr

Note About Images