On the importance of studying and preserving the languages spoken by uncivilized nations, with the view of elucidating the physical history of man / By Dr. Hodgkin.

  • Thomas Hodgkin
Date:
1835
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the importance of studying and preserving the languages spoken by uncivilized nations, with the view of elucidating the physical history of man / By Dr. Hodgkin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    western coast of America. This difficulty being set aside, the Doctor supports the probability of his hypothesis by setting forth various points on which the American nations exhibit a resemblance or affinity to the Polynesian Islanders. Even the languages of America, which are so numerous and so peculiar, instead of presenting an insuperable difficulty, have furnished Dr. Lang with a few arguments in his favour. Many of the names of rivers, creeks, districts, towns, persons, and natural objects bear a decidedly Polynesian character; and some words bear this resemblance in signification also. He refers to the idea maintained by De Zuniga that the Philippine Islands were peopled from America, since the features of re¬ semblance pointed out by him tend to strengthen the suppo¬ sition of a remote connexion between the Americans and these islanders, whatever may have been the direction in which the communication took place. De Zuniga, in comparing the language of the Philippine Islands to some of those which are spoken by American Indians, says that they are strikingly conformable in their character and structure. Dr. Lang main¬ tains the correctness of this assertion, notwithstanding its con¬ tradiction by Marsden. He notices Capt. Basil Hall’s obser¬ vation that the Indians of Acapulco bear a resemblance to the Malays. The advances towards civilization which had been made by the natives of America before the arrival of the Spaniards appear to have been of Polynesian character, as exhibited in their workmanship, their fortifications, temples, and images. Dr. Lang particularly compares the Mexican pyramids with one of a similar construction, 270 feet long, in Atehuru, which has unfortunately been destroyed. He no¬ tices also a similarity in their mode of worship and holding councils, in their superstitions with respect to the Taboo, and in the wide diffusion of cannibalism, which he conceives to have been maintained as an occasional rite, derived by the Americans from their Polynesian forefathers when the acci¬ dental plea of necessity no longer existed. I shall conclude this brief sketch of Dr. Lang’s views with the following quo¬ tations from his work: “ It is doubtless impossible to fix the date of the original discovery of America with any degree of precision. Still, however, we mav come within a moderate distance of the truth even on this dark subject. There is evidence to guide the judicious inquirer, scanty in its amount, doubtless, but definite in its announcements, and just as little likely to mis¬ lead as the records of ancient eclipses. 661. The sources of this evidence to which we are naturally directed is the Polynesian language. In tracing the affinities
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