Address delivered at the second annual meeting of the Anthropological Society of London / by James Hunt.
- James Hunt
- Date:
- [1865]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Address delivered at the second annual meeting of the Anthropological Society of London / by James Hunt. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![such as were not Jews; but those only who were neither Jews nor Christians, but followed the superstitions of the Greeks and Romans, etc.* “ St. Matthew (vi, 7) says, ‘ Use not vain repetitions as the heathens (eOvticoi) do.’ On this verse Valpy says, ‘ 'EOvucoi, heathens, men who neither acknowledge nor worship the true God. Our word heathen is from the Greek eduijj the heathens or gentiles, as dis- tinguished from the Jews or believers.’ Somner (Ang.-Sax. Diet.) gives hcethen, paganus, ethnicus, gentilis ; hcethendom, paganismus, ethnicismus, gentilismus. Junius gives the Gothic haithnai (the Greek, eOvoi) heathens. There is, indeed, no doubt that heathen and 60i/os are the same word. Ethnology, science of the heathens, gentiles, or pagans.’ ” Mr. Luke Burke, in 1848, attempted to give a definition of ethno- logy, which differs so widely from all those attempted before or since, that I am bound to give it in this place. And I would take this opportunity of observing that, although Mr. Burke has given a mean- ing to the word ethnology which cannot be defended and has not been accepted, he deserves much credit for attempting to found a science of mankind at a time when few dared to speak of the origin and de- velopment of man as questions entirely belonging to the domain of science. The great error of the following definition is the use of the word ethnology instead of anthropology. “ Ethnology,” writes Mr. Burke,f “is a science which investigates the mental and physical differences of mankind, and the organic laws upon which they depend, and which seeks to deduce from these investigations, principles of human guid- ance in all important relations of social existence.” I am sure that you will doubt with me whether such a definition could ever have been given to a word like ethnology ; but we may consider that Mr. Burke found a “ pretty” word with no scientific definition, and declared it to mean the science he had defined. Mr. Burke at the same time (1848) wrote,']; “The leading doctrines of this science are now for the first time presented to the public.” Writing in 1861, Mr. Burke said,§ “But let ethnology be organised and developed, and the entire sweep of natural history becomes at once comparative ethnology.” In 1848, ethnology was defined by the same author as “the science of human races.” Ethnologists in 1861 were told “ they need not travel to the ends of the earth, nor even look beyond the circle of their intimate friends, to find undescribed races, types of humanity demanding record and specification, and more de- + Ethnological Journal, odited by L. Buiko, 1848, p. ]. § “ The Future, May 1801. * Valpy. \ Loc. cit., p. 1.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22420149_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
