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as

i a r of"toin

ofth e

syns

thatJ5(aod

tits

"iewpoint

toof

ofis onroles,

termsofanof

Linguistics and Ethnology 1

h ,LEW llES1!l ....BLE TO s . Y " fell' words OD thefunction of linguistic researches in the study'tht dhnography oJ tbe Indians.PR:ICTIC/lL NEED OF LN,'GUlS"!'lC' S T U T ) l l ~ ' S

[.()R ETF1?1tOLOG1C.L1L PUT/POSE'SFirst of alL the purdy practical aspect ofI , , ~ lluestion may be com'illered. Ordinarily,,I'e ITlvcstigator \"ho visits an IndiaJl tri be is no t

,Ie to COIlI'C:rsc with the n;ll i '1es themselves andto o b t ~ i n his information ilrst-hand, bu t he is

Iil!cd to rely more or less on data transmittedinltrprctns, or at least by t lie help oftrrprctcrs. He TlIay ask his question through

i n t e r p l ' e i l ~ r , and recei Ire agai n t hmugh bis,uth the answer given by th e Inclians. I t is~ j o u s that this is ao unsatisfactory method,n I I l t t l) the interpreters are good; but, as ar, the Jl'aibLle men are either ]]ot sufj-icientlyuli:n with the English l a n g u a , g l ~ , or they arout ot sympathy with the Indian1llirely

n

,int of vie'.\" and undt:rstand the necu ofuracy on the part of the investigator so little,riniormatjoll f\1J'nishcd by them eaJl be used\ wuh a considerable degree of cnutioll, At

p r ~ s c n t time it is possible to ge t along inny parts of America without interpreters, by

of the trade-jargons that have developedwll

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16 LINCfJfSTfCS .4ND ETHNOI.OGY

of fanner tjmes recorded frorn lhe mouths of thold ,gdlcration who, when y o u n ~ , still tOok p"rtin tuese performaJlces. Added to this hc isconfronted with the cliHiclIlty that the numberof lrailled investigators is \'ery small, and thenumber of Amcrican languages that aremUllIally unintelligible e x c e c J i n ~ l y large, probably exceeding three hUlldred ill number. Ourinvestigating ethnCllogists are also denied opportunity to spclld long continuous periOds withany particular tribe, so that thl; practicaldifficulties ill the way of acquiring languages arealmost insupl;rable. !\cI'crthdess, we mustinsist that a command of t.he language is anindispensable mC:ln,; of obtainillg aCt:urate ,tndthorough kno\\"lcdgl.:, bct:allse much informationcan be gained by listelling to conversations (Ifthe natjves and by taking part in their Jaily life,which, (() the observer who JUlS no eOml1l,llHJof the hnguage, wiH remain e;;ntirely inaccessible.

It mllst be admitted that this ideal aim is,under present Gonditicl1ls, elltlrdy heyond ou rreach. It is, howe;;It'r, quill: possible for the;:ethnographer to obtain a theordiea! knowledgeof native bnguages that will enable him tocollect at lea,;t part of the information that couldhe hest obtained by a practical knowledge oft.he language. Fortunatc:ly, the I ndian is easilymisled, by the ability of the observer to read hislanguage, into thiukillg that he j,; also able tounderstand what he r e a r l ~ . Thus, in taking downtales or other records in lhe native language,and reading them to the Indians, the lndianalways believes that the reader alsCl understandswhat he pronounces, because it is quite inconce;;i\"ahle to him that a person can freely utter thesentences in hi::; langua,g-e without clearlygrasping their meaning. This fact facilitatesthe initi:ll stages of etJmographic inlonnationin the native languages, b ( ~ c a l l ! ; t : , on the Ivhole,the northem Indian::> arc eager to be pu t onrecord j n regard to questions that are of supremeinterest to tltern. If the obsen'er is capable ofgrasping by a rapid analysis the significance ofwhat i:i dictated to him, C\'en without being ahleto expres,; himself freely in the Ilalil e language,he is in it position to ubtain much inform:lt.iollthat ot herwisc woul d bt: entire! y unobtainable.

lthough thi,; is wbolly a makeshift, still it putsthe observt.;r in an infinitely better position thilnthat in which he wonld be without any knowledge \ \ ' h a t e v ~ ' r of the language. First of all, hecan get the information from the IJldians

first-hand, wit.hout cmploying an interpn:tcr,who may mislead him. Furthermore, the r : t n ~ r of subjecls on \\ hieh he cart ge t informati(J11is considerablv increased. because the limitdt i o n ~ of the lingnistic knowledge of the inttr.pl-eter, or those of the trade-Iauguage. 3rceliminated. It would seem. tlH:reforc. that underpresellt conditions we are more or less com-pdlcd to rely upon an t:xtcnded series of texlJjas the safe,;t means of ohtaining informationfrom the InJians. A general review of ourethnographic literature shows clearly ho\\ Tlluehbetter is the i n f o r m ~ t i o n obtained by ( ) b ~ t ' [ I " e l > who haye command of the language. and wh{lare on terms of intimate fljendship witb thenatives, than that obtained through the rncdiunof interpn:ters,Th e bt:st material we possess i:; perh;ll';cOlltaincd in the na"ive outpourings of theEskimo, which they write and pril lt thcmsc!lc-s,and distribute as a n e \ \ ~ p a r e r , i n t ~ ' n d e l ! toilJfOTm tlw people of all the events that urc ojinterest. These LlSl;d to contain much In)'thological matter alld much tU;lt related to the mof life of the peopk. Othcr mah:rial of similardwracter i fllrnishe;;d by the brge lext c l ) l h : ~ tions of the Ponca. rublisht.:d by the late .lame,Owen Dor::;ey; although rnany of these 3rtinfluenced by the changl;u conditions uncle:which the people noll' lil'e. Smne older n'coron the Iroquuis, written by prominent lIlernhenof the tribe, als') descn'e attention; and ;unothe most recent literature the descriptions oftlltSauk and Fox by Dr. \\'illi,ilt1 Jones :Ire rem,ukable on account of the thorough L 1 n d e r s t a n d i n ~ that the a\lthor has reached, o\\ing to Ii:,m

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an interpreter,the range

informationthe limita

the interare

that undercom

of textsinformation

of ourmuch

observersand wh owith th e

the mediumperhapsof the

themselves,intended to

that are ofmuch my tho

to the modeof similar

text collecJames

of these areunder

older recordsmembers

and amongof th e

remarkunderstandingowing to his

character,are the

the Thompto interestown tribestheir own

These, also, arewhich the

by the lack ofthoroughly

and withof his studies

language in hiswhen we

problems of

ethnology. A few examples will show clearlywhat is meant. When the question arises, forinstance, of investigating the poetry of theIndians, no translation can possibly be considered as an adequate suhstitute for the original.The form of rhythm, the treatment of thelanguage, the adjustment of text to music, theimagery, the use of metaphors, and all thenumerous problems involved in any thoroughinvestigation of the style of poetry, can heinterpreted only by the investigator who hasequal command of the ethnographical traits ofthe tribe and of their language. Th e same is truein the investigation of rituals, with their set,more or less poetic phrases, or in the investigation of prayers and incantations. Th e oratory ofthe Indians, a subject that has received muchattention by ethnologists, is not adequatelyknown, because only a very few speeches havebeen handed down in the original. Here, also,an accurate investigation of the method ofcomposition and of the devices used to reachoratorical effect, requires the preservation ofspeeches as rendered in the original language.There are also numerous other features of the

life of the Indians which can not be adequatelypresented without linguistic investigation. Tothese belong, for instance, the discussion ofpersonal, tribal, and local names. Th e translations of Indian names which are popularlyknown-like Sitting-Bull, Afraid-Of-lIis- Horse,etc.-indicate that names possess a deepersignificance. The translations, however, are sodifficult that a thorough linguistic knowledgeis required in order to explain the significanceadequately.In all the subjects mentioned heretofore, a

knowledge of Indian languages serves as animportant adjunct to a full understanding of thecustoms and beliefs of the people whom we arestudying. But in all these cases the service whichlanguage lends us is first of all a practical one-ameans to a clearer understanding of ethnologicalpbenomena which in themselves have nothing10 do with linguistic prohlems.

THEORETICAL I1"lPORTANCR OFLINGUISTIC STUD lES:Language a Part of Ethnological Phenomena in GeneralIt seems, however, that a theoretical study of

Indian languages is not less important than a. practical knowledge of them; that the purelylinguistic inquiry is part and parcel of a

FRANZ BOAS 17thorough investigation of the psychology of thepeoples of the world. I f ethnology is understoodas the science dealing with the mental phenomena of the life of the peoples of the world,human language, one of the most importantmanifestations of mental life, would seem tobelong naturally to the field of work of ethnology, unless special reasons can be adduced whyit should not be so considered. It is true thata practical reason of this kind exists, namely, thespecialization \vhich has taken place in themethods of philological research, which hasprogressed to such an extent that philology andcomparative linguistics are sciences whichrequire the utmost attention. and do not allowthe student to devote much of his time to otherfields that require different methods of study.This, however, is no reason for believing thatthe results of linguistic inquiry are unimportantto the ethnologist. There are other fields ofethnological investigation which have come tobe more or less specialized, and which requirefor their successful treatment peculiar specialization. This is true, for instance, of the study ofprimitive music, of primitive art, and, to acertain extent, of primitive law. Nevertheless,these subjects continue to form an importantpart of ethnological science.I f the phenomena of human speech seem to

form in a way a subject hy itself, this is perhapslargely due to the fact that the laws of languageremain entirely unknown to the speakers, thatlinguistic phenomena never rise into the consciousness of primitive man, while all otherethnological phenomena are more or less clearlysubjects of conscious thought.

Th e question of the relation of linguisticphenomena to ethnological phenomena, in thenarrower sense of the term, deserves, therefore,special discussion.

LANGUAGE AND THOUGHTFirst of all, it may be well to discuss the

relation between language and thought. I t hasbeen claimed that the conciseness and clearnessof thought of a people depend to a great extentupon their language. Th e ease with which inour modern European languages we expresswide abstract ideas by a single term, and thefacility with which wide generalizations arecast into the frame of a simple sentence, havebeen claimed to be one of the fundamentalconditions of the clearness of our concepts. the

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18 LINGUISTICS AND ETHNOLOGYlogical furce of our thought, and the precisionwith which we eliminate in our thoughtsirrelevant details. Apparently this view hasmuch in its favor. \Vhen we compare modernEnglish with some of those Indian languageswhich are most concrete in their formativeexpression, the contrast is striking. When wesay The eye is the organ of sight, the Indian maynot be able to form the expression the eye, hutmay have to define that the eye of a person or ofan animal is meant. ;>';either may the Indian beable to generalize readily the abstract idea of aneye as the representative of the whole class ofobjects, bu t may have to specialize by an expres-sion like this eye here. Neither may he be able toexpress by a single term thc idea of or,gan, butmay have to specify it by an expression likeinstrument of seeing, so that the whole sentencemight assume a form like An indefinite person'seye is his means of seeing. Still, it will be recog-nized that in this more specific form the generalidea may be well expressed. It seems veryquestionable in how far the restriction of theusc of certain grammatical forms can really beconceived as a hindrance in the formulation ofgeneralized ideas. It seems much more likelythat the lack of these forms is due to the lack oftheir need. Primitive man, when conversingwith his fellowman, is not in the habit of dis-cussing abstract ideas. His interests centeraround the occupations of his daily life; andwhere philosophic problems are touched upon,they appear either in relation to definite indivi-duals or in the more or less anthropomorphicforms of religious beliefs. Discourses on qualitieswithout connection with the object to which thequalities belong, or of activities or states discon-nected from the idea of the actor or the subjectbeing in a certain state, will hardly occur inprimitive speech. Thus the Indian will notspeak of goodness as such, although he mayvery well speak of the goodness of a person. Hewill not speak of a state of bliss apart from theperson who is in such a state. He will not referto the power of seeing without designating anindividual who has such power. Thus it happensthat in languages in which the idea of possessionis expressed by elements subordinated to nouns,all ahs tract terms appear always with possessivee1emcnts. I t is, however, perfectly conceivablethat an Indian trained in philosophic thoughtwould proceed to free the underlying nominalforms from the possessive elements, and thus

reach abstract forms strictly corresponding tothe abstract forms of our modern languages. Ihave made this experiment, for instance, withthe Kwakiutl language of Vancouver Island, inwhich no abstract term ever occurs without itspossessive elements. After some discussion, Ifound it perfectly easy to develop the idea ofthe abstract term in the mind of the Indian,who will state that the word without a possessivepronoun gives a sense, although it i not usedidiomatically. I succeeded, for instance, in thismanner, in isolating the terms for lm:e and pity,which ordinarily occur only in possessive forms,like his lm'e for him or my pity for yOll. That thisview is correct mayalso be observed in languagesin which possessive elements appear as inde-pendent forms, as, for instance, in the Siouanlanguages. In these, pure abstract terms arequite common.There is also evidence that other specializingelements, which are so characteristic of manyIndian languages, may be dispensed with when,for one reason or another, it seems desirable togeneralize a term. To use the example of theK wakiutllanguage, the idea to be seated is almostalways expressed with an inseparable suffixexpressing the place in which a person is seated,as seated on the floor of the house, on the ground,on the beach, on a pile of things, or on a roundthing, etc. \Vhen, however, for some reason,the idea of the state of sitting is to be empha.sized, a form may be used which expresses simply being in a sitting posture. In this case, also, thedevice for generalized expression is present, hutthe opportunity for its application arises seldom,or perhaps never. I think what is true in thesecases is true of the structure of every singlelanguage. Th e fact that generalized forms ofexpression are not used does not prove inabilityto form them, but it merely proves that themode of life of the people is such that they arenot required; that they would, however, developjust as soon as needed.

This point of view is also corroborated by astudy of the numeral systems of primitivelanguages. As is well known, many languagel,exist in which the numerals do not exceed two lor three. It has been inferred from this that thepeople speaking these languages are not capableof forming the concept of higher numbers. I,think this interpretation of the existing conditions is quite erroneous. People like the SouAmerican Indians (among whom these defecti

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tolanguages. I

withIsland, in

without it sdiscussion, I

the idea ofof the Indian,

t a possessiveit is not used

in thislove an d pity,forms,

for YOIi. That thisin languages

indein th e Siouan

terms areother specializing

of manywith when,desirable to

of theto be seated is almost

person is seated,the ground,

or on a roundsome reason,to be empha

ch expresses simIn this case, also, the

present, bu tion arises seldom,true in these

of every singleforms of

not prove inabilityproves that the

such that they areuld, howev er, develop

corroborated by aof primitive

many languagesnot exceed two

this that thenot capablehigher numbers. I

the existing condith e South

whom these defective

numeral systems are found), or like the Eskimo(whose old system of numbers probably did notexceed ten), are presumably not in need ofhigher numerical expressions, because thereare not many objects that they have to count.On the other hand, just as soon as these samepeople find themselves in contact with civilization, and when they acquire standards of valuethat have to be counted, they adopt with perfectease higher numerals from other languages anddevelop a more or less perfect system of counting. This does not mean that every individualwho in the course of his life has never made useof higher numerals would acquire more complexsystems readily, bu t the tribe as a whole seemsalways to be capable of adjusting itself to theneeds of counting. It must be borne in mind thatcounting does not become necessary untilobjects are considered in such generalized formthat their individualities are entirely lost sightof. For this reason it is possible that even aperson who has a flock of domesticated animalsmay know them by name and by their characteristics without ever desiring to count them.Members of a war expedition may be known byname and may not be counted. In short, thereis no proof that the lack of the use of numeralsis in any way connected with the inability toform the concepts of higher numbers.If we want to form a correct judgment of theinfluence that language exerts over thought, weought to bear in mind that our Europeanlanguages as found at the present time havebeen moulded to a great extent by the abstractthought of philosophers. Terms like essence andaistence, many of which are now commonlyused, are by origin artificial devices for expressing the results of abstract thought. In this theywould resemble the artificial, unidiomaticabstract terms that may be formed in primitivelanguages.Thus it would seem that the obstacles to

~ n e r a l i z e d thought inherent in the form of alanguage are of minor importance only, and thatpresumably the language alone would not,prevent a people from advancing to more, ~ n e r a l i z e d forms of thinking if the general statetheir culture should require expression ofch thought; that under these conditions the19uage would be moulded rather by theltural state. I t does not seem likely, therefore,It there is any direct relation between thelture of a tribe and the language they speak,

FRANZ BOAS 19except in so far as the form of the language willbe moulded by the state of culture, but not in sofar as a certain state of culture is conditioned bymorphological traits of the language.

UNCONSCIOUS CHARACTER OFLINGUISTIC PHENOMENA

Of greater positive importance is the questionof the relation of the unconscious character oflinguistic phenomena to the more consciousethnological phenomena. It seems to my mindthat this contrast is only apparent, and that thevery fact of the unconsciousness of linguisticprocesses helps us to gain a clearer understanding of the ethnological phenomena, a point theimportance of which can not be underrated. I thas been mentioned before that in all languagescertain classifications of concepts occur. Tomention only a few: we find objects classifiedaccording to sex, or as animate and inanimate,or according to form. We find actions determined according to time and place, etc. Th ebehavior of primitive man makes it perfectlyclear that all these concepts, although they arein constant use, have never risen into consciousness, and that consequently their origin mustbe sought, not in rational, bu t in entirelyunconscious, we may perhaps say instinctive,processes of the mind. They must be due to agrouping of sense-impressions and of conceptswhich is not in any sense of the term voluntary,bu t which develops from quite different psychological causes. I t would seem that the essentialdifference between linguistic phenomena andother ethnological phenomena is, that thelinguistic classifications never rise into consciousness, while in other ethnological phenomena, although the same unconscious originprevails, these often rise into consciousness,and thus give rise to secondary reasoning and tore-interpretations. It would, for instance, seemvery plausible that the fundamental religiousnotions-like the idea of the voluntary powerof inanimate objects, or of the anthropomorphiccharacter of animals, or of the existence ofpowers that are superior to the mental andphysical powers of man-are in their origin justas little conscious as are the fundamental ideasof language. \Vhile, however, the use of languageis so automatic that the opportunity never arisesfor the fundamental notions to emerge intoconsciousness, this happens very frequently inall phenomena relating to religion. I t would

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20 LINGUISTICS AND ETHNOLOGYseem that there is no tribe in the world in whichthe religious activities havc not come to be asubject of thought. Whilc the religious activitiesmay have been performcd before the reason forpcrforming them had become a subject ofthought, they attaincd at an early time suchimportance that man asked himself the reasonwhy he performcd these actions. With thismument speculation in r egard to religious activities arosc, and the whole series of secondaryexplanations which form so vast a field ofethnological phenomena came into existence.I t is difficult to give a definite proof of the

the unconscious origin of ethnic phenomena,bccause so many of them are, or have come tobe, subjects of thought. The best evidence thatcan be given for their unconscious origin mustbe taken from our own experience, and I thinkit is not difficult to show that certain groups ofour activities, whatever the history of theirearlier development may have been, develop atpresent in each individual and in the wholepeople entirely sub-consciously, and nevertheless are most potent in the formation of ouropinions and actions. Simple examples of thiskind are actions which we consider as properand improper, and which may be found ingreat numbers in what we call good manners.Thus table manners, which on the whole areimpressed vigorously upon the child while it isstill young, have a very fixed form, Smacking ufthe lips and bringing the plate up to the muuthwould not be tolerated, although no esthetic orother reason could be given for their rigidexclusion; and it is instructive to know thatamong a tribe like the Omaha it is considered asbad taste, when invited to eat, not to smack one'slips, because this is a sign of appreciation of themeal. 1 think it will readily be recognized thatthe simple fact that these habits arc customary,while others are not. is sufficicnt reason foreliminating those acts that arc not customary,and that the idea uf propriety simply arises fromthe continuity and automatic repetition ofthese acts, which brings about the notion thatmanners cuntrary to custom are unusual, andtherefore not the proper manners. I t may beobserved in this connection that bad mannersare always accompanied by rather intensefeelings of displeasure, the psychological reasonfor which can be found only in the fact thatthe actions in question are. contra ry to thosewhich have become habitual. It is fairly evident

that in ou r table manners this strong feeling 01propriety is associated with the familiar modesof eating. When a new kind of food is presented,the proper manner of eating which is not known,practically any habit that is not in absoluteconflict with the common habits may readilyestablish itself.Th e example of table manners gives also a

fairly good instance of secondary explanation.It is not customary to bring the knife to themouth, and very readily the feeling arises, thatthe knife is not used in this manner because ineating thus one would easily cut the lips. Tlateness of the invention of the fork, and thlfact that in many countries dull knivcs are uand that a similar danger exists of prickithe tongue or the lips with the sharp-pointsteel fork which is cummonly used in Euroshow readily that this explanation is onlysecondary rationalistic attcmpt to explaincustom that utherwise would remain unex,plained.

If we are tu draw a parallel to linguistic pnomena in this casc, it would appear thatgrouping of a number of unrelated actions'one group, for the reason that they causefeeling of disgust, is brought about withoutreasuning, and still sets off these actions clearland definitely in a group by themselves.On account of the importance of this questio

it seems desirable to give another example, 'one that seems to be more deeply seated tthe one given before. A case of this kind'prcsented in the group of acts whichcharacterize as modest. I t requires very Iithought to see that, while the feelingsmodesty are fundamental, the particular awhich are considered modest or immodest shlimmense variation, and are determined entiby hahits that develop unconsciously so fartheir relation to modesty is concerned,which may have their ultimate origin in caof an entirely different chara cter. A study ofhistory of costume proves at once thatdifferent times and in different parts ofworld it has been considered immodest to 1certain parts of the body. "Vhat parts ofbody these are, is to a great extent a matteraccident. Even at the present time, and wi'a rather narrow range, great variations inrespect may be found. Examples are the USCthe veil in Turkey, the more or less rigid usc,the glove in our own society, and the diffe

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strong feeling ofmodes

presented,not known,

not in absolutemay readily

explanation.the knife to th e

thatthe lips. The

an d th eare used

of prickinge sharp-pointed

Europe,only a

explain aremain unexlinguistic phe

appear that theactions in

they cause aabout without any

clearlythis question,example, and

seated thanof this kind is

acts which wevery littlethe feelings of

e particular actsor immodest show

so far asis concerned, and

origin in causesstudy of the

once that atparts of the

immodest to bareWhat parts of theextent a matter of

an d withinvariations in thisthe use of

or less rigid use ofand th e difference

between street costume and evening dress. Alady in full evening dress in a streetcar, duringthe daytime, would hardly appear in place.We all are at once conscious of the intensity of

these feelings of modesty, and of the extreme. repugnance of the individual to any act that

goes counter to the customary concepts ofmodesty. In a number of cases the origin of acostume can readily be traced, and in itsdevelopment no considerations of modestyexert any influence. It is therefore evident thatin this respect the grouping-together of certaincustoms again develops entirely unconsciously,but that, nevertheless, they stand out as agroup set apart from others with great clearnessas soon as our attention is directed toward thefeelings of modesty.To draw a parallel again between this ethno

logical phenomenon and linguistic phenomena,it would seem that the common feature of bothis the grouping-together of a considerable- number of activities under the form of a singleidea, without the necessity of this idea itselfentering into consciousness. Th e difference,again, would lie in the fact that the idea ofmodesty is easily isolated from other concepts,and that then secondary explanations are givenof what is considered modest and what not. Ibelieve that the unconscious formation of thesecategories is one of the fundamental traits ofethnic life, and that it even manifests itself inmany of its more complex aspects; that manyof our religious views and activities, of ourethical concepts, and even our scientific views,which are apparently based entirely on conlcious reasoning, are afi'ected by this tendencyof distinct activities to associate themselvesunder the influence of strong emotions. It hasbeen recognized before that this is one of thefundamental causes of error and of the diversityof opinion.It seems necessary to dwell upon the analogy of

ethnology and language in this respect, because,ifwe adopt this point of view, language seemsto be one of the most instructive fields ofinquiry in an investigation of the formation ofthe fundamental ethnic ideas. Th e greatIdvantage that linguistics ofi'er in this respect isthe factthat, on the whole, the categories whichare formed always remain unconscious, and thatfor this reason the processes which lead to theirformation can be followed without the misleadingand disturbing factors of secondary explana-

FRANZ BOAS 21

tions, which are so common in ethnology, somuch so that they generally obscure the realhistory of the development of ideas entirely.

Cases are rare in which a people have begun tospeculate about linguistic categories, and thesespeculations are almost always so clearlyaffected by the faulty reasoning that has led tosecondary explanations, that they are readilyrecognized as such, and can not disturb theclear view of the history of linguistic processes.In America we find this tendency, for instance,among the Pawnee, who seem to have been ledto several of their religious opinions by linguisticsimilarities. Incidentally such cases occur alsoin other languages, as, for instance, in Chinookmythology, where the Culture Hero discovers aman in a canoe who obtains fish by dancing,and tells him that he must not do so, bu t mustcatch fish with the net, a tale which is entirelybased on the identity of the two words fordancing and catching with a net. These are caseswhich show that iVlax Muller's theory of theinfluence of etymology upon religious conceptsexplains some of the religious phenomena,although, of course, it can be held to accountfor only a very small portion.

Judging th e importance of linguistic studiesfrom this point of view, it seems well worthwhile to subject the whole range of linguisticconcepts to a searching analysis, and to seekin the peculiarities of the grouping of ideas indifferent languages an important characteristicin the history of the mental development of thevarious branches of mankind. From this pointof view, the occurrence of the most fundamentalgrammatical concepts in all languages must beconsidered as proof of the unity of fundamentalpsychological processes. Th e characteristicgroupings of concepts in American languageswill be treated more fully in the discussion ofthe single linguistic stocks. Th e ethnologicalsignificance of these studies lies in the cleardefinition of the groupings of ideas which arebrought out by the objective study of language.There is still another theoretical aspect that

deserves special attention. When we try tothink at all clearly, we think, on the whole, inwords; and it is well known that, even in theadvancement of science, inaccuracy of vocabulary has often been a stumbling-block whichhas made it difficult to reach accurate conclusions. Th e same words may be used withdifferent significance, and by assuming the

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22 LINGUISTICS AND ETHNOLOG}'wonl to have the same significance always,erroneous conclusions may be reached. I t mayalso be that the word expresses only part of anidea, so that owing to its use the full rangc ofthe subject-matter discussed may not berecognized. In the same manner the words maybe too wide in their significance, including anumber of distinct ideas the differences ofwhich in the course of the development of thelanguage were not recognized. Furthermorc,we find that, among more primitiye tribes,similaritics of sound are misunderstood, andthat ideas expressed by similar words areconsidered as similar or identical, and thatdescriptive terms are misunderstood as cxpress-ing an identity, or at least close relationship,between the object described and the groupof ideas contained in the description.All these traits of human thought, which areknown to influence the history of science andwhich play a more or less important role inthe general history of civilization, occur withcqual frequency in the thoughts of primitiveman. I t will bc sufficient to give a few examplesof these cases.

One of the most common cascs of a group ofviews due to failure to notice that the sameword may signify divers objects, is that basedon the belief of the identity of persons bearingthe same namc. Generally the interpretation isgiven that a child receives the name of anancestor because he is believed to be a re-incarnation of thc individuality of the ancestor.I t seems, however, much more likely that this isnot thc real reason for the views connected withthis custom, which seems due to the fact thatno distinction is made bctween the name andthe personality known under the name. Thcassociation established between name andindividual is so close that the two seem almostinseparable; and when a name is mentioned,not only the name itself, bu t also the personalityof its bearer, appears before the mind of thespeaker.Inferences based on peculiar forms of classi-fication of ideas, and due to the fact that a wholegroup of distinct ideas are expressed by a singleterm, occur commonly in the terms of relation-ship of various languages; as, for instance, inour term uncle, which means the two distinctclasses of father's brother and mother's

brother. Here, also, it is commonly assuthat the linguistic expression is a second:reflex of the customs of the people; butquestion is quite open in how far thephenomenon is the primary one and the 0'the secondary one, and whether the customsthe people have not rathcr developed fromunconsciously developed terminology.Cases in which the similaritv of suundwords is reflected in the views of the peoplenot rare, and examples of these have been gi' .before in referring to l\Iax Muller's theorythe origin of religions. gFinally, a few examples may be given ofin which the use of descriptive terms for ceconcepts, or the metaphorical use of terms,led to peculiar views or customs. It s'plausible to my mind, for instance, thatterms of relationship by which some ofeastern Indian tribes designate one anowere originally nothing bu t a metaphoricalof these terms, and that the further dabora"of the social relations of the tribes maybeen largcly determined by transferringideas accompanying these terms into prac'

More convincing are examples taken fromuse of metaphorical terms in poetry, w h i c ~ rituals, are taken literally, and are madebasis of certain rites. I am inclined to beli,for instance, that the frequently ocm'image of the devouring of wealth has a c,relation to the detailed form of the winter rilamong the Indians of the j\;orth Pacific 0and that the poetical simile in which the chicalled the support of the sky has to a ceextent been taken literally in the elaborationmythological ideas.Thus it appears that from practical, as well

from theoretical, points of view, the studylanguage must be considered as one of theimportant branches of ethnological stubecause, on the one hand, a thorough insi:into ethnology can not be gained withpractical knowledge of language, and, onother hand, the fundamental concepts illtrated by human languages are not dis'in kind from ethnological phenomena;because, furthermore, tbe peculiar chateristics of languages are clearly reflectedthe views and customs of the peoples ofworld.