Till': ADVILNT OF MAN JX AMEKICA.* 



By AUMAIND DE Ql ATREFAGE8. 



OiM' of llic chief pntbli'ins of anthropologists in rogai'd to America, 

 is that of the origin of its inhabitants. Were the original American 

 IH'ople related to those of the Old World? Or were they indigenous 

 t o America and without ethnologic relation to other populations ? IJoth 

 these views, as you are aware, have had tlieir partisans. I have al- 

 ready made known my opinion uj^on this subject, which is that America 

 was originally peopled by emigrants from the Old World. I propose 

 to give a brief resume of the grounds of this conviction. 



I recall two rules which 1 have constantly foUowed in the solution 

 of questions sometimes so ardently contested, which are raised in the 

 history of Man. The first rule is, to put aside absolutely every con- 

 sideration borrowed from dogma or philosophy, and to invoke only 

 science, that is, experience and observation. The second rule is, not 

 to isolate man from other organized beings, but to recognize that he is 

 subject (in all that is not exclusively human) to all the general laws 

 which govern equally animals and plants. Hence no doctrine or opin- 

 ion is to be regarded as tine which, considering man as an animal, 

 makes him an exception among organized beings. 



Let us apply these principles to the (piestion before us, but more 

 broadly; for it is but a special case of a still more general ])roblem. 

 Man is everywhere now. Did he appear every where in the beginning? 

 If not absolutely cosmopolitan in its origin, did the human race origi- 

 nate at an indefinite number of points; or, originating at a single and 

 limited sjiot, has it gradually taken possession of the whole earth by 

 migration? At first thought, we might suppose the answer to these 

 (luestions would be different according as we admit the existemie of 

 one or many human species, but this is an error; for we shall see that 

 on this point, at least, the Polygenists nuiy shake hands with the 

 Monogenists without being involved in any contradiction with the 

 facts. Let us take first the Monogenistic view. 



riiysiology, which leads us to recognize the unity of the human 

 sv)ecies, teaches us nothing relative to its geographic origin; it is 



^Presidential address delivered before the Eijihth International Congress of 

 Americanists at its session in Paris, 1890. (I'roeeediugs of the 8tli session: Congr. 

 Internat., pj). 43-r)5. 



H. Mis. lU — a3. 5,ia 



