THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN. 453 



discussion of the question of the unity of the human species there can 

 be no doubt that in the main the mental characteristics of man are the 

 same all over the world; but the question remains open whether there 

 is a sufficient difference in grade to allow us to assume that the present 

 races of man may be considered as standing on different stages of the 

 evolutionary series, whether we are justified in ascribing to civilized 

 man a higher place in organization that to primitive man. In answer- 

 ing this question we must clearly distinguish between the influences of 

 civilization and of race. A number of anatomical facts point to the 

 conclusion that the races of Africa, Australia, and Melanesia are to a 

 certain extent inferior to the races of Asia, America, and Europe. We 

 find that on the average the size of the brain of the negroid races is 

 less than the size of the brain of the other races; and the difference in 

 favor of the mongoloid and white races is so great that we are justified 

 in assuming a certain correlation between their mental ability and the 

 increased size of their brain. At the same time it must be borne in 

 mind that the variability of the mongoloid and white races on the one 

 hand and of the negroid races on the other is so great that only a small 

 number, comparatively speaking, of individuals belonging to the latter 

 have brains smaller than any brains found among the former; and that, 

 on the other hand, only a few individuals of the mongoloid races have 

 brains so large that they would not occur at all among the black races. 

 That is to say, the bulk of the two groups of races have brains of the 

 same capacities, but individuals with heavy brains are proportionate!} 7 

 more frequent among the mongoloid and white races than among the 

 negroid races. Probably this difference in the size of the brain is 

 accompanied by differences in structure, although no satisfactory infor- 

 mation on this point is available. On the other hand, if we compare 

 civilized people of any race with uncivilized people of the same race, 

 we do not find any anatomical differences which would justify us in 

 assuming any fundamental differences in mental constitution. 



When we consider the same question from a purely psychological 

 point of view, we recognize that one of the most fundamental traits 

 which distinguish the human mind from the animal mind is common 

 to all races of man. It is doubtful if any animal is able to form an 

 abstract conception, such as that of number, or any conception of the 

 abstract relations of phenomena. We find that this is clone by all 

 races of man. A developed language with grammatical categories 

 presupposes the ability of expressing abstract relations, and, since 

 every known language has grammatical structure, we must assume 

 that the faculty of forming abstract ideas is a common property of 

 man. It has often been pointed out that the concept of number is 

 developed very differently among different peoples. While in most 

 languages we find numeral systems based upon the 10, we find that 

 certain tribes in Brazil, and others in Australia, have numeral systems 

 based on the 3, or even on the 2, which involve the impossibility of 



