INTRODUCTION 



By Franz Boas 



I. RACE AND LANGUAGE 



Early Attempts to Determine the Position of the American 



Race 



When Columbus started on his journey to reach the Indies, saihng 

 westward, and discovered the shores of America, he beheld a new 

 race of man, different in type, different in culture, different in lan- 

 guage, from any known before that time. This race resembled 

 neither the European types, nor the negroes, nor the better-known 

 races of southern Asia. As the Spanish conquest of America pro- 

 gressed, other peoples of our continent became known to the invaders, 

 and all showed a certain degree of outer resemblance, which led 

 the Spaniards to designate them by the term "Indios" (Indians), 

 the inhabitants of the country which was believed to be part of 

 India. Thus the mistaken geographical term came to be applied to 

 the inhabitants of the New World ; and owing to the contrast of 

 their appearance to that of other races, and the peculiarities of their 

 cultures and their languages, they came to be in time considered as 

 a racial unit. 



The same point of view still prevailed when the discoveries included 

 more extended parts of the New World. The people with whom 

 the Spaniards and Portuguese came into contact in South America, 

 as well as the inhabitants of the northern parts of North America, 

 all seemed to partake so much of the same characteristics, that 

 they were readily classed with the natives first discovered, and 

 were considered as a single race of mankind. 



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