BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 63 



In all the subjects mentioned heretofore, a knowledge of Indian 

 languages serves as an important adjunct to a full understanding of 

 the customs and beliefs of the people whom we are studying. But 

 in all these cases the service which language lends us is first of all a 

 practical one — a means to a clearer understanding of ethnological 

 phenomena which in themselves have nothing to do with linguistic 

 problems. 



Theoretical Importance of Linguistic Studies 



Lamgiiage a Part of Ethnoloy leal JPhenomena in General 



It seems, however, that a theoretical study of Indian languages is 

 not less important than a practical knowledge of them ; that the purely 

 linguistic inciuiry is part and parcel of a thorough investigation 

 of the psychology of the peoples of the world. If ethnology is under- 

 stood as the science dealing with, the mental phenomena of the hfe of 

 the peoples of the world, human language, one of the most important 

 manifestations of mental life, would seem to belong naturally to the 

 field of work of ethnology, unless special reasons can be adduced why 

 it should not be so considered. It is true that a practical reason of this 

 kind exists, namely, the specialization which has taken place in the 

 methods of philological research, which has progressed to such an 

 extent that philology and comparative linguistics are sciences which 

 require the utmost attention, and do not allow the student to devote 

 much of his time to other fields that require different methods of 

 study. This, however, is no reason for believing that the results of 

 linguistic inquiry are unimportant to the etlinologist. There are other 

 fields of ethnological investigation which have come to be more or 

 less specialized, and which reciuire for their successful treatment 

 peculiar specialization. This is true, for instance, of the study of 

 primitive music, of primitive art, and, to a certain extent, of primitive 

 law. Nevertheless, these subjects continue to form an important 

 part of ethnological science. 



If the phenomena of human speech seem to form in a way a sub- 

 ject by itself, this is perhaps largely due to the fact that the laws of 

 language remain entirely unknown to the speakers, that linguistic 

 phenomena never rise into the consciousness of primitive man, while 

 all other ethnological phenomena are more or less clearly subjects of 

 conscious thought. 



