THE ETHNOLOGY" OF EASTERN A SIX. 



BY 



J. R. Logan. 

 GENERAL REVIEW. , 



Sscr. L Introductory remarks on the ethnological importance qftlie races aud 

 languages of E. Asia. th« isola tion of the toaic group, and its relation to the 

 Tarta^an and other harmonic languages. 



The ethnology of the Indian Archipelago and the more eastern 

 parts of Asianesia has, on most sides, a double aspect, one of an 

 African and the other of an Asiatic character. These, however, 

 are frequently 10 blended that it is difficult to say which traits be- 

 long to the one and which to the other. Again, African and Asiatic 

 ethnology have much in common, and they must have approximated 

 more closely in archaic times, when all the races of the old world 

 were nearer the same level of barbarity than they have been in 

 historical times. In forming any estimate of the proportion* between 

 the ethnic traits in which the Asiatic immigrants into Indonesia 

 •greed with the more ancient Indo-African occupants and those 

 in which they differed, it is obvious that there are many sources 

 of error if we confine our veiw to Asianesia itself. For several 

 thousands of years negro and non-negro lines have run parallel to 

 each other from the Andamans and Nicobars to Polynesia on the 

 one side, and to Formosa and probably even to Japan on the other. 

 In some regions the negro element prevails and in others the 

 Indo-African. Here the one race are the exclusive occupants 

 and there the other. In one island we see tn^tmo races living in 

 proximity and independence; in another the negroes are wild 

 wanderers in the forests ; in a third they have ceased to exist 

 as a separate people, and left no other physical trace of their 

 presence save in the partially negro character which the Polynesian 

 or Indonesian community has acquired. Even in Australia the 

 Malayu-Polynesian element is strong, and there cd^fcntbe a doubt 

 that it has penetrated into every part of Papuanesia?^ "We must 

 therefore go beyond Asianesia to find the African and Asiatic 

 elements in a state of purity. We must seize the distinctive features 

 of the two developments in their native regions, and furnished with 

 this knowledge, we may tread with more certainty the labyrinth of 

 Asianesian etnnology. 



We shall begin with Eastern Asia, not only because the Asiatic 

 races of the islands are the most developed, predominant and interest- 

 ing, but because this course will enable us at once to investigate a 

 most important problem in ethnology, a solution of which is not 

 merely necessary for our Asianesian researches, but is greatly 

 desired by ethnologists for the general progress of the science. It 

 is well known that a large group of languages exist in S. E. Asia 



