XII. Man has been the sole essential agent in the formation of fresh ethnical groupings. From the earliest times of the polished stone period, land and climate have remained unaltered in our western world. European man has then been at liberty to obey the laws of his evolution, to found, modify, or destroy his associations and his societies, to traverse the ages of bronze and iron as well as historic times, without having to battle with those invincible forces, which perhaps arrested the development of the hunters of Cro-Magnon.
In what degree does the anthropological past of the rest of the world resemble that of Europe? Science will some day, undoubtedly, answer this question, but we could now only form conjectures. It is wiser to abstain, content with having deciphered in less than half a century, almost a whole chapter of that prehistoric and palæontological history of man, the existence of which was not even suspected by our fathers.
BOOK IX.
PRESENT HUMAN RACES.—PHYSICAL CHARACTERS.
CHAPTER XXIX.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.—EXTERNAL CHARACTERS.
I. I considered that I ought to give a somewhat detailed account of our knowledge of fossil human races. The interest and novelty of the subject induced me to do so, and its moderate extent rendered it possible. But I cannot treat the history of present races in the same manner. If I wished to study them singly, I could scarcely devote more than a few lines to each. Even if I grouped them into families, I should only be able to give an incomplete and vague account of them, unless I went much beyond the limits of this work.
It seemed to me then preferable to adopt the practice of botanists and zoologists, who always begin with a general account of the nature and significance of the characters of the group which they wish to discuss. These notions, when affecting the whole group, are moreover always necessary. They alone allow us to grasp and comprehend certain general results. They become still more indispensable, when races derived from one and the same species are under discussion, because they bring forward and render evident the unity of specific origin of these races, just as much as direct proofs.
II. If we were familiar with primitive man, we should regard as characterising races, everything which separates them from this type. From want of this natural term of comparison, we have taken the European White as normal, and compared the remaining human groups with him. This leads to a tendency, which must be pointed out at once.
Influenced by certain habits of thought, and by a self-love of race which is easily explained, many anthropologists have thought that they could interpret the physical differences which distinguish men from one another, and consider simple characteristic features as marks of inferiority or superiority. Because the European has a short heel, and some Negroes have a long one, they have wished to consider the latter as a mark of degradation. The remarks which were made upon this subject, with so much justice, by Desmoulins with reference to the Bosjesmans were forgotten. Because the greater number of civilizations have risen among dolichocephalic nations, a head elongated from before backwards has been regarded as a superior form. It was forgotten that the Negroes and the Esquimaux are generally dolichocephali of the most pronounced type, and that European brachycephali are in every case the equals of their dolichocephalic brethren.