ETHNOLOGY (from Gk. eli'vos, etknos, peo ple + -login, account, from 2.iyea, to say). That branch of anthropology which treats of races and peoples, the natural and arti ficial divisions of the human species. The eth nologist investigates the natural history. psy chology, industries, fine arts, language, sociology, knowledge, lore, and religion of single peoples, and adopts the comparative method among peo ples to determine their origin and the sources of their culture. Beginning with man, this branch of science aims to find out the origin of the species, and also whether there is one or many species of the genus hum°. Two views are held on this question: (1) there are several inde pendent species of this genus; (2) there is but one species—the former view is called polygen ism, the latter monogenism. It is much more probable that the human genus has one species with two or more subspecies, and these give rise to varieties or races.
The relation of enviromnent—its atmosphere, its exosphere. and its hydrosphere, under the stimulus of the sun—to the human genus in producing varieties is another ethnological prob lem of vast moment. This opens up the entire question of classific concepts, stature, shape of head, color of skin and eyes, texture and color' of the hair. intellectual qualities, and moral attri butes. A biological question of greatest impor tance in this conneetion is that of the mixing of the races, its fruitfulness and results.
Ethnology, in dealing with the manifold ac tivities of life, asks whether a given apparatus, or process, or production, found in peoples wide apart, had its origin in each independently by reason of a common humanity, or whether an ciently there was commercial contact or perhaps blood connection. Bence springs up the inquiry about the antiquity and routes of migrations over the continents. All the trades, metric systems. mechanical devices, utensils. and the money or the medium of exchange in one people Kaye their counterparts with other peoples. The common industries all culminate in fine art. and the rela tion of :esthetic inethilds and results to ram or people suggests many puzzling questions. In
ceramic and stone work, textiles, music. and eti quette. there are differences from race to race, but also startling resemblances, and these al! lead the inquirer to et hnological studies.
One of the most important elassilie concepts of ethnology is speech, so that mankind have•long been divided into families by their methods of expressing their minds. Languages and dialects each having a name have been classified for all the continents. The magnitude of the debt of the ethnologist to the comparative linguist is evident from the fact that most so-called eth nological atlases have a linguistic basis.
Another culture concept is derived from asso ciation of human beings in the ends of life. Its full consideration would lead to sociology in its widest sense. Here only ethnic sociology is in mind—the family among peoples, c(ffiperative endeavor among peoples, government, (Liston', education, and charity among peoples. Here monogamy prevails, there polygamy, and in Aus tralia a woman is the assigned wife of one man and the accessory wife of his clan brothers. here is a vast empire, there a tribe, and all culture grades of the past surviving in the present—the state of savagery, stage of maternal kinship; the state of barbarism, stage of paternal kinship; state of civilization, stage of territorial law; state of enlightenment. stage of citizenship.
Again. the science of comparative religion has a. place for ethnology. After defining its terms, tracing each element of creed and eult to its logical sources, ethnology attempts to solve the problem how the white races, the brown races, the black races treat these themes. For example, taking the Greek pantheon as the climax of poly theism, the task is to find the corresponding no tion to each of its gods and ceremonies among the Teutonic. Celtic. and Mediterranean peoples, and passing outward and downward even to the low est races, to account for many absurdities in the higher religions.