1 ETHNOGRAPHY AND EThNOLOGY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY John Howland Rowe University of California Berkeley7 Anthropology did not become an organized discipline until the first half of the nineteenth century, but many of its prohiems, ideas, and charac- teristic activities are very much older. In a paper read before the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Kroeber Anthropological Society in 1963 I argued that the beginnings of anthropology are to be sought in the Renaissance movement in Italy in the fifteenth century, and specifically in Renaissance archaeol- ogy and related activities. What we find in the flf'teenth century, however, is little mnore than a point of virew whiz^- made anthl'ropological observation possible, .he bcegiliings o an inte-rest in d?ifSerZnce s among men. In the sixteenth cenitury there was a great expansion of antrhropological observation, and we find the first attempts to classify and interpret ainthropological data. The subject of sixteenth centu.ry anthropol3gy is too complex to cover In a single paper, and wJhat I propose to do in. this on"e is to report on an aspect of it which las a special interest for the later hi'story of anthropology, namely sixt'?eenth century developments in ethnography and ethnology.1 It is a fact of some interest th.at the wo. d "a-1th1.1tropology" is oA sixteenth centu-Ury crigin. It is foreshadowed i'n the title of a Latin book on human anatomy published at Leipzig in !5jOl, thne Antropologium, or "dis- course on mant' of Magnus Hindt-,, the Elder. whe word ltan,hropology," as thle general name of a sbjc;t, corrmes, howe`r-- from anotther Rernaissance Latin form, ~~hrop ia,"stctudvy of rinn,?' Cwizrl i. f'rst at+ested in l506, appear- ing as the title of one section of a popiuiaa Latin encyclopaedia by the Italian wrilter Raffaele Maffei of Volterra. The section entitled Antoo- logia was a dictionary catalogue of famous men0 in l533 another Italian, Ga Yiz o Flavi'o Capella, published a small book of 'ta4 ian essays entitled Anthropologia which, according to the title page, dealt wlth "'the praise and excellence of men, the di gnity of women, the wretchedness of both, and the vanity of their efforts." Anthropologia was used again in 1596 by Otto Casmann as the title of a Latin work on psychiology and human anatomy. The English form "anthropology" dates from 1593, wlhen it was used in a work of dubious scholarship by a contentious British astrologist named Richard Harvey. Harvey used it to designate an Cattempt to define "normal" human behavior.2 None of these sixteenth century uses relates to a subject which would now be considered anthropologi1calO The wordO "ethnography" and "lethr.ologyl" were not coined before the late eighteenth century. When a sixteenth century writer proposed to deal with subjects which we would now label ethnographic he us-aally used some phrase like "life and customs" in the title of hils book. The closest six- teenth century equivalentu to "ethnology" was the phrase "moral history" used by Jose de Acosta in 1590 as a parallel t.o "natural history." The word "history" in these contexts has its original meaning of "research" or "a report on research," while "moral" Is derived from the Latin word mos, mori s, 1 c-,-stom 11 2 Many travel books and geographical treatises of the sixteenth century contain sections or passages on the customs and institutions of the areas dis- cussed, but there were also works the ethnographic content of which was of primary Importance. There was enough public interest in forelgn customs so that the fact that a book containled ethnographic information was sometimes emphasized in the title0 As examples we may note The life and location of the Circassians by Glorgio Iteriano (1502, in Italian); The beliefs, religion and customs of the Ethiopians by DaBmiao de Goes (1540, in Latin); The established laws, customs and other remarkable and memorable matters of the Kingdom of China and of the Indies, a collectlon of letters from Jesuit missionaries (1556, in FrenchK) Story of the most remarkable matters, rites and customs of the reat King2om of China by Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza (158,7in Spanish). The last work includes some informatlon on the Philippines. In numerous other cases, the ethniographic interest of a travel account was indlcated by a descriptive Subt.?itle. So in 1578 Jean de Lery, writing In French of h's journey to Brazil, offered to describe also "The customs and strange ways of life of the Amer,icarn sa%ages, wlth a colloquy of thelr language." The ethnographic information provlded in sixteenth century books is usually disappointing to a modern reader, however. It is seldom detalled or specific and is likely to be particularly weak on matters of family life, social organization, and curing. Ethnographi-c observations were made by amateurs, usu- ally inexperienced ones, and were published for the entertainment of a general public whlich was more concerned with curiosities than with acquiring systematic informat'ion. There were no learned societies to provide audiences with techni- cal knowledge and interests. A surprisingly high proportion of the ethnographic data published in the sixteenth centulry relates to the New World. There is some for Ethiopia, the Near East, Japan and China, but less than the frequency of European con- tacts with these areas or the popularlty of books about them would lead one to expect. The amount of informationi provlded for Afrlca south of the Sahara and for Indla 'is particularly di'sappointing. Although ethnographic information on the New World in sixteenth century books is somewhat more abundant, it is scattered, in the sense that there is relatively little information on any one people. Perhaps there is only one New World culture for which it would be possible to put together a reasonably full ethnography from sources published in the sixteenth century; I refer to the Tupionamba of the Brazilian coast, described by Andre Thevet, Hans Staden, Jean de Lery, Michel de Montaigne, Manoel da Nobrega, and others.3 It was not untll-the twentieth century, however, that anyone undertook to collect and organize the data on the TupinabL; as far as I can determine, no stay-at-home European writer in the sixteenth century who discussed the Tupinamba cited more than one of the sources on them. Those readers who are familiar with the very extensive slxteenth century sources on Mexico and Peru used by modern rstudents of these areas may be sur- prised at my claim that only the Tupinamba were reasonably well described in sixteenth century books. The point is that many of the best sixteenth century accounts of Mexlco and Peru, works such as those of Bernardino de Sahagun. Diego de Landa, and Cristobal de Molina, remalned in manuscript until modern times. 3 The development of higher standards of ethnographilc field work was seriously delayed by the fact that much of the best sixteen1th centtury work was not p-ub- lished promptly. Publication outlets were limited, and in Spain there was both an ecclesiast'ical and a civil censorship. It is worth noting that a substantial Dart of the ethnographlc reporting done In the sixteenth century was a form of applied anthropology, being carried out at the request of government officlals or in connection with mission programs. The Spanish government seems to have been the first one in the sixteenth century to recognize the importance of applied anthro- pology, probably as a result of the influence of the Italian scholar, Pietro Martire d'Anghiera (1h57-1526), who was influential at the Spanish court in the first quarter of the century. Unfortunately, secrecy, or at any rate avoidance of publicity, was a fundamental tenet of Spanish official policy, so the reports nade at government request were generally placed on file rather than published. One of the factors in the failure of the Portuguese to conquer more of India than they did may well 'have been th; Le lack of inter- est in applied anthropology displayed by Portuguese off'icials0 The Portu- guese in India never understood native social organization and custom well enough to be able to deal effectively with their colonial problems0 Europeans of the sixteenth cen-tury had scme ot her sources of ethno- graphic information besides wri.tten reports. Many m-tives of far countriLes were taken to Europe as slaves or captives, sometimes for the express p pose of exXhibiting them., For esmple.e, C-rtes to%rk a very large party of native Mexicans to Spain with him pi 1528, includding two, princes, eight jugglers, and twelve ball pla5yersA The jugglers were sent on to Rome where they performed for the Pope. F.i.f,ty Tup'namba we:re t.>?er to Rouen !n lO50 to. partjcipate i. a pageant put on tr -he city in Xc. <:I Lh.E Kino of France. A dPploetic m sion from Japan alled oih;' Pope in 1:858 and the envoys were objects of great yubl.ic in+erest. Dv, n- thic th,>r stay in Europe they were repeatedly qwctioned abcut; Japanese c-uszcns. 7 Ethno- graphic specimens were also collect'ed. Ferdin.arnd of Hia.,bpXg h ad C cI'l?- tion of Mexlcan carvings and featner work whchI was I at of the treasure Cortes had taken to Europe; part of this collection is still preserved in Vienna 8 Michel de Montaigne, who never visited America, ow-ned a number of Tupinaml)6 specimens, including a hammock, a sword ciubi, a wrist guard, and a stamping tube.9 Some of the ethnographic accounts published in the six- teenth century were illustrated with woodcuts or engravings. The pictures varied greatly in accuracy. The first accurate and informtive ones were the woodcuts accompanying Hans Staden's account of the Tupinamba, published in 1557. It is unusual in sixteenth century ethnographic accounts to find comparisons made with other contemporary native peoples; most men who made ethnographic notes had no prior experience of their own with non-European peoples and had not read earlier ethnographic accounts. On the other hand, since Greek and Latin literature was the basis of educaton, such accounts frequently included comparisons with Greek and Roman customs or with the customs of such peoples as the Scythians or the ancient Germans cn wthom information was available in Classlcal sourceso There were some sixteenth century books which -urported to be gen- eral comparative studies of particular aspects of culture. I have fotund comparatiove studies of di'vination, goverment burial customs, and dress which include contemporary ethnographic data 0 In all of those which I have seen9 however, the prinary comparison 's between sixteenth century European customs and institutlons and those recorded in Classlcal literature. The con- temporary ethnographic examples cited represent only a fractilon of those on which there was published information, and they are not central to the argu- ment. With all their limitatilons, however, these studies constitlute the beginnings of an attempt to determine the range of varilation of human behavior. The work wh'ich served sixteenth century readers as a standard general survey of customs throughout the world was The customs,, laws and rites of all peoples by Johamnn Boem, first published in Latin in 1520 and often reprinted and translated.11 The orlginal work was a selection of remarks on customs taken from the general histories availlable to the author, particularly the uncritical compilation of Marco Antonio Coccio, Enneades, 1498-150h. It covered only Europe, Asla and Africa and included few contemporary data. In some of the later editions, however, such as that of 1542, the authorIs cov- erage was supplemented by additional information derived from the explorations of the time0 In 1556 Francisco Tanara publ'ished a Spanish translation of Boem's work containlng a supplement on America of 190 pages0 Let us turn now to a consideration of ethnologlcal theory and inter- pretation in the sixteenth century0 In order to understand what happened it is essent ial to make a dist'inction between ethnological theory and social philosophy and to recognize that they represented separate intellectual tra- ditions in the sixteenth century, as, indeed, they continued to do until the second half of the nineteenth century. The tradition of social philosophy influenced the ethnological tradition from tine to time, but there was little influence 'in the other directiono Soci^al philosophy grew ott of the attempts of Greek philosophers, notably Plato ard Aristotle, to deal w.1th Problems of human behavrior and social instituitions by a logical argument whnich took for grarnted the values of Greek culture and the kinds of institutions with which the Greeks were familiar. The Classical tradition of social philosophy was revived in the Renaissance movement0 It maintained its traditional limitations in the six- teenth century and later, broadened only to the extent that the historical experience of Europe was taken into account and Christlan values were combined with Classical ones. Soclal philosophers did not regard ethnographic infor- mation on strange peoples as slgnificant to their endeavor, and they made little use of it. As an examnple of a social philosopher we may take Jean Bodin, a French writer of the sixteenth century who made important contributions to political theory. In a book on the problems of history published in t166 Bodin argued that the customs of men are so varied and so subject to change that there is no point in studying them0 The significant differences in human temperament are determined by climate and topography a notion which is ultimately derived from Greek sources, notably Hippocrates.12 The implication is that the way to take care of the problem of human differences Is to study physical geography, not anthropology0 Bodin's discussion of political theory is based on European experiences only, Anthropology starts with the notion that differences among men are significant, attempts to establish the facts of human variation, and approaches theoretical problems through systematic comparison. Ethnologi- cal theory., within this framework, must bear some relation to ethnographic observatioon. This is not to say that ethnological theory is uninfluenced by pre- conceived ideas and popular prejudices. When the men of the sixteenth century came to consider the variety of human behavior their thinking was deeply influenced by a set of traditional categories inherited from the Middle Ages and modified by ideas found 'in Classi cal literature. These categories were based on different kinds of distinctions and hence might overlap, but they provided a rough framework for classifying mankind. One of the favorite categories of mediaevral thoughlt about man was that of the savage, literally "forest dweller" (Latin silvaticus), called in German wilder Mann, "wild mn," "wild' here having the sense of "not tamed or domesticated." In mediaeval theory the savage was a naked man covered with hair who lived a solitary life in the forest, slept in caves or under trees, subsisted by hunting and gathering, and had no religion and no social and political organization0 He was a man who lived like a wild beast and hXad the qualities attributed to wild beasts, their virtues as well as their vlces. By calling attention to the more noble aspects of what was supposed to be savage character, a preacher could use his ex- ample to shame ordinary men. In origin the savage was a refugee from human society and could be reclaimed or tamed by kind treatment and education. The savage was a popular subject in European art of the twelfth to fif- teenth centuries3 3 The savage had become a firmly fixed stereotype before the discov- ery of America, and the accumulation of evidence about the actual varieties of mankind since then has introduced only minor modiflcations into the popular notion. The idea of the savage has had a persistent and pernicious influence both on ethnographic observation and on ethnological theory. The European explorers were much interested to find that the New World appeared to be full of "savages." 'For most slxteenth century Euro- peans the classic "savages"' came to be the Tupinamb6,, who wore not even a fig leaf and ate war captives. Visitors to Brazil, such as Andre Thevet, were impressed by the fact that the Tupinamba were not at all hairy, but for some reason they saw no particular significapce in the fact that these American "fsavages" lived in stockaded villages.14 In the logic of the Europeans it followed that, if the natives of the New World were savages, they must be men without law or government, and probably also without religion 15It made an unforgettable rhyme in French: sans roi, sans loi, sans foi . Some version of this phrase is found in almost every six- teenth century work which deals with American "savages." On the other hand, it was a mnatter of observation as well as expectation that the "savages" were more courageous and generous than most EuroDeans. Another important traditional category was that of heathen. This concept was derived from the Biblical Hebrew category of g5yim, "the nations," t"the gentiles," i.e., all non-Jews. The Hebrew word is trans- lated in the New Testament by the Greek word ethne, "nations." The 6 English word l"ethnic," as in "ethnic folkways," is derived from the adjec- tive form of this word. When the Christlans took over the category they tended to apply it to all peoples who were neither Jews nor Christians, although sometimes the Moslems were also excluded, on the grounds that they also worshipped the God of the Old Testament' Religion was the most impor- tant basis for the distinction between "us" and "them" in sixteenth century Europe, and "we" in a broad sense were Christians, while "they" were heathen. The word "nation" in sixteenth century literature frequently carried the Biblical meanlng of "heathen people" and could appropriately be applied to native peoples in the newly explored areas. There were statements in the Bible about the characteristics of the heathen, or gentiles, which helped to form the expectations of European travellers and readers. The ttabominations of the heathen" in the Old Testa- ment were idolatry, child sacrifice, divnatioon, consulting familiar spirits, and witchcnaftol6 Sa,rnlt Paul liste 7as gen This Is a general ethnological classification related to specific contemporary peoples. It is organized explicitly as a hierarchy of excel- lence with the people most like Christian Europeans at the top and the ones judged least like them at the bottom. The categories are borrowed from common sixteenth century usage, "brbarian" being used in the sense of "heathen" (the people for whose conversion Acosta was arguing), and the con- cepts of relative civility and savagery being used to subdivide the barbari- ans. Acosta had limited personal acqualntance with peoples in his third category and had obviously read little about them, so that the influence of traditional stereotypes is particularly clear in his treatment of this group. Acosta's scheme is so similar in principle and even in some of its details to Lewis H. Morgan's famous scheme of 1877 that It seems almost un- believable that there were-three centuries between them. In his work on missionary policy Acosta did not suggest that his ethnological classification represented an evolutionary sequence. However, in a companion work, The nature of the New World, written in Peru between 1577 and 1582 and published in the same volume with the one on missionary problems, Acosta argued that the ancestors of the American Indians were probably savages, and that the political organization found among some Indian na ions in the sixteenth century was a local development from savage origins.20 9 It should be noted that Acosta claimed this development only for the natives of America; he did not suggest that it applied to the Old World as well. It may be that he was unwllling to attempt an Old World application of his theory of development because to do so would irnvolve some contradic- tion of Biblical tradition. The rarratives of Genesis allowed for no stage of primeval savagery. Acosta argued that the descendants of Noah who migra- ted to America went by land, passing no more than a narrow strait, and that they became savage hunters in the course of their wanderings.27 Acosta's book of 1589 containing his treatise on mission policy and The nature of the New World was written in Latin, the international language ,~~~~~~~~~~~~, t.h.e triatoa lagug of sixteenth century scholarship. It was reprinted in 1595 at Salamanca, in 1596 at Cologne, and in 1670 at Lyon. Between 1587 and 1589 Acosta him- self translated The nature of the New World into Spanlish and expanded it into a much more comprehensive work entitled The natural and moral h'st of the Indies, the first edition of which appeared in90. The natural and moral h' sto ' was one of the most widely read and influentlal books of T time, There were at least three Spanish editions published before 1600, together with translations into Italian, French, and Dutch. The Dutch version was translated into German in 1601, while a Latin translation appeared in 1602 and an Engllsh one in 1604. it would be interesting to attempt to trace the influence of Acosta's ethnological ideas on seventeenth and eighteenth centurv thought, but the task would be difficult. Writers of that period did not necessarily feel impelled to c'.te thelr sources, and Acosta's scheme e-mbodied a substantlal amouat of l.oe which was the common property of sixteenth century E%rope0 Acosta was apparent-ly the first writer, wh-ho attptd to formulate a body of ethnological theory distinct from the tradition of social philos- ophy. He outlined a hierarchical classificaticn of ncn-Ers>ropean peoples based on the categories of European popular usage0 Then, perhaps partly under the influence of the nascent theory of progress, he turned the part of his scheme which related to America 'into an evolctconary sequene. It is particularly important to note that the categories of the classlficcation did not arise from detailed comparisons of ethnographic data but were derived from European popular conceptions into which Acosta fitted the meager data that he had. The idea of progress similarly was not based on the study of a continuous historical and archaeological record of the past but on limited historical data which were selected to fit the theory, on speculation, and on ethnocentric value judgments. In the situation prevailing in the sixteenth century it can, per- haps, be argued that any ethnological theory was better than none, and if so Acosta deserves great credit for an original combination of ideas which became the foundation of an important Intellectual tradition. It is hardly creditable to twentieth century anthropology,, however, that the popular prejudices of the sixteenth century still form the framework in which many anthropologists try to handle the problems of variation and change, 10 NCOTES 'A shorter version of this paper was read at the Eighth Annual Meet- ing of the Kroeber Anthropological Society, Berkeley, April 25, 1964. In addition to the works specifically cited, a general acknowledgment is due to the great Oxford English Dictionary for references which clarified the philo- logical problems involved in this study. I wish also to express my thanks to John F. Freenmn and Dorothy Menzel for helpful comments. Margaret Hodgen's 1964 book, Early anthropology in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, came into my hands only after the research for this paper was substant ally complete, and I found no reason to make changes in the argument after reading it, In so far as we have used the same references, I came to them independently. 2For comments on Harvey's significance, see Kendrick, 1950, p. 99. I refer specifically to Nobrega, 1955, pp. 442-446 (first published 1551). L1 4opez de Gomira, 1554, f. 283-283v. 5Dlaz del Castillo, 1632, ch. cxcv, ff. 226v-227. 6Denis, 1851, 7More than twenty publications resulting from the visit of the Japanese envoys are listed by Carayon, 1864, pp. 75-84k 8Nowotny, 1960. 9Montaigne, 1580, bko I, ch, xxxi (Des cannibales); 1962, tome I, p. 237. 10Peucer, 1560; Rornn 1575; Guichard, 1581; Boissard, 1581. 11Compare the discussions of Boem's work by Hodgen, 1953, and 1964, pp. 131-146o Bodin, 1951, p. 313. 13Bernhe imer, 1952, lkThevet, 1557, ch, xxxi, ff. 57v-58; 1878, pp. 151-152; Lery, 1880, ch. viii, tome I, ppo 123-124, 131-133. 15La Popeliniere, 1582, bk. III, f. ll-llv; compare Thevet, 1557, ch. xxvii, f, 51v; 1878, p. 134. 16Deuteronomy, xviii, 9-14; II Kings, xvi, 3; xvii, 8-12, 16-17; xxi, 2; II Chronicles, xxxiii, 2-7. t7Ephesians, iv, 17-31; I Thessalonians, iv, 5. Anonymous Scot, 1549, ch. xiii; 1872, po 106. 19Montaigne, 1580, bko I, cho xxxi (Des cannibales); 1962, tome I, p. 234, 20La Perriere, 1598. 21On the influence of Vitruvius on sixteenth century ideas of early man, see Panofsky, 1962, ppo 33-67. 22Lorant, 1946, ppo 185-224. 23Kendrick, 1950, pls. XII-XIII, pp. 123-124k 11 2hBury, 1932 25Acosta, 1589, De procuranda salute indorum, proemium, pp. 115-123. 26 Acosta, ;589, De natura novi orbis, bk. I, ch. xxv, pp. 70-71; 1590, bk. I, ch. xxv; 19h, p. 39. 27Acosta, 1589, De natura novi orbis, bk. I, ch. xx-xxi; 1590, bk. I, ch. xx-xxi; 1954, pp. 32-35 - REFERENCES CITED Only works actually clted in the text or notes are listed in this bibliography, except that I have included references to two studies (Atkinson, '935, and Hanke, 1959) which proved to be particularly helpful bibliographical gui des. The ethnological literature of the sixteenth century is far more extensive than the present blb'iography suggests. Acosta, Jose de 1589 De ratvra novi orbis lilri dvo, et de pronvlgatione evangelii, apvd barbaros, sive de procvranda indorvm salvte libri sex. Apud Guillelmum Foquel, Salmanticae. 1590 Historia natvral y moral delas Indias, en qve se tratan las cosas notables del cielo, y elementos, metales, plantas, y animales dellas: y los ritos, y ceremonias, leyes, y gouierno, y guerras de los indios. En caSa de Iuan de Leon, Seuilla. 1954 Obras del P. Jose de Acosta de la Compania de Jesous. Estudio preliminar y edicion del P. Francisco Yateos. Biblioteca de Autores Es-panoles desde 'a Fornacion del Lenguage hasta Nuestros Dias (continuacion), tomo 73. Ediciones Atlas, Madrid. Anonymous Scot 1549 The complaynt of Scotiande, byth ane exortatione to the estaits to be vigilante in the deffense of their public veil. Paris. 1872 The complaynt of Scotland . . . 1549, with an appendix of contem- porary English tracts . . . re-edited from the originals with introduction and glossary by James A. H. Murray. Early English Text Society, Extra Series, no. XVII. N. Tribner & Co., London. Atkinson, Geoffroy 1935 Les nouveaux horizons de la Renaissance frangaise. Librairie E. Droz, Paris. Bernhe imer, Richard 1952 Wild men in the Middle Ages; a study in arti, sentiment, and demor?ology. Harvard Univers ity Press, Cambridge. Bodin, Jean 1566 Met;hodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem. Apud Martinuum Juvenum, Parisiis. 1951 Oeuvres philosophiques de Jean Bodirn. Texte etabli, traduit et publie par Pierre Mesnard. Corpus General des Philosophes Frangais, Auteurs Modernes, tome V, 3. Presses Universitaires de France3 Paris. 12 Boem, Johann 1520 Omnnvm gentivm mores leges et ritvs ex mvltis clarissimis rervm scriptCoribus . . nuper coll ectcs. . . . In officina Sigismundi Grimm medicl, ac Marci Vuirsung, Augustae Vindelicorum. 1542 Omnium gentivm mores, leges et ritus, ex multis clarissimis rerun scriptoribus. Accessit libellvs de regionibus septentrionalibus, earumque gentium ritibus . O 0 ex Jacobo Zieglero. . . . Praeterea , Epistola Maximiliani Transiluani. . 0 0 De Molvccis insvlis, et aliis pluribus mirandis. In aedibus Joan. Steelsii, Antverpiae. Boissard, Jean Jacques 1581 Habitus variarun orbis gentium. Habiz de nations estranges. Trachten mancherley VIlcker des Erdskreytz. (publisher and place not given) 61 plates, Bury, John Bagnell 1932 The idea of progress; an inquiry into its origln and growth. Intro- duction by Charles A. Beard. The MacmillLan Company, New York. Capella, Galeazzo Flavio 1533 Ltanthropologia di Galeazzo Capella. ?S ovvero ragionamento della natura humana la quale contiene le lodi e eccellenza degli uomini, la dignita delle donne, la miseria d'amendue, e la vanita degli studj loro. Heredi d'Aldo Rormano, & d'Andrea d'Asola, Venezia. Carayon, Auguste 1864 Bibiographie historique de la Comr.pagnie de Jesus, ou catalogue des ousvrges relatifs a lthistoire des Jesuites depuis leur origine jusqu'a nos jours. Auguste Durand, Libraire, Paris; Barthes and Lowellj London; A. Franck'sche Buchhandlung,9 Lelpzigo Casmann, Otto 1594 Psychologia anthropologica; slue anlmae hvmanae doctrina. . . Apud G. Antonium, Impensis P. Fischeri, fr., Hanoviae. 1596 Seguida pars anthropclogiae:0 hoc est. fabrica humani corporis methodlce descripta. Apud G. Antonium, imLpensis P. Fischeri, fr., Hanoviae. Coccio, Marco Antonio, called Sabellicus 1498 Enneades Marci Antonii Sabellici ab orbe condito ad inclinatione imperi'i Romani. Venetiis, 1504 Secunda pars enneadum Marci Anton;i Sabellici ab inclinatione Romani imperii usque ad annum MoD.IIII. Per nagistrum Bernardinum Vercellensem, Venetiis. Denis, Ferdinand 1851 Une fe'te bresil'enne celebree a Rouen en 1550, suivie d'un fragment du XVIe siecle roulant sur la theogonle des anciens peuples du Bresll et des poesies en langue tupique de Chrlstovam Valente. J. Techener, Libraire, Paris. (title page dated 1850) Diaz- del Castillo, Bernal 1632 Historla verdadera de la conqvista de la Nueua-Espana. En la Imprenta del Reyno, Madrid. Goes, Damiao de 1540 Fides, religio, moresque Aethiopum sub i'mperio Pretiosi Joannis . . degentlum, una cum enarratione confoederationis . . . inter ipsos Aethiopun imperatores, & reges Lusitanae initae . . . aliquot item epistolae. . . . Deploratio Lappianae gentis. Ex officina R. Rescii Lovaniie 13 Gonzalez de Mendoza, Juan 1585 Historia de las cosas nias notables, ritos, y costvmbres, del gran reyno de la Chilna, sabldas assi por los libros delos miesmos Chinas, como por relacion de religiosos, y otras persoras, que an estado en el dicho reyno. Con vn itinerario del nueuo mundo. A costa de Bartholome Grassi, Roma. Guichard, Claude 1581 Funerailles et diverses manieres d'ensevelir des Romains, Grecs et autres nations, tant anciennes que modernes. J. de Tournes, Lyon. Hanke, Lewis 1959 Aristotle and the Amelrican Indians; a study in race prejudice in the modern world. Henry Regnery Company, Chlcago. Harvey, Richard 1593 Ph'iladelphvs- or, a defence of Brutes, and the Brutans history. Iohn Wolfe, LondonO Hodgen, Margaret Trabue 1953 Johann Boemus ('.n q(0O): Pr early anthropologist. American Anthropologist, vol. 55, no. 2, Aprill-June, pp. 284-9h. Menasha. 1964 Early anthropology in the slxteenth and seventeenth centuries. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. Hundt, Magnus, the eider 150; Antropologium de homiris dlgnitate, natura, et proprietatibus, de elementis, partibus et mernbris humani corporis. De juvamentis nocumentis, accidientibus vltlis, remediis, et physionomia ipsorum. o o Per baccalarlum Wolfgangum Monacensem, Liptzick. Iteriano, Glorgio 1502 La vita: & sito di Z'cli, chiamiti Ciarcassi: historia notabile. Apud A lIdum Nanut.itmu, Vermeti 'Is . Jesuits 1556 L institvtion des loix, covstvmes et avtres choses merueilleuses & memorables tant du royaume de la Chine que des Indes contenues en plusieurs lettres missiues enuoyees aux religieux de la Compagnie du Nom de Iesus. Traduictes d'litalien en francoys. Chez Sebastien Nyuelle libraire,, Pariso Kendrick, Thonas Downing 1950 British antiquity. Methuen & Co., Ltd., London. La Perriere, Guillaume de 1555 -Le miroir polit icqve, oeu vre non momins utile que necessaire a tous monarches, roys, princes, seigneurs, rnagistrats. M. Bonhomnme, Lyon. 1598 The mirrovrr of policie. A worke no lesse profitable than neces- sarne for all magistrates, and gouernours of estates and commonweales. Printed by Adam Islip,, London. La Pope1ini ere, Henril Lancelot-Voi's5in , sieur de 1582 Les trois mondes. Par le seilgnevr de la Popelliniere. A l'oliuier de Pierre I'Huillier, Paris. 14 LeRoy, Loys, called Regius 1575 De la vicissitvde ov variete des choses en l'vnivers, et concvrrence des armes et des lettres par les premieres et plus illustres nations du monde, depuis le temps ou a commence la ciuilite, & memoire humaine iusques a present. Plvs s'il est vray ne se dire rien qvi nlayt este dict-parauanto & qu'il conuient par propres inuentions augmenter la doctrine des anclens, sans slarrester seulement aux versions, expositions, corrections, & abregez de leurs escrits. Chez Pierre 1'Huillier, Paris. Lery, Jean de 1578 Histoire dlvn voyage fait en la terre dv Bresil, avtrement dite Amerique. Contenant la nauigation, & choses remarquables, veue's sur mer par l'aucteuro le comportement de Villegagnon, en ce pais la. Les meurs & fagcns de v'iure estranges des sauuages ameriquains: au-ecv colloque de ieur langage. Ensemble la description de plusieurs animaux, arbres, herbes, & autres choses singulieres, & du tout inconues par deja, dont on xerra les somnaires des chapitres au commencement du liure. Potzr Antoilne Chuppin., La Rochelle. 1880 Histoire dgun voyage faict en la terre du Bresil. Nouvelle edition avec une introduct.i- R ies notes par Paul Gaffarel. Alphonse Lemerre, Editeur, Paris. 2 vols. Lopez de Gonara Franc i sco 552 Primera y segunda parte de la historia general de las Indias con todo el descubrimiento y cosas notables que han acaecido dende que se gararon asta el a'no de 1551. Con la conqpulista de Mexico y de la Nueua Espana. A costa de Miguel 9apila, garagoga. 554 Historia de Mexico, con el descvbrimlento dela Nueua Espa?'a, conquistada por el muy illustre y valeroso princlpe don Fernando Cortes, Marques del Valle. Por Iuan Bellero, Anvers. (part 2 of the 1552 work) Lorant-, Stefan 1946 The New World; the first pictures of America, nade by John White and Jacques LeMoyne and engraved by Theodore de Bry, with contem- porary narratives of the Huguenot settlement in Florida, 1562-1565, and the Virginia Colorny, 1585-1590, edited and annotated by Stefan Lorant. Duell, Sloan & Pearce, New York. Maffei, Raffaele 1506 Commentariorum urbanorum liber prilmus [XXXVIII]. Per Johannem Besicken, Roma. Montaigne, Michel de 1580 Les essais de messire Mlchel, seigneur de Montaigne. Chez Simon Mi llanges Bourdeaus. 2 vols. 1962 Essais. Adition conforme au texte de l'exemplalre de Bordeaux avec les additions de ledition posthumne, les princ ipales variantes, une introduction, des notes, et un index par Maurice Rat. tditions Garm'ier Freres, Paris. 2 vols. Nobrega, Manoel da 1955 Cartas do Brasil e mais escritos do P. Manuel da Nobrega (opera omnia), com introdusao e notas historicas e crlticas de Serafim Leite S. I. Acta Universitat'is Conimbrigensi's. Coimbra. 2 . . t96y, 1960 nIarl A. Mexikanische Kostbarkeiten aus Kunstkammern der Renaissance. Museum fUr VWdlkerkunde, Wien. fItnfsky, Erwin 1962 Studies in iconology; humanistic themes in the art of the Renaissance. Harper Torchbooks, The Academy Library, TB 1077. Harper & Row, Publishers, New York and Evanston. Peucer, Kaspar 1560 Commentarius de praecipuis generibus divinationum, in quo a prophetijs autoritate diuina traditis & a physicis coniecturis discernuntur artes et imposturae diabolicae. Excudebat I. Crato, Witebergae. Roinin, Jeronimo 1575 Repvblicas del mvndo, del Canto, Medina del divididas en XXVII libros. Por Francisco Campo. 2 vols. Rowe, John Howland IMs. The Renaissance foundations of anthropology. Read at Seventh Annual Meeting of the Kroeber Anthropological Berkeley, April 6, 1963. the Soc iety, Staden, Hans 1 57 Warhaftig Historia vnd Beschreibung eyner Landtschafft der wilden, nacketen, grimmigen Menschenfresser Leuthen, in der Newenwelt America gelegen, vor und nach Christi Geburt im Land zu Hessen unbekannt, bisz uff dise ij nechst vergangene Jar, 0 . . Bei Andres Kolben, Marpurg. 1928 Hans Staden; the true history of his captivity, 1557, translated and edited by Malcolm Letts, with an introduction and notes. The Broadway Travellers. George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., London. Taiara, Francisco 1556 El libro de las costvmbres de todas las gentes del mvndo, y de las Indias. Tradvzido y copilado por el bachiller Francisco Thasmra. En casa de Martin Nucio, Anvers. Thevet, Andre 1557 Les singvlaritez de la France Antarctiqve, avtrement nommee Amerique: & de plusieurs terres & isles decouuertes de nostre temps. Chez les heritiers de Maurice de la Porte, Paris. 1878 Les singularitez de la France Antarctique. Nouvelle edition avec notes et commentaires par Paul Gaffarel. Maisonneuve & Cie., Libraires-tditeurs, Paris. V1illalon, Cristobal de 1539 Ingeniosa comparacion entre lo antiguo y lo presente. . . . En la qual se disputa quando ouo mas sabios, agora o en la antiguedad. Y para en prueua desto se traen todos los sabios & inuentores antiguos y presentes en todas las sciencias y artes. Inpresa por maestre Nicholas Tyerri impressor, Valladolid. APPEINDIX The ethnological theory of Jose de Acosta; selections from his writings translated from the original languages by John Howland Rowe. I From the introduction to How to procure the saivation of the Indians, writ- ten in 1576-77 and published ln 1589 riginal in Latin). It is a popular error to treat the affalrs of the Indies as if they were those of some farm or mean village and to think that, because the Indies are all called by a single name, they are therefore of one nature and kind, O ID The nations of Indians are 'innumerable, and each of them has its own distinct rites and customs and needs to be taught in a different way. I am not properly qualified to handle the problem9 since a great many peoples are unknown to me, while even if I knew them well it would be an immense task to discuss them all one by one. I have therefore thought it proper to speak primarily of the Peruvians in this work, so that what I write may be more applicable to all barbarians. I have done so for two reasons, the first of which is that these provinces of Peru are better known to me, so that I can speak of them with greater certainty, while the second is that this kind of Indians has always seemed to me to have, as it were, an intermediate status, by comparison wlth which the extremes can be more easlly Judged. For al- though all those barbarians who have been discovered in our time by the Spanish and Portzguese o e o are called Indians, and although all of them are without the light of the Gospel and are alien to human Institutions, they are nevertheless not all of the same order. "Indian" differs greatly from OIndus,9 as I may say in Jest, one barbarian is far superior to another. Approved authors define "barbarians" as persons who reject right reason and the common usage of men (St. Thomas, on the Epistle to the Romans, ch. 1, lect. 5, and I Corinthians, 14, lect. 2). Hence the better known writers commonly speak of barbaric stupidity, barbaric wildness, and also barbaric deeds of strength, qualities which are far removed from the usage of other men and have little or no share of wisdom and proper reason. All the barbarians of the New World were, I believe, called "Indians" because to the ancients India was the very remote region where the lands of the world were thought to come to an end, a country to which Alexander the Macedonian and Trajan Caesar penetrated, and which religious and secular writers mention with great respect, as if they were speaking of the end of the world. Following their example, it seems to me, our people transferred the name to the peoples whom they had newly discovered. At first, however, the western barbarians were not called Indians but "islanders" or "Antille- ans." Although the provinces, nations and kinds of these people are very numerous, it seems to me that there are three classes, as it were, of barbarians, differing greatly from one another, to which these Indian nations can in general be reduced. The first class includes those who do not diverge greatly from right reason and the usage of mankind. These are for the most part people who 16 17 have a stable state organization (respublica), public laws, forti fied cities, respected magistrates, secure and prosperous commerce, and, most important of all, the notable use of letters. Wherever literary traditil and books exist, the people are more humane and especially politic. The foremost people of this kind appears to be the Chinese. I have seen the written characters, which are very much like the Syriac ones. The Chine, are reported to flourish greatly, with an abundance of books, splendid academies, authoritative laws and magistrates, and magnificent public woi Next to them are the Japanese, and then the greater part of the province. of the East Indies, to whlch I do not doubt that Asiatic and European in, tutions formerly penetrated. These people, although they are in actual fact barbarians and di: in many respects from what is right and from matural law, should neverth less be called to the salvation of the gospel in the same way in which t] Greeks and Romans and the rest of the peoples of Asia and Europe were in earlier times called by the apostles. They are noteworthy both for thei: power and for having some hurmn wirsdom and should be overcome and broughi under the sway of the Gospel mainly by their own reason, God working wilt] them. If you undertake to subject them to Christ by force and violence will accomnplish nothing except to r ender them exceedingly hostile to Christian lawo In the second class I include those barbarians who, although the, do not know the use of letters or have written laws or philosophical or civil studies, nevertheless have their own regular magistrates, a state organization, populous and stable settlements where they maintain their polity, military leaders and military organization, and some solemnity il their rellgion. In short, they are governed by some degree of human rea: Of this kind were our Mexicans and Peruvians, whose empires, state organ ation, =laws and institutions anyone can justly adm,ire0 Unbelievable as it may seem, the Peruviar0s made up for their lacl of letters with so much ingenuity that they were able to record stories, lives, laws, and even the passage of time and numerical calculations by means of certain signs and aids to the memory which they had devised and which they call quipos. Our people with their letters are commonly unab to match the ski'll of the Peruv'ians with these devices. I am not at all certain that our written numerals make counting or dividing more accurat than their signs do, It is altogether adminrable how falthfully they pre serve the memory of even insignlficant details for a long time by means i their quipos. However, these people also deviate much from right reason and from the common usage of manklnd. This class is widely distributed and includes in the first place empires, such as that of the Ingas was, then lesser kingdoms and princip; ities, like most of those governed by caciques, and thlrd, governments w: public magistrates created by common agreement, such as those of the Arai canians, the inhabitants of Tucapel and most of the rest of Chile. All have in common the characteristics that they live in towns instead of roe ing around like wild beasts, that they have defini'te judges and governor: and that their laws apply to everyone. However, these people have such diverse and monstrous customs, rites, and laws, and there is so much license for violent behavlor among the sub.ects, that. unless thev are under the rule of a superior power ai 18 authority, it seems unlikely that they will accept the light of the Gospel and a life worthy of freeborn men, or, if they do accept it at first, they will not easily persevere in it. The task itself, therefore, requires, and the authority of the Church directs, that Christian princes and magistrates be justly set over those who are converted to Christian life. This must be done in such a way, however, that the people are permltted free use of their goods and property and allowed to retain those of their laws which are not contrary to nature or to the Gospel. The third and last class of barbarians comprises uncounted nations of men in different regions of the New World. It includes savage men like wild beasts, having scarcely anything of human feeling, without law, without a king, without concert, stable magistracy, or organized government, chang- ing their places of residence frequently or having fixed ones which at most resemble the dens of wild animals or enclosures for cattle. Here belong in the first place all the people whom we call Carybes [cannibals], who have no other occupation than cruelty, are ferocious to all strangers, live on human flesh., and wear no garments, scarcely coverlng their manhood. Aris- totle referred to this kind of barbarians when he wrote th-at they could be hurnted lke wild beasts and subjugated by force. There are innumerable hordes of such people in the New World, for emmple the Chunchos, the Chiriguana, the Moxos, and the Iscayclngas, whom we i'n Peru know as neigh- bors; also most of the Brazillans and, according to report, the people of nearly the whole of Florida. Also in this class belong those barbarians who, while not cruel like tigers or panthers, nevertheless differ little from cattle; they are also naked and are timi. d and given over genemally to the most abominable vlces of Venus or even of Adonis [i.e., heterosexual and homosexual behavior]. Of this kind are said to be the people whom we call Moscas in the New Kingdom [i.e., the Chibcha i- Colombial, the mixed multitude of people of Cartagena and of its entire eGast, those who inhabIt the great plains of the immense river of Paraguay, and the numerous peoples who hold the infinite tracts between the two oceans not yet fully explored but notorious by report. In the East Indies many of the islanders, such as the Moluccans, seem to be of this kind. Here also belongs another kind of tame barbarian, but one of very scanty feeling. These people seem to be somewhat superior, displaying some rudiments of state organization but havlng laws and worshlp as if in jest. Of this kind are said to be those who dwell among the innumerable islands called the Solomons, reported to lie adjacent to the greatest of continents [the supposed great southern continent]. All these men or near men must be taught human ways, so that they may learn to be fully men. They need to be instructed like children. If they can be led to better things voluntarily by coaxing, so much the better; if not, the task should not be abandoned. If they resist their salvation and oppose their teachers and physiclans with violence, they should be re- strained by proper force, so that they do not hinder the spread of the Gospel. They must be confined to ensure their submission and removed from the forests to cities and human life, thus being, as it were, compelled to enter the Kingdom against their will (Luke 14) . It Is not proper to Judge all Indian peoples by the same standard, unless we want to make serious mistakes. Cupidity and tyranny should not 19 be allowed to master the Gospel, but it is equally harmful to set the idle theories of philosophers who have had no experience of the situation ahead of the tested faith and certain experience of the facts themselves. II From Bk. I, ch. xxv of The nature of the New World, written between 1577 and 1582 and published inl39 iriginal in Latinho I devoted much time to enquiring whether any report existed among these barbarians as to whence their first ancestors had migrated to these parts, but I was so fir from being able to obtain irnformation on the matter that they think rather that they were born and created in this New World, unless they are restrained by the Catholic belief that all kinds of men proceed from a single origin (Acts 17). Famous authors maintain by plausible conjectures that for a very long time these barbarians had no kings nor any regularly constituted state organization but lived promiscuously in bands after the fashion of the Floridans, the Brazilians, the Chiriguana and numerous other Indian nations, who have no regular kings but hastily improvise leaders as the fortune of war or peace requires and try out whatever behavior lust and anger suggest. With the passage of time, however, men outstanding for strength and dili- gence began to rule by tyranny, as Nimrod did in times past. Increasing gradually [in power], they constituted the state organization which our people found among the Peruvians and Mexicans, an organizatlon which, though barbarous, was very different from the barbarism of the rest of the Indians. Reason itsel,I therefore, leads to the conclusion that this savage kind of men has proceeded principally firom barbarous and fugitive men., (Acosta's own Spanish version of this passage published in 1590 differs in signif'icant details from the earlier Latin one . JHRe) III From the prologue to the Moral History, in The natural and moral histor of the Indies, written in 1588-89 and published original in Spanish) Havring treated that which pertains to the natural history of the Indies, the remainder of the work will deal with their moral history; that is, with the customs and deeds of the Indianso o 0 a If anyone should wonder at some of the rites and customs of the Indians and despise them as ignorant and stupid or detest them as inhuman and diabollcal, let him observe that among the Greeks and Romans who former- ly ruled the world we find either the same customs or other similar ones, and sometimes worse, as he can readily learn not only from our [Christian] authors, Eusebius of Caesaria, Clement of Alexandria, Theodoret of Cyrrhus and others, but also from their own [pagan ones]., such as Pliny, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Plutarch. For, since the master of all unbelief is the Prince of Darkness, it is nothing new to find among unbelievers cruel- ties, filthiness, nonsense and madness appropriate to such teaching and instruction, It is true, of course, that in worth and natural knowledge the ancient pagans greatly excelled these of the New World, although things worthy of remembrance were found among these also; on the whole, most of their affairs are those of barbarous peoples who lacked not only the super- natural light but also philosophy and natural doctrine.