While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
In the earliest part of man's history the subjects of his
discourse must have been almost wholly sensuous, and
therefore readily expressed in pantomime. Not only was
pantomime sufficient for all the actual needs of his
existence, but it is not easy to imagine how he could have
used language such as is now known to us. If the best
English dictionary and grammar had been miraculously
furnished to him, together with the art of reading with
proper pronunciation, the gift would have been valueless,
because the ideas expressed by the words had not yet been
formed.
That the early concepts were of a direct and material
character is shown by what has been ascertained of the roots
of language, and there does not appear to be much difficulty
in expressing by other than vocal instrumentality all that
could have been expressed by those roots. Even now, with our
vastly increased belongings of external life, avocations,
and habits, nearly all that is absolutely necessary for our
physical needs can be expressed in pantomime. Far beyond the
mere signs for eating, drinking, sleeping, and the like, any
one will understand a skillful representation in signs of a
tailor, shoemaker, blacksmith, weaver, sailor, farmer, or
doctor. So of washing, dressing, shaving, walking, driving,
writing, reading, churning, milking, boiling, roasting or
frying, making bread or preparing coffee, shooting, fishing,
rowing, sailing, sawing, planing, boring, and, in short, an
endless list.
Max Müller properly calls touch, scent, and taste the
palaioteric, and sight and hearing the neoteric senses, the
latter of which often require to be verified by the former.
Touch is the lowest in specialization and development, and
is considered to be the oldest of the senses, the others
indeed being held by some writers to be only its
modifications. Scent, of essential importance to many
animals, has with man almost ceased to be of any, except in
connection with taste, which he has developed to a high
degree. Whether or not sight preceded hearing in order of
development, it is difficult, in conjecturing the first
attempts of man or his hypothetical ancestor at the
expression either of percepts or concepts, to connect vocal
sounds with any large number of objects, but it is readily
conceivable that the characteristics of their forms and
movements should have been suggested to the eye—fully
exercised before the tongue—so soon as the arms and fingers
became free for the requisite simulation or portrayal. There
is little distinction between pantomime and a developed sign
language, in which thought is transmitted rapidly and
certainly from hand to eye as it is in oral speech from lips
to ear; the former is, however, the parent of the latter,
which is more abbreviated and less obvious. Pantomime acts
movements, reproduces forms and positions, presents
pictures, and manifests emotions with greater realization
than any other mode of utterance. It may readily be supposed
that a troglodyte man would desire to communicate the
finding of a cave in the vicinity of a pure pool, circled
with soft grass, and shaded by trees bearing edible fruit.
No sound of nature is connected with any of those objects,
but the position and size of the cave, its distance and
direction, the water, its quality, and amount, the verdant
circling carpet, and the kind and height of the trees could
have been made known by pantomime in the days of the
mammoth, if articulate speech had not then been established,
as Indians or deaf-mutes now communicate similar information
by the same agency.
The proof of this fact, as regards deaf-mutes, will hardly
be demanded, as their expressive pantomime has been so often
witnessed. That of the North American Indians, as distinct
from the signs which are generally its abbreviations, has
been frequently described in general terms, but it may be
interesting to present two instances from remote localities.
A Maricopa Indian, in the present limits of Arizona, was
offered an advantageous trade for his horse, whereupon he
stretched himself on his horse's neck, caressed it tenderly,
at the same time shutting his eyes, meaning thereby that no
offer could tempt him to part with his charger.
An A-tco-mâ-wi or Pit River Indian, in Northeastern
California, to explain the cause of his cheeks and forehead
being covered with tar, represented a man falling, and,
despite his efforts to save him, trembling, growing pale
(pointing from his face to that of a white man), and sinking
to sleep, his spirit winging its way to the skies, which he
indicated by imitating with his hands the flight of a bird
upwards, his body sleeping still upon the river bank, to
which he pointed. The tar upon his face was thus shown to be
his dress of mourning for a friend who had fallen and died.
Several descriptions of pure pantomime, intermixed with the
more conventionalized signs, will be found in the present
paper. In especial, reference is made to the Address of Kin
Chē-ĕss,
Nátci's Narrative, the Dialogue between Alaskan Indians, and
Na-wa-gi-jig's Story.
This site includes some historical
materials that may imply negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or
language of a particular period or place. These items are presented as
part of the historical record and should not be interpreted to mean that
the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes implied.
Sign Language
Among North American Indians Compared with
that Among Other Peoples and Deaf-Mutes,
1881
