Theories Entertained Respecting Indian Signs

In this paper it is not designed to pronounce upon theories, and certainly none will be advocated in a spirit of dogmatism. The writer recognizes that the subject in its novelty specially requires an objective and not a subjective consideration. His duty is to collect the facts as they are, and this as soon as possible, since every year will add to the confusion and difficulty. After the facts are established the theories will take care of themselves, and their final enunciation will be in the hands of men more competent than the writer will ever pretend to be, although his knowledge, after careful study of all data attainable, may be considerably increased. The mere collection of facts, however, cannot be prosecuted to advantage without predetermined rules of judgment, nor can they be classified at all without the adoption of some principle which involves a tentative theory. More than a generation ago Baader noticed that scientific observers only accumulated great masses of separate facts without establishing more connection between them than an arbitrary and imperfect classification; and before him Goethe complained of the indisposition of students of nature to look upon the universe as a whole. But since the great theory of evolution has been brought to general notice no one will be satisfied at knowing a fact without also trying to establish its relation to other facts. Therefore a working hypothesis, which shall not be held to with tenacity, is not only allowable but necessary. It is also important to examine with proper respect the theories advanced by others. Some of these, suggested in the few publications on the subject and also by correspondents, will be mentioned.

• Not Correlated with Meagerness of Sign Language

• Its Origin from One Tribe or Region

• Is the Indian System Special and Peculiar?

  • Comparisons with Foreign Signs

  • Comparison with Deaf-Mute Signs

• To What Extent Prevalent as a System

  • Once Probably Universal in North America

  • Mistaken Denial That Sign Language Exists

  • Permanence of Signs

  • Survival in Gesture

  • Distinction Between Identity of Signs and Their Use as an Art

  • Forced and Mistaken Signs

  • Abbreviations

• Are Signs Conventional or Instinctive?

• Classes of Diversity in Signs

  • Synonyms

  • Symmorphs

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Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared with that Among Other Peoples and Deaf-Mutes, 1881

Indian Sign Language