Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human Race

Johnes, Arthur James, 1809-1871Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.3
Word count
486K words
Chapters
49

Tags

English Originals Language and Writing Human OriginsComparative LinguisticsScience EnlightenmentEvolution TheoryRacial ThoughtAcademic MonographAcademic StudyLinguistic Textual Criticism19th CenturyBritish Empire

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human RaceAuthor: Johnes, Arthur James, 1809-1871,Language: English, Class: P: Language and Literatures, Release Date: Feb 4, 2011

Editor's review

This nineteenth-century English work argues from a philological standpoint for the unity and recent origin of the human race, and belongs to the early intersection of comparative linguistics and anthropology. Its value lies not in conclusions that still hold today, but in showing how one era used linguistic evidence to address the question of origins: the author seeks to support the claims of human common descent and a short history through comparisons of vocabulary, grammar, and linguistic kinship. Reading such a text requires placing it back in its nineteenth-century intellectual context, attending both to its argumentative method and to the inferences limited by its era. For readers studying the history of linguistics, anthropology, or scientific thought, it is a primary source open to analysis; for general readers, it is more like a firsthand experience of observing the scholarly reasoning of an older age. The electronic edition is convenient for searching and excerpting, and suits close reading and citation checking.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and conclusion first to grasp the author's argumentative framework, then return to specific linguistic examples for close reading.
  2. Keep notes distinguishing the author's linguistic evidence from inferences limited by the era.
  3. Read alongside modern research on human origins to observe changes in problem awareness and method.
  4. The English sentences are often long; excerpt key sentences by paragraph and, when necessary, proceed section by section with a dictionary.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
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  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49

FAQ

Is this book suitable for understanding modern research on human origins? It is not suitable as a source of modern scientific conclusions. It is a nineteenth-century philological argument whose value lies in history and intellectual history, not in providing today's knowledge of human origins. Those concerned with modern research should turn to contemporary works in anthropology and genetics.
What language proficiency is needed to read this book? The book is in the original English, in a nineteenth-century academic style, with long sentences and examples drawn from multiple languages. A good command of English reading is recommended, along with a willingness to work through passages with a dictionary and notes.
How is the electronic edition best used? The electronic edition is convenient for full-text searching, excerpting, and citation checking, and suits close reading and organizing materials. It is advisable to annotate the argumentative structure and key examples while reading, for later reference when writing papers or tracing intellectual history.

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About the author

Johnes, Arthur James, 1809-1871 Author · British · 1809–1871

Johnes, Arthur James (1809–1871), was an English lawyer and writer remembered for a work on the origins of human language and race. His representative book, Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human Race, argues from a philological standpoint for the common descent and recent origin of humankind, combining comparative language study with racial questions and reflecting the strong mid-nineteenth-century British interest in language, ethnicity and human history. Public information about his life is limited, and details such as his education, posts and social activities cannot be reliably established; only one of his works is currently held in the collection. The book is nonetheless clearly focused and characteristic of its period, offering material for understanding contemporary philological and anthropological debate and possessing some reference value for the study of nineteenth-century intellectual currents.