Man and His Migrations

Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon), 1812-1888Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 372K words
Chapters: 38

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.Man and His Migrations by R. G. LathamAuthor: Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon), 1812-1888,Language: English, Class: GN: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation: Anthropology, Release Date: Jan 6, 2014

Editor's review

This book is an early nineteenth-century study of human migrations by the British scholar Robert Gordon Latham, now made available as a free eBook by Project Gutenberg. Writing at the intersection of geography and anthropology, the author traces the movement of different peoples across historical periods and their relationship to their geographic environments. As a Victorian academic text, its value lies not only in its specific conclusions but in the questions and argumentative methods of anthropology in its formative period. The discussion of links among language, physical characteristics, and distribution allows today's readers to see the framework and limits of early migration theory. It is best read as a document in the history of scholarship: attend both to how the author organizes evidence and to the inferences that bear the marks of their time. Suitable for readers interested in the history of anthropology, historical geography, or nineteenth-century intellectual history, for close comparative reading in a quiet setting.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the history of anthropology and early migration theory
Scholars studying nineteenth-century geographical and ethnographic literature
Readers who enjoy public-domain academic classics and can accept an older prose style
History enthusiasts seeking to understand Victorian ideas about human distribution

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting the latest migration evidence from modern genetics or archaeology
Readers seeking accessible popular-science narrative or light reading
Beginners who find nineteenth-century academic English difficult

Reading tips

Read the table of contents and conclusion first to grasp the author's framework, then return to the evidence in each chapter.
Keep a world map at hand to follow the ethnic distributions and migration routes mentioned in the book.
Read alongside a modern general history of anthropology, noting differences of era and changes in theory.
Take notes on obsolete terminology and look it up in batches rather than pausing at every word.

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.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for beginners in anthropology to read directly?

Not really for complete beginners. This is a nineteenth-century academic text whose terminology and argumentative style differ considerably from contemporary anthropology textbooks, and readers without background knowledge may easily get lost. It is better to read a modern general history of anthropology first and then approach it as a document in the history of scholarship, which will make the reading more rewarding.

Do the migration views discussed in the book still hold today?

Some specific conclusions have been revised or superseded by modern archaeology, linguistics, and genetic research, but the questions the book raises about the relationship between geographic environment and human movement remain worth discussing. It should be read as a historical document from the discipline's formative period rather than as current research findings.

What should readers keep in mind when reading the electronic edition?

This is a public-domain eBook from Project Gutenberg, set mainly in plain text, and may lack modern annotations and illustrations. It is advisable to use reading software that supports dictionary lookup and annotation, and to supplement the text with maps and background materials to make up for the limited supporting information in this older electronic text.

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About the author

Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon), 1812-1888 Author

R. G. Latham (Robert Gordon Latham, 1812–1888) was an English philologist and ethnologist; public information on his life and career is limited. Eight of his works are held in this collection, spanning English language studies and ethnology. His linguistic works, such as A Handbook of the English Language and The English Language, discuss English grammar, vocabulary and historical development. His ethnological writings, including The Ethnology of the British Islands, The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies, The Ethnology of Europe, Man and His Migrations and The Natural History of the Varieties of Man, examine human variation and migration through physical, linguistic and geographical evidence. Opuscula collects his essays chiefly philological and ethnographical. His writing is marked by comparative scope and empirical description, leaving useful reference material for nineteenth-century English studies and anthropology.