Produced by Scott Pfenninger, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.This file was produced from images generously made availableby the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions.
Washington D. C. July 8, 1880
This little volume is the third of a series designed to promoteanthropologic researches among the North American Indians. The firstwas prepared by myself and entitled "Introduction to the Study ofIndian Languages," the second by Col. Garrick Mallery entitledIntroduction to the Study of Sign Language among the North AmericanIndians.
The following are in course of preparation and will soon appear.
Introduction to the Study of Medicine Practices among the North
American Indians
Introduction to the Study of Mythology among the North American
Indians
Introduction to the Study of Sociology among the North American
Indians
The mortuary customs of savage or barbaric people have a deepsignificance from the fact that in them are revealed much of thephilosophy of the people by whom they are practiced. Early beliefsconcerning the nature of human existence in life and after death andthe relations of the living to the dead are recorded in these customs.The mystery concerning the future love for the departed who were lovedwhile here, reverence for the wise and good who may after death bewiser and better, hatred and fear of those who were enemies here andmay have added powers of enmity in the hereafter—all these and likeconsiderations have led in every tribe to a body of customs ofexceeding interest as revealing the opinions, the philosophy of thepeople themselves.
In these customs, also are recorded evidences of the social conditionof the people, the affection in which friends and kindred are held,the very beginnings of altruism in primitive life.
In like manner these customs constitute a record of the moralcondition of the people, as in many ways they exhibit the ethicstandards by which conduct in human life is judged. For such reasonsthe study of mortuary customs is of profound interest to theanthropologist.
It is hoped that by this method of research the observations of manymen may be brought together and placed on permanent record, and thatthe body of material may be sufficient, by a careful comparativestudy, to warrant some general discussion concerning the philosophy ofthis department of human conduct.
General conclusions can be reached with safety only after materialsfrom many sources have been obtained. It will not be safe for thecollector to speculate much upon that which he observes. His owntheory or explanation of customs will be of little worth, but thetheory and explanation given by the Indians will be of the greatestvalue. What do the Indians do, and say, and believe? When these arebefore us it matters little whether our generalizations be true orfalse. Wiser men may come and use the facts to a truer purpose. It isproposed to make a purely objective study of the Indians, and, as faras po