The Advent of Man in America (Pamphlet)

Description

Author: de Quatrefages, Armand (1810-1892)

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution

Pub Date: 1892

Binding: Paperback

Condition: Fair.  Binding tight.  No bends or folds.   This report was excised from the 1892 Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, which was falling apart.  I had this report, and several others, rebound in paperback.  One repaired tear on first page of report.

Notes: Pamphlet.  de Quatrefages was a French biologist, a contemporary and correspondent with Charles Darwin.  He was critical but friendly with Darwin, and thought “natural selection” should actually be called “natural elimination.”  Rather than accept the religious theories common to the day, de Quatrefages examines the spread of mammals over the globe, and says “Hey, man is a mammal too.”  “I ask the anthropologists to imitate the geologists: I invite them to inquire how and by what way the most distant peoples have radiated from the center of the first appearance of man to the extremities of the globe.  I am not afraid to predict brilliant discoveries to those who will set themselves seriously to the study of the numerous and well-established migrations.  In this the past permits a glimpse into the future.” (pg. 517).  Arguably a foundational document for human migrations over the globe.