Identifier: ridpathshistoryo01ridp (find matches)
Title: Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men ..
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history Ethnology
Publisher: New York, Merrill & Baker
Contributing Library: Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston University

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wn posing theory,ancestry and the reality of the age ofgold. But, on the other hand, manyreasons may be given for rejecting suchbelief and putting in its place the hy-pothesis of an ascent from barbarisminstead of a descent from heroes, Titans,and gods. The principal arguments in 380 GREAT RACES OF MANKIND. favor of the theory of savagery as the original condition of mankind may bestated as follows; i. Our first actual historical knowl-edge reaching into the past touches onlyBackward look conditions of barbarism,of history reach- To tj historian or ethnol- es barbaric be-ginnings, ogist the primeval state of man, as seen from his point of view, ap- of progress and development have, mani-festly, been borne forward by evolution-ary forces out of barbarian conditionsonly a little more remote than the peo-ples themselves. Such nations as theprimitive Greeks were evidently result-ant from an agglomeration of semicivil-ized tribes, who, settling down frommigratory habits, entered into union
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BARBARIAN LIFE ILLUSTRATED.—Chase in the Age of Bronze.—Drawn by Riou. pears to be one of savagery. It is truethat many nations are discovered in thefar horizon of antiquity that on our ear-liest acquaintance with them appear al-ready in a state of intellectual activity andswift progress toward the civilized formsof life. But close scrutiny will discoverjust.behind them, a lower tribal condition,and behind that a still lower. In otherwords, the peoples who on our first ac-quaintance with them appear in a state with each other and began to developinto rational activities. So also of theRoman gens in Latium and other partsof the Italic peninsula. All this is a statement of the case as itstands in the backward vision of the his-torian or ethnologist. His actual ac-quaintance with the races of men cannot well penetrate beyond the conditionsof savagery which he sees, and ascend toa primeval of intellectual elevation and PRIMEVAL MAN.—CONDITIONS OF SAVAGE LIFE 381 social happiness whi

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