Download or read book Address by Frederic Wars Putnam written by and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-02-08 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Address by Frederic Wars Putnam: The Retiring President of the American Association for the Advancement-of-Science, Columbus Meeting Fifty-First Anniversary, August, 1899 After calling attention to the fact that a similar condition exists among certain peoples of the Pacific Islands, he writes: Whether this code of descent came out of Asia or originated upon this continent is one of the questions incapable of proof and it must rest, for its solution, upon the weight of evidence or upon probable induction. Its existence among American races whose languages are radically different, and without any traditional knowledge among them of its origin, indicates a very ancient introduction and would seem to point to Asia as the birthplace of the system. It would be interesting to follow the succeeding meetings of the Association and note the recurring presentation of views which the quotations I have given Show to have been most seriously discussed over a generation ago. An historical review of the literature of American anthropology during the present century would also be interesting in this connection. It is probable, however, that a review of this literature for the first half of the century would reveal the fact that the writers, with here and there a notable exception, were inclined to theorize upon insufficient data and devoted little time to the accumula tion of trustworthy facts. The presentation and discussion of carefully observed facts can almost be said to have begun with the second half of the century, and this is the only part of the subject that now commands serious attention. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.