Ethnology maybe defined as that branch of mod- ern science which treats of the various nations of the earth with respect to their races, i. e. their relative origin, and their linguistic and social affinities ; and it is thus distinguished from political geography, which discusses their association xmder their several civil governments. In the Bible, this subject, like all other scientific questions, is rather touched upon incidental- \y as connected with the history of mankind than in any formal and exact manner; yet the information thus affiirded is of inestimable value, being, in fact, the only trustworthy clew to guide the investigator througli the labyrinth in wliich later complications, and especially recent speculations, have involved the whole matter. Infidelitj' has striven hard to impugn the statements of Scripture on this ground especially ; and it is therefore satisfactory to know that the most candid and general researches strongly tend to corrob- orate the positions of Holy Writ relative to all the main points involved in the discussion. These, so far as the Bible is directly concerned, all centre in one cardinal topic, the unity of the human race ; and they bear upon this chiefly' in two lines of argument, name- ly, 1st, the analogous and common elements of various languages, showing an origin from one source ; and, 2dh', the manner in which men are distriliutcd, or, rather, grouped, over the surface of the earth, as illus- trating the ethnological chart laid down in the tenth chapter of Genesis. This last onh', or " the Dispersion of Nations,^^ we propose to discuss in the present article, referring the other two to the article Adam, and, espe- cially, the article IMan, and articles there referred to ; Tongues (Confision of), and other articles there re- ferred to. For the pliysiological part of the argument we refer to the researches of Blumenbach, Dr. Prichard in his elaborate volumes on this subject, the notes in J. Pye Smith's Scripture and Geology, and a dissertation by Samuel Forre}', 51. D., entitled The Jfosaic Account of the Un'tij of the Human Race confirmed by the Natu- ral History of the American Aborigines, in the American Biblical IiCposilory, Juh% 1843. For a complete sjTiop- tical view of the present races of men, see Prichard's
Ethnological Maps (London, 1843, fol.). The follov.'ing account is cliiefly compiled from Kitto, s. v. Nations.
I. Foxt of an early Dissemination of the Race. — . Many obvious reasons incline us to suppose that the small number of mankind which divine mercy spared from the extirpation of the Deluge, eight persons, forming at the utmost five families, would continue to dwell near each other as long as the utmost stretch of convenience would permit them. The undutiful con- duct of Ham and his fourth son cannot well be assign- ed to a point of time earlier than twenty or thirty 3'ears after the Flood, !»o long, at least, family affec- tion and mutual interests would urge the children of Noah not to break up their society. The dread of dangers, known and unknown, and every day's expe- rience of the benefit derived from mutual aid, would strengthen other motives. It is evident from Gen. xi, 10-lG, that about ICO years, according to the He- brew text, were spent in this state of family propin- quity, yet with a considerable degree of proximate dif- fusion, which necessity would urge ; but the dates of the Septuagint, without including the generation of the post-diluvian Cainan (q. v.), give 400. The He- brew period, much more the others, will afford a suffi- cient time for such an increase of mankind as would render an extensive outspread highlj' expedient. A crowded population would be likelj' to furnish means and incentives to turbulence on the one hand, and to some form of tj'ranny on the other. Many of the un- occupied districts ■would become dangerously unwhole- some by stagnating waters and the accumulation of vegetable and animal putrescence. The products of cultivation and of other arts would have been acquired so slowly as to liave retarded human improvement and comfort. Tardy expar.sion would have failed to reach distant regions till many hundreds or thousands of j^ears had run out. The noxious animals would have multiplied immoderatelj'. The religious obedience, associated, by the divine command, with the posses- sion and use of the earth, would have been checked and perverted to a greater degree than the world's bit- ter experience proves that it actualU' has been. Thus it may appear with pretty strong evidence that a dis- persion of mankind was highly desirable to be in a more prompt and active style than would have been effected by the impulses of mere convenience and vague inclination. See Geography.
That this dictate of reasonable conjecture was real- ized in fact, is determined hj the Mosaic writings. Of the elder son of Eber, the narrative says his "name was Peleg (J^3, dirision^, because in his Aay& the earth was divided" (Gen. x, 25) ; and this is repeated, evident^ as a literal transcript, in 1 Chron. i, 19. If we might coin a word to imitate the Hebrew, we might show the paronomasia by saying "the earth was pe- legged'"' (In'bsi). Some are of opinion that the event took place about the time of his birth, and that his birth-name was given to him as a memorial of the transaction. But it was the practice of probably all nations in the early times tliat persons assumed to them.selves, or imposed upon their children and other connections, new names at different epochs of their lives, derived from coincident events in all the variety of associated ideas. Of that practice many examples occur in the Scriptures. The conjecture is more prob- able that, in this instance, the name was applied in the indixidual's niaturer age, and on account rfsome per- sonal concern which he had in the commencement or progress of the separation. But the signification usu- ally given is by no means a matter of indubitable cer- tainty. The verb occurs only in the two passages mentioned (strictly but one), and in Psa. Iv, 9, "divide their tongues," and Job xxxviii, 25, "who hath di- vided a channel for the torrent" (produced by a heavy thunder-shower^) ? Respectable philologists have dis- puted whether it refers at all to a separation of man-