HORATIO See also:HALE (1817–1896)
, See also:American ethnologist, was See also:born in See also:Newport, New See also:Hampshire, on the 3rd of May 1817
.
He was the son of See also:David See also:Hale, a lawyer, and of Sarah Josepha Hale (1790-1879), a popular poet, who, besides editing Godey's See also:Lady's See also:Magazine for many years and See also:publishing some ephemeral books, is supposed to have written the verses " See also:Mary had a little See also:lamb," and to have been the first to suggest the See also:national observance of Thanksgiving See also:Day
.
The son graduated in 1837 at Harvard, and during 1838–1842 was philologist to the See also:United States Exploring Expedition, which under See also:Captain See also:Charles Wilkes sailed around the See also:world
.
Of the reports of that expedition Hale prepared the See also:sixth See also:volume, Ethnography and See also:Philology (1846), which is said to have " laid the See also:foundations of the ethnography of See also:Polynesia." He was admitted to the See also:Chicago See also:bar in 1855, and in the following See also:year removed to See also:Clinton, See also:Ontario, See also:Canada, where he practised his profession, and where on the 28th of See also:December 1896 he died
.
He made many valuable contributions to the See also:science of See also:ethnology, attracting See also:attention particularly by his theory of the origin of the diversities of human See also:languages and dialects—a theory suggested by his study of " See also:child-languages," or the languages invented by little See also:children
.
He also emphasized the importance of languages as tests of See also:mental capacity and as " criteria for the See also:classification of human See also:groups." He was, moreover, the first to discover that the Tutelos of See also:Virginia belonged to the Siouan See also:family, and to identify the See also:Cherokee as a member of the Iroquoian family of speech
.
Besides See also:writing numerous magazine articles, he read a number of valuable papers before learned See also:societies
.
These include: See also:Indian Migrations as Evidenced by See also:Language (1882); The Origin of Languages and the Antiquity of Speaking See also:Man (1886) ; The Development of Language (1888); and Language as a Test of Mental Capacity: Being an See also:Attempt to Demonstrate the True Basis of See also:Anthropology (1891)
.
He also edited for See also:Brinton's " Library of Aboriginal Literature," the See also:Iroquois See also:Book of See also:Rites (1883)
.
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