Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples And Deaf-Mutes / First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-1880, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 263-552

Name: Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples And Deaf-Mutes / First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-1880, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 263-552
Author: Garrick Mallery

By Garrick Mallery

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About This Book

The work surveys and compares manual and pictorial systems used for communication among Native American groups, deaf-mute communities, and other historical and contemporary peoples. It catalogs gestures, sign vocabulary, and pictographs, analyzes their grammatical and semantic functions, and illustrates practical use in negotiation, ritual, and narrative contexts. Comparative discussion highlights recurring motifs, regional variation, and parallels with ancient and European gesture traditions. Detailed plates and descriptive commentary support observations about how visual-gestural signs convey concrete concepts, social relations, and temporal or spatial information alongside or instead of spoken language.

About the Author

Garrick Mallery

Garrick Mallery was an American ethnologist and researcher known for his significant contributions to the study of Native American cultures. He served as a member of the Bureau of Ethnology, where he focused on the communication methods of Indigenous peoples. Mallery's notable works include "Pictographs of the North American Indians," which explores the symbolic representations used by Native Americans, and "Sign Language Among North American Indians," which compares Indigenous sign languages with those of other cultures. His research has been influential in understanding the linguistic and cultural practices of Native American tribes.