CHAPTER XXXIV.
SOCIETY.
1500-1800.
Evolution of a Race — Typical Characteristics — Statistics of Population — Proportion and Distribution of Races — Causes for Decrease OF Aborigines — Creole versus Spaniard — Jealousies and Impolitic Measures — Immigration and Character of Arrivals — Status of Foreigners — Indian Policy and its Effect — Race Stigma — Negro Slavery — Condition of the Mixed Breeds — Beggars and Nobles — Nature and Extent of Diseases — Matlazahuatl, Smallpox, Vómito Prieto, and Famines — Doctors and Treatment — Hospitals and Asylums — Mourning and Cemeteries — Meat and Drink — Sumptuary Laws — National Dress — Love of Display — False Gloss — Women, Morals, and Marriage — The Home — Holiday Celebration — Coaches and Riders — Barbaric Sport — Gambling — The Drama — Social Reunions.
Spanish Americans present the distinct features of what may be essentially classed as a new race, sprung from the union of the proudest of European peoples, and the most advanced of Americans; the former itself an anomalous mixture, wherein lay blended the physical and mental characteristics of half a dozen nations, from sturdy Goth to lithe and fiery Arab;[1] the other possibly autochthonic, and evolved amidst the rise and fall of mighty empires, whose records are entombed in the most imposing monuments of the continent.[2] While the latter may be divided into two great branches, the Maya and Nahua, originally cradled perhaps within the region drained by the
- ↑ See introduction to Hist. Cent. Am., i. this series, for the evolution and characteristics of Spaniards.
- ↑ Humboldt, who favors an Asiatic origin for the Americans, sees in this meeting with the Spaniard a reunion of two branches that once parted on the plains of Asia in opposite directions. Essai Pol.,i. 134-5. The different theories on origin are discussed in Native Races, v. chapter i. this series.
