9
register of similarities and differences.
22
On the one hand, similarities are explained via the
process of migratory diffusion, by tracing “the origins of these peoples in the dark ages of
antiquity.”
23
As Pagden puts it, “new and troubling peoples” can be assimilated to European
understanding by treating them as descendents of Eurasian peoples of whom they had
knowledge.
24
Identifiable similarities between the Amerindians and ancient peoples could be
seen, then, as the product of diffusion—of social and linguistic practices moving around the
globe along established migratory paths. Thus, the contemporary Huron and Iroquois reflect, in
Lafitau’s text, vestiges of their origins as Lycians or Spartans. More generally, the various
parallels between ancient religiosity, government, and marriage practices vindicate the picture of
the Old World origins of the Americans.
25
On the other hand, differences are explained with a
familiar claim about decay or degeneration.
26
Movement across time and space (and thereby
away from the perfection of creation and the continuing revelation available to some peoples)
produces a degeneration of religious practice, moral belief, and linguistic structures. Thus, the
decayed state of the Amerindians is verified principally in relation to Christian moral and
religious truths and Eurasian languages. Common origins explain the similarities between
Amerindians and the ancients; the dispersal of humans across space accounts for their
differences.
Lafitau struggled with a second issue that profoundly shaped his text. More than simply
establishing a singular creative episode, Lafitau aimed to make the case for a singular basis for
22
See Fenton and Moore, “Introduction,” p. xlvii, and Hodgen, Early Anthropology, p. 268.
23
Lafitau, Customs I, p. 25.
24
Pagden, Encounters, p. 29.
25
On the Hurons and Iroquois, see Lafitau, Customs I, pp. 67-9. The entire text is designed to draw “conjectures”
based on comparisons of ancient and Indian practices. The chapter headings give a sense of the range of the
comparisons across religion, government, marriage and education, occupations of both men and women, warfare,
trade, diplomacy, games, medicine, mourning and burial practices.
Convention