ETHNOGRAPHIC TABLE. — A name derived from Gen. 10, because there, in the form of a grandiose genealogical tree whose forefathers are the three sons of Noah, the principal peoples or nations known to the Hebrews are listed.
To Iapheth are attributed 7 descendants, for whom the most probable identifications are: Gomer = Cimmerians, Madai = Medes, Javan = Ionians, Thubal = Tubalu or Tiberani, Mosoch = Mosku or Moschoi, Asconaz = Scythians, Tharsis = Tartessos (Spain), Cetthim = Cypriots, Rodiani (corrected from Dodantim) = Rhodians, Elisa, an island or a promontory of the continent (Peloponnese? Southern Italy?) in the Mediterranean. The other names represent peoples or tribes of Asia Minor around the Black Sea.
To the Hamitic group, or that descended from Cham, are assigned: Chus (= Ethiopians), Mesraim (= Egyptians), Phuth (= Punt, along the African coast of the Red Sea), and Chanaan (= Canaanites, the ancient inhabitants of Palestine). To Chus, moreover, Arabian tribes between the Persian Gulf and the African coast are linked. From this same Chus, through Nemrod (= Sumerian Ninurta or Akkadian Gilgamesh?), the kingdoms and cities of ancient Babylonia and Assyria are said to have derived. The Ludim, the Laabim (= Libyans), and other more or less neighboring groups are considered Egyptian offshoots, among them also the Cretans (Cophocria) and the Philistines. Chanaan, finally, is regarded as the ancestor of the various clans inhabiting the area between Sidon, Gasa, and the Dead Sea.
To Sem are assigned first of all the Hebrews; then the Ebanites, the Assyrians, the Aramaeans, and not a few Arabian tribes.
The term “ethnographic table” must not lead one to suppose that the text contains a modern scientific concept. The classification follows neither somatic or color-based criteria, nor linguistic or cultural comparisons. The geographical element seems to have been the most decisive for certain groupings; while commercial relations (Egypt–Crete) or a satirical note (the Canaanites, certainly Semites, are included among the Hamites!) explain other associations. The dominant idea of the unity of the human race should be noted: all humanity is considered descended from Noah, the sole survivor of the flood.
For many exegetes, the very ancient text would be a compilation of the Yahwist and Priestly documents. Others, instead, explain its strange peculiarities (some Arabian tribes are said simultaneously to originate from Iapheth and from Sem) through possible subsequent alterations.
BIBLI: F. Hommel, Grundriss der Geographie und Geschichte des Alten Orients, I, Ethnologie des Alten Orients, Munich 1904, 2nd ed., there 1926; Th. Aridi, Die Völkertafeln der Genesis und ihre Bedeutung für die Ethnologie Vorderasiens, in Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunde des Morgenlandes, 30 (1917–18), pp. 264–317; J. Piessis, Babilone et la Bible, in DBs. I, col. 765–72; A. S. Wagner, Die Stammtafel des Menschengeschlechtes, Saarbrücken 1935.
Angelo Penna
(de Anthropologie) Essays presented to Edward Burnett Tylor in honour of his 12th birthday act. 2. 1888. Oxford 1887. ETHNOLOGY — Portrait of E. B. Tylor (1832–1917), founder of evolutionary religious ethnology.