Boas, General Anthropology

GENERAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Edited by
FRANZ BOAS
With contributions by
Ruth Benedict Robert H. Lowie
Franz Boas James H. McGregor
Ruth Buiizel N. C. Nelson
Julius E. Lips Gladys A. Reichard
D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO ATLANTA
DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO LONDON
CoPYHKiHT, 1938,
By D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY
"i
No part of the material covered "by this
JDpy right may be reproduced in any form
without written permission of the publisher.
4K7
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PREFACE
Anthropology covers such a wide scope of subjects that it is diffi-
cult for one person to be equally conversant with all its aspects. For
this reason cooperation of a group of students, most of whom have
worked in close contact for many years, seemed a justifiable solu-
tion of the task of preparing a general book on anthropology. Thus a
greater number of viewpoints could be assembled, and the unavoid-
able divergence in the handling of diverse problems by a number of
authors is, we hope, offset by the advantage of having the special
points of view in which each author is interested brought out.
The necessity of limiting the book to a certain compass has com-
pelled us to treat a number of problems rather briefly. Thus the
relation of personality to culture, education, acculturation, the
historical development of anthropological theory have been only
lightly touched.
The editor wishes to express his thanks to his collaborators.
FIIANZ BOAS
NEW YORK
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGES
INTRODUCTION, by Franz Boas ............. 1-6
Subject matter: History of mankind, 1 Methods: Archaeology,
1 Methods: Comparative, 2 Limitations of comparative
method, 3 Problems of laws of historic development, 3 His-
toric sequences, 3 Dynamics of change, 4 Problems of anthro-
pology, 4 Aspects of culture: Man and nature, 4 Man and
man, 4 Subjective aspects, 5 Interrelations between the vari-
ous aspects of social life, 5 Descriptive anthropology, 5 An-
thropology, history, and sociology, 5 Purpose of book, 6.
I. GEOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PREMISES ............ 7-23
Geological Premises, by N. C. Nelson .............. 7-16

Geological background, 7 Divisions of the Cenozoic era, 9 Sub-
divisions of the Pleistocene epoch, 9- Glacial moraines, 11
Pluvial and intcrpluvial evidence, 12 Valley terraces and marine
shore terraces, 12 - Absolute chronology of the Holocene epoch, 15.
Biological Premises, by Franz Boas ............... 16-23

Description of species, 16 Heredity, 16 Selection, 19 Envi-
ronment, 20 Origin of species, 20 Footnotes, 22.
II. HUMAN ORIGINS AND EARLY MAN, by James H. McGregor . . . 24-94

- -
Primates, 25 africanus (the
Australopithecus Taungs ape), 28
Man and apes, 31 Origin of the human branch, 38 Man, 42
~~-
Types of man, 43 - Pithecanthropus erectus (Ape-man of Java),
44 Homo modjokertensis, 50 Sinanthropus pekinensis (Peking
man), 51 Eoanthropus dawsoni (Piltdown man), 56 Homo
heidelbergensis, (Heidelberg man), 60 Homo neanderthalensis
(Neanderthal man), 61 Homo sapiens, 74 The "Grimaldi
race," 79 Cro-Magnon man, 81 Rhodesian man, 87 Foot-
notes, 91 General references, 94.
til. RACE, by Franz Boas ..... .<-.... l ......... 95-123

Races and local types, 95 Variability of local types, 95 Meth-
ods of observations, 95 Types, 9Q, Phenotypes and genotypes,
100 Generalized types, 101 Parallel development, 102 Se-
lection, 103 Environmental changes, 103 Population and
race, 104 Local races, 105 Mixture, 106 Isolation, 107
Domestication, 108 Internal secretions, 110 -- Races of mac, 111
Theories of the origin of modern races, 116 Racial phytfrfogy
and psychology, 117 Eugenics, 121 Footnotes, 12-r,> Gen-
eral references, 123.
IV. LANGUAGE, by Franz Boas

General characteristics of language, 124 Communication betweari
ea
animals, 124 Categories of classification, 126 Phonetics, ,27
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGES
Selection of material used for expression, 128 Sound symbol-
ism, 1S2 Grammar, 132 Grammatical processes, 133 His-
tory of languages, 134 Linguistic families, 135 Mixed lan-
guages, 136 Independent origin of similar grammatical processes,
138 Distribution of languages, 139 Culture and speech, 141
Footnotes, 144 General references, 145
V. PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY, by N. C. Nelson 146-237

Definition, 146 Problems of prehistoric archaeology, 148
Methods, 148 Achieved results, 149 Technological evolution
of material culture traits, 150 Stone-flaking process, 152
Stone-chipping process, 157 Stone-pecking and grinding proc-
esses, 160 Stone-chiseling, sawing, and drilling processes, 162
Bone and wood-working industries, 164 Metal industries, 167
The Eolithic phase, 170 The Paleolithic; industries, 172--
Development of archaeology in Africa, 196 Southern Asia, 199
Central Asia, 200 Northern Asia, 200 Indonesia, 201
Australia and Tasmania, 202 Melanesia, 203 Micronesia, 204
Polynesia, 204 Oceanian-American connections, 208 Amer-
ica, 212 General world considerations, 216- General conclu-
sions, 230 Footnotes, 235 General references, 237.
VI. INVENTION, by Franz Boas

^ 238-281
Discovery and invention, 238 Fire and cooking, 239 Mechan-
ical principles, 241 Mechanical principles used in implements, 243
Compound implements, 250 Search for materials, 251-
Stone, 252 Wood, 253 Food, 253 Intoxicants and narcot-
ics, 255 Medicine and poison, 255 Preparation of skins, 255
Bark cloth, 256 Basketry and mat weaving, 256 Spinning,
258 -
Weaving, 258 Sewing, 258
-
Pottery, 259 Metal work,
260 Application of inventions, 261 Devices for obtaining food,
261 Protection against attack, 263 Shelter, 263 Clothing,
265 Ornaments, 266 Transportation, 267 Games and tricks,
269 Medicine, 270 Writing, 271 Science, 274 Footnotes,
278 General references, 281.
VTI-
^
SUBSISTENCE, by Robert H. Lowie 282-326
General categories, 282 Appraisal of the hunting stage, 285
Cultivation, 290 Domesticated animals, 302 Pastoral nomad-
ism, 312 Economic determinism of culture, 318 Footnotes, 322
General references, 326.
THE ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES, by Ruth

Bunzel 327-408
Introduction, 327 Value, 331 Property, 340 Types of* eco-
nomic structure, 351 The Zufii, 351 The Kwakiutl, 357
The Trobriand Islands, 361 Economic mechanisms in primitive
- - The division of Individualism and
cultures, 367 labor, 369
collectivism in production, 374 The distribution of wealth, 377
Kinship claims in the distribution of wealth, 381 Dowry, 382
Te bride price, 3S3 -
Affinal exchange, 387 Gifts and hos-
CONTENTS vii
CHAPTER PAGES
pitality, 390 Intertribal economics, 396 War, 400 Foot-
IX. SOCIAL LIFE, by Gladys A. Reichard 409-486

Family organization on different economic levels, 411 The sib,
414 Totemism, 426 Marriage, 430 Exogamy and endog-
amy, 431 Forms of marriage, 431 Extramarital relations, 435
Restrictions and preferences, 437 Betrothal, engagement,
wedding, 440 Divorce, 449 Kinship terms, 450 Prestige,
458 Woman in primitive society, 465 Education, 470 Eth-
ics and etiquette, 478 Footnotes, 483 General references, 486.
X. GOVERNMENT, by Julius E. Lips 487-534

Food-gatherers and hunters, 491 Arctic hunters and related
tribes, 498 Harvesters and related tribes, 502 Indians of the
Plains, 512 Simpler farming societies, 515 Herdsmen and re-
lated societies, 519 Polynesia, 523 Conclusion, 525 Foot-
XI. ART, by Ruth Bunzcl 535-588

Antiquity and universality of art, 535 Esthetic emotion, 536
The decorative arts, 539 Problems of form, 540 General
formal principles, 558 Style, 564 Symbolism, 576 Foot-
XII. LITERATURE, Music, AND DANCE, by Franz Boas T~ . . . . . 589-608

Literature, 589 Music, 602 Dance, 605 Footnotes, 607.
XIII. MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE, by Franz Boas 609-626

Myth and folk tale, 609 Mythological concepts, 609 Origin
of tales, 610 Dissemination of tales, 612 Origin of elements of
tales, 613 Character of mythological concepts, 614 Myths,
616 Effect of individual thought upon mythology, 618 Eso-
teric and exoteric mythology, 620 Relation of mythology to
other aspects of culture, 622 Footnotes, 624 General refer-
ences, 626.
XIV. RELIGION, by Ruth Benedict 627-665

The concept of the supernatural, 628^- Mana supernatural power
as an attribute of objects, 634 AinffSsm supernatural power as
will and intention, 635 Techniques of religion, 637 Behavior
toward the personalized universe, 639 Forms of religious be-
havior, 642 Prayer, 642 Divination, 643 Sacrifice, 644
Taboo, 644 Fetishes and amulets, 645 Tutelary spirits, 646
Summary, 647 Varieties of primitive religions, 647 Siberia,
648 The Pueblo Indians of the Southwest, 650 The Plains
Indians, 652 The Dobuans of Melanesia, 654 Recurring
aspects of the religious complex, 656 Ceremonialism, 656
Vision and ecstasy, 658 Cosmology and belief, 660 Ethical
sanctions, 663 Footnotes, 664 General references, 665.
XV. METHODS OF RESEARCH, by Franz Boas . 666-686

FIGURES
FIGURES PAGE
1. Diagrammatic correlation of Mediterranean and Baltic marine terraces
'
with Alpine glacial phases . 15

2. A tentative phyletic tree of the Primates ... . 27
3. Skull of AustrahpHhecus africanus (the Taungs ape) . . . 30
4. Left lower molar teeth of anthropoid apes and man to show the fifth
cusp, characteristic of the Dryopithecus pattern 33

5. Median sections of anthropoid ape and human skulls to show extent of
frontal and sphenoidal sinuses 34
6. The 05 centrale of the carpus . .... .... 35
7. Skull of Pithecanthropus credits . 45
8. Comparative views of sectioned lower jaws showing the inner surface
of the right half 57
9. Reconstruction of the skeleton of a Neanderthal man 73
10. Points of measurements of the skull 97
11. Cross sections of faces 99
12. Distribution of frequencies of form in fraternities, and distribution of
family lines 101
13. On Tncae 108
14. Elementary flake production . . . . . 153
15. Improved flaking of Acheulian-Levalloisian times 156
16. Precise flaking of Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic times . . . 157
17. Pressure chipping of Solutrean and Neolithic times 158
18. Pecking and grinding processes 161
19. Chiseling and grinding processes . . . 162
20. Sawing process 163
21. Drilling processes 164
22. Eoliths of exceptionally artificial appearance derived (one excepted)
from the Pliocene gravels of the Kent Plateau, England 176
23. Typical Pre-Chelleau core and flake implements derived from valley
terrace formations of Pleistocene date 176
24. Typical Chellean core implements derived from valley terrace deposits 1 76
25. Typical Acheulian core implements 178
26. Typical Levalloisian implements 178
27. Typical Mousterian implements 178
28. Typical Aurignacian implements, ornaments 180
29. Typical Solutrean implements, ornaments 182
30. Typical Magdalenian implements, ornaments 183
31. Typical Azilian-Tardenoisian-Maglemosian implements 184
32. Typical Early Neolithic implements 186
33. Typical Middle and Late Neolithic implements 188
34. Typical Neolithic (Robenhausian) implements 190
35. Typical bronze implements 192
x FIGURES
FIGURES PAGE
36. Typical implements of the later Iron Age 194
37. Map showing known geographic range of culture stages 220
38. Diagram representing section of the American continent from north
to south . . . 224
39. Diagram a section of the continental world showing the estimated
of
space and time distribution of the successive culture levels 228

40. The fire drill 240
41. Throwing clubs and knives 242
42. Australian boomerangs 243
43. Eskimo throwing board 214
44. Noose trap of the Kwakiutl Indians . . . 245
45. Friction drums 247
46. Musical instrument, New Ireland, and Mexican two-tongued drum . 248
47. Bushman gora player and end of gora 248
48. String instruments . 249
49. Types of
weaving . 256
50. Twilled matting 256
51. Eskimo
Cat's cradles of 257
52. Knots used by Eskimo 257
53. Coiled basketry 258
54. Cross section of smelting furnace ... 260
55. Wolf trap 261
56. Fish basket 262
57. Plan and sections of Eskimo tent 263
58. Menorninee hut 264
59. Eskimo snow hut and section 265
60. Suspension bridge of rattan, Celebes 268
61. Dog travois 269
62. Ojibwa picture writing 272
63. Dakota symbols of names .... 273
64. Pictographic writing of Ibo 273
65. Mexican picture writing 273
66. Nautical map, Marshall Islands . . . . 275
67. Maya numerals 276
68. Symbols of numbers, Aztec 276
69. Quipu 277
70. Diagram showing method of squaring sides of a box 278
71. Rawhide box, Sank and Fox Indians 537
72. Coiled clay water jar, Prehistoric Pueblo 541
73. Wooden mask, Urua, Congo 548
74. Carved house post, Haida 548
75. Canoe prows, New Zealand and Dutch New Guinea 549
76. Prehistoric clay bowl, Arkansas 550
77. Terra cotta head, Yoruba, Africa 550
78. Modeled clay vessels, New Mexico and Costa Rica 551
79. Primitive basketry 555
80. Poncho, Titicaca, Peru 556
FIGURES xi
FIGURES PAGE
81. Blanket of mountain goat wool, Tlingit, Alaska ,
. . . 559
82. Zuni medicine altar 569
83. Fringe from legging, Thompson Indians . 561
84. Coiled basketry tray, Hopi Indians 562
85. Designs from ancient pottery bowls, Mirnbres Valley,
" New Mexico . . 563
86. Wooden shield, Dyak, Dutch East Indies . . . . 563
87. Ancient Pueblo bowl, Hopi 564
88. Diagram of Hopi water jar 564
89. Painted house front representing Thunderbird catching a whale,
Kwakiutl Indians 571
90. Carved spoon handles representing beaver, Tlingit Indians . . 572
91. Painted wooden box, Tlingit Indians 573
92. Haida drawing illustrating a myth 574
93. Tlingit mask representing dying warrior 574
94. Ancient Bushman drawings .
t
. 580
95. Female Figurine, Baoule, Ivory Coast and Fetish Representing
Antelope, French Sudan 581
96. Feather sticks, Zuni 582
97. Votive placque, Huichol Indians, Mexico ..." 583
PLATES
I. Skulls of seven Paleolithic types ofman 53
II. Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man A comparison
: 75
III. Winged being pollinating sacred tree 292
IV. Casa de las Monjas, Chichen Itza, Maya, and Maya relief carving . . 544
V. Head of a maize goddess, Copan, Honduras 545
VI. African Negro Mask,Dan Ivory Coast 547
VII. Clay Chicama, Peru
effigy vessel, 553
VIII. African pile cloths, and carved wooden bowl ." 557
IX. Pueblo Indian pottery 565
X. Masks, Scpik River, New Guinea 579
INTRODUCTION
FRANZ BOAS
Subject matter: History of mankind. The science of anthropology

deals with the history of human society. It differs from history in the
narrower sense of the term in that its inquiries are not confined to
the periods for which written records are available and to peoples
who had developed the art of writing. Anthropological researches
extend over the whole of humanity regardless of time and space.
Historical inquiry reaches out hesitatingly beyond the domain of
written records. Archaeological and later remains, and survivals of
early times that persist in modern culture, are utilized to extend the
span of time and to fill in details for which written records are not
available. In these inquiries the fields of anthropology and history
are in close contact.
Since anthropology deals with mankind as a whole, the problem
of the earliest appearance of man and his rise from lower forms,
the differentiation of human races, and the development of languages
and of cultural forms are included in its field of researches. Every
manifestation of human life must be utilized to clear up the inarch
of historical events.
In anthropological research relating to early times and primitive
people the individual appears rarely, if ever. For prehistoric times
no record of individual activity exists, and the tradition of illiterate
peoples gives no clue of considerable value or reliability throwing
light upon the influence of individuals upon historical events. In the
general history of humanity the individual disappears in the social
group to which he belongs. Among illiterate peoples the dynamic
processes that shape history must be studied mainly by observation
of the living generations.
Methods: Archaeology. It may well be asked whether a history of
mankind can be reconstructed when no written records of events
are available. Archaeological remains may be placed in chronological
order by a study of the sequence of deposits in which they ate found.
Under favorable conditions, as for instance in Scandinavia, the regu-
larity of deposits permits even a fairly accurate chronological de-
1
2 GENERAL ANTHROPOLOGY
termination of the age of deposits. In other cases also an approximate
absolute chronology is made possible by means of geological or other
evidence.
Sometimes remains may be dated through affiliation with objects
of known age that belong to neighboring cultures for which written
records are available. Thus many of the remains of past cultures of
Europe have been dated with a fair degree of certainty. The written
records of Egypt and western Asia throw light upon the history of
contemporaneous European peoples who lacked the art of writing.
Archaeology, however, can do no more than give us a very partial
record of the life qf man. The earlier the time of deposit and the more
unfavorable the climate for the preservation of objects, the more
fragmentary will be the remains, for only the most resistant material
will outlast the ravages of time. Even under the most favorable con-
ditions only the remains of the material culture of man will be pre-
served. Nothing pertaining to the intangible aspects of life can be
rescued with the help of the spade. Thus we may learn about skeletal
types, about implements and utensils used, about the steps in their
manufacture; but no information is forthcoming to tell us about
languages, customs, and beliefs. These are evanescent, and there

would be no way of recovering them if they did not leave traces in
the lives of later generations.
Methods: Comparative. The science of linguistics shows most clearly
how and to what extent conditions found at the present time may
be utilized for reconstructing the past. The written history of some
European languages carries us back to periods that lie centuries
before our era. Sanskrit is known for even
earlier periods. Linguistic
science, of speech and their known

by comparing the present forms
development, has enabled us to reconstruct the history of words and
of grammatical forms and to demonstrate that most of the languages
ofEurope and many of those of western Asia are derived from a
common fundamental source which in course of time has given rise
by differentiation to the modern languages. The ancient language
cannot be reconstructed, but the probable forms of many roots and
in part the manner of their grammatical treatment can be discovered.
Comparison of related forms throws light upon the history of their
differentiation. Experience has shown that studies of this kind, par-
ticularly in languages for which no historic records exist, must be

carried on with great caution, because accidental similarities occurring
in the speech forms of remote parts of the world may easily give a
INTRODUCTION 8
deceptive impression of relationship. For this reason geographical

contiguity is not unimportant in the interpretation of isolated sim-
ilarities in vocabulary or grammar.
Limitations of comparative method. The study of cultural forms
may avail itself of similar methods. The geographical distribution
of the same or decidedly similar cultural traits may be utilized for
a reconstruction of cultural dissemination and development. When
only slight and incidental cultural similarities occur, caution is neces-
sary in assuming historical connections.
It is one of the important methodological problems of anthropology
to investigate how far geographical distribution of cultural phe-
.
nomena may be used for historical reconstruction. The mere fact

of historical connection may be interpreted in diverse ways, for
ordinarily there is no evidence of chronological sequence. Dissemina-
tion may have occurred in one of at least two opposite directions, so
that it be impossible to determine the source of cultural ele-
may
ments. Neither is it possible to be sure whether a particular phase of
culture is not rather the local development of a widely spread ancient
trait that has flourished than the source from which the more gen-
eralized trait sprang.
Similar problems confront us, although not to the same extent,
in the study of bodily form. When the same bodily type occurs among
the inhabitants of neighboring countries there is little doubt as to
their common origin. When slight similarities are found in regions
far apart it is conceivable that this may be due to common origin
or to parallel biological development.
The study of the geographical distribution of similarities, if used
with due caution, is a means of clearing up part of the history of
mankind. The materials secured by these methods reveal a frag-
mentary picture at least of its course.
Problems of laws of historic development. When these data are as-
sembled the question arises whether they present an orderly picture,
or whether history proceeds haphazardly; in other words, whether
an orthogenetic development of human forms may be discovered
and whether a regular sequence of stages of historical development
may be recognized. If this were true, definite laws governing his-
torical sequences could be formulated.
Historic sequences. These problems may be attacked from two
points of view. We may compare the observed sequences and see

whether in all parts of the world they fall into regular order or whether
each area has its oWh peculiar character that is not comparable with
the sequences observed in other districts.
Dynamics of change. We may also study the changes that are
happening under our eyes in various countries and observe how they
are brought about. If homologous sources of change are found,
they may be called laws of social change and we may expect that
they manifest themselves in every country and among every people.
Biological, linguistic, and cultural change may be studied from this
angle. For these inquiries we have to understand the interrelations
between individual and society: the life of the individual as con-
trolled by his social experience, and the modifications that society
undergoes through the actions of individuals. We must also inquire

whether society as a whole undergoes autonomous changes, bio-
logical, linguistic, and cultural, in which the individual plays a
passive role. We might call this subject the dynamics of cultural
change.
Problems of anthropology. These considerations enable us to define
three great problems of anthropology:
1. The reconstruction of human history.

2. The determination of types of historical phenomena and their se-
quences.
3. The dynamics of change.
These problems have to be investigated in the domains of biologi-

cal and of social phenomena. The latter include language, the study
of which, on account of its technical requirements, is best separated
from other cultural manifestations.
Aspects of culture: Man and nature. Culture itself is many-sided.
It includes the multitude of relations between man and nature;
the procuring and preservation of food; the securing of shelter; the
ways in which objects of nature are used as implements and utensils;
and all the various ways in which man utilizes or controls, or is
controlled by, his natural environment: animals, plants, the inorganic
world, the seasons, and wind and weather.
Man and man. A second large group of cultural phenomena relate
to the interrelation between members
of a single society and between
those belonging to different societies. The bonds of family, of tribe,
and of a variety of social groups are included in it, as well cs the
gradation of rank and influence; the relations of sexes and of old and
youne; and in more complex societies the whole political and religious
INTRODUCTION 5
organization. Here belong also the relations 01 social groups in war

and peace.
Subjective aspects. A third group consists of the subjective reactions
of man to all life contained in the first two
the manifestations of
groups. These are of intellectual and emotional nature and may be
expressed in thought and feeling as well as in action. They include
all rational attitudes and those valuations which we include under
the terms of ethics, esthetics, and religion.

Interrelations between the various aspects of social life. In a syste-
matic presentation of the data of anthropology we are compelled to
treat these subjects separately. Nevertheless the biological and cul-
tural life of man is a whole, and we cannot do justice to all the
important problems of human history if we treat social life as though

it were the sum of all these separate elements. It is necessary to
understand life and culture as a whole.

Descriptive anthropology. A
descriptive anthropology would repre-
sent the lives of all the peoples of the world and of all times. Certain
types may be selected, and a number of peoples will appear as varie-
ties ofsuch types. According to the purpose of the presentation, the
order may be geographical, if primarily intended to elucidate the
order of cultural phenomena in space and time; or it may be accord-
ing to types, if the object is the study of laws of sequence or the
investigation of dynamic relations.
Anthropology, history, and sociology. While the
results of the former
arrangement connect anthropology with history, those of the latter

connect it with sociology. If regular cultural sequences could be
found, these would represent an orderly historical cycle. If laws of
sequence and of social dynamics could be found, these would be
sociological laws. It is one of the important tasks of anthropology to
determine how and sociological laws exist.
far such regular sequences
When has been achieved the principal problem remains,
this task
that of understanding a culture as a whole. Neither history nor
sociological laws are of considerable help in its solution. History
may tell us the sources from which bodily form, customs, and beliefs
have been derived, but it does not convey any information regarding
the way in which a people will behave owing to the transmitted
characteristics. Sociology may teach us the morphology and general
dynamics of society; it will give us only a partial insight into the

complex interaction of forces, so that it is not possible to predict the
behavior resulting from the historical events that made the people
what they This problem is essentially a psychological one and
are.
beset wit'h the difficulties inherent in the investigation of complex
all
mental phenomena of the lives of individuals.

Purpose of book. The purpose of the present book is to present those
data that are necessary for an intelligent handling of the problems
here outlined.
CHAPTER I
GEOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PREMISES
GEOLOGICAL PREMISES
N. C. NELSON
Geological background. Human remains have been found in strata

of great antiquity. To understand their significance it is necessary
to explain the general results of the study of the origin and nature
of their chronology.
Paleontologists and geologists have been equally active unraveling

the later history of the earth as recorded respectively by the stratified
rock formations and by the gradually changing character of the fos-
silized organic remains inclosed in them. The thickness of the de-
posit is said to be more than fifty miles. Earth movements of various

kinds have buckled and often disarranged the proper order of the
successive formations. In many regions the strata have been so
tilted that they stand in vertical order or even completely tipped
over, although first deposited as horizontal layers. The total time
required for their formation has lately been calculated by physi-
cists to lie somewhere between a billion and a billion and a half
years. Such round-numbered figures are not of course to be taken

literally; still their general reliability is vouched for by a variety of
objective evidence, as for example the rate at which new formations
are built up today and the relative radium contents of the ancient
rocks in question. This geological column serves therefore as a con-
venient time scale; and by a study of the thickness of its successive
formations, of the nature of the rock materials which compose them,
and of the plant and animal fossils inclosed in them, a fairly orderly
and intelligible story has been unfolded concerning the shifting po-
sitions of land and sea and concerning the changes of climate, as
revealed by the responsive changes in the form of organisms. In this
time-and-life scheme early man and the precursors of man take their
place; for that reason it is imperative for archaeology to take some
account of an otherwise essentially extraneous body of knowledge.
7
The ideally rearranged formations composing the geological column
have been subdivided on the basis of important geological changes.
The principal divisions have been called the Primary, Secondary,
Tertiary, and Quaternary rock systems or periods, though some would
omit the last-named as unwarranted.
Another, partly corresponding, subdivision of the column has been
made on the basis of the changing characteristics of the fossilized
life forms inclosed. The progressively shortening stretches of time
so delimited are termed eras. Four and sometimes five such eras are
recognized. While their names have not been definitely agreed upon,
the following arc in common use:
1. Kozoic (dawn life) characterized by the simplest forms of organ-

isms.
2. Paleozoic (ancient life) characterized by molluscs, early fishes, and
amphibians.
3. Mesozoic (middle life) characterized by numerous swimming, walk-
ing, and flying reptiles, as well as the earliest mammals and birds.
4. Cenozoic (recent characterized by a gradually evolving suc-
life)
cession of birdsand mammals, including the Primate order of
which man himself is a recognized member.
5. Psychozoic (thinking life) characterized especially by the evolution
of the various races of man and of their cultural achievements.
European archaeologists at once fitted their discoveries into this
geo-zoological scheme of chronology in the following manner:
As has been stated, some systematists prefer to omit the Quaternary

period as such; they also omit the term "Psychozoic" as smacking
of human vanity; and they unite the two nearly equivalent time
periods with the preceding Cenozoic under the designations First

GEOLOGICAL PREMISES 9
and Second Cenozoic (Cainozoic). The latter scheme has certain ad-
vantages for our purposes and will be employed.
Divisions of the Cenozoic era. This Cenozoic or Recent Life era
the only one with which archaeologists are concerned is further
subdivided into epoclis, based primarily on the classification of the

molluscan shells ranging through the Tertiary formations. The names
1
applied to the six subdivisions are as follows:
1. Eocene (dawn of the new referring to surviving faunal species)

2. Oligoccnc (few of the new)
3. Miocene (minority of the new)
4. Pliocene- (majority of the new)
5. Pleistocene (most of the new)
6. Holocene (all of the new viz., our present-day fauna)
The
expressions Pleistocene, Quaternary, and Ire Age are by most
experts regarded as practically equivalent, at least so far as time
duration is concerned, and in that sense therefore are used without
2
distinction.
This insertion of subsidiary steps in the great time sequence makes
it possible to fix more definitely the relative chronological positions
of the various archaeological discoveries, as is imperative not only
for the exact determination of the antiquity of man but also for the
determination of the precise time order of his evolving culture.
Thus far in archaeological research the important discoveries have
been confined largely to the last two geological epochs that is, to
the Pleistocene and the Holocene.
The Pleistocene epoch has of late been further subdivided by means
of certain newly recognized physiographic features left behind by
the widespread glacial ice phenomena which have characterized it
at repeated intervals.
Subdivisions of the Pleistocene epoch. The evidences of the Ice Age,
being of relatively recent date, are mainly superficial and easily
observed. Since 1802, opinions have been hazarded about the origin
of the erratically strewn boulders often of great size found in
such otherwise stoneless areas as the Baltic lowlands and the prairies
of Minnesota, as well as in the open valleys of Switzerland and
Scotland, and in Central Park, New York City. Likewise, the
smoothly rounded and often striated rock exposures visible in Central
Park, and as low as the 6000-foot altitude on the slopes of Mt. Sha$tp
in California, were a puzzle until about 1832, when Louis Agassiz
and others observed that the present Alpine glaciers were producing
just such results. Since has been ascertained that permanent
then it
snow and ice mantles like those now covering completely the interior
of Antarctica and Greenland, as well as the higher mountain tops
in temperate and tropical latitudes, were once much more extensive
than they are now. In northern latitudes all of Europe was covered
as far south as the fiftieth parallel, or to a line roughly marked by
the situations of London, Prague, and Kharkov; while in North
America the snow cover ranged nearly to the fortieth parallel but
is more definitely marked by the locations of New York City, the
Ohio and Missouri rivers, and the head of Puget Sound. There appear
to have been islands or uncovered spots in the snow and ice mantle
here and there, as for example in southwestern Wisconsin, in western
Newfoundland, and in the Yukon valley of Alaska, where a rich
Pleistocene fauna has recently been uncovered precisely suitable for
the sustenance of man. Glaciation was also practically absent from
northern Asia that is, from the Ural mountains eastward prob-
ably owing to lack of precipitation. On the high mountains of this
region as well as on those throughout the rest of the world, even in

the torrid zone, the line above which permanent snow lay was much
lower than it is at present. It seems therefore plausible that the
condition then prevailing was in the main of astronomical origin.
The average lowering of the snow line is estimated at about 3500 feet,
though Mt. Tunari in South America registers a drop of over 8000 feet.
It is believed that this condition could have been brought about
through a lowering of the world's average temperature by merely

five degrees centigrade and a sufficient amount of precipitation.
The snow cover reached depths amounting in places to several
thousand feet, so that by mere pressure it became solidified into
glacial ice which, in the same way as the glaciers of Greenland and
Antarctica, advanced in all directions from the principal high centers,
such as the Scandinavian, British, and Alpine uplifts. So great indeed
was the amount of the earth's water envelope locked up in these
snow accumulations that the ocean level is estimated to have been
lowered by from 400 to 600 feet. So far as the relative height of sea
and land is concerned, this was apparently partly counterbalanced
by a contemporary subsidence of some of the glaciated lands, due
possibly to the weight of their ice burden. The lowered sea level may
have laid bare much of the submerged continental shelf, bordering,
for example, both Europe and America, to about the 100-fathom line
and thus have connected Europe with Africa, and Alaska with Siberia,
giving opportunities for redistribution of plant and animal* life. This
would help to account for the present wide dissemination of many
Arctic species.
In general, the habitable portions of the northern latitudes were re-
duced in size by the advancing glaciers, which inflicted marked de-
struction on the relatively fixed plant life and forced the mobile
fauna to migrate. Man necessarily had to adjust himself to the
changing conditions, and many investigators believe that it was this
fact which was mainly responsible for the origin and development of
culture. That such a disturbance took place is amply proved by the
presence of fossilized plant and animal remains found in the deposits

carried along by the glaciers and further distributed by the streams
which, likethe Rhine, the Rhone, the Ohio, the Missouri, and the
Columbia, were nursed by the melting ice fronts. The wind also
took part in moving the finer particles from barren exposures near
the glaciers and depositing the dust elsewhere on hill and valley alike
in the form of unstratified loess (a process of transfer observable
during recent years in the United States) which also incloses fossil
remains, both animal and human.
Glcudal moraines. The lowering of the snow line happened not once
but several times. Penck and Briickner, the foremost glacialists in
Europe, have found evidence in the Alpine valleys of four major
advances, each marked by a terminal moraine (debris dropped along
the glacial fronts) and these they have named in chronological order
;
after four valleys in which the respective deposits are well marked.
The names are: Giinz, Mindel, Riss, and Wurm. Three minor ad-
vances or stops connected with the last grand retreat have in similar
manner been called Buhl, Gschnitz, and Daun. In French territory
only three advances seem to be discernible, the Giinz phase being
regarded as lacking. In England the number three or four is
as yet uncertain, the earlier glacial deposits perhaps having been

removed or disturbed by the action of later ice sheets. In Scotland,
however, the geologist Geikie has distinguished no less than six
advances, of which the later ones may correspond to the minor post-
maximum cold spells registered in the Alps; but on the other hand
only one advance, with minor oscillations, is claimed for Russia.
In North America (although the evidence for Greenland is disputed)
the geologists Chamberlin and Salisbury have similarly recognized
five or six advances, and these have been named in proper sequence:
Jerseyan, Kansan, Illinoian, lowan, Early Wisconsin, and Late
Wisconsin', the various designations giving a hint as to where each
particular terminal moraine is readily discernible. But whatever the
precise number of advances, they were necessarily separated by
equally important retreats, some of which were marked by warmer
climates than that of the present day. This fact is revealed in many
places by the occurrence in the jumbled morainal debris of old land
surfaces marked by indications of peat bogs and forest growth, as
3
well as osteological remains. Switzerland, England,
by and Alaska
are especially noted for such evidence.
We see, therefore, that the Pleistocene epoch, in the northern
hemisphere at least, is broken up into no less than seven subdivisions:
namely, four major glacial and three major interglacial phases. The
Present, Recent, or Holocene epoch also called the Postglacial
makes the eighth interval; and lately botanical evidence 4 has been
produced which suggests that the present interval has already passed
its maximum of warmth and that another glacial phase may be
slowly approaching, in which case the Holocene epoch would have

to be stepped down in rank to take its place as a mere interglacial
episode. We shall follow the common practice of referring to the
alternating cold and warm episodes by their numerical designations

as First Glacial, First Interglacial, Second Glacial, and so on to the
Present or Postglacial phase.
Pluvial and inferpluvial evidence. Recent studies by climatologists
and others have made it fairly certain that, as the successive ice
sheets advanced southward over Europe, the cyclonic storm belt
also moved south in corresponding measure, with the result that
North Africa, including Egypt and the Sahara, received a much
greater rainfall than at present and was consequently more habitable.
This succession of pluvial and interpluvial phases is traceable, by
archaeological and other evidence, as far north as the Gobi desert
and North China for the Asiatic continent, 5 and for the southern
6
hemisphere as far south as Rhodesia in South Africa. This suggests
that while glaciation took away habitable areas in the north it added
or improved equally great areas farther south, including the whole
series of vast deserts ranging from Morocco to Mongolia. It is worthy
of remark that it was within this desert zone that all the higher civili-
zations sprang up, and not in the regions bordering the great glaciers.
Valley terraces and marine shore terraces. A striking series of gravel
terraces usually four appears to be bound up in some as yet
unexplained way with the glacial fluctuations. Such terraces parallel

the sides of many river valleys for example, the Thames, the
Rhine and its tributaries, the Danube, the Somme, the Loire, the
Garonne, and the Rhone in Europe; the Nile and the Isser in North
7
Africa; and the Connecticut in North America and demonstrate
that the valleys in question during certain stages in their history
have been partly filled up with water-borne detritus, which during
other intervening stages was mostly swept out to sea, either by an

increased water flow or by a steepening of their gradients. This,
as indicated, has happened apparently four times, the proof being
the four levels or remnants left in the shape of terraces on one or
both of the valley sides above the present flood plain.
In certain cases, like the Rhone valley, the upper ends of these
lateral terracesmerge into the terminal glacial moraines, indicating
that the original deposits of which the terraces are remnants were
derived from the glacial moraine debris. In fact the small Giinz,
Mindel, Riss, and Wiirm valleys show just such four lateral terraces,
which interdigitate with the four principal terminal moraines. How-
ever, there are four similar terraces in certain other valleys, like the
Somme and the Isser (Algeria), which are not directly connected
with water flow and debris dispersal from the glacial fronts. It fol-
lows that the characteristic four valley terraces are not entirely de-
pendent upon glaciation but have other con tributary causes. This
is made still more evident by recent investigations. L. deLamothe,
C. Deperet, and others have revealed that a series of four or more
terraces or old beaches are observable at many points around the
Mediterranean shore. These have been named after places where
they are especially prominent: Sicilian, Milazzian, Tyrrhenian, and
Monasterian unfortunately not in alphabetical order like the Al-
pine glacial moraines. The same terraces can be traced also along
the Atlantic coast as far as Scotland and perhaps to Scandinavia.
These four marine terraces merge into the four river valley terraces
wherever the latter actually reach the sea and are at heights approxi-
mating respectively 100, 60, 30, and 15 meters above the present sea
level. The inevitable conclusion is that whatever may be the origin
of the four valley terraces at their upper ends, near the glaciers,
the lower ends, in common with the marine beaches, are the results
of land subsidence, during which the rivers were unable to carry
theirburden of detritus out to sea. Further to complicate the problem,
the old sea beaches are strewn with molluscaii and other fossils be-
longing in the main to fairly warm seas, suggesting interglacial rather

than glacial times.
As a reasonable way out of this maze Professor Sollas has advanced
the explanation of "composite origin" of the valley terraces, crediting
their upbuilding chiefly to subsidence during preglacial and inter-
glacial times, instead of, as formerly, to deposition during glacial

times. This means that prior to the first Pleistocene glaciation much
8
of Europe and North Africa subsided to about 100 meters below the
present level, where the eustatic balance was maintained long enough
for a shore bluff to be excavated and for the drowned valleys to be
filled up with detritus to the same height. That accomplished, a
land rise set in which reached a height as yet undetermined (perhaps
sufficient to expose the continental shelf) but which may have had
something to do with the apparent lowering of the snow line and

the coming of the glaciers. At any rate, during the First Glacial or
elevated phase the valley detritus, it is supposed, was largely swept
out and the first or upper terrace produced. This process of rise and
fall was repeated at least four times on a successively smaller and
smaller scale and thus the four South European marine and valley
terraces were formed. In northern Europe Scotland, Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, and Finland there are two additional post-
Wiirmian terraces, known in the Baltic area as Yoldia and Littorina,
which probably correspond to the last two minor Alpine glacial
oscillations namely, Gschnitz and Daun the prior Buhl move-
ment not being registered in the north because at that early stage
of the grand Wurm retreat there were here no exposed beaches.
At the presenttime, therefore, we may be supposed to be experiencing
a subsidence, of which there is actually some evidence, ranging in
Europe from central Denmark at least as far south as Brittany and
taking in eastern England, for here archaeological remains of the
late Paleolithic and Neolithic horizons are found inclosed in fresh-
water peat deposits now at considerable depths below sea level. A

similar though perhaps not related phenomenon is indicated also in
North America by partly submerged shellmounds on the coast of
New Jersey, Florida, and San Francisco Bay.
Elsewhere, however, as for example in northern Denmark, in
Norway and Sweden, and also in the northern Hudson Bay country,
there are equally positive proofs of recent steady elevations, with
periodic arrestsmarked by beaches, which are of importance for
dating the archaeological remains found upon them. Perhaps this
rise ofnorthern land masses correlates with the southward retreat

of the forest mentioned before and corroborates the suggested ad-
vance of yet another presumably mild glacial episode.
Were we to attempt a summarizing correlation of all these Pleis-
tocene and Holocene events, that is, the formation of the glaciers
and their attendant moraines the valley terraces and the ocean
shore beaches in the form of a diagram, it would be somewhat as
follows:
Glacial advances IV V VI. VI
Glacial retreats 3 f 5 6 7
A ,A
North
Europe
Middle
Europe
Fig. 1. Diagrammatic correlation of Mediterranean and Baltic marine terraces

with Alpine glacial phases. Modified after Sollas, p. 38.
Absolute chronology of the Holocene epoch. Thus far the related se-
quences of events embraced by the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs

supply the basis for a merely relative chronology. Several serious
attempts have been made, however, to convert it into terms of solar
years. These estimates vary all the way from 300,000 years (Ober-
maier) to a full round million years (Chamberlin and Salisbury);
but it should be added that the balance of opinion in recent years
strongly favors the larger figure. Only for the Holocene or Postglacial
epoch has any approach to definiteness been attained. Baron G.
de Geer, of Sweden, and his pupils, R. Liden and E. Antevs, by
counting the seasonal layers of glacial silt laid down in natural
depressions in the wake of the receding glaciers in Sweden and in
New England, have obtained astonishingly accurate figures and dates.
They have determined, for example, that the last glacier, the Wiirm,
began to retreat from southern Sweden about 15.500 years ago and
16 .GENERAL ANTHROPOLOGY
that it reached its present position on the Scandinavian uplift near
the Arctic Circle in about 5000 years. 9 The time it took for this glacial
front to recede from its southernmost terminal moraine in Germany,
across the Baltic to southern Sweden, is not yet worked out, but it
is estimated at about another 5000 years; and the total time elapsed
since the Wiirm climax has by various methods been independently

figured inboth Europe and America at approximately 25,000* years. 10
In the Connecticut valley and in Canada, farther north, the investiga-
tion is as yet unfinished and it is known only that the last glacier re-
treated in places at the rate of about a mile in twenty-two years and
for a period covering several thousand years. This segment of time,
unfortunately, hangs in the air, as it were, because neither the be-

ginning nor the end series of clay bands has been tied into our own
calendar. Sooner or later this will be done, and we may also expect a
correlation between these clay bands and the seasonal rings of em-
bedded trees, living and dead, to be effected, so that we shall have
an accurate chronometer by means of which our later human culture
periods may be dated. Already in our own country Douglass has, by
means of the California redwoods (reaching 3000 years in age) and
other conifers of the Southwest, tied in and accurately dated many
11
of our principal Pueblo ruins, and there seems to be no limit to the
possibility of counting backward into geological times these seasonal

pulsations thus faithfully recorded both in sediments and in trees,
living and fossil.
BIOLOGICAL PREMISES
FRANZ BOAS
Description of species. The characteristics of the group of individuals

composing a species are determined by three causes: heredity, selec-
tion, and influence of environment.
Heredity is active only in family
lines. Its action depends upon the way in which characteristics are
transmitted from parents to children. It is assumed that in a stable
species no new mutations develop. Selection modifies the species as

a whole by the increase or decrease in the occurrence of certain indi-
vidual types. Environment influences the group as a whole, or its
influence may depend upon the way in which various types compos-
ing the species react upon it.
Heredity. The fundamental law of heredity may be expressed in

*
See also page 74.
BIOLOGICAL PREMISES 17
the following way: when conditions remain equal and a pair of parents
have a very large number of offspring, then the numerical frequencies
of definite bodily forms of the offspring are determined by the genetic
characteristics of father and mother. The numerical frequencies may
follow a great variety of laws, according to the traits studied and the
genetic characteristics of the parents, but they are fixed for every
trait by the genetic characteristics of the parents. It is assumed in
this thatno spontaneous hereditary mutations occur.
When individuals possess hereditary traits which are so sharply
contrasted that they may be considered as alternative, the frequency
of their occurrence in the offspring follows often simple numerical
rules. These were first discovered by Gregor Mendel, and therefore
these laws are called Mendelian laws.
It is not necessary to enter here into details, but a brief presenta-
tion is unavoidable. When the one parent has a trait called A, the
other a trait called a, the descendants of the first generation will be
mixed and be characterized by the combination Aa. And if Aa is
mated with Aa, the characteristics A and a will appear in four

combinations A A,
Aa, aA, aa. In other words, there will be three
types exhibiting the trait in question: the type A, the type a, and
the type Aa. These numbers will be such that in a large group of
individuals one fourth will be of the first and second type each, one
half of the last-named type. It happens sometimes that the particular
trait of the type Aa cannot be distinguished by its outer appearance
from A. Then the ratios in a large number of individuals will be such
that three fourths have the trait A, and one fourth the trait a. In
this case we call A the dominant type. If any one of the individuals
of trait A is mated with another one of the same apparent kind,
some descendants will be genetically A others A a. Among their de-
9
scendants the type a may recur when one A a happens to be mated

with another Aa. On the other hand, a and a can give only indi-
viduals with the trait a. We call a, therefore, recessive because in
matings of a with a the descendants always revert to the type a.
It will be understood that all these remarks refer only to single
traits, not to the whole organism. The genetic traits may also be
more complex. Thus one may be AB, the other ab. Then the de-
scendants in the first generation will be ABab. When these are mated
among themselves a new series of types will develop.
The frequency of the occurrence of various combinations is given
to the left of the table of combinations on page 18. If AB is dominant,
AB Ab aB ab
the first four groups will show the traits AB. There are nine of these.
Six will be mixed, and one will be recessive.
It is possible to explain almost any numerical relation
by multiply-
ing the unit elements assumed in the parents. Furthermore, if it is
assumed that dominance is incomplete or variable, practically every

numerical arrangement found in the series of offspring may be ac-
counted for. It is also likely that the vitality of the various resultant
types not the same, that they may be entirely or partly sterile,
is
or even not capable of developing or maturing. The genetic composi-

tion and the body forms of a population may be unstable on account
of the complex effects of these causes.
Empirically found that the characteristics of a species that

it is
remains in the same environment remain fairly stable. This would

mean that a state of equilibrium between the various genetic ele-
ments has been established.
The way in which stability of a population is secured may be
illustratedby the example of simple Mendelian inheritance.
When there are two traits, A and a, from which the population is
derived we have, as shown before, in the first generation only Aa\
in the second, one part A, one a, and two Aa; or /i, $Aa, %a.
If intermarriage by chance, we
is find :
\A X \A =
\A X \a =
i/lX f/la = Tyia
\Aa X \A =
%Aa X f.la =
f Aa X la =
ia X \A =
Ja X |/ia =
\a X \a =
This is the same grouping as before. If there is no disturbing ele-
ment the distribution of individual forms composing the species will

remain stable. The same is true of other Mendelian ratios.
forms A and a occur with different frequencies
If the for in-
stance A very rarely and a very frequently and Mendelian splitting
prevails, the relative frequencies of A and a will remain the same,
provided there is no selective mating. The ratio of different forms
remains the same.
The species as a whole is composed of a large number of hereditary
lines each set off from the other by slightly divergent characteristics.
Such a line is called a genotype, while the species which is composed
of many called a phenotype\lt all the individuals com-
genotypes is
posing a geiiotype were identical in form, they could be readily as-

signed by a study of their form each to its own line. As a matter of
fact the individuals composing a line differ among themselves and
are often so similar to individuals of other lines that impos-it is
sible, even by the most minute examination, to determine the

genetic line to which each belongs. In most cases, study of the family
lines of the individual is required for a determination of the genetic
line to which it belongs.
In all bisexual species a constant intermarrying of family lines
occurs.
It follows from all this that in a generalized description only the
major, fundamental characteristics of a species can be defined, while

the differentiation of genetic lines within the species requires genea-
logical studies.
When mating in a stable population is entirely at random
Selection.
and no other disturbing factors make their appearance, each gener-
ation will be, individually and in composition, identical with the
preceding and following ones. If for some reason the families con-
stituting the species are isolated by geographical conditions or other
causes, random mating is no longer possible; and if the individuals
composing each community belong to distinct genetic lines, local
varieties will develop. Whatever the causes of selective mating may
be, they, present conditions that may lead to the rise of varieties and
to shifts in the composition of the species which may separate in a
number of recognizable varieties provided the genetic differences
of the segregated genetic lines are great enough.
There may be other disturbing causes due to different birth rate
or mortality of certain types, or to the inclination of certain forms,
males and females, to band together and to mate preferentially. If,
for instance, the genetically tall lines of the species should be more
fertileand have a lower mortality than the genetically short ones,
the result would be a gradual increase in the general size of individuals
of the species. Changes in environment due to migration or to other
causes may become animportant factor in eliminating or at least
decreasing the frequency of certain genetic lines at the expense
of others.
The effect of the kind of selection here discussed will not produce
new forms, but will bring about differentiation of varieties within
the range of variation of the original species.
Environment. The species are not absolutely stable, but undergo
changes under the influence of environment. So far as observations
show, such changes are not hereditary. They indicate merely that
the bodily form of an individual must be taken as an expression of
its hereditary characteristics in a definite environment. An absolute
form uninfluenced by environment does not exist.
The amount of influence of environment is considerable among
lower forms, but is less pronounced in the higher animals. Plants
taken from low places to high altitudes change their habitus. Their
steins arc shortened. Crustacea living in salt or brackish water change
their types according to the salinity of the medium in which they
live. The pupae of butterflies adjust their color to the background
on which they are placed. Rats change the length of their tails ac-
cording to the temperature in which they are raised. Lions born in
captivity differ in details of bodily form from wild lions.
Origin of species. All these data indicate that varieties may occur
that remain within the range of the genetic lines composing a species
and within the range of its adjustability to environment. They do
not throw light upon progressive differentiation that would lead to
the formation of new species.
Both paleontological evidence and the results of the study of the
morphology of plants and animals prove that such changes have
occurred. Two problems present themselves: How did these changes
come about, and what means have we at our disposal to determine
the forms from which modern species have been derived? The former
problem is a general biological one and beyond the scope of the
present book. The second is of fundamental importance for the
understanding of the descent of the races of man.
Two distinct aspects of change must be distinguished. The one
relates to the gradual modification of species in the course of geological

time. From a common source, forms develop that differ in varying
ways and lead to a series of forms that may be represented by a
genealogical tree. The other refers to parallel changes that occur
in an equal manner in species and genera entirely distinct in descent,
without genetic relationship.
The gradual changes of some types of animals, like those of the
horses and elephants, from extinct species have been traced by the
study of fossilized remains found in consecutive geological strata.
Although the changes that occur in course of time are not by any
means continuous, they are enough together to allow us to
close
infer that the bodily forms of these animals were gradually modified
and, as time went on, gave rise to new forms. The periods during
which these modifications took place were very long, and we may
not conclude from the apparent permanence of living types, the
history of which we can follow for a few thmisand_yârs, that this
indicates an actual permanency ofform. We
must, therefore, assume
'also that precursors of man different from modern man occur in
geological strata preceding those found at the present time, and the
study of their remains enables us to follow the gradual emergence of
man from earlier forms.
A second method of approach is based on the study of morpho-
logical similarities. A comparison of the structure of animals of dif-
ferent species and genera shows that they may be graded according
to their similarities and dissimilarities. The chemical behavior of the
blood can be studied for the same purpose. Furthermore, the most
characteristic traits of each species and variety become more and
more pronounced in the course of the
development of the individual,
so that early stagesmay be assumed to be more generalized forms.
These we may be allowed to consider analogous to lower forms of
corresponding age, from which they developed in different directions.
Since the paleontological record is always incomplete, partly on ac-
count of the lack of specimens and partly on account of the absence of
allsoft parts, the inferences from morphological comparison are a most
valuable and indispensable aid in the reconstruction of the history of
species. It is unavoidable that the conclusions drawn from morpho-
logical studies, being more indirect, are more uncertain than those
obtained from the study of actual paleontological specimens, the
chronological sequence of which is more or less accurately known;
nevertheless the conclusions cannot be omitted, The interpretation
of the differencesbetween paleontological and modern forms itself
requires a knowledge of the significance of morphology, so that the
evaluation of the differences between paleontological and modern
forms depends also on morphological judgment. This is the reason
for much of the uncertainty in the interpretation of the significance
of differences between closely related forms.
A
second important consideration is based upon certain homol-
ogies that is, parallelisms that occur in forms which are not
distinctly genetically related, but are distant branches of a main
trunk.
Parallelism occurs frequently among plants and animals. Plants
which live in high altitudes or in Arctic climates are characterized,
regardless of their systematic position, by shortness of stems and the

formation of leaf rosettes. The Cactaceae of the American desert
and the Euphorbiaceae of the African desert have a similar habitus,
characterized by the suppression of leaves and deeply embedded
stomata that retard evaporation. Animals of the Arctic and of high
altitudes, such as the polar bear, the hare, and the ptarmigan, have
white fur and feathers. W. M. Wheeler has treated fully the remark-
able convergence in structure of the ant lion and worm lion,
12
and
A. Willey has given a comprehensive treatment of the observations
13
proving convergent evolution.
A particular phase convergence is observed in the bodily form
of
of domesticated animals. Loss of pigment is of frequent occurrence.
Horses, dogs, rabbits, and swine with blond hair and blue eyes occur.
Wild forms that have such loss of pigment are very rare, although
complete albinism occurs. The great variety of coat color in domesti-
cated forms is not found in the same way among wild forms. Varia-
tions in size are common
in domesticated races. The tiny Pekinese
dog and the Bernard, the pony and the heavy dray horse, are
St.
examples. Variations in the form of the ear develop, particularly the

hang ear of the dog and of the rabbit.
FOOTNOTES
1. The translations are taken from Macalister, R. A. S., A Text-book of Euro-
pean Archaeology (Cambridge, 1921), vol. 1, p. 25.
2. Boule, M., in Fossil Men (Edinburgh, 1923), takes a different view. See pp.
36, 49, etc.
3. Science, vol. 71, Supplement (Jan. 3, 1930), p. xii.
4. Science, vol. 74, Supplement (Sept. 4, 1931), p. xii; also Jochelson, W.,
GEOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PREMISES 28
Archaeological Investigations in Kamchatka, Carnegie Institution of Wash-

ington Publications, No. 388 (1928), p. 35.
5. Berkey, C. P., and Nelson, N. C., Geology and Prehistoric Archaeology of the
Gobi Desert, American Museum Novitates, No. 222 (1926).
6. Leakey, L. S. B., The Relation between Past Pluvial and Glacial Periods,
98th Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
(Bristol, 1930), pp. 372-375.
7. Osborn, H. F., Men of the Old Stone Age (1924), p. 120, fig. 57.
8. Sollas, W. J., Ancient Hunters (1924), p. 36; see also Osborn, H. F., and
Reeds, C. A., "Influence of the Glacial Age on the Evolution of Man,"
Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, vol. 40 (1929), fig. 3, for a
diagram of correlation of glaciations and marine terraces, p. 596.
9. Sollas, op. cit., pp. 648-656; Peake, H., and Fleure, H. J., The Corridors of
Time (1927), vol. 2, pp. 1-12.
10. Penck, A., and Bruckner, E., Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter (Leipzig, 1909);
summaries of the same in MacCurdy, G. G., Human Origins (1924),
vol. 1, p. 50; or Peake and Fleure, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 11 and 135. See also
Science, vol. 71, Supplement (Jan. 3, 1930), p. xii.
11. Douglass, A. E., "The Secret of the Southwest Solved by Talkative Tree
Rings," National Geographic Magazine, vol. 56 (1929), pp. 737-770.
12. Wheeler, W. M., Demons of the Dust (1930).
13. Willey, A., Convergence in Evolution (London, 1911).
CHAPTER II
HUMAN ORIGINS AND EARLY MAN

JAMES H. MCGREGOR
One of the great intellectual achievements of the nineteenth century

was the discovery of "man's place in nature," to use a phrase which
became famous as the title of the small volume containing T. H.
Huxley's essays on "The Man-like Apes" and "Man's Relation to
the Lower Animals." * During the seventy-odd years which have
passed since these masterly essays appeared, practically all en-
lightened people have come to accept the idea of man's origin by
descent from lower animals, even though they may be quite ignorant
of the evidence for it or the stages in the slow progression from
simple beginnings to mankind's present estate.

This chapter is intended primarily to give a brief account of the
physical characters of the more important ancient and extinct types
of man, especially those that are distinctly more primitive than the
modern races. Secondarily, though space will not permit a considera-
tion of the evidence for the evolution of man from early vertebrates
or even from the lowest mammals, an attempt will be made to com-
pare the most primitive known types of man with their nearest
subhuman kin, the great apes, and to indicate the probable relation-
ship between the human and simian branches.
The layman sometimes gains the impression that organic evolution
leads only in the general direction of man, which is far from the
truth. The fossil record of the horse family, or of the elephants, is
much more completely known, and these would have pursued their
way if the order called Primates, the branch to which man belongs,
had never sprouted among the other early ordinal shoots of the
mammalian stock at the beginning of Tertiary time, or if, having
flourished for a while, it had withered and died as many other
branches did. Limiting the discussion to the Primates, one sometimes
hears the apes referred to as "nature's unsuccessful attempts to
make a man," but this is mere rhetoric. As well might man be called
24
HUMAN ORIGINS AND EARLY MAN 25
nature's failure in trying to evolve an ape. Still it is but natural for

us to consider evolution from our own human point of view, and
from this standpoint the emergence of the mind of man is the
most stupendous product of nature, the crowning achievement of
creative evolution. Yet we must consider it not as something
supernatural, a miracle, or even as a single sudden mutation, but
as a gradual growth. There are many grades of intelligence even
among men of today, and in the individual history of every one of
us the mind develops as truly as the body. These facts considered
in relation to the mentality of our remote cousins, the anthropoid
apes, surely point to the conclusion that our prehuman and barely
human ancestors of Tertiary time must have been respectively sub-
human and incipiently human in their mentality.
Primates. The group of animals which especially concerns us here,
the Primates^comprises the lemurs, monkeys, apes, and man. This
name as given by Linnagus in the micl-cightcenth century denoted
"
first" (in the sense of highest in rank),and doubtless many persons
assume the primates ipso facto to be the most highly specialized and
the latest to be evolved of all the mammals; but as a matter of fact
the lowest primates, the lemurs, appear to be somewhat allied to the
East Indian tree shrews, a group of small primitive mammals usually
classified among the insectivores, an extremely primitive and gen-
eralized order. The higher primates, especially the great apes and
man, are of course greatly advanced in the development of their
brains, but in their anatomy otherwise they form a relatively gen-
eralized group. Nor were primates especially late in the time of their
appearance. \ Fossil lemurs are known from the Eocene, and one or
two small forms which appear to be early anthropoid apes from the
Lower Oligocene of Egypt; numerous large apes resembling the
chimpanzee, orangutan, etc., are known as Miocene and Pliocene
fossils, especially in India; and recent evidence (cultural, not skeletal)
tends to show that man himself of a primitive sort may have emerged
before the end of the Tertiary. I
Though there are different opinions as to just when the human
family split off from the apes, there is rather general agreement,
among man and modern ape
those familiar with the evidence, that
are both descendants of some common progenitor somewhere in
Tertiary time, and this after all is the essential point.
The data for determination of interrelationships of primate groups
are drawn from comparative anatomy, embryology, paleontology,
biochemistry, physiology, and psychology; and the evidence from all
these sources is mutually corroborative in the highest degree.
The order Primates comprises two suborders: the Lemuroidea or
lemurs and the Anthropoidea, which comprise all tailed monkeys of
both the Old and the New World, together with the tailless great
apes and man. With few exceptions the primates are arboreal in
habit. The Lemuroidea include the true lemurs, recent types of which
are found chiefly in Madagascar, with allied forms in Africa and the
East Indies, and the very aberrant Tarsiiw, a remarkable little East
Indian primate of very puzzling affinities, which in many ways is
intermediate between lemurs and monkeys. This creature is some-
times, and perhaps properly, placed, together with certain fossil
relatives, in an intermediate suborder, Tarsioidea. Fossil lemuroids
and found in Eocene deposits in North America and
tarsioids
Europe are the oldest known primates, and descendants of these

appear to have migrated to Asia and Africa in early Tertiary time.
It isquite possible, however, that North American and European
fossil lemuroids may both be derived from still earlier unknown
Asiatic forms, related to the tree shrews which, appearing in the

Paleocene, still inhabit the East Indies. The lemurs with their foxlike
muzzles do not appear very monkeylike; their intermediate character
is expressed in the German name Halb-affen (half monkeys) but never- ;
theless these lemurs and especially the tarsioids appear to stand very
close to the ancestral line of the second suborder, the Anthropoidea.
This suborder readily falls into two great divisions: first, the
American monkeys or Platyrrhines (w ith the nostrils widely sepa-
r
rated); and second, the Catarrhines, which are characterized by a

narrow septum between the nostrils, and which comprise all the
Old World monkeys, baboons, apes, and also man. These two branches
are very definitely characterized and differ in many structural fea-
tures which render it improbable that either has descended from the
other, and make it practically certain that the two groups evolved
independently, Platyrrhines in Tropical America and Catarrhines in
the Old World, from two already separate lemuroid or tarsioid stocks.
This would mean that the resemblances between Old and New World
monkeys largely represent parallel evolutions, though the. two an-
cestral stocks probably had a remote common progenitor in some
Eocene lemuroid, such as Notharctus described by W. K. Gregory.
The Catarrhines, or Old World Anthropoidea, comprise four families:
(1) the Cercopithecidae, or Cynomorph monkeys (including all Old
HUMAN ORIGINS AND EARLY MAN
T E R T I A R Y QUATERNARY
Fig. 2. A tentative phyletic tree of the Primates. The estimated durations of

the geological epochs are from Charles Schuchert (1931). The interrelationships
of the various Pleistocene human types are extremely dubious.
World monkeys and baboons) (2) the Hylobatidae, the small,
tailed ;
long-armed gibbons of the Malay Peninsula and East Indies; (3) the
Simiidae (also called Pongidae), including the orangutan of Borneo and
Sumatra and the chimpanzee and gorilla of Africa and a number of
important fossil forms; and (4) the Iloniinidae, or the human family.
The gibbons are frequently included with the large manlike apes in
the family Simiidae, but their separation as a distinct family seems
to be thoroughly justified. The South African fossil ape Australopith-
ecus described on page 29 is even more manlike in certain cranial
and dental characters than the gorilla and chimpanzee. A very small
lower jaw of Lower Oligocene age from the Fayum desert in Egypt,
which has been named Propliopithecus, though representing a creature
no larger than a very small monkey, has molar teeth with the five-
cusped pattern characteristic of anthropoid apes, and hence has a
special interest as affording evidence that forms close to the stem of
the great apes and man lived at a time so remote; for this jaw, dating
back some forty million years, according to the geologic calculations
based on radioactivity, is actually older than any remains thus far
known of tailed monkeys, either American or Old World. Parapithe-
cuSy another primate represented by a still smaller jaw from the same
geological formation, may also be a protoanthropoid. Miocene de-
posits of Europe, and especially of the Siwalik Hills of India, have
yielded teeth and jaws of several types of manlike apes somewhat
resembling the chimpanzee and orangutan, and fossil anthropoid
teeth and jaws apparently of Miocene age were reported in Kenya,
East Africa, in 1932. Several genera of apes of Miocene and Pliocene
"
age, found chiefly in India, are called collectively the Dryopithecus
group" from the name of the best known genus. The peculiar plan
"
of their teeth, characterized by five-cusped lower molars, the Dryo-
pithecus pattern," has been the subject of detailed comparative
studies by Dr. W. K. Gregory and Dr. Milo Hellman, who find it
to be the basic pattern of these teeth in all anthropoid apes and also
in man, where it is well developed in the earlier and more primitive
types but often reduced in civilized groups, especially in Europeans,
to a simpler four-cusped "plus pattern." It should be made plain
here that "Anthropoidea" as the name of the second suborder of
Primates, including all monkeys, apes, and man, is not to be con-
fused with the term "anthropoid" as specifically restricted to the
manlike apes or Simiidae.
Australopithecus africanus (the Taungs ape). Among fossil anthro-
poid apes the one which has the greatest interest from its likeness to
man is represented by a juvenile skull found at Taungs in Bechuana-
land, Africa, in 1924. The discovery consists of the entire facial
region and the base of a skull, together with a natural limestone cast
of the endocranial cavity. It was found in a filled-in cave in a traver-
tine limestone deposit the geological age of which is uncertain but is
now believed to be Lower or Middle Pleistocene.

The Taungs skull was carefully cleaned and studied by Pro-
fessorRaymond A. Dart of Witwatersrand University, Johannes-
burg, who gave it the name Australopithecus africanus (Southern
3
ape of Africa). The skull is that of a young animal at a dental age
corresponding to that of a human child of about six years, as the
firstpermanent molars are just becoming functional. The entire
milk dentition is
preserved. The skull has some resemblance to that
of a young chimpanzee, the main differences being that the anterior
teeth are very much smaller, the chin is better developed, and the
forehead is fuller, more nearly vertical, and lacking entirely the su-
praorbital ridge (see Fig. 3) which is slightly developed even in infant
chimpanzees. The brain, as may be seen from the natural endocranial
cast, is
considerably larger than that of a chimpanzee of corresponding
dental development, and is distinctly more humanlike in form than
that of any other anthropoid ape. The teeth also are far more manlike
than those of any other known ape, living or fossil; but in contrast
with the very small milk incisors and canines, the first permanent
molars are considerably larger than in the chimpanzee. Professor Dart
has been so strongly "impressed by the manlike features of this fossil
that, ^notwithstanding his giving jet the name "Australopithecus,"
he regards it as related to the apc'estral stock of man rather than to
the great apes. Had the skull been that of an adult instead of a child,
the manlike features would doubtless have been far less obtrusive,
as the jaws would have projected quite as much as or more than they
do in chimpanzees to accommodate the enlarged permanent teeth.
In a modern anthropoid ape of the dental age of this fossil, the brain
has attained very nearly its adult size, from which we may infer
that the adult of this type would have a brain no larger, or little
larger, than that of a gorilla; so that, with large jaws and relatively
small cranium, it would appear much more apelike than the young
animal. Professor Dart believes that the creature walked upright,
but there is nothing in the skull to warrant this or to indicate that
its balance on the spinal column was essentially different from that of
a young chimpanzee. In all discussions of Australopithecus it is
important to keep in mind that the skull is that of a very young
individual and that no other part of the skeleton is known. It exhibits
a remarkable mixture of simian and human features and is beyond
question the most manlike of known anthropoid apes, but this
special manlikeness may well be an example of parallelism. Sir Arthur
Keith 4 considers it as definitely an anthropoid ape, but he states
that "of all the fossil apes yet discovered, Australopithecus com'es
nearer to our expectation of what our anthropoid ancestors should

be like than any which has come
to light so far/'
Though appar-
ently too late geologically to
qualify as an ancestor of man,
the Taungsfossil appears to rep-
resent an especially advanced

member of the simian branch
which became extinct during
the Pleistocene period.
5
Dr. Robert Broom of the
Transvaal Museum at Pretoria
has announced the discovery of
Fig. 3. Skull of Australopithecus afri-

wnat appears to be the long-
canus (the Taungs ape). Juvenile speci- hoped-for adult Australopith-
men, milk dentition with first permanent ecus. The specimen is a skull
molars. Posterior cranial region and part
found j n the surnmer o f 1936 at
of lower jaw restored. (One third natural , , ,. , T^
.
,
g j ze
-, bterkiontem near Ivrugersdorp,
Transvaal, somewhat more than
200 miles northeast of Taungs. Like the Taungs specimen, the new
skull was embedded in limestone which had filled in a former shal-
low cave, and the fossil was shattered by the blast which exposed
it. Among the parts recovered is a nearly complete natural cast of
the brain cavity which indicates an endocranial capacity of about

600 cubic centimeters, equal to that of a large gorilla (the greatest
endocranial capacity recorded for the gorilla is 655 cubic centimeters)
and much greater than the maximal capacity of the chimpanzee.
Frontal sinuses are large. The maxillary bones and several upper
teeth are preserved; the molars are distinctly larger than those of
the chimpanzee or of man, but the empty socket of an upper canine
shows that this tooth was relatively small, as are the milk canines
in the Taungs skull. The fossil is still partly embedded in matrix,
but enough is exposed to enable Dr. Broom to make a number of

important measurements, and he has attempted a provisidnal recon-
struction drawing in lateral view which resembles a female gorilla
but with somewhat weaker jaw development. On the whole, this
drawing realizes rather closely the adult conditions inferred from the
juvenile Australopithecus skull, and Dr. Broom assigns the new
fossil provisionally to that genus, though he believes that it represents
a distinct species which he names trawvaalensis. Dr. Broom places

the Sterkfontein formation provisionally as Upper Pleistocene, thus
somewhat later than the Taungs discovery. If this is correct, both
are much later than the emergence of man. This part of Africa is
over 1000 miles south of the present great rain-forest area, and there
is no conclusive evidence that it was ever forested. The fact that
both the Taungs and Sterkfontein skulls were found in filled-in

limestone caves suggests that Australopithecus may have been a
ground-living genus possibly frequenting rocky regions like some
species of recent baboons. The discovery of the rest of the skeleton,
especially the pelvis and feet, is greatly to be hoped for.*
Man and apes. One who has not made a special study of the subject
can have no conception of the all-pervading and detailed structural
similarity of man to the three great anthropoid apes, ^specially the
gorilla and chimpanzee, even though these likenesses are disguised
by very conspicuous adaptive differences. If we compare the chim-
panzee with its protruding jaws, its long arms and hands and grasping
feet adapted to arboreal life, and man with his expanded brain, re-
duced jaws, and long legs and feet specialized for erect, bipedal habit,
the differences at first sight seem to be enormous; but careful analysis
shows that the likenesses are far more impressive and far more funda-
mental. As Charles Darwin in the Descent of Man 6 states: "There
can hardly be a doubt that man is an offshoot from the Old
. . .
World Simian stem; and that under a genealogical point of view he
* In 1938, in the light of additional discoveries, Dr. Broom proposed a new

generic name, Plesianthropus, for this fprm, and also found near the same location
another type of large fossil ape which he named Paranthropus robustus. In both
forms, although the brain is no larger than in some modern apes, the incisor and
canine teeth are much more manlike in size and form than in any other known
anthropoid ape, living or fossil. Indeed the small canines seem so inadequate for
offense and defense that Dr. Broom considers it likely that these creatures walked
erectand used sticks and stones as weapons. This surmise is further supported
by the discovery of some incomplete arm and leg bones which are strikingly
human in structure and very unlike those of the living great apes.
must be placed with the Catarrhine division." And further, "If the
anthropomorphous apes be admitted to form a natural subgroup ....
we may infer that some ancient member of the anthropomorphous
subgroup gave birth to man." And Haeckel remarks in The Last
Link 7 "In fact it is very difficult to show why man should not be
:
classed with the large apes in the same zoological family. We all
know a man from an ape; but it is quite another thing to find the
differences which are absolute and not of degree only." Over fifty
8
years ago (1883) Robert Hartmann in Germany proposed uniting
the two families Simiidae and Ilorninidae in one group which he
called the Primariae, but this proposal, while entirely logical, has
not been adopted. II. II. Wilder 9 in The Pedigree of the Human Race
(1927) drops the Simiidae and unites the great apes with man in the
human family, Ilominidae, but zoological usage
still generally recog-
nizes the two families, though the most profound difference between
them is a psychic one rather than physical.
Many features which at glance would be cited as conspicuous
first
differences are shown by careful analytical study to be, on the con-
trary, essential similarities; for example, the huge air sacs in the
throat of the great apes, especially the orangutan, would surely seem
to have no counterpart in man; yet they have unquestionable homo-
logues in the small laryngeal ventricles or sinuses of Morgagni, which
are outpockctings from the sides of the human larynx. On the other
hand, many Old World monkeys have air sacs in the throat which
superficially resemble those of the apes, but which are morphologically
quite different in their essential relation to the larynx, and hence
cannot be regarded as homologous, so that, as regards these throat
sacs, the greatapes are actually closer to man than to monkey.
Almost everyone would say that a "hairy ape" was more like a
monkey than like man in the matter of coat, and yet careful counts
10
by Professor A. H. Schultz, of the number of hairs per square centi-
meter of skin on back and chest, show conclusively that, compared
with monkeys, the apes are relatively hairless, approximating the
human condition. "Man," says Schultz, "is the least hairy primate,
but in this respect there exist much smaller differences between man
and some anthropoid apes than between the latter and the majority
of the lower monkeys." These comparisons of laryngeal sacs and hair
are only two of many which might be cited, but they are sufficient
to indicate that the proper evaluation of resemblances and differences
requires considerable training in anatomy and related sciences.

HUMAN ORIGINS AND EARLY MAN S3
At this point we may enumerate a few of the features common to

man and the great apes which differentiate these collectively from
the Catarrhine tailed monkeys of the Old World. Space will permit
only a partial list. One feature is the absence of an external tail,
which present only in the early embryo. The number of trunk
is
(presacral) vertebrae is also less than in monkeys; that is, the body
is relatively shorter. The pelvis is much wider, the chest broader
than deep, reversing the condition in monkeys, and the sternum

"
short and flattened. The teeth have primarily the Dryopithecus
pattern" with five cusps in the lower molars (Fig. 4). The chimpanzee
and gorilla (but not the gibbon and rarely the orangutan) are manlike
Fig. 4. Left lower molar teeth of anthropoid apes and man to show the fifth
cusp, characteristic of the Dryopithecus pattern. All drawn same size. A. Dryo-
pithecus. B. Gorilla. C. Human molar with fifth cusp. D. Human molar showing
plus pattern lacking fifth cusp. (Fifth cusp indicated by arrow.)
in possessing the frontal sinus (Fig. 5) and in having no free central

bone in the wrist, this bone becoming fused with another wrist bone
as in man The great apes and man also lack the cheek
(Fig. 6).
pouches present inmost Old World monkeys, and they are the only
primates which possess a vermiform appendix. The ischial callosities
or horny seat-pads which are so conspicuous in Old World tailed
monkeys are lacking, except in the gibbons, though slight traces are
occasionally present in the chimpanzee. The tailed monkeys are
rather generalized in limb proportions; arm and leg are of nearly
equal length, the walk is quadrupedal, and the posture is pronograde;
that is, the back is horizontal.
In the anthropoid apes the arms have become greatly elongated,
an adaptation to the habit of hanging to branches and progressing
in part by "hand walking" with suspension from the branches, and
swinging hand leaps somewhat like those of a trapeze performer.

Sir Arthur Keith has aptly described this suspended posture as
"downright" in contrast to the upright, bipedal posture of man,
and has termed the arm walking habit "brachiation." The most
perfect brachiators are the gibbons, next the orangutan, then to a
lesser extent thechimpanzee, and least of all the gorilla. The arboreal
habit of the anthropoid apes is really quite different from that of
monkeys, and accompanied by many adaptive changes in the
is
mechanical relations of the muscles and viscera. The secondary
Fig. 5. Median sections of anthropoid ape and human skulls to show extent
of frontal and sphenoidal sinuses. Ape skulls redrawn from H. Weinert.
elongation of the fingers of the great apes, especially marked in the

orangutan, is plainly an adaptation to brachiation, while the thumb
has remained small or has even undergone reduction in size. When on
the ground the great apes are quadrupedal, but owing to the dis-
proportionate length of the arms and the fact that the hands rest
on the knuckles the shoulders are higher than the pelvis so that the
posture is between pronograde and orthograde. In the gibbons pro-
gression on the ground is erect and bipedal, the long arms being used
as balancers, but the knee joints are considerably flexed, so that the
gait differs markedly from the erect walk of man. Though the feet
of the apes appear to be essentially monkeylike, having opposable
great toes, careful studies have shown that they are much* closer to
the human foot anatomically than is the foot of any monkey. The
anthropoid foot most resembling the human is that of the mountain
gorilla, Gorilla gorilla beringei, of the eastern Belgian Congo. The least
manlike hands and feet are
those of the orangutan, which
are extremely specialized in
adaptation to arboreal life.
Recent studies show that the
uterus and also the placenta of
anthropoid apes are structur-
ally almost identical with the
human. The placenta is single,
as in man, not double as in Old
World monkeys. In the chim-
panzee the female physiolog-
ical sexual rhythm is almost
exactly like that in the human

species except that the cycle
is about five weeks instead of Fig. 6. The os centrale of the carpus.
The The os centrale (indicated in black) is a
four. period of gestation
separate bone in the wrist in tailed mon-
in the chimpanzee, according
keys, in gibbons, and in the orangutan.
to records of thirteen presum- In the chimpanzee, gorilla, and man it
ably full-term pregnancies in is evident only in embryonic life, later
the Yale Laboratories of Pri- being resorbed or more probably becoming
fused with the navicular bone. A represents
mate Biology, shows an aver-
carpus in the orang, B in chimpanzee (and
age of 236 days or about eight C man from
gorilla), in (slightly modified
months, one month less than H. Weinert), D in hand of a ten weeks
the human. 11
The female chim- human foetus (from Graefenberg).
panzee is capable of reproduc-

tion at the age of seven or eight years, though full growth is not
attained until two or three years later. The potential life span prob-
ably approximates that of man. R. M. Yerkes and A. W. Yerkes
12
mention a captive female chimpanzee said by Calmette and Wilbert

to be sixty years old. Blood tests of relationship, both the earlier pre-
cipitin tests of Nuttall and the more recent agglutination methods
of Landsteiner, also indicate much closer kinship of the great apes,
especially the chimpanzee, to man than to any of the tailed monkeys.
Nuttall, indeed, found the blood of the chimpanzee indistinguishable
from that of man, while the more delicate method of Landsteiner
reveals a slight difference; but both methods show a marked difference
from the blood of even the Old World monkeys.
* The biochemical likeness of the anthropoid apes to man is also
indicated in their susceptibility to human diseases. "It seems that
all microbic maladies of the human race can be transmitted to
chimpanzees, and that many of them are transmissible to the lower

apes. This is true for syphilis, typhoid fever, cholera, bacillic and
amoebic dysenteries, exanthematous and recurrent typhus, yellow
fever, pestilence, acute poliomyelitis, measles, scarlet fever, small-
pox, trachoma, pneumonia, grippe. It is equally true for maladies
produced by protozoa or by parasites: trypanosomiasis, leishmani-
osis, bilharziosis."
13
A young gorilla in the Bristol (England) zoolog-
ical garden had whooping cough during a local epidemic of that
disease. \
Though anthropoid apes and man are so closely allied in the

essentials of their anatomical and physiological make-up, there are
conspicuous adaptive differences chiefly correlated in the former
with tree living, more or less brachiating habit, and quadrupedal
gait; in the latter with perfectly erect posture, and bipedal progression
on the ground with complete emancipation of the arms and hands
from locomotion. Marked examples of such adaptation are seen in
the limbs, pelvis, curves of the vertebral column, and the balance
of the head on the neck. In the head itself, of course, man is marked
by an enormous increase in the size of the brain and reduction in

size of the jaws and teeth. The large cranium is balanced on the
top of the vertical backbone, instead of thrust forward as in the ape.
The human dental reduction is especially striking in the canines,
as these teeth in the apes, especially in the males, are of considerable
size; but despite the conspicuous differences the human teeth have
the same basic pattern.
The brain of man, as the "organ of mind," might, of all bodily
structures, be supposed to present the most fundamental divergence
from the ape; but except that it is some three times as large, with
more than ten times as many nerve cells in the cortex (which implies
an enormously more complicated system of intercellular connections),
it is essentially an enlarged and more complicated model of the
anthropoid brain. The structural difference is solely one of degree.

The general convolutional pattern is the same, and there is no
definite anatomical structure in either one which is lacking in the
ether. Experimental work on

cerebral localization in the chimpanzee
and gorilla (by Sherrington, shows that the motor 'areas are
et al.)
essentially alike, the chief difference being the far greater expansion
of the association areas in man; and recent studies by Tilney demon-
strate that the microscopic structure within the brain stem of these
apes is practically identical in pattern with the human, much closer

to man than to any monkey.
Of course the mind of the most primitive normal man is incom-
parably superior to that of the most intelligent ape, which at best
has only a brute mentality. But the careful experimental studies of
Kohler, Yerkes, and others have shown that the great anthropoids,
and especially the chimpanzee, which has been the most fully in-
vestigated, are far superior in intelligence to the tailed monkeys and
all other animals, and qualitatively more like man in their mental
operations. Instead of relying on mere aimless, fumbling methods,

the apes in these experiments show real insight in problematical
situations, and solve them in a purposive manner, often voluntarily
using sticks, boxes, and other objects as instruments. In memory,
as shown by delayed response experiments, they are greatly superior
"
to other animals. W. Kohler 14
says, The chimpanzee manifests
intelligent behavior of the general kind familiar in human beings/'
and that "they also behave in a way which counts as specifically
human." Notwithstanding this qualitative manlikeness in the mental
operations of anthropoids, the range of their minds in a quantitative
sense is brute rather than human. They lack utterly the capacity
for speech, which is perhaps the chief criterion of human mentality,
and this deficiency seems absolutely to preclude the attainment of
any culture or social inheritance.
Speech, the essentially human faculty, is an extremely complicated
mental phenomenon, involving not merely the functioning of the
neuromotor apparatus for uttering words that is, vocal symbols for
things and actions; the auditory recognition of the spoken word as a
specific symbol; the interpretation of visual impressions such as ges-
tures, signs, and pictorial or graphic symbols but also an elaborate
associational mechanism rendering possible the syntactic combina-
tion of auditory symbols which constitutes language. There is no
single "speech center" in the human brain, but a number of motor,

auditory, and associational regions all interacting to produce speech.
Students have sometimes asked why the manlike apes never learn
to talk, when parrots, obviously far less intelligent, do so readily.
The answer is that parrots do not really talk: they imitate sounds of
various kinds, inanimate and animate, including the human voice,

and certain words and sentences may come to be repeated asso-
ciatively or in appropriate circumstances, thus giving an impression
of understanding of their meaning; but the parrot has no compre-
hension of the real significance of words, nor is there any true syntactic
sense when it repeats a phrase. As Professor L. A. White has aptly
expressed it, animals (and this includes both parrots and apes) use
sounds as emotional signals, but not as symbols. Most birds and
mammals utter these vocal signals which are spontaneous or in-
stinctive, such as the barking, howling, whining, and growling of a
dog. (Vying and laughter in man do not have to be learned; they are
like the vocalizations of animals. The chimpanzee, according to
II. M. Yerkes and 13. W. Learned,
15
has a considerable gamut of
these vocal signals, but they express emotions and are not symbols
or names for definite things or actions not true words. The failure
of the chimpanzee to talk is not due to structural inadequacy of the
larynx and oral region so much as to cerebral deficiency, lack of
development of the elaborate brain mechanism necessary for speech.
It does not occur to the animal to use words as symbols. A closely
parallel condition is seen in certain low grades of human imbeciles
who, though susceptible of some degree of training, remain incapable
of speech. Somewhat similar is the condition of a normal baby of
eight or nine months; or better for comparison, a somewhat older

baby in whom, though considerable intelligence is manifest, the
speech mechanism is somewhat retarded in development. In the ape
it never develops. Attempts to teach apes to speak are commendable,
but the outlook for success does not appear very hopeful.
Origin of the human branch. Notwithstanding the close relationship
of the human family to the anthropoid apes, no one who has any
knowledge of the primates believes that man is a descendant of any
living type of ape. The gorilla and chimpanzee, our living next-of-kin,
represent only remote cousins, not ancestral species. The great ques-
tions are: Where and when did the hominid branch separate from
the anthropoid ape stock, and what were the latest common ancestors
ofman and the great apes? We might also postulate a third question:
What were the earliest members of the human branch, the "proto-
hominids," like? Unfortunately it is not yet possible to give a per-
fectly definite answer, satisfactory to all inquirers, to any of these
questions.
First, as to As we have seen, the earliest

the time of hominid origin.
anthropoids (the qualifying phrase "thus far discovered" is always
implied when we speak of any fossil form as the "earliest") are of

early Oligocene age (the little Parapithecus and Propliopithecus of
Egypt); then a number of genera and species of great apes (the
Dryopithecus group) are found in Upper Miocene and Pliocene for-

mations in Europe and especially in India. Very recently (1932 and
later) somewhat similar fossil anthropoids have been reported in
Kenya, Africa. One of the Indian forms, Sivapithecus, is believed by
Pilgrim to be a possible ancestor of man, but this seems extremely un-
likely since, as in all the others, its dentition is definitely specialized
in the direction of the modern great apes. In 1934 G. E. Lewis
described a fragmentary jaw of a new Indian Pliocene genus and
species, Ramapithecus, which appears to be more manlike than any
of the others of this group in the small size of the canine teeth.
The weight of opinion may be said to favor the separation of the
protohuman branch in Miocene time. The Oligocene Propliopithecus,

so far as can be judged from a lower jaw, may be as well qualified
to be an ancestor of man as of the modern apes, but if other parts
of the skeleton were known it might be disqualified as an ancestor
of either branch.
As to the place of origin of the Hominidae it is almost certainly
either Asia or Africa. Africa has the most manlike of living apes, the
earliest fossil apes, and the most manlike simian
fossil Australopithe-
cus, but the last named

too late geologically to be a direct ancestoi-
is
of man, and probably represents a sort of super-ape. Asia, on the

other hand, has yielded more species of fossil apes and also the two
earliest and far the most primitive known types of the human family.
On the whole, the evidence for Asia as the "cradle of humanity"
seems somewhat more impressive.
There cannot be the slightest doubt of man's more or less remote
arboreal ancestry, but his latest subhuman tree-living forebears of
(probably) Miocene time were almost certainly less specialized than
the modern great apes. We may be pretty certain that the extreme
length of the arms in proportion to the legs in the modern apes is a
specialization for brachiating habit, just as the long legs of the
human branch are specially adapted to walking and running in the
erect bipedal posture. In the common ancestor the arm and leg were
probably more nearly of equal length, as is the case in the tailed

monkeys. The erect bipedal gait is probably more difficult for a
modern chimpanzee or gorilla than it was for the late common
ancestors of Miocene time owing in part to the great weight of the
long arms and the consequent shifting of the center of gravity higher
up in the body in the present-day apes. As to the incipient proto-
humans, we are not to conceive of the creatures as coming down
suddenly out of the trees and becoming purely terrestrial in habit.
They probably retained for a long time a habit very similar to that
of the gorilla, dividing their time between the trees and the ground.
As their arms were shorter and less heavy the center of gravity was
lower, nearer the region of the pelvis, so that upright gait would be
easier than in the gorilla or the chimpanzee. Such a creature might
find it comparatively easy to progress either on all fours or as a biped.
The legs were probably relatively shorter than in any known type of
man, and the feet no doubt retained the divergent grasping great
toe for a long time.
not necessary to postulate a gradual disappearance of the
It is
forests as forcing our protohuinan ancestors to adopt terrestrial life,
since the gorilla, primarily semiarboreal, is largely terrestrial though
living in dense forests. The early protohuman, at first equally at
home in the branches of trees or on the ground, may have found the
terrestrial habit increasingly to his advantage. For one thing, he was
probably more omnivorous than the apes of the present day, living
less exclusively on leaves and fruits, but finding part of his food in
roots and small ground animals, lizards, insects, etc., as do the ba-
16
boons, which are large, ground-living monkeys. Professor O. Abel
suggests that the transition from arboreal to ground life may have
involved an intermediate climbing phase in rocky and mountainous
environment somewhat like that of the baboons in certain regions
of Africa today. The African Pleistocene ape Australopithecus may
have had a similar habit. The protohuman probably became grad-
ually more and more perfectly adapted to bipedal habit in correlation
with the increasing use of the hands in manipulating food and other
objects, and eventually with the use of sticks and stones as tools
and weapons.
As G. Elliot Smith 17 has pointed out (1927), the development
of eye and brain also proceeded step by step with the increasing
use of the hands. As to the great question when and how the fac-
ulty of speech evolved, marking the real dawn of humanity, we can
only surmise. Language was doubtless acquired very gradually. In
the foot the great toe lost its opposabiiity by slow degrees and the
grasping foot became reduced to a mere walking organ, but the

exact method of the evolution of the human type of foot. presents
many problems. The grasping foot of the ape, with its thumblike
great toe, forms such a conspicuously different member from the
human foot that most writers before T. H. Huxley followed the old
Quadrumana (four-handed) and Bimana (two-handed)
classification of
for the two groups. And yet comparative anatomy shows that the
human foot has the same bones and still retains in reduced form
those muscles which in the ape's foot function for adduction and
abduction of the great toe. In fact the likenesses are more essential
by far than the differences, and the human foot bears in its anatomy
and in its embryonic development convincing evidence of descent
from the grasping apelike type and of arboreal ancestry. The whole
question of the evolution of man's posture has been ably discussed
by Sir Arthur Keith, W. K. Gregory, Adolph H. Schultz, and
Dudley J. Morton.
Having contrasted the simian and human lines of descent, we may
consider very briefly the common ancestral stem whence these two
divergent branches sprouted, probably back in early or middle Mio-
cene time and perhaps somewhere in Asia.
A creature near the extremity of this ancestral stem, one of the
latestcommon progenitors of anthropoid ape and man, cannot be
pictured as a "missing link" in the sense of a creature halfway be-
tween the modern chimpanzee and Homo sapiens, but rather as a
primitive generalized Catarrhine type of fairly large size, though
probably not so large as a chimpanzee, with a hairy coat, apelike
jaws and teeth, but with canines less specialized than in most an-
thropoid apes, the molars with the Dryopithecus pattern, since even
the still earlier Oligocene types (Parapithecus and Propliopithecus)
had it. The arms were shorter than in modern apes, the legs shorter
than in man, so that the limbs were nearly equal, as in monkeys. The
hands were of moderate proportions, without the disharmony in
relative size of thumb and fingers present in recent great apes, and
the feet were of grasping type with opposable great toe. The tail
was probably already lost (as in all apes and a few monkeys). The
animal was undoubtedly arboreal and probably somewhat monkey-
like in habit, not yet greatly specialized for brachiation, and it was
also quite at home on the ground, where it was quadrupedal and
pronograde in posture, but with the habit of sitting erect like monkeys
and apes in general. In brain development and mentality it was
probably somewhat inferior to the modern anthropoid apes, but not
greatly so. The creature here pictured is not protohuman but sub-
human and also sub (modern) anthropoid, but it must be admitted
that more apelike than manlike. Man, with his big brain and
it is
uniquely modified foot, marks a far wider departure from the ancient
primate pattern than does the modern ape.
Has man descended from an ape? The answer hinges upon our
definition of an ape, and unfortunately the words "ape" and "mon-
key" are variously and loosely applied, and often used interchange-
ably. (A comparison of the definitions of these words in a number
of dictionaries will confirm this statement.) But as to man's descent
from monkey or ape, prejudice and sentiment blind many persons to
the facts. One well-known
zoologist in a popular book, after denying
categorically the descent of man from any sort of monkey, says,
"
All the present primates, including monkeys, apes, and man, have
been derived from a generalized ancestral primate stock not at all like
[[italics mine] any of the present-day specialized end products."
This statement, while not strictly untrue, is evasive and misleading.
Why not admit that this "generalized ancestral primate," if we could
see it in the flesh, would be identifiable by anyone as a "kind of
monkey or ape"? However, there was no single ancestor, but a long
series of "ancestral primates" in man's genealogical tree, and the
early or middle Miocene type we have attempted to picture, the im-

mediate progenitor of both anthropoid apes and of man, may ap-
propriately be called a "primitive generalized ape" unless one
objects to the name "ape" on sentimental grounds. This creature is
hypothetical, but the fossil realization of it may some day be found.
It is regrettable that no protohuman stages between this hypothetical
precursor and Pithecanthropus, the most primitive known hominid,

have yet been discovered. At the present time there is not a single
subhuman fossil primate known which can be definitely identified as
a direct ancestor of man.
Man. Thus far we have endeavored to indicate the main steps in
the evolutionary line up to the dawn of humanity. The rest of the
chapter will be devoted to an account of the physical features of the
earlier and more primitive types within the human family, those
which lived before the Holocene or Recent epoch.
Some ancient writers, notably Lucretius, realized that civilization
was not the original condition of man, but something which he had
gradually acquired, wbrking up from savagery, and in the seventeenth
HUMAM ORIGINS AND EARLY MAN 45
and eighteenth centuries rough stone weapons found in various

places in Europe were recognized by French and English writers as
the work of "ancient barbarians/' but there was no suspicion of the
extent of their antiquity. Indeed, well into the nineteenth century
the dawn of humanity was rather generally assumed, even by scien-
tific men, to have been only some 6000 years ago. Bones of extinct
animals elephant, rhinoceros, cave bear, and various others

from caves in Germany, Belgium, and England had long been known,
but they were regarded as merely antediluvian relics, their extinction
accounted for by Noah's flood. In 1825, a young English priest, the
Reverend J. MacEnery, found embedded in the stalagmite floor of
Kent's Cavern, near Torquay on the coast of Devon, stone and
bone implements associated with bones of some of these extinct
animals, proving that man had been contemporaneous with them.
Similar discoveries in Belgium and France were made shortly after
those of MacEnery, whose notes on his researches were not published
until 1859, long after his death (1841). Other caves later yielded not
only stone implements but human bones mingled with those of

extinct animals. The year 1856 is especially notable in human pre-
history as marking the discovery of the Neanderthal skeleton in
Germany and thus yielding the first definite proof of ancient man
of a distinctly different physical type from modern man. (A skull
of the same race had been found eight years earlier at Gibraltar, but
its importance was not suspected until long after the Neanderthal
discovery.) The first discoveries of prehistoric art were also made
about the middle of the nineteenth century, so that knowledge of
the extinct human races may be said to date from about that period.
Practically all of the examples of early man which we shall consider
lived during the Pleistocene epoch. (The transition to a cold climate
has been described before.*) It is the Glacial epoch or Great Ice Age.
Since the men of this entire epoch are largely known from the flaked
or chipped stone implements which they made and used, it is known
as the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age in distinction from the Neolithic
or age of more advanced culture, which intervened between the
Paleolithic and Recent periods.
Types of man. We shall present only the more noteworthy features

of the principal types of ancient man. Attention will be given chiefly
to the structural conditions and the evidences of physical evolution.
A reader not already somewhat familiar with human paleontology
*
See page 8.
may be surprised to find that so many of the discoveries considered
important' consist of but meager fragments such as a jaw or a few
pieces of a skull, often of somewhat uncertain geological age and
sometimes with neither contemporary animal remains nor artifacts
to aid in locating them in the scheme of human prehistory; and yet
such relics yield a vast sum of definite information regarding extinct
types. We shall begin with those members of the human family which
seem "lowest" that is, the earliest and least removed from sub-
human ancestors in structure and presumably in mentality and
follow what appear to be general lines of ascent toward the higher
types and especially toward that diversified group of races, fossil
and recent, generally included in Homo sapiens.
Knowledge of extinct man has grown rapidly during the present
century; conclusions regarding new discoveries are at best provisional
as now finds are constantly shedding light on earlier ones and neces-
sitating rcinterpretation of evidence. Without doubt some of the
opinions generally held today regarding certain early types will
require revision in the light of future discoveries.
Pithecanthropus erectus (Ape-man of Java). Pithecanthropus erectus,
the "ape-man of Java/' was the first fossil form to be seriously con-
sidered as a "missing link" in the sense of an intermediate form be-
tween ape and man, and it is still the least human of all known types
of mankind. As long ago as 1868 Ernst Haeckel, the great German
apostle of Darwinism, constructed a hypothetical phyletic tree in

which he derived man from the apes and postulated as an annectent
form a creature physically halfway between the two but lacking
the faculty of speech. On this fantasy he bestowed the name Pithe-
18
canthropus alaluSy the "speechless ape-man."
In 1889 Dr. Eugene Dubois of Holland, a young graduate in science
and medicine, declined a position in anatomy in the University of
Amsterdam to go instead to the Dutch East Indies as a military
surgeon on a geological survey promoted by the Netherlands govern-

ment. Dr. Dubois was keenly interested in the evolution of man and
declared in advance his intention to find the "missing link." When,
in 1894, he announced the success of this quest, surprise must have
been tinged with incredulity, but his claims soon were shown to
have a substantial basis. His announcement was in the form of an
illustrated description of the fossil bones of the creature on which he
bestowed HaeckeTs old name Pithecanthropus-, but in reference to
the thigh bone, which indicated upright, bipedal gait, he proposed
the specific name erectus 19 (PI. I, A). The remains, consisting of the top
of a skull, a left thigh bone, and two upper molar teeth, were found
in 1891 and 1892 in the bed of the Solo River, near the village of
Trinil in central Java, where they had been deposited in a layer
of volcanic lapilli overlying a stratum of conglomerate of marine
origin. Remains of numerous other mammals were found in the same

stratum, among them boar, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, deer, ele-
phants of the extinct genus Stegodon, and some bones of tailed mon-
keys, but no trace of anthropoid apes. Dubois at first believed all
these animals to be of
species now extinct, and
he was inclined to place
the bone-bearing stra-
tum as late Pliocene.
In recent years, the
question of geological
age has been carefully
considered by a number
of European and Amer-
ican geologists, and the
consensus of opinion
today dates the Pithe-
canthropus layer as
Pleistocene. There is Fig- 7 Skull of Pithecanthropus erectus. Facial
indeed ' considerable ev- and basicranial regions (below irregular transverse
.
i .
-,. ,
.
,i , line indicated by +) restored,
idence indicating that
these beds may be rather well advanced in the Pleistocene, perhaps
even near the middle of that period. From a study of the associated
especially the plants, Professor Berry of Johns Hopkins Uni-
fossils,
"
versity states that Pithecanthropus must have fallen well within the
Pleistocene period ... we are thus led to the conclusion that Pithe-
canthropus lived in the tropical evergreen jungle of Java during the
or second periods of glaciation in Europe and North America/'
first
There is abundant geological evidence that Java was in that period

a part of the Asian mainland, forming, together with Sumatra and
Borneo, a great extension of what is^now the Malay Peninsula. The
question of the geologic age of the remains is important, for unless
Pithecanthropus lived fairly early in the Pleistocene it cannot be
regarded as an actual ancestor of Homo, since at least two types of
early man, those of Heidelberg and Piltdown (the validity of the
Piltdown Eoanthropus is somewhat questionable), inhabited Europe
not later than mid-Pleistocene or even earlier, and there is consid-
erable archaeological evidence of man sufficiently advanced to fabri-
cate stone implements even in the late Pliocene epoch. There is also
a probability that Sinanthropus, recently discovered in China, may
have been earlier than Pithecanthropus.
brain case of Pithecanthropus (Fig. 7) is much larger than that
The
of any ape; in fact its size falls barely within the lower limit of hu-
manity, but the low cranial vault and retreating, narrow forehead
give the skull an apelike form. The very heavy ridge over the brow
is especially suggestive of the great African apes (though an even
heavier supraorbital ridge is to be seen in Rhodesian man), and this

ridge contains enormous frontal sinuses. The height of the cranium
is much than in any normal skull of Homo, but that of the Peking
less
Sinanthropus is almost as low. The area for attachment of the tem-

poral muscles indicates that the jaws could not have been of very
great nothing like those of the gorilla or orangutan. The general
size,
resemblance in form of this cranium to that of the gibbons the
small, agile, tree-living apes of the Malay region has often been
noted; but the early theory that Pithecanthropus was a giant gibbon
isfantastic and can no longer be seriously defended. The maximum
exterior length of the skull is 18.4 centimeters, its maximum breadth
13.1 centimeters, which gives the markedly dolichocephalic (ex-
ternal) index of 71.2. Owing to the enormous expansion of the

frontal sinuses the skull is very much longer than the brain cavity.
Thus the endocranial index is 80, which is barely brachycephalic,
very different from the external index. Dr. Dubois formerly estimated
the probable intracranial capacity as 855 cubic centimeters, but he
later admitted that this was cdnsiderably too small. A careful recon-
struction of the entire intracranial form was made by the writer by
the method of restoring the missing portions of an endocranial cast
by comparisons with similar casts from skulls of anthropoid apes and
various primitive types of man. The model thus completed gives an
endocranial capacity of about 940 cubic centimeters, which must
conform pretty closely to the actual dimensions. This equals the
minimal capacity of normal human skulls of today (occasional fe-
male Veddas and Australians). The endocranial form and size are
fully asimportant as the external configuration of the skull in their
bearing on the status of Pithecanthropus in relation to apes and man.
The largest endocranial measurement of the gorilla thus far recorded
is 655 cubic centimeters; thus Pithecanthropus exceeds it by about

fiftyper cent, and fully twice the size of the adult chimpanzee
it is
brain case. But the form of the brain is also significant, and careful
comparisons have shown that in this regard the likeness to man and
differencefrom the apes is very striking from every aspect. One
manlike feature is the well-marked sylvian notch separating the
frontal and temporal lobes. Rather extensive deductions regarding
the mental capacity of Pithecanthropus have been made inde-
pendently on the basis of the cranial cast by Professors G. Elliot
Smith and Frederic Tilney. These investigators agree that the great
frontaland parietal association areas in Pithecanthropus show great
advance beyond anything seen in the brains of the higher apes, and
in view of the apparent humanlike development of the so-called
motor and auditory speech areas they agree that Pithecanthropus
probably had at least a rudimentary language and that he must have
possessed the beginnings of the social inheritance or culture which
this capacity implies. This subject is rather fully discussed by
Dr. F. Tilney. 20 It is only fair to add that some neuroanatomists
are rather hesitant to admit the reliability of deductions, based on
endocranial casts, as to the development of the various motor, sen-
sory, and association areas of the brain, because such casts rep-
resent not the actual brain surface but merely an impression of the
inside surface of the skull, which, however, conforms rather closely
to the brain.
The two molar upper second and a right upper third,
teeth, a left
are very large with widely divergent roots. They are not quite like
any human molars, but Dr. Dubois's belief that they belong with the
cranium has been widely accepted. The third molar was only slightly
worn and its crown was wrinkled in a manner resembling the molars
of the orang, but this ape was not known to be represented in the
fossil fauna of Trinil. Recently, however, many fossil orang teeth have
been found by G. H. R. von Koenigswald, who reports that "Since

we have discovered orang in the Trinil zone much more variable than
the living orang we can prove that these molars belong to that ape."
Having seen the newly discovered orang teeth, I am in full agree-
ment with Dr. von Koenigswald 's opinion that the two supposed
Pithecanthropus molars are those of a Pleistocene orang. third A
tooth, a left anterior lower premolar, was found later in the same
locality and sent to Dr. Dubois after his departure from Trinil. The
mineralization of this tooth, its color, etc., are exactly the same as
those of the two molars. Its remarkable feature is its small size. It
is entirely human, no sense apelike. Moreover, it is certain that

in
the possessor of this tooth did not have greatly enlarged canine teeth
such as the apes have. In these animals there is an occlusion between
the upper canine and the lower anterior premolar which is also
somewhat enlarged. The tooth in question shows no surface for such
contact with an upper canine. This fact proves that it belonged to a
human type of dentition, and if the premolar is that of Pithecan-
thropus, it adds another manlike character to that creature.
Even before the discovery of the bones already mentioned, Dr. Du-
bois had found a small fragment of a lower jaw at Kedung Brubus, a
place some twenty-four miles from Trinil, but in the same geological
formation as that in which the Pithecanthropus remains occurred.
This fragment, belonging to the chin region, he regarded for a long
time as merely a part of an aberrant early human jaw, but later
critical study led him to the conclusion that it belonged to another
specimen of Pithecanthropus.
Enough jaw is preserved to show
of the
that had no chin prominence as in most modern races, though the
it
front surface of the chin was almost vertical, quite different from the
chin in the great apes. Fortunately it contains a part of the right
lower canine, and this tooth is small, as in man. A part of the right
lower premolar, which is also in place, is small and very similar to
the one from Trinil, and together with the small lower canine it
proves that the upper canine could not have been enlarged, thus
(if it really belongs to Pithecanthropus) confirming the evidence
from the Trinil prcmolar that Pithecanthropus was essentially human

in dentition. It should be emphasized that this jaw fragment is
distinctly different from any known human type in the form of the
area of attachment for the digastric muscle, but it differs still more
from the corresponding region in any of the great apes. It clearly
belongs within the human family, and there seems to be a strong

probability that it may represent a second specimen of Pithecan-
21
thropus, as Professor Dubois believes.
The femur, or thigh bone, had it been found alone, would certainly
have been assigned to the genus Homo. It was perfectly evident
from its linea aspera that it indicated upright, bipedal posture;
hence the specific name erectm. Dr. Dubois is still of the opinion
that this bone presents some unique features, but most authorities
hold that these are occasionally present in human thigh bones. The
bone indicates a stature of about 5 feet 6 or 7 inches, near the average
for A large pathological exostosis on the inner surface

modern man.
of this bone is purely accidental and has no bearing on its relation-
ships. The femur was found in exactly the same level as the skull
but some fifty feet distant from it, a fact which has been used as an
argument (a rather weak one) against the, probability that both
belonged to the same individual. Of course the chief importance of
the femur is the absolutely conclusive evidence which it yields that
its possessor walked upright, and, as above stated, it was on this
bone that Dr. Dubois founded the specific name credits.*

At the present day, in the light of later discoveries of early Pleisto-
cene man, no one believes that Pithecanthropus is a "missing link"
in quite the same sense that Dr. Dubois at first considered it, but
still in a way it is a "link" in that it is more apelike as regards the
skull and brain than any other human fossil. And even though it
may not be the earliest member of the human family, it is certainly

the lowest in brain development and, by inference, in mentality
and cultural capacity. No artifacts were found associated with
Pithecanthropus, and there is no direct evidence as to culture. In
1935 a few stone implements were found at Trinil, but in the opinion
of von Koenigswald they are much too advanced for a type as
21 *
primitive as Pithecanthropus. Pithecanthropus may not be di-
rectly ancestral to any other human type, but it may mark in-
stead the end of its particular branch of the family. Even in this case
it would be vastly important as representing at least a collateral

ancestor "a great-uncle rather than a grandfather/' The recent
discovery of the Peking man, a slightly higher and closely related
form, and of the Javan Wadjak man, and the finding in Java, in
1931 and later, of eleven skulls of a very primitive type, Ngandong
or Solo man (possibly a direct descendant), tend to enhance the
importance of Pithecanthropus in relation to human phylogeny. As
the lowest member of the Hominidae thus far known, one which
has barely crossed the threshold of humanity, Pithecanthropus
erectus well merits the designation "ape-man" (PL I, A).
*
In September, 1937, Dr. G. H. R. von Koenigswald discovered in central
Java a second adult cranium of Pithecanthropus. It is more nearly complete
than the Trinil skull, which it closely resembles in form, though considerably
smaller, having an estimated endocranial capacity of only 750 cubic centimeters.
In the same region a fragment of a lower jaw was found, containing four teeth of
definitely human form but of enormous size. A brief account of the discovery
together with photographs was published in the Illustrated London News of
December 11, 1937, while the present chapter was in press. (See note, page 94.)
Homo modjokertensis. A recent discovery, quite possibly of major
importance, reported by Dr. G. H. R. von Koenigswald, was the
excavation in February, 1936, of a cranium of a hominid infant in
21b
the Djetis zone (Pleistocene) of eastern Java. The location is near
Modjokerto, west of Surabaya. Dr. von Koenigswald regards the
Djetis zone as definitely of lower Pleistocene age, and thus older than
the Trinil zone which yielded Pithecanthropus. If this is correct the
new skull may represent the oldest human skeletal remains thus far
found, but the lower Pleistocene age of the Djetis zone is questioned
by some authorities, who regard it as middle Pleistocene, though
older than the Trinil beds.
The fossil consists of a fairly complete cranium including the upper
border of the left orbit and both tympanic bones, together with the
auditory meatus and the glenoid fossa for jaw articulation; but un-
fortunately the facial bones are missing. The absence of the teeth
renders it impossible to determine accurately the age of the child,
but the fontanelles are already closed, a condition attained in modern

infants at about the age of two years. This closure is remarkable as
the cranium is much smaller than that of a modern child even one
year old. The total length is 138 millimeters, greatest width 110
millimeters, but the calotte height (the height above the plane of
greatest length) is extremely low, only 62 millimeters incidentally,
the same as in Pithecanthropus. The forehead is sloping and lacks
the fullness seen in a modern infant, and the posterior parietal region
is remarkably. depressed. The cranial capacity, as estimated by Pro-
fessor Dubois from a cast, is only about 650 cubic centimeters, which
is slightly more than two thirds the capacity of a modern baby one
year of age. As the modern human brain at one year has attained
nearly two thirds its adult size, this indicates an extremely small
brain in the adult of the present type, a fact which, considered to-
gether with the depressed form of the skull, suggests, as noted by
von Koenigswald, that it belongs to the Pithecanthropus group,
though possibly not to the species found at Trinil. (Hence the dis-
cussion of it at this point.) An infant Pithecanthropus of course
would not have the brow ridge, large frontal sinus, and occipital
torus of the adult. Profile photographs showing the Modjokerto
cranium together with skulls of modern Papuan and Chinese infants
exhibit impressive differences, though naturally these are less strik-
ing than the differences between the crania of the adult Pithecanthro-
pus and modern man. I have had the privilege of examining a casf
of the Modjokerto skull, and am in full agreement with Dr. von

Koenigswald in the opinion that its affinities are with the Pithe-
canthropus group. On the other hand Dr. Dubois believes it to be
the skull of an infant of Solo man, a Javan type of upper Pleistocene
age.
Sinanthropus pekinensis (Peking man). Certain paleontologists,
notably Professor H. F. Osborn, have long maintained that the birth-
place of mankind is to be sought in Asia. Among the numerous
geological and paleontological data which give support to this view
may be cited the following facts: Numerous genera of anthropoid
apes of the Dryopithecus group flourished in India in Miocene and
Pliocene time, and some of these animals, chronologically and bio-
logically, were not widely removed from the point of divergence of
the simian and human branches. Pithecanthropus, barely human,
lived in Java in the middle Pleistocene. Just at the dawn of the
present century a fossilized human tooth was found in China, and
during recent years stone implements of Paleolithic type have come
to light in China and Mongolia. Such facts, taken collectively, ob-
viously indicate that Asia should prove to be a promising hunting
ground for traces of early man and his subhuman forebears. In 1926
two human teeth were found at Choukoutien, thirty-seven miles
southwest of Peking (Peiping) in cave deposits believed to be of early
Pleistocene age. In 1 927 another tooth, a fossilized lower molar, was
found. It was plainly from a young person, as it was practically
perfect and unworn. On the basis of this single tooth the Canadian
anatomist, the late Davidson Black, professor of anatomy in the
Peking Union Medical College, had the temerity to establish a new
genus and species of hominid, which he named Sinanthropus pekinen-
sis (Chinese man of Peking). Happily his seeming rashness won
early and dramatic vindication in a series of discoveries which have

offered to science a new type of ancient hominid of major importance,
slightly if any more advanced in humanity than Pithecanthropus,

and very well documented as to geological age. Abundant evidence
from associated animal fossils was believed to show the cave deposits
containing the remains to belong to early Pleistocene (Basal Lower
Quaternary), but recent correlation studies of the Pleistocene of
China, India, and Java (by Teilhard de Chardin, de Terra, von
Koenigswald, and others) indicate that the Choukoutien cave de-
posits are of middle Pleistocene age corresponding to the Trinil beds
of Java. As the beginning of the Pleistocene is variously estimated as
from 500,000 to 1,500,000 years ago, a fair surmise as to the age of
Peking man might be 500,000 years and possibly considerably greater.
The Choukoutien fossils are found in filled-in clefts and fissures at
the base of low limestone hills. In Pleistocene times these clefts were
open caves and were frequented by both men and beasts, but in the
course of succeeding ages they became gradually filled with deposits
of red clay, limestone, and bones, which by secondary calcareous
infiltration became cemented together.
Following the discovery of the type tooth in 1927, further excava-

tion of the cave deposits was actively pursued by the Cenozoic
Research Laboratory of the Geological Survey of China with the
collaboration of the Peking Union Medical College under the able
direction of Professor Black. A number of loose teeth and two lower
jaws only fragments but highly important in the anatomical
information they afford were found in 1928. In one of these,
that of a child, the chin region is very receding and suggestive of
that of the apes in form as well as in the marks of attachment of
muscles; rather more apelike than the Heidelberg jawxbut less so
than the jaw from Piltdown (both to be discussed later).
The most famous Sinanthropus discovery, and one of the most
significant discoveries ever made in the field of prehistoric anthro-
pology, was a nearly complete brain case found on December 2,
1929 (PI. I, /*), by Mr. W. C, Pci, a young Chinese paleontologist. 22
This skull is called No. 1, since a second skull, consisting of a large
part of the brain case with a portion of the nasal bones, was secured
in June, 1930. The dimensions of skull No. 1 are very slightly greater
than those of Pithecanthropus. The form is somewhat similar a
very low vault, narrow retreating forehead, and supraorbital torus
or ridge above the eyes but the fullness of the forehead is more
pronounced, this region closely resembling the Neanderthal type.
A striking feature is the narrowness of the upper parietal region as
compared with the lower temporal width. Some appreciation of the
character of this cranium may be gained by contrasting the early
opinions of two competent anthropologists, expressed on the basis
of published measurements and photographs, before casts were avail-
23
able. H. Weinert remarks (translation), "The skull find of Decem-
ber, 1929, proves so plainly to be Pithecanthropus that now for
the time since Dubois's discovery
first the Trinil calotte no longer
stands alone"; while on the contrary A. Hrdlicka 24 says, "The
skull is clearly Neanderthaloid. It appears to represent no distinct
PL. I. SKULLS OF SEVEN IMPORTANT TYPES
All photographed to same scale, oriented (where possible) on the Frankfort horizontal.
A. Pithecanthropus erectus, Java; B. Sinanthropus pekinensis. China; C. Eoanthropus
dawsoni, Sussex, England; D. Homo neanderthalensis (Chapcllc-aux-Saints), Correze,
France; E. Homo rhodesiensis. Northern Rhodesia, Africa; F. Homo sapiens (Brimn
race), Pfedmost, Czechoslovakia; G. Homo sapiens (Cro-Magnon race), French-Italian
Mediterranean coast.
genus, species, or even a pronounced variety." Dr. HrdliSka states
that this diagnosis is "necessarily provisional," and both anthro-
pologists have modified their opinions since complete descriptions
and casts and the second skull have become available, but the
diversity of their early opinions affords a vivid idea of the status of

Sinanthropus as intermediate between these two paleoanthropic
types. Davidson Black early stated that the Peking man "might
well be regarded as pre-Neanderthaloid in type," and the reported
finding of relics of Mousterian culture in China points to the possible

existence of later Neanderthaloids in that region, and justifies hope
that the suggested evolution may in time be confirmed by skeletal
discoveries.
On removal of skull No. 1 from the matrix, Professor Black dis-
covered that the cranial wall was excessively thick, so that the brain
cavity was smaller than had been supposed. At first he believed the
skull to be that of a female, but the development of the supraorbital
and occipital tori later convinced him that it was a male. The open
sutures which permitted the separation of the bones show it to be
that of an adolescent. A cast of the endocranial cavity, made by
Dr. Black, has a surprisingly small volume, somewhat over 900 cubic
centimeters, about the same as the Trinil Pithecanthropus. Skull No. 2
is lesscomplete than No. 1, somewhat larger, with a higher vault
and thinner walls, and undoubtedly the cranial capacity is con-
siderably greater. It is distinctly less like Pithecanthropus and some-
what more like the Neanderthal type. Several fragmentary lower
jaws practically without chin and with teeth resembling those of
Neanderthal men were discovered, but except for an incomplete
clavicle almost no remains of the rest of the skeleton had been found
up to the time of Professor Black's lamented death in 1934.

Professor Franz Weidenreich of Frankfurt succeeded Professor
Davidson Black in the Cenozoic Laboratory and the Peking Union
Medical College and has actively continued the investigations at
Choukoutien. He has reported the finding of fragmentary jaws,
numerous teeth, and, in November, 1936, three additional skulls,
two of them apparently adult males with cranial capacities estimated
at 1200 and 1100 cubic centimeters, and one an adult female with a
capacity of 1050, all very much larger than the first skull described
by Black. As the Steinheim (female Neanderthal) skull, according to
*
Weinert, has an endocranial capacity under 1100 cubic centimeters,
*
See page 66.
HITMAN ORIGINS AND EARLY MAN 55
we see that some Sinanthropus brains may have been as small as

that of Pithecanthropus while others exceed the minimal size in
Neanderthals and recent men. In form all the Sinanthropus skulls
are essentially similar, with the low crown narrowing above the ear
region, and with a heavy supraorbital torus. In the three new skulls
various portions of the facial bones are preserved, including the nasal
bones, which are broad and rather flat in form, a cheek bone, and
parts of the maxillary. The cheek bone is quite prominent and does
not slope obliquely backward as in the European Neanderthal man.
He believes that the teeth exhibit a definite sex difference in size,
those of the males being larger, as is markedly the case in the great
24a
apes and true to a slight extent in modern man. The teeth in general
exceed in size those of recent and also of Neanderthal man. The
molars usually have greatly wrinkled crowns, and the upper incisors
show a peculiar "shovel-shaped" form of the lingual surface, a con-
dition characteristic of Neanderthal man and also, strange to say,
of the Mongoloid division of recentman, as is known from care-
well
25
ful studies by Dr. A. Hrdlicka. Professor Weidenreich also notes the
presence in Sinanthropus of peculiar hyperosteoses on the inner face

of the lower jaw, somewhat below the alveolar border, a condition
observed in recent Chinese and Eskimo jaws, and he concludes that
"therefore Sinanthropus must be in closer relationship to this race
than to the European Neanderthal on one side and to the Whites or
Negroes on the other," and adds that it "indicates direct genetic
relations between Sinanthropus and the Mongolian group of re-
cent mankind." 26 I am unable to agree with Professor Weidenreich
in this opinion. The fact that Sinanthropus lived in China carries
no possible implication that it was specifically proto-Mongoloid.
A type so ancient as to antedate, perhaps by hundreds of millennia,
the emergence of Homo sapiens cannot, even if directly ancestral,
have a special relationship to any one racial subdivision of "Wise
man."
There is no positive evidence that Peking man was a remote direct
ancestor of Homo sapiens, but I quote with approval Professor
Black's cautious statement that "its dental characters certainly
would seem to indicate that Sinanthropus could not have been far
removed from the type of hominid from which evolved both the
extinct Neanderthal and the modern Homo sapiens."
27
This is by
no means' an assertion that Peking man was our ancestor, but he
may have been. This early opinion of Dr. Black's was based on
dental characters, but it is strongly supported by most of the known
morphological features.
As to the cultural status of Peking man, continued researches at
Choukoutien have shown that he used fire and made very crude
implements of chipped stone, especially of chert, and also that he
utilized the jaws and pieces of the antlers of deer as tools. The fact
that the human remains comprise practically no bones other than
skulls is very remarkable and difficult to explain. It is certain that
heads alone were not carried into the cave by animals. Professor
Weidenreich believes the probable explanation to be that the severed
heads of men, women, and children were the spoils of cannibalistic
head-hunters of the same race. There is no evidence of any other local
contemporary hominid type, though the Choukoutien caves have
yielded implements made by later Paleolithic men.
All in all, the great antiquity and extreme primitiveness of the
Choukoutien fossil men, the relative abundance of the remains, their
geological documentation, their likeness to Pithecanthropus and to
Neanderthal man, and the promise of further finds render the dis-
covery one of the most important in the history of anthropology.
Koanthro'inw daicsoni (Piltdown man). The Piltdown man was dis-
covered iu Sussex, England, in 1911-12 (PL I, C). It has been the sub-
ject of much discussion and even dissension among anatomists and
has attained wide popular notoriety. To state only the more salient
facts, there were found in a shallow bed of alluvial gravel at Pilt-
down several fragments of a human cranium which differed scarcely
at all from modern man except that the bones were excessively
thick. The cranial fragments, had they been found alone, would
almost certainly have been identified simply as an early example of
Homo sapiens; but within a few feet of some of them was also found
most of the right half of a remarkable lower jaw containing two
molar teeth. This jaw so closely resembled that of a chimpanzee, a
creature not previously found fossilized in England, that it is safe
to say that if only the jaw had been found it would have been gen-
erally regarded as that of a fossil ape, possibly a species of Dryopi-
thecus (Fig. 8, (7). However, the close juxtaposition of the cranial
fragments and jaw, their similar mineralization, and the absence of

known fossil apes in England led Dr. A. S. Woodward of the British
Museum of Natural History to the conclusion that the remains all
belonged to the same creature, which he forthwith named Eoan-
thropus dawsoni, or the "Dawn man." 28 The specific name was given
in honor of Mr. Charles Dawson, the discoverer of the remains.

The association of cranium and jaw has been
29
/'V^.
% -~
^
widely questioned. Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, of [ )/
the United States National Museum, in 1915
placed the jaw as that of a fossil chim-
panzee which he called Pan vetm, restricting
the name "Eoanthropus" to the cranium.
The lower molar teeth, however, though
very primitive and possessing the fifth cusp
characteristic of anthropoid apes and prim-
itive human types, have considerably higher
crowns than the teeth of the chimpanzee.
Somewhat later a canine tooth and also the
nasal bones apparently from the same skull
were found. In 1915, at a distance of some
two miles from Piltdown, two other frag-
ments from the frontal and parietal regions
of a closely similar cranium were found,
together with a single lower molar tooth

practically identical with those of the Pilt-
down jaw. This second discovery obviously
strengthens the case for the validity of
Eoanthropus. The original cranial remains
from Piltdown comprise the left temporal
bone, the left parietal with a considerable
portion of the frontal, a large piece of the

right parietal, the posterior part of the
occipital and the nasal bones, sufficient in-
deed to permit the restoration of the miss-
ing parts of the cranium with a high degree
of probability. When the missing portions
of the lower jaw are similarly restored and
articulated with the cranium, the facial
region can also be reconstructed with a
fair approximation to the actual conditions
(PL I, C), if the assumption that cranium and

Fig. 8. Comparative views of sectioned lower jaws showing the inner sur-
face of the right half. From Our Face from Fish to Man, by W. K. Gregory.
Putnam (1929).
A. Dryopithecus. B. Chimpanzee. C. Piltdown man. D. Heidelberg man. E. Eh-
ringsdorf type (Neanderthal man). F. Neanderthal man. G. Cro-Magnon man.
jaw belong together is correct. The skull, as restored, is of mesocephalic
form and markedly prognathous. A small part of the supraorbital
border which is preserved proves conclusively that the forehead was
fairly vertical and that it lacked entirely the heavy brow ridge which
distinguishes the Neanderthal and all other paleoanthropic types from
Homo sapiens. The mastoid processes are well developed. The poste-
rior border of the foramen magnum is preserved, and there are clear
indications that the head was balanced on the neck in a fully upright
position as in modern man. Owing to the great thickness of the
cranial vault, the brain volume is considerably smaller than would be
supposed. An endocranial cast made from the restored skull by the

present writer measures 1240 cubic centimeters, but some estimates
by others are considerablysmaller. The sex of the skull is doubtful;
a female, as has been asserted, the male intracranial capacity
if it is
would be somewhat larger. The lower jaw, as already stated, is un-

questionably apelike. Not only is there no chin prominence but the
u
apelike horizontal floor in the chin region the simian shelf as
Sir Arthur Keith has named it is quite conspicuous. In neither
Heidelberg man nor Sinanthropus, in both of which the chin is re-

treating, is this region really so apelike as in the Piltdown jaw. A
careful restoration of the symphysial part of the jaw indicates that
the anterior teeth must have been large and somewhat apelike.
The canine tooth found in 1915 is large, resembling that of a female
chimpanzee; from this it may be deduced that the anterior lower
preinolars must have been of larger size than in other human races.
This canine tooth is rather generally considered to be a right lower,
but some persons, including the present writer, regard it as more
probably a left upper. Though the structure of the anterior teeth is
deduced solely from the single canine and from the form of the
chin region, appears practically certain that the dentition was
it
more apelike than in any known human skull. In view of the ape-
likeness of the jaws and teeth, it is surprising to find the glenoid
fossa (the jaw socket) rather deep and formed as in Homo sapiens.
When restored with sufficient width to fit. the cranium the lower
jaw has a most anomalous appearance.
Unfortunately the geologic age of Eoanthropus is uncertain, but
the Piltdown gravels in which it was found are now generally ac-
cepted as an early Pleistocene deposit. A number of eoliths were
found and one well-preserved Paleolithic worked flint, possibly of
Mousterian age; also a large bone implement. Among associated
animal bones and teeth were remains of both Pleistocene and Plio-
cene mammals. These include a tooth of the fossil elephant Stego-
don, teeth of rhinoceros, hippopotamus, beaver, and various other
forms. Professor H. F. Osborn considers the tooth of a Pliocene
Stegodon as definite proof that Piltdown man a late Tertiary
is
form, and thus the oldest known human fossil; but the consensus
of opinion regards the Pliocene animal remains as having been
washed out of the original beds and mingled in the river gravels
with much less ancient bones of the Pleistocene period. On the
whole, the Piltdown skull is one of the most perplexing of human
fossils. A jaw so apelike in form of chin region and with apelike
features in the teeth seems to be a decided misfit with a cranium so

completely human. The composite creature seems to have no close
relation to any other ancient or modern human type. It is widely
divergent from all the paleoanthropic forms with heavy supraorbital
ridges, depressed cranial vaults, and small mastoids the Pithe-

canthropus, Sinanthropus, and Neanderthal types. Professor Elliot
Smith makes much of a resemblance to Sinanthropus in the thick-
ness of the cranial bones and in the narrowness of the upper (parie-
tal)part of the skull as compared with the lower temporal region,
but these likenesses, in view of more essential dissimilarities, may
well be considered as representing mere fortuitous parallelism.
Some remarkably divergent views have been expressed regarding
30
this fossil. II. F. Friederichs has published a study of Eoanthropus
in which he concludes that the cranium belongs to an individual of
Homo sapiens of essentially modern type (as many others have in-
sisted) and probably not older than Neolithic! while he holds
the jaw and the canine tooth to be those of a hitherto unknown
great ape of Tertiary age, to which he gives the name Boreopithecus
dawsoni. H. Weinert, in 1933, 31 after a thorough study of the Pilt-
down material, arrived at a very different conclusion: namely, that
the jaw and cranium are undoubtedly from the same individual,
and that the jaw, if properly reconstructed, is far less apelike than
hitherto believed and indeed strikingly human! He even denies the
great antiquity of the type, holding that it cannot be older than
Neanderthal man, and suggests that the name Homo piltdownensis
might be appropriate, though he has no objection to allowing the
designation "Eoanthropus" to stand "until we really know what it
is and where it belongs." Weinert believes that while the type may
be important as an early example of Homo sapiens fossilis, it cannot

be regarded as a true "Dawn man" in human phylogeny. The di-
verse opinions here cited indicate what a puzzle Piltdown man is.
On the European continent and in America there have been from
the first numerous sceptics as to the validity of Eoanthropus (per-
haps fewer now than formerly), but the English anthropologists and
anatomists (inspired perhaps by a patriotic sentiment that British
fossils are best) very generally accept Eoanthropus with loyal com-
plaisance as the veritable "Dawn man."

As regards the validity of Eoanthropus the circumstances of the
discovery, especially the two discoveries, taken together, must be
considered very strongly "pro," while the anatomical incongruities
seem generally "contra." As new finds of low-browed paleoanthropic
types continue to turn up, all of them conforming more or less per-
fectly to a consistent scheme, the comparison seems to enhance the
isolation of Eoanthropus and to render it more and more anomalous.
Does this mean (recalling a famous remark) that one is loath to see
"a beautiful theory killed by an ugly fact" namely, Eoanthropus?
Homo heidelbergemis (Heidelberg man). A
highly important relic
of early man, dating back to the Second Interglacial Period or pos-
sibly the First, a human fossil probably at least 150,000 years old
and quite possibly twice that, is the so-called Heidelberg jaw. This
jaw was discovered in 1907 in a sand quarry at Mauer, near Heidel-
berg, Germany (it is often called the Mauer jaw), and is the sole
type (Fig. 8, D). It represents one of the earliest unques-
relic of its
tioned human bones yet found. This jaw was embedded in ancient
river sand at a depth of over 79 feet below the present surface in a
stratum which has yielded many bones of Pleistocene mammals of a
warm interglacial period, the most notable of which are the straight-
tusked elephant, the Etruscan rhinoceros, and the lion. Above the
jaw had been deposited many strata of river sand, gravel, clay, and
loess. The jaw is very heavy and large; it lacks any suggestion of a
chin prominence, and therefore suggests the jaw of an ape, but the
teeth and dental arch are definitely human and not larger than in
some primitive modern types. One striking feature is the great
width of the ramus (the lateral ascending portion of the jaw) and
the extreme shallowness of the mandibular notch at its top. Many
anatomists have noted that this jaw, while heavier and in some
ways more apelike, has certain features in common with the later
Neanderthal race, and it seems highly probable that Homo heidel-
bergensis, as it was named by Professor Schoetensack, is to be re-
garded as a pre-Neanderthaloid type representing an ancestor of

Neanderthal man. Bonarelli, in 1907, proposed for it the generic
name Paleanthropus. The apelikeness of this fossil has often been
exaggerated. It is not true, as has sometimes been stated, that this
jaw, if it had been found without the teeth, would have been placed
as that of an ape. There are certain ape likenesses but they do not
obscure its essential humanity. Nor is the assertion which is some-
times made that this is known human jaw strictly true,
the heaviest
since, though very large, no larger or heavier than some others.
it is
The humanity of the Heidelberg man is beyond question. The teeth,

though they retain certain features regarded as primitive, are en-
tirely human and the canines are no more enlarged or apelike than
in otherhuman types. The third molars, or wisdom teeth, are slightly
smaller than the second molars. From the lower jaw it is possible
to reconstruct the upper dental arch and the maxillary and zygo-
matic regions with a close approximation to the truth. The upper
dental arch thus reconstructed by the writer is rather large and
U-shaped, but no larger than the Neanderthal arch which it re-
sembles. There however, one point in w hich the reconstruction
r
is,
differs from the Neanderthal type: that is in the form of the cheek
region. Upon reconstruction of the zygomatic region with due re-
gard to jaw muscles and their attachments, and the movements of
the jaw, it is seen that the cheek bones could not have sloped obliquely
backward as in Neanderthal man, but must have stood out squarely,
giving Heidelberg man a somewhat wider and flatter face. This at
least was true of the original possessor of this single known jaw.
There appear to be good reasons, both geological and anatomical,
for regarding Heidelberg man as a possible pre-Neanderthal or
rather proto-Neanderthal type. Nothing is positively known as to
his cultural status, as no artifacts have been found associated with
the jaw or in the same horizon. The opinion has been expressed that
the Heidelberg type may have been in the Chellean culture stage,
but this is only a surmise. As he lived in the genial climate of an
interglacial period, he was probably not forced to take shelter in
caves to any great extent. There is a possibility that further dis-
coveries may show the Peking and Heidelberg types not to have
been very dissimilar.
Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man). Among the ancient
human types sufficiently divergent from modern man to be ex-
cluded from Homo sapiens, the first to attain such recognition, and
the only one known from fairly abundant anatomical and archae-
ological data, isthe type known as Neanderthal man. The discovery
which led to the recognition of the specific type and which also gave
it its name was made in 1856 when some workmen digging in a
limestone cave in the Neanderthal, a narrow ravine near Diisseldorf,
Germany, unearthed portions of a skeleton, including the top of the
skull, several arm and leg bones, and fragments of a shoulder girdle
and pelvis. The cranium was remarkable for the low vault and enor-
mous arched supraorbital ridges which extended across the entire
width of the forehead, giving it an "apelike" form as noted by vari-
ous anatomists who examined it. The arm and leg bones also showed
a number of unusual features. In 1864 the remains, by reason of the
possession of many distinctive features, were made the type of a
new species, Homo neanderthalensis, by Dr. William King, a pro-
fessor of anatomy in Ireland, but for many years the weight of
opinion followed T. H. Huxley in regarding Neanderthal man as

merely an ancient, aberrant, and exceptionally "apelike" example
of Horno sapiens. By some anatomists the great antiquity of the
remains was questioned. The famous German pathologist, Rudolf
Virchow, asserted that it was merely a pathologically malformed
skull, while others considered it to be that of an idiot. It was not
until many years later, after other discoveries of the same type had
been made, that the new species attained general recognition, for
unfortunately no bones of contemporaneous animals and no imple-
ments were found in the Neanderthal cave to give proof of its an-
tiquity, though a similar cave near-by yielded bones of cave bear
and rhinoceros. In the light of later exploration the Neanderthal
discovery ranks as one of the greatest events in prehistoric anthro-
pology. Since this original discovery abundant skeletal remains of
Neanderthal people have been found in many parts of 'Europe.
Germany, Belgium, France, the Channel Islands, Spain, Italy,
Jugoslavia, the Crimea, and Palestine have yielded their bones and
also thousands of stone implements of the Mousterian phase of flint
industry definitely associated with this species. Associated bones of

many contemporary animals, notably the woolly mammoth, woolly
rhinoceros, reindeer, wild horse, and cave bear have been found
with the human skeletal remains. Neanderthal man had acquired
the art of making fire, and in a few instances at least there are indi-
cations of burial of the dead. The race inhabited Europe for a very
long period, certainly from the Third Interglacial until well past the
climax of the Fourth Glacial Period. Some of the earlier remains,

such as those found in the region of Weimar and Steinheim in Ger-
many and the skulls fromRome (mentioned below) dating from the
Third Interglacial, may be as old as 75,000 or even 100,000 years,
others perhaps no more ancient than 25,000 years, so that the time
interval between very early and very late Neanderthal men is actu-
ally far longer than the interval between the latter and the present
day!
As a matter of fact, the Neanderthal skeleton found in 1856 was
not the earliest discovery of its species. Eight years earlier, in 1848,
a human skull was unearthed in an excavation known as Forbes's
quarry at the northern base of the Rock of Gibraltar, but for many
years its importance remained unsuspected, though in 1804 certain
likenesses to the Neanderthal skull were pointed out by an English
geologist, George Busk. It was not until 1906 that this fossil was
carefully studied and measured by Professor Sollas of Oxford, who
showed it to be unquestionably a female Neanderthal skull of ma-
ture age. Though lacking the lower jaw, it is especially important
since the facial region is intact. It is markedly smaller than the
male skulls of this race, the endocranial cast, as carefully restored,
showing a cranial capacity of only 1280 cubic centimeters. As re-

cently as 1926 a second Neanderthal skull, that of a child about
five years of age, was found at Gibraltar by the English archaeolo-
gist, Miss Dorothy Garrod. It was found in a filled-in rock shelter
only a few hundred yards from the site of the first discovery. Knowl-
edge of Neanderthal man was greatly advanced by the discovery
in 1886 of two partial skeletons in the Spy cavern near Namur,
Belgium. In addition to fairly well preserved crania, the jaws and

many of the limb bones of both individuals were preserved. The
crania, though somewhat broken, are much more complete than
those from the Neanderthal cave, and one of them is almost its
counterpart in the form of the calvaria. The geologic age of the Spy
skeletons was amply documented by association with remains of
woolly rhinoceros, mammoth, and other contemporary animals, and
with flint implements of Mousterian type.
The most complete skeleton of Neanderthal man thus far found
(except the discoveries in Palestine in 1932, not fully described at
time of writing) is that named from the cave of La Chapelle-aux-
Saints, in the Correze, France. The remains were found in 1908 in a
shallow pit in the original floor of the cave, and apparently this was
a case of deliberate burial. Among the debris which had accumu-
lated in the cavern were bones of the cave hyena, woolly rhinoceros,
reindeer, and other forms now extinct in Europe, as well as many
flintimplements of Mousterian culture phase. A masterly mono-
graph on the Chapelle-aux-Saints skeleton by Professor Marcellin
Boule 32 of Paris has become a classic; based as it is on detailed com-
parative studies, it has added more to our knowledge of the European
Neanderthal type than any other single work. In addition to the skull
and long bones, parts of the shoulder girdle, the pelvis, the vertebral
column, and portions of the hands and feet were preserved among
these remains. The form of the cranium is remarkably similar in
size and form to that of the original Neanderthal and to one of the
Spy specimens (PL I, D).
The same year, 1908, witnessed the discovery of another Nean-

derthal skeleton at Le Moustier in the Dordogne, very close to the
locality which, just forty years earlier, had yielded the type speci-
mens Cro-Magnon race. This skeleton, that of a boy about
of the
fifteen years ofage and of very low stature, is especially important
as showing adolescent skeletal conditions of this type. The teeth
are all preserved, and as they are but slightly worn they give a
valuable picture of Neanderthal dentition. Notwithstanding the
youth of the individual, the supraorbital ridge is already clearly
indicated, as are most of the other specific skull characters.
About the same time this part of France yielded several other
skeletons. At La Ferrassie in 1909 and 1910 two were disinterred
under a rock shelter which had previously yielded a large number
of worked flints of the early Old Stone Age. One skeleton was that
of an adult man, the other that of a woman. The male skull, con-
siderably shattered, was skillfully put together by Professor Boule.

While unmistakably of Neanderthal type, the lower jaw has con-
siderably more indication of a chin than most examples of this
species. In the female skeleton the hands and feet are well preserved
and have supplied valuable data regarding these parts, though they
have never received the minute study which they merit. It will be
noted that the three discoveries just mentioned were all made within
a comparatively limited area in southwest central France. A short
distance to the westward, at La Quina in the Charente, other im-
portant Neanderthal discoveries have been made by Dr. Henri
Martin. In 1911 he brought to light a fairly well preserved skull,
apparently an adult female, and in 1916 a skull of a child, nearly
complete except that the lower jaw is lacking. This skull, though
that of a child of not more than eight years, already shows pro-
nounced Neanderthal features. The forehead lacks the fullness of
the skull of a modern child of the same age and exhibits marked
indications of the brow ridge. The first permanent molars are erupted
and already show clear indications of wear, though the permanent
incisors are just erupting.
A group of skeletal discoveries made at various times in the vi-
cinity of Weimar in Germany are especially important as proving
that men of Neanderthal type inhabited this part of Europe as
early as the Third Interglacial Period, the warm interval following
the Riss and preceding the Wiirm glaciation. The Ilm River valley
in this region exhibits a series of distinctly stratified deposits, some
twenty meters in thickness,
composed chiefly of calcareous tufa or
travertine, and containing which demonstrate climatic suc-
fossils
cessions over a long period. In certain of the older layers which
yielded bones of the straight-tusked elephant (Elephas antiquus)

and Merck's rhinoceros (R. merckii), remains of hearths with char-
coal and worked have long been known. Many of these artifacts
flints
are of Mousteriaii workmanship, but others appear to be of Acheu-

Han or even of the still earlier Chellean type. In 1892 a lower molar
tooth was found at Taubach, near Weimar, which was described by
Nehring as a Neanderthal tooth. In 1914 and 1916 two lower jaws
were found at Ehringsdorf in the same vicinity, the first that of an
elderly individual, the second a child's jaw, both clearly of the
Neanderthal species (Fig. 8, E), and in 1925 the cranial portion of
a young adult skull of this type was unearthed also at Ehringsdorf.
Though all these remains antedate the last glaciation and are
thus far more ancient than most of the other known Neanderthal
remains, the cranium is no more "primitive" in form than in later
members of the race. On the contrary, it seems to be a rather ad-
vanced example of its species. The chief interest of these fossils of
the Weimar-Ehringsdorf region is not in anything they add to our
knowledge of the structure of Neanderthal man but to their being
the first to afford definite proof that this type inhabited Europe so
early, as attested by geological data, associated artifacts, and ani-
mal bones. In July, 1933, another skull belonging to the Riss-Wiirm
interglacial period, and themost nearly complete Neanderthal skull
thus far found in Germany, was unearthed at Steinheim, some forty
miles east of Stuttgart and 160 miles south of the Weimar-Ehrings-
dorf region. The Steinheim skull was described by Dr. F. Berck-
hemer of the Stuttgart Museum 33 and has lately been the subject of
a detailed comparative study by Professor H. Weinert. 34 It is the
skull of a female of early adult age. One striking feature is the very
low endocranial caoacity, which is estimated by Weinert as under
1100 cubic centimeters, far smaller than any other adult Neanderthal
skull known and even smaller than two of the Sinanthropus skulls
found in 1936.
Another Neanderthal discovery of the Hiss-Wiirm interglacial
period was that of a nearly complete adult skull in 1929 just outside
the city of Rome. This skull, an account of which has been pub-
35
lished by Professor Sergio Sergi, was found in a layer of alluvial
gravel containing, like the travertine at Weimar, remains of the
straight-tusked elephant, Merck's rhinoceros, Hippopotamus major,
and other mammals of the warm interglacial period. It is nearly
complete, except that it lacks the lower jaw, and is somewhat similar
inform to the Gibraltar skull which belongs to a much later period.
Though Mousterian implements have been found in many localities
in Italy, this skull is notable as being the first skeletal discovery of
the Neanderthal race in that peninsula. In July, 1935, a second
Neanderthal skull was found at the same site.
At Krapina in Croatia (Jugoslavia) in 1899 and later, fragments
of a dozen or more Neanderthal skeletons, including several chil-
dren, were discovered in a rock shelter. These were described by

Professor K. Gorjanovic-Kramberger of the University of Zagreb
36
(Agram). Some of the skulls and long bones had apparently been
crushed intentionally, and some of the fragments were charred, facts
which have been regarded as suggestive of cannibalism.
The known range of Neanderthal man has been greatly extended
37
eastward by recent discoveries in Palestine. The first of these was
the so-called "Galilee skull/' found in 1925 during excavations in a
cave near the Sea of Galilee. The specimen, consisting chiefly of the
frontal bone and right cheek bone, is identifiable at a glance as
of Neanderthal type. A few years later, remains of at least ten
other individuals were discovered near Athlit, Palestine, in a group
of three caves at the western foot of Mount Carmel, close to the
Mediterranean coast and some thirty-five miles west of the site
of the Galilee skull. This rich material was excavated by the British
School of Archaeology in Jerusalem working jointly with the Ameri-
can School of Prehistoric Research. An exhaustive report on the
Mount Carmel discovery by Sir Arthur Keith and Mr. T. D. McCown

is nearing completion at the time of present writing. At the Inter-
national Symposium on Early Man held at the Philadelphia Academy
of Sciences in March, 1937, these authors presented a brief paper
from which the present notes are largely taken. 37a In 1931 Mr. Mc-
Cown found in the floor of a rock shelter called Mugharet es-Skhul
(Cave of the Kids) the skeleton of a three-year-old child, and in
1932 he removed eight other skeletons of individuals of both sexes,
all representing intentional burials.
A
neighboring cave, called et-Tabun (The Oven), yielded a nearly
complete skeleton of a woman. Similar animal remains and stone
two caves indicate that the human remains in both were
tools in the
contemporaneous, and there is convincing evidence from the asso-

ciated animals that these people lived in the latter part of the Riss-
Wurm interglacial period, thus being contemporaries of the early
Weimar Neanderthals and antedating those of France and Spain.
Acheulian and Levalloiso-Mousterian stone implements were found
associated with the bones. At first it was believed that all the skele-
tons were essentially similar to the European Neanderthals, but fur-
ther study brought out the surprising fact that while the Tabun
woman is western Neanderthal type in most characteristics,
like the
the skeletons from the Skhul cave present a remarkable mosaic of
Neanderthal and "modern" features. The skulls have the Neander-
thaloid supraorbital torus and show considerable prognathism, but
" "
the vault is higher and the occiput is not bun-shaped. Of two jaws
found in the Tabun cave at nearly the same level, one is practically
chinless while the other has a fairly developed chin as have several
of those from the Skhul cave. The teeth lack the "taurodont" con-
dition present in many European Neanderthals. Several skulls from
the Skhul cave have cheek bones like modern man, and in general
the skeletons from this cave show a predominance of neoanthropic
features. Their closest resemblance seems to be to the tall Cro-
Magnon type of France. Estimates of stature, based on length of
limb bones, give, in one male, the surprising height of 5 feet 10^
inches, in others 5 feet 8 inches. The Tabun cave woman is short,
barely 5 feet, and the women of the Skhul cave are nearly as small.
Among the more significant anatomical features may be mentioned
the fact that the feet, even in the Tabun woman, are essentially
modern in structure, "there was no greater mobility of the great toe;
it was human in every respect," and posture and gait were evidently
as in modern man. The spinal column is short in relation to height
as in the European Neanderthals. The combination of definite neo-
anthropic with paleoanthropic features in human types which ante-
date the Neanderthals of western Europe is most remarkable. It
raises perplexing questions regarding the definition of Homo ncan-
derthalensis, the relationship of the two types, and the origin of the
neoanthropic type.
In 1924, only a few months before the Galilee skull was found, a
Neanderthal skeleton, apparently representing an intentional burial,
was unearthed in the floor of a cave near Simferopol in the Crimean
Peninsula, on the Black Sea. This locality is almost as far eastward
as the Galilee region, but some 800 miles farther northward. Previ-
ous to these discoveries, the Krapina station, mentioned above,
marked the easternmost limit of actual skeletal remains of the
Neanderthal type, though the finding of stone implements appar-
ently representing Mousterian culture has been reported from
Mongolia and the Shensi Province of China. As the Peking man,
Sinanthropus, though far more "primitive" than Neanderthal man,
seems from the evidence thus far available to have been a possible
ancestor, it would not be surprising if skeletal remains of Neander-
thaloid type should be found in Asia much further eastward than
Palestine.*
Attempts have been made to divide the European Neanderthals

"
into several races." Of course there are differences, and it is not
unlikely that there may have been local subspecies and varieties,
for the range of variation within a species is often
very considerable
even among individuals from the same locality as in the Palestine
skeletons. If the same criteria were used in classifying man which
some zoologists on purely taxonomic grounds use in establishing
species of mammals, Homo sapiens would have to be split up into
*
The opinion here expressed received prompt substantiation in the finding,
in 1938, of unquestionable Neanderthal remains in a limestone cave in southern
Uzbekistan, Central Asia. This discovery, made by Dr. A. P. Okladnikov, and
described by him in an illustrated report in 1939, included a practically complete
skull of a child about 8 years of age, together with a few other bones of the skele-
ton, artifacts of Mousterian type, and some animal bones. The human remains
had been intentionally buried in the cave floor. This discovery is of especial im-
portance in the fact that its location is nearly 1800 miles farther eastward than
any previously known Neanderthal skeletal remains, and about midway between
western Europe and the locality of Peking man. It seems riot unlikely that
Neanderthal man may have been a widespread Eurasian type rather than pri-
marily European.
numerous species. In the same sense, Homo neanderthalensis may

comprise several subspecies, but in the present state of knowledge
such subdivision would be premature. It is possible that more com-
plete knowledge of the Palestine discoveries may render it necessary.
In 1897 the name Homo primigenius was proposed by L. Wilser
for Neanderthal man, but as King's neanderthalensis has well-
established priority, it must be retained. Certain recent writers,
however, have assembled the various early types which have in
common a low vaulted skull with heavy supraorbital ridges
namely, Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, and Homo neanderthalen-
" "
sis as the priinigenius group to distinguish them from the
"super species" sapiens. Beyond question the Heidelberg man,

though the cranial characters can only be inferred from the jaw,
would also belong in such a primigenius group, but Piltdown man
would have to be excluded.
We may now proceed to a consideration of the physical features
of the Neanderthal type. (It should be clearly understood that this
description is based upon the European material. Complete knowl-

edge of certain recent discoveries, especially the Palestine skeletons
and the Steinheim and Roman skulls, may show the species to be
lesshomogeneous than has generally been believed.) Many parts of
the skeleton are quite diagnostic even though individuals may show
wide variation. For example, the long bones of arm and leg, the
scapula, and certain bones of the ankle are distinctly different from
the corresponding parts of any type of Homo sapiens. This is espe-
cially true of the skull, not merely as a whole but in regard to the
individual bones and even the teeth. Further knowledge is very
desirable in regard to some portions of the skeleton. No adequate
description of the foot has thus far been published, though several
practically complete feet, notably from the Ferrassie skeletons, have
been preserved. The available data regarding the vertebral column
leave muchto be desired. (The recently discovered Palestine mate-
rial willgo far toward filling the gaps in our knowledge of these
parts.) Notwithstanding these deficiencies, enough is known of the
skeleton to warrant a fairly accurate description of the physique of
this remarkable extinct species.
Neanderthal man was short of stature. Professor Boule estimates
the height of the Chapelle-aux-Saints man as 1.55 meters (about
5 feet 2 inches). The men of Neanderthal and Spy were nearly of
the same height, the male from La Ferrassie about 1.60 meters (5 feet
4 inches). The fifteen-year-old boy from Le Moustier was very short,
less than 5 feet, and the female Ferrassie skeleton about 4 feet 9
inches. These "measurements" are mere estimates based chiefly on
the length of the long bones, and are not very accurate as propor-%
tions show considerable variation. (The exceptional height of some

The long bones are
of the Palestine skeletons has been noted before.)
particularly heavy, thick in the shaft, with large joints and well-
marked muscle attachments. The ribs are somewhat triangular in
section, thicker and less flattened than in Homo sapiens, arid indi-
cate a large chest. The skull features are so characteristic that any-
one after carefully examining one or two Neanderthal skulls could
readily identify the type. The cranium is variable in size, the intra-
cranial capacity varying from about 1280 cubic centimeters in the
Gibraltar woman (less than 1100 in the Steinheim skull according
to Weinert, 1936) to over 1600 in the Chapelle-aux-Saints man.
The cranial form is dolichocephalic, the cephalic index (breadth-
length) according to Boule varying between 70 and 76. The cranial
height above the ear openings is relatively low (platycephalic), the
forehead very retreating, and as seen in posterior view the cranium
has the peculiarly depressed form called "bun-shaped" by some of
the English anthropologists. (There are a few exceptions to this.)
Unquestionably the most striking feature is the huge supraorbital
torus, the cornicelike ridge over the eyes, which is especially well
developed in adult males. The orbits themselves are very large and
round, the interorbital width very great. The face, as compared with
modern man, is extremely long; the nasal aperture is of enormous
width. The
nose, though of great width, was not flat but outstanding,
much more prominent than the nose of any Negroid type, and it
must be emphatically stated that there is nothing apelike about the
nose in any way. In fact, the lower border of the nasal aperture is
especially sharp and the nasal spine quite prominent, proving that
the nose did not merge gradually into the upper lip in a snoutlike
manner as one writer has asserted. The subnasal space is very long.
The cheek bones slope obliquely backward in a most remarkable
manner, so that there is no cheek prominence as in Homo sapiens.
In correlation with this the canine fossa, a depression in the maxillary
bone below the cheek, is lacking. These specific characters of the
cheek region are very marked. This is in no sense an apelike feature,
as apes have quite marked cheek prominences. (In the Steinheim
skull and in some of the Palestine skulls the cheek region approxi-
mates that of Homo sapiens.) Looking at the skull in side view, it

isseen that the mastoid processes are very small, a feature possibly
correlated with the somewhat imperfect balance of the head on the
neck. The squama of the temporal bone is low and the zygomatic
arch very massive. There is a marked occipital torus, and the at-
tachment of the neck muscles extends high up on the occiput. The
foramen magnum is very far back, but this feature appears unduly
accentuated by the forward extension of the jaw region. The palate
is very long, broad, and U-shaped, not paraboloid as in Homo
sapiens. The lower jaw presents several characteristic features. The

condyles are of great size and articulate with remarkably shallow
glenoid fossae so that the jaw articulation may be said to be more
apelike than in other human types. There is no more than the slightest
mental eminence or chin prominence in some cases none at all and
the anterior surface of the jaw is sloping, or at best barely perpen-
dicular. The exception in some of the Palestine jaws which have a
slight chin has been noted before. The spine for the attachment of
the genio-hyoid muscles is only slightly developed or even wanting,
while the areas for insertion of the digastric muscles are very large.
The mylo-hyoid ridge is absent or but slightly developed. There is
ample space for the tongue, but the tongue muscles and some other
muscles used in articulation seem to have been inferior, judging from
the marks of their attachment, though this is not proof that Nean-
derthal manlacked the faculty of speech. The dental arches and the
teeth are large in all their dimensions, the lower molars, at least the
first and second, frequently show the fifth cusp characteristic of
anthropoid apes and primitive human types (the Dryopithecus pat-
tern of W. K. Gregory), and the third molars are frequently, though
not always, as large as the others. The anterior teeth are especially
large, but the canines do not project markedly above the other
teeth and are completely human with no suggestion of apelikeness.
The molars frequently show a remarkable condition to which the
name "taurodont" (= ox-toothed) has been applied by Sir Arthur
Keith. In taurodonty the pulp cavity is enlarged and extends down-
ward from the crown into the roots, which are confluent to a great
extent, in some cases almost to their tips, so that the entire tooth
has a somewhat columnar form. This feature, though common, is
not found in all Neanderthal molars and must not be regarded as a
primitive feature but as showing specialization or degeneration.
Another specialized dental feature is the frequent wrinkling of the
enamel on the molar crowns. The bite of the anterior teeth is even,
or nearly so., upper and lower incisors meeting. The teeth are in
all cases free from caries, but they frequently show an extreme de-
gree of wear, and in some cases, notably the Chapelle-aux-Saints

skull, most of the teeth have been lost through suppurative disease
of the alveolar process. The limb bones are strikingly robust and
the forearm and shin are short in comparison respectively with the
arm and thigh. This shortness is extreme in the case of the female
skeleton of La Ferrassie where the radius-humerus ratio is only 70.4
and the tibia-femur ratio 74.4. In males of modern races these
range from 75.4 to 90.4 for the radius-humerus ratio; from 77.3 to
86.6 for the tibia-femur ratio. These limb proportions are in no
sense apelike in fact, quite the contrary but in certain struc-
tural details the limb bones approximate the simian condition. For
example, the radius is curved to a degree suggesting the condition

in the gorilla. The femur is very massive and curved forward, and
has a huge head. The short, 'heavy tibia has the articular surface
at itsupper end sloping backward and downward, indicating a
slight flexure of the knee joint, but a similar condition in certain
modern men is a result of the squatting habit. The fibula is ex-
tremely stout, and has an unusually extensive articulation wîth the
astragalus.
Knowledge of hand and foot structure in primitive mankind is
especially important since these parts, especially the foot, show

such divergent adaptations in anthropoids and man. On the basis
of a single slightly deformed thumb bone (of the Chapelle-aux-
Saints skeleton) has been asserted that the Neanderthal thumb
it
was imperfectly opposable, but the nearly complete hand of the

woman of La Ferrassie disproves this, as the thumb is apparently
as well developed as in modern man. It might belong to an individ-
ual of the present day. The foot also of this skeleton, in which the
bones are preserved in place, is completely human, and the great
toe is emphatically not opposable and was probably little if any
more widely divergent or more movable than in some primitive
modern men who never have worn shoes. The Neanderthal foot
does, however, possess some distinctive features in the ankle bones.
Of these the most striking is in the astragalus, as known from some
half-dozen examples. It has a somewhat infantile form, and the
"neck" of the bone is very short. The calcaneum, or heel bone,
also has certain peculiarities in its articular relations and its torsion.
On the whole the foot, though thoroughly human, retains, accord-

ing to Boule, a number of apelike features, which means that it had
not evolved so far beyond its prehuman ancestors as has Homo
sapiens. In general the anatomy
of the Neanderthal foot is some-
what like that of a modern infant,
and there appears to be a very
high degree of mobility of the
ankle. Various studies have been
published of the mechanics of the
Neanderthal foot, and usually it
has been described as more rem-
iniscent of simian conditions than
is the foot of modern man. A
thorough investigation of the
well-preserved foot from La Fer-
rassie and of the Palestine ma-
terial isgreatly to be desired.
The clavicle, known from several
skeletons, is strongly curved but
surprisingly delicate, though it
might have been expected to be

massive, and the scapula is re-
markable in possessing a sub-
spinous crest near the shoulder
joint. The pelvis is large in both
height and width. The ilia in
two or three known examples
are less concave than in Homo
sapiens, the ischial tuberosities
very large.
The vertebral column is espe-
Fig. 9. Reconstruction of the skele-
cially important in the evidence ton of a Neanderthal man. Redrawn
it yields as to posture, but unfor- from H. Weinert, Menschen der Vorzeit,
tunately this part of the Neander- Ferdinand Enke (Stuttgart, 1930).
thal skeleton is very imperfectly
known, and quite unjustified generalizations have been made as to
the apelike spinal column and semi-erect attitude of Neanderthal
man. In the Chapelle-aux-Saints skeleton twelve of the twenty-four
presacral vertebrae are more or less preserved, but in most of these
the centra are not sufficiently complete to warrant the unqualified
statement commonly made that there is scarcely any lumbar curva-
ture. The last three neck vertebrae of this specimen are nearly com-
plete, and in these the neural spines project almost straight out,
somewhat resembling those of the chimpanzee. From this it has been
assumed by some writers that the neck of Neanderthal man was
enormously thick and even gorillalike, but a carefully constructed
mesial section of the skull and neck vertebrae, plotting in all the soft
structures, does not warrant the extreme "bull neck" that is shown
in some of the attempts at restoration. Three cervical vertebrae from
the Krapina remains, preserved in contact, do not differ in their
neural spines from corresponding modern bones. Nearly all the descrip-
tions and restorations of Neanderthal man represent him as standing
and walking in an imperfectly erect position (Fig. 9). It is doubtful
whether there is really any warrant for this in anatomical mechanics.
It probably traceable largely to a mere feeling that Neanderthal
is
man, being so ancient, must have been imperfectly human in his

posture. The fact that the face projects so far in front of the neck
vertebrae would give the impression that the whole head is pro-
truded forward further than it really is.
Neanderthal man different from Homo sapiens, and
is markedly
it is quite true that in some
features he differs slightly less from the
apes than does any type of modern man, but he was not nearly so
apelike as some popular writers would have us believe (PL II).
Homo sapiens. The climax of the last glacial advance in Europe
and the beginning of the recession of the ice cap marked the ex-
tinction of Neanderthal man
pure type) and the termi-
(at least as a
nation of the Mousterian phase of stone workmanship, the final
stage of Lower Paleolithic culture. The climate of Europe, though
still cold, was becoming drier as the ice began to recede; and though
many of the animals of the glacial period remained, some, such as
the reindeer, became much more abundant, so that this age is often
called the Reindeer period. The duration of time since the climax
of the last (Wiirm) glaciation has been calculated at approximately
35,000 years.* Neanderthal man apparently survived for a few
millennia after the ice began to recede, but at a period tentatively
estimated at some 25,000 to 30,000 years ago, he seems to have dis-
appeared and to have been superseded by men much more like
ourselves and clearly falling within the limits of Homo sapiens.
*
According to E. Antevs; see page 16 for estimate of 25,000 years.
PL. II. NEANDERTHAL AND CRO-MAGNON: A COMPARISON
A and C represent front and profile views of the hairless phase of a head
modeled by J. H. McGregor on the Chapelle-aux-Saints (Neanderthal) skull.
B and D show a head similarly constructed on a male skull of the Cro-Magnon
race (from Les Eyzies) for comparison. The contrast facilitates recognition of
the characteristic Neanderthal features such as form and relative size of cranium
and face, the heavy brow ridge, slope of forehead and chin, wide but prominent
nose and retreating cheeks. Cro-Magnon features are essentially as in certain
European types of the present day.

These people were culturally far superior to the primitive Mous-
The industry identified with them, the Upper Paleolithic,
terians.
merges into the Neolithic phase some 10,000 years ago, so that it
had a duration of approximately 15,000 years. The cultural anthro-
pology of the late Paleolithic men of Europe (Chapter V) is in a

far more satisfactory state than the knowledge of their racial origins
and relationships, for ethnically these people of the late Old Stone
Age present a number of perplexing problems. Their origin, their
possible relation to their Neanderthal predecessors, the interrela-
tionships of the several physical types which they comprise, and
their kinship to their Neolithic successors and through these to the
modern European races are questions regarding which positive
all
knowledge is well-nigh nil, though a great mass of conjecture, re-

flecting wide diversity of opinion on every phase of the subject, has
been published.
As the general question is one of the most important in the entire
field of prehistoric anthropology, involving as it does the origin of
our own species, it is most unfortunate that positive knowledge re-
garding it is thus far so limited. It is perhaps no exaggeration to

say that less is known about the immediate origin of Homo sapiens
than of Homo neanderthalensis. In the latter case we have a
progressive series of paleoanthropic types coming up from early
Pleistocene time, including the Trinil, Peking, and Heidelberg ex-
amples, which represent, at least as parallel or collateral ancestors,
a succession of stages in the evolution of Neanderthal man. On the
other hand the sapiens type or neoanthropic man appears in Europe
suddenly in the period of the glacial retreat. Where were his an-
cestors (and this means our ancestors) during the long ages of
paleoanthropic dominance? Certain ethnologists, especially of the
British school, have hailed the Piltdown Eoanthropus as the long-
sought progenitor, but the uncertainty of the geological incidence
of the remains and the paradoxical conjunction of apelike jaw and
human cranium, as mentioned before (p. 56), render it highly dubi-
ous in this role.
The prevalent opinion regarding the origin of Homo sapiens or
neoanthropic man in Europe is that men of this species w ere im-
r
migrants from Asia or North Africa who brought with them the
Aurignacian culture, and vanquished and eventually exterminated
the Neanderthals. The evidence for this is chiefly indirect. The
suddenness of the transition and the lack of definite intermediate
stages as regards both physical type and culture are commonly

cited as evidence precluding the evolution of neoanthropic man
from paleoanthropic, for there is no apparent time-interval between
the Mousterian and Aurignacian periods. The cultural remains of
both have been found at closely contiguous levels in the same rock
shelters and caves, and there are evidences in some localities that
the two were contemporaneous toward the end of the Mousterian
epoch, as indeed they must have been if the Neanderthals were
overcome by superior invaders. Even in such a case it seems prob-
able that there would have been some interracial crossing notwith-
standing the physical divergence of the two types. Regarding this
38
point G. G. MacCurdy says "there are not lacking both skeletal
and cultural remains suggestive of intermediate stages, the results
probably of intermixture." E. Fischer has also expressed the opin-
ion that Neanderthal blood survived,and II. Weinert 39 asserts very
positively that the Neanderthal form cannot be considered as
"spurlos verschwunden." Skeletal evidence believed by a few eth-
nologists to indicate such intercrossing is observable in a number
"
of Upper Paleolithic skulls, especially those of the so-called Briinn
race," named from a partial skeleton found in 1891 at Briinn,
Moravia (in Czechoslovakia), and represented by numerous remains
exhumed later at Pfedmost (PI. 1,70, also in Moravia (these people are
sometimes referred to as the "Pfedmost race"); possibly also by a
skull from Briix, Bohemia, the Aurignacian Combe-Capelle man
from the Dordogne, France, 1909, and several others. (One of the
male skulls from Pfedmost is represented in Plate I, F.) The special
interest of these types is in the dolichocranial form of the skull, the
low vault, rather prominent superciliary ridges, and the slight prom-
inence of the chin, since these are the features which have been re-
garded by some as intermediate between the Neanderthal and the
true Cro-Magnon type and w hich doubtfully suggest a racial mixture
r
of the two, though the characters of the latter distinctly predominate

and the remains are properly classified as Homo sapiens. Two other
discoveries assigned by some ethnologists to this questionably inter-
mediate position are a fragmentary skull found in 1918 at Podkoumok
in the Caucasus, and another more recently at Chwalynak on the
Volga River. If these two skulls really have any relation to the
Neanderthal stock, their far easterly location is a fact of consider-
able interest. But the Neanderthal-sapiens hybrid theory is by no
means generally accepted, and all these remains are regarded by
many anthropologists as merely primitive or aberrant examples of
the Cro-Magnon type (mentioned below). The intermingling of two
types in the Mount Carmel caves merits careful consideration in this
connection.
An essentially different theory of the origin of Homo sapiens in
Europe has recently been revived and very ably defended by Dr.
A. HrdliSka. 40 Space is lacking to present his interesting argument,
but his conclusion is that Neanderthal blood persisted in late Pale-
olithic time, not because of intermingling with any invading race of
neoanthropic man, but as a result of direct evolution of Neanderthal

"
man into Homo sapiens. Dr. Hrdlicka admits that this proposition
is not yet capable of fully conclusive demonstration. There is not
yet enough material definitely to decide it. But the thoroughly
sifted indications appear to the writer to favor this assumption. . . .
Meanwhile there appears to be less justification for the conception

of a Neanderthal species than there is for that of a Neanderthal
phase of man." As opposed to the immigration of neoanthropic man
"
into Europe, Hrdlika says there has been discovered no previous
home of the Homo sapiens outside of that of Neanderthal man, nor
any remains whatsoever of his ancestors." In reply to this it may
be pointed out that the Solo and Wadjak skulls from Java and the
Talgai skull from Australia (mentioned below) are Pleistocene ex-
amples of Homo sapiens which may well be as ancient as the Euro-
pean Aurignacian period, and the same may be said of the Boskop
and Rhodesian remains from Africa, though there is no reason to
consider any of these as actual ancestors of the invaders of Europe.
In the present lack of positive knowledge I feel that, while the
problem cannot be regarded as settled by any means, the balance
of evidence, such as it is, favors the theory of invasion of Europe
and replacement of the Neanderthals by Homo sapiens, possibly
with some interspecific mixture of victors and vanquished. But Dr.
HrdliSka's discussion of the question is strongly recommended for
reading.
Besides the questionable "Briinn race" above mentioned, three
other more or less distinct sapiens types are found in deposits be-
longing to the late Paleolithic period of Europe. An early one of these
is the so-called "Grimaldi race," known from only two skeletons of
early Aurignacian age notable for their supposed Negroid features;
another, the "typical" Cro-Magnon people, the best known and
apparently the dominant one during the greater part of the late
Old Stone Age; and a third type, of Magdalenian age, sometimes

designated as the "Chancelade race/' the chief interest of which
is its remarkable resemblance to the modern Eskimo, a member of
the Mongoloid branch of humanity. It would be a most astonishing

fact, if the Negroid, White, and Yellow divisions of Homo sapiens
were all represented in the late Pleistocene population of western
Europe. But we shall see that anthropologists are by no means unan-
imous in accepting these somewhat diverse types as representatives
of three distinct races. The three types will now be briefly described.
The "Grimaldi race." On the Mediterranean coast, in the region
of Monaco, are nine grottoes (now partly destroyed) known as the
Grimaldi caves, several of which have yielded important remains of
Pleistocene man. In one of these, called the Grotte des Enfants, in
which among other human remains one of the "typical" tall Cro-
Magnon skeletons had previously been found, there were unearthed
in 1901 two complete skeletons of a strikingly different character,
which had been interred at a lower level, and which belong to an
earlier period in the Aurignacian. They are the remains of a woman
of mature, though not advanced, age, and a boy of approximately
fourteen years. They are of medium height, the woman some 5 feet
3 inches, the boy (not fully grown) slightly over 5 feet. Their ages,
close similarity in physical features, and the fact that they were
buried together suggest that they were mother and son. The special
importance of these skeletons is the surprising fact, stressed by
41
Professor R. Verneau who described them, that they possess a
number of characteristics generally regarded as Negroid. Thus the
crania are markedly dolichocephalic, the chins rather slightly de-
veloped, and the teeth very large. There is pronounced alveolar
prognathism, the nasal bones are somewhat flattened, and the nasal
aperture, in widthand form of the lower border, suggests the Negro
type. Other Negroid features are observable in the relatively long
legs and in the great length of forearm and shin in comparison to
arm and thigh. An especial physical resemblance to the South
Bushman type, noted by Boule and other writers, has been
African
thought to derive cultural confirmation from certain similarities to
Bushman art in the realistic, incised rock drawings of animals made
by late Paleolithic Europeans. Numerous statuettes of soapstone and
ivory dating from this period represent steatopygous female figures
which strongly recall the physical peculiarities of Bushman women
and thus lend additional support to the idea of racial kinship.
The Negroid character of the "Grimaldi race" has been until
recently quite generally accepted, but its occurrence in Europe has
been a puzzle and has led to much conjecture regarding its origin
and migrations. Verneau believes that notwithstanding their Ne-
groid features these people may have been ancestral to the later
Cro-Magnon hunters of the Reindeer period, and various skeletal
remains of Neolithic Europeans have been cited by him and others
which exhibit somewhat Negroid features of skull and limb bones.
Even the "typical" Cro-Magnon people, though certainly not
Negroes, have somewhat Negroid proportions of arm and leg. Re-
cently the special Negroid character of the "Grimaldi race" has
been questioned and rejected by Sir G. Elliot Smith 42 and by Sir
Arthur Keith. 43 These anatomists have independently arrived at the
conclusion that the Grimaldi people had no special relation to any
Negro group, but merely represent early and rather primitive ex-
amples of the Cro-Magnon stock. Recent comparative anthropo-
metric studies by G. M. Morant disclose no basis for separating the
Grimaldi type from the general Upper Paleolithic series. Elliot
Smith also points out that many of the so-called Negroid features
are even more strongly Australoid. In his opinion the remains in
question are "undoubtedly related to the people of the Upper
Paleolithic, commonly known as the Cro-Magnon race (and in
particular to the intermediate type represented by the Combc-
Capelle and Pfedmost skeletons)." These last-named, as remarked
above, also present certain likenesses to the Australoid type in skull
features. This does not imply any special kinship with the modern
Australians, but there is a possibility that some primitive neoan-
thropic type in southern Asia may have given rise in Pleistocene

time to a stock which migrated southward toward Australia arid at
the same time to another which worked westward, gradually invad-
ing Europe and Africa. Such terms as "Negroid" and "Australoid"
are often used very loosely and may mean no more than that the
example in question "looks like" or suggests the type referred to,
when careful study and measurement may prove the fancied likeness
to be quite illusory. Even fairly close resemblance may signify no
more than fortuitous parallelism. Misinterpretation of such cases
is an ever-present hazard in physical anthropology. On the whole,
the status of the "Grimaldi race" as a people having special Negroid
affinities and quite distinct from the Cro-Magnon group must be
considered as extremely doubtful.

Cro-Magnon man. The best known type of late Paleolithic man in

Europe, and apparently the dominant people of this period, is that
known as Cro-Magnon man. This name was applied by Quatrefages
and Hamy to five skeletons found buried in the Cro-Magnon rock
shelter at Les Eyzies in the Dordogne, France, in 1868. Others of
similar type have since been found along the Mediterranean border
in the region of Monaco and Mentone and at various locations in
western Europe. As described by Verneau, it constitutes a well-
defined race.The men are tall, in some cases over six feet, and of
powerful frame. The cranium is high, capacious, and dolichocephalic
in form, but the face is short and broad, presenting rather unusual
proportions. The foreheadis vertical, the cheeks wide, the chin
prominent, the jaws of othognathous type, and the nose narrow

(PI. I, G). Forearm and shin are long in comparison to upper arm
and thigh, recalling the proportions in tall Negroid types, but this
feature has been observed in other tall races. Other characteristics
noted are a front-to-back flattening of the femur, while the tibia is
transversely flattened with a sharp anterior edge, a condition known
as platycnemia. These features are not, however, limited to this
race. These tall Cro-Magnon men constitute a fine physical type,
and it has been rather generally assumed that they were the people
chiefly responsible for the skillfully worked flint and bone imple-
ments and the realistic cave paintings and sculptures of animals,
characteristic of the Upper Paleolithic culture. The women, judging
from the few known skeletons, seem to be considerably shorter than
the men. It is popularly supposed that the Cro-Magnon men were
all of great stature, but this is not necessarily the case. Where sev-
eral very tall individuals are found buried together they may have
been a related family group and not at all racially typical as regards
"
stature. Some ethnologists have used the name Cro-Magnon" in a
more broadly inclusive sense to comprise also a number of other
physical types which exhibit scarcely any of the diagnostic features

of this race as defined by Verneau. Thus, the Briinn types above
mentioned are sometimes included as early and primitive members
of the Cro-Magnon race. Among the most noteworthy of the "aber-
rant" examples may be mentioned the Chancelade man, found near
PSrigueux in France in 1888, the skeletons of a man and woman
discovered in 1914 at Obercassel near Bonn in Germany, and a few
others. These are all of short stature, none of them greatly exceed-
ing five feet in height, but rather massively built with large skulls.
In the Chancelade skeleton there are numerous resemblances to the
Eskimo type, especially in the skull, which is practically identical with
that of the Greenland Eskimo. The likeness is so marked, indeed,
that several well-known anthropologists (Sollas, Sailer, et al.) are
strongly of the opinion that the Eskimo represent modern survivors
of this type who followed the northward retreat of the ice. As the
Eskimo represent a branch of the Mongoloid division, this theory
if true carries highly significant implications as to the mixed popu-
lation of western Europe in Upper Paleolithic time. Similar resem-
blances to the Eskimo are exhibited by the Obercassel skeletons,
44
though in lessmarked degree. Sir Arthur Keith on the other hand
denies the Eskimo relationship, and, considering these likenesses as
mere chance parallelism, regards the Chancelade and Obercassel
skeletons, despite their low stature and cranial peculiarities, as merely
aberrant examples of the Cro-Magnon race, thus placing them as
early members of the White rather than the Mongoloid division. M.
46
Boule, who holds a somewhat similar opinion regarding Chancelade
man, sums up his discussion of the Cro-Magnon people thus: "In
short, from the osteological point of view, the true Cro-Magnons
may be considered as a median type, around which there already
gravitate variations, due probably to the influence of varying geo-
graphical environments, and perhaps also to racial intermixture.
But as a whole they really form one stock, a fine race which, as de
Quatrefages has said, played an important part over a considerable
area and throughout a considerable period of time."
There is strong reason to believe that the Cro-Magnon people did
not "die out," but that they gradually intermingled with other
stocks, so that their descendants survive today in various parts of
France and the Iberian peninsula, and elsewhere in western Europe.
"
Examples of these so-called "modern Cro-Magnons are photo-
graphically portrayed in several works on ethnology. Resemblance
to the ancient type in measurements of face and cranium combined
with geographic location is the chief reason for so designating them.
The evidence is not entirely convincing, though there would seem
to be a strong presumption in favor of such survival. Many years

ago Quatrefages and Hamy, and later Verneau, maintained that the
Guanchos of the Canary Islands, who are generally believed to
have been largely exterminated in the fifteenth century, represented
late survivors of the Cro-Magnon stock, and similar assertions have
been made regarding the Kabyles of Algeria. On the other hand,
Professor E. A. Hooton 46of Harvard, who has investigated the
question with care, is very doubtful of the derivation of the Canary

Islanders from the Cro-Magnon stem and even admits that he is
"
so unregenerate as to be sceptical of the reality of the Cro-Magnon
'race/ if the term 'race' be used in its proper anthropological con-
notation."
Interesting conclusions regarding the fate of the ancient Guanchos
of the Canary Islands and their relation to the Cro-Magnon race
47
are found in recent studies by E. Fischer (1930), who, with the
cooperation of Dr. D. J. Wolfel, applied statistical anthropometric
methods in the study of the present-day populations of the various
islands of the Canary group and compared their findings with data
obtained by Verneau and other investigators of the ancient Cro-
Magnons, the Guanchos, and various populations of western Europe.
The results are quite at variance with Ilooton's conclusions. Anal-
ysis of the combined data considered with reference to Mendelian
laws of heredity indicates, in Fischer's opinion, that among the
mixture of many component races there is clear evidence of the
survival of the Cro-Magnon stock as a definite type. One especially
surprising result of Fischer's analysis is his assertion that the Cro-
Magnons at the time of their migration to the Canary Islands were
apparently a blond race; but the important result, if his conclusions
are correct,is the evidence of the reality of a definite Cro-Magnon
race and ofits survival to the present.
A detailed investigation of the human types of the late Old Stone

48
Age has been made by G. M. Morant, who finds, as a
recently
result of comparative anthropometric studies based upon twenty-
seven skulls of Paleolithic Europeans representing all the so-called
races of that period, that "the Upper Paleolithic series is rather
less variable than some modern European series which are considered
racially homogeneous." Regarding those types which have been

supposed to occupy an intermediate position between Neanderthal-
oid and Homo sapiens, Morant finds that craniometry lends no
support to this "link" idea. He concludes that "the Upper Paleo-
lithic type is modern in almost all respects. ... It resembles most
closely the modern dolichocephalic races of western Europe and

there can be little doubt that the latter population is directly de-
scended from the earlier."
Though the preponderance of present-day opinion appears to ad-

mit the essential unity of the late Paleolithic Europeans and to
regard them as progenitors of the modern inhabitants of western
Europe, their origin, as we have observed, is still an unsolved prob-
lem. We dare hope that its solution may be aided by future discov-
eries in Asia or Africa, both of which have yielded skeletal as well
as cultural relics of Pleistocene man, some of which are certainly
more ancient than the Aurignacian period in Europe. Some of these
discoveries be briefly reviewed.
may
To take Asia
first it will be recalled that the two most primi-
tive known members of the human family, the Javan Pithecanthro-
pus and the Chinese Sinanthropus, are both Asian types (Java hav-
ing been originally an extension of the Malay Peninsula). Java is
also the site of two other discoveries of Pleistocene man, more ad-
vanced types which may have important bearing on the origin and
migration of the Australian race. The first of these discoveries con-
sists of two skulls found near the surface of an ancient alluvial
deposit by Dr. Eugene Dubois. These skulls, which from their

called Wadjak man, Homo wadjakensis, were
49
locality Dr. Dubois
found in 1889, two years before his discovery of Pithecanthropus;
but he did not publish a full description until 1921. The skulls,
which are incomplete, are of dolichocephalic form, and the es-
sential features are those of the Australoid race, with marked
supraorbital ridges, low orbits, and large palate. The skulls in gen-
eral are massive, especially the jaws. There is some prognathism,
and the chin is but slightly developed. On anatomical grounds
Dr. Dubois seems to be justified in regarding the Wadjak re-
mains as proto-Australoid, which is important as corroborating
other evidence (from living types in southern India and Ceylon)
that the proto-Australian stock migrated from southern Asia. G.
49a
Pinkley (1936) holds that the teeth are too small and too spe-
cialized to permit Wadjak man to qualify as an ancestor of the
modern Australian.
In April, 1932, a report appeared of still another discovery of
Pleistocene man in Java. This was by W. F. F. Oppenoorth 60 of
the Geological Survey of Java, who described and figured a nearly
complete human brain case, and two fragments of other crania, one
an adult, fairly complete, the other a frontal bone of a child. These
were found in 1931 near Ngandong, a village near the Solo River
and only six miles from Trinil, the site of the famous Pithecanthro-
pus discovery of forty years earlier, but the f ossilif erous beds of Ngan-
dong are evidently of upper Pleistocene age, not quite as old as the
Pithecanthropus layer. Oppenoorth considers them as probably

comparable to the Riss-Wiirm interglacial period of Europe. The
original discovery at Ngandong was followed by others, so that by
1936 eleven skulls of this type, known as Solo man, had been found.
The crania are remarkably similar in form, and in all of them parts
of the basal region are missing, suggesting, as in the case of Peking
man, that they had been opened for the removal of the brains. No
facial bones, jaws, or teeth have yet been found, and two imperfect
tibiae are the only bones known in addition to the skulls. The cal-
varia is of fair size, with a heavy supraorbital torus and very low
retreating forehead, but it is larger and much more obviously human
than the cranium of Pithecanthropus. The occipital torus is enor-
mously developed, indicating very heavy neck muscles. The mastoid
region is of the sapiens type. Oppenoorth correctly observes that the
Neanderthal type, but he notes very close
skull does not belong to the
likenesses to the Rhodesian skull (described below) and he states
that "the back of the Ngandong skull also bears resemblance to
that of the Australian race, so perhaps we may see in it a much more
primitive prototype of that race than was the Wadjak man of Dubois."
Photographs show the skulls to be more "primitive" that is, less
like a modern man than the Wadjak skulls. In view of its distinc-
tive features Oppenoorth made Ngandong or Solo man the type of a
new species, Homo (Javanthropus) soloensis. (He later dropped the
sub-generic name
Javanthropus.} A number of tools, fashioned of
bone and deer antler, and some stone balls of andesite have been
found associated with the skulls.
This new discovery is highly significant, for it actualizes a
quite
plausible intermediate form or "link," hitherto missing, between
Pithecanthropus and the Wadjak man, the whole series in the same
region; and incidentally it enhances the importance of Pithecan-
thropus (which some anthropologists have regarded as merely the
fag end of a degenerate side branch) as a possible progenitor of
Homo (PL I, A), though of course there is no proof of these sug-
gested relationships. Weidenreich, von Koenigswald, and some other
anthropologists regard Solo man as a Javan type of the Neanderthal
species, but perhaps a larger group, including myself, agree with
Oppenoorth in the view that the two represent quite distinct types.
There are a number of resemblances, but careful comparison shows
these to be parallelisms which obscure more essential differences.
Oppenoorth expresses the opinion that "we have in Homo soloensis the
oldest at present known representative of Homo sapiens fossilis.*'
Dr. Dubois holds the view that Solo and Peking types are identical*
Homo sapiens, not improbably relative or offspring of a Javan
stock, arrived in Australia before the end of the Pleistocene period
as evidenced by two discoveries which may be briefly mentioned.
"
One of these was a " proto-Australoid skull discovered at Talgai
on the Darling Downs in Queensland in 1884 and first described in
detail by Dr. S. A. Smith in 1918. 51 This fossil, known as the Talgai
skull, is that of a boy fifteen or sixteen years of age. The skull, which
was badly crushed, is distinctly of Australoid type but surpasses
the modern Australian in size of palate and of teeth, especially of
canines. Thegeological incidence of this skull appears to be late
Pleistocene, a fact of importance in its implication that the an-
cestors of the modern Australian type had thus early migrated to
that part of the world.
More recent discoveries which apparently belong to a somewhat
similar proto-Australoid type have been made in Victoria, Australia,
a short distance south of the Murray River, where an adult male
skull was found in 1925, and later parts of several skeletons. The
bones were found near the surface embedded in ancient silt deposits,
and there is a possibility that they represent intentional burials. It
is most unfortunate that no artifacts or bones of animals have been
found in association with the human remains, and the only proof of
great antiquity is the inherent evidence of heavy mineralization of
the bones and their morphological character. A
full account of these
discoveries has not yet been published, but is said to be in prepara-

tion by Sir Colin MacKenzie at the time of present writing. The
data here given are taken from Sir Arthur Keith's New Discoveries
Relating to the Antiquity of Man. The first skull found, referred to as
the Cohuna skull from the place of discovery, is that of an adult
man clearly of Australoid race; but, 'as in the Talgai youth, those
features which are considered primitive are much more accentuated
than in recent Australians. It is in the enormous palate that the
specimen is most remarkable. In area of the palate and size of the
canine teeth as well as in prognathism, the Cohuna skull surpasses
all other known human examples, though the brain case is not very
different from the modern Australian. "Taking it all in all/' says
*
Early Man (1937), edited by George Grant MacCurdy, contains three
separate illustrated articles treating of Solo man and related subjects by W. F. F.
Oppenoorth, G, H, R. von Koenigswald, and E. Dubois.
Sir Arthur Keith, 52 "the Cohuna skull with the exception of the
Java and Peking specimens and perhaps the Piltdown represents
the most primitive human form known to us." (This statement was
published before the Ngandong or Solo man was found; otherwise,
doubtless this also would have been placed among the "exceptions.")
Rhodesian man. A remarkable and in many ways extremely prob-
lematical example of ancient humanity is that known as Rhodesian
man, found during mining operations at Broken Hill, Northern
Rhodesia, in 1921. The remains were found at the extreme end of a
long cave under a hill from which for some years many bones of
animals had been taken so heavily encrusted and impregnated with
lead and zinc salts that it had been the habit to throw them into the
smelters with the metallic ores of which the hill was largely composed.
The human remains consist of a nearly complete skull, lacking the
lower jaw, with a sacrum, fragments of a pelvis, and a few leg bones.
Together with them were found a few crude stone implements. The
bones were not fossilized in the usual sense of the word, as they still
contained some organic matter, but they were heavily encrusted with
zinc salts. When cleaned the skull was found to be uncrushed and
perfectly preserved with the exception of a portion of the right side,
which had been lost. At first glance it seems to be more apish than
any other known human skull. It has a superficial resemblance to a
male Neanderthal skull and has been regarded by a number of
anthropologists as an African variety of that species, but critical
examination shows that it lacks many of the specific Neanderthal
characteristics, and it may, with equally good or better reason, be re-
garded as a very aberrant example of Homo sapiens. Sir Arthur Smith
Woodward named it Homo rhodesiensis (PI. I,/?). The cranial vault
is greatly depressed,and the supraorbital torus even more pronounced
than in any Neanderthal skull, though different in form. The face,
in all itsmeasurements, is enormous. The subnasal space is greater
than in any other human skull, and the palate is of enormous size.
This skull is almost unique among ancient types in showing marked
caries of the teeth. The occipital torus and the attachments for neck
muscles in general are greatly overdeveloped, and the occipital region
is quite unlike that of the Neanderthals. The mastoid processes also
are different from that type and fairly well developed. The leg bones,
which are not certainly known to belong to the same individual or
even the same type, indicate tall stature, and the knee joint entirely
lacks the indication of permanent slight flexure seen in the Neander-
thals. A
very perfect endocranial cast made by Mr. F. O. Barlow of
the British Museum (Natural History Division) has a volume of
1300 cubic centimeters, surprisingly small for a skull with such a
53
huge facial region. According to G. Elliot Smith, this cast indicates
"
that in brain development the Rhodesian man conforms to a type
definitely more primitive than that of the Neanderthal species" as
regards the expansion of the prefrontal, parietal, and temporal asso-
ciation areas. But conclusions as to specific cortical areas based on
endocranial casts must be at best somewhat conjectural. G. M.
54
Morant has made anthropometric comparisons of the Rhodesian
skull with skulls of Neanderthals and the sapiens species, which
indicate that each of the three is racially distinct from the other two,
but he says: "It appears from a comparison of individual measure-

ments that the Neanderthal type is rather less widely removed from
modern man than the Rhodesian, but a generalized coefficient based
on twenty-three measurements suggests the reverse order. The dif-
ferenceis at any rate small and the conclusion that Rhodesian and
Neanderthal man are equally related to modern man is probably

the most reasonable one." Craniometric studies such as those of
Morant, though of great value, must necessarily disregard certain
small structural features which may be diagnostic to the experienced
eye, yet beyond the range of gross diameters, arcs, and indices. The
Rhodesian skull, in comparison with a fairly well preserved Nean-
derthal specimen (such as that of La Chapelle-aux-Saints), illustrates
this distinction very well. In many features for example, the char-
acter of the sutures, region of ear,and mandibular fossa, form of
squama, etc. the Rhodesian resembles the sapiens skull more
closely than it does the Neanderthal, notwithstanding the striking
likeness to the latter in general form.
Whether Rhodesian man should be placed in the paleoanthropic
or neoanthropic division a question. Many anthropologists would
is
ally it with the former, but others, including myself, are inclined
to regard it as an aberrant example of the neoanthropic group. Its
location has led to the assumption that it represents a proto-Negroid,
but there is no adequate anatomical warrant for this view. H.
Weinert considers it to be, if anything, closer to the European and
Australian types. But of one thing we may be certain: the Rhodesian

skull is not that of a Neanderthaloid.
Unfortunately the geological age of the remains is quite uncertain.

They may be as old as Pleistocene, but there are many reasons in
the condition of the skull and teeth and associated animal bones for
suspecting them to belong to a more recent A
very complete
period.
56
description and discussion of the type given by Dr. Hrdlicka,
is
who states very aptly that "the Rhodcsian skull is a tantalizing

specimen to the student, who is wholly at a loss as to just where it
belongs taxonomically or chronologically. It is a comet of man's
prehistory." But considerably diminished by the dis-
its isolation is
covery of the strikingly similar Javan Solo man.

Africa has recently yielded several other skeletal remains of Pleis-
tocene age which clearly are to be placed within the neoanthropic
sapiens group. Several from South Africa are of Negroid type, and
apparently represent a proto-Bushman stock, a matter of impor-
tance as indicating the antiquity of that race. Others, from East
Africa, are believed by various ethnologists to be allied to the true
Negro, the Hamitic people, and the Aurignacian Cro-Magnon men
of Europe.
The Boskop man, the first of the African Pleistocene discoveries,
was found in the Transvaal in 1913. 56 The remains include a skull and
some limb bones, all of them fragmentary. Enough of the skull is
preserved to show that it is a type of Homo sapiens with doli-
chocephalic cranium, vertical forehead, orthognathous face, and a
very large brain, as the endocranial capacity is estimated at 1630
cubic centimeters, though the leg bones indicate only moderate
stature. Dr. R. Broom considered the Boskop man a new species
for which he proposed the name Homo capensis. A second incomplete
skull and other bones of similar type were found in 1921, buried in
a rock shelter at T'zitzikama on the South African coast, some
500 miles from Boskop, and more recently a third at Iîsh Iloek,
fifteen miles from Cape Town. The importance of these remains
lies in their remarkable likeness in cranial form to the modern Bush-
man, whose skull has very striking racial characteristics and marked
differences from the true Negro. The Boskop proto-Bushmen were
much taller than, and greatly superior in brain volume to, their
modern descendants, indicating that the latter have undergone
physical degeneration.
Various other skeletal remains of greater or less antiquity have
been reported from South Africa, and also from East Africa; among
the latter is the Oldoway skeleton found by Dr. Hans Reck in 1913,
in German East Africa (now Tanganyika). The antiquity of this
skeleton has been the subject of much controversy. A few human
paleontologists follow Reck in placing it as Lower Pleistocene, and

one even hails it as the oldest known example of Homo sapiens, while
others maintain that it is modern. It is not primitive in any way,
and apparently represents an intentional burial. The German an-
thropologists Mollison and Gieseler find in this skull evidence of
racial kinship to themodern Masai, an East African group. Keith 57
would group with it, racially, some skeletal remains recently found
by Mr. L. S. 13. Leakey in Kenya, and also a skull unearthed in 1929
in the Springbok Flats in the Transvaal, a locality some 1600 miles
to the southward of the other discoveries. In Keith's opinion all
these remains, though not belonging to a true Negro type, represent
a Negroid stock the people of northeastern Africa, such as
allied to
the tall, slender Somali, while H. Weinert 58 regards the Oldow ay, r
Springbok, and even the Boskop man as African Cro-Magnons, and

believes that this type migrated from Europe, finally reaching East
Africa through Egypt, and later penetrating to South Africa. In his
opinion these Cro-Magnons preceded the Negroes in East Africa.
In view of the present incomplete knowledge and conflict of opinions
regarding the ethnological aspects of these recent finds, it would be
unwise to prolong discussion here.
On the whole, although we know nothing whatever regarding the
ancestral derivation of the proto-Negroid stock, it seems fairly evi-
dent that there were several Negroid types before the end of the
Pleistocene epoch, and that the Negroid branch of Homo sajnens
developed its distinctive characteristics in Africa. There is no sound
reason for regarding the Negroid branch as less ancient than the
White or Yellow. While there is no warrant for assuming that Africa
rather than Asia is the birthplace of humanity, we may recall that
it is the home of the two most manlike of living great apes, and the
stillmore manlike fossil ape Australopithecus. Possibly the rocks

of the Dark Continent may in time give forth the bones of still
higher apes or lower man.
The discussion of early man in the Western World does not fall
within the scope of the present chapter (see page 113). All the ancient
human remains thus far discovered in America, some of them possibly
as old as late Pleistocene, judging from geological evidence and the
testimony of associated animal bones, are ancient examples of the
American Indian type, representing an early branch of the Mongoloid
Homo sapiens which emigrated from Asia. If man arrived
division of
in America before the end of the Pleistocene, the Mongoloid, like the
White, Negroid, and Australoid divisions, must already have been

distinct in Pleistocene time. However, no skeletal remains identi-
fiable as specifically proto-Mongoloid have thus far been found
(see page 55), though in time they probably will be discovered

somewhere in Asia. E. Antevs, 59 in a discussion of the advent of man
in America states his conclusions as follows:
According to the best of our may be summed up thus:

belief the findings
The first man North America was of modern type and
to arrive in
probably at the Neolithic stage of culture. He came from northeastern
Asia to Alaska and probably spread along the eastern foot of the Rocky
Mountains where an ice-free corridor had formed some 20,000 to 15,000
years ago. He seems to have reached the Southwest at the age of transi-
tion between the pluvial and the post-pluvial epochs, or roughly 12,000
years ago.
The fact that no fossil remains of anthropoid apes or any sort of

Catarrhine primates have ever been found in America, although
negative evidence, renders the evolution of man from prehuman

ancestors in the Western World extremely unlikely.
FOOTNOTES
1. Huxley, T. H., Man's Place in Nature (London, 1863).
2. Tn the first edition of the Systema Natura (1735) Linnaeus grouped these
1
animals, together with the sloths, as "Anthropomorpha" (= man form).

Tn the edition of 1758 "Anthropomorpha" was replaced by "Primates."
3. Dart, R. A., "Australopithecus africanus: The Man-Ape of South Africa,"
Nature, vol. 115 (London, Feb. 7, 1925), pp. 195-198.
4. Keith, A., New Discoveries Relating to the Antiquity of Man (1931), p. 116.
5. Broom, R. "A New Fossil Anthropoid from Sterkfontein near Krugersdorp,
t
South Africa," Nature, vol. 138 (Sept. 19, 1936), pp. 486-488; and "The
Dentition of Australopithecus," ibid. (Oct. 24, 1936), p. 719.
6. Darwin, C., Descent of Man (London, 1871), vol. 1, pp. 196-197.
7. Haeckel, E., The Last Link (London, 1898), p. 12.
8. Hartmann, R., Anthropoid Apes (English translation, 1887).
9. Wilder, H. H., The Pedigree of the Human Race (1927).
10. Schultz, A. H., "Man as a Primate," Scientific Monthly, vol. 33 (Nov.
1931), pp. 385-412.
11. Elder, J. H., and Yerkes, R. M., "Chimpanzee Births in Captivity," Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Society, Iôndon, Series B, vol. 120 (July, 1936),
pp. 409HL21.
12. Yerkes, R. M., and Yerkes, A. W., The Great Apes (1929), p. 259.
13. Ibid., p. 240. Statement is quoted from Dr. A. Calmette, late director of the
Pasteur Institute of Paris, (1924).
14. Kohler, W., The Mentality of Apes (1925), pp. 275-276.
15. Yerkes, R. M., and Learned, B. W., Chimpanzee Intelligence and Its Vocal
Expressions (1925).
16. Abel, O., Die Stellung des Menschen im Rahmen der Wirbeltiere (Jena, 1931),
pp. 378-380.
17. Smith, G. Elliot, The Evolution of Man (2nd ed., London, 1927), chap. 3."
18. Haeckel, E., The History of Creation (English translation, 5th ed., 1913).
19. Dubois, E., Pithecanthropus erectus, eine menschenaenliche Uebergangsform aus
Java (Batavia, 1894).
20. Tilney, F., The Brain from Ape to Man (1928).
21. Dubois, E., "On the Principal Characters of theCranium and the Brain,
the Mandible and the Teeth of Pithecanthropus erectus," Proceedings,
Koninkiikje Akademie van Wetenschappcn te Amsterdam, vol. 27 (1923-24),
pp. 1-14.
21a. von Koenigswald, G. H. R., "Early Palaeolithic Stone Implements in
Java/' Bulletin Raffles Museum, Singapore, Series B. no. 1 (1936).

21b. von Koenigswald, G. H. R., "Erste Mitteilung iiber einen fossilen Ho-
miniden aus der Altpleistociin Ostjavas," Proceedings, Koninklijke Aka-
demie van Wetcnschappen te Amsterdam, vol. 39, no. 8 (193G).
22. Black, D., "On the Adolescent Skull of Sinanthropus pekinensis in Compari-
son with an Adult Skull of the Same Species," Palaeontologica Sinica,
Series 1), vol. 7, fasc. ii (Peiping [Peking], 1931).
23. Weinert, H., Menschen der Vorzeit (Stuttgart, 1930), p. 39.
24. Hrdlicka, A., "The Skeletal Remains of Early Man," Smithsonian Miscel-
laneous Collections, vol. 83 (1930), p. 368.
24a. Weidenreich, F., "The New Discovery of Three Skulls of Sinanthropus
pekinmsis" Nature, vol. 139 (Feb. 13, 1937), pp. 269-272.

25. Ilrdliclta, A., "Shovel-shaped Teeth," American Journal of Physical An-
thropology, vol. 3 (1920), pp. 429-465.
26. Weidenreich, F., "The Sinanthropus Population of Choukoutien (Locality 1)
with a Preliminary Report on New Discoveries," Bulletin of the Geological
Society of China, vol. 16, no. 4 (1935), p. 438.
27. Black, D., "Preliminary Notice of the Discovery of an Adult Sinanthropus
Skull at Chou Kou Tien," Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, vol. 8,
no. 3 (1929, pub. in 1930), p. 211.
28. Woodward, A. S., with Dawson, C., "On the Discovery of a Palaeolithic
Human Skull and Mandible, etc., at Piltdown, Fleching, Sussex," Quarterly
Journal of the Geological Society, London, vol. 69 (1913), pp. 117-124.
29. Miller, G. S., Jr., "The Jaw of Piltdown Man," Smithsonian Miscellaneous
Collections, vol. 65, no. 12 (1915), pp. 1-30, 5 pis.
30. Friederichs, H. F., "Schaedel und Unterkiefer von Piltdown ("Eoanthropus
dawsoni Woodward ") neuer Untersuchung," Zeitschrift fur Anatomic
in
und Entuncklungsgeschichte, vol. 98 (1932), pp. 199-262.
tt. Weinert, H., Das Problem des Eoanthropus von Piltdown (Stuttgart, 1933).
52. Boule, M., L'Homme fossile de la Chapelle-aux-Saints (Paris, 1913).
33. Berckhemer, F., "Der Steinheimer Urmensch und die Tierwelt seines
Lebensgebietes," Aus der Heimat, Naturwissenschaftliche Monatsschrift,
vol. 47 (April, 1934), pp. 101-115.
34. Weinert, H., "Der Urmenschenschaedel von Steinheim," Zeitschrift fur

Morphologie vnd Anthropologie, Bd. 35, Heft 3 (1936), pp. 463-518.
35. Sergi, S., "La Scoperta di un Cranio del Tipo Neanderthal presso Roma,V
Rcvista di Antropologia, vol. 28 (1929), p. 3.
36. Gorjanovic-Kramberger, K, "Der palaeolithische Mensch und seine Zeit-
genossen aus dem Diluvium von Krapina in Kroatien," Mitteilungen
Anlhropologische Gesellschaft Wien, vol. 31 (1901), pp. 189-216, 4 pis.
37. MacCurdy, G. G., "Prehistoric Man in Palestine," Proceedings of the Ameri-
can Philosophical Society, vol. 76, no. 4 (1936), pp. 523-541, 16 pis.
37a. Keith, A., and McCown, T. D., "Mount Carmel Man," in Early Man,
edited by George Grant MacCurdy (1937).
38. MacCurdy, G. G., Human Origins (1924), vol. 1, p. 158.
39. Weinert, Memchen der Vorzeit, p. 83.
II.,
40. HrdliSka, "The Skeletal Remains of Early Man," Smithsonian Miscellaneous

83 (1930), pp. 347-349.
Collections, vol.
41. Verneau, II., "Les Grottos de Grimaldi (Baouss6-Rousse)," Anthropologie,
Tome II, fasc. i (Monaco, 1906).
42. Smith, G. Elliot, op. cit., pp. 138-139.
43. Keith, A., op. cit., p. 385.
44. Ibid., p. 391.
45. Boule, M., Fossil Men (English translation, London, 1923), p. 288.
46. Hooton, E. A., Up from the Ape (1931), p. 371.
47. Fischer, Eugcn, "Sind die alten Kanarier ausgestorben?" Zeitschrift fur
Ethnologic, vol. 62 (1930), pp. 258-281.

48. Morant, G. M., "Studies of Palaeolithic Man," Annals of Eugenics, vol. 4
(1930), pp. 109-204, 12 pis.
49. Dubois, E., "The Proto-Australian Fossil Man of Wadjak, Java," Proceed-
ings, Koninklikje Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam, vol. 23,
no. 7 (1920).
49a. Pinkley, G.,"The Significance of Wadjak Man, a Fossil Homo Sapiens from
Java," Peking Natural History Bulletin, vol. 10, Part III (1936), pp. 183-199.
50. Oppenoorth, W. F. F., "Homo (Javanthropus) soloensis," Wetenschappelijke
Mededeelingen, No. 20, van den Dienst van den Mijnbouw in Ned.-Indie
(Batavia, 1932), pp. 51-63.
51. Smith, S. A., "The Fossil Human Skull Found at Talgai, Queensland,"
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London, Series B, vol. 208
(1918), pp. 351-387, 7 pis.
52. Keith, A., op. cit., pp. 304-311.
53. Smith, G. Elliot, op. cit., p. 127.
54. Morant, G, M., Annals of Eugenics, vol. 3 (1928), p. 358, 6 pis.
55. HrdliSka, A., "The Skeletal Remains of Early Man," op. cit., p. 130.
56. Keith, A., The Antiquity of Man (1925), vol. 1, pp. 365-371.
57. New Discoveries Relating to the Antiquity of Man, chap. 10.
Keith, A.,
58. Weinert, H., Ursprung der Menschheit (Stuttgart, 1932), pp. 290-291.
59. Antevs, E., Geographical Renew, vol. 25 (1935), pp. 302-309.
GENERAL REFERENCES
The following list comprises a brief selection of works, mostly rather general
books, which can be read with understanding and profit by persons without
much technical acquaintance with the subject. A
few outstanding monographs
and papers on particular topics are included.
Abel, Othenio, Die Stellung des Menschen im Rahmen der Wirbeltiere (Jena, 1931).
Boule, Marcellin, Lett Hommes Fossiles (2nd ed., Paris, 1923); Fossil Men (Eng-
lish translation of the same, London, 1923).
Gregory, W. K., "The Lineage of Man," in Creation by Evolution, edited by
Frances Mason (1928); and Man's Place among the Anthropoids (Oxford, 1934).
Hootnn, E. A., Up from the Ape (1931).
Hrdlicka, A., "The Skeletal Remains of Early Man," Smithsonian Miscellaneous
Collections, vol. 83 (1931).
Keith, A,, The Antiquity of Man (2 vols., 1925) and New Discoveries Relating to
the Antiquity of Man (1931).
MacCurdy, G. G., Early Man (1937) and Human Origins (2 vols., 1924).
Obermaicr, H., Fossil Man in Spain (1924).
Oshorn, H. F., Men of the Old Stone Age (3rd ed., 1919).
Schultz, Aclolph H., "Man as a Primate," Scientific Monthly, vol. 33 (Nov., 1931),
pp. 385-412 and "Characters common to Higher Primates and Characters
specific forMan," Quarterly Iteview of Biology, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 259-283, and
no. 4, pp.425-455 (1936).
Smith, G. Elliot, The Evolution of Man (2nd ed., London, 1927).
Warden, C. J., The Origin of Human Behavior (1932).
Weinert, H., Menschen der Vorzeit (Stuttgart, 1930) and Ursprung der Menschheit
(Stuttgart, 1932).
Yerkes, R. M. and A. W., The Great Apes: A Study of Anthropoid Life (1929).
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE. Since the first printing of this book the finding of a
third skullcap of Pithecanthropus has been reported by Dr. G. H. R. von Koenigs-
wald (Nature Oct. 15, 1938). The new skull, that of a juvenile individual, though
,
less complete than the other two, shows resemblances to Sinanthropus and tends
to strengthen the evidence that the two genera are rather closely related. Dr. R.
Broom (Nature, Aug. 27, 1938) reports the discovery of new fossil anthropoid
material from the Transvaal. He believes the material to comprise remains of two
forms, the one formerly described as Australopithecus transvaalensis he now calls
Plesianlhropus, while a second specimen (the Kromdrai skull), of which he has a
partial endocranial cast, large portions of the face, palate and lower jaw, he names
Paranthropus robustus. Both forms (if indeed they represent separate genera) are
remarkable in having a brain no larger than that of a great ape but approximating
the human brain in form, combined with teeth which resemble those of man
rather more closely than those of any ape. The canine teeth are no larger than
those of many men. Fragments of limb bones have also been reported (Nature,
Nov. 19, 1938). Though only preliminary notes have been published to date (Dec.
15, 1938), it may be stated that the new South African apes, so far as can be
judged from the skull and teeth, are in many ways intermediate between the
other anthropoid apes and man. They are of course too late geologically to
represent actual ancestors of man.
CHAPTER III
RACE
FRANZ BOAS
Races and local types. In descriptions of the anatomical character-

1
istics of the principal races, only those traits are discussed which set
off one large group from the other and which are common to all its
members. The lesser differences between individuals and between
neighboring local groups are naturally disregarded. Thus a somewhat
schematic view of the bodily characteristics of the varieties of mankind
isobtained unless the characteristics of the individuals composing a
local group or a race are clearly understood. We have to consider the
characteristics of a population before we can take up a description
of races.
Variability of local types. A description of a population cannot be
given in a summary way, but must consist of an enumeration and
description of all its component forms. Their frequency distribution
is the only way by which an exhaustive description can be given.
When alternative forms are distinguished, such as blue eyes and
those not blue, or blood of distinct chemical behavior, the frequency
of occurrence of each type must be given. Since in most cases the
differences between the observed forms, like stature or headforms,
are of such character that differences between the individuals of a
population who are alike in form are minute, verbal descriptions are
no longer satisfactory; numerical values must take their place. For
this reason the description of a population is largely based on anthro-
pometric studies. The dimension of the body, grades of pigmentation,

numerical values of chemical constituents, frequency and grade of
development of characteristic anatomical traits, are substituted for
vaguer descriptions. For these reasons the method to be used is
analogous to the one employed in the study of any type of variable
quantities. It is the statistical method.
Methods of observations. Detailed methods of the study of the hu-
man body have been elaborated. These are based in part on morpho-
logical observations but much more on quantitative determinations
95
of variousmeasures of linear extent, area, and volume of the body
and organs; on the frequency of occurrence of various forms; on
its
attempts at quantitative studies of the chemical properties and

physical functions of the organism.
By far the greatest attention has been paid to a determination of
form by means of measurements, and more attention has been given
to thebony structure than to any other part of the body. The reason
for thisis not that the bony structure is more important, but that
nothing else remains of past generations, and a comparison between

present and past can be based only on comparisons of skeletons.
The comparative study of soft parts is receiving increasing attention
in anatomical institutes but has not been elaborated to the same
extent as the observation of the skeleton and of easily ascertainable
measures on the living, many of which depend largely upon the
dimensions of bony structures.
The size of the body is measured by stature (the height standing
in erect posture), by weight, and sometimes by volume. The length
of the limbs is measured on the skeleton by the length
of the long
bones; on the living, by the determination with the greatest possible

accuracy of the corresponding lengths. The transversal measures of
the body are determined at the shoulder girdle, in connection with
the length of arms by the span between the tips of the second fingers
of the horizontally extended arms, on various points of the chest,
and on the hips. Antcroposterior measures are taken on chest and
pelvis. Further information regarding size and form of the body,
in conjunction with the linear measures, is given by the determina-
tion of the circumference at various levels.
A comprehensive system of measurements of the head, respectively
of the skull, hasbeen developed. The head measures most commonly
used on the living are length of head, measured from the glabella
(the point between the eyebrows) to the most distant point of the
occiput; the greatest transversal diameter of the head; and the
greatest width of the face measured between the zygomatic arches.
These are preferred on the living, because they can be taken with the
greatest accuracy since the points from which the measurements
have to be taken are well defined and the soft parts covering these
regions are rather thin. Height of nose and face are determined with
much greater difficulty. Measurements on the skull may be taken
with much greater accuracy, since the bone is unyielding and the
points may be accurately determined.
EU
ZY
Fig. 10.
On
account of the importance of obtaining accurate and com-
parable measurements, it has been found advantageous to define and
name those points which are utilized. Figure 10 shows the points,
and the legend gives their definition.
When comparing the conformation of two skulls it is obviously
important to bring them into homologous positions, because the
apparent slope of the forehead or the apparent degree of prognathism
willdepend upon the position chosen. Generally the attempt is made
to place the skull as nearly as possible in its natural position when
looking straight ahead, and two planes are principally used as nearly
coinciding with this position: namely, the plane passing along the
lowest points of the occipital condyles and the prosthion (alveolar
point), or the one passing on each side of the head through the
central point of the upper rim of the meatus auditorius and the
lowest point of the lower rim of the orbit. By giving to these pairs
of points a stable position, all other points are made the more variable
the farther removed they are. In a purely morphological study the
two objects studied should be made to approach each other as near
as possible in all points.
The natural horizontal position is particularly important for de-
termining the characteristic physiognomic angles of the face and

forehead. The alveolar arch and the teeth appear more prominent,
the forehead flatter, when the skull is tilted back more than it is in
normal position; the reverse is true when it is tilted forward. On
account of the uncertainty of the normal position, some of these
angles are more safely determined by means of measurements of
lines drawn between fixed points of the skull.
Observations on other points can also be made with much greater
accuracy on the skeleton than on the living. Here also exact measure-
ments of dimensions and angles have been made exhibiting differ-
ences between individuals and racial groups. Thus the relative lengths
of the extremities show considerable differences both individually
and in racial groups. Details of form and curvature of single bones
have also been described by means of metrical methods.
The soft parts of the body may be studied with a fair degree of
accuracy on plaster casts, partly because the material is unyielding,
partly because lines may be studied that are not readily observed
on the living. As an example the cross section of the faces of two
Indian tribesmay be given (Fig. 11).
Besides measurable dimensions and angles many significant forms
RACE 99
occur which cannot be readily represented by numerical values.

Irregularities in the development of bones, such as the persistence
of the suture dividing the two frontal bones and the occurrence of a
ridge along the middle of the palate, may be described according to

their frequency and intensity, but are not readily measured. This is
even more true of such complex configurations as the fingerprints
which may be classified and occur with varying frequency in local
groups.
Types. The anatomical characteristics of individuals may be de-
scribed by many measurements. Some of these may be related, so
that the one determines, at least in part, the
other one. Thus among the members of the
same population a wide face may be found
together with a wide head; broad shoulders
with broad hips; a long arm with a long leg.
Others are very slightly related, if at all.
Transversal measures are in general slightly Fig. 11. Cross sections
related to longitudinal measures that is, to of faces.
those in a line from feet to head. The width Indians of coast of

of the foot to the length British Columbia
is hardly related at all
of the head, and so on. 'S v\r *?*T

T_ i .1 i- i i
of British Columbia
If we
describe individuals composing a pop-
ulation by a number of measurements that are not related, and count
how many will have the most frequent measurements,
appears that it
only very few are what we might call typical specimens of the popula-
tion. When we count the one half who have the normal length of head,
and of these the one half who have the normal length of foot, mean-
"
ing by this that we consider as normal" those who belong to the
middle half of the population, we see that only one fourth of the
total number will have the normal form in regard to both character-
istics. If new independent measures are added, the third one will be
found combined with the first two with only one half of one fourth,
or one eighth of the whole number. If ten such measures are con-
sidered, then only one individual among 1024 will have the normal
measures in all these ten traits. Since a type has many characteristics,
some of which are unrelated while others are more or less closely or
loosely related, it follows that very few individuals will correspond

to what we might call the of the population. The norm is an
norm
abstraction which is hardly ever found realized in any single indi-
vidual.
There are, however, cases in which a population is so uniform in
regard to special traits that these impress themselves as the prominent
characteristics. Examples are the blondness in some parts of Sweden
and the occiput in parts of Asia Minor.
flat
Types are also subjectively construed in another manner. When the

observer has become familiar with two populations and has formed
his impression of their "types" and turns his attention to a third
population in which both of these types may be recognized, he will
be inclined to consider this new population as mixed, although there
isnothing to prove that it may not be genetically a type quite analo-
gous to those previously studied. The taxonomic classification thus
obtained would not necessarily represent a genetic fact which would
have to be investigated by the study of family lines (see also p. 19).
Phenotypes and genotypes. The whole population consists of fam-
ilies, and the bodily form of each individual depends not only upon
the characteristics of the population as a whole, but primarily upon

those of the family (genotype) to which he belongs- In a population
of absolutely uniform descent all the constituent families would be
alike. This would be expressed by the fact that the averages and
variabilities of each family line, provided there were very many
children, would be the same. These values can be computed. Ex-

perience shows that there is not a single population in which the
family lines are identical. Their uniformity is the greater the more
the community has for a long time been inbred, while a recent
intermingling of different lines of descent results in considerable dif-
ferences between family lines. Since the population as a whole is
composed of many family lines, the characteristics of every one of

these are not those of the whole population. The population as a
whole, representing many family lines or genotypes, is called a
phenotype. The brothers and sisters constituting one genotype would
also differ the less among themselves, the more uniform the ancestry
of the population. On the other hand, in an inbred population of
mixed descent the family lines may be very much alike, while the
brothers and sisters, designated as fraternities, may be very unlike
among themselves. 1
Graphically this may be represented in the following way:
Families of approximately the middle type will be frequent, while
those divergent from the middle family lines will be rare. In each
family line there will be differences between the members of the
fraternity; and on the whole, the amount of variability in each fra-
RACE 101
ternity will be about equal. This will result in a distribution as in-

dicated in Figure 12, for clarity's sake in somewhat exaggerated form.
Generalized types. If it were possible to reconstruct generalized
types, we might obtain a better insight into the origin of the modern
local races. Pronounced local types develop with age and are clearest
in the adult male, somewhat less so in the female, and least of all in
In prenatal stages the differences are still slighter. It is well

infants.
known that the study of embryology throws much light upon the
morphological significance of the parts of the body, for there are
decided similarities of structure between the early stages of the
_ Distribution of frequencies
of form in fraternities
-.Distribution of
family lines
Fig. 12. Distribution of frequencies of form in fraternities, and distribution

of family lines.
organs in different species and even orders. In other words, the most
generalized forms may be recognized in the earliest stages of indi-

vidual development. We
may therefore conclude that the early
stages of development show the more generalized forms which in
later life become differentiated.
This may readily be observed in the development of the individual.
Very young children do not exhibit all the pronounced characteristics
of the race to which they belong. The Negro foetus may be dis-
tinguished from the White foetus in proportions of the body, but the
differences are less than those found among adults. The children of
European types with dark hair are often light blond as young children.
The form of the nose of children of most races does not exhibit the
pronounced differences found among adults, because the bridge of

the nose develops only during maturity.
Another approach to the problem is through an investigation of
those traits which are most constant in larger groups. It seems
plausible that traits which are common to large groups of mankind
must be very ancient, while those showing similar types of variation
in distinct groups have presumably developed independently and
at a later time.
Among the most constant forms that belong to large divisions of
mankind are forms of hair, pigmentation, and form of nose, while
most of the proportions of the body are more variable. This justifies
the attempt to classify mankind on this basis and to distinguish as
ancient ancestral forms the Negro, including Negroes of Africa and
Melanesia, with dark skin and frizzly black hair; the Australian, with
dark skin and wavy black hair; the Mongolian, including the Amer-
ican Indian, with straight hair, slighter pigmentation, and somewhat
elevated bridge of nose; and the European, with varying form and
color of hair, slight pigmentation, and narrow nose. There are other
bodily traits that coincide more or less strictly with this classification,
such as the form of the eye wide open among Negroes and Euro-
peans, with a heavy fold of the upper eyelid in the Mongolians;
thickness of lips greatest among Negroes and Australians, less so
among Mongolians, least among the Whites.
In contrast to these the form of the head as seen from above shows
wide variations in each race; elongated in one Negro group, rounded
in another. Certainly this type cannot belong to the fundamental
racial traits. It would seem that this is rather a parallel development
which occurred independently in various racial types.
Parallel development. The genealogical grouping of races is made
difficultby the possibility of occurrence of parallel traits in dif-
ferent groups of mankind. A difficulty of this kind is found in the
interpretation of the bodily forms of the Ainu of northern Japan.
They from their Mongoloid neighbors in certain traits that

differ
approach the bodily forms of the Europeans. Particularly the

abundant hairiness of the body sets them off strongly from their
neighbors, and it has been inferred that they must be descendants
of a European group that migrated east to the Pacific Ocean. A
similar case is that of the Tlingit and Haida of the coasts of Alaska
and British Columbia. While most Indians are characterized by dark
hair, deep pigmentation of the eye, and a moderate pigmentation
of the skin, we find here individuals of very light skin color, red hair,
and light brown eyes. This is not due to intermingling with Whites,
for Shakes, the Tlingit chief who met the first European vessel that
touched this coast, was characterized by these traits, a fact still
remembered by his descendants. The "blond Eskimo" of Coronation
Gulf present a similar variant. It seems therefore likely that the loss
of pigmentation may be a trait which occurs sporadically among the
Mongoloid type among groups that have no immediate genetic rela-

RACE 103
tioiuto Europeans. It follows from these remarks that we must be

cautious in assuming a necessary genetic relationship between forms
showing similarities that
jpay be due to parallelism of development.
Selection. Whenever the mating between genetic types is entirely
due to chance in other words, whenever an individual of one type
may mate with equal probability with any one of the other types,
and when the population has been stable for a long time, the dis-
tribution of forms in the population will also be stable. In modern
populations these conditions do not prevail. In New York, for in-
stance, a person of European descent is much more likely to mate
with another European, a Negro with another Negro, than is a
European to mate with a Negro. To a lesser extent this is true of
other groups. There is a decided social selection between the social
groups. The probability that an Italian of the first generation will
marry a Scandinavian of the first generation is not equal to the
probability that an Italian will marry an Italian. Since the social
groups such as Italians, Irish, Poles, Scandinavians, are not genetically
identical, we have to take into consideration this inequality which
results in changes of the genetic composition and which lasts until
the selective mating disappears.
Similar conditions prevail in every population in which selective
mating occurs, unless the genetic lines are equally distributed in all
the classes in which selection occurs. Such equality does not exist in
modern populations. Since in every population, even in small tribes,
a number of distinct genetic lines occur, preferential cross cousin
marriages, such as are found in many tribes, together with avoidance
of parallel cousin marriages, must also be a disturbing element in the
distribution of genetic traits.
It follows from all this that in most cases the distribution of genetic
types, and hence that

of physical types, in a population is not con-
stant, but that gradual changes due to hereditary causes must be
frequent. The character of these changes is due to the differences in
physical form among the genetic types upon which the selective
processes are at work. When there is no relation between social group-
ing and the genetic character of each group, no change due to selective
mating will occur.
Environmental changes. Environmental conditions bring about slight
modifications of human forms. Their influence is clear so far as the
bulk of the body is concerned.The constant vigorous use of muscles
of the arm results in forms different from those brought about by
disuse. Ample nutrition and semi-starvation affect the form of the
body. Diseases of early childhood may even result in modifications
of the skeleton. It is necessary to determine how far the body responds
to the differences of environment.
In a single individual it would be difficult, if not impossible, to
distinguish between environmental and hereditary causes. The bulk
of the body, for instance, may be due to either cause. It may be
influenced by favorable conditions of growth and adequate nutrition,
or it may be largely determined by hereditary causes. At the present
time a distinction between the two causes is in most cases impossible.
Population and Since populations consist of many distinct
race.
family lines, the question arises: What is a race? The genotypes are
stable within a population. They form a continuous series, and while
the extremes may be quite distinct, they are connected by many
transitional forms. Apparently identical individuals are found in
populations that live in contiguous territories. It is not possible to
assign with any degree of certainty any individual, judged by his
bodily form, to a particular population, excepting extreme forms and
unusually marked local differences. Still, when areas far apart are
compared, the two populations appear as decidedly distinct. A com-
parison of Europe and Africa illustrates this.
In general usage local forms that is, populations are described
as local races, but it must be understood that this is merely a con-
venient way of describing the characteristics of a local form and that
it does not prove that the local form is descended from an ancient
fundamental variety of mankind. All we find at the present time are

populations each containing markedly distinct family lines or geno-
types which appear in ever-changing combinations.
In a strict sense a race must be defined as a group of common
origin and of stable type. In this sense extreme forms like the Aus-
tralians, Negroes, Mongolians, and Europeans may be described as
races because each has certain characteristics which set them off
from other groups, and which are strictly hereditary. Difficulties
arise if forms are considered in which the racial characteristics are
not pronounced. Since each population consists of many different
genotypes, the problem arises whether it is possible to analyze the
genotypes in such a way as to determine constituent fundamental
races. In such an attempt we are all too ready to consider the ex-
treme types as fundamental forms, without considering that these
are established on the purely subjective impression of their striking
RACE 105
differences. Itis not necessary to assume that the intermediate types
are always mixed types. They may well be the fundamental forms of
which the extremes are variants. The simple description of the popula-
tion does not answer this question. In mixed races like the Mulattoes,
the parental types of which are known, the individuals and their
family lines may be grouped according to their greater or lesser
resemblance with the one or the other race. When they are so grouped,
the pure types, Whites and Negroes, stand at the ends of these
series.
Whenthe original intermingling types are unknown, the analysis
of the descriptive features cannot lead to a similar result, because
according to the laws of Mcndelian inheritance the individual traits

separate and recombine, and it is not possible to reconstruct with
any degree of certainty the "pure" ancestral types. All that can be
done is to distinguish arbitrarily certain morphological forms as
"pure" types, arid then arrange all the others statistically in inter-
mediate groups which will contain the more ancestors of the alleged
"pure" types the more their forms resemble one or the other "pure"
type.
The problem is quite the same as that of the study of varieties of
strongly varying animals or plants living in distinct localities. The
farther they are removed from one another the more they are likely
to differ. Sharp lines between the varieties cannot be drawn, and a
reconstruction of ancestral forms not possible.
is
In some cases it can be shown that a population

is actually mixed.
In a perfectly homogeneous group the size of an individual will

influence all his measurements. They will all increase with size,
although not necessarily at the same rate. If the population is

descended from two types having different measurements, these rela-
tions may be disturbed. Thus we find in northern France a popula-
tion with rather long and narrow heads, and in central France one
with larger short and broad heads. The effect of their mixture in
Paris is that long heads are often narrow, short heads broad; in other
words, the normal correlation is disturbed and considerably lower
than in populations descended from a more uniform ancestry.
Nevertheless, the component elements could not be reconstructed,
unless they were actually found in some locality. The success of such
an analysis would require an exact knowledge of the manner in which
the traits in question are inherited.
Local races. We have seen that the characteristics of variable traits
of local races ân be accounted for in several ways. These may be
due to a mixture of closely allied but by origin distinct forms; dif-
ferentiation may be due to isolation, local selection, or to environ-
mental influences.
Mixture. The
history of mankind proves that mixture of different
populations has been going on for thousands of years. The distribu-
tion of implements dating back to the end of the glacial period sug-
gests that, even at this early time, extended migrations occurred.
They cannot be proved, because cultural traits may be disseminated
by imitation without migration. In later times, when the elements
of language or skeletal remains allow us to trace wanderings, the
proof can be given. In Europe the Greeks invaded the Mediterranean

at the end of the second millenium before our era. The people of
Thrace migrated into Asia Minor, the Celts expanded their territory
into Italy and wandered as far as Asia Minor; the Roman traders
established colonies over a large part of Europe; the Germanic tribes
migrated from the Black Sea into western and southern Europe, and
into North Africa; the Arabs swept over North Africa and settled
with North Africans in Spain; the Slavs superseded the Finnish people
of Russia; the Bulgarians migrated from the Black Sea into the
Balkan Peninsula; the Magyars into Hungary; Mongolian invasions
of Europe followed. The European populations were almost con-
stantly on the move until individual landholding developed and the

people became attached to the soil. Remote parts, like Spain and
England, were not spared the effects of such intermingling. The
Jewish and Armenian diaspora were, notwithstanding their social
isolation, undoubtedly accompanied by intermingling. The expulsion
of people like that of the Moors and Jews from Spain could not oblit-
erate the results of previous mixture. In Portugal plantations were
worked by Negroes, but the Negro element has disappeared in the
modern population. After the great Greek, Celtic, and Teutonic
migrations, the Crusades and the numerous wars must have con-
tributed to this process. In recent times the development of large
cities has given a new stimulus to the process of intermingling of
distinct local types. It has received its strongest impulse through the
colonization of America, Australia, and South Africa.
Early conditions on other continents were not different. Although
we have no historical data for Africa, America, and Polynesia, the
linguistic and anatomical evidence is clear. The Bantu tribes of
Africa spread over the greater part of the continent, and presumably
RACE 107
supplanted an old pygmy or pygmoid population. In the Sudan there

occurred invasions of people from the Mediterranean border of
Africa; Abyssinia was peopled by Semitic invaders. In North America
the sporadic distribution of Athapascan tribes from Alaska and the
MacKenzie area along the Pacific coast to Arizona and New Mexico,
the occurrence of Algonquian languages along the Western Plains
and in the East, the relationship between the Cherokee of North
Carolina and the Iroquois of New York, are proofs of extended migra-
tions. In South America the distribution of the Caribs and Arawak
shows displacements which extended over thousands of miles. In
Asia historical, linguistic, and anthropological evidence gives clear
proofs of migrations. The Malay crossed the Indian Ocean and
settled in Madagascar. The Aryans in India, the Central Asiatic
invasions southward and westward, the extension of the Turks west-
ward into Europe and northward into Siberia, are a few examples.
Owing to these conditions we may expect to find practically every-
where intermixture between various ancestral types which cannot
be reconstructed by means of an analysis of the morphological traits
of a population.
Isolation. It seems likely that, notwithstanding the mobility of
the human race, there have been periods of isolation of small bands.
In early times populations must have been sparse, and opportunities
for isolation, partly for geographical and partly for social reasons,
must have been frequent. Even in recent times there have been such
areas of isolation, as for instance amongthe Eskimo tribe of Smith
Sound in Greenland, in Australia,and on remote islands of the
Pacific Ocean. Biological evidence shows that in cases of isolation
with long-continued inbreeding well-defined types develop, no matter
whether they are all descended from one ancestral type, or whether
they are of mixed origin. Examples of such divergence of locally
circumscribed variations are found in the Galapagos Islands, where
lizards and birds of each island have well-marked characteristics
that set them off from those of neighboring islands; or in some of the
Polynesian islands where the snails of each valley have their own
characteristics. We may discover such phenomena in man. Thus the
Indians of some valleys of California differ in type from their neigh-
bors, and in the Austrian Alps the inhabitants of the remote villages
are markedly individualized.
It therefore seems admissible to assume that early isolation was a
means of establishing distinctive types which persist in the more
local races. This is illustrated also by the frequent occurrence of
certain anomalies in small local groups. In the adult the parts of
the occipital bone of man are fused, but sometimes the upper portion,
the squama, which forms the occiput, is separated from the lower
part (Fig. 13). remarkably common among
This conformation is
some Pueblo tribes of New Mexico. It must be considered a family

trait which, on account of inbreeding, has become unusually prevalent
in these communities. This is analogous to hereditary pathological
forms which occur with unusual frequency in some family lines or
communities. The smaller and the more
strictly inbred the community, the more
we are likely to find a pronounced local
type.
Differences of this kind can never be
greater than the whole range of variations
which occurred in the original population
from which the isolated group became sep-
arated. It may therefore well be that the
tv ,., T ancestral type
* contained a great number of
Fit?. 13. Oft Incae. .
\ , , /. .
variants that are now tound with greater

frequency in one locality which possesses local characteristics.
Domestication. For a clear understanding of the significance of
racial differentiation we must not lose sight of the conditions in
which man lives in all parts of the world. I Man is the oldest domesti-
cated form, self-domesticated by his inventions. The fundamental
characteristics of the life of domesticated animals consist in the
control of food supply, in the modification of food con-
artificial
sumed, and in artificial protection against enemies. The careful

inbreeding of selected stable strains which characterizes modern
methods of raising domesticated animals does not belong to early
domestication and, except in a few cases, has not been an important
clement in the history of mankind. It can hardly be adduced as a
factor in race formation.
The foundation for domestication was laid when man developed
the use of tools for his protection, and particularly when he dis-
covered the use of fire and began to modify his food by roasting
and cooking and gave up the habits of a roaming animal that lived
on the food that his hands and teeth could procure for him. Fire
was used by man in middle Paleolithic times, about 35,000 or 50,000
years ago, long before animals became associated with him in his
RACE 109
camp. The first to draw attention to the domestication of man

were Johannes Ranke and Eduard Hahn.
It is therefore not surprising to see that man participates in those
traits that differentiate domesticated animals from wild forms.
Perhaps most striking are the changes in pigmentation and hair
forms that are concomitants of the transition from wild life to do-
mesticated life. There are hardly any wild forms known that have
the peculiar pigmentation characteristic of blondness, often accom-
panied by loss of pigmentation of the iris which results in blueness
of eye. The microscopical structure of the blue eye of the "Nordic"
is, so far as pigmentation is concerned, identical with that of the
blue-eyed rabbit. The blondness of hair is identical with that of the

blond horses and pigs. On the other hand, blackness is also rare
among wild mammals. The
fur coats of the black panther and black
bear are among the exceptions. Almost all domesticated forms
cattle, horses, dogs, cats have black varieties. Furthermore, the
form and amount of hair of domesticated forms is unusually variable.
Most wild animals have straight hair, and except among the anthro-
poid apes all
parts of the body are well covered. Some domesticated
varieties, like angora cats and Pekinese dogs, have an excessive
amount and unusual length of hair, while others, like Mexican dogs,
are almost hairless. The form of the hair is also variable. The hair of
wild animals is almost always straight. Forms like that of the hair
of the poodle dog do not occur. A form analogous to the frizzly
Negro hair is not found in nature. In domesticated fowl similar
curvatures of the feathers may be observed.
The development of the long head hair of man is inconceivable in
a wild species. It would make the arboreal of the predecessor of
life
man impossible and would be equally a hindrance in life in the

open, unless man had learned to dress it. No mane of wild animals
reaches the same excessive length.
/ Another trait of domesticated animals is great variation in size.
The pony may be contrasted against the heavy dray

small Shetland
horse, the Pekinese dog against the great Dane. In man we find
similar variations in size: on the one hand the pygmy Bushman, on
the other hand the tall Scotchman or the Patagonian. It is true that
the great variants in domesticated animals have been raised by
careful breeding, but the fact remains that such variants do not
develop among wild animals. In man, we may assume, isolation

played a role similar to inbreeding of domesticated animals.
There are other characteristics of animals that are due to domes-
tication, some of which are paralleled by traits in man, and some
not. To the former group belongs the permanence of the female
breast, to the latter the enlargement of the outer ear seen for in-
stance in some races of dogs. Eugen Fischer 2 and B. Klatt 3 have
studied in detail the analogies between the anatomy of domesticated
animals and of man.
It is not possible to decide whether the great differences between
races are rather the late effect of domestication, which seems to
accelerate the process of formation of distinct varieties, or whether
the origin of the modern races must be looked for in remote an-
tiquity, previous to appreciable effects of domestication. Practically
allthe distinguishing features of races may be paralleled by modifi-
cations that occur in domestication. The elongation of the Negro
face forward and the reduction of the European face find their
parallels in breeds of dogs, horses, and pigs. Variations in the rela-

tive length of limbs as compared to length of the body, and con-
comitant variations in the form of shoulder girdle and pelvis are
common.
Paleontological evidence, as described in the preceding chapter,
does not yet give us a satisfactory clue by which we can determine
the age of the existing principal races, much less the way in which
they developed from a common root.
Internal secretions. Sir Arthur Keith bases his theory of racial
origins first of all upon the action of the ductless glands. It has
been found that harmonious growth depends upon the proper action
of anumber of glands. The pituitary gland, which is located at the
base of the brain, 4 when overdeveloped gives rise to enlarged nose,
chin, hands, and The thyroid gland, which is located in
feet. front
of the neck, controls growth. Its subnormal functioning causes
poorly developed nose and hair and a flat face, and in extreme
cases idiocy. The adrenal glands affect the color of the skin. The
thymus seems to control rapidity of development. Its effect upon
generation after generation is cumulative. The character of the
individual is strongly influenced by the activity of these glands.
Sir Arthur Keith assumes that racial differences may be due to dif-
ferences in their chemical behavior. Less energetic activity of the
thyroid gland may thus have influenced the somatic appearance of
whole populations like the Mongols, Bushmen, and Hottentots. Defi-
ciency of the adrenals, which control hairiness in addition to
RACE 111
mentation, may be responsible for the meager growth of body hair

of the Mongol and Negro as against its abundance in the European
and the Australian. If this assumption is correct, the outer appear-
ances of races might in part be influenced by the activity of the
glands; but this would not give us any clue to the origin of races,
since we should then be required to search for the origin of the
differentiation of behavior of the glands.
The actual changes due to environment that have been observed
may well be caused by slight modification in the chemical activity
of the body. This seems the more likely, since some of the changes
seem to become the stronger the longer the mother has been exposed
to a new environment. In recent years Sir Arthur Keith has em-
phasized again the influence of isolation upon the rise of local types.
He even sees in modern nationalism with its concomitant isolation
a process by which new types originate.
Races of man. On account of the actual condition of modern popu-
lations a genetig^classification of mankind presents peculiar diffi-
culties. While it is possible to describe taxonomically both the
fundamentally distinct varieties which may properly be called races

and local populations, we have no meansat present to account for
their genesis. Minor may be due to early isolation
local differences
and inbreeding, to intermingling of types in varying ratios, and to
selection. In his migrations man has reached almost every part of
the habitable world and has been exposed to the greatest variety of
external conditions. This also may have been an important cause
of racial differentiation. The more fundamental differences between
large groups, such as the Negroes and Chinese, must be looked for
in earlier differentiation.
To a certain extent geographical distribution may give a clue to
racial history. When we consider the land mass as a whole, remem-
bering the early connection between the Old World and America in
the region of Bering Sea, we recognize that a type with a moderate
degree of pigmentation, straight hair, broad face, fairly large nose,
rather small lips, and an eye form characterized by a heavy upper
eyelid covering the inner corner of the eye inhabits a large part of
Asia and America, while another type with dark pigmentation,
wavy hair, low nose, protruding face, thick lips, open eyes,
frizzly or
and long limbs inhabits Africa, Australia, and the chain of islands
stretching from New Guinea southeastward, and occurs sporadically
in southern Asia. It might be said that the one group lives all around
the Pacific Ocean, calling the whole of both Americas the east coast
and a large part of Asia, including central Asia and Siberia, the
west coast of the Pacific Ocean. The other group lives around the
Indian Ocean, considering Africa as the west coast and southern
Asia and Australia with the adjoining islands as the north and east
coasts. Thus, at least two groups may be distinguished which, both
geographically and morphologically, are fairly well defined.

Each of these groups contains many elements that seem to pos-
sess marked individuality, and their relations to the main groups
are not by any means clear. The Europeans, Australians, and African
pygmies offer the greatest difficulties.
In many respects the Australians seem to be a more generalized
type and might therefore be considered as an older form that has
developed in its own way. Since Australia has been separated from
Asia for a long geological period, so that man and the dog are the
only higher mammals existing there, it must be assumed that Aus-
tralian man did not reach there until after he had learned to navi-
gate the waters separating Asia from Australia. This accords with
the observation made by Huxley that many of the South Asiatic
types have Australoid characteristics. This refers for instance to the
Vedda of Ceylon and other South Indian tribes. The Negroid Papua
of New Guinea and many other isolated spots in southern Asia would
have to be assumed, according to their geographical position, as a
stilllater wave of migration.
The South African pygmies are lighter in color than the Negroes.
Their skin color resembles that of tanned leather. The forms of hair,
face, and nose are decidedly Negroid and they are most closely
affiliated with the Negro type.
The European type is set off from all the others by the greatest
degree of depigmentation. Nearest to him in this respect is the
East Asiatic type, which in a number of localities exhibits the
tendency to strong depigmentation. Some of the East Asiatic and
American tribes are very light, and brown, wavy hair is found in a
number of regions for instance, in British Columbia. The nose
tends to attain large size. In most cases it is rather low and heavy
with wide alae, but in many regions its elevation over the face is
very great for instance, among the Indians of the Mississippi
valley.While generally the hairiness of the body is very slight, the
Ainu, who are otherwise of the same general appearance, have an
abundance of body hair. Wide face and prominent cheek bones are
RACE 113
a fairly general characteristic of this type, although in some local-

"
ities they are quite narrow. The development of the so-called ob-
"
lique eye, such as may be observed among the Chinese, is often
much weakened. The blue lumbar spot which is probably ever pres-
ent in newborn infants of this race is sporadically observable among
the Europeans also. All in all, it may be said that the East Asiatic
type tends to produce here and there variations that approach Eu-
ropean types, while variations in the direction of Negroid types are
exceedingly rare. Increase in pigmentation, lower noses, and pro-
truding mouth parts are also found locally, but hardly to a greater
extent than they are found in varieties of the European type. I am
therefore inclined to associate the European type most closely with
the East Asiatic type.
Our picture of the principal races would thus be that of two
groups of doubtful affiliation inhabiting the shores of the Indian
Ocean, and of another large group inhabiting the shores of the
Pacific Ocean, including both Americas and a large part of Asia,
with the affiliated European type. It is obvious that this is an un-
duly generalized picture, because the numerous important local
varieties and their morphological characteristics have been disre-
garded.
Earlier classifications are based partly on morphological traits,
partly on geographical location. Thus Linng distinguished and
described the European, American, Asiatic, and African races;
Blumenbach the Caucasian (European), Mongolian, Ethiopian,
American, and Malayan.
These divisions are based on characteristics of color and hair, and
on descriptive features of the skull and face. In later classifications
the form of the nose, shape of the skull, form of hair, and color were
taken as the principal criteria by which races were distinguished.
According to the number of elements which were considered as im-
portant, three or four or a great many more races were distinguished.
Huxley establishes five races Australoid, Negroid, -Mongoloid,
xanthochroic, melanochroic. By a similar method Duckworth 5 estab-
lished seven principal races, based mainly on the length-breadth
index of the skull, the degree of prognathism, and the cranial capac-
ity. These are the Australian, African Negro, Andamanese, Eurasi-
atic, Polynesian, Greenlandish, and South African. Roland B.
Dixon 6 used a highly artificial classification, dividing the individuals
of each race, regardless of other characteristics, into fundamental
types according to threefold groupings: those with long, medium
round heads; with high, middle, low heads; with narrow, middle
and flat noses. Thus he obtained according to the possible com-
bination of the extreme forms eight fundamental types, such as
long- and high-headed, narrow-nosed; long- and flat-headed, narrow-
nosed; long- and high-headed, flat-nosed; long- and Iow-headed 3
flat-nosed; etc. These he considered as fundamental and derived the

middle forms from mixtures. There is no evidence that these mathe-
matically derived forms have any biological significance. A. C.
Haddon 7
uses as the basis of his classification hair, skin color, stature,
length of head (length-breadth index), and forms of face, nose, and
eyes. J. Deniker 8 established on similar principles six major groups
and twenty-nine races.
The latest attempt at a classification of mankind is that made by
E. von Eickstedt, 9 who distinguishes with Eugen Fischer the Euro-
pid, Negrid, and Mongolid races. He divides these as follows:
The types of Europe have been described in particular detail.

The divisions made by W. Z. Ripley 10 on the basis of previous work
are still much used. He describes the blue-eyed, tall, long-headed
Nordic; the darker, short-headed Alpine; and the short, long-
headed Mediterranean. Later investigators have tried to establish
finer divisions based largely on physiognomic traits.
It is but natural that a finer division of human types will give
varying results according to the features which are considered as of

prime importance in making a classification. A division of human
types that is of value for determining the genetic relations must
necessarily be based on significant hereditary traits not subject to
environmental modification. For this reason stature can be used
only in extreme cases, since we know that individuals growing up
under changed conditions may differ considerably in stature from
their parents. Thus, the average stature of European populations
has increased almost everywhere during the last century. Still
clearer is the result of comparisons between parents and their own
RACE 115
children, or between brothers and sisters growing up in different

surroundings. Thus, it has been shown that the sons of one genera-
tion of Harvard students excel the stature of their own parents by
3.4 centimeters. Similar observations have been made in regard to
the cephalic index, which shows considerable change in a changed
environment. Thus, the average cephalic index of immigrating East
European Jews is 83.0, that of their children born in America 81.4,
and that of their grandchildren 78.7. The width of face also is not
stable in varying environments. In Europe a gradual narrowing of
the face seems to occur. If, therefore, populations are classified as
tall, or of medium stature, or short; as long-, medium-, or round-

headed; as broad- or narrow-faced, arbitrary limits being set for the
groupings of these measures, we have a classification of taxonomic,
not of genetic, value. It is entirely inadmissible to assume such
classes inany sense as fundamental racial groups. The assumption
of a long-headed or round-headed race can only be made when it is
possible to demonstrate that these features are stable.
It must be understood that these traits are hereditary in family
lines. The genetic tendency of each individual is modified by en-
vironmental conditions. Unless the proof of stability can be given,

these classes are no more than descriptions of certain populations
without any implication as to the significance of the observed dif-
ferences. The results of such classification will depend entirely upon
the traits selected and upon the limits assumed for the arbitrary
classification. If, for instance, the limits of headform are set at 75
and less for long-headed, 75-80 as medium form, 80 and more as
round-headed, and if in another classification these limits are shifted,
the results will be different. The same is true when the varying
frequency of occurrence of each of these groups in each population
is made the basis of classification.
The differences between the more fundamental racial types cannot

be so interpreted that one of them would be higher than the other
in the sense that the differences between one type and the higher
apes would, be greater than the analogous differences observed in

others. On the contrary, every human type shows excessively hu-
man characteristics in certain directions. Thus the Eskimo have the
largest brains and a slight amount of body hair; but proportions of
limbs are not as excessively human as those of the Negroes, who
also excel in development of the lips. The European has a marked
narrowing of the face and elevation of the nose, most pronounced
among the Armenians.At the same time their body hair is much
more fully developed than that of the East Asiatics or Negroes. A
scale of races in regard to their similarity to animals cannot be
formed.
Theories of the origin of modern races. It has been shown before
how selection may bring about changes in the numerical frequency
of types represented in a population. Without the assumption of
additional causes cannot produce new types. Darwin sought these
it
in the cumulative effects of selection, which would establish new

variants of better adaptation to the environment that would sur-
vive and crowd out the older forms. This general theory has been
applied specifically to human races by assuming as essential cause
the climatic changes during the Pleistocene and the migrations that
were forced by them. Othenio Abel u points out the effect of the
gradual desiccation and increasing elevation of central Asia upon
the migration of fauna and flora westward into Europe and east-
ward into America. A great change occurred at the end of the Mio-
cene. Europe before that time consisted of a number of islands.
Now the continent was formed, and at the same time the gradual
rise and the increasing scantiness of vegetation in central Asia
brought about the first great migration of mammals westward and

eastward. The
characteristic fossil of this period is the three-toed
horse, Ilipparion. The process of desiccation and the general rise of
land continued into the glacial period. In central Asia woods had
disappeared, and the higher apes substituted for the life in trees
that of rock climbers like the modern baboon. In these forms Abel
sees the ancestor of man and believes that at this early time when
man entered Europe with one of the late migrations the racial
first
differentiation was already established. lie bases this opinion on the

observation that the chimpanzee and other apes show considerable
variations in color of skin.
J2
Ilalfdan Brynassumes three fundamental racial groups none of
which can be derived from any one of the others but all of which go
back to a human (or subhuman) ancestor of Tertiary time. The
earliest, he thinks, are a number of pygmy races, each developing
its own type after isolation. From these developed the lower races.
Finally the higher races developed in Asia from an ancient uniform
type before the rise of the Himalayas and the other chains of moun-
tainsand plateaus which brought about isolation and divergent
development in each area.
RACE 117
Another highly speculative system is that of T. G. Taylor, 13 who

assumes that the most primitive races must be found in the marginal
areas of the continuous land mass. Consequently he assumes the
Tasmanians, Bushmen, Eskimo, and the people of the southern
parts of South America as the earliest types which w ere driven back
r
by more and more highly developed races spreading eastward from

central Asia.
Other attempts to account for the origin of races have been made
on the basis of morphological characteristics. Gustav Fritsch 14 dis-
tinguished three fundamental races and derived from these meta-
15
morph or mixed races. Similar ideas were developed by C. II. Stratz
and H. Klaatsch, 16 who considered the Australians as representatives
of the earliest surviving stage of human development from which
the Negroid, Mongoloid, and European races developed by differ-
entiation. In 1910 he had changed his opinion and advocated a
polygenetic origin of the races of man. He tried to prove that gorilla,

Neanderthal man, and Negro, on the one hand; and orang, European,
Malay, Australian, and Mongol, on the other, go back to two sepa-
rate anthropoid branches. Still other Negro types are associated
with the chimpanzee. These views can hardly be maintained.
Racial physiology and psychology. The anatomical characteristics
of an adult individual may be described with an accuracy that
depends solely upon the refinement of measurement. They remain

almost the same for a number of years. This is true at least for the
skeleton, although the size of muscles, the amount of fat, of water
contained in the tissues, and consequently weight, may undergo
considerable fluctuations. Examples of dependence of form upon
function are, for instance, found in the hand. Those of the black-
smith, clerk, and violin virtuoso differ on account of the development
of the groups of muscles and their lesser or greater independence
in use. Still, under the same conditions and for a reasonable length
of time the forms and dimensions of the body are fairly stable.
Not so with bodily functions. These are much more subject to
fluctuations. Attempts to obtain basal values for any physiological
function, like heart beat, blood pressure, metabolism, require the
most painstaking observance of physiological conditions, and even
when all precautions are taken they fluctuate more or less. There is
no one value for one individual, but each individual has his own
value which is variable and changes from moment to moment ac-
cording to the conditions of life. For this reason the mode of life
and the environmental conditions are infinitely more strongly re-
flected in physiological function than in anatomical form. An indi-
vidual who leads an inactive
life will change his physiological
behavior when he is
compelled to assume a life of continued strenu-
ous exertion. It follows that people of the same descent who live in
different environments and pursue types of occupation that are
diverse in their influence upon the body will also differ in their
physiological functions. Thus it happens that genetic differences

are easily overlaid by environmental influences.
For this reason the results of racial studies of physiological func-
tions are often contradictory, and the contrasts between occupa-
tional groups in the same population are often much greater than
the contrasts between racial groups. It also happens that groups of
distinct genetic descent but living under the same environmental
conditions function alike. In a few cases the influence of environ-
ment may increase the differences in type for instance, in the
effect of sunburn, which emphasizes the difference in pigmentation
between very light and more strongly pigmented types, the former
becoming reddish, the latter turning dark. Similar differences occur
in reaction to epidemics against which one group has acquired
partial immunity while another one has never been exposed.

The influence of environment upon physiological function may be
observed in the reaction of the body to high altitude. The rarefied
airand the lesser amount of oxygen supply secured by each breath
require a readjustment on account of the demands upon the respir-
atory system. The exhausting influence of hot and humid weather
in summer as against the bracing clear winter air is well known.
The same individuals exposed to different climatic environment ex-
hibit material changes in their physiological behavior.
Social conditions have a similar effect. The physiological func-
tions of an undernourished, overworked individual differ from those
of a well-nourished person whose bodily strength is not overtaxed.
The Bushman and the South Sea Islander represent such a contrast,
and it is not possible to determine how far the differences between
their physiological reactions may be due to their descent, how far
to environmental causes. Even their bodily forms must be in part
an expression of the influence of these conditions upon their bodies
during the period of growth.
The variability <ef mental reactions of the individual is also strongly
affected by environmental causes. Even simple psychophysical phe-
RACE 119
nomena depend upon the closeness of attention paid to the stim-

uli. Reaction time, acuteness of hearing and sight, and other sense
impressions are subject to modifications. Not even the maximum or
minimum values obtained with the greatest possible precautions
intended to secure uniform conditions under which the tests are
made remain the same atall times, and their variability is not the
same While some react with a fair degree of con-

in all individuals.
stancy, others are quite variable. More complex mental reactions

are even less constant. Everyday observation proves the variability
of emotional tone. The influence of fatigue and rest upon mental
reactions is well known and has been the subject of many observa-
tions, particularly on school children. On account of the variability
of mental traits under varying conditions, it is difficult to determine
how far they are genetically or environmentally determined. There
is no doubt that for each individual there exists a certain biological,
genetically determined basis of mental behavior. If we had no other

evidence, the contrasts between the mental behavior of the ex-
tremes, between the idiot and the genius, would be sufficient proof;
but we have also every reason to believe that the differences be-
tween mentally stable and unstable, between artist and logical
thinker,if not organically determined, are at least so influenced.
The actual problem lies in the differentiation between the two

sources of mental behavior, the organic and the environmental.
Two methods are open for this inquiry. On the one hand the same
individual, or individuals organically identical, may be investigated
under different conditions; or individuals of distinct genetic descent
may be studied under the same environment. Observations on the
mental behavior of the same individual are not easily made, because
time must elapse before mental habits change. For this reason the
behavior of identical twins that is, of twins originated from a
single ovum has received particular attention. Cases in which
identical twins are brought up under different conditions since the
time of birth are very rare, and since we do not know the length of
the period required for the establishment of habits, a considerable
amount of doubt is involved in the results of the few available
cases. Onthe whole, identical twins seem to show a higher degree of
17
similarity of behavior than dizygotic twins. The difficulties of inter-
pretation of these observations have been set forth by Lancelot
18
Hogben.
Environmental determination of mental behavior is clearer in the
study of larger groups than in the study of individuals, because
sharper contrasts in social and cultural background are found in
groups of similar descent than among individuals of the same group.
The cultural changes among North American Indians due to the
intrusion of modern have brought about fundamental
civilization
changes in behavior even among Indians of pure descent.
Quantitative studies based on various kinds of tests also show

that a population of the same descent changes its reactions accord-
19
ing to changes in its environment. Thus Otto Klineberg has shown
that Negro children transferred from rural districts to cities improve
in the formal intelligence tests given to them in such a manner that
those who have lived in the city longest approach other city children
in their performance, while those newly arrived are decidedly infe-
rior. Similar observations have been made in regard to Italian im-
migrants in North America.

If a decided difference existed between types like those inhabiting
Europe and living under the same social conditions it ought to show
when a homogeneous group is classified according to anthro-
socially
pological form. No such proof is available. On the contrary, Karl
Pearson's 20 investigation of Europeans in regard to a possible cor-
relation between bodily form and mental characteristics has given
negative results.
As in the state of bodily form we recognized the existence of many
distinct genetic lines in each population and the occurrence of sim-
ilar lines in related we find the same degree of
populations, so
and mental functioning and the same
variability in physiological
kind of overlapping, but added to these dependence upon environ-
mental conditions, both geographical and social, that obscures the
biological determinants of behavior.
If in closely related populations it is impossible to speak of racial
heredity, this is still more the case in regard to physiological and
mental functions.
No proof has been given that the distribution of genetic elements,
thatmay determine personality is identical in different races. It is
probable that limited differences of this kind exist, provided the
differences between races are sufficiently fundamental. The differ-
ences which occur within each race are, however, equally important.
The study of cultural forms in relation to the distribution of bodily
types makes it more than probable that the racial differences, par-
ticularly in closely related forms, are irrelevant when compared with

RACE 121
the powerful influence of the cultural environment in which the

group lives. The behavior of the whole group conforms to its cul-
tural standards to which each individual reacts in his own way.
The frequently made assumption that bodily build and mental
behavior are closely related is based on the observation of the
characteristic distribution of types and cultures, both of which
occur in locally circumscribed areas, so that each region is charac-
terized by a somewhat unique type and culture. In modern society
similar conditions prevail among social classes. This locally deter-
mined correlation is taken without further proof as evidence of a
causal relation although the two phenomena are subject to entirely
distinct influences, the one to purely biological, the other perhaps
to a slight extent to biological, but much more to cultural conditions.
The inference that the correlation between bodily form and culture
is due to the dependence of the latter upon the former would require
the proof that, without regard to cultural environment and to

location, the same type must always produce the same mental
characteristics.
Eugenics. Experience gained in raising breeds of domesticated

animals has shown that it is possible to produce stable varieties that
certain requirements, like the production of an ample milk
fulfill
supply in cows or speed in horses. Theoretically it would be possible

to breed also societies of men of definite qualities. While this ideal
is held only by a few extremists, the thought that the quality of a
population can be improved by encouraging the mating and fertility

of healthy individuals and the gradual elimination of the unfit holds
wide sway. The efficacy of such means is limited. The theory pre-
supposes that certain stigmata are always hereditary and spring up
independently either not at all or with extreme rarity. It lies in the
nature of the case that families in which a hereditary disease exists
can be found; while the negative evidence, that among the relatives
of a person so affected no others affected are discovered, is not con-
vincing. The assumption that such diseases do not spring up inde-

pendently would lead to the absurd assumption that there must
have existed one pathological and one normal race which inter-
mingled, the ratio of the two depending upon the frequency of occur-
rence of the disease. A considerable number of hereditary diseases
are assumed to be recessive according to the simplest Mendelian
rules. If these did not originate spontaneously over and over again,
we should have to assume such a large number of intermarrying
pathological types that no healthy type could have existed among
our progenitors.
It can also be shown by a simple statistical consideration that
the effect of excluding the hereditarily affected individuals from
propagation would reduce their relative number so slowly that
many generations would pass before any effect could be felt. If
conditions of life are of a low standard we may safely assume that
the number of those eliminated would be largely by those
filled
spontaneously developing new deficiencies. The problem involved

is the determination of the causes that lead to the spontaneous
development of hereditary diseases. Are these dependent upon more
or less favorable social conditions, or what other factors may be at
work in forming pathological mutations? True eugenic measures
relating to hereditary diseases can be taken only when these ques-
tions have been answered.
The question is quite different in those cases in which studies of
heredity prove beyond cavil that a certain percentage of the off-
spring of a couple must be imbeciles or affected by incurable diseases
which make them a burden to themselves, to their families, and to
the community. What is to be done in those cases is a question of
social ethics, not of anthropological inquiry. Anthropology can de-
termine the effect of their presence upon the constitution and cer-
tain aspects of the functioning of society. It can be shown that
individual suffering may be eliminated; but the general distribution
of pathological forms in the population will not be greatly modified.
The prevailing cultural ideals will decide what is to be done.
FOOTNOTES
1. More exact data illustrating such characteristics in a population will be
found in Boas, F., "On the Variety of Lines of Descent Represented in a
Population," American Anthropologist, vol. 18 (1916), pp. 1-9, and "Die
von Volksgruppen," Anthropologiacher Anzetger, vol. 7 (1931),
Variabilitiit
pp. 204-208.
2. Fischer, E., Rasse und Rassenentstehung beim Menschen (Berlin, 1927),
pp. 57 ff.
3. Klatt, B., "Mendelismus, Domestikation und Kraniologie," Archiv fiir
Anthropologie, N.F., vol. 18 (1921), pp. 225-250.

4. Keith, Sir Arthur, Ethnos (London, 1931), p. 58; and "The Evolution of
Human Races," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great
Britain and Ireland, vol. 58 (1928), pp. 310 ff.
5. Duckworth, W. L. H., Morphology and Anthropology (Cambridge, 1904),
pp. 457 ff.
RACE 123
6. Dixon, R. B., The Racial History of Man (1923).

7. Haddon, A. C., The Races of Man (1925).
8. Deniker, J., The Races of Man (1900), pp. 285-286.
9. von Eickstedt, E., Rassenkunde und Rassengeschichte der MenschheU (Stutt-
gart, 1934).
10. Ripley, W. Z., The Races of Europe (1899).
11. Abel, Othenio, Die Stellung des Menschen im Rahmen der Wirbeltiere (Jena,
1931), pp. 371 ff.
12. Bryn, Halfdan, "Die Entwicklung der Menschenrassen," Anthropos, vol. 20
(1925), pp. 1053 ff.; vol. 21 (1926), pp. 435 ff.
13. Taylor, T. G., Environment and Race (London, 1927).
14. Fritsch, Gustav, "Geographic und Anthropologie als Bundesgenossen,"
Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft fur Erdknnde zu Berlin, vol. 8 (1881),
pp. 234 ff.
15. Mcvschen (Stuttgart, 1904), and "Das
Stratz, C. H., Naturgcschichte des
Problem der Rasseneinteihmg der Menschheit," Archiv ftir Anthropologie.
vol. 29 (1903-04), pp. 189 ff.
16. Klaatsch, H., Weltall und Menschheit, vol. 2 (Berlin-Leipzig, 1902-03).
17. Newman, H. H., Freeman, F. N., and Holzinger, K. J., Twins, a Study of
Heredity and Environment (1937).

18. Hogben, L., Nature and Nurture (1933).
19. Klineberg, O., Race Differences (1934), pp. 186 ff.
20. Pearson, K., "On the Relationship of Intelligence to Size and Shape of
Head, and to Other Physical and Mental Characters," Biometrika, vol.
5 (1906), pp. 105-146.
GENERAL REFERENCES
Baur, E., Fischer, E., and Lenz, F., Menschliehe Erblehre (Munich, 1936); English
translation, Human Heredity (1931).
Boas, F., The Mind of Primitive Man (1938).
Deniker, The Races of Man (1900).
J.,
von Eickstedt, E., Rassenkunde (Stuttgart, 1933).
Gates, R. R., Heredity in Man (London, 1929).
Hankins, F. H., The Racial Basis of Civilization (1926).
Hrdlicka, A., Anthropometry (1920).
Jennings, H. S., The Biological Basis of Human Nature (1930).
Martin, R., Lehrbuch der Anthropologie (Jena, 1928).
Willey, A. W., Convergence in Evolution (Ixmdon, 1911).
CHAPTER IV
LANGUAGE
FRANZ BOAS
General characteristics of language. Language, in the widest sense

of the term, embraces the means by which the sensory, emotional,
and volitional experiences of an individual are expressed and con-
veyed to others. Body movements, touch, and sound, conveying
and auditory impressions, may be used for this pur-
visual, tactile,
pose.
Communication between animals. Animals 1 convey their emotions
by means of cries, touch, and visible movements, and in so far as
these are related to experiences exciting fear, anger, or pleasure they
are significant. The cry of the leader of a herd serves as a warning
of approaching danger. The display of the plumage of the male
bird affects the female. The touch of the antennae of an ant conveys
a message upon which its comrade reacts. Some animals have a
considerable number of distinct cries with which they react to
different emotional states or by which they call their fellows. The
grimaces of the monkey indicate the nature of its mental excitement.
In so far as a specific bodily reaction is related to similar sense
experiences, it will excite in other animals of the same group, but
not necessarily of the same species, the memory of similar situations,
of an emotional rather than of a specific descriptive character. The
range of experiences is very wide. The animal cry may convey the
memory of danger and flight, of food and satiation of hunger, but
nothing more definite. No case has been observed in which an
animal represents a specific experience by visual, tactile, or audi-
tory signs.
Certain movements of the body or changes in posture of animals
are also indicative of situations that may be understood by other
individuals. The direction of the gaze toward an object that excites
interest, the rigid position of the body in close attention, the move-
ments when a scent is taken, the erection of the hair in excitement,
the wagging of the tail of dogs when in a pleasant mood, are cer-
124
LANGUAGE 125
tainly understood by other individuals who react to similar stimuli

in the same manner. Movements of one individual solicit definite
reactions in others. Here belong particularly the behavior of the
male that intends to attract the attention of the female, such as
the exhibition of the feathers in birds, and those movements that
may be well described as dance; also the movements of animals,
particularly of young ones, who invite others to play.
Man uses movements and sound in the same manner, but in
addition to vague expressions there are others by means of which
specific experiences are indicated. Both animal and man turn their
heads in the direction of an object exciting their attention, but in
addition to this, man has the free use of his hands, which point and
follow the movement of the object. Emotional attitudes are accom-
panied by inncrvations corresponding to actions. When the stimulus
is strong enough these follow, but when weak they lead only to
expressive movements, such as a call, shrinking away from some

object, or a hostile repulsion.
With the clearer differentiation of situations, these movements
have multiplied and led to a gesture language 2 which in its primitive
form presumably consisted solely of intensified innervations but
which has developed everywhere in such a manner that it accom-
panies articulate speech. We cannot tell whether gesture language
preceded speech or developed with it. In its simpler forms it con-
sists of movements which correspond to the weak innervation
accompanying thought and speech. For the development of both

gesture language and speech it was necessary that man should have
acquired the ability to express specific experiences. To make this
possible the number of significant symbols must have increased
enormously. The situations that present themselves in the course of
life are so varied that differentiation never proceeded to such a
degree that each experience was expressed by means of a single
acoustic or visual symbol, except in cases in which the same situa-
tion, distinct from all others, presented itself with great frequency.
In fact such differentiation would be impossible on account of the
uniqueness of every experience. In gestures as well as in spoken
language large numbers of situations are expressed by the same
formal expression. In other words, a grouping together of similar
experiences persisted, and these have found their representation in
symbols. Thus dog, water, running, sleeping, expressed either by
gestures or by sound, include each large numbers of varied experi-
ences, all understood under a single vague symbol. Other aspects of
the same experiences may be expressed in similar ways. By means
of the combination of these symbols, the whole situation is described
from various angles and is thus communicated.
It be presumed that the possibility of calling attention to
may
specific situations acted as a stimulus to further developments of
communication by both gestures and sound. In many cases speed of
communication must have been desired. Gesture presents the ad-
vantage that by pictorial movements a whole situation may be

described at once, and it is still used when spoken language is not
understood, as in the intercourse between individuals speaking
different languages, or in the natural sign language of deaf mutes.
It has the disadvantage that it must be seen and is therefore useless
in darkness and inmany other situations. Articulate sound has its
precedents in the sounds uttered by animals. Its symbolic signifi-
cance is not so apparent as that of imitative gesture, but must have
developed from the significant signal. Articulate sound has proved
so much more flexible than gesture that the latter is used only
exceptionally as a means of communication, but occurs commonly
accompanying speech.
Gestures and cries like those of animals still survive. They are
immediate reactions to situations replete with emotion, like cries
of pain, pleasure, anger, or fear. These lack the specific connotation
of speech, even if the symbols themselves are derived from specific
words. Here belong interjections like ouch! on the one hand, and
heavens! on the other.
Categories of classification. The number of words that is, of
groups of sound symbols used in any one language for various
aspects of experiences cannot be unlimited. Recognition of a new
situation implies that part of it is experienced as sufficiently similar
to a previous sense impression, so that it merges with it. Many of
the different forms in which water appears are combined in the
same category and expressed by the same word. If a specific experi-
ence is to be communicated these wide categories must be specified
and so limited that they apply to the particular situation. This is
done by supplementing them by other categories. When I say,
"The dog is barking," I do not add a new idea to the concept dog,
but I express my single sense perception by denoting distinct aspects
of my experience by means of a number of words sufficiently ex-
haustive to convey to the hearer its contents.
LANGUAGE 127
In other words, in language the experience to be communicated

from a number of distinct aspects, each expressed by
is classified
certain groups of phonetic units or words. This implies that these

units must be coordinated according to some system in order to
express the way in which they are related. "The man killed the
bull" and "The bull killed the man" exemplify the importance of
the way in which the elements are put into relation.
These considerations show that every language must have a vo-
cabulary, determined by the universe of experience, and the cate-
gories applied in its classification; and a grammar by means of
which these elements are brought into relation. Language without
both vocabulary and grammar is impossible. What is true of articu-
late language is equally true of gesture language. The single experi-
ence must be viewed from various points of view, and gestures
expressing each aspect must be coordinated. Actually every spoken
language has its vocabulary and its grammar, and every gesture
language its signs and a rudimentary grammar in so far as the order
of signs is significant. "The large dog bit me" would be expressed
by signs as "Dog large bit me," or according to emphasis, "Me dog

large bit."
Phonetics. Articulate languageis produced by action of the lungs,
larynx, tongue, palate, lips, and the posterior nares. By these,

sounds of short duration are produced, some retaining a constant
character during their production, others changing in character.
Each clearly set off against its neighbor. Thus it becomes possible
is
to recognize each sound as a unit. Stable sounds are the vowels

of many languages, or consonants like Unstable sounds are
t or s.
gliding,diphthongized vowels and consonants like is or those with a

gliding vocalic resonance. On account of the movability of the
vocal cords and the organs of the oral cavity, particularly of the
tongue, the number of sounds that can be produced is unlimited,
although according to their acoustic qualities they may be com-
bined in readily recognized groups, such as our vowels, and sounds
similar to t, k, s, etc. Voluntary movements of the organs of articu-
lation can be produced much more easily than those of any other
part of the body. Complex combinations of positions producing
various sounds can be produced with great rapidity. In slow speech
a single sound requires hardly more than 0.07 of a second. Virtuosos
may attain similar rapidity of movement by the successive use of
fingers. The use of such rapidity of movement for conveying ideas
is made possible by the sensitiveness of the ear, which can discrimi-
nate between sense impressions of shortest duration. Visual or tactile
impressions could not be conveyed with equal rapidity because the
momentary impressions would become blurred. Only with the de-
velopment of reading has a means of communication been found that
exceeds in rapidity the spoken word.
Selection of material wed for expression. Articulate sounds, w hile r
physiologically unlimited in number, can be recognized only when

the number of those habitually produced in speech is limited. Single
sounds or assemblies of sounds seldom repeated would not impress
themselves upon the memory. Furthermore, the rapidity of utter-
ance is tied up with the automatic repetition of the same move-
ments. Thus it becomes intelligible that each language employs a
limited number of sounds, forming a system of phonemes. An un-
limited number would make the language unpronounceable and
3
unintelligible.
The same may be An infinite number of words, one
said of words.
for each sense experience,would make language impossible, because
the same experience is never repeated in an identical way. It has
been pointed out that classification is unavoidable. The same dog in
different positions or activities, or every individual dog as it appears
at different times, is not designated, each by a specific word; rather,
allkinds of dogs in all conditions and activities may be classed under
one term.
While a limitation of sounds and of words is a necessity for the
formation of speech, there is no reason to suppose that the principles
of selection of sounds and of classification of experience will be the
same in all languages. As a matter of fact we find the most diverse
principles used. Some languages use musical pitch as a means of
discrimination. Length of vowels and consonants may differentiate
the significance of sound complexes, or they may be irrelevant.
Some languages do not use the lips for the production of sounds
(as we do in our p, 6, m) others, like English, avoid the
; use of the
soft palate. Sounds may be produced by the air streaming out from
the lungs, or by air compressed in the mouth, or by air sucked into
the mouth and rushing in through the opening lips or over an open-
ing between tongue and roof of mouth.
Equally varied are the classifications under which sense experi-
ence is grouped. It has been pointed out that the cries of animals
do not signify a specific situation. It might therefore be supposed
LANGUAGE 129
that in the beginnings of human speech an ever-increasing restriction

of the significance of various articulate utterances occurred until
finally each group of articulations attained a specific meaning. If

this was the case, we might expect to find undifferentiated expres-
sions in primitive languages. This is true to a certain extent, for in
languages in which the etymological processes are still transparent,
many terms are formed by combining several elements of general
significance which limit one another. Such generalized elements may
be considered as early forms of linguistic expression. Still, it would
be far from justifiable to claim that these languages represent an
early state of human speech. Their present form is a result of a long
historical growth no less than is the present form of our own lan-
guage.
Afew examples of generalized terms may be given. The Sioux
(Dakota) Indian has no special terms for to break, to tear, to cut up,
to bite to pieces, but he derives all these from a general term meaning
"to be severed." 4 The Ilaida Indian uses a few verb stems of very
general significance which are specialized by addition of other ele-
ments. The categories by means of which specialization is accom-
plished differ considerably. The Sioux uses elements expressing
instrumentality. lie says for our to break, "to sever by pressure";
for to tear, "to sever by pulling"; for to cut up, "to sever by cutting."
In all of these the very general. The Ilaida uses
term "to sever" is
in addition to instrumentality elements limiting the form of the

object acted upon. Instead of saying "lie tears it," meaning a string,
he has to say "By pulling a stringy object he severs it," thus limit-
ing the general term "to tear" in two ways. It is important to note
that these limiting terms are obligatory. 5
The meaning of nouns which arc not derived from verbs is likely
to be much more specific than that of verbs, although stems occur
which might almost be called empty of all specific significance.
These attain their meaning only by the addition of specializing
elements. It is as though we were to qualify the term "thing" by
new elements: "a thing that is a so and so." Proper names and
names of important objects may well have been specific in very early
times.
Wehave reason to believe that these generalized concepts are not
late developments from earlier, more specific meanings a process
of common occurrence in the history of language but that we are
dealing here w ith a fundamental characteristic of early language.
r
Generalized terms are not by any means the rule. On the con-
trary, large numbers of ancient elements arefound that have very
specific meanings. This is true of objects that are of cultural impor-
tance in many ways and for many purposes. In the life of the Eskimo
snow means something entirely different as falling snow, soft snow
on the ground, drifting snow or snowdrift. 6 Fresh water ice, salt
water ice, an iceberg, play quite different roles in their life and all
these are designated by distinctive terms. As the horse-breeder has
many terms for the horse, according to age, sex, coat color, and
gait, so has the Chukchee a wide array of designations for the rein-
deer. 7 In many cases in which the specific functions of the object in
the life of the people are quite distinct, a general term is missing.
In words expressing states or actions nice distinctions are often
made in regard to form or consistency of the objects referred to.
To throw may be expressed differently according to the form of the
object thrown, as long, round, or flat, solid or fluid. We
differentiate
in this manner the verbs expressing existence at a place: a tree
stands, a river runs, a log lies. In Dakota the word corresponding
to to break is differentiated according to the hardness, softness,
presence of grain, and other qualities of the material broken.

Thus it appears that, while undifferentiated expressions exist,
which may be on the line of development from animal cries, the
languages of our period contain also elements of highly specific
character the scope of which is determined by the traditional prin-
ciples of classification and by the pressure of culture.
The fundamentally different principles of classification employed
by different languages may be illustrated by two examples, the
8 9
numerals and terms of relationship.
According to our language, units are arranged in groups of ten.

We may call ten the higher unit of first order. Hundred would be
the higher unit of second order. We are not quite consistent in our
nomenclature, for the third higher unit ought to be one hundred
times one hundred, our ten thousand. Many languages group by
fives that is, by the number of fingers and toes on each hand
and foot and call twenty "one man." Eighteen would therefore
be "three on the other foot/' and seventy-two would be "three
men (3 X 20) and two on the one foot (12)." The difficulty of trans-
lation appears still more clearly in high numbers. The number 5729
is for us five higher units of third order (5000) plus seven higher
units of second order (700) plus two higher units of first order (20)
LANGUAGE 131
plus nine. In the five-twenty (quinary-vigesimal) system it would

be 14 X 400 (four-on-the-one-foot higher units of second order)
plus 6 X 20 (one-on-the-other-hand higher units of first order) plus
9 (four-on-the-other-hand), or [(2 X 5 + 4) X 400] + [(5 + 1) X
20] + (5 + 4), or 14 X 400 = 5600, 6 X 20 = 120, 5 4 = 9;
+
total 5729. The grouping of units is quite different from our own,
and the expression of any higher number in one system requires a
regrouping according to new principles that can be made only by
arithmetical analysis.
Perhaps still more striking are the systems based on other higher
units for instance, four, so that the count would be: one, two,
three, higher unit of first order, which we render by the symbol 10.
The higher unit of second order, which we render by the symbol
100, would be four times four, our sixteen. If we were to write the
numerals of such a language according to our system they would
run 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20, 21, 22, 23, 30, 31, 32, 33, 100 and so
on; and our 3X3 = 9 would be 3 X 3 = 21. Our arithmetic is
based on a decadic system, theirs on a quaternary system.
Analogous observations may be made in regard to terms of rela-
tionship. We classify our nearest relatives according to generation,
sex, and line of descent (as direct or collateral). Consequently we
have the terms father, mother, uncle, aunt; brother, sister, cousin; son,
daughter, nephew, niece. The term cousin does not quite follow the
general rule, since in it sex is disregarded. The principles used in
other languages may be quite different. The paternal and maternal
line may be distinguished, and relative age in the same generation
may be expressed. When these are added to our system we have

four terms for uncle and aunt. Two of these determine paternal or
maternal line (like Latin patruus and avunculus); and two express
whether uncle or aunt is older or younger than father or mother.
Our reciprocal terms brother and sister for siblings (that is, children
of the same parents) of equal sex will be subdivided into double
terms, elder and younger brother or sister. Conversely, when no dis-
tinction is made between direct and collateral lines of descent the
terms for father and father's brother, mother and mother's sister,
brother or sister and cousin, son or daughter and nephew or niece,
will coincide. An attempt to find the correct term for each relative
according to strange systems brings out clearly the fundamental

differences of classification and the difficulties encountered in trans-
lating one into the other.

Sound symbolism. A special class of words are those expressing a
sense experience by imitation of the sounds associated with it.
Names of birds like cuckoo or chickadee in English imitate the calls
10
of the birds. It natural that the sound picture should not be
is
accurate. It depends to a great extent upon the sounds employed

by the language as well as upon other sound associations. Thus the
r
Navajo imitate the cry of the whippoorwill by mncii, iciu u\ wfiwu

wiu'w; that of the chickadee by chi'shi chishi bebe. The Chinook
Indians render the cry of the blue jay by k'esk'es, the Tsimshian by
gus gm. In other cases the sound picture is immediately intelligible
to us, as hehc, "to laugh/' hoho, "to cough," liumm, "to smell" of
Chinook, an American Indian language spoken at the mouth of the
Columbia River. In this language as well as in many Bantu dialects
the formation of new words by sound imitation is a very live
process.
The relation between sound and concept is sometimes of a more
remote nature. Most of us will feel that a high pitch and exaggerate
length, perhaps also the vowel i (English ee), indicate smallness,
while low pitch and length and the vowels a, o, u (English oo) indi-
cate large size. It is not by any means certain that the same im-
pressions are conveyed in all languages, but similar phenomena are
not rare. Large or small size, may be expressed by
or intensity,
variations of sound. Thus Nez Perce, an Indian language spoken in
Idaho, changes n to I to indicate smallness; Dakota has many words
in which s changes to sh, or z to ./, indicating greater intensity.
In
Chukchee, variations in meaning arc brought about by a change
from / to ch. Undoubtedly the particular kind of synesthesia be-
tween sound, sight, and touch has played its role in the growth of
11
language.
Grammar. It has been pointed out that grammar determines the
relationship between the various words expressing different aspects
of an experience; but grammar performs another important func-
tion. It determines those aspects of each experience that mmt be
expressed. When we say, "The man killed the bull," we understand

that a definite single man in the past killed a definite single bull.
We cannot express this experience in such a way that we remain in
doubt whether a definite or indefinite person or bull, one or more
persons or bulls, the present or past time, are meant. We have to
choose between these aspects, and one or the other must be chosen.
These obligatory aspects are expressed by means of grammatical
LANGUAGE 133
devices. The
aspects chosen in different groups of languages vary
fundamentally. To give an example: while for us definiteness, num-
ber, and time are obligatory aspects, we find in another language
location near the speaker or somewhere else, source of information
whether seen, heard, or inferred as obligatory aspects. Instead of
saying "The man have to say, "This man
killed the bull/' I should
(or men) kill (indefinite

tense) as seen by me that bull (or bulls)/'
In some languages the aspects that must be expressed are very
numerous, in others very few. When I say in English, "The sheep
ate grass," the otherwise obligatory aspect of number is obscured,
although the situation or the context may make clear whether one
or more sheep are meant. This shows that paucity of obligatory
aspects does not by any means imply obscurity of speech. When
necessary, clarity can be obtained by adding explanatory words.
Thus the vague "The sheep ate grass" can easily be specified by
saying "My herd of sheep ate the grass on my neighbor's meadow."
While these obligatory categories vary in different languages, the
relational functions of grammar have certain principles in common
all over the world. Here belong, for instance, the relation between
subject and predicate, noun and attribute, verb and adverb, and the
relation of the experience to the speaker (the self) and to others
that is, the relations expressed by the pronouns 7, you, and he. The
methods by means of which these and other relations are expressed
vary very much, but they arc necessary elements of every grammar.
Grammatical processes. While the vocabulary consists of many
independent units, grammar employs a small number of devices
for handling these units: by varying their position, combining them,
adding elements that have no independent existence, or by modify-
ing their structure. In the phrase, "The men killed the rattlesnake,"
the functions of men and rattlesnake as subject and object are indi-
cated by position; the addition of'-ed to kill expresses past time;
the change o*' man to men indicates plurality; and the composition
of rattle and snake specifies the kind of snake referred to.
Afew languages employ only position to indicate grammatical
relations. Others make an extended use of composition, in which
process the component elements may undergo considerable modifi-

cations; or they use subordinate elements (affixes) at the end (suffixes)
or at the beginning (prefixes) or even in the middle (infixes) of words.
The inner changes are varied. We have not only vocalic changes
like the one mentioned before, or as in see and saw, write and wrote.
but also consonantic changes, as teeth and to teethe. In other lan-
guages many kinds of changes occur: changes in pitch, extensions
arid contractions, duplication or reduplication that is, partial
duplication which extends over longer or shorter parts of the word
and affects beginning, middle, or end of the word.
Owing to the close contact between the elements of a phrase that
expresses the various aspects of an experience, purely mechanical
modifications of the single elements may occur, such as in English
the change from in-possible to impossible. In many languages such
changes are much more important. They may be contact phenomena,
like the one just referred to, or extend their influence forward or
backward over the word. To group belongs the vocalic harmony
this
of languages like Ural-Altaic,Chukchee, and Nez Perce, which re-
quire a series of related vowels in the whole word or, at least, in
part of the word.

History of languages. Languages are not stable. The sounds, mean-
ings, and grammatical forms arc changing. In times of cultural
upheaval, particularly when due to intimate contact between peoples
of different speech, linguistic changes may be very rapid. In times
of cultural stability the changes may be slow. The claim frequently
made that unwritten languages change rapidly cannot be main-
tained. The isolated Eskimo dialects of Greenland and of the Mac-
kenzie River, notwithstanding their long separation, do riot differ
much. The Nahua of Mexico of the sixteenth century has under-
gone almost solely those changes that are due to changes in cultural
life while the sounds have remained stable. Most of the Bantu
dialects, notwithstanding their wide dispersion, have not undergone
very fundamental changes. On the other hand, languages like the

Indo-European, or in America the Siouan or Salishan languages,
must have changed at times with great rapidity.
The change of sounds is to a great extent due to mechanical
processes. Some of these, dependent upon the mutual influences of
sounds and characteristic of language as spoken at a given time,
have been mentioned before. Besides these there are historical
changes. In the course of decades and centuries sounds are modified
in varied ways. The modern dropping of the r in English dialects
in words like hard or bird, and the local Spanish change from terminal
s to h, are examples.
Some of these changes occur in many languages independently,
such as the change from k to s or ch (pronounced as in English)
LANGUAGE 135
which occurs particularly before the vowels e and (continental ?'
pronunciation) in Indo-European, in the African Bantu and in the

American Dakota, Salish, and Nootka. By contrast to this move-
ment forward or palatalization of k, a movement backward or
gutteralization of vowels anticipating later gutteral consonants may
be observed in Eskimo (according to Thalbitzer). 12
Vowels as well as consonants undergo such changes. 13 It may be
observed that words and grammatical forms tend to be worn down
and that unaccented syllables are liable to suffer rapid decay. The
soundshifts that develop in course of time are often so far-reaching
that only an intimate knowledge makes it possible to recognize the
ancient forms from which words in related languages have sprung.
Meanings are even more unstable than sounds. Every change in
details of culture gives to old words a new significance, and in closely
related languages the course of development may be quite distinct.
English knight and German Knecht (entailed servant), English
knave and German Knabe (boy), may serve as examples. In similar
manner the meanings of words change in the historical development
of every language by extension or restriction of meaning, by analogy
and metaphor.
Grammatical forms are no more stable than sounds and meanings
of words. The forms suffer phonetic decay; they are shifted by
analogy to word classes to which they do not belong by origin; old

forms are lost or new ones may sometimes be added.
Linguistic families. This gradual differentiation of speech enables
us to trace the early affiliations of modern languages. If the actual
historical development of the Romance languages were unknown, it
would be at once apparent that all must have sprung from the
same root. Vocabulary and grammatical forms are so much alike
that the common origin of all the languages of this group could not
be doubted. More thorough comparison and a knowledge of the
gradual shifting of sounds, meanings, and grammatical forms have

proved in an analogous way that most of the languages of Europe
and some of those of western and southern Asia are related and
must have had an early historical connection. While it is impossible
to reconstruct the ancestral language from which they have sprung,
many of the original word forms can be reconstructed with a high

degree of probability. For this reason the study of languages is a
most important means of reconstructing the early history of man-
kind so far as it is reflected in language. Obviously the conditions
under which bodily types on the one hand and languages on the
other change are quite distinct. For this reason we may not expect
to discover a history of races by a study of the history of languages.
In many cases the study of languages gives us information in
regard to early events in the history of man, much more precise
than the study of bodily form; for it is difficult to give exact criteria
of bodily form applicable to all individuals constituting a popula-
tion, while distinct languages are sharply set off from one another.
The numerous steins and grammatical forms are independent units
and the common occurrence of any considerable number of these in
distinct languages is incontestable proof of historical relation. Thus
the proof that a language of Madagascar is related to Malay is suf-
ficient proof of its historical connection with southeastern Asia;
the occurrence of Athapascan speech in Alaska and in the Rio
Grande basin proves that there must have been historical relations
between these two districts.
The problem of a genetic relationship between languages can be
solved up to certain limits. When the similarities between
languages are
remote, difficulties
present themselves that are not easily overcome.
Mixed languages. Tt is well known that languages are apt to
borrow words from one another. 14 Modern English contains many
foreign loan words: canoe, tobacco, chocolate are words belonging by
origin to American Indian languages; alcohol, algebra are Arabic;
boomerang is Australian; taboo, Polynesian. The kinds of words that
are borrowed do not always belong to the same categories. European
languages borrow principally nouns and verbs; seldom numerals,
prepositions, and conjunctions. Modern Kwakiutl has borrowed a
Nootka numeral (both languages spoken on Vancouver Island).
Modern Nahua (Mexican) has taken over, besides nouns and verbs,
Spanish conjunctions and prepositions. This is due to the breakdown
of the old syntax of the language and adaptation to Spanish syntax.
Languages with clear etymology, and capable of forming new

compounds with ease, are not apt to borrow words, because they
readily form descriptive words. In Kwakiutl a steamer is called
"moving on the water with fire on its back'*; the telegraph, "talk
Still, some words
along a line"; the radio, "talk through the air."
from Chinook jargon for le pretre) have
like tea, coffee, priest (laplete
been adopted. Some loan words will probably be found in all lan-
guages w hen close cultural contact between neighbors of distinct
r
speech occurs.
LANGUAGE 137
Often these loan words undergo changes according to the phonetic

character of the language adopting them. Thus the language of the
Tlingit of Alaska contains some loan words taken from their inland
neighbors. Since Tlingit has no labials (/;, p, m) 9 every m
changes
to w. Tillamook, a language of Oregon, has borrowed words begin-
ning with p from the neighboring Chinook, but since it has no p it
changes the sound according to its own phonetic rules to h. Other
changes are due to assimilation to known words, as North German
popular reincfiercn for the literary rcnovicren.
What
is true of words is also true of sounds. It is perhaps not
easy toshow by convincing historical examples that close contact

between two languages, or superposition of one language over an-
other, has led to considerable changes of phonetic systems. In
modern Nahua the sound r has been introduced although foreign to
the ancient form of speech. It occurs not only in loan words that
are not subject to inflectional modification but also as part of steins in
verb forms, like hablar, which are treated as though they were
ancient Nahua stems. In many native American languages the effect
of English schooling upon pronunciation may be observed, par-
ticularly in so far as the harsh, glottalized sounds lose in strength.

Often the melody of the phrase is also modified.
Furthermore the wide spread of phonetic phenomena which are
characteristic of continuous areas in which languages of very dis-
tinctive structures are spoken can hardly be explained except as the
result ofmutual phonetic influences. As examples may be given
the superabundance of velar sounds, produced by contact between
the back of the tongue and the soft palate, in arctic and north-
western America and their absence in eastern America; the w ide area
r
over which harsh, glottalized sounds are extended, the occurrence

of mixed vow els
r
Southwest and in California; the combined
in the
(affricative) sounds and the voiceless / in the West; the clicks

tl, dl
of South African Bantu languages which must be due to Bushman
influence. The last of these are most convincing because true clicks
do not occur in any other part of the world. They are produced by
a strong sucking motion. Weaker sounds produced by drawing in
breath occur in other parts of Africa and locally in one of the lan-
guages of California.
show historically the influence of the sound
If it is difficult to
system one
of language upon another, it is still more difficult to prove
convincingly that extended morphological borrowing has taken
place. Influences of the syntax of one language upon another are
easily proved. The change of Nahua syntax under Spanish influence
has been mentioned. Latin syntax has had its effect upon English.
Borrowing of affixes that conform with existing categories is also
common. Thus in European languages the Latin ex- has gained
admission as ex-king; and -ieren is used in German not only to trans-
fer foreign verbs into German (regieren, blamiereri) but occasionally
also with German words (stolzieren, hofiereri). It is more interesting
to note that Chinook, which has no nominal cases, has borrowed
case (or locative) endings where it is in contact with Sahaptin, a
language which uses case suffixes. In Kwakiutl, among part of the
young generation who go to English schools, the category of the
definite article has been introduced, being expressed by an ancient
device. The category itself is quite alien to the older Kwakiutl
speech.
The
strongest reason for assuming the occurrence of far-reaching
morphological borrowing is found in the peculiar distribution of
analogous categories or processes in languages of distinctive mor-
phological types. These occur often in continuous territory, while
outside of it the same categories or processes are not found; what is
still more important, each trait has its own characteristic distribu-
tion distinct from that of other traits.
As an example might be mentioned the distribution of the proc-
ess of reduplication,which extreme northern part
is absent in the
of America and among the Iroquois, but common in a large area

farther south.* More striking is the occurrence of consonantic
changes to indicate the diminutive, which is characteristic of an
area extending from northern California over Oregon, Washington,
and Idaho; the use of sex gender in a number of quite distinct lan-
guages around Columbia River; the expression of the idea of instru-
mentality (action done with the hand, with a knife, etc.) on the
Plateaus, in California, and on part of the Plains; the obligatory
distinction of position by demonstrative pronominal elements on
the coast of British Columbia; the similarity of verbal modes in
Eskimo and Chukchee; the grammatical distinction between proper
names and common nouns in Kwakiutl and in the neighboring
Tsimshian. 15
Independent origin of similar grammatical processes. It must also
*
The Algonquians of Labrador are an exception, but it is doubtful whether
the home of the Algonquian languages is in the north or farther south.
LANGUAGE 139
be remembered that a linguistic trait found in distinct languages is

not always due to historical transmission but may develop inde-
pendently. Sex gender occurs in Indo-European languages and on
the Pacific coast of America; a dual in ancient European languages
and in many isolated spots all over the world; instead of our plural
we, we find the more logical distinction between "I and you" and
"I and he" in disconnected languages. Numeral systems based on
five are common; reduplication is often used for expressing plurality
or repetition. In many of these cases historical connection is quite
inconceivable. The phenomenon is analogous to parallel develop-
ments groups of animals or plants that are genetically unrelated.
in
It follows from all this that for many distantly related languages
the history of which is unknown, a categorical answer in regard to
their genetic relationship cannot be given. In many cases historical
relation must be assumed, but whether we are dealing with mixture
of languages or with divergent branches of an ancient stock will
remain doubtful.
Distribution of languages. At present we find a number of closely
16
related languages occupying extended areas. Examples are the
Indo-European or Aryan in Europe and Asia; Turkish languages
and Chinese in Asia; Malay and related languages from Madagascar
in the west across the Indian and Pacific Oceans to Hawaii and Easter
Island in the east; Bantu in a large part of Africa; Algonquian in
eastern North America and extending westward to the Mississippi
River and beyond; Carib and Arawak in a large part of eastern
South America. In contrast to these widely distributed groups of
languages we find others, apparently unrelated, which are restricted
to small areas, so that in a narrowly limited district many languages
are found. Examples of such areas are California and the North Pa-
cificcoast as far as Alaska, the region around the Gulf of Mexico,
including Central America; the foothills of the South American
Andes; northeastern Asia extending from Japan northward over
Siberia; the western Sudan.
In many cases it is possible to show that groups of languages
which occupy vast territories have only recently been spread so
widely. Parts of Europe were inhabited by people of non-Aryan
speech, and the Mediterranean area particularly was non-Aryan
until a comparatively late period. There is good evidence to show
that the Bantu spread over South Africa at a recent time. Turkish-
speaking people established themselves in Asia Minor, southeastern
Europe, and Siberia in historic times; Arabic was carried into Egypt
and along the coast of North Africa after the time of Mahomet.
Chinese has gradually extended its domain over a large area. The
Malay-Polynesian migrations belong to recent times. In historic and
presumably also in prehistoric times languages have disappeared in
large numbers, but we do not know of a single example of the origin
of an entirely new language with new vocabulary, new grammatical
forms, and new categories. It seems plausible that in very early
times the number of languages for which a genetic relationship
cannot be established must have been much greater than it is now,
and the areas of great linguistic differentiation, like the Sudan or
the Pacific coast of America, presumably represent conditions such
as existed in early timesall over the world.
The great differentiation here referred to must be understood to

refer to languages for which the proof of a genetic relationship
cannot be given. It does not touch upon the question of a single or
multiple origin of groups of these languages. The occurrence of
parallel developments in languages without historic relation makes
it very improbable that all languages should have had a single origin.
When we compare this picture with the diversity of human types
it will be noticed that the number of early languages must have
been much larger than the number of clearly distinct anatomical
types. Some of these have also disappeared, but on the whole we

find uniform types spread over areas much larger than those covered
by languages. It follows from this that in an early period distinct

languages must have been spoken by people of the same type, so
that there must have been racial types which possessed or produced
more than one of the early languages which in their present form
can be proved to be derived from the same source. An identity of
race and language may not be supposed even for the isolated bands
that lived before intimate contact and the accompanying diffusion
of languages occurred. It is probably true that in the earliest times
possessors or originators of a language all belonged to the same
racial type, but it is equally true that the possessors or originators
of a number of different languages must have belonged to the same
racial type.
Thus
it appears that language has behaved in the same way as
all other cultural traits, for in early times, when mankind had
spread all over the world, we find a great differentiation of culture
according to locality. The history of culture has resulted in an
LANGUAGE 141
increased leveling down of local differences in so far as certain

cultures became dominant over larger areas and as mutual influences
increased in number and intensity.
Culture and speech. Much has been said in regard to the relation
between speech and culture. It is true that in many languages it
would be difficult to express the generalized statements of philo-
sophic science, because the categories imposed by the structure of
the grammar are too specific. It is not true that primitive languages
are unable to form generalized concepts. We have given before (page
130) illustrations of wide generalizations which are used, although not
necessarily conceived with any degree of clarity. There may be no
"
term for tree, but there may be one signifying the long thing stand-
ing." There may be no general term for seal, but one for "things
"
that come up to breathe. On the whole the degree of specialization
will depend upon cultural interests. Categories that are culturally
unessential will not be found; those culturally important will be
detailed. For us, paternal or maternal descent is culturally com-
paratively irrelevant, whereas generation is important. This is re-
flected in our terminology of relationship. In cultures in which the
distinction between paternal and maternal lines is socially impor-
tant, there will normally be a distinct terminology for them. When
generation is irrelevant, this also may be disregarded in the termi-
nology of relationship. In regard to all these matters language is
exceedingly plastic and follows the demands of culture. Proof of
this is found not only in our own language, but also in the modifi-
cations that so-called primitive languages undergo when the people
become familiar with modern civilization and begin to participate
in it. The vocabulary develops in conformity with the expanding
or changing activities.
It is not only the vocabulary that is so influenced. In primitive
culture people speak only about actual experiences. They do not

discuss what is virtue, good, evil, beauty; the demands of their
daily life, like those of our uneducated classes, do not extend beyond
the virtues shown on definite occasions by definite people, good or
evil deeds of their fellow tribesmen, and the beauty of a man, a
woman, or of an object. They do not talk about abstract ideas. The

question is rather whether their language makes impossible the
expression of abstract ideas. It is instructive to see that missionaries,

who in their eagerness to convert natives have been compelled to
learn their languages, have had to do violence to the idioms in order
to convey to the natives their more or less abstract ideas, and that
they have always found possible to do so and to be understood.
it
Devices to develop generalized ideas are probably always present

and they are used as soon as the cultural needs compel the natives
to form them.
It is not unimportant to recognize that in primitive languages,
here and there, our adjectival ideas are expressed by nouns. A poor
person may be conceived rather as a person who has poverty; a
sick person as a person who has sickness; and it is not necessary
that these qualities should be conceived as concrete objects. 17 Sick-
ness is often so conceived, but poverty or size is not. We find also
cases in which the structure of the sentencedemands the frequent
use of abstract nouns, as when the Kwakiutl Indian of Vancouver
Island says to a girl, "Take care of your womanhood"; when the
Eskimo speaks of smallness or largeness of an object; or when the
Dakota Indian speaks of strength and goodness.
In this sense it is not justifiable to consider languages as hindering
or favoring cultural development. We
should rather say that lan-
guage is a reflection of the state of culture and follows in its develop-
ment the demands of culture. In another
way, however, language
exerts an influence upon culture. Words and phrases are symbols of
cultural attitudes and have the same kind of emotional appeal that
ischaracteristic of other symbols. The name of a rite, of a deity,
an honorific title, a term giving a succinct expression to political or
church organization, may have the power to raise the passions of a
people without much reference to the changing contents of the
term. To us the words liberty and democracy have such an appeal,
although the concept of liberty or of democracy may undergo such
changes that they are no longer recognizable. The power of such
phrases and symbols to excite masses to action or to stabilize existing
institutions must not be underestimated. The cry of the Crusaders,
"God surrounding the terms Emperor, King, and
wills it"; the halo
Queen; the inspiration given by national anthems, by the empty

phrases of orators, are forces that mould culture. It would, however,
be an error to assume that this is a purely linguistic phenomenon.
It is rather an instance of symbolism and should be considered in
that connection.
While the details of linguistic structure are a field somewhat
remote from other aspects of culture, their value for historical
reconstruction is clear. We have seen how early migrations may be
LANGUAGE 143
traced by linguistic evidence. Other cultural facts are reflected in

language. Loan words may indicate particular types of cultural re-
lations, as when a particular style of weaving or an implement is
called by a foreign word. In European languages such etymological
relations demonstrate events in cultural history. This is exemplified
by the influence of Greek upon Latin, of Latin upon the modern

European languages, and by the addition of a multitude of foreign
words taken over by all European languages. More interesting are
those linguistic reflections of cultural phenomena which express
present or past conditions. We have referred before to the classifica-
tion of terms of relationship. These represent aspects of behavior
of members of a family to one another, though not necessarily those
prevailing at the present time. They are indispensable for our under-
standing of social organization. Their definition gives us an insight
into the present or past structure of the family. Lack of consistency
in the system may indicate historical changes or present conflicts
of attitudes. Similarly the clear definition of other terms may reveal
cultural data. The terms
generally translated as "soul" vary con-
siderably in content, and an accurate definition of their scope is
indispensable for the understanding of religious concepts. The same
is true for the concept of the supernatural. The meaning of words
like manitoo, wakanda, mana, and taboo, which are used in a general-
ized sense investigators of religion, have their own peculiar con-
by
notations in each culture, and the attitudes of the individual tribes
cannot be understood without a painstaking analysis of the ideas
represented by the words used for expressing the varying aspects of
the supernatural. A crude translation of native terms into approxi-
mately corresponding terms of English or of any other language and
psychological interpretations built thereon are often the causes of
18
serious misunderstandings.
Linguistic usages, like metaphorical expressions or allusions in

phrases, are also illuminating. When the natural functions of the
body are expressed euphemistically by suggestive terms (like "to
go out" instead of to defecate; "to be near" instead of to cohabit),
light is thrown upon the attitude of the people to these functions.
Likewise the euphemistic substitution of "to become weak" or "to
go to the end," instead of to die; "to lie down" instead of to be sick,
is suggestive of attitudes and beliefs.
Allusions, as long as alive, are indicative of subjects that are
generally present in the minds of the people; if formalized they
show that in the past at least the ideas referred to were important
to the people, as when we refer to the devil and witches. For ex-
ample, Indians of the Northwest have an expression "Is this war,
father?" which is a quotation from a tale and means that the per-
son who quotes it is in great distress. Or the Dakota will say, " Did
you not know that he had a striped palate?" referring to the myth-
ical trickster who is said to have a palate of that kind. The saying
means that the person referred to was known as a cheat. These
allusions are most frequent in proverbs such as occur in great pro-
fusion in Africa.
It is obvious that for the understanding of the form of native
literature, if we may
use this term for their unwritten poetry and
tales, a thorough knowledge of the language is indispensable, for
without it the elements that appeal to the esthetic sense of the
hearer cannot be appreciated.
FOOTNOTES
1. Alverdes, F., Social Life in the Animal World (1927).
2. Mallery, G., Sign language among North American Indians, Annual Report
of the Bureau of Ethnology, vol. 1 (1881), pp. 263 ff.; Tylor, E. B.,
Researches into the Early History of Mankind (London, 1878), pp. 14 ff.;
Wundt, W., Volkcr psychologic. Die Sprache (Leipzig, 1900).
3. Bloomfield, L., language (1933), pp. 7-1 ff.
4. Boas, F., Handbook of American Indian languages, Bulletin of the Bureau of
American Ethnology, no. 40, Part I (1911), p. 20.
5. Swanton, J. R., in Boas, F., op. cit., pp. 205 ff.
6. Boas, F., op. cit., p. 25.

7. Bogoras, W., The Chukchee, The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. 7
(1904-09), p. 74.
8. Bloomfield, L., op. cit., p. 279; Conant, L. L., Primitive Number Systems,
Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1892 (1893), pp. 583 ff.
9. Bloomfield, L., op. cit., p. 278.
10. Ibid., p. 156.
11. Jespersen, O., Language (1925), pp. 396 ff.; Hihner, H., Schallnachahmung,
Wortschopfung und Bedeutungswandel (Halle, 1914).

12. Thalhitzer, W., in Boas, F., op. cit., Part I, p. 998.
13. Sturtevant, E. H., Linguistic Change (1917).
14. Bloomfield, L., op. cit., pp. 444 ff.
15. Boas, F., op. cit, Part I (1911); Part II (1922).
16. Meillet, A., and Cohen, M., Les langues du monde (Paris, 1924); Finck,
F. N., Die Sprachatamme des Erdkreises (Leipzig, 1909).
17. Boas, F., op. cit., Part I, p. 657.
18. An interesting attempt at a careful analysis of the actual meaning of words
is the Ethnological Dictionary of the Navaho Language (The Franciscan
Fathers, St. Michaels, Arizona, 1910).
LANGUAGE 145
GENERAL REFERENCES
Bloomfield, L., Language (1933).
Jespersen, O., Language, its Nature, Development, and
Origin (1923).
Meillet, A., and Cohen, M., Les langues du monde (Paris, 1924).
Sapir, E., Language (1925).
Sturtevant, E. H., Linguistic Change (1917).
Vendryes, J., Language (1925).
CHAPTER V
PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY
N. C. NELSON
Definition. Archaeology may be defined as the science devoted to

the study of the entire body of tangible relics pertaining to the
origin, the antiquity, and the development of man and of his cul-
ture. (The remains of man himself have to be studied by the biologist.
Archaeology in a narrower sense is concerned with the study of the

remains of human handicraft. In the study of the origin of man it
is often necessary to go back to the conditions of prehuman times,
since no definite period can be fixed when man evolved from more
primitive forms. Furthermore, it is customary to take the beginnings
of written history loosely synonymous with the beginnings of
writing as a dividing line and to call the investigation of the
cultural record antedating this unique invention prehistoric archae-
ology and the remaining late portion historic archaeology. This sepa-
ration also is indefinite because the beginnings of writing date back
in Kgypt and Mesopotamia about five thousand years, while in
other parts of the world, like New Guinea and the Amazon basin,
the beginning has not yet been made. The study of some of the
advanced cultures of people who either had not developed the art
of writing or whose records have not been deciphered, like those of
Central America and Peru, also form a rather special field of pre-
historic inquiry. In general, prehistoric archaeology lacks the helps
supplied by history and must be based solely on the interpretation

of the material objects discovered. These vary somewhat from
place to place but for convenience may be listed under three gen-
eral headings, with the items arranged in the approximate order of
their appearance in time, as follows:
I. Monumental or fixed antiquities, usually found on the surface of

the ground.
1. Refuse heaps, in caves by the seashore, near ruins, etc.
2. Caches and storage pits for food, treasure, offerings, 'etc.
3. Hearths, firepits, temporary camp sites
146
PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY 147
4. House and village sites, tent rings, ruins, pile dwellings, etc.
5. Trails, portages,and causeways connecting the settlements, etc.
6. Workshops, smelters, foundries, etc.
7. Graves and cemeteries
8. Garden and field plots
9. Excavations, such as pitfalls for game, reservoirs, irrigation
systems, quarries, mines, burial chambers, subterranean dwell-
ings, artificial dwellings cut into loess, pumice, and limestone
10. Earthworks, including dams, ball courts, inclosures for fields and
for cattle, fortification walls, mounds, and pyramids
11. Megalithic and other stone structures in the form of menhirs or
monoliths, cromlechs or stone circles, alignments, cairns, dol-
mens and trilithons, stone chambered mounds or barrows, cist
graves, pyramids, shrines, temples, fortification walls, nurhags
or forts, treasure chambers, inclosures for fields and for cattle,
fish weirs, boulder effigies and gravestones
12. Petroglyphs and paintings on cave walls and exposed rock sur-
faces
II. Movable antiquities, ordinarily obtained only by excavation in
either artificial refuse or natural earth deposits
1. Chipped stone work: tools, weapons, ornamental and ceremonial
objects
2. Wood work: tools, weapons, boats and other means of transpor-
ornamental and ceremonial objects
tation,
3. Bone work: tools, weapons, utensils, ornamental and ceremonial
objects
4. Shell work: tools, weapons, utensils, ornamental and ceremonial
objects
5. Skin, hair, and feather work: clothing, shelters, utensils, boats,
and ornamental accessories
6. Wood fiber work: mats, baskets, boats, nets, clothing, hats,
sandals, and ornamental accessories
7. Clay work: utilitarian, artistic, and ceremonial pottery, etc.
8. Ground stone work: tools, weapons, utensils, ornamental and
ceremonial objects
9. Metal work: tools, weapons, utensils, ornamental and ceremonial
objects
III. From these data may be obtained information on many aspects of
cultural in particular in regard to the following implied prehistoric
life,
arts and sciences:

1. All basic handicrafts
2. Hunting and warfare
3. Fishing by many different methods
4. Travel and exploration by land and by sea
5. Barter and trade indicated by the spread of raw materials and
finished articlesbeyond their localities of origin
6. Medical and knowledge
skill indicated by surgical operations
and appliances and by the surviving use of herbal and other
extracts as well as by psychological or magical treatment
7. Artificial preservation of raw materials indicated by drying,
smoking, or curing of meats and vegetables, tanning of hides,
etc.
8. Artificial food production indicated by agriculture and animal
husbandry
9. Artificial production of raw materials indicated by quarrying,
mining, smelting, etc.
10. Constructive ideas indicatedby architectural remains of houses
and bridges, by boats, sledges,game traps, etc.
11. Esthetic ideas indicated by pictorial and decorative art
12. Religious ideas indicated by ceremonial burials, shrines, tem-
ples, etc.
Problems of prehistoric archaeology. The chief problems of prehis-

toric archaeology are the recovery of as much of this material as
necessary and its interpretation. This must be based on the study of
the material, form, and function of the objects found, and their
occurrence in place and time. Not every archaeological object re-
veals its specific purpose; and if, besides, nothing like it remains in
use among primitive peoples, the function may remain unknown.
The end and aim of prehistoric archaeology is to extend our
knowledge of human history, to put us in possession of all the pro-
curable facts relating to man's early physical and mental develop-
ment. It assists the paleontologist in determining man's antiquity
and his biological origin and evolution, as well as his geographic
distribution. Similarly our science is called upon to demonstrate
the time and place of origin of all the principal inventions and to
trace their spread over the world. Once we are in possession of the
essential facts on both these lines of inquiry, it becomes possible to
visualize the trend of the past and in the light of that past to under-
stand the present and possibly to predict and in a measure to con-
trol intelligently the future of human development.
Methods. The technique employed by any branch of science is
naturally governed by the nature of the subject itself. In general
terms the methods of archaeology are those of direct observation and
comparison. More specifically, the question of time order being all-
important in archaeology as in paleontology, the principle upon

which great stress needs to be laid is that of stratigraphy. This
means simply the careful recording of the relative depths of the
relics being excavated in an undisturbed deposit of some thickness,
whether of natural origin or man-made. When actual superposition
is lacking, time sequence may often be worked out by means of the
geologic situation, or by the accompanying floral and faunal re-

mains. When possible to determine the relative
all else fails, it is still
ages, say, of a given group of habitation sites within the same cul-
ture area by the process of "seriation," using one or more of the
typical but gradually changing artifact series. This has been suc-
cessfully done with pottery, for example, in the Pueblo region of
southwestern United States l and with flint axes by North European
2
archaeologists.
Achieved results. Systematic investigations have until recent
decades been confined largely to Europe and North America and
there are still a number of essentially unexplored areas on each
continent. Most likely these neglected regions will yield little that
is either entirely or of special importance, and we may therefore
new
with some assurance accept the known facts and their interpreta-
tions as furnishing an approximately correct outline of all the out-
standing prehistoric accomplishments as far as these have been

preserved for us in tangible form.
Briefly stated, the present achievements of prehistoric archae-
ology are as follows. Positive indications of human activities have
been traced back through the Quaternary geological period and
probably some distance beyond into Tertiary time. The artifacts
recovered have been studied as to raw material, character of work-
manship, and types of implements, as well as to stratigraphic occur-
rence, and have as a result been separated into a chronological
succession of stages and substages. Thus we speak of the Stone Age,
the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age as indicative of the basic raw
materials employed from time to time. The Stone Age in turn is
divided into early and late phases, termed Paleolithic and Neolithic,
which mark primary differences in materials employed and conse-
quent primary differences in methods of treatment, percussion
flaking and pressure chipping being characteristic of the former,
while the latter adds pecking, grinding, and polishing. The Paleo-
lithic is further subdivided into early, middle, and late phases, each
marking a fairly definite stage in the evolution of the flint-working

technique. Finally, these several Paleolithic stages are again sub-
divided on the basis of secondary characteristics of form and finish,
which as a rule are more or less localized variations sometimes
contemporary and which are generally named after the localities
in which they were first discovered. These refined subdivisions will
not be treated here; but for the sake of completeness the currently
accepted chronological classification, as applying to Europe, is pre-
sented in full as follows:
I. Stone Age
1. Eolithic period (?)
2. Paleolithic period
a. Pre-Chellean epoch
]
b. Chellean epoch Early

[
c. Acheulian epoch J
d. Levalloisian-Clactonian-Mesvinian epoch \ ,,. ,

,,
TV/T ^ i_ I Middle
e. Moustenan epoch J
f. Aurignacian epoch
g. Solutrean epoch
Late
h. Magdalenian epoch
i. Azilian-Tardenoisian-Maglemosian epoch
3. Neolithic period
a. Campignian-Asturian-Shell Heap epoch
b. Robenhausian or full Neolithic epoch
II. Bronze Age (preceded here and there by a copper stage), with
local subdivisions
III. Iron Age, with local subdivisions
Technological evolution of material culture traits. The concrete as-

pects of culture are largely the product of man's reactions to his
material surroundings. The history of material culture is therefore
essentially a history of inventions and discoveries, or an account of
man's progressive ability to manipulate and utilize the raw materials
and forces supplied by nature. Leaving out of account for the pres-
ent such useful forms of energy as wind and water, and concentrating
our attention on fire and on the more immediately important raw
materials, these latter aside from the great variety of animal,
vegetable, and mineral products which man shares with the rest of
the mammals for food are classifiable under no more than seven
or eight general headings. These are (1) stone, shell, pearl, coral,
amber, colored earths or oxides, and to a limited extent mica, lig-

nite,petroleum, bitumen, and asbestos; (2) wood, bark, wood fiber,

plant seeds, and derived dyes or extracts; (3) bone, teeth, ivory,
antler, horn, turtle and tortoise shell; (4) hides, hair, feathers, guts,
sinew, and derived glues and fats; (5) various clays and kaolins sub-
ject to firing; (6) free metals, such as copper, gold, silver, and
meteoric iron; (7) metals derived by the artificial reduction of ore;
and (8) such other heat-converted products as glaze, faience, and
glass.
Prehistoric man utilized every one of these groups of resources,
beginning with the simpler forms, partly ready for his hand in their
raw state (as, for instance, sticks and stones) and ending with those
which, like clays and ores, required the energy of fire to convert
them into useful products. This being the case, the details of the
unfolding history of material culture must necessarily be written
largely in terms not of the raw materials themselves, but rather of
the methods employed in working them and of the forms and func-
tions of the contrivances produced. For ceramic and metallic prod-
ucts the material itself permits a sure clue as to their approximate
places in the inventive process. For materials found in nature the
methods of working them and the specialized shapes of genetically
related implements are far more useful guides. As a rule swift and
clumsy working processes with crude results come first, while slow
and refined processes with specialized and more highly adapted re-
sults come late. It must be remembered that not all of the objects
made in prehistoric times have been preserved, though in many
cases their existence may be safely inferred, if not indirectly demon-
strated. Thus perishable items of wood and skin more often than
not are missing in archaeological deposits. Sometimes even bone
objects have completely decayed. Nevertheless, the general char-
acter of the remaining stone implements may indicate that wood
and bone were worked and used. In the same way pottery, which
like stone is relatively indestructible, is often modeled or decorated
to represent other contemporary features of culture; or the fire-
hardened clay may contain accidental impressions of basketry, tex-
tiles, and even seeds of wild as well as cultivated plants. In short,
artifacts are not discrete or isolated objects that may come from
any time or place, but are rather parts of more or less necessary
combinations or complexes, taking consequently definite places in
the general scheme of cultural history.
The relics through which the archaeologist may work out his
tangible results are, in ascending order of importance: objects oi
stone and shell, ceramic objects, objects of bone, wood, and metal
Of these basic materials stone is one of the most ancient in service
and, up to the introduction of metal, the one almost always presenl
in archaeological sites. In spite of its apparent refractory nature, il
is capable of being worked in a variety of ways, and its products
therefore lend themselves readily to technological and typological
studies that are as a rule capable of chronological interpretation,
The same is true also of pottery, once it arrives on the scene. As a
plastic medium clay lends itself to being modeled into any shape
that circumstances require or fancy may suggest; and its additional
possibilities for accessory ornamentation are similarly almost limit-
less. These attributes of plasticity or workability, inherent in clay
and ordinary stone, therefore enable their resulting artificial prod-

ucts to serve as fairly authentic guides. They present genetically
related series constituting gradually modified or specialized form
groups such as are required, in the absence of stratigraphy, for
determining the time order of most of the other associated frag-
mentary traits. Ceramic products are of comparatively recent origin
and partly in consequence of this have achieved only limited geo-
graphic distribution. By contrast, the use of stone for implements
is very ancient; and as the raw material is also present in some
form or other almost everywhere, its products have hitherto natu-

rally served as guide forms and as the chief source of archaeological
classification and nomenclature. In order to clarify this terminology
and also to supply a key to the origin and nature of stone imple-
ments, as well as to afford a partial insight into the normal progress
of invention in general, we shall next review the available observa-
tionson the gradually improving methods and results of the stone-
working technique.
Stone-flaking process. Assuming that man at first appropriated
any convenient stick or stone to aid him in digging roots or killing
game, and that by degrees he learned to select special forms for spec-
ial purposes, the time came when he somehow hit upon the art of im-
proving or adapting the natural forms by artificial means, and finally

produced suitable forms de now. In the case of stone implements, by
trial and error he discovered that any boulder of convenient size was
suitable equally for hurling at game or for pounding and crushing;

that sharp-edged flakes served best for cutting and scraping, as did
sharp-pointed ones for stabbing and digging. When suitable flakes
were not available he learned ultimately to produce them by the

process of shattering a flint nodule, either by hurling it against
another rock or by striking it with a small boulder serving as a
hammer. From the resulting flakes and splinters he could then make
his selections for different purposes. When the flint or other rock
was sufficiently tough so as not to shatter completely, the chance blow
delivered by the hammer might result in merely dislodging a single
flake; and if this flake was not suitable, repeated blows would sooner
or later yield what was wanted. At all events we have here for the
first time three important inventions: namely, the hammer, the core,
Fig. 14. Elementary flake production.

(About one half natural size)
A. Spherical hammerstone, used for flaking throughout the world.

B. Flint nodule with seven flakes removed.
C-D. Two flakes removed from nodule B by blows delivered near margin of rear
face.
and the flake, which figure as basic to all the lithic industries for
many thousands of years.
Thus far our description of procedure is largely theoretic or
speculative and doubtless must always remain so. But whatever the
precise initial steps, we possess from early Paleolithic times examples
of the simpler, generally subspherical hammerstone, the rude core
or nucleus with irregular flake-beds, and the equally rude flake to
match, as shown in Figure 14.
This elementary flaking process was swift and the results were
correspondingly rough and uncertain. The flake was clearly what
was wanted, but there are no indications of studied effort at ob-
taining any particular form. All, we may suppose, was left to chance,
and the resulting were normally short, broad, and of every
flakes
conceivable outline. The most
desirable flakes were those provided
with a long, straight cutting edge and those coming to a point at
one end. When luck favored, the result sometimes combined these
two features, as observed in moderately elongated, double-edged,
and pointed examples (subtriangular), suitable at once as knives,
scrapers, perforators, and perhaps as points for spears. No systematic
marginal retouch or dressing is apparent, and such chips as have
been removed seem to be due to strenuous usage rather than to
deliberate fashioning or resharpening. In any case all the work was
done by striking or percussion, and the chance flakes found suitable
for use are the crude flake tools characteristic especially of the
Pre-Chellean stage.
In course of time the initial flaking process underwent modifica-
tion and improvement. In this particular case progress took place
in two different directions, the first one leading toward a moderately
refined style of percussion flaking and the second (possibly an out-
growth of the former) toward a highly specialized mode of flake

production.
During the Chellean stage, or possibly somewhat earlier, the super-
ficially flaked core (essentially a by-product) itself came to serve as
an implement; in fact it became the first designedly dressed and
fashioned implement on record, commonly known as the coup-de-
poing or, as inaptly translated, the fist axe, cleaver, boucher. The
originaland preferable noncomittal term vaguely reveals our ig-
norance of its use, which was doubtless varied, judging by the
many forms the invention received. Thus, while all are biconvex in
cross section and therefore more or sharp-edged, the outlines
less
range from discoidal, through oval, amygdaloid, and triangular, to

slender, elongated, daggerlike examples, pointed at one end, the
opposite or butt end being either straight or convex, if worked at
all (see Figs. 24, 25). The normal length ranges from about two to
twelve inches. Geographically these more or less unwieldy blades
are typical of Africa, southern Asia as far as India, and southern
and southwestern Europe; and in a generalized form (blanks or
unfinished implements, sometimes called tortoise cores) they occur
also in the New World, especially in the eastern United States.
Chronologically the type ranges, at least in Europe, from the
Chellean or Pre-Chellean stage, up through the Acheulian, and into
the Mousterian; while its analogue in America is rarely, if ever,
found except in association with recent Neolithic inventories.* Dur-

ing this long interval the European coup-de-poing was subject to
much refinement as regards both outline and cross section as well as
general finish; and in Africa, for example, there are indications that
the form may have given rise to large elongated biface and double-
pointed blades (the Esbaikian industry) of Solutrean and Neolithic
aspect, and possibly to other Neolithic implements, similarly de-
rived from cores. At any rate, the art of delicate percussion flaking
was almost certainly never completely lost. In western Europe,
however, the coup-de-poing underwent degeneration during the late
Acheulian and early Mousterian stages and was finally replaced by
somewhat similarly shaped flake forms (the Levallois flake and the
Mousterian point), derived partly by actually splitting the coup-de-
poing in two dorsoventrally. Elsewhere, or rather in the contempo-
rarily inhabited Old World, the flake alone continued to serve as
the chief basis for stone implements, and this did not begin to re-
ceive deliberate fashioning or specialization by systematic marginal
retouch until about the time the coup-de-poing became extinct in
Europe that is, with the beginning of the Mousterian stage.
Turning now to the improvement of flake production, we meet
with an extremely suggestive phenomenon. The coup-de-poing,
which some have considered a sort of universal or combination
implement, had in respect to form and finish reached a high state
of excellence, but seemingly its serviceability was not deemed en-
tirely satisfactory.And indeed, if it was actually used for every

conceivable purpose such as stabbing, chopping, cutting, scraping,
and perforating, it is easy to see that a chance flake, properly se-
lected, might serve various special purposes far better. Besides, such
flakes were more easily and quickly produced. At any rate, toward
the end of the Acheulian subphase we find the flint-workers begin-
ning to split the coup-de-poing in two, as it were; or rather, with a
deft blow of the hammerstone, delivered on one face of the coup-de-
poing near the butt end, they dislodged a flake from the opposite
face of the old implement. If successful, they obtained an oblong
*
The so-called rostro-carinate or eagle-beak core form, resembling a coup-de-
poing split anteroposteriorly into rightand left halves, and said to characterize
especially the late Pliocene epoch and to be the forerunner of the true coup-de-
poing, is here deliberately omitted as too problematic. But even if we must ulti-
mately accept this pointed beak form as a designed implement, the general order of
technological development as here presented will remain the same. The present
chronology will merely be expanded.
subtriangular flake, concavo-convex in cross section. The convex
face (that is, the outer or dorsal side) of this flake naturally carries
a portion of the flake beds or scars of one face of the ancestral coup-
de-poing while the concave face (the inner, ventral, or bulbar side)
is plain, except at the broad butt end where, above the bulb of
percussion (the point at which it was struck off), it exhibits a narrow

margin of small flake beds belonging to the other face of the original
coup-de-poing (see Fig. 15, C). This margin of preliminary retouch
on the bulbar face of the new flake alone demonstrates that it was
Fig. 15. Improved flaking of Acheulian-Levalloisian times.

(One half natural size)
A. Roughly prepared flint core with large flake-bed. Sometimes called turtleback
core.
B. Flake of triangular outline removed from A outer face.
C. Inner face of same flake showing bulb of percussion and part of striking plat-
form.
D. Longitudinal section of same flake showing wide angle (ca. 120) made by inner
face and striking platform a primitive characteristic.
derived from a previously prepared coup-de-poing and not struck

from an ordinary chance-shaped tortoise core. However, once the
method of thus obtaining a moderately long and pointed flake was
hit upon, the expert artisan soon began to slur his preliminary prep-
arations; that he did not go through the whole process of finishing
is,
his coup-de-poing, but merely made a rough imitation, sufficient

for the purpose of obtaining the desired flake. This step is particu-
larly well illustrated by many specimens from Egypt, an example of

which is given in Figure 15.
While at first only a single flake was obtained as the result of this
elaborate preparation, first of a finished coup-de-poing and then of
a rough imitation, in due time (near the beginning of the Aurignacian

stage) the flint knapper succeeded in removing several flakes from
the same prepared form by the simple expedient of flattening its
butt end, which gave him room to strike several blows at selected
points near the margin of his roughly circular striking platform.
The resultwas that the coup-de-poing was converted into a truly
prepared core of roughly conical form, usually called the polyhedral
core, an advanced example of which is shown in Figure 16, B.
This type of core remained the chief source of long slender pris-
matic flakes to the end of Neolithic times and is especially prominent
Fig. 16. Precise flaking of Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic times.

A. Prepared core with flaking begun. Note horizontal striking platform.

B. Conical core with flakes removed all around.
C. Flake removed from A and B cores, showing outer and inner faces. Note that
angle made by inner flake face and striking platform is reduced to nearly 90.
in various parts of Europe, Asia, and Mexico. The development of

flakes shows that in the elementary working processes here de-
scribed one phase grew out of the other.
Stone-chipping process. Having once mastered the production of
long slender flakes, easily adapted to a variety of special purposes,
the next great advance consisted in modifying these flakes to suit.
As stated, some of the early crude flake implements exhibit irregu-
larly chipped margins, due partly, no doubt, to hard usage on wood
and bone and partly also to intentional shaping or resharpening
after the manner of the coup-de-poing by delicate percussion flaking.
However, during the Mousterian industrial stage, while the flakes

were comparatively broad and short, a new method of mar-
still
ginal chipping came into use, that of pressure chipping. This pres-
sure method was much slower than the percussion method; but it
was more easily controlled and therefore yielded correspondingly
surer and better results. Precisely how or when this procedure came
about is uncertain; but not clearly recognizable until Mous-
it is
terian times, when it was used only or

chiefly on thin flakes like the
so-called Mousterian points, while the older percussion method con-
tinued to serve for dressing thick and stout flakes such as the Mous-
terian sidescraper or racloir. Presumably pressure chipping was
Fig. 17. Pressure chipping of Solutrean and Neolithic times.

A. Chipping tool of bone lashed to stick. North America. After W. H. Holmes.

B. Chipping tool of antler. Denmark.
C. Method of pressure chipping observed in California.
D. Spear point chipped by right-handed worker. Denmark.
E. Lance point chipped by left-handed worker. France.
effected then, as in historic times, with a blunt-pointed piece of

bone or antler, or anything else sufficiently stout (Fig. 17, A, B).
In any case, this new process also began in a crude way and by
the end of the Stone Age attained a high state of perfection in many
parts of both the Old and New Worlds. Specifically this means that,
as is demonstrated by the chipping beds on the surviving imple-
ments, the chips were at first very short marginal slivers (see Fig.
27, #, 6) but later became long enough to reach the middle portion
of the flake body and occasionally, as in Egyptian ceremonial knives,
ran clear across the flake width. At first, also, the relatively flat
bulbar face of the flake remained unretouched that is, served
merely as the chipping platform while later on, in Solutrean and

Neolithic times, both faces were chipped equally, the result being
symmetrical blades of double-convex cross section (see Fig. 17, Z>, E).
This flake industry, involving both percussion and pressure
methods, ran a long peculiar course in Europe from the Mous-
terian through Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian to the
Azilian-Tardenoisian and, for reasons not very clear, ultimately
degenerated. Except for the temporary and somewhat mysterious
introduction of large Solutrean blades, in part at least derived from
cores, most of the flint products were tools for use on wood and
bone, materials which in the meantime gained favor for weapons.
These tools were: the sidescraper (racloir), which was possibly used
also as a chopper; the spokeshave that is, a notched or strangu-
lated scraper (lame etr angle) the saw (scie) or denticulated flake;
\
the knife (couteau), a flake usually with a straight cutting edge and
a convexly curved, blunt-chipped back, successive forms of which
are often referred to as the audi pointe and the chatelperron pointe;
the incising tool (gravette pointe) resembling the knife but more
pointed and with a straighter back; the awl, drill, or perforator
(percoir); a few roughly stemmed points (pointe de Font Robert),
possibly for arrows; the single-barbed point (pointe a cran of the
Solutrean industry) suitable for the lance; rare Solutrean knives or
spear points (pointes de lances) with either straight, concave, or
stemmed base; the endscraper or planing tool (grattoir); the en-
graving or sculpturing tool (burin) of several varieties; and finally

a number of tiny geometric forms which served at least in part as
arrow points and as accessory barbs for bone harpoons all of them
derived from flakes. In addition there appeared during the Aurigna-

cian phase a thick spall of triangular cross section and more or less
oblong, with small flakes systematically removed from the ends and
sides of the two dorsal faces a form which might be regarded
simply as a core but which may also, as generally supposed, have
served as a stout endscraper. This is known as the grattoir car&ne or
keeled endscraper and occurs in variously modified or specialized
shapes. (For illustrations of all these partly localized Upper Pale-
forms see Figs. 28, 29, 30, 31.)
olithic
This brings us to the end of the strictly hunting era in western
Europe. Flint by this time would appear to have become scarce, and
in consequence the Paleolithic industries had degenerated. At any
rate the next few thousand years witness what might be called a
nearly complete industrial revolution. The tools thus far developed
had served the hunter and all his handicrafts, but they were not
adequate for such heavy work as clearing forests or building ships
and houses. How the change came about is still a problem. It is
explainable only by the introduction of outside influences or the
immigration of new peoples with different arts and crafts.

Where these new people came from we can only guess. Presumably
it was from the Near East and possibly also from North Africa.
Whoever they were, they gradually revived old procedures and

introduced new ones. As a beginning they overcame the lack of
raw material for tools by mining deep in the ground for it, as was
done especially England, Holland, Belgium, and France. In this
in
connection the new tool appears: namely, a stout, oblong, some-
first
times slightly curved, picklike form (see Fig. 32, 4)> which was prob-
ably used in gouging flint nodules out of the matrix containing
them. This tool was made, as in the case of the old coup-de-poing,
by the rough flaking process, and it was apparently this primitive
form which in the course of time gave rise to other related forms
like the chisel, the axe in several varieties, the adze, and the gouge.
Meanwhile certain of the old flake implements survived, or perhaps
were revived. Among these are especially the endscraper and in
relatively ruder forms also the sidescraper (both plain and notched),
the knife, and the perforator. The sidescraper soon gave rise to a
temporary form of flake chisel or hatchet blade (the tranchet of
Campignian times, illustrated in Fig. 32, 1) and later the knife and
perforator were developed into chipped-blade knives, daggers, spear
points, arrow points, and drill points of highly varied forms in both
the Old and New Worlds. In Egypt the saw or denticulated flake
was inserted into a curved handle to serve as a sickle. A single new
invention in chipped stone technique was the fishhook, which also
appears occasionally on both sides of the Atlantic, while large spade
and hoe blades are confined apparently to the United States.
Stone-pecking and grinding processes. With a marked increase in
population even the artificially derived supply of flint, together with
the use of obsidian, quartz, jasper, chalcedony, etc., proved insuffi-
cient.Before long we find the artisans at work on various other
kinds of stone, such as chalk, limestone, marble, steatite, slate,
sandstone, granite and other igneous rocks, as well as hematite,
nephrite, and jade. A number of semiprecious stones, including
turquoise or lapis lazuli, agate, carnelian, etc., were also in use.
These substances would neither flake nor chip readily, and conse-
quently the workmen proceeded to shape them, as they had long
done with wood and bone, by simply wearing them down, as it were.
In the Old World the ancient flaking method continued in favor for
the rough blocking out of the desired implement, which was then
smoothed down by rubbing on a coarse sandstone surface and often
finished by polishing on a stone of finer grain or with vegetable
fiber. Sometimes, however, the preliminary reduction process was
effected by hammering or pecking the surface with a hard boulder
Fig. 18. Pecking and grinding processes.

A. Club head or hammer grooved by pecking with another stone.
B. Axe shaped by pecking and grinding. American.
C. Banner stone shaped by pecking and grinding. American.
Note. The a surfaces are natural, b surfaces are pecked, and c surfaces are ground
or rubbed.
(often of quartz) after the manner of the modern stonecutter (see

Fig. 18). This pecking or attrition process (with occasional substitu-
tion of grinding) was in particular favor all over America, especially
for the preliminary shaping of grinding slabs and rubbing stones,
metates and manos, mortars and pestles, celts or ungrooved axes,
notched axes (Trinidad), T-shaped axes (northern South America),
grooved axes, grooved hammers and club heads, mallets, sword-
shaped clubs, spherical stones for bolas, arrow shaft polishers, and
grooved sinkers. It was also employed in the fashioning of orna-
mental and ceremonial objects, such as earplugs, labrets, pendants,
gorgets, discoidals, plummets or charm stones, bird stones and
banner stones all typical especially of North America; three-
pointed stones, "collars," and animal effigy stools peculiar to the
central West Indies; as well as elaborate cylindrical and U-shaped
stools localized respectively in Costa Rica and Ecuador. Lastly,
this pecking method was used in the preparation of building stones,
both plain and ornamental; in the execution of petroglyphs of vari-
ous types; and in the sculpturing of a great variety of representative
art objects, including frog, snake, turtle, fish, bird, mammal, and
human effigies, in sizes ranging from miniature to colossal. But the
New World artisans also on occasion made use of the old flaking
method. Once more it will be seen that while this preliminary flaking
Fig. 19. Chiseling and grinding processes.

A. Vessel chiseled from steatite, ground on outside. American.

B. Chisel blade used for working steatite. American.
process was speedy it was liable to result in many failures, whereas

the slow pecking process was fairly reliable and capable of yielding
shapes not otherwise obtainable.
Stone-chiseling, sawing, and drilling processes. In the meantime
other processes, formerly employed on wood and bone (occasionally
even on stone during Magdalenian times), such as chiseling, sawing,
and drilling, were also applied to these softer rocks, as well as to
shell. A chisel not unlike the one used in flint-mining was employed,
especially in North America, for quarrying, excavating, and shaping
vessels, lamps,and other objects of soapstone or steatite (see Fig.
19). This industry was highly developed, for example, in southern
California and to some extent among the Eskimo; and was also
well advanced at least in Egypt and the Levant, where, however,
serpentine, alabaster, and other talcose rocks, as well as marble,

were in greater favor.
The sawing of jade and nephrite, which are relatively rare and
very tough materials, was employed at least in the Near East, in
China, in New Zealand, on the American North Pacific coast, and
to a slight extent in Mexico. This method was used on ordinary
stone in Tierra del Fuego in fairly early times. It was done by means
of a string or with the edge of a thin stick of wood sand being
used as an abrasive and sometimes actually with a thin sliver of
sandstone (see Fig. 20).
Fig. 20. Sawing process.

A. Sawing out an axe blade by means of a sliver of sandstone. Europe and America.
B. Axe blade of jadeite produced by sawing. North Pacific Coast.
Drilling in the harder rocks was similarly executed with the end
of either a solid or a hollow wooden stick, again with the help of
sand (see Fig. 21).
For softer varieties of rock and shell the ordinary flint drill points
served admirably. As evidence of the success of these slow and simple
perforation methods, Europe and the Near East furnish a unique
series of socketed hammers, chopping axes, and war axes that is,
those provided with haft holes. Perforated sinkers and spherical
and star-shaped club heads appear in both hemispheres. America
alone supplies a great variety of drilled tobacco pipes and "medi-
cine" tubes, as well as gorgets and other ceremonial and decorative
objects, the most exquisite being a number of spool-shaped obsidian
ear ornaments recently discovered in a tomb at Monte Alban in
Oaxaca. Ordinary drilled beads, pendants, etc., are found nearly
everywhere. With this we may claim to have accounted for all the
outstanding traits typical of the successive lithic industries.
Bone and wood-working industries. For the sake of completeness we
must also consider briefly the early stages ot the other major pre-
historic industries. Our task here differs somewhat from what has
gone before. The stone-working processes, today all but lost arts,
require full explanation; while the methods of dealing with other

raw materials survive and are well known. In the development of
Fig. 21. Drilling processes.

A. Axe-hammer partly perforated with tubular drill. Europe.
B. Tubular drill of cane hypothetical.
C. Section of tubular drill hole, showing core.
D. Pendant of slate drilled with pointed flint. American.
E. Drill of chipped flint. American, but typical also of Old World.
F. Section of typical pointed flint drill hole.
wood, bone, and metallic implements, therefore, the description

may be couched largely in terms of form, function, and stratigraphic
occurrence. Bone and allied materials were worked by chopping,
cutting, sawing, scraping, and boring. In most cases there is no way
of telling precisely when these different methods were first intro-
duced. Referring to Europe, the first known and very crude bone
implements were of the awl or dagger type and date from Mous-
terian deposits. Associated with them in time are also fragments of
bone exhibiting cuts or ricks, suggesting that they were used as
foundation rests on which to place the bottom end, say, of a wooden
spear while it was being scraped into shape. The objects are there-
fore not strictly tools. With the arrival of the Cro-Magnon man and
the Aurignacian industry, bone implements at once began to play
a considerable role. Thus the bone awl appears in perfected forms;

likewise cylindrical bone pins, perhaps for the coiffure; and in addi-
tion a modified point with either a slanting or a slit base, suitable
for attachment to the wooden lance or spear, of which there is
record already during Mousterian times. Bone needles appear for

the first time, suggesting that garments were being made. Bone
served also occasionally for artificially shaped and drilled beads.
Antler was employed for wedges or chisel-shaped implements called
"polishers" but probably used mainly for skin-dressing; and the
same material was used also for perforated arrow-straighteners,
commonly called batons-de-commandement. In addition, teeth (and
shells) were perforated to serve as pendants, while ivory and other
materials served for figurines of human and animal
sculptured
forms. The Solutrean
deposits add ornamental wandlike implements
of bone and ivory, also disks and pendants of ivory similarly deco-
rated. During the Magdalenian phase bone and antler implements
reached their acme of perfection and the period might properly be
characterized as the Bone Age. The lance point, now usually made
of antler, is converted into a detachable harpoon point, which under-
goes a succession of improvements from a single to a double row of
barbs. The spear-thrower, a new and isolated invention, is also made
of antler. The perforated bone needle appears in considerable pro-
fusion. Of rarer occurrence are perforated bone disks that may have
been either spindlewhorls or buttons, and also a spool-shaped toggle
form that may have served the latter purpose. In Moravia two axes
or adzes were found, each made of a bone blade set in a bone handle.
Lastly, mention must be made of indirect proof from pictographs in
eastern Spain of the bow and arrow, though doubtless these con-
trivances were made principally of wood. The majority of all these
articles are covered with engraved geometric or realistic ornamenta-
tion,and the Magdalenian industry as a whole is accompanied by a

great variety of sculptured and incised representations of contem-
porary life forms, both animal and vegetable.
Following the Magdalenian that is, during the transition period
represented by the Azilian stage and its contemporary Tardenoisian
and Maglemosean phases as well as during the succeeding Cam-
pignian stage and its allied Asturian phase in Spain and the early
shellmound phase in the North, there is a marked decline in bone
work, as in stone, at least in southwestern Europe. There are, to be
sure, some indications that the art was transferred to the North,
where, for example in Norway (also later on in the Eskimo region),
something like a Bone Age flourished or lingered for a time. Prob-
ably was
it never so nearly extinguished here as elsewhere in western
Europe. However, with the introduction and gradual development
of the true Neolithic culture European bone work, now mainly of a
utilitarian character, revived somewhat and its products resemble
not a little the more recent bone industry, for instance, of our own
Iroquois region. The awl as a generic type of implement naturally
survived and is to be found in a great variety of forms all over the
habitable globe. The barbed harpoon survived and appears in many
parts of the world, especially in the northern circumpolar regions,
but is present also, for example, in New Zealand and Tierra del
Fuego. The same true for the needle, the hairpin or fastener, the
is
arrow-straightener, the chisel, and allied spatulate forms, as well as

of bone beads, etc. In the way of new inventions may be mentioned
for Europe a crude L-shaped flint-mining pick, improvised from a
pronged deer antler; punches of antler prongs; some curious trans-

versely socketed antler axes and adzes of questionable function;
antler haftings for axes, chisels, awls, etc. especially from Switzer-
land; pressure chippers of bone and antler; bodkins, knives, and
daggers of bone; cutting tools of beaver and boar tusks; combs for
the hair or for compressing the woof strands in loom weaving;
gorge "hooks" (straight, double-pointed) and ordinary curved fish-
hooks. All these forms, except the boar-tusk knife, are duplicated
in America; and here in addition are found plain as well as dentic-
ulated endscrapers and long double-edged cannon bone sidescrapers
both used for skin-dressing; elaborate spatulas of bone (espe-
cially in the Southwest) presumably used in ceramic work; spear
and arrow points of bone and antler; clubs of whalebone; gambling
dice and game sticks of bone; notched tally sticks and weighing or
scale beams of the same material; ladles, spoons, and shovel blades
of horn; rattles as well as dishes of turtle carapace; and tubes
of bird bone used for drinking and by the medicine man for suck-
ing pain or disease from the patient's body. Of a more strictly es-
thetic nature there are also, in America at least, circular and oblong
bone-plate pendants, occasional perforated shark-teeth pendants,

bracelets of thin bent strips of bone, and lastly whistles, flutes, and
flageolets, as well as innumerable beads of varying lengths of tubu-

lar bird bones. In certain of the Pacific islands (Gilbert, etc.) shark
teeth, in the absence of other material, were extensively used for
giving a cutting edge to both tools and weapons. We must conclude
the inventory by merely stating that the Eskimo culture, still re-
markably rich in bone implements, adds the bow drill, snow goggles,
needle cases, and other minor items.
Wood as a workable substance allied to bone can be considered
only in general terms. As stated, a large point-end fragment of a
spear, found in England, is supposed to date from early Mousterian
times. The bow and arrow as illustrated by Spanish pictographs
date from the late Paleolithic, while the earlier presence of bone or
antler points for lances and harpoons and the existence of the spear-
thrower indicate a somewhat earlier age. From Neolithic deposits,
especially in dry caves, come a large number of additional wooden
objects, including for Europe such items as the handles for different
implements, clubs, mallets, a unique V-shaped toggle or cinch device
(Egypt, Southwest, and Peru), split log coffins, dugout canoes, boat
paddles, fishhooks, the boomerang, the throwing stick (Denmark),
knives and daggers. Other implements relating to ceramic and tex-
tile industries may be inferred and actually occur in more or less
fragmentary condition. Nearly all of these forms, except perhaps

log coffins and daggers, have been found also in America. In addition
the New World exhibits such items as tongs for handling hot cook-
ing stones; planting and digging sticks; and a spade or shovellike
implement. Then, too, here are brushes and paddles for shaping and
decorating pottery; spinning, netting, and weaving devices; dishes,
headrests, stools, boxes or chests of different forms; traces of plank
boats; frames for skin and bark boats; sleds; snowshoes; dwellings
embodying several different principles of construction; house ladders
of two types, namely, the notched log and the ordinary runged
form. Lastly we have goggles, gaming sticks, rattles, notched musical
sticks, drums, and a variety of ceremonial paraphernalia such as
poles, wands, prayer sticks, panpipes, masks, and symbolic imple-
ments. A few of these American traits, it must be admitted, border
on the present-day horizon; but their prehistoric origin can scarcely
be questioned. Specifically the same might be said of such presum-
ably ancient and widespread inventions as the blowgun, the pump
drill,and many other contrivances belonging to the wood-working
inventory. In conclusion it must be remarked that while the later
or Neolithic bone and wood products are mainly of utilitarian
character, neither embellishment nor purely artistic items are en-
tirely wanting, especially in America.
Metal industries. There remains to consider very briefly the final
step, the reproduction in metal of many of the inventions previously
achieved and the addition also of new ones. This transition, since
the classical archaeologists have dug deep enough in Egypt and the
Levant, is no longer a strictly prehistoric event, except in a limited
or local sense. The most that can be safely claimed is that prehis-
toric man in widely separated parts of theworld independently
came upon such peculiarly malleable substances as copper (earliest
occurrence usually credited to the island of Cyprus) and gold and
that he worked them for a time much after the manner of stone by
simple hammering. The application of heat to assist in forging may
also be of some antiquity, but actual melting of the native metals
and the reduction of metallic ores would appear to be approximately
contemporary with the beginnings of megalithic structures and the
invention of writing or other simple forms of record-keeping, in the
Old World ca. 3000 B.C. and in the New World sometime after
the beginning of the present era. Preliminary experimentation with

native copper doubtless accounts for the fact that in most places
the melting .and casting, first of copper and later of copper mixed
with tin that is, bronze preceded iron work, which latter no
one ventures to place much before 1500 B.C. and then only for the
eastern Mediterranean lands. Succeeding this earliest Asiatic begin-
ning, the first distinctly European iron industry, called the Hallstatt
culture after the type station in upper Austria, is regarded as dating
from about 1000 B.C., while the last "prehistoric" phase, named
after the type site at La Tene in Switzerland, dates from close to
500 B.C. and thus overlaps with Roman historical times.
The implemental products derived from these metallic industries
were naturally at first limited largely to substitutes for the earlier
elemental tools and weapons, though decorative objects are not
entirely wanting. Confining our interest mainly to the so-called
prehistoric regions of the Old World, copper and bronze tools include
awls, needles, anvils, hammers, a varied series of axes ranging from
flat imitations of stone forms to longitudinally socketed specimens;
similarly socketed picks, hoes, adzes, and chisels; saws, sickles,
tweezers, choppers, razors, and knives of many different forms. The
weapons are limited to daggers, swords and rapiers, halberds, spear
and arrow points, harpoons (rare in the Old World), shields, helmets,
and armor for man and horse. The ornamental objects comprise
hairpins with elaborate heads, rings, bracelets, torques or neck
rings, crescentic gorgets or lunulae, necklaces with beads and pend-
ants, fibulae or ornamental safety pins, brooches, chain belts,

buckles, buttons, plaques, mirrors, decorative urns or vases, horse
gear, harness trappings and other minor accessories, for instance for
the sword and spear. Of a distinctly ceremonial nature there are
bells,trumpets, and sun disks, both separate and elaborately
mounted. Finally there are also a number of miscellaneous items
such as ingots, rivets, fishhooks, cups, cauldrons, and money rings.
Were we to include the bronze traits of the early historic centers
like Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, we should have to
augment the list by such items as wheeled chariots, lamps, flesh-
hooks, forks, spoons, ladles, toilet articles, surgical instruments, and
other inventions too numerous to record.
Many of these modern-looking contrivances were wrought into
highly pleasing shapes and were often elaborately ornamented by
either geometric or realistic patterns, generally incised but sometimes
in low relief. The dot and the spiral figured especially in northern
Europe, while in southern Siberia human and animal representations

were in particular favor. And over and above all these useful articles
there was a considerable variety of purely artistic figurines, cast in
both realistic and conventionalized form, giving expression not only
to natural facts of daily observation but also to mythological con-
cepts and traditional ideas.
The preceding inventory pertains to the Old World; but, as would
be expected, many of the simpler New World contrivances are
almost identical. The practical requirements or the purposes for
which implements were made being the same, a general resemblance
in form could scarcely be avoided. Even the longitudinal and trans-
verse socket methods of hafting chisels, axes, and other implements
were hit upon, for example, in Wisconsin and Peru; but they never
came into general or widespread use. Closer inspection reveals
striking variations of details even in such generic type groups as
knives, spear and arrow points, harpoons, tweezers, hairpins or
fasteners, axe forms and vessel forms; and this difference becomes
especially marked in gold and silver work, both of decorative and
symbolic nature. Here, it seems, America is richer than the Old
World, and its products, whether realistic or conventionalized, are
often strangely grotesque and clearly of an entirely different tradi-
tion both in conception and execution. Some practical appliances
like sickles, saws, swords, trumpets, and horse gear are missing in
America; on the other hand, there are present here at least a few
unique forms, such as earplugs, nose rings, grooved axes, sword-
shaped clubs, star-shaped club heads, and bolas, as well as several
forms and styles of repouss6 work, which were not duplicated in
metallic forms in the Old World. Incidentally, the American gold-
smith's work at its best, while admittedly of a much later date, is
fully equal to the finest product of classical antiquity.
When finally we come to iron implements, we take leave of the
New World for good and at the same time begin to recognize a great
variety of forms still in use at the present day. Hammers, axes, and
adzes are perforated transversely for insertion of the haft and only
the chisel remains longitudinally socketed, though it is also some-
times tanged as today. The sickle is lengthened out to a scythe;
the hoe or digging stick is converted into a plow; the fish spear or
harpoon is transformed into a trident. Many new forms are devel-
oped, such as tongs, pincers, shears, scissors, thimbles, drawing
knives, pruning knives, augers, braces and bits, files, rasps, planes,
mounted saws, compasses, squares, plumb bobs, trowels, boat hooks,
pitchforks, rakes, plowshares, wagon trappings, andirons, locks with
keys, etc. Even nails and horseshoes are present at a fairly early date.
Evidently all but the most recent manual occupations were originated
and equipped with specialized tools. In short, as far as mechanical
appliances are concerned we have entered the modern world.
With the view to objectifying what has been summarized in the
preceding pages, the following series of typical illustrations, grouped
by chronological stages, have been placed in juxtaposition for pur-
poses of ready comparison. The selection has been confined (with
rare exceptions) to Europe for the reason that there alone the se-
quence has been all but completely determined. As far as possible,
original specimens from the collections of the American Museum of
Natural History have been used. In addition to the legends describ-
ing the given illustrations, lists have been supplied of all other known
inventions, both those illustrated from earlier stages and the new
ones not illustrated, the aim being to furnish a complete inventory
for each culture stage. (See pages 176-194.)
The Eolithic phase. At the lower extremity of the culture column
a succession of the so-called eoliths that is, supposedly utilized
natural flint flakes, etc., with more or less of accidental rather than
purposive marginal chipping has been introduced. These prob-
lematic forms range throughout all the Tertiary epochs up into
early Pleistocene and are therefore, chronologically at least, a prob-
lem for the geologists. Archaeologically or culturally the "industry"

was named by G. de Mortillet in 1883 and the inventory is believed
by Professor A. Rutot of Belgium to comprise five generic forms of
implements: namely, the hammer, the chopper, the knife, the
scraper, and the perforator; though sometimes the anvil and the
throwing stone are also included. The earliest discovery bearing on
the subject was made in 1863 by M. Desnoyer in Pliocene gravels
at Saint Prest, Eure-et-Loir, France. Since then other collections
have been made at more than eighty locations, distributed as fol-
lows:Denmark 1, Germany 7, Holland 1, England 17, Belgium 20,
France 16, Spain 1, Portugal 2, Italy 1, Greece 1, North Africa 2,
South Africa 4, Egypt 1, India 3, and alleged finds also in Australia,
South America, and possibly Mongolia. The most productive sites
have been Puy Courny and Puy de Boudieu in Cantal, France, and
the Kent plateau in England, representative respectively of Miocene
and Pliocene geological times. The latest contribution to the study has
come from East Anglia where, in the Red Crag and earlier formations
of Pliocene date, Reid Moir since 1910 has found eoliths of Kentian
type in part associated with other and apparently true implements

which he has called both Pre-Paleolithic and Pre-Chellean. 3
Rutot as the outstanding champion of eoliths records the following
more or less indistinguishable phases:
II. Early Quaternary
7. Reutelian from Reutel, near Ypres, Flanders, Belgium
I. Tertiary
6. Saint Prestian Upper Pliocene (?) Eure-et-Loir, France
5. Kentian Middle Pliocene Kent, England
4. Cantalian Upper Miocene Cantal, France
3. Thenayan Upper Oligocene Loir-et-Cher, France
2. Fagnian Middle Oligocene Boncelles, Liege, Belgium
1. Thanetian Lower Eocene Belle-Assize, Oise, France
Formerly three additional horizons, called Mafflian, Mesvinian,

and Strepyan, topped the column, but these have recently been
accepted by Rutot as equivalents of the Lower Paleolithic facies.
Aside from these three late stages the remaining horizons of eoliths
present very little difference so far as form and possible function
are concerned. Their reality as implements or even as mere artifacts
is a problem on which expert opinion is about evenly divided, but
on the whole the sponsors have been mostly geologists and not
archaeologists. The Thanetian phase is definitely known to be of
natural origin, but it does not therefore follow that those of Pliocene
and even Miocene date may not ultimately have to be accepted as
4
of human origin.
The Paleolithic industries. The subdivision of the Paleolithic Age
has proved difficult and is a task still in progress. This industrial
stage is recognized as contemporary with Pleistocene time. It has
been broken up, first by means of its associated succession of glacial
and interglacial phenomena and later by its marine shore terraces.
As we should expect, the paleontologists, both European and Ameri-
can, have also in their own way sought to subdivide the period,
using extinct faunal remains as a guide.
While in the beginning the sequence of forms was considered as
generally valid, more extended researchesmany parts of Europe
in
have proved that local variations existed at early times. An attempt
to localize the very earliest centers of distinct cultural types has
been made by O. Menghin, who distinguishes for early Paleolithic
time a culture based on the use of bone which he assumes to have
originated in northern Asia and to have spread from there over part
of Europe; another based on the use of the cleaver (coup-de-poing)
which spread from India westward over the Mediterranean area by
way of Africa; and a third one characterized by flint blades which
originated in eastern Asia and spread in a wide sweep over central
Asia and the Mediterranean. 5
Since the beginning of systematic research it has been customary
to name each type from the locality where it was first identified.
This has resulted in a considerable confusion of terms. The origin
of our present nomenclature is the natural outcome of the fact that
France and the Scandinavian countries took the lead in prehistoric
archaeology. So long as the investigations were confined to western
Europe the provided terminology served fairly well. Today, how-
ever, when becoming apparent that the course of development
it is
of the flint-working technique did not

everywhere repeat the western
European order step by step, there is no help for it but to abandon
the general use of at least one of the two classes of terms now in
use. Such designations as Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic are
readily understandable and as far as they go are adaptable for

world-wide purposes. On the other hand, such expressions as Chel-
lean, Clactonian, Acheulian, Micoquian, Levalloisian, Mousterian,
Aurignacian, Solutrean, Magdalenian, Azilian, Tardenoisian, Mag-
lemosean, Campignian, Asturian, Cromerian, Foxhallian, Capsian,

Esbaikian, and a score of similar terms, all apply to separate local-
itiesand sometimes to individual sites and as mere words are mean-
ingless. They simply designate French, Danish, English, Spanish,
and African specializations and as such will always be serviceable;
what is wanted for world purposes is a classification system, in
terms either of time or of industrial technique, which readily conveys
its meaning. Various incomplete efforts have already been made in
this direction. We
have, for example, such expressions as flaked
core industries, Jlake industries, pressure-shipping industries, micro-
lithic industries, and polished which tell more
stone industries, all of
6
or less their own story. Recently Oswald Menghin of Vienna has
made a deliberate effort to meet the new demand. His system drops
the term "Paleolithic" and takes the following form:
I. Protolithic Stage
1. Lower or Early phase (Eolithic and Pre-Chellean)
2. Middle phase (Cheliean and Acheulian)
3. Upper or Late phase (Mousterian)
II. Miolithic Stage
1. Lower or Early phase (Aurignacian)
2. Middle phase (Solutrean, Magdalenian)
3. Upper or Late phase (Azilian-Tardenoisian-Maglemosean-
Capsian)
III. Neolithic Stage
1. Early or Proto-Neolithic phase (Campignian, Asturian, etc.)
2. Full or Mixo-Neolithic phase (Final Neolithic with agricul-
ture, etc.)
The essential facts as expressed in current nomenclature have

been summarized in the table on pages 174-175. It will be under-
stood that such a correlation scheme, while convenient and useful,
is not to be taken too literally. Schematization unavoidably makes
the problems dealt with seem simpler than they really are. The facts
themselves the rise and fall of continents, the succession of ad-
vancing and retreating glaciers, the presence during the interval of
changing types of men and animals, as well as the gradual special-
ization of culture are indisputable; but the chronological juxta-
position of some of these facts is a subject about which there is no
absolute agreement. In some respects it is tentative and subject to
future rectification.
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Fig. 22
Rcr. 23
Fig. 22. Eoliths of exceptionally artificial appearance derived (one excepted)
from the Pliocene gravels of the Kent Plateau, England.
(One third natural size)
1. Hammerstone type or battered flintnodule. Belgium. After G. Engerrand.

2. Chopper type or tabular flint nodule chipped at lower end. England.
3. Sidescraper type or tabular flint nodule chipped on convex edge. England.
4. Knife type or tabular flint nodule chipped on straight edge. England. After
H. F. Osborn.
5. Sidescraper type or tabular flint nodule chipped on concave edge. England.
6. Perforator type or tabular flint nodule chipped to a point. England. Courtesy
of H. F. Osborn.
Note. Anvil stones and slingstones are also alleged to occur.
Fig. 23. Typical Pre-Chellean core and flake implements derived from
valley terrace formations of Pleistocene date.
1. Pointed core implement with crusted butt for handhold. France.

2. Chopperlike implement with crusted butt for handhold. France.
3. Knife, adapted from simple flake, slightly chipped. France.
4. Sidescraper with thick back and partly chipped straight edge. France.
5. Sidescraper with chipped concave edge. France.
6. Pointed flake implement slightly chipped at point. France.
Note. The existence of the hammerstone as improvised or adapted from natural

boulders is implied, though it is rarely found before the Mousterian cave deposits
are reached.
Fig. 24. Typical Chellean core implements derived from valley terrace deposits.
1. Pointed coup-de-poing (dagger?) with crusted butt. France.

2. Oval coup-de-poing with crusted butt for handhold. France.
3. Chopperlike coup-de-poing. Note sinuous edge. France.
Note. For additional implements of the flake type see crude forms of knives,
scrapers, and perforators illustrated above in Figure 23, 3-6.
177
Fig. 25
Fi ff.26
178
Fig. 25. Typical Acheulian core implements.
1. Coilp-de-poing or cleaver, oval outline, flaked on both faces all around, edge
moderately thin and straight. France.
2. Coup-de-poing of subtriangular outline possibly a weapon. France.
Note. Rude flake knives and scrapers similar to those of Figure 23 are also present;
likewise discoidal core forms of the type illustrated below in Figure 26, 8. See also
note to Figure 26.
Fig. 26. Typical Levalloisian implements.

1. Scraper of flake derived from prepared coup-de-poing or turtleback core (as in

Fig. 15), convex face, striking platform visible at bottom. Cross section above.
France and Egypt.
2. Knife of flake derived from prepared coup-de-poing core, concave or bulbar
face with part of striking platform. France and Egypt.
3. Scraper or core of discoidal outline, showing large flake-beds and subsequent
marginal chipping. France and Egypt.
Note. Recent refinements based on studies of a large series of crudely worked
flintsfound in situ at Clacton-on-Sea, England, have resulted in the recognition
of a Clactonian industrial phase. This new phase, characterized mainly by flake
tools, is contemporary with the Chollean, Aoheulian, and Levalloisian stages
above illustrated; it resembles the Levalloisian and Mesvinian technique of the
continent, and the three related industries are consequently regarded as joint
forerunners of the true Mousterian stage illustrated below. The Clactonian and its
allied contemporary phases should therefore correspond in time and general char-
acteristics to Obermaier's Early or Primitive Mousterian of central and eastern
Europe.
The Clactonian inventory, incidentally, includes a portion of a wooden spear
(see Sollas, Ancient Hunters, p. 193).
Fig. 27. Typical Mousterian implements.

1. Coup-de-poing or small pointed core implement. France.
2. Pointed flake with marginal pressure retouch on convex face. France.
3. Pointed flake with chipped stem for hafting to spear (?). North Africa.
4. Sidescraper of thick spall, crescentic edge, chipped on convex face only. France.
5. Sidescraper or slingstone(?), small, discoidal. France, Egypt, etc.
6. Notched Sidescraper with marginal chipping rare. France. After G. and
A. de Mortillet.
7. Bone implement(?) with blunt spatulate point. Switzerland. After O. Menghin.
8. Anvil or rest of bone fragment showing tool marks. France.
Note. For hammerstone, generally of subspherical shape, see Figure 14, A. Mineral
colors appear for the first time, likewise the use of fire and the practice of cere-
monial interment. Rare finds of pitted stones, choppers, endscrapers, burins, and
perforators are on record.
179
180
Fig. 28. Typical Aurignacian implements, ornaments, etc.
1. Knife of flake, straight edge, curved bluntly chipped back. Audi type. France.
2. Endscraper of flake, bit end rounded by chipping. France.
3. Endscraper of core (keelscraper) viewed from above; profile indicated. France.
4. Burin or engraving tool with transverse chisellike bit the simplest of several
allied forms. France.
5. Incising tool or pointed knife of flake, with straight bluntly chipped back.
Gravette type. France.
6. Notched sidescraper or drawknife. France. After H. Breuil.
7. Perforator prepared from flake by chipping near point. France. After D. Pey-
rony.
8. Stemmed point prepared from flake by chipping. Font-Robert type. France.
9. Double-pointed bone implement, possibly used in place of fishhook. France.
After D. Peyrony.
10. Needle of bone, fragmentary. France. After L. Didon.
11. Dart point of bone with slant base for hafting. France. After D. Peyrony.
12. Dart point of bone with slit base for hafting. France.
13. Lance shaft straightener of antler, sometimes called baton-de-commandement.
France.
14. Awl or perforator made from bone splinter. France.
15. Hairpin(?) of bone, circular cross section. France.
16. Spatulate implement of antler, perhaps for working skins. France.
17. Pendant or bead of univalve shell, perforated. France.
18. Pendant or bead of reindeer(?) tooth, incised ornamentation. France.
19. Bead of bone, basket-shaped. France.
20. Bead of stone, disk-shaped. France.
21. Profile of ibex(?) engraved on cave wall early style. France. After J. Deche-
lette.
22. Head of female figurine carved in ivory. France. After E. Piette.
Note. Additional surviving forms previously illustrated or mentioned: Hammer-

stones, anvil stones, sidescrapers, burinsvarious forms, paint stones (hematite),
ochre and carbon colors, pitted stones.
Note. Additional new items not previously illustrated or mentioned: Rubbing
stones, vessel or lamp of stone, curved biconical bone points (see Fig. 29, 12)}
pendant of ivory, egg-shaped, perforated; biconical bar-button or toggle, con-
stricted middle, incised ornamentation; bracelets or rings of ivory; necklace, triple
strand, made up of canine teeth, fish vertebrae and univalve shells; paint con-
tainers of tubular bones; cave-wall monochrome paintings and sculptures. A few
geometric microliths, typical of the later Tardenoisian stages, are also present.
181
Fig. 29. Typical Solutrean implements, ornaments, etc.
1. Knife or spear point (laurel leaf type), pressure chipped all over on both faces.
France.
2. Spear point or knife (willow leaf type), chipped both faces, pointed base.
France. After J. Dechelette.
3. Arrow point (?) chipped on upper face only, concave base. Spain. After
H. Obermaier.
4. Arrow point(?) chipped on upper face only, stemmed. Spain. After H. Ober-
maier.
5. Lance point or knife, chipped on upper surface only, stemmed, with single
barb or shoulder. France.
6. Perforator, double pointed, of flake chipped on upper face only. France.
7. Saw or denticulated flake. France. After H. Martin.
8. Combination endscraper and burin. France.
9. Pendant of perforated pebble. France. After D. Peyrony.
10. Awl or pointed implement of antler, longitudinal groove. France.
11. Needle of bone. France. After D. Peyrony.
12. Harpoon point (?) of antler, curved, double pointed, flattened for lashing.
Spain. After O. Menghin.
13. Pendant of ivory, incised ornamentation. Moravia. After O. Menghin.
Note. Additional surviving traits previously illustrated or mentioned: Hammer-
stones, sidescrapers, keelscrapers (rare), stemmed flake points, incising tools, ochre
and oxide colors, spatulate antler tools, lance points of bone with slant base,
lance shaft straightener of antler, pendants of perforated teeth, bracelets or rings
of ivory, sculpture in bone and stone of human and animal subjects.
Note. Additional new items not previously illustrated or mentioned: Lance point
of bone with single barb or shoulder, similar to Item 5 above.
182
Fig. 30. Typical Magdalenian implements, ornaments, etc.

1. Dart point of bone, small barbs one side. France. After H. Breuil.
2. Dart point of bone, small barbs both sides. France. After H. Breuil.
3. Harpoon point of antler, lateral knobs on stem, barbed one side. France.
After H. Breuil.
4. Harpoon point of antler, lateral knobs on stem, barbed both sides, incised
ornamentation. France. After H. Breuil.
5. Harpoon point of antler, perforated stem, barbed one side. France. After
H. Breuil.
6. Arrow point(?) of bone, forked base called fishhook. France. After H. Breuil.
7. Arrow point(?) of bone with stem and barbs called fishhook. France.
After H. Breuil.
8. Daggerof bone, perforated and ornamented. France. After H. Breuil.
9. Spear-thrower of antler with carved image of mountain goat. France. After
J. Dechelette.
10. Arrow shaft straightener or baton of antler with horse engravings. France.
After Lartet and Christy.
11. Wand or baton of ivory with curved line ornamentation. France. After
H. Breuil.
12. Spatulate implement of bone with straight line ornamentation. France. After
G. Backman.
13. Bar-button or toggle of bone. France. After G. and A. de Mortillet.
14. Bead or pendant of bivalve shell, perforated. France. After G. and A. de Mor-
tillet.
15. Pendant of small pebble, perforated. France.
16. Lamp of stone. France. (From cast.)
17. Mortar of stone. France.
18. Game trap or house frame (?) painted on cave wall. France. After G. and A.
de Mortillet.
stones, whetstones, endscrapers, keelscrapers, burins, incising tools, stemmed
flake points, perforators, saws, shell beads, bone awls, needles, lance points with
slant and slit bases, straight double-pointed "fishhooks," spatulate antler imple-
ments, ornamented bone pendants, pendants of teeth, bar button or handle with
transverse groove, microlithic flake tools.
Note. Additional new items not previously illustrated or mentioned: Club head or
weight for digging stick of perforated boulder, vessel adapted from human skull,
whistle(?) of phalangeal bone, perforated disk button, perforated pendant of
ivory, polychrome cave-wall paintings.
183
fig. 31
184
Fig. 31. Typical Azilian-Tardenoisian-Maglemosian implements, etc.
(Nos. 1, 7-11 one third natural size; 12-23 two thirds; 2-6 reduction unknown)
1. Painted pebble. Azilian. France.

2-5. Conventionalized human figures painted on cave wall. Spain. After
H. Obermaier.
6. Hunting scene showing bow and arrow, painted on cave wall. Spain. After
H. Breuil.
7. Fishhook of bone. Maglemosian. Denmark. After K. F. Johansen, etc.
8. Harpoon point of deer antler, perforated, double barbed. Azilian. France.
After G. and A. de Mortillet.
9. Dart point of bone, double slant base. Maglemosian. Denmark.
10. Dart point of bone with flint flake barbs. Maglemosian. Denmark.
11. Adze of antler, perforated, punctate ornamentation. Denmark. After
K. F. Johansen.
12. Endscraper of flint, subtriangular. Tardenoisian. Germany.
13. Arrow point of flint, cross-cutting type, hafted by lower edge. Tardenoisian.
Germany.
14-15. Arrow points, semilunar and triangular, hafted by right chipped edges.
Tardenoisian. Germany.
16. Incising tool or knife with bluntly chipped back. Tardenoisian. Germany.
17. Incising tool or knife with slantingly chipped point. Tardenoisian. Ger-
many.
18-22. Geometric flints with two chipped margins. Tardenoisian. Germany.
23. Incising tool, double pointed, three chipped margins. Maglemosian. Den-
mark. After K. F. Johansen.

stones (oval), anvil stones (pitted), rubbing stones, grooved polishing stones,
polishing pebbles, pendants of perforated pebbles, keelscrapers, discoidal scrapers,
sidescrapers, notched scrapers, burins, saws, perforators, stemmed flake points,
pointed antler implements (pressure chippers?), wedges or spatulate antler
implements, barbed harpoon points of bone and antler, awls of bone, needle or
bodkin of bone (rare), pendants of perforated teeth, crude geometric and realistic
engravings on bone.
Note. Additional new items not previously illustrated or mentioned: Picks or
crude pointed core implements, chisels or chisel-pointed core implements, chisels
made from pebbles by rubbing, axe or chopper of flint spall (see Fig. 32, i), rare;
axe or chopper of flint hafted in antler, adze of flint hafted in antler, adze of
antler hafted in antler, chisel or spatulate tool of hollow bone, chisel or chopper
adapted from swine tooth, knives adapted from beaver and swine teeth, bifurcated
bone implement resembling Figure 30, 6, lump of rosin, probably used as glue;
lump of pyrites, probably for striking fire.
185
186
Danish
Fig. 32. Typical Early Neolithic implements, etc., of shell heap,
French Campignian, and Spanish Asturian facies.
(About one third natural size; No. 20 about one ninth)
1. Axe (tranchet) adapted from sharp-edged spall. Denmark and France.
2. Chisel adapted from sharp-edged spall. Denmark.
3. Pick flaked from quartzite boulder. Asturian. Spain.
4. Pick flaked from spall or core, triangular cross section. Denmark, France, etc.
5. Axe flaked from core, lenticular cross section, simple bit. Denmark.
6. Endscraper, chipped concave bit. Denmark.
7. Endscraper of short spall, chipped convex bit. Denmark, etc.
8. Arrow point of cross-cutting type, lateral margins chipped. Denmark, etc.
9. Rubbing stone, discoidal and faceted. France.
10. Mealing stone, slightly dished. France.
11. Axe of antler, perforated for hafting. Denmark, etc.
12. Awl of split deer bone. Denmark, but world-wide.
13. Awl or dagger of deer bone with natural butt. Denmark, etc. After W. Dreyer.
14. Awl of bird bone. Denmark. After C. Neergaard.
15. Boomerang(?) of wood. Denmark. After T. Thomsen and A. Jessen.
16. Fishhook of bone, barbed. Denmark. After W. Dreyer.
17. of bone, basket-shaped. Denmark. After C. Neergaard.
Pendant or bead
18. Comb of bone, perforated. Denmark. After W. Dreyer.
19. Pendant of tabular bone. Denmark. After W. Dreyer.
20. Pottery vessel, indented rim, pointed bottom. Denmark. After T. Thomsen
and A. Jessen.
stones, sidescrapers (convex and concave bits), endscrapers of long flakes (convex
bit), perforators or drills, adze, pressure chipper of antler, axe hafted in bone
sleeve, knife of boar's tooth.
Note. Additional new items not previously illustrated or mentioned: Endscrapers
with right or left slanting bit, arrow points of crude triangular form, bone pins
with heads, axe hafted in wooden sleeve, antler axe with wooden handle, bow(?) of
wood, side guards of wood for fish spear, bracelet or ring of bone.
187
tonal
Flf.33 forms
Fig. 33. Typical Middle and Late Neolithic implements, etc. Mostly from the
Baltic area and derived from village sites, dolmen and chambered mound burials.
(About one third natural size)
1. Grindstone, for use in shaping flint axes, etc. Sweden.

2. Axe of flint, earliest form, pointed butt, thin edges, partly ground. Sweden.
3. Axe of flint, second form, thin butt, flat edges, ground. Denmark.
4. Axe of flint, third form, rectangular butt, flat edges, partly ground. Denmark.
5. Axe of flint, fourth and final form, rectangular butt, flat edges, flaring bit,
ground. Probably of Bronze Age date. Denmark,
rtly
of flint, partly ground. Denmark.
7. Gouge of flint, partly ground. Preceded by form similar to axe No. 2. Den-
mark.
8. Chisel of flint, ground. Preceded by ruder unground form. Denmark.
9. Axe-hammerof stone, perforated, ground and polished. Denmark.
10. War axe of stone, faceted, perforated and ground one of several forms.
Probably of Bronze Age date. Denmark.
11. Club head of stone, subspherical, perforated. Denmark.
12. Bead or pendant
of amber, double-axe shape. Denmark.
13. Bead or pendant
of amber, possibly a button, hourglass shape. Denmark.
14. Spear point of slate, ground. Of circumpolar distribution. Sweden. After
0. Montelius.
15. Sickleblade of flint, stemmed and notched for hafting. Denmark.
16. Knife or saw of flint, semilunar, slightly serrated. Denmark.
17. Saw of flint, denticulated edge, arched back. Denmark.
18. Spear point or primitive dagger of flint, ripple chipped. Denmark.
19. Dagger of flint, fishtail handle with ornamental chipping. Probably of Bronze
Age date. Denmark.
20. Arrow points of flint seven basic forms. Denmark and British Isles.
21. Arrow point of flint, basal notches. Probably of Bronze Age date. Denmark and
British Isles.
22. Pottery vessel, stamped ornamentation filled with chalk. Denmark.
Note. Additional surviving forms previously illustrated or mentioned: Stone:

hammerstones, rubbing stones, mealing stones, pebble pendants strung as neck-
laces. Flint: spear points (see Fig. 17, D), arrow points of trapezoidal type, notched
sidescrapcrs, endscrapers (long and short), drill points, picks. Bone and antler:
awls, needles (rare), dart points with small barbs, harpoon points, with and
without basal perforation, chisels or spatulas, pressure chippers (see Fig. 17, B),
fishhooks, pendants of tabular bone, pendants of perforated teeth.
Note. Additional new items not previously illustrated or mentioned: Stone: pitted
stones (ceremonial?), grooved sinkers, whetstones of slate, club heads (perforated
disks), club heads (oval with groove), chisels with round flat top, perforated cere-
monial axes, stemmed axes, grooved axes (American type), lamps or vessels
(British Isles), petroglyphic inscriptions. In addition North America furnishes a
variety of ceremonial objects such as pipes, banner stones, bird stones, gorgets,
etc. Flint: pressure chippers, flake knives with stem or handle, food knives with
parallel-sided blade and handle, fully chipped; spear points with straight, convex,
pointed, and stemmed bases; stemmed arrow points with long triangular-sectioned
file-shaped body; spoon-shaped or stemmed endscrapers, gouge with pointed butt
and thin edges, gouge-chisel, axe of thin-butted type (see Fig. 33, 3) hafted in
wooden handle, sickle of flint flake hafted in wooden handle. Bone and antler:
L-shaped picks of pronged deer antler, used for mining flint (England and
Belgium), hairpins with disk heads and perforation, ornaments of boar tusks,
game pieces. Many other specialized implements and ornaments are found in the
Eskimo culture. Amber: beads, pendants, and studs of various shapes. Wood:
spoons, skis. Textiles: fishnets, cords, etc. Burnt clay: spoons with holes like
collander, bottlenecked vessels.
189
Fig. 34. Typical Neolithic (Robenhausian) implements, etc., from the
Alpine area and derived mainly from Swiss lake pile dwellings.
(Nos. 1-22 about one third natural size; the rest much reduced)
1. Axe of stone, pointed butt, pecked body, ground bit. Switzerland.
2. Axe of stone, set in simple antler sleeve. Earliest form of mounting. Switzer-
land.
3. Axe of jadeite, set in shouldered antler sleeve with spur. Second form. Switzer-
land.
4. Axe (or adze) of stone, set in bifurcated antler sleeve. Third form. Switzerland.
5. Axe of stone, set in antler with transverse perforation. Last form. Switzerland.
6. Chisel of jadeite, set in antler handhold. Early form. Switzerland.
7. Knife of flint, set in wooden handhold, perforated. Switzerland.
8. Knife of flint, set in antler handle. Switzerland.
9. Chisel or spatula of bone. Switzerland.
10. Fishhook made from boar's tooth. Switzerland.
11. Awl of split mammal bone. Switzerland.
12. Awl of bone, set in bone handle. Switzerland.
13. Pottery vessel in form of pitcher. Switzerland.
14. Spindlewhorl of burnt clay.
15. Loom weight of burnt clay. Switzerland.
16. Comb or bifurcated rib, for pressing down woof. Switzerland.
17. Button of bone, extra large. Switzerland.
18. Pendant of antler, transversely grooved. Switzerland.
19. Beads of stone, cylindrical. Switzerland.
20. Bracelet of lignite. France. After R. Montandon.
21. Human figurine of burnt clay. France. After J. Dechelette.
22. Ornamented idol of burnt clay. Austria. After A. Schenk.
23. Mallet of wood. Switzerland. After F. Keller.
24. Axe showing details of hafting. Switzerland. After F. Keller.
25. Dipper of wood. Switzerland. After F. Keller.
26. Ladle of wood. Switzerland. After F. Keller.
27. Club of wood. Switzerland. After F. Keller.
28. Bow of yew wood. Switzerland. After G. and A. de Mortillet.
29. Boat or canoe of wood. Switzerland. After F. Keller.
Note. Additional surviving forms previously illustrated or mentioned: Stone:
hammerstones; perforated club heads, axe-hammers, and war axes; rubbing stones,
mealing stones, whetstones, paint stones, pendants of perforated pebbles, bracelets
or discoidal rings. Flint: geometric microliths, sidescrapers, endscrapers, saws,
perforators or drills, knives, daggers, spear points with convex and stemmed bases,
arrow points of all ordinary basic forms. Bone and antler: daggers or awls of
olecranon bone, knives, gorge hooks, fishhooks, needles or bodkins, pins with
plain and ornamented heads, spatulate tools, harpoons with barbs and perfora-
tions, combs, pendants of perforated teeth and bone plates. Pottery: vessels of
various forms, plain and decorated with stamped or incised geometric designs.
Note. Additional new items not previously illustrated or mentioned: Stone:
grooved hammers or net sinkers, grooved axes, pestles, plummets or pendants of
limestone, discoidal rings, bracelets of schist, diminutive incised stone tablets
representing idols, man-size idols sculptured in low relief, petroglyphic inscrip-
tions. Flint: dagger blades hafted in wood, discoidal club heads with perforation,
cutters or chisels set in bone or antler handles. Shell: pendants of tabular pieces,
bracelets, coral objects. Bone, antler, etc.: hammers and hoes of antler with
perforation for hafting, daggers, knives and chisels or burins of boars' teeth, skates
of bone, arrow points of bone and antler with and without barbs, flute of bird bone
with three vents, buttons of bone disks with two perforations. Wood: daggers,
knives, chisels or wedges, dishes, churn dashers, suspension hooks, looms, ladders,
wattlework houses, log houses, flails, ox yokes. Textiles: basketry, string, rope,
fishnets, cloth of various weaves, embroidery. Pottery: vessels with birchbark
inlay, needle holders, pot rings. Copper: beads, axes. Agriculture and animal
husbandry: wheat, barley, millet, flax, poppy, grape; dog, sheep, goat, pig, ox.
191
flfi.35
192
Fig. 35. Typical bronze implements, etc., of Bronze Age, derived mostly from
the Baltic and Alpine centers but characteristic of all western Europe.
(Nos. 1-31, about one third natural size; the rest much reduced)
1. Axe blade, thin, flat, flaring bit (compare Fig. 33, 5). Denmark.
2. Axe blade with lateral flanges. France.
3. Axe blade with stop and flanges. Hungary.
4. Axe blade with loop and wide flanges.
5. Axe blade with socket, loop, and ornamentation. Hungary.
Note. The above series presents the evolution of the Bronze Age.
6. Chisel with socket for insertion of handle. Switzerland.

7. Hammer with socket for hafting. Switzerland.
8. Awl haftcd in antler. Switzerland.
9. Needle. Switzerland.
10. Tweezers, ornamented. Denmark.
11. Razor with perforated handle. Switzerland.
12. Razor with looped handle (boat-shaped). Denmark.
13. Saw, fragmentary. Denmark.
14. Knife with stem for hafting, ornamented. Switzerland.
15. Spear point with perforated socket for hafting. Denmark.
16. Dagger blade with rivets and rivet holes (hafting indicated). Denmark.
17. Sword, double-edged, with riveted hilt. Germany.
18. Arrow point, socketed and barbed. Hungary.
19. Arrow point, stemmed and shouldered. Switzerland.
20. Arrow point, straight base, perforated for hafting. Switzerland. After F. Keller
21. Fishhooks, single and double. Switzerland.
22. Bit for horse bridle, linked. Switzerland.
23. Wheel for votive chariot or possibly a pendant. Switzerland.
24. Hairpins (6) with different types of head, plain and ornamented. Switzerland.
25. Fibula, or simple form of safety pin. Switzerland.
26. Pendant, or part of a pendant. Switzerland.
27. Bar-shaped button. Denmark.
28. Chain attached to pin. Switzerland. After F. Keller.
29. Bracelet, open, hollow, ornamented. Switzerland.
30. Sword hilt button with spiral ornamentation, typical motive. Denmark.
31. Sickle blade. Hungary.
32. Female figure, dressed in short-sleeved jacket and skirt tied with tasseled belt.
Necklace, spiral armrings, belt buckle, and dagger indicated. Denmark. After
S. Muller.
33. Warrior with bow, arrow, and sword petroglyph. Sweden. After G. Ekholm.
34. Warrior with axe and shield petroglyph. Sweden. After 0. Montelius.
35. Warrior on horseback with spear and shield petroglyph. Sweden. After
S. Muller.
36. Plowing with oxen petroglyph. Sweden. After G. Ekholm.
37. Horse-drawn chariot petroglyph. Sweden. After O. Montelius.
38. Double-pro wed vessel with warriors petroglyph. Sweden. After 0. Mon-
telius.
39. Warrior blowing trumpet petroglyph. Sweden. After W. Dreyer.
Note. By time the surviving inventions previously mentioned, as well as the
this
new forms not here illustrated, are so numerous that to name them becomes im-
practical. The approximate numbers are as follows: surviving old forms, 27; new
inventions and practices, about 90.
193
194
Fig. 36. Typical implements, etc., chiefly of the later Iron Age, derived mostly
from graves and habitation sites of the Baltic and Alpine areas.
(Nos. 1-7, 9-11, 17, 18, 20, 21, about one sixth natural size; Nos. 8, 12-15, 19,
22-38, about one third natural size; No. 16, two thirds natural size)
1. Anvil of iron. Denmark.
2. Hammer of iron, perforated for hafting in modern style. Denmark.
3. Axe of iron, socketed for hafting in Bronze Age style. Denmark.
4. Axe of iron, perforated for hafting in modern style. Denmark.
5. Tongs of iron. Denmark.
6. Auger of iron, spoon-shaped bit. Hungary and Denmark. After J. Deche-
lette.
7. Combination saw and knife, stemmed and hafted. Switzerland.
8. Spokeshave of iron with stems for hafting. Austria. After J. Dechelettc.
9. Plowshare of iron, flanged for fastening on beam. Austria. After J. Deche-
lette.
10. Scythe blade of iron. Switzerland.
11. Shears of iron with bent spring handhold. Switzerland.
12. Horseshoe of iron, with heels and six nailholes probably late. Denmark.
13. Harpoon point of iron, socketed and barbed. Hungary.
14. Spear point of iron, socketed. Denmark.
15. Arrow point of iron, lozenge-shaped, stemmed. Hungary.
16. Arrow point of bronze, trifoliate, socketed, perforated. Hungary.
17. Dagger with iron blade and bronze hilt. Switzerland.
18. Sword of iron, double-edged, stemmed for hilt, Switzerland.
19. Razor or knife of iron, twisted handle with ring. Hungary.
20. Fish spear of iron, three prongs with single barbs. Switzerland. After
R. Munro.
21. Boathook of iron, with spike and socket. Switzerland. After R. Munro.
22. Cup of wood, apparently turned on lathe. Denmark.
23. Cup of bronze with riveted loop handle. Switzerland.
24. Dice of bone. (Tally marks should have been dots with two concentric
circles.) Sweden. After 0. Montelius.
25-28. Polychrome mosaic beads of glass. Denmark and Sweden.
29. Pendant of amber. Denmark.
30. Safety pin or fibula of bronze. Denmark.
31. Safety pin or fibula of iron. Switzerland.
32. Hairpin or garment fastener of bronze, flat head. Denmark.
33. Brooch of bronze in form of animal head, ornamented. Sweden.
34. Buckle of bronze with serpent head extremities. Sweden.
35. Belt hook and ring of iron. Switzerland.
36. Bracelet of bronze, bent bar with 15 knobs. Hungary.
37. Finger ring of gold, with ornamentation and stone setting. Sweden. After
0. Montelius.
38. Strike-a-light stone with lateral groove for reception of metal band by
which it was fastened to the belt. Denmark.
Note. Additional surviving culture traits, 55; additional new culture traits,
about 155.
195
The chief sources of error are: the conflicting opinions as to the
exact number of glaciations in various regions affected, the lack oi
unanimity concerning the synchronization, for example, of the

Alpine, Scottish, Scandinavian, and North American glacial move-
ments, the irregularity of the faunal changes in different localities
incidental to glacial advances and retreats, and above all the diffi-
culty of assigning absolute dates to the succession of events
except in the case of the Holocene epoch. Nevertheless, in spite oi
all these uncertainties, the general results are doubtless as nearly
correct as are the so-called known events of documented historical

writings. Finally, must be emphasized that our schematized treat-
it
ment applies primarily to France and secondarily at most only tc

western PAirope. To what extent the results here observed hold true
7
for the rest of the world is still to be determined.
Development of archaeology in Africa. During the last fifty years:
several large surface collections of early Paleolithic types of stone
implements have been gathered in Egypt, especially on the high
desert plateau west of Luxor. Smaller surface finds of the same
general character have also been made in Somaliland, in the Nubian
and Lybian deserts, in Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco, as well as in
scattered sections of the Sahara as far south as Timbuktu. Similar
roughly flaked coup-de-poing forms, derived partly from the surface
and partly from river gravels and cave deposits, have been recovered
in small numbers in a few places in the Congo basin and in large
quantities in many scattered sections of Rhodesia and South Africa.
The majority of these implements, running into tens of thousands,
are of Lower and Middle Paleolithic aspects (Chellean, Acheulian,
Mousterian); but in so far as they are merely surface gatherings,
their ages in terms of European chronology have not until lately
been even approximately determinable. All that could be done was
to separate them into type groups which in turn, in the case of the
Egyptian specimens, could be arranged chronologically by means
of the varying degrees of exhibited weathering or patination. Since
1926, however, K. S. Sanford and W. J. Arkell, of the University of
Chicago, have identified the Nile valley lateral gravels as of Pleis-
tocene age and have in addition removed numerous Chellean-Acheu-
lian coups-de-poing from the older upper terraces and Mousterian
forms from the later lower terraces (the Neolithic remains are in
the latest valley floor silts), so that now it becomes possible to
synchronize the Egyptian and western European Paleolithic stages
and perhaps to say which is the older. Similarly, since 1926, L. S. B.

Leakey has discovered in Kenya Colony numerous implements of
Chellean, Acheulian, and Mousterian types embedded in geologic
deposits belonging to the Pleistocene pluvial and interpluvial scries,
which, it is thought, can be definitely correlated with European
glacial epochs.
Artifacts of Upper Paleolithic affinities are less uniformly distrib-
uted in Africa, or .else are more difficult to recognize because they
do not everywhere conform to European standards. They are abun-
dant, however, all along the Mediterranean coast and have been
extensively excavated in the rock shelters and inland shell heaps
(escargotieres) of Tunis and Algiers. Here they characterize the so-

called Capsian culture stage, which is a locally peculiar flake indus-
try, in partcontemporary with and very similar to the Aurignacian
of western Europe. In addition, Mr. Leakey has lately excavated in
the Kenya Colony caves several deep culture deposits exhibiting as
many as eight successive occupation levels, beginning at the bottom
with a distinctly Aurignacian industry and ending at the top with
modern or Post-Neolithic relics. All of these culture horizons include
faunal remains, living or extinct, which latter, taken together with
the geological evidences of climatic fluctuations, will ultimately
serve to date the archaeological findings. Rhodesia and South Africa
have also furnished flake implements of Upper Paleolithic type, but
until very recently these promising items were mostly of surface
origin.
To most complete inventory comes from the Kenya
date, the
Colony caves and includes the following typical items; hammer-
stones of subspherical form; rubbing or grinding stones of lava, used
for grinding paintsand suitable also perhaps for smoothing and
sharpening bone awls; "sinew frayers," adapted from flint flakes;
"pressure chippers," likewise adapted; knives with straight edges
and bluntly chipped arched backs; perforators, or drill points;
gravette points, or incising tools; burins, or engraving tools of
several different forms; sidescrapers with either convex or concave
edges; single and double endscrapers; geometric microliths (trian-

gular, trapezoidal, semilunar,awls of bone; and, finally,
etc.);
numerous beads and pendants of shell and ivory. Traces of pottery
were also found, but these may perhaps be explained as intrusions
from the Neolithic levels above. The inventory given by A. Pond
for his Algerian sites is slightly richer in bone implements, exhibits
no pottery, but otherwise is nearly the same. In conclusion it should
be pointed out that the Upper Paleolithic in at least some parts of
Africa ended with a microlithic industry in some respects identical
with the Azilian-Tardenoisian of Europe. There is this important
chronological difference, however, that whereas Europe's microlithic
stage ended some eight or nine thousand years ago, in Egypt certain
of the traits (for example, semilunar arrow points) held on down into
Dynastic times and have been retained in the Bushman's imple-
mental outfit practically to our own day.
As supplemental to the indicated industrial remains, Africa is
characterized also by numerous and widely distributed animal pic-
tographs, both painted and sculptured, which are at least in part
of Paleolithic date. Their general style and mode of execution bear
a strong resemblance to the Paleolithic cave art of Europe, especially
to that of the rock shelters of eastern Spain. But while some of the
African representations are of extinct creatures and therefore pre-
sumably ancient, others are not; and of the latter not a few are
attributable to the Bushmen of comparatively recent times.
Africa's Neolithic stage is comparatively unknown. Surface col-
lections are available from such scattered localities as Mauritania,
Egypt, Kenya Colony, and the Vaal River valley in South Africa.
But aside from a few excavations in minor Nile valley shell heaps
and in some of the Kenya Colony caves, very any, unmixed
little, if
material has been obtained. Consequently the purely Neolithic

inventory as yet uncertain; likewise its geographic and chronologic
is
ranges. However, it appears to have included spear and arrow points,

celts, mortars and pestles, perforated stone rings, simple stamped
or incised pottery, as well as ordinary bone awls and disk beads of
shell and other materials. In Egypt alone, where much work has
been done of late, the Neolithic inventory seems fairly complete,
and here also there are indications of considerable antiquity. Thus
Breasted states that broken pottery has been obtained from wells,
driven through the Nile valley silt, at depths ranging close to ninety
feetbelow the present surface. From this fact he has calculated that
the Egyptian Neolithic culture may date back all of 20,000 years.
But while this conclusion as regards ceramics is strengthened in one
sense by the suggestive pottery finds in the Aurignacian of Kenya
Colony, other indications from all around the eastern end of the
Mediterranean would seem to call for a lapse of not more than
about 12,000 years since the beginning of the true Neolithic.
When we turn to Africa's metallurgical stages there is still less

to be said. The Mediterranean coastal zone may be assumed to
have shared the products found in Egypt and Spain, though little
information is available on the subject. Elsewhere, as in scattered
localities south and southeast of the Sahara, copper seems to have
been worked during Pre-European times, and at least some uncer-
tain alloys were made even as far south as the Orange Free State.
But very likely all of this work was of relatively late Arabic intro-
duction. Iron, on the other hand, is positively known to have been
smelted from early times in many localities outside the Sahara and
central Congo regions; and when the Portuguese first began to cir-
cumnavigate Africa, during the latter half of the fifteenth century,
its products were already being traded practically throughout the
entire continent. The only places, in fact, where stone implements

were found still in use were among some of the Bushmen in the
south and on the Island of Fernando Po off the Guinea coast. The
investigation of Africa, outside of Egypt, is still in its infancy.
Nevertheless, enough is known to warrant the current opinion that
man is as old here, probably, as in Europe itself, though apparently
his culture has not everywhere undergone so many sharply marked
8
changes.
Southern Asia. The mainland of India has yielded many cave and
open-air indications of the Lower, Upper, and Final (Tardenoisian)
Paleolithic industries; also a crude cave art resembling that of
southeastern Spain and Africa. In addition, numerous sites repre-
sentative of the Neolithic and iron-working techniques have been
found, and these are associated with megalithic structures, some of
which, like the dolmen, are still being erected in places. The copper
and bronze industries are only faintly indicated, and current opinion
isthat India passed directly from the Neolithic to the Iron stage.
To date, the extensive collections made appear to be mainly of
surface origin; but workers are now active. 9
many
Farther India is less well known but has been sampled in every
part, sufficiently to indicate several peculiarities. The only thorough-
going work, executed since 1902 by H. Mansuy and his co-workers
of the Geological Survey of French Indo-China, has been concen-
trated on the caves and shell heaps of Tonkin, which have yielded
data ranging back to a primitive Neolithic culture called Bac-
sonian.
10
A somewhat is also reported from the
similar industry
Malay peninsula. The region as a whole exhibits at least some

megalithic monuments and is noted especially for its historic ruins,
like the great Angkor-Vat in Cambodia. The general results for

southern Asia go to show that this part of the world, at least as far
as India, shared all the major culture stages revealed in northern
Africa and western Europe.
Central Asia. Being comparatively difficult of access, central Asia
has until lately been left practically untouched by the archaeologists
except for its marginal areas. It is only recently that finds have been
made which reveal the importance of this whole vast district for an
understanding of earliest human
prehistory. The finds include skel-
etal and cultural remains, some of which date back to the early
part of the Pleistocene epoch, thus rivaling European discoveries in

11
respect to both antiquity and primrtiveness of culture status.
Northern Asia. Northern Asia, or Siberia, contrary to theoretical
expectations, has also yielded important antiquities. The first im-
portant discovery was made by I. T. Savenkov in 1884 near Kras-
noyarsk in the upper Yenisei country. This revealed implements of
Upper Paleolithic aspect associated with bones of the mammoth,
the rhinoceros, and other extinct mammals. Not until 1923 were
the authenticity and character of the finds made generally known. 12
In the meantime G. P. Sosnovski, B. E. Petri, and other Russian
investigators have uncovered similarly associated remains, not only
higher up in the Yenisei valley toward Minusinsk, but also to the
west, near Biisk in the upper Ob basin, and to the east along the
Angara River as far as Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal. However, this
primitive culture phase not necessarily as old as its European

is
counterpart, because the accompanying fauna here, as in America,

may have survived until fairly recent times. The types find their
parallel in the typical Mousterian and the transition to the Aurigna-
cian of Europe. A
more recent type, Petri's Siberian Magdalenian,
was found near Irkutsk. 13
In the same general latitude that is, throughout the steppe
zone between fifty andsixty degrees north numerous Neolithic
stations have also been worked at points ranging all the way from
the Ural mountains to the mouth of the Amur. A few stray sites
are known even along the Arctic coast, particularly at the mouth of
the Ob River and at various points near Bering Strait. Finally, the
North Pacific shore represented by recently worked Neolithic lo-
is
cations, with pottery, on the Kamchatka peninsula. 14 Indicative of

the later culture stages, a rich and unique bronze-working center 15
has been made known in the Minusinsk region and elsewhere since
about 1860; while evidence of an iron industry is marked, for ex-
ample, in the upper Lena valley, northwest of Lake Baikal. These
two metal stages, however, according to Kadloff, are widespread in
south-central Siberia, as well as in Outer Mongolia, and are marked
by burial sites in the form of both mounds and cairns.
Summing up for Asia, appears that in spite of practical diffi-
it
much sound
culties archaeological work already has been done and
that the scattered and disconnected results demand further investi-
gation. To
date, perhaps the most important general conclusions
that have emerged are the three following. It appears tolerably
certain that the Lower Paleolithic phase, as characterized in western
Europe and Africa by the coup-de-poing, is confined to southern

Asia and that therefore the available traces of contemporary stone-
working techniques north of the Himalayas correspond to the Pre-
Mousterian ilake industry of central Europe. It appears equally
certain that, as in South Africa, so in various parts of Asia India,
Manchuria, Siberia the Iron Age followed directly upon the Neo-
lithic without the intervention of the Bronze stage. Finally, it ap-
pears more than probable that western Asia and adjacent Egypt
mark the locality in the Old World where early man made the first
successful transition from the primitive mode of subsistence based
on the hunting and gathering of natural food products to a life
sustained mainly by artificial production through agriculture and
animal husbandry.
Indonesia. In the not very distant geological past a subsidence of
southeastern Asia produced the series of islands variously known as
the East Indies, Indonesia, and the Malay archipelago. This insula-
tion of the outlying high portions of the mainland took place pre-
sumably before man arrived on the scene; yet today these islands
are all more or less densely populated by an invading series of racial
types, of which the Negritos are the most primitive though not
necessarily the most ancient. Just when they or their predecessors
arrived is uncertain; but the discoveries in Java since 1890, by E.
Dubois and others, of primitive skeletal remains (Pithecanthropus
erectus, Homo
wadjakensis, etc.) of Pleistocene date suggest that
members human and protohuman stocks reached this part
of the
of the world perhaps even before implements were invented. In
keeping with this idea, Paleolithic culture remains are lately re-
ported from Java, and indications of similar finds are alleged for
the Philippines. Whatever the truth, the cousins Sarasin in 1903
excavated a number of caves in Celebes, obtaining a stone industry
which, as in the case of Ceylon, they regarded as of Magdalenian
16
affinities. On the other hand, the caves of Borneo appear to have
yielded nothing particularly ancient, and the same seems to be the
case with Sumatra, Formosa, and far-away Madagascar. Shell heaps,
strange to say, are not reported from the region except in Formosa.
Pottery is extremely rare. Implements of the polished stone type
are everywhere present in limited quantities and varieties, while
chipped arrow points are absent for example, in Formosa and
apparently also in Borneo and the Philippines. Associated doubtless

with this prehistoric semi-Neolithic horizon are old mining shafts
and agricultural terraces; also a scattered sprinkling of megalithic
features, such as monoliths, human images, circles,dolmens, plat-
forms, and some peculiar great circular stone urns. Several of these
items are identical in type with those of the adjacent continent;
but apparently, excepting Madagascar, such cyclopean works are
no longer being produced. Architectural ruins of pretentious order
are seemingly confined to Java and, like those mentioned in Cam-
bodia, are of Indian origin, dating from the latter half of the first
millennium of our era. Ceramic and other evidences of Chinese con-
tact, confined mostly to the northern islands, are traceable also to
about the same period. The final noteworthy fact about the Malay
archipelago is that since the first arrival of Europeans the native
inhabitants, in spite of inequalities of status, have all employed
metals as the basis of their material culture.
Australia and Tasmania. Passing southeast beyond the "Wallace
Line," which by a deep and ancient ocean channel has effectually
separated the continental and island faunas, and also come near to
marking the boundary between the metal-working and stone-work-
ing cultures in the Pacific region, we may turn our attention first
to Australia and Tasmania.
Archaeologically the Australian-Tasmanian realm is of more than

ordinary interest. Being an extreme border region, comparatively
unfavorable climatically and zoologically, it may have been the
place of retreat of primitive forms. Professor Sollas, for example,
has ventured to compare the Tasmanian flint-flaking technique with
the f acies of European eoliths and the Australian flaked and chipped
stone industry with that of the European Mousterian stage. In
short,he has sought to identify these isolated peoples as truly living
representatives of the fossil men of the Old World mainland. These

resemblances are real enough as far as they go, but their chronologic
significance in the absence of stratigraphic investigation is doubtful
because Australia, like America, yields a mixture of implements,
some of which, measured by European standards, are of ancient
form while others are presumably of relatively recent invention.
Since most of the recovered Australian implemental data unfor-
tunately have been obtained from living tribes or merely gathered
from the surface of old workshops and camp sites, including rock
shelters and minor shell heaps, the material may consist of mix-
tures dating from widely separated periods of time or stages of
technique. Too little is known about observed time sequences to
allow us to determine a succession of industries. The recent excava-
tion of two South Australia, 17 a rock
stratified culture deposits in
shelter accumulation fully six meters deep and an open-air site of
earlier date with about three meters of debris, do not give any
clear evidence. The two sections together exhibit a slightly changing
fauna and also four or five distinguishable implemental phases, the
lowermost of which is in general very similar to the etude stone
and bone industries of Tasmania. In other respects the excavated
section exhibits rather unexpected sequences. There are no definite
examples of the coup-de-poing, of the geometric microliths, or of
the ground stone axe; the technologically late oblong pointed flake
comes early and shortly disappears; and what is equally remarkable,
bone implements are more abundant in the middle and lower levels
than in the upper. Clearly, these chronological results add new
problems in place of solving old ones, and we must accordingly await
further excavation, perhaps of the shell heaps, which in places are
said to reach a height of thirty feet.
Melanesia. Until recent years the natives of Melanesia had a
more or less advanced Neolithic culture except in parts of New
Guinea where the influence of Malay and Chinese culture is notice-
able. As to human existence here during the distant past, archaeology
has so far revealed next to nothing beyond superficial observations.
Certain monumental features are found, such as upright stones with
and without carvings, stone circles, ruined megalithic structures,
old mining pits, as well as irrigation terraces and aqueducts. This
last group of traits, together with the polished stone implements,
has induced some recent students to assume the very unlikely mi-
gration of a mysterious early historic people who came from the
west, and who in their search for gold and pearls spread over the
18
entire Pacific and even reached America.
The old native types, found in part by excavation, include club
heads, celts and adzes of jade, etc.; spear points and knives of
obsidian and other Hintlike substances. Certain Paleolithic indica-
tions have been alleged for the Solomon Islands, but the oldest
form here positively known is a flake tranchet or adze, nearly iden-
tical with the Northwest European form of the Campignian culture
19
stage.
Stone structures of megalithic character are especially numerous
and widespread in Melanesia. The general forms include monoliths,
trilithons, carved images, small dolmens, pyramids, buildings, plat-
forms, fortifications and agricultural terraces. In places like the New
Hebrides these structures are regarded as of ancient date; in New
Caledonia some of them continue in use; and in the Solomon Islands
constructionis said still to be kept up.
Micronesia. Archaeological ly considered, Micronesia can scarcely

be very important, at least so far as human antiquity is concerned.
Stone implements of the commoner types are rare in the area, their
purposes being served by substitutes made mostly of sea shells and
shark teeth. Nevertheless, the carriers of the early, relatively ad-
vanced culture successfully worked several kinds of rock for a variety
of constructional purposes. The remains of these activities include
pretentious buildings, pyramids, truncated cones, platforms, ter-

races, stairways, gateways, cyclopean walls and ramparts, harbors
or canals with embankments, paved roads, etc. much as in Mela-
nesiaand the Malay archipetago. The majority of these features
are now
in ruins, or at any rate are regarded as relics of the past.
Perhaps the most unique holdover trait is the use of the so-called
"stone money" made in the shape of perforated disks like Chinese
"cash/' and ranging in size from ordinary disk beads to specimens
resembling millstones as much as nine feet in diameter. All of these
lapsed cultural elements of the late prehistoric past were presumably
derived from various South Asiatic centers by way of the Malay
archipelago, and their degeneration is a subject of considerable
interest.
Polynesia. We come at last to what seems the final outpost of

prehistoric migration, the easternmost Pacific island group called
Polynesia. This immense ethnographic area approaches the shape of
a great scalene triangle the base of which coincides largely with the
180th degree of longitude, along which it extends from Hawaii to

New Zealand, a distance of seventy-five degrees of latitude or over
5000 miles. The apex of the triangle, marked by Easter Island, lies
near the Tropicof Capricorn in west longitude 109 degrees (that of
the Utah-Colorado boundary), or nearly 4000 miles above the base.
Barring a few minor shell heaps in New Zealand and some scat-
tered monumental remains not now claimed by native residents,
there is little for the archaeologist to investigate. This barren condi-
tion may conceivably have been brought about by an allegedly
recent subsidence of the island realm. On the other hand, the Poly-
nesian migration legends and their accompanying genealogical
tables, if they were to be considered of historical value, would give
a nearly complete and approximately datable account of the whole
immigration episode and limit it to the last two and a half millen-
niums. 20
Turning now to the limited aspects of Polynesian culture which
by courtesy may be considered archaeologic, w e find a series of
T
traits in all main essentials much like what has been indicated for
Melanesia and Micronesia. That is, we have a somewhat unevenly
distributed variety of monumental remains, partly of megalithic
character;and we have a similarly sporadic occurrence of somewhat
unique portable artifacts. Fortunately, for reasons both climatic and
economic, as well as sociological, we are far better informed about
the imperishable handiwork of Polynesia than about the corres-
ponding remains in any other sector of Oceania. Both general trea-
and special reports exist; and the available collections, while not
tises
large, are sufficiently complete to characterize widely separated sec-

21
tions of the area.
The Polynesian monumental remains, as stated, correspond in
large part to those observed elsewhere in the Pacific islands, and
mere enumeration of the principal types must here suffice. Included
are rock carvings or petroglyphs and sculptured monolithic idols;
a large trilithon of dressed stone; circles, platforms, terraces, pyra-
mids, tombs, altars, substructures with low walls for temples and
secular buildings, fortifications, roads, fences, gateways, and stair-
ways all constructed for the most part of natural boulders and
basaltic blocks, but in some places supplemented by cut and dressed

rectangular slabs. In addition, idols carved of wood and simple
earthworks, including agricultural terraces, irrigation systems, and
a few mounds are found in certain scattered localities. Easter Island
carries the unique distinction of having furnished a number of
wooden tablets inscribed with semiconventionalized pictographic
characters which presumably served as mnemonic devices rather
than as truly phonetic writing. As indicated, not all of these features
are everywhere equally profuse or even present. Stone idols, for
example, are absent in Samoa, where they might have been expected,
while abundantly present in distant Easter Island. Similarly, stone
structures, though fairly common everywhere else, are rare in New
Zealand and the Chatham Islands. In both these cases wood was
employed as a substitute. In brief, the utilization of stone for con-
structional or monumental purposes, while well-developed, is not a dis-
tinctive Polynesian trait and, as one investigator has put it, may often
have been resorted to merely because the material was plentiful and
in places where tillable land was scarce had to be disposed of in some
fashion, as in the case of our ubiquitous New

England stone fences.
Polynesian implements and some of the cere-
utensils, as well as
monial objects, were necessarily made for the most part of various
kinds of volcanic rock. However, sandstone and nephrite were used
wherever present, as were also to a limited extent such raw materials
as coral, shell, and bone. Barring the sandstone, these last-mentioned
substances served mostly for the refined types of implements and
for ornaments. In working stone all the usual methods such as
pecking, grinding, and polishing were employed; only true pressure

chipping was conspicuously absent.
The
actual inventory of stone objects is limited as to number but
iscorrespondingly interesting as regards unique or specialized forms.
Typical among them are natural stones used as hammers, rubbers,
grinders, and polishers, as well as boat anchors and sinkers for net,
line, or hook fishing apparatus. Outstanding among the forms pre-
pared by pecking, grinding, etc., are grooved sinkers, plummet-

shaped slingstones, grooved club heads, sword-shaped clubs, mullers,
food pounders of various pleasing shapes, pestles, mortars, cups,
trays, salt pans, lamps, game stones (spherical, discoidal, and
pitted), flat circular rings, plummet-shaped charm stones, pendants
of different forms, phallic emblems, fish images and human images,
both naturalistic and highly conventionalized. The primary tools,
prepared mostly by flaking and partial grinding, include the adze
(no less than eight varieties, different in size, general outline, and
cross section), the chisel, the gouge, and rare examples of the axe.
Finally, there is a small group of roughly flaked core forms and

simple flake blades which include chopperlike implements, scrapers,

drills, and knives.
Shells of both marine and land species were utilized as scrapers,
as tweezers for pulling hairs, as trumpets, as net sinkers, as beads
for necklaces, and as ornaments for canoes. In addition, several of
the larger marine forms were worked into ornamental plaques, ear
plugs, and arm rings. Shell was also on rare occasions used as a
medium for adzes, but more often for fishhooks of both the one-
piece and two-piece varieties, as well as for a curious form of pendant
resembling a nearly closed one-piece fishhook identical, strangely

enough, with specimens found in the shell heaps of southern Cali-
fornia. Tortoise shell also served both useful and ornamental pur-
poses, as, for example, for ear piercers and fans.

Bone, though not precisely a scarce article in view of the presence
of the domestic pig and fowl, and at all events of the human skeleton,
was employed only sparingly. It was, however, wrought into such
articles as dart points, barbed on one or both sides; fishhooks of
both the one- and two-piece types and also the straight double-
pointed form known as the gorge hook. Rare examples of knives
and spatulate tools, as well as simple tongue-shaped pendants and
beads cut from hollow bird bones, are also extant. In the Marquesas,
tubular sections of human bone, plain or carved, were used as hair
ornaments. Ear plugs (Marquesan) and a unique hook-shaped pend-
ant (Hawaiian) were made from whale ivory. Lastly, boar tusks
were made into bracelets; shark teeth were set into wooden handles
to be used as knives and razors; and both whale and porpoise teeth
were perforated and strung for necklaces and other purposes.
The other more readily perishable media, such as wood and wood
fiber, feathers, skins, etc., are here of little concern to the archaeolo-
gist. It must suffice to say merely that they were all employed,
most of them
for a great variety of purposes, ranging from houses
and canoes to articles of furniture, household utensils, musical
instruments of various types, toys, weapons especially clubs and
spears clothing, mats, baskets, fishtraps, and other things, useful
as well as ornamental. Clay, strangely enough, was used for pottery
in the Tongan and Easter islands; while elsewhere gourds and prob-
ably shells, as well as containers made of wood and stone, served all
the purposes for which these roaming islanders employed such
utensils. Metals, as has been remarked, had no place at all in Poly-
nesian economy.
Summing up briefly for Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia, it
may be said that while our information is as yet rather scanty, the
vast island region involved is of special interest to us because it was
apparently the last habitable portion of the world to be invaded by
prehistoric man. Part of it is also the last region to be exploited by
modern Europeans and therefore the region where primitive culture
is making its last stand. Indications are that while the first comers
to Melanesia may have possessed only a late Paleolithic type of
hunting equipment, the later invaders who swept over all the re-
maining Pacific island world brought a fairly advanced food-pro-
ducing culture of Post-Neolithic or Megalithic affinities which in its
new and inadequate setting underwent a general decline, dropping
back as it were to a condition resembling in several respects the
normal advanced Neolithic status.
Oceanian-American connections. If we seem to have lingered un-
duly over the Pacific island area there are several reasons for it. In
the first place, there has been until recently next to nothing known
about the archaeology of this vast region. Then, too, the material
traits found here are engagingly easy to understand, being few in
number, moderately simple in form, in part very widely distributed,

and, above all, nearly free from the complications connected with
great antiquity and the resulting succession of chronological levels.
But, more important than all this, some knowledge of Pacific
island characteristics is made
necessary by the fact that this area
has some students as the mysterious
long figured in the opinion of
realm whence the American continent derived all of its advanced
22
traits of culture. To this claim we must now give some considera-
tion.
The suggested transpacific connection between the Old World
and the New constitutes a challenging many-sided problem the
salient details of which can only be broadly indicated. Offhand it
seems absurd to suppose that the navigators who so freely roamed
the vast Pacific and Indian oceans, and who are said to have visited
even the Antarctic regions, were unaware of the American continent.
Obviously they were bound neither by trade winds nor by the ocean
currents butknew their stars sufficiently well to steer a course out
and back over thousands of miles of open sea. Compared to such
bold seamanship contemporary feats of Europeans in the Atlantic
seem child's play;- and even if deliberate search for new lands had
not brought the islanders over the extra two or three thousand
miles to our shore, storm or accident sooner or later must have

done so.
Indications that the crossing was actually accomplished appear

to be numerous. Thus there is at least some general similarity be-
tween the platform and pyramidal structures of North and South
America on the one hand and those of the Pacific islands on the
other; between the simpler sculptured monoliths of Middle and
South America, as well as of the West Indies, and those of Poly-
nesia; between Venezuelan and Melanesia!! pile dwellings; and be-
tween certain Oceanian sailing craft and those of the Pacific coast
from Alaska to southern California. Coining down to smaller fea-
tures, a table of about fifty strikingly similar Oceanic and South
American ethnological traits is given by Erland Nordenskiold, 23 and
the list, made of wood, wood fiber, feathers,
consisting largely of items
bone, shell, and stone, could easily be extended. A somewhat shorter
and different but equally important series of trait parallels is given
in the same paper for Asia and America. These include various
technical processes used in metallurgy, ceramics, textiles, architec-
ture, painting, hunting, fishing, etc., as well as specific products of
some of these arts and industries. Now the presence in the New
World of more than one hundred Old \Vorld elements of material
culture not to mention the nomnaterial parallels is only partly
explainable as a dissemination by way of the region of Bering Strait,

and the individual traits must therefore be either independent in-
ventions or else transpacific diffusions. Doubtless both modes of
origin must be taken into account, for even if independent invention
is allowed as probable in many cases, diffusion cannot be ruled out
altogether. However, if we inquire as to when the transmission took
place, there arise difficulties. Some of the recent diffusionists insist
that inasmuch as the Pacific islands were uninhabited until rela-
tively late times,America could not have received her quota of
advanced foreign loans until within the last two thousand years.
But, unfortunately for that view, some of the American traits in
question appear to be very old. Other exponents, however, point
out that several of the outstanding Pacific island traits like the
domestic pig and fowl, the cultivated banana, sugar cane, taro, and
breadfruit, and especially the unique contrivance known as the
outrigger canoe, never passed beyond Polynesia and that therefore
America must have received her accession of Old World gifts at a
relatively early date that is, before these elements of culture were
disseminated in the Pacific area. From this they naturally conclude
that America was reached from Melanesia rather than from Poly-
nesia. In keeping with this latter view it may be urged also that
such demonstrably ancient and important American contributions
as maize, tobacco, potatoes, peanuts, beans,and peppers, as well as
spinning, loom weaving, pressure chipping, and metallic objects,
were not carried back to the Pacific islands. To be sure, vigorous
claims have been made for the Pre-Columbian transplantation of the
banana to America, of the sweet potato to the Pacific islands, and
of the coconut palm either one way or the other; but the facts do
not appear to be adequately substantiated. At best, therefore, the
only conclusion warranted by the ethnological evidence is that inter-
communication between Oceania and the New World must have
been of a sporadic and more or less accidental character.
When we turn to the archaeological parallelisms it becomes nec-
essary to group the available data under several separate headings
in order that we may fully appreciate the significance of such trait
identities asmay Thus, to begin with the broader aspects, it
exist.
is a conspicuous fact that the prehistoric peoples of the western
hemisphere, like those of the eastern, made use of all types of readily
accessible raw materials. Even iron of meteoric origin was utilized
in America, though the smelting of its ores was not achieved. More-
over, examination reveals that both peoples employed, though not
in equal measure, all the same basic handicraft processes. In short,
the major arts and industries of the Old and New
Worlds were iden-
tical.But striking as these similarities may seem, their significance
is more apparent than real, for, on the one hand, the general classes
of raw materials furnished by nature are so few that duplication in

use was unavoidable; and, on the other hand, while doubtless the
elementary working processes reached America from without, the
shaping arts are also limited in number and their later refinements
were therefore bound, independently, to take more or less the same
course.
When we concentrate on the forms of handiwork produced, the
similarities, though relatively fewer, have much greater significance,
because here the maker's creative ingenuity had wider play. Never-
theless, it is a demonstrable fact that more than two hundred vari-
eties of implements and ornaments found in the New World are
duplicates of Old World forms.

These inventions are not only similar as regards the purposes they
served and as to general typology, but they are to a large extent
identicalin form. Incidentally, the list of parallelisms could be
lengthened not a little by adding basketry, matting, textiles, and
feather work; and if we topped off with geometric ornamental de-

signs our total would be nearly doubled. But here again there are
limiting conditions which tend to discount the significance of paral-
lelism. Elementary human activities do not vary greatly. The prob-
lems to be solved, the forces to be overcome, the raw materials to
be dealt with, are much the same the world over. Under these cir-
cumstances, if similar solutions, similar methods, and similar devices
for executing particular types of work have made their appearance
in widely separated regions of the world we need scarcely be aston-
ished. Independent duplication of inventions, the Patent Office
assures us, is a common occurrence today and doubtless was so in
the past. And what is true about contrivances serving practical ends
is surely true also for geometric ornamental designs. For here, too,
duplication is unavoidable, inasmuch as the various patterns are

made up merely of dots, straight lines, and curved lines which can
be combined in only a limited and more or less obvious number of
ways.
This being the case, when or how can we be reasonably certain of
diffusion as opposed to independent invention? Obviously only in
cases where controlling circumstances can be largely eliminated, or
where, in other words, human fancy has had free play and where
consequently "style" or uniqueness of some sort has resulted. Con-
ventionalized representative art, therefore, would seem to be a
valid standard; likewise utilitarian objects of unusual or highly
specialized design. Whenever such traits or, better still, particular
combinations of traits, are found in widely separated localities, no
matter what the distance, we are justified in suspecting genetic
relationship,though our judgment in such cases may often rest on
subjective rather than objective criteria.
Now, to come to the point at issue here, it so happens that Poly-
nesia and North America, in spite of the three thousand miles that
separate them, share a number of cultural traits of precisely this
specialized character. Full details cannot be given, but the essential
point is that the Pacific coast region from Costa Rica to Alaska
exhibits sporadic occurrences of a variety of stone, shell, and bone
objects peculiar to Hawaii and other sections of marginal Polynesia,
ranging even to New Zealand. Of special interest is the presence in
southern Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, northern California,
and Costa Rica of several forms of the unique food pounders which
are typical mostly of Hawaii and which as implements are put to
somewhat different uses in America. Equally noteworthy is the
sword-shaped stone club shared by New Zealand and the Pacific
coast from Oregon northward. Lastly, the coast region of southern
California yields a peculiar circular one-piece fishhook or a pend-
ant in the shape of a fishhook made of either shell or bone,
which also has its exact counterpart in New Zealand. Parallel items
of slightly less significance are stone adzes, chisels, mortars, pestles,
discoidal stones, charm stones or plummets, slender oblong pendants
with suspension knob or perforation, perforated subspherical stones,
grooved sinkers, fish or whale effigies, as well as such bone objects
as the straight double-pointed gorge hook and the barbed dart or
harpoon point. In wood there are, for example, the rectangular
house with gable roof and carved ornamentation, the plank boat,
and the grooved or striated tapa or bark beater, which in Middle
America is partially imitated in stone. Finally, it is worth noting
that the New Zealand method of working nephrite and other hard
rocks by the sawing method was practiced also in Mexico and on
the North Pacific coast and that in part of the latter section of
America the otherwise universal art of pressure chipping is all but
absent, as it is in Polynesia.
These and other might be cited give undeniable
similarities that
proof of Polynesian influence in America, but the real character of

the relationship is not so clear as might be expected. For while the
indicated parallelisms are far more convincing than the apparent
Neolithic similarities between, for example, northwestern Europe
and northeastern North America, still, like the later Norse dis-
coverers of America, the Polynesians appear to have left no obvious
impressions either on the Indian physique or the Indian languages,
whatever be the case with social institutions. Accordingly, whatever
the future verdict may be, at present we are warranted only in
supposing that from time to time small groups of Polynesians and
possibly other Pacific islanders deliberately or accidentally reached
our shores and were effectually absorbed in the native Indian popu-
lation.
America. The first problem of American archaeology is that of
the origin of the American Indian. There is general agreement now
that the American race is closely related to the Mongoloid and that
its origin must be looked Old World. Contrary to this

for in the
view, F. Ameghino tried to man originated in South

prove that
America. His views were based on his own explorations and the
observations of the Danish paleontologist P. W. Lund in the province
of Minas Geraes of southeastern Brazil between the years 1835 and
1844. Lund is said to have investigated more than eight hundred
caves. In six of these, located in the vicinity of Lagoa Santa, were
found about thirty human skulls, as well as parts of skeletons and
traces of artifacts, in some cases seemingly associated with extinct
Quaternary animal remains, but under conditions, nevertheless,
which did not warrant the finder to claim geologic antiquity for
them. Ameghino's own investigations were begun about 1870 in the
Argentine Republic.
Argentina, topographically and geologically, resembles our west-
ern prairie and Rocky Mountain states in being made up largely
of a vast alluvial plain known as the Pampas which slopes gently
from the Andes to the Atlantic. This Pampean formation is made
up chiefly of water-borne and wind-borne (loess) materials, inter-
stratified here and there with lake deposits and near the Atlantic
border with traces of marine beds. In the coast region this loesslike
blanket, as in middle Europe, is separable into two major horizons,
the Lower and Upper Pampean, known also respectively as the
Ensenadean and Bonarean formations. Beneath these two charac-
teristic strata lies an older Pre-Pampean formation called the Her-
mosean; and above them, along the stream course and in the lake
basins, there are superficial Post-Pampean or Recent deposits, while
the Atlantic coast belt is marked by sand dunes, both fixed and
moving. Until very recently students were at odds concerning the
respective ages of these formations, except the sand dunes. Ameghino
himself held some of the latest coastal surface deposits to be late
Pliocene, the Pampean horizons to be middle and early Pliocene,

and the underlying Ilermosean to be Miocene. Later investigators
for the most part agree in regarding the Hermosean as Pliocene
an'd the two Pampean levels as Pleistocene. Ameghino's "late Pli-
ocene" horizon has been demonstrated to be of modern origin. The
determination of the geological age of these deposits is chiefly due
to two paleontological facts: first, that the native mammalian fauna
characteristic of all the later Argentinian formations was of a curi-
ously primitive type, distinguished by giant sloths and great arma-

dillolike creatures; and, second, that the mastodon, saber-toothed
tiger, horse, and cloven-footed animals, typical of the North Ameri-
can Pleistocene, did not appear as migrants in South America until
very late and persisted for only a brief period. Now that the later
survival of essentially Tertiary species in South America as in
Australia has been fully recognized, the discovery of archaeolog-
ical remains associated with them in these same deposits no longer
means what it once did for the antiquity of man in America.

The archaeological discoveries in question range geographically
all the way from Parana in southern Brazil to the Strait of Ma-
gellan however, along the Argentine coast; and geologi-
chiefly,
cally they are said to have come from all the indicated deposits.
Thus, while most of the available artifacts have actually been found
exposed on the surface of the sand dunes and especially on the

Pampean surface, a considerable number of isolated finds were de-
rived from both theUpper and Lower Pampean and even from the
Pre-Pampean Hermosean
or formation below. These latter finds
have all been questioned and for the most part discredited; but
some apparently remain to be accepted. Skeletal finds, single and
multiple, total up to thirteen for the Upper Pampean, four for the
Lower Pampean, and two for the Hermosean; but these also by
some have been largely disposed of either as recent burials or as
non-human remains, and for the rest as scientifically unacceptable.
It must be remarked, however, that the credibility and significance
of certain of these discoveries have not yet been generally agreed
upon. The affirmative view is still to some extent upheld by F.

Outes, II. Lehmann-Nitsche, and others, while the negative has
been presented most forcefully by A. Hrdlicka, Bailey Willis, and
W. II. Holmes. 24 At best, however, little remains today of Ame-
ghino's theory that man and culture originated in South America
and from there spread over the rest of the world.
One reason for delaying judgment on the questions of both rela-
tive and absolute chronology of human remains arid implements in
Argentina inheres in the typological character of the artifact. Un-

fortunately, as indicated, all the available collections flaked,
chipped, and ground stone, with a few potsherds appear to be
surface pickings and not excavations from stratified deposits. But,
even so, the inventories from the widely scattered coastal sites of
the four southern provinces differ somewhat, so that, naturally
enough, some students have suggested contemporary local variations
while others have inferred chronological sequences. Thus, while
Hrdlika inclines to see only one culture of recent date, Holmes

favors two, likewise late but somewhat localized variations, and
Outes postulates four successive stages, one of Paleolithic and three
of Neolithic aspect. The partial explanation is that Outes appears
to have found isolated sites characterized exclusively by: (1) flaked
core implements of the coup-de-poing type; (2) flake implements
with marginal pressure chipping on one face, typical of the Middle
and early Upper Paleolithic; and (3) completely pressure-chipped
implements together with pecked and ground stone forms, as well
as pottery. Then, too, in the Parana region roughly flaked core
implements have been found in isolation in the upper levels of the
loess, while the true surface deposits of the region yield the normal
Neolithic inventory, including bone implements, which appear to
have completely decayed in the south. In short, the indications of
stratification and gradual technological evolution in Argentina tally
with those found by Uhle both superficially and in the shell heaps
of Peru, and are further strengthened by stratigraphic data recently
obtained from the shell heaps of Tierra del Fuego. What this seria-
tion means in chronological terms it is impossible to say at present;
but it is at least certain that man was present in South America, as
in North America, in time to witness the extinction, for example,
of the mastodon, some of the giant sloths, and the horse.
While in earlier years there was a strong inclination to parallel
the Paleolithic development of Europe by means of typological
comparisons with that of America, a critical examination of the
finds has not so far yielded anything that can conclusively be proved
to be of the same antiquity as the earlier Paleolithic remains of
Europe. Geologically datable remains from North America show in

every case man, not only of the modern type of Homo sapiens, but
exhibiting characteristics that do not allow us to assume a race
fundamentally different from the modern Indian. The industries of
these early periods are mainly, if not entirely, of typical Neolithic
character. Particularly the lately discovered Folsom types, which
belong to a period when man lived with some of the now extinct
species of animals, show a highly developed and highly special-
ized stone technique. Thus the data available at the present time
indicate the absence of an earlier race of man, corresponding to
the Neanderthal or other early forms, and likewise the absence of
the most primitive forms of artifacts.
It would seem likely that man immigrated into America at one
of the periods towards the end of the Ice Age when the continent
was accessibleby way of the Bering Strait region. Since, according
to geological evidence, the way was open toward the end of the
Ice Age for a migration from Siberia to America along the ice-free
regions east of the Rocky Mountains, it does not seem unlikely that
the western continent was reached by man about that time. The
earliest finds in North America seem to be located on the western
plains and may belong to this early wave of migration. 25

This view of the early history of man's migration to America
necessitates the assumptions of a very rapid movement from the
extreme north to the southernmost extremity of South America;
his adjustment to all the many types of climate, from arctic to
tropic and again to that of the temperate zone; and the develop-
ment of many well-differentiated local types and of many cultures
and languages. The last named might be explained by a long-con-
tinued immigration of different linguistic stocks, but of these we
have no evidence.
It is not possible to follow here the development of the numerous
types of later local cultures. It will be sufficient to indicate that the

immigrants must have been hunters and that agriculture as an
essential foundation of existence must have developed in Central
America, whence it gradually spread in both directions, north and

south, but without covering the entire area in which climatic condi-
tions made agriculture possible. With it the more advanced arts,
such as pottery, spread over the continent. Metal-casting was con-
fined to narrow areas in Central and South America. It seems that
all these steps in cultural development occurred in the New World
later than in the Old. A
connection between them cannot be estab-
lished. The question of possible relations between Polynesia and
Melanesia and America has been discussed before. 26
General ivorld considerations. From our brief survey we have not
only learned something of the varied outstanding archaeological
features of different habitable portions of the globe, but we have
discovered, incidentally, that long as prehistoric man has been on
earth and far as he has roamed, he did not, for obvious geographical,
climatic, floral, faunal, and cultural reasons, complete its occupation.
At least as far as is now known, he never reached either Antarctica
or the outlying portions of the Arctic; and aside from the closely
strung West Indian chain, none of the distant Atlantic island groups
not even Iceland was ever occupied. Equally illuminating is
our realization that during what is at present called the Paleolithic

culture stage human was confined to limited and con-
distribution
tiguous parts of Europe, Asia, including Java, and Africa. Omitting

England, Sicily, Malta, and the Canaries as until recently more or
less completely connected with their respective continents, all other
closely adjacent islands like Ireland, the Balearics, Corsica, Sardinia,
Crete, Cyprus, the Aegean archipelago, Ceylon, .Japan, and Sakhalin
have not yet been definitely proved a part of the early Paleolithic
domain; and presumably the mountainous and glaciated
ill-favored
regions, as well as the densely forested and swamp-covered areas

like southeastern Asia and the Congo basin, remained largely unin-
habited until comparatively recent times. Whether or not Austral-
asia and America were invaded during the Paleolithic culture phase
depends largely upon our definition of the word "Paleolithic"; and

necessarily, therefore, what migrations took place during the Neo-
lithic stage becomes correspondingly uncertain. As further examples
of the difficulties created by mere words, it might be pointed out
that the aboriginal inhabitants of the marginal Pacific and Indian
oceans, who, as we have seen, arrived there in post-Neolithic times
and who, when discovered in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
subsisted mainly by agriculture, have consistently been regarded as
living in the so-called Neolithic stage of culture, while the same
rating or status is given to the Indians and Eskimo of northern
North America, who live entirely by hunting, fishing, and food-
gathering. Our understanding of the situation as now developed by
archaeological investigation clearly calls for an examination of these
two important stumbling blocks.
The terms "Paleolithic" and "Neolithic" as now used are sources
of much confusion, for the simple reason that they have double and
sometimes even treble meanings. Thus, "Paleolithic" refers to a*
time period in the Old World and it denotes also
definite geological
a much less definite type of physical man and a similarly less definite
stage of cultural development namely, the stage especially marked

by flaked and chipped stone implements. Similarly, and by con-
trast, "Neolithic" stands at once for a new or later time period:
and for a stage of culture characterized in part by ground and,
polished stone implements. At first sight nothing seems simpler or
more explicit. But actually, except in a very broad or general sense,
time and culture have no necessary connections. Time proceeds
inexorably in one direction while culture rises and falls, owing to a
variety of historical circumstances essentially independent of time.
Our world culture distribution problem would therefore be much
simplified if once for all we boldly divested the expressions "Pale-
olithic" and "Neolithic" of their precise chronological connotations.
By doing so the term "Paleolithic" would be broadened and thereby

become parallel to what the ethnologists call the hunting or food-
gathering stage of culture; while the term "Neolithic" would be
narrowed and come to be parallel to the first phase of the food-
producing culture stage as founded mainly upon the artificial culti-
vation of selected plants and animals. So defined, there is no diffi-
culty about admitting the presence now or formerly of Paleolithic
man, for example, in Australia and America, or in any other part
of the world where the strictly hunting mode of life prevails. It
would still be true that certain early and characteristically primitive
Old World features of the Paleolithic are missing for instance in
the New World; but their absence here is what we should expect if
man and culture first arose in some other distant time and place.
To complete our world picture of the origin and spread of material
culture we might now very properly introduce a time-and-space
chart giving the details of the story in more nearly graphic form.
Several such diagrammatic presentations exist for Europe, and others
have been attempted for the world as a whole 27 but all are defective,
;
either because of inadequate knowledge about many of the areas

considered or because of lack of harmony in the interpretations
placed upon the available data. For that reason, as well as for lack
of space, it seems best here not to add to the existing confusion.
But the ideal chart would consist of a series of vertical columns
representing the geographical divisions of the world arranged as
far as possible in conformity with the actual juxtaposition of the
countries concerned. Beginning with the formerly glaciated portion
of northern Europe, the most feasible order would be central, west-
ern, and southern Europe; the various sections of Africa; southern
Asia, Australasia, and the Pacific islands; northern Asia, North
America, and finally southernmost South America. The world's
land forms not being arranged in a single continuous strip, as would
be nearly the case if southern Africa, Australasia, and the Pacific
islands were omitted, excursions, as it were, become necessary in
these directions. But even so, the indicated arrangement throws
most of the earliest inhabited countries toward the center of the
chart while the countries on the left and right received their human
populations in relatively late times. Our chart would also have to

be ruled horizontally to represent geologic time divisions, which in
turn would be subdivided to provide for the successive and approxi-
mately dated culture levels. The frame completed, it would remain
to check, in the proper rubrics, the demonstrated culture stages for
each country. Such a chart, here only broadly visualized, is one df
the first great desiderata of prehistoric archaeology and one which
cannot be adequately realized without prolonged cooperative effort.

Once achieved, we shall have a solid foundation showing when and
where the basic culture complexes first arose and the approximate
routes by which they spread. We shall then at last be in position
to write the permanent outline of human culture history.
As a partial substitute for this desirable two-dimensioned detailed
culture chart, we may sum up on broad lines the present state of
our knowledge by indicating the approximate limits of the successive
culture stages on an ordinary world map (Fig. 37). For this purpose
we accept the newly suggested definitions of Paleolithic and
shall
Neolithic;we shall combine the early work in copper, tin, silver,

gold, and their various alloys as a separate preliminary stage in
metallurgy; and we shall indicate work in iron only in so far as it
involves the art of smelting.

Now such a graphic presentation necessarily embodies compro-
mises and generalizations and must therefore be viewed in the light
of what has been previously said about distributional irregularities.
To indicate the difficulty of laying down precise cultural boundaries,
it will be illuminating merely to recall that modern industrial out-
puts more often than not find markets far beyond the actual manu-
facturing centers and to suggest that to a limited degree the same
must have been true also in the past. Iron implements, for instance,
were apparently in use all over Africa, even to some slight extent
in the Bushman territory of the extreme southwest, when first ex-
plored by Europeans; but smelting was naturally confined to regions

where ores and fuel were plentiful and where the requisite technical
skill had been acquired; while smithing or forging had a much wider
range. For the rest of the continent barter served as the means of
distribution, the peoples of the marginal areas receiving the trait in
attenuated form only and at appreciably later dates than the cen-
The Bushmen, therefore, though benefiting by the
ters of origin.
industry, can scarcely be held to have risen to the Iron Age status.
The same must be said also of the nomadic reindeer herdsmen of
s
220
PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY %%\
northern Europe and Asia, who doubtless obtained a few metallic

implements from the south but took no real part in their production.
An essentially reversed mode of distribution is represented by the
preceding copper-bronze stage of metallurgy; for during this rela-
tively long double-process phase, while nuggets of copper, gold, and
silver (to a slight extent also meteoric iron) were at first and in
many widely separated regions of both hemispheres shaped by
simple hammering, with or without heating, the melting and casting
of such metals, as well as of bronze and other alloys, were not
achieved until comparatively late, and then only in a few centralized
advanced states of culture, beyond which the articles
localities of
produced had not, at least in Africa and America, been transmitted

very far. Indeed, if the size of the map permitted, the early transi-
tional stage of forging, commonly called the Copper or Chalcolithic
stage, should be indicated separately from that of casting. However,
the two related processes continued on, independently, side by side,
and it is by no means certain that ore reduction, melting, and cast-
ing arose in the place or places where cold-forging was first practiced.
A similar condition is presented by the Neolithic-Agricultural
areas. The science and art of plant cultivation wr ere far from equally
intense or on the same level throughout the indicated ranges, let
alone the fact that the plants used varied from place to place and
sometimes, as on the North Pacific coast, amounted to nothing
more than the growing of tobacco and planting of cinquefoil and
clover. But, regardless of the status and character of this key in-
dustry, true agricultural produce, owing to its bulky nature, is not
likely to have been transported to any great distance outside the
actual areas of cultivation, so that the indicated geographic limits
may be considered as relatively exact. On the other hand, products
of the sedentary activities commonly associated with agriculture,
as well as the activities themselves, such as pecking and polishing
of stone, pottery-making^ weaving perhaps, and even the crude
fashioning of metallic implements, were so transmitted (or else were

independently invented), some of them far beyond the range of
genuine agriculture. The outstanding case in point is that of north-
western North America, where the Pacific coast tribes, independent
of agriculture if not exactly of animal domestication (the dog being
utilized), reached a status of development in some respects equal if

not superior to the contemporary agriculturists or horticulturists
farther south and east. With the so-called Paleolithic stages, how-
ever, the case is different, for here the few natural raw materials
employed were almost everywhere available, so that the geographic

limits of production and utilization were more nearly the same.
Finally, it must be observed that the map is not a self-explanatory

chronological guide, because the boundaries marking, let us say,
the more advanced or later stages do not fall regularly either within
or without the boundaries of the earlier phases of development, but
cross each other, as in the case of agriculture bursting out over
Polynesia. The map is still more disappointing in that it cannot
very well bring out the important fact that in some regions, like
parts of eastern and southern Asia, as well as in the Malay archi-
pelago and probably over most of Africa, the iron-working technique
was apparently mastered before that of bronze or its equivalent
alloys.
For the rest, the map may be said to speak for itself as far as it
goes. It reveals that human culture began in

the Old World and
that the earliest and most primitive phase was confined roughly to
the central and at the same time doubtless the most favorable or
most accessible portion of that hemisphere. It reveals that the
second or advanced Paleolithic phase swept practically over the
entire earth and was stopped only here and there by natural bound-
aries requiring artificial means of transportation not developed until a
later date. It suggests that most of the initial steps toward artificial
food production and the subsequent development of the more highly
specialized arts and industries, such as agriculture, ceramics, loom
weaving, and true metallurgy, were taken supposedly at particularly
favorable spots in the tropical and subtropical belts, whence they
gradually spread to the more temperate zones, there to undergo
further specialization. The map does not, unfortunately, take ac-
count of more or less purely nomadic herdsmen cultures, still typical
of northern Europe, northern and central Asia, parts of Arabia and
the Sahara, as well as of extreme southwestern Africa. The origin
of this mode of subsistence, in point of time approximately contem-
porary with the beginnings of agriculture, presumably was mainly

in the steppe regions of the temperate zones, though the colder and
warmer belts cannot be entirely excluded. In later times these two
culture complexes, presumably not developed in entire independ-
ence, came to supplement each other.
In conclusion we must take a last look at the map for tangible
suggestions inherent in the spatial culture picture with respect to
time relationships. Viewing the American continent for the time

being as an independent unit, we observe that the three grand de-
velopmental stages that is, the late Paleolithic, the Neolithic-
Agricultural,and the Copper-Bronze occupy successively less and
and that their respective boundaries are approximately
less territory
concentric. This condition, regardless of whether or not the two
final phases were introduced from without, the same as the first,
can mean only one thing; namely, that the two advanced stages
began somewhere in the central region, whence they gradually
spread over the previously laid Paleolithic foundation, the builders
of which for the most part adopted the new traits, while some of
those who did not accept them may as a result have been pushed out
into the marginal areas north and south or southeast, as well as into
the barrens of Lower California. Such a geographical or horizontal
presentation can readily be converted into a chronological one by
exhibiting, as it were, a geological or vertical north-south section of
the continent, taken along a line that shall intersect all three culture
boundaries at both extremities. A section so constructed would re-
veal the successive culture levels stackedup in the shape of a stepped
pyramid, provided we could be certain that the later trait groups
everywhere overlie the earlier ones and that the earlier ones are
nearly if not quite as old along the margins as they are in the center.
But while the answer to the these two questions seems affirm-
first of
atively established, we have as yet no positive indications that man

has occupied for long either northeastern North America (including
Greenland) or the extreme southern and southeastern portions of
South America, and it may well be that the late Paleolithic peoples
entered those distant regions in relatively late times. In other words,
time was passing while culture was spreading. Were we to present
this most probable state of affairs in America graphically, our hori-
zontally ruled time section would exhibit the beginnings of the
Upper Paleolithic by a slanting line rising gradually from left to
right that is, from Bering Strait to Tierra del Fuego, while the
two succeeding culture stages would be represented by inverted
pyramids having their apexes located approximately midway on
the section or at points corresponding to Middle America and north-
Andean South America, as in Figure 38. 28
The geographic boundaries of the cultural succession as presented
by the Old World portion of the map are far less definite and orderly.
Thus the beginning phase that is, the primitive Paleolithic
fails to attain the widest distribution, as does the oldest stage in
America. Moreover, its range does not lie central in the triple-con-
tinental area but favors the west and southwest. This eccentricity
may, however, be more apparent than real; for, very likely, environ-
mental conditions at this time prohibited or discouraged occupation
of the north and the southeast. Then, too, we have as yet no clear
proofs that the early Paleolithic culture entered extreme South

Africa until relatively late and therefore probably in a modified or
improved form. The advanced Paleolithic, on the other hand, sooner
or later reached all continental limits and even passed beyond. The
Neolithic-Agricultural complex for various reasons, climatic and
AD HISTORIC TIMES
.
/5 oo ...,.
No Culture
Fig. 38. Diagram representing section of the American continent from north
to south, giving hypothetical time range of the known culture stages. Compare
Figures 37 and 39.
cultural, failed toexpand as far as was possible either north or

south, but instead spread suddenly out over the entire and hitherto
uninhabited central Pacific island area.
Parenthetically, it becomes necessary here to call attention to the
fact that the habitable world was now nearly populated and that as
an indirect result a new factor, trade, entered into all the later
stages of progress. Up to this point in the development and dis-
semination of material culture traits, slow migration and simple
borrowing had largely sufficed as the agencies of dispersal, commerce
having been of only slight importance. It could
in the strict sense
scarcely have been otherwise, because, as previously suggested, the

arts and industries that had been achieved, regardless of their ulti-
mate points of origin, were of the types that could readily take root
in all the new home soils. In other words, hitherto the production
and the utilization of specific artificial means of livelihood enjoyed
very nearly the same geographic range, no doubt for the simple
reason that the natural raw materials employed were almost every-
where present. An inevitable change was brought about, however,
by the discovery of the practical usefulness of natural metals and
above all by the gradual perfection of processes for their artificial
recovery from ores. For metals and ores were not found everywhere,
and consequently the uniquely implements produced from
efficient
them naturally became objects mutually profitable trade, a form
of
of interchange which has since become the principal agent in the
diffusion of material culture.
Returning now to the map, with the preceding remarks in mind,

itwill readily be understood that the early metallurgical (copper
and bronze) range is extremely difficult to bound because, in the Old
World as in the New, it apparently had several separate centers of
origin, both within and without the agricultural domain, as, for ex-
ample, up and down the inner portion of East Africa, southwestern
Asia, southeastern Asia, and possibly north-central Asia, some of
which were chronologically early while others were undoubtedly
late. But the extreme diffusion of this trait complex falls well within
the earlier boundaries on the south and east, while in the north it
extends, at least in central Asia, somewhat beyond the borders of
agriculture. Finally, the use of iron has the same range as that of
copper and bronze on the cast and west, but extends beyond it on
the south and to some extent at least also on the north. Were we,
however, to ignore the distribution due to trade and instead to lay
down the borders of true metallurgical production, it is probable
that we shouldobtain a more nearly concentric or pyramidic ar-
rangement of boundaries, except for the primitive Paleolithic, which
in most directions was overtaken and outdistanced by the more rap-
idly moving advanced Paleolithic.
In the light of the preceding explanations and interpretations
there is little need of demonstrating the Old World chronology in
graphic form. Besides, no cross section that might be chosen would
be universally applicable because, as indicated, the successive bound-
aries are not uniformly concentric nor do they form a pyramid in
an orderly way. There remains, however, the desirability of present-
ing a generalized sectional diagram to illustrate our chronological
deductions for the world as a whole. Such a section might be taken
across themap, say along the thirtieth parallel of north latitude, or
itmight follow a broken line stretching from South Africa via the
Levant to Bering Strait and thence via Panama to Tierra del Fuego.
The latter alternative is the more attractive because it conforms
more nearly to the supposed major routes of cultural transmission
and in addition offers certain other advantages.
Accepting, then, for the present purposes the ascertained sequence
and chronology of cultural happenings in Europe as applicable in
the main to the entire world; and assuming that in the Old World
the successive steps in the inventive process originated in nearly one
and the same roughly central region represented by the eastern
Mediterranean lands where Europe, Asia, and Africa meet; and
assuming also that they spread over the world at an approximately
uniform rate, let us plot our section. By actual measurement the
distance from the Cape of Good Hope to Palestine is found to equal
46 units; that from Palestine via central Asia (Lake Tsagan Nor in
the Gobi desert) to Bering Strait, 66 units; and that from Bering
Strait via Panama to Cape Horn, 100 units; and we proportion
the vertical divisions of our section accordingly. Incidentally we
may also note the locations of the various cultural boundaries, as
given on our map, and so place them approximately where they be-
long on the section. We must next provide for the incorporation of
the equally necessary geological or time factor. Practical considera-
tions here compel us to scale down the approximately one million
years since material culture began, and we may do this to best ad-
vantage by giving the last few thousand years their properly equal-
ized values and the early and less important time span an arbitrarily
reduced allotment of diagram space. Taking A.D. 1500 as the most
suitable upper datum to mark the end of prehistoric times for the
world at large, and using 1500 years as the most convenient time
unit, we may rule the section horizontally, adding dates as far as
necessary, and our plotting frame is ready, as in Figure 39 (p. 228).
There remains the dubious task of diagramming the selected

human events. To do this with care a moderate show of precision
calls for the exact dates at which the successive culture stages began.
As these are not ascertainable in most cases, we can do no better
now than to rely on the approximations given in our chronological
chart (pp. 174-75) for western Europe. However, as we perforce are
seeking merely to express the relations of the various culture com-
plexes in general terms of time and space, absolute dates, however
desirable, are not indispensable. If we but succeed in all the main
essentials, the future will doubtless supply greater mathematical
exactitude.
Commencing then, for reasons that will presently appear, with

the Upper Paleolithic and selecting Palestine as the point of origin,
we may, in conformity with previous determinations, place its be-
ginning at about 25,000 B.C. Its entry into America is placed at
12,000 B.C. as about the earliest likely date considering the presence
of hindering glacial conditions in the north and the apparent
state of the flint-working technique (Solutrean?) at the time of entry.
These two dates supply the approximate rate of geographical dis-
persion and enable us to calculate that the culture in question
reached extreme South Africa about 16,000 B.C. Advancing at the
same rate, the Upper Paleolithic would not reach Ticrra del Fuego
until about A.D. 7700; but inasmuch as man was there when the
region was first visited by Magellan in 1520 and evidently had been
there for some time, it must be either that he entered America
before 12,000 B.C. or else that, owing to the narrowness of the New
World in places, he moved forward at a correspondingly faster pace.
Of the two alternatives the latter is the more probable; accordingly,
if for a close approximation to the known facts we double his speed,
he should have arrived shortly before 2000 B.C., a not unlikely date.
Having connected these time-and-space points on the section by the
necessary "commencement" lines, we are able to enter the corre-
sponding lines indicating the progress of the Lower Paleolithic phase.
In doing this we may give some latitude to the beginning date
roughly indicated as 1 ,000,000 B.C. and for the closing date rely
on the apparent fact that the culture did not arrive (if it did arrive)
in South Africa much before the coming of the Upper Paleolithic.
The time-and-space values thus determined for Africa may be re-
garded as approximately true also for the spread of man and culture
across Asia and are so indicated, the two uniformly diverging com-
mencement lines being broken at the 25,000 B.C. date level in partial
conformity to the expansion here introduced in the chronological
scale. Incidentally, it is worth noting that the point in central Asia
at which the Upper Paleolithic overtakes the Lower Paleolithic
agrees fairly well with the ascertained facts as given on the map.
The next succeeding commencement dates are likewise none too
certain in the absolute sense. For instance, published opinions con-
cerning the dawn of the Neolithic-Agricultural stage for Egypt and
Mesopotamia range all the way from about 6000(Peake and B.C.
Fleure, Childe) to 18,000 B.C. (Breasted, Montelius, de Morgan)

and we shall simply strike the average and take 12,000 B.C. as the
228
safest estimate. The beginning of theCopper-Bronze stage has by

several writers (Pumpelly, Peake and Fleure) been placed between
5000 and 6000 B.C. for Turkestan and Egypt; while the start of the
Iron Age proper (that is, ignoring the early use of meteoric iron
during Pyramid times) has of late been provisionally placed for
Asia Minor at about 1500 B.C. by T. A. Rickard. With these ap-
proximate beginning dates fixed on the section, we may plot the
commencement lines, beginning with those pertaining to the Iron
stage by bringing them up to the A.D. 1500 date level at the limits
of distribution indicated on the map. We are now in position to add
the commencement Copper and Neolithic stages, again
lines for the
using the given map limits for space values and bringing them at
these points up to the commencement lines for the Bronze and Iron
ages, which will give us the approximate date at which the Neolithic-
Agricultural and Copper-Bronze complexes were overtaken by the
products of the iron-working industry.
There remains the even more hazardous venture of introducing
the origin and general distributional behavior of the post-Paleolithic
culture stages on the American portion of the section. Figure 38
gives a freehand presentation, or merely a setting up, of the general
relations; but an attempt at something more precise seems justifiable.
To begin with, unless all the known facts belie the antiquity of
man in America, all our culture stages arose at a later date than did
the corresponding phases in the Old World. If in conformity with
this notion we assume that the corresponding steps from the begin-
nings of the Upper Paleolithic onward occupied about the same

proportionate lengths of time in the New and Old Worlds, and
accept the middle point in the Americas as the starting point (with
date therefore of about 7000 B.C.), simple calculations give about
3400 and 1700 B.C. as the respective dates for the commencement
B.C.
of Neolithic-Agricultural and the Copper-Bronze stages in
the
America. For the upper limits on the A.D. 1500 date level we may
consult the map as before and plot the two pairs of commencement
lines, and our visual representation of culture in relation to time
and space is complete as in Figure 39.
Nowsuch improvisation is not of course to be regarded as equiva-
lent to scientific demonstration. In viewing the diagram, all the
assumptions involved must be borne in mind and the apparent con-

clusions accepted with corresponding reservations. For fear of mis-
leading anyone, all the facts taken for granted and all the steps
made in constructing the plot have been stated in full. The resulting
picture intended merely as a crude approximation to the probable
is
happenings, some of which still remain to be proved.

General conclusions. The attempt has been made in the foregoing
pages to present an outline treatment of prehistoric archaeology.

The result is little more than a bare skeleton of the subject and
might perhaps with greater propriety be labeled "the mechanics of
the inventive process" or "a brief account of the inquiry into the
origin and development of material culture/' Within prescribed
limits the task has been to set forth what seemed most essential to
a sound general understanding of the subject. In judging the pres-
entation, it must be borne in mind that the subject is overburdened
with undigested facts and therefore also with loose, ever-changing
speculative theories. So much so is this the case that, even if it were
possible for one person to examine all the evidence, it would scarcely
be worth the while for present purposes, which are not those of a
descriptive manual but rather a digest of general features together
with a presentation of methods and principles by means of which
it is hoped the vast multiplicity of facts, known and unknown, may
be made more intelligible.
The purpose has been to define the nature, scope and general
aims of prehistoric archaeology; to name the principal objective
features with which it has to deal; and to indicate the important
time and place connections of these features with other pertinent
facts of natural history. Some attention has also been given to the
methods employed in both the field (stratigraphy) and the labora-
tory (typology and technology), w ith a view to bringing out of the
r
chaotic mass of details a reasonably clear account of early human

progress. Lastly, maps and charts have been introduced, not merely
to summarize past accomplishments in convenient form but also to
indicate present problems and thus in a measure to suggest future
procedure.
And what, it may be asked, are the broad outstanding achieve-
ments of prehistoric archaeology to date? The most convenient
answer is threefold: there is the growth or organization of the science
itself; therethe accumulated body of facts from all parts of the
is
world about early man as proof of his contribution to our present

civilization; and there is the growing body of interpretations and its
obvious influence on modern thought.
From what has been stated directly and indirectly it must be
apparent by this time that we owe a vast deal to our prehistoric

ancestors besides and limbs. The main essentials may be summed
life
up under a few general headings. Early man explored and settled

nearly all of the habitable world. He located most of the places
since found suitable as great centers of population. He opened trails
and used waterways connecting many of these settlements, which
to some extent have since been taken over as avenues for modern
trade and intercourse. He identified and brought into use most of
the ready-made natural resources animal, vegetable, and mineral
either as foods or as materials suitable for implements. He dis-
covered fire as a source of warmth and protection as well as its
serviceability in the preparation of food; and by means of fire and

other agencies he converted or reduced additional resources, like
clays and ores, into equally useful products. He converted or brought
under cultivation most of our cultivated plants and domesticated
animals, training the latter to carry his burdens and otherwise help
him in his labor. He founded most of our basic handicrafts, devised
the tools that served them, and with these in time produced clothing,
shelter, and gear for all of his varied activities. He made at least
good beginnings with medicine and surgery, as well as with astronomy
and mathematics in their practical application to the calendar, to
architecture, to agriculture, and to navigation. In addition to all

these practical endeavors, considerable advance was made also along
Those attested by archaeological remains in-
several esthetic lines.
clude decorative and representative art, executed in every available
medium; music, games, and sports expressive partly of individual
temperament and partly of the community spirit; and, finally,
dances, ceremonies, and rituals to suit, we may suppose, every
criticaloccasion in the group life. In short, primitive man, as we are
pleased to call him, is seen to have laid the foundations of practically
all of our present-day activities.
Our inductions based on the interpretation of archaeological ma-
terial must concern the nature of culture as such its origin, its
nature and mode of behavior, its practical use and ultimate value,
The question of primal origin need not detain us long. About all
that can be said is that material culture is a spontaneous phenom-
enon foreshadowed in the behavior of many of the lower animals.
How it was that only one member of the primate group came to
succeed with it we probably never know. At
shall all events such
questions cannot be settled by archaeology alone.

As approaches to the essential nature and behavior of culture, on
the other hand, archaeologic findings are obviously of the highest
importance. On the first point nothing more need be said than that
material culture a new way of adapting inner life forces to external
is
nature more exact, adapting external conditions to the

or, to be
rule of mind. By means of implements mentally created external
accessories new and otherwise unattainable advances have be-
come possible. This unique mode of progress has several advantages
over organic evolution, which to some extent it actually replaces.
Thus it is governed from within rather than from without. It is far
swifter in achieving lasting results and, above all, it enables the
individual for the first time really or consciously to take part by
affording him personal opportunity and thus lending him a sense of

endless adventure in an otherwise seemingly meaningless humdrum
existence.
With regard to the second point, the behavior of culture, it is
possible to be more specific. Not many years ago it was taken for
allbut granted that material culture had grown, as it were, always
from the bottom up. That is to say, whatever was found to have
happened, for instance in France, was assumed to have happened
also by sheer inner necessity in every other part of the world. This
would be a situation such as could be diagrammed by a simple
stepped pyramid or cone the top center of which would represent
the latest high level not yet reached by the surrounding zones. At
present, culture is conceived not as a merely static but rather as a
dynamic phenomenon; it is actually perceived as a diffusional phe-
nomenon and one which in a certain sense may be said to have
grown from the top down. This condition has been diagrammatically
represented by a succession of inverted pyramids; but, as must be
apparent, such schematization oversimplifies the process involved
and does not tell the whole story even as to all the known but scat-
tered primary centers of invention; much less does it take account
of the unknown secondary centers. The diagram does, however, con-
vey two fundamental suggestions worth noticing. One is that the
advanced centers of culture literally radiate traits or influences in
every direction, influences which in time tend to raise all the recipi-
ent areas to new and higher levels, perhaps even high enough to be-
come in turn new centers of radiation, as in the actual case of Europe
and China superseding the Near East. The other important fact
revealed by the diagram is the ever-accelerating speed of the culture
process that is, the gradual shortening of the time interval which
separates the successive stages.
The final and chief conclusion yielded by archaeological studies,
as here conceived, is that the origin, the development, and the
diffusion of the long lines of discoveries and inventions which go
to make up the entire modern material culture complex constitute
a genetically connected whole; or, stated in other words, the various
contrivances in question are the visible manifestations of a
artificial
great continuous creative process which serves to reflect the growing

mentality of their creator, man.
Broadly viewed, this material culture process appears to us as an
orderly succession of related events with few upstarts or erratic
phenomena in evidence. Studied in detail, it is seen as a mode of
origination by more or less gradual specialization or improvement,
brought about in the course of time as the result of human ingenuity
at work adapting the few material resources to all the numerous
desirable ends that necessity or fancy suggested. It is seen as a nat-
ural process with rhyme as well as reason in it; for the steps, as
shown, follow each other in due order: first the ready-made raw
materials, then the derived ones; first the quick but clumsy methods
of manufacture, then the slow and painstaking ones; first the crude
generalized implements, then the refined and specialized ones; and

first the crude utilitarian forms, then the addition of esthetic em-
bellishments. Further scrutiny reveals what may be regarded as

occasional mistakes and lapses, in places even revolutions now and
then; but these are comparatively insignificant and tend to fade
out when attention is focused on the general trend of development
and might disappear entirely if we knew the whole history. The
final and seemingly inevitable conclusion is therefore that cultural
growth is continuous, undergoing change or growth by gradual
modification, usually in the direction of higher specialization or

greater adaptiveness toward any given stable type of environment.
Just what "growth by modification" means in the case of material
culture in short, how new or improved inventions really come
about is a problem we must leave for the present to the psycholo-
gist.
New questions face us on every hand. For with all that has been
done there is as yet scarcely a country in the world, not even in
those most thoroughly investigated in northwestern Europe, that can
be said to have completed its preliminary field studies. For the rest
there are many more countries where the investigation is hardly
well under way, and still others where it can scarcely be said to
have been more than begun. Our own richest and well-worked high
centers of prehistoric culture, like the Ohio basin, the Southwest,
Middle America, and Andean South America, still offer problems
for solution; and as for the rest of the two Americas, we have only
partial notions of what secrets they hold. In short, systematic ac-

cumulation of field data must continue.
In the laboratory and study other tasks are awaiting solution.
Typological work that is, identification, classification, and gen-
eral systematization of many lines of evidence is still necessary
for most culture areas and culture stages, with a view to establishing
true, historically valid series, as well as to eliminating nondescript
artifacts that now pass as implements. Comparative studies of ad-
jacent culture areas and continents are required to determine mutual

influences and time relationships. Also, we need a simplified but
more adequate terminology. If we have properly identified the full-
fledged stages in the culture process, we are still not clear about the
origin of some of the transitional phases. The main steps now named
as indicative of the course of development are at least partly arbi-
trary and do not in all cases furnish a true estimate of the carriers
or producers concerned. For example, the division between Pale-
olithicand Neolithic is highly artificial, especially as applied to
America, and requires modification.
Then, too, there are larger questions that demand answers. When,
for example, did man actually enter the New World? And are his
higher achievements here truly independent developments or not?

Still broader and more fundamental problems loom up in the Old
World. Granted that our chronology is approximately correct and

that our typological subdivisions of culture stages hold true in a
general way for the world at large, we still do not know for certain
that the main succession of steps were all taken in one and the
same general region, or that they were everywhere taken in the
same order. Chance traits were surely invented or discovered in
various out-of-the-way places where they remained relatively unim-
portant until taken up, improved, and fitted into the centralized
vanguard culture complexes, thence to start out anew on their
We have therefore to ascertain the time and
diffusional careers.
place of origin of many important single inventions as, for example,

the bow and tailored clothing. Incidentally we shall presumably
always have with us the tantalizing ultimate question of how, when,

and where if not why human culture arose in the first place.
In conclusion then, prehistoric archaeology calls for workers along
several different lines: field study perhaps for only a few generations
and the laboratory study for a much longer period. The museum
will continue to require and to furnish endless opportunity for im-
proved realistic demonstrations of various lines of development to

answer temporary or permanent public interests. And in the mean-
time the teacher will have his task of exposition and application cut
out for him as long as learners retain a spark of interest in how
human affairs came to be as they are.
FOOTNOTES
1. Kidder, A. V., An Introduction to the titudy of Southwestern Archaeology (192-1).
2. See articles "Typenkartc" and "Typologie" in Max Ebert's Reattexikon
der Vorgeschichte, vol. 13 (Berlin, 1929).
3. Moir, J. Reid, Antiquity of Man in Easft Anglia (Cambridge, 1927), p. 35.
4. For special treatment of the subject see MacCurdy, G. G., "The Eolithic
Problem Evidences of a Rude Industry Antedating the Paleolithic,"
American Anthropologist, vol. 7 (1905), pp. 425-479.
5. Menghin, O., Weltgeschichtc der Steinzeit (Vienna, 1931), p. 130.
6. Ibid., pp. 17 ff., 23, 32, 274, 327.
7. For the most recent digests of European prehistory, sec: Peake, II., and
Fleure, H. J., The Corridors of Time (Oxford, 1927-33); Childe, V. G.,
The Dawn of European Civilization (1925); Leakey, L. S. 15., Adam's An-
cestors (1934).
8. As introductory to the archaeology of Africa, see: Breasted, J. II., "Origins
of Civilization," Scientific Monthly (1919); Pond, A. W., A Contribution to
the Study of Prehistoric Man
in Algeria, Logan Museum Bulletin, vol. 1,
no. 2 (Beloit, 1928); Jones, N., The Stone Age in Rhodesia (London, 1926);
Burkitt, M. C., South Africa's Past in Stone and Paint (Cambridge, 1928);
Leakey, L. S. B., The Stone Age Cultures of Kenya Colony (1931); Adam's
Ancestors (1934); Sanford, K. S., and Arkell, W. J., "The Nile-Fayum
Divide" and "Paleolithic Man and the Nile Valley in Nubia and Upper
Egypt," vols. 1 and 2 of the Prehistoric Survey of Egypt ami Western Asia,
Oriental Institute Publications, vols. 10 and 17 (1929 and 1933).
9. Mitra, P., Prehistoric India (Calcutta University, 1928).
10. For a summary of southeastern Asia see: "Zur Steinzeit Ostasiens" by O.
Menghin in P. W. Schmidt Festschrift (Vienna, 1928).
11. For a brief summary see: Nelson, N. C., "Archaeological Research in North
China," American Anthropologist, vol. 29 (1927), pp. 177-200.

12. von Merhart, G., "The Paleolithic Period in Siberia," American Anthro-
pologist, vol. 25 (1923), pp. 21 ff.; "Neuere Literatur ttber die Steinzeit
Sibiriens," Wiener Prahistorische Zeitschrift (1924), pp. 139 ff.
13. See also "Sibirien" in Max Ebert's Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, vol. 12
(Berlin, 1928), pp. 55 ff.
14. For this and for general distribution of sites, see Jochelson, W., Archaeological
Investigations in Kamchatka, Carnegie Institution of Washington Publi-
cations, no. 338 (1928).
15. von Merhart, G., Bronzezeit am Jenisei (Vienna, 1926).
16. Sarasin, P. and F., Die Toala-Hohlen von Iâmontjong (Wiesbaden, 1905).
17. Hale, H. M., and Tindale, N. B., Notes on Some Human Remains in the Lower
Murray Valley, South Australia, Records of the South Australian Museum,
vol. 4, pp. 145-218. For illustrations of Tasrnanian stonework and a key
to the literature, see Hambly, W. D., "Types of 'Tronattas' or Stone
Implements of Tasmania," American Anthropologist, vol. 33 (1931),
pp. 88-91.
18. Perry, W. J., The Children of the Sun (1923).
19. Ivens, W. G., "Flints in the Southeast Solomon Islands," Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 61 (1931), pp. 421-424.
20. Smith, S. P., Ilawaiki: The Original Home of the Maori (4th ed., Auckland,
N. %., 1921). See especially pp. 283-284.
21. Brigham, W. Implements and Stone Work of the
T., Stone Ancient Hawaiians,
Memoirs of the Bernice P.
Bishop Museum, vol. 1, no. 4 (Honolulu, 1902);
Bennett, W. C., Archaeology of Kauai, Bulletin 80, Bernice P. Bishop
Museum (Honolulu, 1931); Linton, R., The Material Culture of the Mar-
quesas Islands,Memoirs of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, vol. 8, no. 5
(Honolulu, 1923), and The Archaeology of the Marquesas Islands, Bulletin
23, Bernice P. Bishop Museum (Honolulu, 1925); Buck, P. II., Samoan
Material Culture, Bulletin 75, Bernice P. Bishop Museum (Honolulu, 1930);
Routledge, S. and K., The Mystery of Easter Island (London, 1920);
Best, E., The Stone Implements of the Maori, Bulletin 4, Dominion Museum
(Wellington, N. Z., 1912).
22. For bibliography see Perry, W. J., op. cit.
23. Nordcnskiold, E., Origin of the Indian Civilizations in South America, Com-
parative Ethnographical Studies, vol. 9 (Oxford, 1931).
24. Outes, F. F., La Edad de la Piedra en Patagonia (Buenos Aires, 1905);
Outes, F. F., and Bruch, C., Los Aborigenes de la Refyublica Argentina
(Buenos Aires, 1910); Hrdlicka, A., Holmes, W. H., etc., Early Man in
South America, Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology, no. 52
(1912); Lothrop, S. K., Indiana of the Parana Delta, Argentina, Annals of
the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 23 (1932).
25. Nelson, N. C., The Antiquity of Man in America in the Light of Archaeology,
Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution (1935), pp. 471 ff.; Howard,
EdgarB., "An Outline of the Problems of Man's Antiquity in North
America," American Anthropologist, vol. 38 (1936), pp. 394 ff.
26. For a summary of American archaeological features, problems, etc., see
Wissler, C., The American Indian (1938 ed.), chapters 15 and 16.
27. See for example Burkitt,M. C., and Childe, V. G., "A Chronological Table of
Prehistory," in Antiquity (London, 1932), pp. 185 ff.; Nelson, N. C., in
Wissler, C., Man and Culture (1923), p. 218.
28. For a slightly different but more detailed diagram, see Spinden, H. J.,
Ancient Civilizations of Mexico and Centred America, Handbook of the
American Museum of Natural History (1928).
GENERAL REFERENCES
EUROPE, ASIA, AND AFRICA:
Burkitt, M. C., The Old Stone Aye (Cambridge, 1933).
Cambridge Ancient History, vols. 1 and 2 (Cambridge, 1924).
Childe, V. G., The Bronze Age (Cambridge, 1930), The Dawn of European
Civilization (1925), and The Most Ancient East (1929).
Ebert, Max, Rcallexikon der Vorgeschichte, 15 vols. (Berlin, 1924-32).
Kiihn, Herbert, Kunst nnd Kultnr der I'orzcit Europas (Berlin, 1929).
Leakey, L. S. B., Stone Age in Africa (Oxford, 1930).
Macalister, R. A. S., A Textbook of European Archaeology (Cambridge, 1921).
MacCurdy, G. G. (Ed.), Early Man (1937) and Huwan Origins, 2 vols. (1924).
Menghin, O., Weltgeschichte der Steinzcit (Vienna, 1931).
Obermaier, H., Fossil Man in Spain (1934).
Peake, H., and Fleure, H. J., The Corridors of Time, 9 vols. (1927-36).
AMERICA :
Holmes, W. H., Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern United States, Annual Report
of the Bureau of American Ethnology, vol. 20 (1903); Handbook of Aboriginal
American Antiquities, Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology, no. 60,
Part I (1919).
Howard, E. B., "Evidences of Early Man in North America/' The Museum
Journal, vol. 29, nos. 2-3 (University of Penn., Phila., 1935).
Jenness, D. (Ed.), The American Aborigines (Toronto, 1933).
Joyce, T. A., Central American and West Indmn Archaeology (1916), Mexican
Archaeology (London, 1914), and South American Archaeology (1912).
Kidder, A. V., An Introduction to the Study of Southwestern Archaeology (1924).
Kroeber, A. L., Handbook of the Indians of California, Bulletin of the Bureau of
American Ethnology, no. 78 (1925).
Mead, C. W., Old Civilizations of Inca Land (1924).
Parker, A. C., The Archeological History of New York, vols. 1 and 2, New York
State Museum Bulletins, Albany, 1922.
Roberts, F. H. H., Jr., "A Folsom Complex," Smithsonian Miscellaneous
Collections, vol. 94, no. 4 (1935) and A Survey of Southwestern Archaeology,
Smithsonian Institution, Publication no. 3373 (1936).
Shetrone, H. C., The Mound Builders (1930).
Spinden, H. J., Ancient Civilization of Mexico and Central America (1928).
Strong, W. D., "An Introduction to Nebraska Archaeology," Smithsonian
Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 93, no. 10 (1935).
Willoughby, C. C., Antiquities of the New England Indians (Cambridge, 1935).
CHAPTER VI
INVENTION
FRANZ BOAS
Discovery and invention. Even in the simplest stages of culture

man does not obtain his living without providing, no matter how
inadequately, for future needs. He does not live without the help
of some simple utensils, and nowhere is he without some kind of
protection against the inclement weather and without some sort of
ornament.
Some by man and animals,
of these achievements are shared
particularly the habit of storing supplies and of providing artificial

shelter. There is no reason to suppose that they originated in man
in any way different from the manner in which they developed
among Among lower animals, particularly insects, these
animals.
devices have most complicated forms, and examples are found even
1
of an artificial control of food supply.
But whatever the origin of these devices may have been, however
much or little may be due to his animal nature,
man's achievements
the varied use of implements fashioned by human hands, the gradual
changes in their form, the ever-increasing extent of modifications of
products of nature, and the use of clothing set off man definitely
from animals.
The sources of these characteristically human traits may readily
be observed since they continue to function even in our present
stage of culture. Many are due to the observation of an unexpected
phenomenon that challenges attention, or to the discovery that
some object or some method of handling objects can be made to
serve a desired end. Others are due to a conscious endeavor to find
the means for achieving a purpose, such as the search for adequate
materials or for methods of handling them. Often these are based on
previous discoveries which are combined in new ways. In other cases
they require the discovery of new materials and of new methods.
Although we never be able to explain the ultimate sources
shall
of inventions, it seems more than plausible that in the early history
238
INVENTION 239
of mankind discovery played a most important part and that the

essentialelement was the recognition of the applicability to human
needs of observed phenomena. The observation that a falling stone
crushes things must have preceded the use of a stone as a hammer
for breaking bones or nuts. How
far a conscious recognition occurred
in earliest times cannot be decided. In modern man we may observe
both tendencies: the sudden recognition of the usefulness of some
material, form, or activity, and the intensive search for means of
reaching a desired end.

Discoveries can be made only environment in which man
in the
is placed. Nature which man avails him-
offers the opportunities of
self. Stone, wood, and shell are found to be useful materials; the
branches of trees or caves offer shelter. Inventions or discoveries
are based on the observation of the qualities and behavior of ob-
jects exhibited in the course of natural events or when handled by
man.
Fire and cooking. The discovery and the use of fire 2 will illustrate
the complexities of early achievements. Clear evidences of the use
of fire are found as early as Pre-Mousterian times. It is difficult to
say how much earlier its usefulness may have been discovered.
Since the remains of fire were found in caves, it must have been
carried there from the outside or been artificially started. It is not
easy to understand how man was induced to domesticate fire, which
must have appeared to him in nature as a terrifying phenomenon.
Burning woods, grass fires, volcanic eruptions, are all of a kind to

frighten man, not to attract him. It is impossible to tell whether
the dead animals that were found scorched after a grass fire, the
fish that were killed in hot or boiling water, attracted his attention
and induced him to keep smoldering roots or rotting trees in order

to start a new fire whenever he wished to do so, but some such
reason must have induced him to preserve fire. It seems plausible
that long before the art of fire-making was discovered, burning logs
and roots were carefully preserved and means were found to pre-
serve fire even when traveling about. Among many primitive people
every village has its permanent fires which, when properly covered
with soil or ashes, keep glowing for many weeks; and various kinds
of slow matches that can be carried along are in common use.
The step from preserving fire to starting a new fire is also diffi-
cult.The two essential methods of fire-making were by friction and
by the strike-a-light. We must necessarily assume that some kind
of experience must have preceded the invention of these devices. 3
The most common form is the fire drill, an
of the friction apparatus
implement a wooden
consisting of base, the "hearth," and the
wooden drill which is rapidly rotated with some pressure. Generally
the hearth has notches through which the wood dust produced by
drilling falls upon tinder. Since in early industries there certainly
was no drilling of wood in wood, it seems not unlikely that the
fundamental experience was that wood dust was produced by fric-
tion and that this dust was known to be useful for rekindling the
smoldering fire. Then it may have come to be known that the rapid
turning motion produced plentiful wood dust, particularly when a
little sand was put in the drilling hole, and accidentally the first
spark may have been produced in this man-

ner. Considerations of this kind suggest at
least a possible way in which this fundamental
invention may have been made. While the
well-nigh universal, the fire plow,
fire drill is
a board in which a stick is rapidly pushed

back and forward, is confined to islands of
the Pacific Ocean. In this case also the pro-
duction of wood dust is essential. The fire saw
is used in Malaysia. It consists of a split
bamboo which is sawed through so that the
Fig. 40. The fire drill
dust fa O p S down and is finally ignited by the
(after Hough). heat produced by the rapid f riction .
It is equally difficult to understand the origin of the strike-a-light.

The observation may have been made that flint striking another
hard stone, particularly pyrites, produced sparks; and since the art
of procuring fire from an ember by adding appropriate tinder was
known, the same experiment may have been made with the sparks
obtained from the strike-a-light. At best all such assumptions can-
not be more than guesses that can neither be proved nor disproved.
All we can do is to try to reconstruct conditions that seem possible
in the state of cultural development of these early times.
Fire was presumably used at an early time for roasting food,
either on spits by the side of the fire or in hot ashes. Much more
difficult to explain is the origin of steaming and boiling. The condi-
tions under which the effect of steaming may be observed are hardly
Still we find almost everywhere the art of
ever realized in nature.
making underground ovens. Red-hot stones are placed in the bottom
INVENTION
of a pitand covered with leaves or branches. The food to be steamed
is placed on top, covered with a new layer of leaves, and finally
closed with a layer of soil. Water is poured in, and the steam gener-
ated when the water reaches the red-hot stones is kept in long
enough to cook the food.
The discovery of boiling food is also difficult to understand.
Boiling water israrely observed. If occurring after a great conflagra-
tion, man would hardly approach it until after the water had ceased
boiling. It may be seen when a stream of lava reaches a pond, or in
geysers. Rare as these two experiences are, they may have been
important elements in the invention of cooking, since the earliest

method of cooking employs red-hot stones thrown into water. It is
difficult to conceive how the use of fire could have led to the obser-
vation of boiling and to the experience that boiled food is palatable.
Furthermore, all boiling requires vessels, and these would have had
to be invented before the art of preparing food by boiling as prac-
ticed by the tribes of simplest culture could develop.
Mechanical principles. The handling of materials acquainted man
with a number of physical and chemical facts 4 that found application
in many inventions. The strength of the blow of the hand was in-
creased by holding a hammerstone or a club which offered the
added advantage of hardness of the striking object. The principle
of the lever must have been discovered at an early time. It may be
presumed that wherever heavy objects are moved the lever came
into play. The heavy trees used in traps may have been moved
by the cooperation of many hands without implements, but heavy
posts and stones can hardly be raised without some mechanical
help. Shore poles or other devices like inclined planes and levers
were necessary for accomplishing these ends. 5 The lever is used
extensively in the construction of deadfalls in which it serves as a
6
release. The South American Indians use it for bringing a strong
7
pull to bear on elastic basketry tubes used for squeezing the juice
out of pulp. The Eskimo use it for twisting the strands of sinews 8
with which they back their bows. By being twisted the sinew strands
are shortened and give the necessary elasticity to the bow.
Torsion is also used in other ways to obtain strong pressure. In
Samoa torsion is used for squeezing out the juice from shavings of
the bark of Bischoffia jamnica, which is used for painting bark
cloth (tapa). 9 The shavings are placed in a bag-shaped mat ending
in ropes. One end is suspended from the branch of a tree; the other
has a loop through which a stick is passed, serving as a lever. By
twisting the stick the mat bag is compressed. The striking part of
10
certain traps used by the Eskimo, Chinese, and Egyptians is held
by tautly twisted sinews or cords which when released snap back
with great force, like the twisted cords used for spanning woodsaws.
Knowledge of movements due to the disturbance of equilibrium
is utilized in traps consisting of a pit or cage concealed by a cover
Fig. 41. Top center. Throwing clubs of the Kafir (after H. P. N. Muller).
Throwing knives from Africa: left, Adanmua; right, Mbum (after H. Schurtz).
Below. Throwing club, Australia (after Ratzel).
which is so supported that it tips over as an animal steps on it and

then reverts to its original position. Such knowledge is also implied
in the game of seesaw.
The resisting power of hard surfaces is made use of in shields and
shelters.
Rollers for moving heavy loads were used here and there, for
instance by South American Indians in moving their canoes over
portages. The Eskimo, whose mechanical genius is quite exceptional,
even use pulleys for hauling ashore heavy sea mammals. 11
INVENTION 243
Mechanical principles used in implements. Many mechanical de-

vices are in use to increase the force with which a projectile is thrown.
When man used for this purpose sticks held at one end, he must
have discovered at an early time that those heavy at the far end
flew fartherand with deadlier aim than those of equal thickness.
From this observation must have developed the numerous forms of
12
throwing clubs with thin handles and a heavy knob at the end.
Among African tribes this led to the invention of elaborate throwing
knives which are hurled like clubs. 13
The is made still more dangerous when the
stick used for striking
striking end has sharp edges or when a heavy sharp stone is inserted
in the end. These fonns occur, for instance, in the tomahawk.
Fig. 42. Australian boomerangs.
Two other inventions are based on centrifugal force, the sling

14
and the bola. By the rapid rotation of the sling and the sudden
release of one end of the string the stone is given a much greater
impetus than can be given by the hand alone. In the bola several
small stones or other heavy objects are attached to strings which
are swung around and thrown, and entangle the animal that is hit
by them.
A highly specialized form of throwing club, based more upon the
cutting effect of striking sharp edges than upon the impact of the
heavy end, is found in northeast Africa, southern India, and among
the Pueblo Indians of North America. It is a flat carved board for
throwing. In the Australian boomerang its wings are slightly twisted;
this has the effect that the weapon, if. it misses its aim, rises and
returns toward the place from which it was thrown.
Increased initial velocity of the thrown lance is also secured by an
artificial lengthening of the arm by means of a wooden implement,
held in the hand, which ends in a peg or groove an artificial
hand that holds the end of the spear. This point, being farther re-
moved from the shoulder, moves more rapidly and gives to the
weapon an increased impetus.
The throwing board probably a very ancient invention. It is
is
used, for instance, in Australia and by the Eskimo. It survives in

Mexico. In some regions a loop made of cord is used in a similar
manner. Instead of being attached at the far end of the missile, it is
placed near the center of gravity, where it is loosely held by a notch.
When wound around the
shaft it gives a rotating
motion to the weapon. 15
Centrifugal force was
also used in the rapidly
revolving spindle whorl,

in bull-roarers, and in
tops.
The effectiveness of a
straight forward thrust

of a stick depends upon
the straight line and
strength of the shaft and
Fig. 43. Eskimo throwing board
the sharpness and hard-
(after Otis T. Mason).
ness of the point. An
attack on large animals with an unhafted cleaver would have been
an exceedingly hazardous undertaking. It became less dangerous
when the point of a stick was hardened in fire and then sharpened,
or a sharp stone or bone was attached to a straight shaft which
made it possible to direct the thrust or throw with accuracy.
The elasticity of wood was used in the invention of spring traps
and of bow and arrow. 16 The spring trap consists of a branch or
sapling which is bent down and held insecurely by a holder. A
noose is attached to the holder. In the' simpler form of these traps
the animal which is caught in the noose loosens the holder by its
efforts to free itself, so that the elastic sapling springs back and
pulls it up. In more complicated forms there is a mechanism by

which the animal steps on a stick which releases the sapling.
It seems very likely that the invention of the spring trap and of
the bow are somehow related, although the transition is not easily
understood. The two have in common the use of the elasticity of
INVENTION 245
wood and the taut strings, but the use of the latter for propulsion
is foreign to the simple spring trap. More complex forms of the
spring trap which make use of the arrow are undoubtedly late inven-
tions. Bow and arrow were in use in late Paleolithic times, for rock
paintings of this period represent hunters using them.
The further development of the bow presupposes very specific
knowledge of the materials that man was handling, for wherever
elastic wood was not available complicated devices were used to
increase the elasticity of the stave by combining materials of differ-
ent elasticity. The wood or bone was backed with sinew, whalebone,
orsome kind of wood of different elasticity. The sinew was glued on
or tied on in braids. All these
methods are so complicated that
they presuppose close observation
based on experiences in handling
materials. Playful handling may
have played an important part
in accumulating this knowledge. It
is not unlikely that some of these
inventions were made at one place

and were gradually learned by
neighboring tribes and thus spread
over a wide area. The distribu-
tion of the compound bow favors
such a theory.
The development of the arrow
Fig. 44.Noose trap of the
proves also that it is based on
Kwakititl Indians.
experience in handling materials.
The distribution of weight in point and shaft, the form of the notch
and particularly the steadying of the flight of the arrow by means
of feathering, flat or straight and varying in number of feathers,
must be the results of experience in handling.
The local absence of the bow and arrow in Australia is a curious
anomaly because the invention goes back to Paleolithic times. It
seems likely that among the Polynesians and Micronesians and a
few African tribes, who otherwise have an advanced inventory of
inventions, its use has been lost.
An entirely different method of propulsionis used in the blowgun
which is found among the Malays, Melanesians, and South Ameri-

can Indians. The light arrows are said to carry up to one hundred
feet. Their effectiveness is due to the poison in which they are
dipped.
Both air pressure and suction are employed in the bellows of
Asia and Africa.
The effect of suction is used by the Bushmen for obtaining water.
A hole in the ground reaches down to the water table. A tube
made
is insertedand the water is sucked up with the mouth and then
squirted into ostrich eggs, the contents of which have been sucked
out, and which serve as receptacles. The same principle is used in
cupping, which is widely known in Africa and America.
Friction is utilized in all forms of tying and joining. Diminution
of friction plays an important role in transportation. Examples are
the careful icing of sledge runners by the Eskimo, which allows the
sledge to slide easily over the hard snow, and the rollers which are
placed under canoes.
Watertight and airtight materials are used for many purposes.
Stone, wooden, and basketry vessels the last-named sometimes
made tight by a covering of pitch or clay serve as containers of
liquids. Intestines and bladders are used when airtight receptacles
are needed. Hides are also prepared so as to become watertight and
are employed both as clothing and as covers of canoe frames. Water-
proof garments are also made of intestines.
In hunting fish and sea mammals and in transportation the knowl-
edge of the floating of objects of low specific gravity, and of the
sinking of those of high, is utilized. Light wood and bladders filled
with air are employed as floats holding up the tops of nets while
the lower part is held down by sinkers. Floats are also attached to
harpoon lines or shafts which prevent the escape of the game or the
loss of the shaft. The light weight of wood is employed in rafts.
The observation that hollow vessels placed on water are less deeply
immersed than solid wood and are capable of carrying heavier weight
is utilized in the making of canoes. Other types of canoes consist of
frames covered with watertight skins. The canoe is anchored by

means of a stone sinker.
The mechanical knowledge displayed in canoeing is remarkable.
Paddles are used like levers one hand serving as fulcrum, the
other as the moving force.The Eskimo use oars in their large boats
and substitute a rowlock, consisting of two interlocking loops of
thongs, for the fulcrum. In steering, a single paddler will turn his
paddle so as to counterbalance the one-sided impetus that drives the
INVENTION 247
canoe in one direction and to steer a straight course. The Eskimo

uses instead of this the double-bladed paddle which propels his
kayak to one side, then to the other. When an equal number of
first
paddlers are on each side, the steersman controls the direction of

the canoe by turning the blade of his paddle or by paddling on one
side or the other as conditions demand. Steadiness of the canoe is
^^r^f"
Fig. 45. Friction drums (after Balfour).
obtained by using ballast, in the South Seas by joining two canoes

side by side but some distance apart, or by use of the outrigger.
Sailing before the wind was known to the Eskimo and Northwest
Coast Indians. The Micronesians and Polynesians sailed close to the
wind and some of them had even learned to give to their canoes a
slightly asymmetrical form in order to avoid leeward drift.

The acoustic effect of beating and rasping strengthened by the
resonance of a hollow space was utilized in drums and other instru-
ments. Notched bones or sticks were pulled over the edges of reso-
nance boxes, or an elastic stick was rubbed over a gourd provided
with notches. In the friction drum, the drum was made to vibrate
by means of a stick or string passed through a perforation in the
center of the drumhead. The vibrations are produced either by
passing the stick up and down or by rubbing it. The whizzing sound
of rapidly moving objects is utilized in the bull-roarer and similar
instruments.
The observation that objects of different size produce different
tones was made use of in some types of musical instruments. The
two-tongued drums of Mexico and the West Indies, the slit drums
of South America, and the
wooden blocks of New Ire-
land that are played by rub-
bing over the surface of the
tongues are simple examples.
The length of bamboo or
iron rods is made use of in
the African zanza and ma-
rimba; the thickness and size
drumheads are varied to
Fig. 46. Top. Musical instrument,
Ireland (after
two-tongued drum.
liatzel).
New
Bottom. Mexican
of
obta j n
tension
^
is
Modification of
used for the same
purpose. The length of the
vibrating column of air determines the pitch of trumpets, and in
flutes a number of sounds are obtained by the use of stops. The
strengthening of sound by
resonance is used in various
types of drums, particularly
in box drums and water
drums, in string instruments,
and marimbas. In mono-
chords and marimbas gourds
are often placed under the
strings and sounding boards
17
for intensifying the sound.
Chemical, or at least partly
chemical, processes are also
used extensively. They enter
into the preparation and pres-
ervation of foods and the
manufacture of paints and
dyes. Leaching serves the
Fig. 47. Bushman gora player and end
purpose of separating soluble of gora (after Wood).
substances from pastes. Fer-
mentation is used in the preparation of drinks. Poisons are extracted.
Various kinds of material are dyed by boiling or soaking in decoc-
tions of bark and the like. Suds for washing are secureu from roots.
INVENTION 249
Shells are burned for preparing lime. Ochre is burned for paint.
Most important of all is the reducing of iron ores for obtaining
metallic iron.
In the selection of materials for various purposes the most inti-
mate knowledge of their properties is found. Tough stones are
D
Fig. 48. A. Harp; B. zither; C. lyre Congo (after Annales du Musfa du
Congo). D. Bamboo zither, Nias (after Modigliani).
selected for pecking, brittle ones for flaking, soft ones for carvings.
Woods of various kinds are chosen according to the purpose they
are to serve: ash, yew, betel palm, Casuarina, etc., on account of
their elasticity for making bows; easily splitting wood for making
planks or for bending; hard, insect-resisting woods for building;

fine-grained \vood for carvings; hollow stems for blowguns, and wider
ones, like bamboo, for receptacles. Hard-shelled gourds and fruits
like the coconut or tree calabashes as well as shells serve as water-
tight receptacles.Tough twigs, bark, and fiber are employed in
tying and rope-making. It would lead too far to describe man's inti-
mate knowledge of the faunal and vegetal products of his home that
serve as food.
Compound implements. It seems likely that all the earliest imple-
ments used by man were objects that were made more handy by
modification of natural forms. Stones, sticks, shells, and jaws may
have been so used. It must have been a great step forward when
two objects were combined to form one implement. Some of these
modifications, like wrapping with skin or covering with pitch the
part of a sharp-edged stone knife held in the hand, served merely as
a protection making possible the employment of greater force. Moje
important was the discovery of the usefulness of handles to tools
for cutting, piercing, breaking, or scraping. This may have been
suggested by stout sticks with an attached branch, with which a

much stronger blow can be given than with the branch alone. It is
not saying too much when we claim that the invention of the handle
was a step as important as the discovery of the usefulness of a tool.
One aspect of the advance of invention consists in the perfection of
the handle. The difficulty of this step should not be underrated,
and its importance was pointed out years ago by Daniel G. Brinton. 18
There is no phenomenon in nature that would suggest the combina-
tion of different materials into a whole so as to form a handle. It
may happen every now and then that a stone is inclosed in a root,
but I doubt whether this is frequent enough to give the necessary
stimulus. If the connection between handle and working part of the
tool is not secure, it is useless. Therefore many additional experi-
ences were required before an efficient handle could be made. In
cutting tools the working edge must remain free. The handle end
must be attached by being united securely with the handle. Archae-
ology does not give us information in regard to the earliest stages
of this process, because the connecting material is necessarily perish-
able. From modern specimens we may infer that tyingwas one of
the methods most frequently employed, but tying presupposes the
invention of tying materials, thongs or strings. Tough stems or
fibrous strips torn off from young trees may have furnished material,
but the question remains: What suggested the idea of tying? May it
be that the firm encirclement of stems or branches by winding
INVENTION 251
plants gave the suggestion to use them for holding parts together?
Or may have been suggested by playing with strips, winding them
it
around hand and fingers or around objects? However this may be,
it isclear that a great step forward was taken when the art of tying
two objects together had been learned. When the stone was to be
used for clubbing animals, it might be entirely encased, and for this
purpose a piece of skin wrapped around and twisted so as to form a
handle would be adequate.
Cement was also used at an early time to unite separate pieces.
Blood and various kinds of pitch, sometimes mixed with beeswax or
powdered stone, are used by American Indians as well as by Aus-
tralians. Arrowheads were thus glued to shafts. Cements are used
for calking canoes and wooden vessels. The Eskimo use a cement
made of mixed blood and fat for joining the stone slabs forming the
sides of a rectangular cooking pot to one another and to the bottom.
The South American blowgun, which is made of two parts fitted
neatly together, is made airtight by being covered with cement.
Pieces of wood or thin stone slabs are also joined by sewing with
roots, withes, whalebone, or other strong materials. Holes are drilled
along the edges of the parts to be joined, and the strands are pushed
and pulled through these holes. Sewing was done at an early time
in a similar manner; holes were made with an awl, and the thread
was pulled through the holes. The invention of needles with eyes
seems to have been made in late Paleolithic times. Other methods of
joining materials, like pegging and weaving, are also late inventions.
In Neolithic times we find stone blades driven into a socket in a
piece of antler which forms the handle or part of it. This method re-
quires knowledge of the effect of heat upon antler. The stone tool can
be driven into the soft central part and after cooling is held firmly.
Such handles are found in pile dwellings in Switzerland * and were used
19
until recent times by the Eskimo. In still later times blades were
riveted to handles, the rivets requiring a perforation of the blade.
Search for materials. Man was not always satisfied with the ma-
near at hand. There is early evidence of deliberate search for
terials
useful materials. In Mesolithic times there is already evidence of
the mining of flint which was carried on in regions where there was
an ample supply of surface material. The flint embedded in chalk
was mined because it is better adapted for work.
The search for materials is also proved by the occurrence of
* See
page 190, Fig. 34.
objects carried over long distances. In the younger Paleolithic times
shells from the Atlantic Ocean were found among the remains of
the caves of Grimaldi near Mentone and in Cro-Magnon in the
Dordogne. Mediterranean shells appear in Switzerland and southern

Germany about the same period.
Stone. The fundamental discoveries and inventions relate to the
modifications of form of natural objects that make them more avail-
able to use. The observation that brittle stones when broken form
sharp edges, added to the experience that sharp edges cut, has led
to the intentional flaking of brittle stones. This development is
proved more or less stringently by archaeological evidence (see
pages 170 IF.). The degree and refinement of intentional flaking
increased slowly during early Quaternary time. To the process of
breaking by strokes was added the shaping by pressure with a sharp
bone, small fragments being split off from a core.
Of different origin is the shaping of tough stones, which are worked
by battering the surface until the desired shape is attained. This art
may well have been discovered by the effect of pounding with a
tough grained pebble the striking surface of which was gradually
worn down. The time sequence of these achievements has been
described before.
Extensive use of polishing flaked stones belongs to a later period,
and is characteristic of Neolithic times. Drilling and scraping of
wood and piercing and scraping of skin were also practiced in early
times. Drilling of stone and bone, particularly of large holes, was
not used until Mesolithic and the beginning of Neolithic times.
Stones are cut by a sawing motion performed with thongs or thin
pieces of wood combined with sharp sand and water. When the cut
isdeep enough the pieces of stone are separated by a blow or b$
means of a wedge. Soft stones, like slate, are ground into shape and
provided with sharp edges on gritstones.

In one series of tools the blade is attached so that it forms the
continuation of the axis of the handle, the cutting edges being on
the sides, as in a double-edged knife; it may be pointed for piercing
like a dagger, or provided with a cutting edge at the end like a
chisel. In another series the blade stands at right angles to the
handle, the cutting edge being either in the same plane as the bent
handle, as in our axe, or at right angles to it, as in our adze. All
these forms must be considered as the results of processes that were
gradually developed by the use of stone tools.

INVENTION 253
While the blades of all these utensils are in principle alike, the
handles show great diversity according to the technological develop-
ment of each people. Special blades and attachments, such as gouges
and crooked knives made of stone, and slanting attachments were
also developed.
The toothed saw does not appear until Neolithic times, although
some irregularly toothed blades of the late Paleolithic period may
have been so used. The saw is not universal among primitive people.
The Eskimo, for instance, cut large bones by means of a line of
drill holes placed in close proximity. The two parts thus produced
are then broken by means of a wedge, and the ridges left by the
holes arc rubbed off with a rough stone. Thinner pieces of bone
drill
and deep grooves are probably cut by them with rough-edged thin
flint blades.
Wood. Wood for making large objects required a high develop-

ment of stone, shell, or bone tools, for trees had to be felled and the
wood worked with chisels, axes, or adzes. Wood is shaped by means
of implements of stone, shell, or teeth. It is cut into shape or reduced
to the desired form by means of gritstones. The surface is smoothed
with rough skin or with leaves or stems containing silicious deposits.
Large blocks of wood used as receptacles or canoes are hollowed out
by means of fire and finished with axes or adzes. Bending of wood
and bone by steaming is known to many tribes.
Food. Even in Paleolithic times man secured food by hunting
large animals, infinitely superior to him in strength and speed;
also by using fruits, roots, grubs, shellfish, and the like that could
easily be procured, The hunting of large game required cooperation

of hunters and devices for killing that would not necessitate a hand-
to-hand encounter with animals of a strength like that of the cave
bear. The simple stone tools would hardly be adequate for this pur-
pose. Hunting with an unhafted cleaver would have been an exceed-

ingly hazardous undertaking, and probably inclosures, pitfalls, and
other trapping devices were used by the early hunter. This seems
the more likely since in the early Paleolithic period the large pachy-
derms such as elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus were the
principal animals hunted. These could hardly be killed by a cleaver.
Most of the bones are those of young animals which were more
20
easily driven into inclosures or pitfalls. Some paintings of the late
Paleolithic period seem to represent inclosures and traps. 21 As soon
as a reasonably long shaft allowed an attack from a point beyond
the reach of the teeth and paws of the animal, hunting became
safer. Cave animals may also have been smothered by smoke in
their dens; animals of the steppe may have been killed by fires
allmethods employed nowadays by primitive tribes.
The invention of implements and devices for hunting and for
obtaining vegetable foods will be described later (see pages 282 ff.).
The meat of animals, fresh or preserved, is roasted, boiled, or steamed.
In Arctic climates frozen meat may be kept throughout the winter.
In other regions it must be specially prepared. Knowledge of the
anatomy of the animal is generally accurate. The muscles are split
into thin sheets according to definite rules and dried in sun and
wind or in smoke. Sometimes the dried meat is powdered and kept
mixed with fat. Fish are also cut and sun-dried or smoked. The
intestines of larger animals, so far as they serve as food, are eaten
fresh, roasted, or cooked. Blood is used in the preparation of soups.
Plants are also eaten raw or cooked. Many bulbs, roots, and
fruits are preserved and used as staples for seasons in which no
vegetable products can be gathered. Bulbs and roots are generally
sun-dried. Dry seeds may be kept without any preparation. They
need only protection against predatory animals, particularly rodents,
and insects. Seeds are broken up either by pounding in a mortar or
by grinding on a millstone. Berries and other juicy fruits are boiled
to a jam and then dried.
One of the most puzzling facts is the frequent use of plants which
in their natural state are either unpalatable or actually poisonous.
Among the former may be mentioned the bitter acorn and buckeye
of California. These are ground by means of a pestle in a basket
mortar, and the meal is leached until the bitterness is removed. In
Australia, also, many acrid or poisonous plants are used which re-
quire a most elaborate treatment before they become edible. Best
known among the poisonous plants are the manioc of South America
and the potato, which in Peru, before being used, was exposed to
frost and used only after the fluids had been removed by pressure.
Complicated methods of preserving food and making it palatable

22
are universal.
The methods of preparing meals from the raw or preserved food
products are principally roasting, boiling, and steaming. Roasting is
generally done in ashes, broiling by the fire, boiling by throwing red-
hot stones into appropriate vessels filled with water (see pages 239-
241). Sometimes the fluid to be boiled is placed over a fire in stone
INVENTION 255
kettles, as among the Eskimo, or in wet skin or bark receptacles

which withstand the fire long enough to permit the contents to
simmer or even to boil. Steaming in earthen ovens is widely prac-
ticed (see page 240). Baking on hot stones is found rarely; the Pueblo
Indians, who bake cormneal wafers in this manner, present one of
the few instances. Meal obtained from ground or pounded seeds,
bulbs, or roots is almost universally used for preparing mushes.
Intoxicants and narcotics. The use of intoxicating drinks and
foods is widespread although not universal. Alcoholic drinks made
of grain, roots, or tubers, juices of fruits, sap, milk, and honey are
found in Africa, South America, Polynesia, and southeastern Asia.
They were also known in ancient Europe. In the extreme north-
eastern part of Asia fly agaric is eaten to produce intoxication. The
use of peyote spread widely among North American Indians and
goes back to pre-Spanish times. Narcotics which are chewed are the
betel, the coca of South America, and the pitcheri of Australia, to
name only a few. Hemp, opium, and tobacco are smoked, chewed,
and eaten. South American Indians use powdered seeds of an acacia
as an intoxicating snuff. 23
Medicine and poison. It would lead too far to enumerate the
medical uses of plants. Every tribe has discovered the effects of
many plants upon the human body and these are extensively used.
24
Animal and vegetal poisons are used. Putrid tissues, snake and
insect venoms, as well as poisons obtained from plants, are applied
to points of arrows and to blowgun darts. Poisonous plants are
thrown into the water to kill or benumb fish. Poison is also used in
ordeals to detect guilt.
Preparation of skins. The progress from tearing up or cutting up
animals to careful skinning was certainly not easy, but we may
safely assume that the discovery of the skinning of whole animals
was made in early Paleolithic times. The elaborate process of curing
the heavy hides of reindeer, bear, bison, and deer is probably a
later achievement. It requires the careful scraping of the inner side.
This is done either with a stone scraper or with a hoe-shaped stone
implement. After this has been done many tribes work the inner
surface with a grainer, which is applied until the skin becomes flex-
ible. Generally the skin is rubbed with brains and fat to make it
more flexible. Rawhide is obtained by drying the skin and scraping

offthe hair. Tanning was invented at a very late period. Skins are
allowed to putrefy until the hair can be removed. The same end is
attained by soaking the skin in lye from ashes or some other alkaline
fluid.In Africa dung of cattle is used for this purpose. After being
25
properly scraped and softened the skins are often smoked. Clothing
and bags are made of skins.
Bark cloth. The art of obtaining large sheets of material by felting
fibers is used in Polynesia, Melanesia, southern Asia, and South
America. The bark of certain trees (Bromsonetia, Ficm, etc.) is
carefully peeled off, cleaned, and beaten with a mallet with a cor-
Fig. 50. Twilled matting

E (after Mason).
Fig. 49. A. Wicker work. B. Single-strand
twining. C. Twined weave. D. Three-strand braid
and twined work, outside; E. inside (after
Mason).
rugated striking surface. By this process the fibers are felted, and in
the Polynesian bark cloth they are beaten down to the thickness of
a tough paper. Finally it is rubbed with the hands until it is soft
and pliable. In Africa the pieces of bark cloth are rather small and
are sewed together, while in Polynesia large sheets are manufactured.
The bark cloth is often painted by hand, or colored designs are
26
applied with stencils.
Basketry and mat weaving. The simplest form of weaving consists
of the intertwining of pliable branches or twigs between stiff rods.
Such watling is used for fish traps and for the construction of shelters;
later on it was filled with clay to form permanent walls. Closer
weaving of pliable materials between warp strands is employed in
INVENTION 257
the manufacture of coarse baskets. When a twist is given two ad-

joining strands of the woof, twined weaving originates. In a more
complicated form of twining these strands are twisted around the
warp so that every strand passes in front of two and behind one
warp strand. The same technique is used with pliable warp. In
plain up-and-down weaving, warp and woof are of the same width
and pliability. This type of weaving is used for mats and to a lesser
extent in baskets.
Fig. 51. Cat's cradles of Eskimo.
Fig. .52. Knots used by Eskimo.
These fundamental types of basket weaving lead to an infinite
variety of forms, partly by skipping of warp strands in twining, so-

called twilling, partly by varying the method of twining for in-
stance, by braiding woof strands instead of simply twisting, by
introducing overlays or embroideries into the single meshes, or by
wrapping the twining strands around a cross woof. These variations
may have originated from the pleasure enjoyed when playing with
strings and from that of mastery of a complex technique; perhaps
also from the enjoyment of the figures resulting from the most
complex forms of this technique. It would seem that the play with
strings has been a most important element in the development of
weaving and sewing. String games like cat's cradle are found all
over the world, and knots of the most varied kinds are used every-
where. Tricks of opening apparently firm knots play an important
part in the shamanistic procedure of many countries.
Spinning. The step from basket- and mat-making to weaving is
not sudden. In North America woven blankets are found which are
technically analogous to twined baskets. Skins are cut into narrow
strips and dried so that they become twisted and have the hair
everywhere on the outside. These are united by twining with a
warp made of vegetable fiber. In the same mariner soft bark is used
as a warp and made into blankets by twining. All these manufac-
tures depend upon the art of spinning, of making strong and suffi-
ciently long threads of material such as vegetable fiber or hair. The
general principle is that the fibers are twisted together and that new
fiber is so introduced that it becomes interwoven with the material
previously twisted together. A common method of securing this

result by rubbing
is the fiber, hair, or
feathers on the thigh or on some flat sur-
face, attaching theend to a spindle which
revolves rapidly and twists the material
into a stronger thread. Stronger threads
are secured by twisting two or more such
threads together.
Weaving. The methods of mat weaving
Fig. 53. Coiled basketry
may be transferred without change to
(after Mason).
gpun mater ; a j The s; mp est form of weav.
i
ing is done by hand, one set of threads being hung up as warp while
another set of threads passed with the fingers up and down the
is
warp threads. Simple looms were used in many parts of the world
although the art of weaving is not by any means universal.
Sewing. Sewing of skins and of wood has been referred to. After
the invention of the needle the variety of stitches increased consider-
ably and various methods of embroidery developed. Sewing is also
employed in the manufacture of coiled basketry. Bundles of ma-
terial are wrapped with tough strands and twisted into coils which
are sewn together with the wrapping strands. The coils vary con-
siderably. Generally they consist of bundles of fibers, but in some
cases single rods or a small number of rods are substituted. Great
varieties of sewing are used, and the pleasure of play is expressed in
INVENTION 259
this technique no less strongly than in the woven baskets. The stitches
are so arranged as to produce varieties of patterns, and embroideries
are added.
Pottery. The art of pottery did not develop until Neolithic times.
Its present distribution suggests that it was invented independently
in the Old World and in the New
World, for an extensive area in
northwestern America separates the regions in which pottery occurs
in the two hemispheres. The knowledge of plastic clay goes back to
Paleolithic times. In Neolithic times earth ovens appear. When
made in clayey soil or lined with clay, the sides are hardened by fire.
The time to which these pits belong is uncertain, but considering the
wide distribution of cooking in pits it seems likely that the effect of
fire upon clay may have been discovered accidentally, particularly
if it happened that the same pit was used several times. During the
period to which the Neolithic pits belong, elaborate pottery was in

use so that the knowledge of firing clay must have been much older.
Besides this, clay is being used for making baskets and canoes
27
watertight. After drying, the clay lining may have separated from
the basket. Tylor 28 has assembled evidence in favor of the theory
that the making of pottery developed from the custom of protecting
basketry or gourd vessels from being burned over the fire by cover-
ing them with clay which became fired when the fire was hot enough.
While this did not often happen, the knowledge of the firing of
clay in the earth oven together with the exposure of lined baskets
to a hot fire, perhaps during a conflagration, may have given rise
to the art.
Generally the natural clay is fine-grained; and unless tempered
by the addition of sand, pounded shells or stones, or pulverized
pottery, the fired pot is fragile. The knowledge of tempering is
found wherever better grades of pottery are made.

Pots are shaped in various ways. They are moulded with the
fingers out of a lump of clay. The by being beaten
walls are finished
flatwith a light spatula while they are supported on the inside by
a smooth stone. Vessels were also moulded in or over baskets, as is
evidenced by the impression of the fabric on the outer side, or over
gourds. In more advanced stages of pottery, moulds of fired clay
were made, into which was pressed the clay for the objects to be
manufactured.
An entirely different method of making a clay vessel is by coiling.
The process is strictly analogous to the manufacture of coiled bas-
ketry, only the coils of the plastic clay are merely pressed together
(ind do not need sewing like the basketry coils. In all the more elab-
orate forms of pottery both the inner and the outer side of the pot
are polished with some smooth material.
Metal work. The use of metals which occur in pure state is prob-
ably contemporaneous with the development of Neolithic industries..
In America pure copper was used in the region of the Great Lakes,
in the Mackenzie area, and on the North Pacific coast. It was ham-
mered out into daggers and other weapons. The Eskimo used also
meteoric iron, small blades of which were inserted in the edges of
bone implements in the same way as pieces of flint were used when
it was desired to obtain sharp cutting edges. According to tradition
copper was heated on the Northwest Coast to make it more malle-

able. Pure gold was worked into ornaments. In Mexico it was
melted and cast in lost forms. For instance, small bells were made
by making a form of coils of beeswax which was covered inside
and outside with clay. Then the
whole was heated until the wax
ran out and the molten metal
was cast in the hollow form. The
heat of the fire used for melting
the metal was increased by means
of a blowpipe.
The reduction of metals is a
much later invention which was
Fig. 54. Cross section of smelting presumably made in Asia or Af-
furnace (after Schweinfurth). rica. Bog iron (limonite), mag-
netic iron ore, and brown iron ore

when mixed with charcoal and sufficiently heated are easily reduced
in a simple smelting furnace to loupe (or bloom) which can be ham-
mered out. The reduction of the ore requires an adequate supply
of oxygen, which is secured by means of bellows. It may be pre-
sumed that the possibility of reducing iron oreswas discovered acci-
dentally in conflagrations. The whole process is so complicated that
itmust be based on many diverse experiences. The addition of char-
coal as one essential had to be discovered. The necessity of increas-
ing the heat of the fire by an artificial supply of oxygen had to lead
to the development of the bellows, for the blowpipe did not furnish
a sufficient amount of air for this purpose. First of all the use-
fulness of the iron which was obtained by this complicated process
INVENTION 261
had to be found. Just how this came about can hardly be surmised.
In the earliest finds iron serves merely as material for ornaments.
It is soft and as material for cutting tools is much inferior to
copper and bronze.

The invention of bellows presupposes also many experiences. In
this case it would seem that we may speak of an actual
purposeful
invention. It was necessary to obtain a continuous supply of air.
First may
it have been blown out of a single skin bag with attached
tube, but then the bag had to be refilled. The possibility of speeding
the filling of the bag through a slit which when pressed can be
closed with the hand, and
even the invention of the
valve, may have been an ac-
cidental discovery, but the
combination of two bags with
connecting tubes which are
filled with air and compressed
alternately, thus securing a

steady flow of air, was cer-
tainly a deliberate invention.
Application of inventions.
Although in the preceding
pages the relation between Fig. 55. Wolf trap (after Lips).
discoveries and their uses,
or the application of inventions, has been touched upon, it seems
desirable to summarize briefly a few of the most important uses to
which they are put.
Devices for obtaining food. Weapons and mechanical traps have
been described before. It remains to mention the various devices used
for capturing animals. The simplest of these is the pitfall dug on the
trail of animals and hidden by branches. Sometimes sharp posts are
set in thebottom so that the animal falling into the pit becomes im-
paled. In both land hunting and fishing, devices are used that lead
the game into a trap from which it cannot escape. Wolves are caught
in a double circular enclosure of posts driven into the ground (Fig. 55).
The wolf enters through a door that opens only inward, and finds
himself in the narrow space between the two circles, in which he
cannot turn. Running around, he closes the door and cannot escape.
Fish are caught in traps based on a similar principle (Fig. 56).
They consist of a lohg basket into the opening of which a short in-
verted basket is inserted, open at the end, through which the fish can
enter but which prevents their escape. They are connected with weirs
that lead the fish into the basket trap. In a similar way land animals
are driven by a group of hunters towards converging nets that have a
narrow outlet, or they are driven into a converging enclosure of
bushes closed at the narrow end by a net. Here hunters are stationed
who kill the animals. Herds of game animals are also surrounded from
one side and driven towards a precipice. They kill themselves by
jumping over, or are dispatched by the hunter. Others are driven into
the water and killed while swimming. Nets spanned over a large
frame are thrown over birds. Fish are caught with hooks, in bag nets
and drift nets. Hunting in disguise is much practiced. The Eskimo in
sealskin clothing imitates the movements of the barking seal and thus
approaches it. The Indians used to conceal themselves under com-

plete skins of deer, and stalk
the game in this disguise. The
Bushmen dress themselves like
ostriches and thus stalk their
game.
Tribes that have no agri-
culture, or only the most prim-
Fig. 56. Fish basket.

itive methods of cultivating
plants, use the digging stick

for gathering roots or tubers. The digging stick is made of hard wood
and provided with a sharp point. The Bushmen increase its effec-
tiveness by the attachment of a perforated stone. In other cases a
crossbar is attached, on which the worker steps. The New Caledoni-
ans use the digging stick in preparing their fields. These men work
in a line, push down their digging sticks to a depth of more than a
foot, and jointly turn over the soil, which is then broken up by
the women. The spade must be considered as developed from the
digging stick.
The most important implement of primitive agriculture is the hoe,
which is formed like a pick or has a broad blade, often running
either
into a point. While the workers who use the digging stick shove the
tool forward, those who use the hoe pull it towards themselves.
The difference is worth remembering when we try to understand
the origin of the plow. The simplest forms of plows seem to be
digging sticks pulled forward instead of being shoved forward. The
uniformity of the principle employed in the plow, the range of its
INVENTION 263
distribution in the Old World, and its absence in all the outlying parts
of the Old World as well as in the whole New World make it certain
that a single invention which has spread at a late period from a
it is
single center. In Egypt the plow was known in the Old Empire.
Grass seeds are cleaned in flat winnowing baskets. The seeds are
tossed up and the blown away by the wind. Berries are cleaned
chaff is
by being rolled downalong wet planks, the leaves adhering to the

plank while the berries roll down on a mat or into a receptacle.
In several parts of the world gardens are irrigated by a system of

ditches. These were found in the southwestern parts of the United
States. In Malay countries and elsewhere in Oceania terraces are built
on steep hills to retain the soil and to regulate irrigation. (See also
pp. 294 ff.)
Protection against attack. In treating of the methods of increasing
the natural strength of the hand in striking or throwing, their appli-
cation in various tools and
weapons has been mentioned.
A word may be added in re-
gard to the invention of the
shield. The simplest protec-
tive shield consists of a staff
or a narrow piece of wood,
with a handle in the middle,
which used
is for parrying
the thrust of a spear or the
blow of a club. Such shields
Fig. 57. Plan and sections of Eskimo tent.
are found for instance in
Australia and on the upper Nile. For protection against rapid pro-
jectiles such as lances and arrows it is useless, and wide shields made
of wood or thick hide are in use. The body is also protected by
armor made of heavy hide, of slats or rods of wood or bone tied
together, or of closely woven heavy fabric. The head is sometimes
protected by a wooden helmet or one woven of tough fiber.
Shelter. Protection against climate is afforded by the house. The
earliest house was probably the cave, which is still used in some
parts of the world. The simplest structures are windbreaks made of

branches of trees. Other simple huts or tents consist of frames which
are covered with mats or skins. Some Eskimo tribes use as support
a single pole over which a thong is stretched, the ends being held
by heavy stones. A te^t cover made of skin is thrown over the
thong and held extended by stones. More complicated tents have
the form of a gable roof, front and back each being formed by a
pair of poles tied together near the top and spread apart at the bot-
tom. The two pairs are connected by a ridge pole. Simple lean-tos
are constructed in similar manner. Sometimes these are very long,
serving as ceremonial or communal houses.
The frames of round huts are often made of saplings which inter-
cross and are buried at both ends. This structure is covered with
matting or similar material. When necessary, the hut is further
protected by a covering of brush, sod, and the like. Round tents
are also constructed over
converging poles, often lean-
ing against a central tripod.
They have an opening on top
for a smoke escape and a
flap which serves as a door.

Underground houses or
Menomince hut those built in a P it: are of
Fig. 58. (after Hoffman).
frequent occurrence. They
are generally of more solid construction than the tents. The walls
of the pit are supported by wood, bone, or stone. When such houses
are built on a slope a frame is erected for the front part, over
which poles are laid as supports for the roof. In other houses of
this kind four posts are erected in the pit, which support heavy
rafters slanting upward from the sides of the pit to the center.
Over these, horizontal poles are laid, which in turn are covered with
dirt or other material. The entrance
often through an opening in
is
the center of the roof, a ladder reaching from the middle of the
pit up through the smoke hole. In other cases the entrance is at one
side. In Arctic climates it is further protected by a tunnel.
Large wooden houses are rather rare. They occur on the Northwest
Coast of America. In the region of northern Puget Sound they reach
enormous size, many sections being joined so as to form a single
structure which is used as a communal house. The corners are made
of posts which are connected by beams. The sides are made of
boards which are tied between pairs of holding posts. The roof is
either a shed or a gable roof. Whenever boards or horizontally
placed poles or logs are used in house-building, the ground plan is

necessarily rectangular. Houses built in shallow water are on plat-
forms supported by piles; others, built on the slope of hills, are on a
INVENTION 265
foundation of crossed logs. Large rectangular houses are also common

in southeastern Asia, the Malay Archipelago, and Melanesia.
In arid areas houses are also built of clay or of sun-dried bricks
covered with some kind of rain-resisting plaster. Buildings of this
type are strengthened when the foundations of the work are straw,
wattling, or the like, which is filled with clay.
Stone architecture isa late invention. In early Europe it is con-
fined to the Mediterranean and later on to the Atlantic coastal re-
gion. InAmerica it is confined to the advanced people of the Andean
plateaus and to Mexico and part of Central America and to rather
weak beginnings in the southwest-
ern deserts of the United States.
Special mention should be
made of the Eskimo snow house,
a true vault constructed of spi-
rally arranged blocks of snow.
Villages are protected against
hostile attack partly by being
built in inaccessible places, like
the tops of steep hills, even on
ledges or in recesses of steep
cliffs, or by being surrounded by
palisades or walls.
Clothing. Protection against
the rigors of the climate was in
early use. It is probable that we
Fig. 59. Eskimo snow hut and section.
overestimate the need of clothing
for people living in climates like that of Tierra del Fuego or of the
Northwest Coast of America. The Indians of the Mackenzie valley
are scantily clad. The difference in the desire for protection between
them and the neighboring Eskimo is particularly striking. Skins
were presumably the earliest kind of clothing used. Many of the
Paleolithic scrapers and awls were presumably used in the prepara-
tion of skins. It is unlikely that the hides of the large pachyderms,
cave bears, and lions gave impetus to the preparation of skins. It
seems more likely that we have to assume that birds and small
mammals, the skins of which require for their preservation only
drying and rubbing, were attached td the most sensitive parts of
the body. The attempts of apes to cover themselves with leaves
suggest the beginning of the use of more permanent coverings.
The problem of the invention of clothing cannot be answered
with any degree of certainty. It is not self-evident that man on ac-
count of the loss of hair of the body was compelled to seek for an
artificial covering. He may well have lived during the warm periods
of Paleolithic times without any covering. However, at the be-

ginning of the younger Paleolithic period we find evidence of the
use of ornaments. The conditions under which man lived at that
period did not make it absolutely essential for him to have more
protection than a blanket, for besides the reindeer there lived other
animals, like the deer, that require a temperate climate. The scrapers
and awls found at this time make it probable that skins were pre-
pared and sewed.
It has been suggested that all clothing developed from ornament.
This does not seem plausible, because the desire for ornamentation
and that on entirely different mental atti-
for protection are based
tudes. Apes enjoy carrying flowers or other attractive objects as
ornaments. This desire has nothing to do with the protection they
seek in covering their bodies with leaves. On account of the limita-
tions of clothing among the most scantily clad tribes to the regions
of the sexual organs it has been claimed that the origin of clothing
is due to a peculiar inborn modesty, to the aversion to expose the
29
organs of sex. It seems impossible to reduce the origin of clothing
to a single cause, for need of protection, fondness of ornament, and
modesty whatever its origin must each have contributed its
share.
In the development of clothing we may distinguish between the
simpler forms, which consist of some kind of material cut into suit-
able form so that it can be wrapped around the body, and tailored
clothing. The former type includes loin cloths, aprons, blankets,
wrappings around the legs, and simple sandals. Tailored clothing
includes shirts, leggings, moccasins, and caps, all of manifold forms.
Ornaments. A variety of materials, techniques, and objects of
manufacture are used for ornamenting the body. The body is painted
or tattooed. Among people with dark skin ornamental scars are more
frequent than tattooing. The teeth are filed or knocked out, among
some people even inlaid. Ears, nose, cheeks, and lips are perforated
for the attachment of ornaments such as plugs, strings, rods, or the
like. The head is deformed by pressure. The faces of infants are
moulded in the expectation that permanent effects will result. Thus
Negroes flatten the noses, Indians try to shape the cheeks. Other
INVENTION 267
parts of the body are deformed according to local customs. The

Indians of Vancouver Island tie the ankles of women so as to secure
slim ankles. The Chinese used to deform the feet of women.
Painting, carving, inlaying, and artistic wrapping are used for ob-
taining artistic effects on objectsof use. In weaving, twilling of

colored materials gives rise to a wealth of artistic forms.
Transportation. Ease of locomotion is secured by a variety of in-
ventions. For travel by foot, protection of the sole is obtained by
means of sandals,and of the whole foot by of shoes
vari^Mg^pes
with hard or soft soles. For climbing and for supj^Hp^hen carrying
heavy loads, staffs are used. Travel over soft snow is facilitated by
the use of snowshoes in the Old World skis, and in the New
World generally netted frames. Swimming is to be considered a
means of locomotion in a limited sense only. Almost all primitive
people living near water are good swimmers.
Loads are transported by being carried on the head or on the
back. Head loads, particularly pots with rounded bottoms, are
supported on stuffed rings or pads which are laid on the head. Back
loads are held in place by a packstrap passing over the forehead or
over the chest. The ends of the straps are attached to loops at the
top of baskets or bags, or slung around the load.
Branchless thin trees are climbed by the Aeta of the Philippine
Islands by clasping the trunk with the hands and placing the soles
of the feet against the trunk. Then the climber walks up the tree.
Malay tribes and South American Indians climb larger trees by
passing a rope around the tree and over the small of the back, thus
forming a loop. Pressing the soles of the feet against the trunk and
holding the loop tightly, they walk up the trees. The tribes of the
North Pacific coast of America add to this loop a wooden seat
through which the rope passes. Trees are also climbed by means of
pegs driven into the wood as the climber ascends.
Ladders are made of the trunks of trees notched on one side.
Trails are kept open by frequent traffic. In South America and
Indonesia, rivers are spanned by suspension bridges (Fig. 60). In
the Malay Archipelago the footway of bridges is sometimes laid over
a series of supports, each consisting of two converging stakes, driven
into the river bed and tied together near the top.
Other means of transportation by land are tied up with the use of
domesticated animals. The most ancient domesticated animal is the
dog, and it is used for carrying and hauling loads. The loads to be
carried by the dogs are tied on like saddlebags. On the North Ameri-
can plains the dog is used to drag a small travois, an arrangement
consisting of two poles which are attached to a simple harness and
to the middle part of which, as support for the load, a netted frame
is attached. More important is the use of dogs with the sledge for
transportation over snow. A number of dogs are attached to the

sledge, either fanlike or tandem. The sledge itself in its simplest
form is a toboggan; in more complex forms it is built upon a pair
of runners. TJBfcê of the dog as a draft animal for small carts has
survived in Europe up to the
present time. After the in-
troduction of the horse the
North American travois was
enlarged and used for trans-
portation of goods by horses.
In South America the llama
was used as a pack animal.
A most important step
forward in the art of trans-
portation was made with
the invention of the wheel,
which in an open, level coun-
try took the place of more
primitive means of hauling
loads. It is
probable that
this invention was first
made in Neolithic times in

Asia. It is absent in Africa
south of Sudan and
the
Fig. 60. Suspension bridge of rattan,
had not been invented in
Celebes (after Grubauer).
America at the time of the
discovery. Both the sledge and the wheeled cart provided a means
of more rapid transportation of man himself.
The oldest monuments show the warrior drawn by horses on a
chariot, not riding. It seems that the art of riding is more recent
than the carrying of loads on the backs of animals and the hauling
of vehicles. It probably originated somewhere in central Asia.
The simplest method of transportation by water is by means of
floating logs. Simple canoes are made of a large piece of bark, held
spread by means of thwarts, or by hollowing out a tree. The former
INVENTION
type is common in South America and Australia; the latter is widely

distributed over all the other continents. Much more complex are
bark and skin canoes stretched over a wooden skeleton like the
birchbark canoes of North America and Siberia and the kayaks of
the Eskimo. Skin-covered round tubs, like the Welsh coracle and
the bull boat of the Mandan Indians, are used locally.
Rafts are made by tying together bundles of reeds or logs. Much
more complex is the boat built of timbers. A gunwale raised by
sewing a narrow board on to the dugout occurs in British Columbia.
Boats with keels consisting of hollowed trees and sides built up of
boards are found in Polynesia. Greater steadiness is secured by con-
necting two canoes by means of a platform or by attaching an out-
rigger a swimmer held firmly by means of crossbars at some
distance from the body of
the canoe. These forms are
characteristic of the islands
of the and Indian
Pacific
oceans. Double canoes are
also used on the Northwest
Coast of America.
The art of sailing before
the wind is known to the
Eskimo and the Northwest
Coast Indians. The former
pig 61 Dog travoig (aftef Wiss , er)
used sails made ot thin skin,
the latter those made of thin boards sewed together. Sailing close
to thewind is known to all the maritime people of the Pacific Ocean.
Games and tricks. Many inventions are used in games of skill. 30
Almost all kinds of weapons like spears, bow and arrows, and blow-
guns are also used in playing. Skill in throwing and hitting is trained
in ball games, in catching or hitting objects that are swung sus-
pended from a string, and in hitting rolling rings with spears. For
ball games a variety of types of bats have been invented, each
serving a particular purpose. String games are played almost every-

where. 31
Technical knowledge plays an important part in tricks performed
in ceremonials. One of the best known is the handling of knots. The
performer is apparently firmly tied but frees himself by opening the
knots. Other tricks are based on the skillful handling of invisible

strings, on ventriloquism, and the use of speaking tubes. Devices for
deceiving the uninitiated are innumerable. Among tribes that use
seems to be known that stones or metals in white heat
fire tricks it
can be handled with impujuty.

Medicine. 32 The knowledge of the properties of poisons and of
plants of medicinal values has been mentioned. Here we have to
refer to the use of mechanical devices. Massage is widely practiced.
M and Samoa. 34 The Indians of
It reported from Easter Island
is
Vancouver Island massage the abdomen in cases of constipation;

the Crow Indians against stomach-ache. 35 It is also commonly prac-
ticed in connection with shamanistic procedure. Its use for bringing
about abortion is probably known everywhere. Pressure by means
of circular bandages is used to alleviate headaches and pains in the
stomach. Perspiration is produced by placing the patient in a heated
ditch or in a steam bath. The latter is widely used in North Amer-
36
ica, where it is often followed by a plunge in cold water. In Aus-
tralia the affected part of the body is steamed while the whole body
37
of the patient is covered with furs. Scarification is in common use. 38
Generally the blood is sucked out with the mouth. Opening of the
39
veins and cupping are also reported. To stop bleeding, powdered
40
charcoal, bird's down, and other similar materials are used. Ab-
scesses are cut and the pus is removed by sucking or washing. The
wounds are protected by poultices. In case of snake-bite some tribes
make cuts around the bite, or scarify and tie a ligament above the
41
bite. Cauterization is used for treating abscesses and to cure head-
aches or backaches. 42 Emetics of various kinds are used. Tickling of
the throat is resorted to. Enemata are given by means of tubes.
Broken bones are set in splints or covered with clay which hardens
and forms a protective cover. In other cases a cut is made, a splint
is placed alongside the broken bone, and the whole is firmly band-
43
aged. Later the splint is removed. Amputations are undertaken
ritualistically rather than for surgical purposes although the latter
are not missing. Certain natives of southeast Australia amputate
two joints of one little finger, or remove them by stopping the
blood supply by means of a tight bandage and letting ants eat off
the mortified tissues. The Tsimshian of British Columbia cut off
one joint of the fourth finger to put an end to a succession of deaths

in a family. Amputations of hands or noses as forms of punishment
have been reported from many parts of the world.
The sewing up of wounds is not unknown. In East Africa when
the mother dies in childbirth the Cesarian operation is performed in
INVENTION 271
order to save the child. There is also a report of a successfully per-

formed Cesarian operation from Uganda. The incision was closed
by needles pushed through the margins of the wound and wound
around with thread (sutura circumvoluta).
Trephining is widespread. Trephined skulls from Neolithic graves
of Europe have been collected. Numerous specimens from Peru, New
Caledonia, and the Loyalty Islands are known.

A number of operative procedures of the sexual organs are cus-
tomary. Circumcision is most widely distributed. In Australia sub-
incision is practiced, which consists in slitting open the urethra.

Excision of the clitoris, sometimes connected with infibulation, is
practiced in Africa. The castration of domesticated animals is known
44
to primitive people. Thus the Hottentot castrate their cattle and
the Hidatsa Indians their dogs. 45
Writing. The art of phonetic writing is unknown to primitive
man, but he has devices for recording and communicating by means
of conventional symbols which are understood by his tribesmen.
Many of these are used for counting. The South American Indians
use knotted strings which indicate the number of days that are to
elapse before a festival. The invited guests open one knot every day
and arrive on the day when all the knots have been opened. The
Indians of British Columbia indicate the amount owed by a person
by small cedar sticks, one length indicating blankets, another canoes.
Another type of communication is by means of conventional
signals. The Thompson Indians of British Columbia indicate by
four small slanting wands stuck in the ground that four persons
had left that camp in the direction indicated by the slant. larger A
stick points to where the sun was when the party Fresh leaves
left.
placed near the sticks give information telling about how many
days previously the party had started. A number of hairs from a
horse's tail shows the number of horses they had. Deer's hair tied
on the horse's hair show s that they were carrying venison. A stick
r
placed apart with a fishbone or a root tied to it shows that they

were out of provisions and were living on fish or roots. 46
Smoke signals 47 are also used as means of communication. By
covering repeatedly with a blanket the column of smoke produced
by throwing wet grass on a fire, it is interrupted and in this way
information is spread. The meaning is either traditional or pre-
arranged.
Other devices serving the purpose of communication or of assisting
the memory are numerous. The Australians send messengers with
message sticks in which notches are
cut, each representing part of
the message. The notches are intended as a help to the memory of
the messenger. 48 Alone they have no meaning except in a very few
cases in which notches in definite places have attained a traditional
significance.
Pictographs are used in a similar way. The Ojibwa and other
eastern Indians used a series of pictographs marked on birchbark to
remember the sequence of songs in a ceremony. 49 Thus the six de-
signs shown in Figure 62 signify the following: (1) The god of thun-
der and lightning filling all space. (2) A drum. (3) A drum ornamented
with feathers. (4) A raven. (5) A crow. (6) A medicine lodge. Each of
654
Fig. 62.
32 1
Ojibwa picture writing (after Schooloraft and Mallery).

1. The god of thunder and lightning filling all space. 2. Drum. 3. Drum orna-
mented with feathers. 4. Raven. 5. Crow. 6. Man in medicine lodge.
these recalls a song that occurs in this particular order. Of similar

type are the year counts of the Dakota in which an outstanding
event of each year is recorded by means of a symbol; for instance,
two men in distinctive hair dress holding peace pipes indicate the
conclusion of peace between two tribes (Fig. 63, 4)- The Dakota
also indicate pictographically the name of a person by attaching a
symbol of the animal to the head of the person. In Figure 63, No. 1
represents a man called Wolf; No. 2, Eagle Feather; and No. 3,
Little Moon. 60
The use of pictography is widespread. In Africa simple outlines
scratched into a gourd are symbolic representations of proverbs.
These have been recorded from Togo and the Congo. Thus the
design of a double bell means that it may be rung only at the time
of the death of a chief. They are also used to record complex events.
Most of the latter are probably not intelligible without explanations.
INVENTION 273
1.
123
Man
Fig. 63. Dakota symbols of
called Wolf. 2. Eagle Feather. 3. Little

names.
Moon. 4.
4
Peace with Crow

Indians (after Mallery).
Still more complex is the pictographic writing of Ibo which is
used exclusively by a secret society. 51 Figure 64 a represents married

love; b a quarrel between husband and wife; in c the man (1) has
eloped with the woman (2) and pays compensation (4) on account
of the woman (2) to her husband (3) and to her family (5) d repre- ;
sents an inconstant heart; in e the curved line represents a snake,

the dots its poison, and the crossline the knife with which it has
been killed.
Cases in which pictures were given phonetic values independent
of their significance occur in ancient Mexican writing, particularly
v Mexican picture writ-

Fig. 65.
Fig. 64. Pictographic writing of Ibo (after ing. Above. Petlatlan. Below.
McGregor). Mapacthepec (after Pefiafiel).
in place names. 52 An example
is the name Mapachtepec, Raccoon
Mountain. It
represented by
is the symbol for ma(itl), hand; pach(tli),
the long lichens Usnea; and tepee, in a mountain. In the same way
Petlatlan is rendered by the syllables petla(tl), mat; and tlan from
Oan(tK), teeth.
Science. Man has not only utilized his experience in handling
materials but has also, at an early time, learned to observe nature
in such a manner as to utilize his experiences in regulating his ac-
tivities. Astronomical and meteorological observations and those
relating to the tides are probably most widely found. Almost all
primitive tribes have a lunar calendar. Most of the moons are desig-
nated according to the changing aspects of vegetation, the ripening
of wild fruits, or the phases of animal life. Thus we find twelve
53
moons among the Hottentot largely named according to seasonal
changes of vegetation. The Thompson Indians count eleven months
and an indefinite rest of the year. They begin with (1) the rutting
season of deer, followed by (2) the moon when people go into their
winter houses, (3) the moon when bucks shed their antlers, (4) the
spring winds, (5) leaving the winter houses, (6) fishing, (7) root-
digging, (8) ripening of berries, (9) summer solstice, (10) salmon
54
run, (11) fish reach the heads of the rivers. The Koryak count
twelve months, many of which refer to the phases of the life of the
55
reindeer. The Maori begin the year with June, the rising of the
56
star Puanga, and count thirteen months. The Marquesans counted
57
twelve or thirteen months. Both had names for the days and
58
nights of the month.
Observations of certain phases of the positions of the heavenly
bodies are frequent. Among the Hottentot and South American
Indians the beginning of one month is determined by the rising of
the Pleiades. The Thompson Indians as well as the Coast Indians
of British Columbia and the Pueblos carefully observe the summer
and winter solstices and readjust their calendar accordingly. The
solstice isdetermined by observing from a definite position the day
when the rising or setting sun reaches its most northern or southern
point. The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island determine the time of the
arrival of the olachen, a fish that furnishes the indispensable oil, by
the relation of high tide and the moon. They set out when the high
tide of the second moon after the winter solstice is in the early
morning. Wherever the year is counted to have twelve moons there

is one long moon to equalize solar and lunar years.
INVENTION 275
Among the Mexicans and Maya, a calendar had been developed

by the priests based on a combination of divinatory and ceremonial
units of thirteen days adjusted to a solar year. The divinatory cycle
consisted of twenty periods of thirteen days each. Each of the
twenty periods had a name and each of the thirteen days a number.
The year consisted of 365 days divided into eighteen periods of
twenty days each. The remaining five days were considered an
unlucky period. The least common multiple of 20 X 13 and 365
(
= 5 X 73) is 52 X 365, so that after 52 years the same divinatory
combination will occur. The combination may also be written as
20 X 13 X 73 so that it contains both
the elements of the divinatory and solar
calendar.The revolution of Venus takes
8 X 73 days. These two periods may also
be brought into relation.
The Micronesians not only used the
constellations as guides in their naviga-
tion but also observed the direction of
the swell of the sea. On the basis of these
observations they made sailing charts
consisting of frames of thin rods tied
59
together. The central vertical line in
Figure 66 represents the course to be

followed. Inside of the lower triangle this
line represents the meeting of the east
and west 66. Nautical map,
swell deflected by the island of Fig.
Marshall Islands (after
Jalut. The sailor follows this line until
Kramer).
he reaches the steady easterly swell north
of point (1). He
continues sailing at right angles to the swell.
When he approaches Ailinglaplap he strikes again the meeting of the
deflected swell and steers along the line of meeting of the easterly
and westerly swell.
The boats are so built that the lee side is much steeper than the
gently curved weather side, which is on the side of the outrigger.
This seems to have the effect that the waves pass under the boat
more easily. In sailing, the outrigger is always kept on the luff side
so that the sail has to be taken back or forward on each tack and
60
the boat goes forward first with one end and then with the other.
Among some of the peoples in whose economic life large numbers
play an important r61e, additions are made without difficulty. Thus
the Kwakiutl in important transactions add numbers of blankets
paid, canoes, and other objects the value of which is counted in
blankets. one case a man paid for a valuable object 1000
Thus in
4- 200 + + 400
1000 + (iOO blankets, + canoes worth 300 + 120 +
80 blankets, + 200 blankets, -4- 2 canoes each worth 50 blankets, +
200 blankets, a total of 4200 blankets which were added after each
61
amount had been deposited. For values borrowed, definite amounts
of interest are charged.
The Maya Yucatan had developed a method of writing num-
of
bers, of adding and subtracting. They had also invented a symbol
for zero and gave a value to their numbers according to position.
The ascending values of digits in their writing are 20 for the first
higher unit, :>() for the second, 7200 for the third, 144,000 for the
fourth. The numerals up to four are indicated by dots, each five by
a bar. Thus the number 19 may be designated by three bars and
four dots. The higher units are written so that the highest is on
top. Figure 07, for instance, reads
1 x 144,000 = 144,000
5x7,200-= 36,000
14 x 300 5,040
4x20 = 80
Ox 1 =
185,120
Fig. 67. Maya numerals.
The Aztecs indicated 1 by a finger, 20 by a flag, 400 by hair,

8000 by a pouch in which copal w as carried. These were written T
62
side by side.
20 400 8000
Fig. 68. Symbols of numbers, Aztec (after Spinden).

INVENTION 277
The quipus Peru have been proved to be also a system of nu-

of
merical writing. 63
The quipu consists of a string from which groups
of pendants hang down. These are knotted, the knots being arranged
in rows. The row farthest away from the main string represents
units; the one nearer to the main string, tens; the next hundreds;
and so on. To each group is attached one single
string which gives in the same manner the sum
total of all the knots in the group. The diagram
(Fig. 69) illustrates this system.
Measurements are needed for many purposes.
The standards of linear measurements are gener-
ally taken from parts of the body. On the coast 1000
64
of British Columbia the principal measures were
a finger width; a long span (from thumb to tip
of fourth finger); a short span (from thumb to
tip of first finger) ; a cubit (from elbow to tip of

second finger); half a fathom; a fathom. The
Hupa of California measured their dentalium
shells by the length and by
of the finger joints
marks tattooed on the forearm according to cer-
65
tain accepted standards. In southern California
the measures are rather based on the length of
Fig. 69. Quipu
the second finger and the circumference of the
(after Locke).
hand and forearm. 66 I do not know of any kind
of hollow measures except clam shells for medical administration of
fluids and buckets or vessels of fairly standardized size.
G7
The Peruvians had invented beam scales with an original method
of determining equilibrium.
Whenexact forms are to be made, measurement becomes indis-
pensable. As an example I give a method used by the Kwakiutl of
Vancouver Island in laying out the lines for a square house. A rope
is run from the center of the line where the front is to be to the
center of the rear,. and the ends are staked off. Then the rope is
halved. One half-length is stretched to the right, the other to the
left ofthe middle front stake. Next another rope is used to measure
the distance from the rear stake to the ends of the front rope, which
is adjusted until these two distances are equal. In this way the
front line is made to be exactly at right angles to the medial line.
The rear corners are determined in the same way in reference to

the stake in the middle of the front line.
Another example of the application of geometric principles is
found among the same tribe, who make square boxes by bending a
board. The board is cut by making one edge straight by sighting
along it and cutting off all irregularities. The width is marked at
two points (a and 6) by means of a strip of cedar bark, and the
opposite side is cut along a straightedge of yew wood. Next a central
line is determined by folding over the cedar strip used for determin-
ing the width and from one point of this line, by means of a piece
a 9 b f
d e
Fig. 70. Diagram showing method of squaring sides of a box.
of cedarwood, a half diagonal, running from the center (c) to what

is to be the corner of one side of the box (d) is determined. By
turning it the other three corners (e, /, g) are marked, and thus an
exact rectangle is obtained. Then kerfs are cut along the end of each
side. After the four sides have thus been marked out the superfluous
part of the plank is cut off; the kerfs are steamed and then bent
until the two ends meet. To make the box itself rectangular a cross
of two pieces of cedarwood of equal length is inserted in the box,
68
which is twisted until the cross is parallel with the upper edge.
FOOTNOTES
1. Alverdes, Fr., Social Life in the Animal World (1927), p. 96.
2. Tylor, E. B., Researches into the Early History of Mankind (London, 1878),
pp. 229 ff .
3. Mason, O. T., The Origins of Invention (1895), pp. 84 ff.

4. Weule, K, Die Anfdnge der Naturbeherrschung (Stuttgart, 1921, 1922).
5. For instance: Boas, F., The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island, Jesup Expedition,
vol. 5, Part II (1909), p. 338.
6. Lips, Julius, Fallensysteme der Naturcblker (Leipzig, 1926); also in Ethnologica,
vol. 3 (1927), pp. 123 ff.
7. im Thurn, E., Among the Indians of Guiana (London, 1883), pp. 260 ff .
8. Mason, O. T., North American Bows, Arrows and Quivers, Annual Report
Smithsonian Institution, 1893 (1894), pi. 74.
9. Kramer, A., Die Samoa-Inseln, vol. 2 (Stuttgart, 1903), p. 304.
10. Lips, Julius, op. cit. (1926), pp. 118 ff.; (1927), pp. 234 ff.
INVENTION 279
11. Mason, O. T., The Origins of Invention, p. 61.

12. For instance: Muller, H. P. N., Industrie des Cafres du sud-est de 1'Afrique
(Leiden, 1893), pi. Ill, figs. 6, 7.

13. Schurtz, H., "Das Wurfmesser der Neger," Internationales Archivfiir Ethno-
graphie, vol. 2 (1889), pp. 9 ff.
14. Murdoch, J., Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition, Annual
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, vol. 9 (1892), p. 244.
15. Krause, F., "Schleudervorrichtungen fur Wurfwaffen," Internationales
Archivfiir Ethnographic, vol. 15 (1902), p. 121.
16. Lips, Julius, op. cit. (1926), pp. 52 ff.; (1927), pp. 168 ff.
17. Annales du Musee du Congo, Ethnographic et Anthropologie, Serie III, vol. 1
(Brussels 1902-06), pp. 7 ff., pis. 1-21.
18. Brinton, D. G., The Subdivisions of the Palaeolithic Period, Proceedings of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1887.
19. Boas, F., The Eskimo of Baffin land and Hudson Bay, Bulletin of the Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History, vol. 15, Part I (1901), p. 381.
20. Soergel, W., Das Aussterben dilurialer Saugetiere und die Jagd des diluvialen
Menschen (Jena, 1912).
21. Lips, J., op. cit. (1926), pp. 132 ff.
22. Hahn, Ida, "Dauernahrung und Frauenarbeit," Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic,

vol. 51 (Berlin, 1919), pp. 243 ff.
23. Sumner, W. G., and Keller, A. G., The Scie-nce of Society (1927), vol. 3, pp.
2080 ff .
24. Bartels, M., Die Medicin der Naturrolker (Leipzig, 1893).

25. Mason, 0. T., Aboriginal Skin Dressing, Report of the United States Na-
tional Museum, 1888-89 (1891), pp. 553-589.
26. Kramer, A., op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 299 ff.; Weiss, M., Die Volkerstamme im
Norden Deutsch-Ostafrikas (Berlin, 1910), p. 440.
27. von den Steinen, K., Unter den Naturvolkern Zentral-Brasiliens (Berlin, 1894),
p. 216.
28. cit., pp. 270 ff.
Tylor, E. B., op.
29. Schurtz, H., Grundziige einer Philosophic der Tracht (Stuttgart, 1891).
30. Culin, S., Games of the North American Indians, Annual Report of the Bureau
of American Ethnology, vol. 24 (1907), pp. 383 ff.
31. Jayne, C. F., String Figures, A
Study of Cat's Cradles in Many Lands (1906);
Haddon, K., Cat's Cradles from Many Iânds (1911).
32. Bartels, M., op. cit.
33. Thomsen, W. J., in Report of the United States National Museum for 1889
(1891), pp. 470-471; Kramer, A., op. cit., vol. 2, p. 117.
34. Turner, G., Samoa (1884), p. 141.
35. Lowie, R. H., The Crow Indians (1935), p. 63.
36. For instance, Maidu, California, University of California Publications in
American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 20 (1923), p. 53; "Tillamook,"
ibid., p. 4; Speck, Naskapi (1935), p. 212; Lowie, R. H., Shoshone, Anthro-
pological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, vol. 2, Part II

(1909), p. 228.
37. Smyth, R. Brough, The Aborigines of Victoria (London, 1878), vol. 1, p. 261,
note.
38. Man, E. H., Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, Royal Anthro-
pological Institute (1932), p. 17; Howitt, A. W., The Native Tribes of South-
East Australia (1904), p. 385; Ehrenreich, P., Die Karayastdmme am Rio
Araguaya (Goyaz), Veroffentlichungen aus dem Koniglichen Museum fur
Volkerkunde (Berlin, 1891), vol. 2, p. 32.
39. Ehrenreich, P., op. tit., p. 32; Sumner, Keller, and Davie, The Science of
Society (1927), vol. 4, p. 800; Czekanowski, J., Deutsche Zentral-Afrika-
Expedition, vol. 6 (1917), p. 326.
40. Ehrenreich, P., op. tit., p. 32.
41. Howitt, A. W., op. tit., p. 19.
42. Man,E. H., op. cit., p. 19.
43. Parkinson, U., Dreissig Jahre in der Sudsee (Stuttgart, 1907), p. 114.
44. Schultze-Jena, L., Aus Namaland und Kalahari (Jena, 1907), p. 202.
45. Wilson, G. L., The Horse and the Dog in Hidatsa Culture, Anthropological
Papers, American Museum
Natural History, vol. 15 (1924), p. 201.
of
46. Teit, J., The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, Jesup Expedition, vol. 1,
Part IV (1898-1900), p. 287.
47. Mallery, G., Sign language among North American Indians, Annual Report
of the Bureau of Ethnology, vol. 1 (1881), p. 536.
48. Howitt, A. W., op. cit., pp. 691 ff.
49. Mallery, G., Pictographs of the North American Indians, Annual Report of
the Bureau of Ethnology, vol. 4 (1886), p. 82, pi. IV.
50. Ibid., pis. XXVI, LXXVIII.
51. Macgregor, J. K., "Some Notes on Nsibidi," Journal of the Royal Anthro-
pological Institute, vol. 39 (1909), p. 214.
52. Dunzcl, Th. W., Die Anfdnge der Schrift (Leipzig, 1912).
53. Schultze-Jena, L., op. cit., p. 371.
54. Teit, J., op. cit., p. 237.
55. Jochelson, W., The Koryak, Jesup Expedition, vol. 6, Part II (1908), p. 428.
56. Taylor, R., Te Ika A Maui (London, 1870), p. 362; Best, E., Astronomical
Knowledge of the Maori, Dominion Museum Monograph, no. 3 (Wellington,
1922).
57. Handy, E. S. C., The Native Culture in the Marquesas (Honolulu, 1923), p. 350.
58. Taylor, R., op. Handy, E. S. C.,
cit.', op. cit.', Firth, R., Primitive Economics of
the New Zealand Maori (1929), p. 63.
59. Seluick, A., Die Stabkarten
Marshall-Insular (Hamburg, 1902);
der
Kramer, A., Hawaii, Ostmikronesien und Samoa (Stuttgart, 1906), p. 419.
60. Kramer, A., ibid., p. 417.
61. Boas, F., Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians,
Report of the United States National Museum for 1895 (1897), pp. 348 ff.
62. Spinden, H. J!, Ancient Cirilizatiom of Mexico and Central America (1922),
pp. 106, 204.
63. Locke, L. Iceland, The Ancient Quipu or Peruvian Knot Record, American
Museum of Natural History (1923).
64. Boas, F., The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island, Jesup Expedition, vol. 5,
Part II (1909), p. 410.
65. Goddard, P. E., Life and Culture of the Hupa, University of California
Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 5, no. 1 (1903).
INVENTION 281
66. Kroeber, A. L., Handbook of the Indians of California, Bulletin of the Bureau
of American Ethnology, no. 78 (1925), p. 565.
67. Nordenskiold, E., Origin of the Indian Civilizations in South America, Com-
parative Ethnographical Studies, vol. 9 (Oxford, 1931), p. 46.

68. Boas, F., The. Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island, p. 411.
GENERAL REFERENCES
Alvenles, Fr., Social Life in the Animal World (1927).
Annales du Musec du Congo, Ethnographie et Anthropologie, Serie III, vol. 1
(Brussels, 1902-06).
Bartels,M., Die Mcdicin der Naturcolker (Leipzig, 1893).
Danzel, Th. W., Die Anftinge der Schrift (Leipzig, 1912).
Mason, O. T., The Origins of Indention (1895).
Tylor, E. B., Researches into the Early History of Mankind (London, 1878).
Weule, K., Die Anfange der Naturbeherrschung (Stuttgart, 1921, 1922).
Wissler, C-, The American Indian (1917).
CHAPTER VII
SUBSISTENCE
ROBERT H. LOWIE
General categories. All complex societies gain their food supply by
farming, by stock-breeding, or by a combination of the two. Simpler
peoples derive their sustenance by hunting, fishing, and the gather-
ing of wild roots and seeds. This dichotomy has chronological sig-
nificance, for tillage and animal husbandry invariably succeed the
simpler economic activities. There is no convincing proof that culti-
vated plants or domestic beasts existed anywhere until after the end
of the glacial period. The archaeological remains of the Paleolithic
period include the bones of wild game species, but neither indications
of livestock nor of cultivated grains appear before some time after
the beginning of the Neolithic. This Paleolithic "hunting stage,"
as we may conveniently label the stage of hunting, fishing, and gath-
ering, has persisted to the present day. The recently extinct Tas-
manians, the Australian aborigines, the pygmies of the Congo and
the Andaman Islands, the Bushmen of South Africa, the Shoshonean
Indians of our Basin states, all Californians except those on the
banks of the Colorado, and the Tierra del Fuegians are conspicuous
samples of such backwardness. We shall see presently that notwith-
standing the indubitable inferiority of their status, even their eco-
nomic labor involves undreamed-of complexities that lift them
immeasurably above, say, the anthropoid level.
While hunting, then, represents the earliest food-getting stage,
the relative priority of herding and farming is a moot question.
Eduard Hahn l has illuminated the problem by sharply distinguish-
ing two forms of farming: culture by means of the hoe, which may
be designated as horticulture since the same methods are still used
in the private garden, and culture by means of the plow, which we
will designate as agriculture in a restricted sense. The former de-
pends on human hands wielding a hoe, dibble, or mattock; in the

latter a plow is drawn by a domestic beast. Thus, by definition agri-
culture involves antecedent stock-breeding, while horticulture does
SUBSISTENCE 283
not. As Hahn, and Alexander von Humboldt, as well as I. Iselin

before him, 2 pointed out, some primitive tribes farmed without
ever having owned a single head of stock. In other words, they
advanced directly from hunting and food-gathering to farming.
The pastoral stage is not a necessary condition for tillage. Instead
of the traditional three types hunting, herding, farming we
are thus obliged to recognize four categories hunting, farming
with hoe or dibble, farming with plow and livestock, and stock-
breeding without farming (pastoral nomadism).
The chronological position of pastoral nomadism remains a sub-
ject of discussion.Hahn finds it inconceivable that roaming hunters
should be capable of raising wild animals so as ultimately to get
them to breed in captivity. He assumes rather that the earliest
domestication was achieved by horticulturists and that subsequently
some tribes simultaneously practicing horticultureand stock-breed-
ing completely abandoned the former pursuit, thus turning into
herders pure and simple. On the other hand, as G. Hatt 3 points out,
inclosures are often constructed by hunting peoples (see below), so
that their ability to impound and raise captive beasts as raw ma-
terial for domestication is vindicated. Hatt himself, speaking of the
reindeer only, rather stresses the hunter's desire to use tame animals
to decoy their wild fellows, the former being attracted by human
urine; and some such symbiotic arrangement is accepted by Schmidt
and Koppers as foreshadowing domestication in the hunting stage. 4
Up to date no decisive evidence has been brought forward in favor
of either theory. It is, however, unquestionably true that Hahn
exaggerates the primitiveness of the hunting stage and thus under-

estimates its potentialities.
To return to our four categories, even these represent no more
than a very rough scheme of classification, which fails to do justice
to the multiplicity of actual developments. For one thing, the higher
activities may be coupled in such varying degrees of relative signifi-
cance with the lower as to yield quite different economic patterns.
The Hopi of Arizona depended almost wholly on their maize crops;
with the Ojibwa around Lake Superior maize was auxiliary to
hunting and fishing. Horticulture is not the same thing in these
tribes. Again, in our own culture, farming has pushed the chase and
angling completely into the background: they are gentlemanly

pastimes but not vital pursuits. Not so in South Africa. There, for
one thing, the rearing of cattle never led the Bantu to harness an
ox to a plow; they remained horticulturists. But unlike other peasants
they were far from giving up the chase; so long as big game still
abounded in their country they continued hunting on a large scale.
This is doubtless to be linked with another distinctive trait of their
culture: they make abundant use of milk, but they do not slaughter
their cattle except for very special occasions. In other words, the
normal meat supply had to be provided in other ways, and there
was but one other source, the mid fauna of the region. On the other
hand, the Chinese, like ourselves, are agriculturists no longer largely
dependent on the chase. But unlike ourselves they make little use of
beef; and unlike both ourselves and the Bantu they disdain all
forms of dairying. These cases exemplify, then, a second principle:
the totally different use made of the same economic possibilities.
Clearly enough, the mere statement that people keep stock is
inadequate. It docs not tell us what they keep stock for; it says
nothing about the relative economic importance of animal hus-
bandry and farming or hunting. But apart from such differences
there are still other points to consider. Pigs are livestock, but the
implications of pig-raising are utterly distinct from those of rearing

cattle, horses, and sheep. Pigs cannot be driven over large tracts
of land; hence they are characteristically lacking among pastoral
nomads. The Kirghiz of Turkestan and southern Siberia herd
cattle, slice]), goats, horses, and camels, but have no use for pigs.
These are typically linked with sedentary cultures, such as those of
Oceania and China.
"Horticulture," "agriculture," and "stock-breeding" are obvi-
ously catchwords, convenient enough for a rough characterization
but far from telling us all we need to know. The same holds for
"hunting." Walile objects to the term as applied to the earliest
f)
economic stages, on the ground that primitive man invariably eked

out his flesh diet with vegetable substances. But his substitute,
"gathering stage," errs in the opposite direction. What primitives,
no matter how vegetarian, forego the flesh of their fauna? All these
terms should be taken for what they are makeshifts to cover a
variety of activities not included in their etymological meanings.
Adhering, then, to the traditional "hunting stage," we must
merely stress the astonishing diversity covered by the concept. For
one thing, we cannot too vigorously reject the absurd, though still
prevalent, notion that "hunters" were uniformly rovers ad infinitum.
Even Australian hordes wandered within narrowly circumscribed
SUBSISTENCE 285
limits, and maintained a sentimental attachment to their hereditary

tract; and the Bushmen of South Africa exhibited "an almost pas-
sionate fondness for the rocks and glens in whose caves they and
their fathers had lived/' clinging "to their ancient haunts . . .
" 6
against all odds and all dangers. The Arctic sea-mammal hunters
live in permanent settlements, and fixed villages are characteristic
of the Amur River fishermen, of most Californians, and of natives
of the British Columbia coast. Some "hunters," it is true, like our
northern Plains tribes, covered considerable territory. Others, like
the northwestern Californians, lived in fixed hamlets and virtually
never traveled except to their immediate neighbors. 7
Apart from this difference in mobility, the "hunting" category
can be unified only in contradistinction to the herding and the two
farming categories. Positively, a chasm yawns between the Eskimo
or the Yukaghir of Siberia and, say, the South Californian Cahuilla.
The two Arctic peoples do not despise what vegetable food their
environment offers, but thismost meager nature; the
is of the
upper Kolyma Yukaghir, for example, are restricted to berries and

8
roots and extract the lichens from reindeer paunches. What is sig-
nificant for these Siberians is the supply of fish, reindeer, or elk
meat, w hile most
r
of the Eskimo specialize in sea mammals. In the
"forbiddingly desert" stretches of Cahuilla territory such sustenance
was, of course, barred. Inhabiting a country poor in game, the
natives enjoyed a compensatory abundance of wild plant life. They
made a staple of the mosquito, grinding the fruit in mortars; and
they roasted the sweet stalks of agaves and yuccas, ate the seeds of
Pinm monophylla and other conifers, and reduced to flour the
parched seeds of various species collected with the help of a special
9
beater.
Appraisal of the hunting stage. Nothing is easier than to exaggerate

the difference between the simpler arid more advanced economic
activities.Mr. Perry has set off the "food gatherers" from the
"food producers/' and Professor Childe adopts the distinction, con-
trasting the "purely parasitic" existence of early man with the
"productive life" of his successor, who "became a creator emanci-
10
pated from the w hims
r
of his But this conceptual
environment."
dichotomy holds only two extremes of the scries: namely,
for the
the lowliest hunters imaginable and the scientific agriculturists of
the most progressive nations. It is true that agriculture gives man
control over certain aspects of "the whims of his environment."
Potentially it supports a vast population while the same number of
hunters would require ten times the area even in early times when
an abundance of game animals existed. But what of the herders on
a simpler plane whose maintenance is periodically jeopardized by
plagues who, like some Lapp bands of the nineteenth century,
were obliged to fall back upon fishing? What of the primitive peas-
ants who clear and till without compensation of the soil, exhaust
one plot and pass on to the next, and are threatened by famine with
every drought? Are they any more in control of misfortune caused
by natural conditions than the hunter-gatherer?
Without minimizing the important step involved in the intentional
cultivation of plants and domestication of animals it may be recog-
nized that the battle against the forces of nature was won when the
storing of supplies enabled man to survive seasons of starvation.
The beginnings of such provision are found even among animals
who store food for the winter. The complicated methods of preserva-
tion and the quantities of food stored show an equal understanding
of economic needs among both hunters and food gatherers on the
one hand and early horticulturists on the other. Both the acquisition
of the food supply and its preservation among hunters and food
gatherers imply a considerable amount of ingenuity.

As the pastoral and farming tribes are not necessarily masters of
their destiny, so the hunters and gatherers of historic times are far
removed from the parasitic appropriation of natural resources.
Early travelers may have pictured the Californian natives as brows-
ing in the field like so many head of cattle. We now know that they
took fish in weirs and nets and by harpoons as well as by stupefying
them with special preparations of ground buckeye nuts fed into
small streams. They drove rabbits into nets and decoyed deer.
Above all, they made acorns a palatable staple by a lengthy process
that leached them clear of tannin. 11 This last-mentioned technique
was as genuine and literal a form of food production as any on
record. It certainly involved more labor and experience than many
types of farming.
This often holds for the securing of food even when it requires no
actual transformation. The Vedda of Ceylon eat honey fresh, wax
and all, but the method of obtaining it is hazardous and implies a
number of adjustments to the situation. Descending precipices by
means of long cane ladders, the natives cut off the combs from the
sides of the rock, preferably at night when the bees are less ferocious,
SUBSISTENCE 287
and after first stupefying them with smoke. There is a four-

pronged stick to remove the comb, which is carried off in a con-
tainer of hide to prevent breakage against the rock as the gatherer
swings to and fro on his flimsy ladder. No wonder that the procedure
is systematically taught to the younger generation and that the
right to take rock honey from a particular spot is jealously guarded
and transferred to a son-in-law as part of his wife's portion. And
when we learn of gourds hung up as hives for colonies of stingless
bees, we have anactual case of food production. 12 Equally important

are the rules limiting the number of animals that a hunter is allowed
to kill within a given time, a precaution that serves to maintain the
food supply.
But a fair comprehension of the economic life of our rudest peoples
can be gained only by viewing it as a unit. Let us note the relevant
practices of the South African Bushmen, one
of the very rudest of
13
known peoples. Like the Vedda, they prized the honey of wild
bees, and in order to find a nest they observed the antics of the
honey bird, which guided them to a nest in a rock cleft or a hollow
tree. Again, like the natives of Ceylon, the Bushmen often risked
their necks to gain the coveted delicacy, scaling the giddy heights
of decayed tree tops or precipices by means of sharpened wooden
pegs driven into the bark or crevices. In districts harboring fish

these were shot with bow and arrow, struck with bone-headed har-
poons, or caught in baskets set at intervals where the fish were
known to ascend the streams at certain seasons. To prevent escape,
the victims were hemmed in by obstacles that inevitably forced
them into the basketry traps. Wolves are caught in a double cir-
cular inclosure of posts driven into the ground. A
bait is placed in
the inner circle. The wolf
enters through a door that opens only
inward and finds himself in the narrow space between the two
circles in which he cannot turn (see page 261). Running around he
closes the door and cannot escape. So long as South Africa swarmed
with game, the Bushmen proved expert sportsmen. They stalked
elephants, quaggas, hippopotami, and ostriches in suitable disguises.
One of the best-known Bushman rock paintings shows the hunter
approaching the ostriches as though himself a member of the species.

A hunter donned an ostrich skin, keeping the head erect with a long
run through the neck, and imitated the bird's move-
flexible stick
ments. Picking at bushes, rubbing his head against the feathers,
standing still to gaze about, he gradually sneaked close enough to
discharge his dart with telling effect. The Eskimo in sealskin cloth-
ing imitates the movements of the basking seal and thus approaches
it. The Indians used to conceal themselves under complete skins of
deer and stalked the game under this disguise.
At other times the hunters collectively assaulted a big pachyderm
till it succumbed to the wounds or was hamstrung by a harpooneer.
Again, there was the device of suspending a poisoned shaft from a

tree so that the animal returning from its watering place released
the block with the venomous blade, which was driven deep into its
flesh. Still more remarkable w as the construction of pitfalls. Not
r
only were the natives obliged to make enormous excavations with

their crude digging-sticks in order to hold large beasts, but they
forced the animals to their tomb. Having constructed fences con-
verging toward the pitfall, the hunters scared the game with blazing
torches so as to close all paths but that toward the fatal apex of the
funnel; guards on either side prevented the quarry from breaking
the fences. The animals tumbled into the pit "into which they
were precipitated one upon another, until the whole presented an
indescribable chaos of writhing, smothering, tortured animals," of
which fifty to a hundred head might then be safely speared by the
natives.
But this does not yet exhaust Bushman food habits. They col-
lected grass seeds for winter storage, fed on bulbs, took the chrysa-
lides of ants from the nests, and did not disdain lizards, grasshoppers,
and locusts the last mentioned being dried in the fire and pulver-
ized with muller and metate.
The tactics enumerated obviously imply a wealth of concrete
knowledge as to fauna, flora, and topography; the ability to produce
suitable w capons of the chase; and the skill requisite for successful
manipulation of such implements; not to forget such industrial
processes as the plaiting of fish baskets.
It is perhaps less manifest that such economic procedures also tie
up with social arrangements. On the lowest plane now under con-

sideration, class distinctions are not pronounced, but individual
differences and special privilege begin to loom on the horizon. Pres-
tige goes to the expert hunter, and he
that is sought as a son-
it is
in-law7 by ambitious parents, as the Athapascans of northern

among
Canada. Bushmen who had the good luck to discover a beehive
claimed it as their inalienable property, to be transmitted to their
descendants; and they so marked the spot as to "detect any attempt
SUBSISTENCE 289
that might be made during their absence to pilfer from the hives."
The comparable Vedda customs have already been noted.
But the concerted effort imperative for effective hunting on a
large scale might also lead to definite assertion of authority. The
Washo and Paviotso of western Nevada recognized as a "rabbit
boss" the Indian most competent to direct a rabbit drive; and in
organizing an antelope battue on Bushman principles they had an
"antelope boss" who not only wielded temporal authority but was
invested with a sacred character. The Plains Indians, whose very
existence hinged on their communal bison hunt, went further and
delegated supreme authority, for the time being, to a constabulary
force. This "buffalo police" literally exercised dictatorial powers.
If anyone prematurely started to hunt or otherwise acted in con-
travention of the rules of the chase, the police whipped him, confis-
cated his ill-gotten game, and might even destroy the offender's
lodge. The custom is an ancient one, being characteristic of most of
the Plains tribes and reported by Ilenncpin for the Santec Dakota
as early as 1()80. 14
Economic pursuits may thus culminate, even in
the hunting stage, in the temporary development of centralized
political authority.
Similar restrictions are found in regard to fishing and berrying.
In British Columbia, for instance, one particular hereditary officer
indicates the time when olachen fishing may begin; and on the
northern plateaus of British Columbia nobody is allowed to pick
berries until a certain old woman, to whom belongs this privilege,
indicates that the proper time has come.
Another interesting concomitant may be the foreshadowing, if
not complete realization, of unilateral clans. Suppose that a patch
of shrubs is valued as the Vedda value their beehives. A natural
consequence will be the desire to transmit such property according

to definite rules of descent, and since exploitation is usually sex-
linked as a result of the conventional division of labor, a man will
transmit his rights to his sons, a woman to her daughters. In Queens-
land a woman individually of plants and her preroga-
owns patches
acquired by her daughters. The Washo transmit clumps of
15
tive is
pine-nut trees from father to son. Hunting territories are perhaps

still more rigorously inherited in the
paternal line among the north-
eastern Algonqui&ns. 16 Thus patrilineal or matrilineal lineages are
outlined in the most natural manner by the alignment of kin in
consonance with customary rules of inheritance.
The attempt of man to control the wild growing food supply does
not necessarily begin with actual sowing and planting. We find a
number of cases in which man endeavors to make the conditions
of growth more favorable. Thus all along the North Pacific coast of
America woods are burned to improve the conditions of growth of
berry-bearing bushes. On Vancouver Island this process is regulated
in such a way that every social group claims the right to those
berry patches which are burned over every third year and used in
turn for picking berries. The same people use the roots of cinquefoil
for food. These grow in estuaries exposed to floods. The women
clear away pebbles so as to cause the roots to grow larger and more
Each little garden is the property of a woman. It is sur-
regularly.
rounded by boards put up on end, and the pebbles are thrown up
around them like little fences. There is little planting, but care of
the plants. 17
It is noticeable in the cultivation of plants and in the domestica-
tion of animals that by far the greatest number of both, at least in
temperate climates, are gregarious. The grasses which are among
the early cultivated plants of a large part of the Old World, as well
as maize, occur in large masses, covering extended territories. Most
of our domesticated animals, cattle, horses, sheep, goats, are gre-
garious. It seems justifiable to suppose that there is a certain relation

between this and their early selection for cultivation and domesti-
cation. While it is impossible to prove the steps that may have led
to this, it might be supposed that the association of individuals or
social groups with certain fields or certain herds from which they
obtained their sustenance led to protection of the field by refraining
from gathering in too much seed, and to protection of the herd
against wild animals that might disperse it and thus endanger the
food supply.
we keep in mind the frequently sedentary existence
Cultivation. If
of "hunting" peoples and the often complicated devices by which
they exploit the flora of their habitat, the first step toward the de-
liberate cultivation of plants will no longer loom as a complete break
in the continuity of cultural development.
The earliest attempts at cultivation need not have been made
with our common cereals. It is true that the first more or less dat-
able evidence for farming comes from Badari in Egypt, where
18
emmer wheat is said to have been raised about 5000 B.C. ; and that
possibly a thousand years later Babylonia and Egypt are both

SUBSISTENCE 91
found dependent on cultivated barley, wheat, and millet. But this

may be a sheer accident.* For all we know the first efforts at hus-
bandry may have been made in southern Asia and with species of a
quite different order. As Werth has argued, members of the banana
family probably have been cultivated in these regions from very
early times, which on geologico-meteorological grounds he places
19
about the close of the Pluvial period. There is no reason to suppose
that the technique of sowing seeds is more obvious than that of
inserting into the ground the side shoots of a plantain, the only
method ever followed in cultivating bananas.
Plate III shows that artificial pollination of the date palm was
practiced in Assyria as early as the ninth century B.C.
Irrespective of this hypothetical point of relative chronology, the
phenomenon has an important bearing on other historical problems.
"Cultivation" is represents no real
a convenient catchword but it
unit as applied to methods so diverse as the sowing of wheat and

the propagation of the plantain, which is invariably not from the
seed. The two
processes cannot be derived from each other. In other
" " "
words, the congeries of practices we oppose as farming to hunt-
" " "
ing and herding have a diverse origin and it is idle to determine
a single center of diffusion.
Onthe other hand, the careers of distinct cultivated species are
indubitably often intertwined, and it seems unlikely that the plant-
ing of each one constitutes a separate invention. Thus, rye crops are
a by-product of wheat-growing. Botany tells us that "the varietal
riches" of wild rye are concentrated in parts of western Asia where
"as a cultivated plant [it] is either of secondary importance or no
importance at all." In Persia and neighboring areas it "is simply
considered a nuisance jeopardizing the real crops of wheat or barley."
But in the mountain districts of Bokhara, Afghanistan, and Anatolia
it changes its character from a weed into that of an independent
crop, being sown pure at an altitude of about 2000 meters and up-
ward. "It is a curious fact, that at the border line of the struggle
between winter rye and winter wheat it is an ancient custom . . .
to sow out a mixture. Not expecting to obtain a return of

. . .
wheat every year, the farmer sows out the mixture of rye and wheat
on purpose, hoping that if the wheat is killed by an adverse win-
ter, rye will stand it and produce at least half of the expected
20
yield."
*
See also page 263.
PL. III. WINGED BEING POLLINATING SACRED TREE
Frieze from the Palace of Ashur-Nasir-apal II (885-860 B.C.), King of Assyria
at Kalhu (modern Nimrud). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
SUBSISTENCE 293
This incidental creation of new crops from weeds holds for oats,
originally a weed linked with emmer; Eruca sativa, at first a con-
comitant of flax; and other species. It implies the successful exten-
sion of a planting pattern. Apart from such special association, a
pattern of this sort may even be applied to species without economic

value. When the Hidatsa men planted tobacco seed, they followed
the devices perfected by their wives in planting maize; they hoed
and raked the ground and hilled up the earth about each plant
with a buffalo rib "into a little hill like a corn hill." Similarly,
Linton suggests that the American Indians had evolved various
devices for the treatment of indigenous species and applied them to
maize when this cereal reached them. 21 The development of tobacco-
growing may be visualized as follows. At one time in the past the
Indians employed only wild species of tobacco, as some tribes had
done until recent times. Horticultural tribes experimented with
planting it by methods familiar to them from corn-growing, suc-
ceeded, and in course of time made the minor variations in procedure
suggested by experience. In some cases hunting tribes, like the Crow

of the western plains and the Yurok of California, borrowed the
farming technique only with reference to tobacco and thus present

the anomaly of growing nothing but a useless weed. The Kutenai
may have learned the planting of tobacco from the Plains tribes.
It is more difficult to understand the origin of tobacco-planting among
the Haida of British Columbia, particularly since it was not used
for smoking but for chewing with burned shells, somewhat like the
betel-chewing of Malaysia.
The example of rye illustrates the influence of accident on the
creation of a new crop. Chance may operate in the same direction
through other factors. Some species wild hemp, for example
settle and thrive on rich fertilized soils. Thus they naturally follow
man, "keeping near on rubbish and

his dwelling places, settling
everywhere where the was manured.

soil .
During famines, when
. .
man turned to the seeds and fruits of wild plants, he naturally

22
chose hemp." Later hemp was used for fiber and oil.
We have thus gained a number of significant propositions bearing
on the early history of farming. In many cases the cultivation of a
plant represents not wholly independent invention, but merely the

extension of an established planting technique. On the other hand,
there is no reason to suppose that such wholly distinct operations
as those connected with banana- and wheat-growing constitute a
single historical unit. It is inevitable to assume several distinct
centers for "farming" operations.
Where, is to be drawn in the absence of clear-
precisely, the line
cut evidence another matter. For example, shall rice be conceived
is
as a crop of wholly independent origin? At the present stage it is

less important to insist on a definitive conclusion than to realize the
criteria that should throw the balance in favor of either alternative
theory. In the case of rice, the innumerable variations of the plant
fall broadly into two categories with corresponding techniques of
husbandry. "Swamp rice" can be grown only in marshes or under
irrigation. "Mountain rice" yields smaller crops but can be grown
23
anywhere with normal precipitation. Considering that irrigation is
a highly complex invention, that was demonstrably practiced in
it
Babylonia and that Babylonia and India

in ancient times, the
most probable center of rice cultivation had ancient contacts, the
transfer of irrigation methods from other cereals to rice is plausible
enough even if mountain rice is supposed to have previously been
grown by the simpler process. But it is probable that all rice-planting
was a mere extension of, say, the practices used in the cultivation of
barley. Wild rice,* specifically indistinguishable from the cultivated
24
species, occurs among African tribes, and under stress of similar
circumstances a South Asiatic people already familiar with tillage
may have tried sowing the wild form. The factor favoring the theory
of such extension of the knowledge of the cultivation of cereals is
the continuity of the areas involved, which permitted the ready
transmission of ideas, tools, and techniques. Moreover, though rice
is generally associated in our minds with India and southern China,
it can be grown in conjunction with the more northerly cereals or in
proximity to them. The Kirghiz visited by Radloff raised wheat and
millet in the central steppe, rye in the north, and in Tashkent rice
also; while in Persia wheat was the ancient staple, with rice gradu-
ally coming in during our era and not yet of prime importance a
thousand years ago. 25
The New World tillage is fundamentally different. No
case of
important Old World crop was raised in pre-Columbian times along
with the distinctive native crops of maize, manioc, and potatoes.
If the knowledge of farming came from the Chinese or outposts of
Egyptian civilization, why was not the plow brought in, which in
these regions dates back thousands of years, but was wholly un-
* This bears of course no relation to the "wild rice" of our central states.
SUBSISTENCE 295
known in America? How would the broadcast sowing of Old World

cereals suggest the typical American method of heaping earth
around the growing maize? 26 Still more, how could the process of
sowing suggest the technique of raising potatoes or manioc (cassava)?
"Cassava can be propagated from seed, but this procedure is not
27
practiced" by the Indians of Guiana.
It has been argued that the Polynesians are responsible for at
least part of American husbandry. The Maori kumara, for example,
is equated with the American sweet potato by Rivet, who derives
it from New Zealand.

28
But this is a more than doubtful case. De
Candolle, arguing from the botanical evidence, arrives at precisely
the opposite conclusion: to wit, that the New Zealanders obtained
their kumara from the American Indians, a conclusion in which
Dr. E. I). Merrill concurs; and Dr. Laufer challenges the identifica-
29
tion itself.
If the Polynesians introduced any food plant, we might expect

them to have brought in the banana, which they actually dissemi-
nated over immense distances in Oceania and which has been thor-
oughly acclimatized in the western hemisphere since 1492. But the
historical, linguistic, and botanical evidence conclusively proves that
the banana is post-Columbian. 30
The Polynesians may furthermore be eliminated as apostles of
farming in America on chronological grounds. Their occupancy of
Polynesia itself is so recent that we should have to assume a beggarly
few centuries of occasional contacts with the New World. Indeed,
Professor Elliot Smith and Mr. Perry insist that the American
Indians until certainly two thousand years ago were "food gatherers"
31
littlesuperior to anthropoid apes in their economic activities. If
so, they manifested a rapidity of development subsequent to Poly-

nesian contacts that is miraculous.
Let us visualize clearly what is involved in the hypothesis of a
Polynesian origin for American husbandry. Maize is descended from
a wild grass indigenous in parts of Mexico. It has developed in
such manner that without transportation by man it cannot spread
over long distances. Still, at an early prehistoric time it was culti-
vated over a large part of North and South America. We have seen
that it is grown by distinctive methods. But these methods are not
and could not have been uniform throughout America. The Hopi
of northern Arizona, for example, had to adapt cultivation to arid
conditions of their region, while the Mandan and Hidatsa of North
Dakota were obliged to reckon with the shortness of the season.
Furthermore, not
it is a question of a single form of maize, but of a
number of diverse varieties, which could not possibly be produced
in the twinkling of an eye from a wild prototype. Indeed, in the
"
older Basket Maker our Southwest only a single and appar-
sites of
" 32
ently fairlyprimitive variety appears. But maize represents only
a part of the total problem.By A.D. 1500 the Aymara of Bolivia had
developed 240 varieties of the potato along with methods of pre-
33
serving them by special process of freezing and drying in the sun.
a
Then there is manioc, the more common variety of which becomes
a food plant only after the elimination of the deadly prussic acid
from its roots. In Africa,* where the plant was introduced in post-
Columbian days, a Bongo in Schweinfurth's party died from eating
34
of the unprepared manioc, for it requires an intricate series of
operations to convert manioc into food. Besides these the American
aborigines cultivated the peanut, tomato, pineapple, and a number

of other indigenous species. It seems, therefore, quite impossible
that American agriculture was introduced from Polynesia.
" "
The only sane inference is that "farming" or gardening had a
multiple origin in the world, though the number of truly independent
efforts at cultivation is disproportionately small when compared to
that of cultivated species; and, specifically, American husbandry is
preponderantly an indigenous growth.
The extreme diffusionist position on this question seems to derive
support from the indubitable fact that certain cultivated plants
have in recent centuries spread with amazing rapidity. Thus, maize
and manioc have rapidly usurped the place formerly held by other
plants cultivated by African Negroes; the potato is often associated
with Ireland by the unsophisticated, as the pineapple is with Hawaii.
Deliberate commercial exploitation of geographical possibilities has
indeed greatly altered the original distribution of plants. Who con-
nects the coffee tree with its Abyssinian center of origin? One links
itordinarily with Brazil or Java, or at best with Arabia, from which
itwas first vigorously disseminated.
But it should be noted that it is not a question of merely putting
two peoples into juxtaposition and thus automatically precipitating
an osmosis of cultural goods. Cultivated plants, like arts and cere-
monies, are accepted selectively. Indian corn revolutionized the
economic life of many African tribes, but it barely affected that of
the Baganda: "Maize was never grown in any quantity; it was

SUBSISTENCE 297
only eaten while still young, either between meals, or as a relish

after the meal; no one called the two or three cobs which he ate a
meal." 35 Here, presumably, the intensive cultivation of the plantain
(banana family) precluded substitution of the newcomer. Equally
instructive is the case of the Nilotic Lango. As among so many
African tribes, millet is the outstanding crop. Through raids into
Bunyoro the Lango became familiar with the banana and sweet
potato, but their response to these two potential staples was quite
different. "The former has not found much favor, and although
here and there a tree is put in near a village the banana cannot be
said to be cultivated, and owing to their migratory tendency is not
likely to become popular. With few exceptions, where it is planted
it almost seems as if it had been planted for aesthetic effect. The
sweet potato, on the other hand, is being planted in large quantities

every year; such was its early popularity, in fact, that when it was
first discovered and brought back in triumph from Bunyoro, a
bundle of runners for planting was actually sufficient dowry for a

36
wife." Within our own culture sphere millet has been ousted from
its ancient position as an important human food crop, while even the
stress of war times failed to popularize Indian corn in Great Britain

and France.
In other words, diffusion is a most capricious phenomenon and its
psychology merits study in this as in other departments of culture;
the spectacular historical cases of maize, manioc, etc., should not
blind us to the ever selective and often nonrational tendencies of
the human mind.
When all qualifications are made, however, the distribution of
cultivated plants remains a most valuable index of historical connec-
tions, and while the state of our knowledge often leaves important
problems undecided, other instances provide us with quite definite
example, that wheat, barley, and millet could
results. It is clear, for
not be first cultivated in central Europe where the corresponding
wild forms are lacking. If, then, prehistoric sites in Switzerland
harbor grains of these cereals, there must have been trade routes
connecting the Alpine region with the Near Orient, where botanists
discover the wild ancestral plants. Similarly, though maize was
grown in North Dakota, its occurrence there is due to diffusion
from the south, since the ancestral form is found in Mexico.
A somewhat different problem is offered by the geographical
range of the banana family. In part, indeed, it coincides with the
foregoing; since the Eumusa subgenus occurs in wild state only as
far east as Tahiti but was grown in Easter Island, eastward diffusion
of the cultivated plants is proved. But in Africa a wild banana,
Mum ensete, occurs, from which a priori the cultivated forms might
be derived. But botanical examination shows that that is impossible:
the wild African form lacks the side shoots from which all cultivated
bananas are grown; its seeds are large and hard, whereas the seeds
of cultivated bananas are mostly nonexistent; and the fruit is small
and inedible. The cultivated African forms are therefore one and all
traceable to the South Asiatic bananas, which in a state of nature
37
produce shoots, are small-seeded, and bear soft, fleshy fruits.
Eduard Hahn coupled his luminous discrimination of hoe tillage
and plow tillage with the theory that these two forms of husbandry
were quite distinct; that the former is historically associated with
women and remains so, while the plow is essentially a masculine
still
implement; and that the former correlation naturally grows out of

women's economic labors in the hunting stage. The elements of this
theory are best considered separately.
The view that farming by means of the hoe is conducted by
women can be illustrated by many striking examples. The Banaro

of New Guinea depend on their women for all horticultural products,
the men merely making a clearing. 38 In Uganda "the garden and its
cultivationhave always been the woman's department. When . . .
a man married he sought a plot of land for his wife in order that
she might settle to work and provide food for the household." Other
Negro tribes, for example, in southeastern Africa and Nyassaland,
conform to this pattern. 39 Among American tribes may be cited the
Hidatsa, among whom maize, beans, and squashes are raised by
40
women, men taking charge only of the tobacco gardens.
These instances are sufficiently numerous to have betrayed the
41
present writer into acceptance of Ilahn's generalization. But closer
study shows that among tribes with more complex culture there are
far too many exceptions to warrant this conclusion. In all three
areas mentioned there are many instances of masculine horticulture.
A familiar picture shows Maori men pushing their dibbles into the
ground; and for the Tongans even Captain Cook in 1777 noted that
the men were the tillers, the employment of the women being mostly
domestic. 42 In Unyoro, next door to Uganda, men assist the women
and among the Lango the heaviest share is theirs; in Bornu the two
sexes are said to be equally busy in attending to field and garden
SUBSISTENCE 299
with the hoe;among the Nuba of southern Kordofan and the Lake
Chad tribes masculine tillage predominates; and it is exclusive
among the Lakka of the Logone-Shari districts. In ancient Egypt
the hoe was invariably associated with men.
43
In the New World
men bear the brunt of hoe tillage from the Pueblo area southward
throughout the region of intensive cultivation. In these cases the
correlation of horticulture with the female sex is thus far less inti-
mate than Ilahn supposed. On the other hand, he seems to have
been essentially correct almost invariable linkage of
in asserting the
the plow with the male sex. Where
that implement occurs in ancient
Egypt, Babylonia, India, or China, it is operated by men, and the
14
rare exceptions, as in modern Kafiristan, hardly militate against
the generalization.
The question ariseshow the data just presented affect the theory
of farming origins. They obviously complicate matters: it would be
much simpler if women invariably were the dibblers and hoe tillers,
as Hahn supposed. Shall we, then, abandon the view not only of
Hahn but of virtually every writer on the subject, that the begin-
nings of cultivation must be credited to women? By no means. In
order to judge of these ultimate origins we must envisage the condi-
tions which characterize tribes unequivocally in the hunting stage.
Among the Semang of the peninsula the men traverse the

Malay
woods with their blowguns in search of small game, while the women
45
dig up wild roots with pointed sticks. Though men sometimes get
yams among the Vedda of Ceylon, "hunting is essentially their
work, and yams were usually dug by the women."
46
In New South
Wales women dig up all sorts of esculent bulbs for the household,
47
having been trained from infancy to recognize edible plants. To
turn to America, the Nez Perce of Idaho are typical: "Camas, as
well as the other food roots, was gathered entirely by the women,
the men at this time being busied with fishing, hunting, and war
48
parties."
In short, in the hunting stage the providing of vegetable food
devolves on the women. Hence, they were naturally the first to note
the potentialities of seeds dropped by chance, or of shoots planted
without definite purpose, and thus inaugurated the era of gardening
or farming. Particularly in those cases in which definite areas served
as a harvesting ground for the family, sib, or tribe opportunities
may have arisen when the harvesting field was not only exploited
but also tended like the berry patches of the North Pacific coast.
How, then, are we to account for the fact that even the hoe tillers
of Egypt were uniformly men and that men do the farming in the
more advanced American tribes? We must assume that the gradually
increasing dependence on cultivation in some regions decreased the
importance of the chase and induced man to take over the activities
that formerly constituted the exclusive domain of the other sex.
The hoe is either formed like a pick or has a broad blade, often
running into a point. While the worker who uses the digging-stick
shoves his tool forward, those who use the hoe pull it toward them-
selves.This difference is important when we try to understand the ori-
gin of the plow. The simplest forms of plows seem to be digging-sticks
pulled forward instead of being shoved forward. The uniformity of
the principle employed in the plow, the range of its distribution in
the Old World, and its absence in all the outlying parts of the Old
World as well as in the whole New World make it certain that it
is a single invention which has spread at a late period from a single
center. In Egypt the plow was known in the Old Empire.

These considerations support Ilahn's opinion of the genetic inde-
pendence of plow and hoe. To this view Dr. Laufer has given his
assent, though he points out instances of degeneration in which
Asiatic populations relapsed into the use of the hoe. "There is a
sharp line of demarcation between tillage by means of the hoe and
the plow, each being a well-defined sphere in itself, the latter not
49
being developed from the former/' This position of Ilahn's seems to
rest On the one hand, he insists that the technolog-
on two grounds.
ical derivation of the plow from the hoe is inadmissible; on the
other hand, he stresses the correlation of the hoe with the female
sex. It be argued against this that, whatever else the plow may
may
signify, it representsa technological achievement that must have
arisen out of some earlier tool. The hoc does represent a simpler
device serving the same purpose, and Egyptologists have endeavored
50
to trace its evolution into the plow (see, however, page 262).
Secondly, the ethnographical data cited above show that a sexual

division of labor as to tillage need not be so absolute that the hoe
ancestor of the plow could not have been used by men. Therefore
the maize-growing of the eastern Indians of the United States which
is carried on by women cannot be considered as independent in
origin from the masculine husbandry further south. Similarly we

cannot imagine that Egyptian women at one time came to grow
barley and that, independent of this, Babylonian men at some other
SUBSISTENCE 301
time and in complete ignorance of all cultivation of barley took to

raising the same cereal with the aid of the plow. The definite culti-
vation of any plant from the wild state is too difficult a matter to
be lightly assumed as being accomplished over and over again.
Here, as in other fields, it is much easier to borrow than to create.
Though we have suggested possibilities for the earliest gardening,
it should be noted that a number of favorable circumstances must
combine. The seed or shoot must get into proper soil, some primitive
gatherer must observe the effects, and there must be an adventure-
some spirit willing to try deliberate planting. While it is obvious
that plants must have been first raised where they occurred in a
state of nature, it is never safe to infer that because a plant occurs
wild in a certain region the people resident there must have been
the first to cultivate it. No one has more convincingly exposed this
error than Laufer. It does not follow that the Italians raised olive
trees at an early date because there is some evidence of a wild olive
in the Pliocene of the peninsula; \ve know from historical sources
that the cultivated olive \vas brought to Italy from Greece at a rela-
tively late period. So China had a wild grapevine but viticulture
started there only after 128 H.C. through the importation of culti-
vated vines from the west; and similarly the wild walnut indigenous
in China was never grown there, another species being introduced
from Iran as a cultivated plant. 51 That is to say> even expert farmers
having an agricultural experience of millennia may fail to detect the
potentialities of wild species of their flora.
Primitive husbandry is certainly crude when gauged by modern
standards. It is "predatory" in the sense that there is little, if any,
systematic practice of crop rotation or compensation. The conse-

quence is naturally exhaustion of the soil, involving removal to a
new where a new clearing is made with much wastage of tim-
plot,
ber, as among the Lango. But positive achievements merit equal
attention. The Kwakiutl, whose weak beginnings of agriculture are
confined to the care of clover gardens, burn over berry patches in a
rotation of three years. Tribes like the Ilidatsa, W ho were not even
7
preponderantly dependent on tillage, knew enough to put away

seed enough to last for two years. 52 The Lango do know that it is of
advantage to burn over the ground; that the growing corn must be
protected from weeds and birds; that millet must be harvested in
time lest rainfalls cause the ripe grain to rot. They will construct
stout palisades two miles in length to ward off the invasions of
53
hippopotami and other large beasts. Again, the Jagga inhabiting
the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro not only fertilize their banana groves
but lavish infinite pains on eleusine, which is grown on the steepest
54
declivities and requires careful irrigation. The American Indians
fertilized their maize with fish and in some places with manure.
Certain social and political institutions are intimately linked with
primitive farming. Among the frequently shifting Lango we could
not expect rigorous principles as to land ownership. Land is not
alienated or bequeathed, and this holds for the community as well
as for individuals. "Any alien . who with its inhabitants' per-
. .
mission settles in the village may cultivate the common land on

exactly the same temporary terms." A village may retain its right
to cultivate old sites for a year or two, but these are open to occu-
pancy by others, who cannot be ousted. Within the village anyone
"
may take up what unused plot he desires, the appropriations being
made by mutual agreement and the village headman deciding any
55
dispute."
In manyother horticultural tribes, however, the arrangement is
different. The
chief allocates the land to each family and thus may
become master of his subjects' destiny. For parts of Fiji a suggestive
development has been described. The chief originally wielded only
a modicum of authority, but had the right to allot unused land. As
tribal representative he thus came to assign plots to fugitives from
other tribes. For these newcomers, however, he was naturally the
dispenser of life; he became their overlord a position he had not
held toward his own people and with the aid of these henchmen
he could arrogate to himself a status originally alien to the aboriginal
Through some such process we can conceive a chief turning
66
polity.
into a truly dominant figure even without actual conquest of a
neighboring group. The acme is reached when, as among the Ba-
ganda, the feudal scheme was fully developed, the king being sole
owner of all land, the chiefs his delegates, and the commoners holding
"
the land from these superiors on condition of doing work for them,
67
especially building work, and rendering military service." In the
less pretentious monarchical system of the Jagga the ruler was
likewise the sole landowner, who assigned to each subject a resi-
dence, determined the time for sowing and harvesting, exacted serv-
and transmitted through headmen his orders
ice in his pl^htations,
for constructingand repairing irrigation canals. 58
Domesticated animals. According to Hahn's classical definition, 59
SUBSISTENCE 303
domestic animals differ from corresponding wild forms by some
hereditary traits; and they differ from merely tame animals by

freely propagating in captivity. The latter point is a crucial one.
In Indo-China, India, Ceylon, and Java young elephants are trained
to do the work of domestic beasts; and Chinese chroniclers of the
ninth century of our era picture the aboriginal peoples of Yun-nan
harnessing elephants to plows and using them to transport loads
over long distances. 60 But unlike horses and cattle, these animals
will not breed in captivity; hence have to be caught and tamed
individually.
The revulsion against natural breeding habits in confinement is
the chief barrier against the multiplication of domesticated species.
For at least two thousand years no species of economic value has
been brought under domestication, and our main livestock animals
have been living in symbiotic partnership with man for more than
five thousand years. Francis Galton
61
even believed that man un-
consciously experimented for millennia, keeping all manner of ani-
mals; that a very limited number proved capable of such association,
particularly without diminished fertility; and that this remnant
represents all the domesticable species.
The determinants of a permanent partnership from the animal's
point of view varied with the species. The ancestor of our dog is
supposed to have been attracted by the protection of a fireplace and
the temptations of refuse heaps. 62 Reindeer have an inordinate crav-
ing for human urine, and even individuals not especially tame have
been known to approach Lapp settlements in search of this coveted
63
delicacy. From the human point of view, the psychology of domes-
tication seems obvious economic exploitation. Nevertheless, this
entirely utilitarian explanation is insufficient. It is one of Hahn's
great contributions to have consistently emphasized the irrational
factors connected with incipient domestication; and in this conten-
tion he has been ably seconded by Laufer. 64 These authors rightly
emphasize the fact that wild sheep have no wool; that wild cows
yield milk only adequate for their calves; that wild fowl lay only
a modicum of eggs. It is a commonplace of the history of culture
that the Chinese have kept cattle for millennia yet never milk cows
or females of other species of livestock. Laufer points out that the
same people are likewise sheep-breeders of long standing yet have
never made woolen textiles. He shows that in Burma and in its
vicinity the probable ancient center of chicken-raising poultry

are "not primarily kept for utilitarian purposes, and the eggs are
hardly, if ever, consumed/' What the natives mainly want is to use
the thighbones of the cock for divination: bamboo splinters are
thrust into the foramina and the future is divined from the various
angles at which the splinters project. This practice is recorded by
Chinese observers going back to 110 B.C.
This conception of poultry-raising is supported by African data.
In Unyoro fowls and eggs are never eaten by the dominant pastoral
population and rarely by the peasants. Herders keep fowls, never-
theless, partly to sell to other tribes, but also for magico-religious
purposes, for by inspecting the entrails of a chicken they determine
the cause of a person's d.eath. Elsewhere in the interlacustrine
region
poultry are kept solely for sacred uses. The eggs are abhorred as
excrements and less squeamish tribes arc treated with contempt.
The Baganda did not allowwomen to eat eggs or poultry flesh, and
associated their consumption by men with such occurrences as the
birth of twins, the cementing of blood brotherhood, and the termina-
tion of themourning period. The Bongo of the upper Nile, on the
other hand, considered fowls as proper food for women only. In
Kamerun and Spanish Guinea the Pangwe abstain from eggs and
reserve chicken for special and ritualistic occasions. To take the
comparable case of another bird species, the Bambala take good
care of their pigeons and build cotes for them, yet "they serve no
utilitarian purpose. .The only reason ever given is that the
. .
65
people like to see them."
The pig also, as Laufer points out, figures as an animal used for
divinatory purposes, its gall bladder being examined by the Karen
of Burma and the Khasi of Assam. In this connection it is most
important to note that while swine appear as domesticated animals

in prehistoric Egypt, not one practical purpose for their
keeping has
ever come to light: they were neither eaten nor worked in any way
until a relatively late period. 66
This nonutilitarian position is further borne out by observations
as to animal treatment by tribes the world over. Whether they do
or do not rear domestic species, they lavish an enormous amount of
affectionand care on utterly useless pets. The pigeon cotes of the
Bambala have already been cited. The Bakairi of Brazil keep par-
rots,macaws, herons, and lizards but breed none of them and find
the notion of eating a pet abhorrent. The Guiana Indians shoot
monkeys with arrows to stupefy the animals, and then raise them as
SUBSISTENCE 305
companions. The Taulipang, a Carib tribe of northern South Amer-

ica, catch and carefully tend parrots, mice, turtle, and deer. Further
south Nordenskiold saw a Choroti woman suckling an infant at one
breast, a puppy at the other; the children made playmates of storks
and ostriches. The Australian kept his dog, the dingo, without
training it to catch game or render any service whatsoever. With
the coming of the Whites European breeds superseded the dingo and
the native transferred his affection to them. Each family is accom-
panied by several dogs, which arc never killed. The blackfellow
"tosses to them a portion of all his food, and at night he sleeps
with them in his bosom to keep him warm." G7
Nonrationalistic motives persist even in sophisticated civilizations
that are well able to exploit some of their animal species. The rea-
sons for the existence of lap dogs, race horses, and bulls for the
plaza de toros are sentimental and sportive. The Chinese have kept
crickets partly in appreciation of their music, partly to train them
68
for the cricket arena.
The conclusion thus inevitable that the peculiar symbiosis under
is
discussion was not entirely effected through deliberate human aim-

ing at exploitation of beasts, but was due to a variety of reasons
still powerful alike in tribes lacking all domestic beasts and
among
peoples well versed in animal husbandry.
But though practical considerations are not primary, they often
assert themselves and exert a potent influence on primitive econom-
ics, sometimes in ways no longer familiar to us. To the hunter, for
example, the dog, the earliest animal domesticated, was often of
vital importance. The Tierra del Fuegians used him against otters,
the Hottentot against antelope, the Shoshone of Idaho in bringing
to bay mountain sheep, the Eskimo for scenting the seal's breathing-
holes. Here and there, as in New Zealand, he was eaten for food,
and sometimes, as among the Dakota, at ceremonial festivals. In
New Zealand he also furnished hair for weaving, and so did the
long-haired breeds of Puget Sound and Chile. Dog traction gave the
primeval hunter a mobility that made it possible to exploit a much
larger territory, as when the Yukaghir of northern Siberia move in
dog sledges to the upper courses of the Kolyma River in search of
wild reindeer and other game. The Kamchadal, too, in their present
habitat, could not do without driving-dogs, every family owning
from eight to fifteen. 69 Among the Eskimo the dog sledge played an
important part, and the Plains Indians at least harnessed a dog to a
wheelless dray of two poles lashed to each side of the animal's back,
the butt ends dragging along the ground, and with a netted frame
connecting the converging poles to bear the load (see page 269).
Wherever the larger livestock species were added, man acquired
at least potentially further aids in transportation, vital sources of
food, and materials for containers, tent covers, and other necessaries.
Some districts areopened to human settlement or at least temporary
occupancy solely through the possession of certain animals. In the
Arabian desert, for example, the camel is indispensable as pack or
mount. For several weeks it will keep up the even pace of five or
six kilometers an hour for eight or ten hours a day. No horse could
stand this; on the second day of such a journey the camel will catch
up with his competitor, leaving him behind with the pack camels
on the third, while on the following day the horse must be led. If
saltless pasturage is available, the camel owner need not worry about
drink or fodder; his beast finds its own provender and can go without
water for a long time. In fact, it feeds its master, who can shift very
well with camel's milk, which is very thick and nutritious and
yields butter superior to that from a sheep's or goat's milk. At a

pinch the Arab traveler may even extract water from his beast.
"
If hard pressed the Rwala kill the fattest camel, cut out the paunch,
place it on a cloak, and squeeze the liquid from it into a leather

bag, allowing it to cool and settle. They either drink it or, if it is
too thick, they suck it into their throats through the nostrils."
Professor Musil's guide had drunk such water on eight occasions,
"and there is nobody among the Rwala who has not tasted it at
least once." In addition to all this, the camel provides fuel in the
form of dung. Finally, the hair made into cordage and sewing
is
thread, isspun into yarn woven into cloaks, or serves as a padding

70
for winter garments. In the Arctic the reindeer gains comparable
significance, supporting itself where dogs have to be fed; carrying
loads and riders on its own back or on sledges, irrespective of winds
that make travel impossible for the dog; adding milk and flesh to
the larder of some tribes and elsewhere at least enlarging the com-
pass of their hunting trips. The more common uses of cattle, sheep,
71
horses, and donkeys are too well known to require exposition.

However, it should be once more emphasized that even where
practical considerations play a dominant role capricious irrationality
checks the full and rationalistic exploitation of domestic beasts. We
expend thousands for breeding race horses but have never taken up
SUBSISTENCE 307
the milking of mares. Yet in Turkestan "people of means live almost

exclusively on kumiss, consuming it in enormous quantities," during
the summer time; and Rubruk reports of his Mongols that so long
as they had mare's milk they cared little for other food. The ancient
Egyptians, we have already noted, originally made no use whatso-
ever of swine; neither did they use wool, though they kept sheep
from at least 3000 B.C. Negro stock-breeders prepare no cheeses,
which seem a unique achievement of the pastoral nomads of Eur-
asia; and there are African tribes that churn butter only to smear
it as a cosmetic over their bodies. The Lango of the upper Nile are
more reasonable and use it for food; but they will milk neither
sheep nor goats. Again, the idea of regularly eating beef is quite
remote even from experienced cattle-breeders. The Bantu as a rule
eat only the flesh of cattle that have died of disease; slaughter is
peculiar only to great festive occasions or looms as the prerogative
of chiefs. The Kirghiz ride oxen on domestic errands or harness
them to a plow in farming; they milk cows and work the hides into
leather containers; but they will never eat beef if well-to-do, and
even in destitute circumstances with the utmost reluctance. For
them mutton is infinitely preferable, while the sheep-raising Baganda
taboo it. Most amazing of all, from our point of view, is the attitude
thousand years, they
of the Chinese. Familiar with cattle for several
not only prefer pork to beef, but they have never conceived the idea
of milking their cows. As Laufer points out, this is all the more
remarkable because they have long been in intimate contact with
nomads who largely depend on milk for their sustenance and who
do not scruple to milk the females of all their livestock. Apparently
severed from other protocivilizations at an early time prior to the
invention of dairying, the Chinese maintained unaltered the cattle
complex that had evolved before their separation; the ox was a
beast for drawing a plow, and there its uses ceased. 72
Finally, another aspect of irrationalism is significant. Irrespective
of the measure of recognizing the possibilities of their animal species,
people from sheer acquisitiveness will accumulate vast herds that

cannot be economically exploited. The stock-breeder develops not
only an inordinate love for his beasts, but also a fantastic craving
for larger and larger herds. There are tales of Negroes who com-
mitted suicide over the loss of a favorite cow. The Pangwe 73 keep
sheep and goats not to eat them, which they rarely do, but mainly
74
for the pure pleasure of possession. So, as Hatt explains, the Lapps
arc prompted by "the lust of ownership." Reindeer-breeding might
be most profitable if they limited their herds in accordance with
available pasturage and bred to produce meat. But "such modern
rationalism is foreign to old Lapp ideals." Again, though the horse
is of little use to the Bedouin he will take infinite care to raise a
mare and disregard the comfort of the household in her behalf.
"The whole camp may suffer from thirst, and the children cry for
a drop of water, but the master, unmoved, will pour the last rem-
nants of water into a dish and set it before the pampered mare." 75
The tremendous difficulty of making animals breed in unnatural
confinement must affect our attitude toward the problem of inde-
pendent development. It will prevent us from assuming an indefinite
number of separate centers. The case of the oldest domestic animal,
the dog, is instructive in this regard. The pre-Columbian American
Indians had at least three main and sixteen lesser varieties, and it
seemed plausible at one time to regard them as derived from such
indigenous Canidac as the fox, wolf, and coyote. But Glover M.
Allen's anatomical comparison rules out all such hypotheses and
proves that all American dogs are traceable to a single Asiatic type
of wolf, their ancestor being brought from Asia in domesticated
form. Indeed, Allen and Anton ins derive all dogs the world over
from a single wolflike ancestor, and Ililzheimcr assumes but one
76
additional ancestral type, the jackal, for African dogs. Like other
semidomesticated forms the dog interbreeds w ith r
wild, closely re-
lated species. Thus the Eskimo dog frequently interbreeds with the
wolf.
Indications of bones of dogs themselves occur
gnawed by dogs or
in early Neolithic or even Epipaleolithic times; therefore the earliest
domestication of a wolf may have been achieved toward the close
of the Paleolithic period. The hunters possessed of this companion
brought him with them on their migrations, for example across the
Bering Strait region, and in the course of millennia the observed
diversity arose in different local centers. In some cases the dog, like
other cultural goods, might be lost, as happened in some parts of
Brazil. In a few instances extraneous evidence suggests that the
lack is due to the crudity and isolation of the aboriginal culture.
This holds especially for the Tasmanians.
Zoologists who happen to be unfamiliar with the cultural aspects
of the problem are liable to serious error in assuming that every
biologically diverse origin has equivalent culture-historical implica-

SUBSISTENCE 309
tions. For instance, Feige argued that "the variations of form, as
among the various races of cattle, always indicate diverse descent."

In the same way the author infers several separate centers for
domestic swine. 77 Of course, breeds that are not zoologically trace-
able to a commonancestor must have originated independently.
But that beside our point. Let us take the zoologist's moot ques-
is
tion whether the humped ox or zebu of India is descended from

the banteng of Indonesia and Indo-China or from some wild form
78
closely related to the urus. What interests us is, first of all, the
apparently unanimous judgment of the specialists that the zebu of
Africa is derived from India, that one of the taurine breeds of that
continent definitely indicates contact with southern Asia. So far the

zoological difference is also historically significant. But it does not
mean that the first zebu-breeders domesticated their beast in total
ignorance of the occurrence of other taurine cattle. What they evi-
dently did was to apply the domestication pattern observed among
their neighbors or preexisting among themselves to a related
form. They succeeded, and added a new breed to the list of domestic
animals. So with the more remotely related buffalo of India (not to be
confused with our American "buffalo," the bison): its utilization
was modeled on that of cattle. This is neatly demonstrated by the
attitude shown as to milking buffalo. In Indo-China and Indonesia
that is, in the culture sphere of eastern Asia where dairying is
lacking buffalo are not milked but are employed in agriculture, as
the ox is in China. In India, however, where dairying flourishes, the
preparation of milk products is practiced even by the comparatively
primitive Toda.
The questipn is how far this view can be safely extended. Schmidt
and Koppers assume that an Asiatic tribe in the vicinity of Lake
Baikal domesticated the reindeer as the earliest species of livestock;
camels and horses were domesticated in imitation of reindeer; and
ultimately all other forms of stock, including the Peruvian llama,
79
go back to this primary stimulus.
Let us consider first the Peruvian data. The llama and the alpaca
are derived from the guanaco and vicuna, respectively the recent
American representatives of the camel family. The llama was used
primarily as a beast of burden, being able to carry a load of 100
pounds a distance of ten or twelve miles a day. Its flesh was used
only to a moderate extent; the dung served for fuel in timberless
districts, but there was no attempt at milking, in striking contrast
to the utilization of Old World camels. The coarse wool of the llama
was sheared for textile purposes, as was the finer wool of the alpaca
and vicufia. 80
Considering these facts, the Polynesians are immediately elimi-
nated as possible stimulators of guanaco domestication. At best they
had only the fowl, the dog, and the pig, and none of these is in the
least capable of serving as a model. But neither can the Indonesians
have played the part. Their buffalo, used either with the plow in
rice culture or for sacramental slaughter, seems an impossible start-
ing-point. The Peruvians' abstention from milk has been cited as a

link with eastern Asia, but this purely negative feature has no evi-
dential value: milking is obviously an artificial process, and its prac-
tice, not its lack, is what requires explanation. 81
We shall therefore conclude that llama domestication was achieved
independently of non-American cultures.
But even in the Old World several independent origins must
inevitably be assumed, at least in some instances, if several species
were domesticated by the same people. Let us assume, for the sake
of argument, that cattle, sheep, arid goats were domesticated by the
Egyptians. Can
we, then, derive the domestication of the nongre-
garious cat, which is generally credited to the Egyptians, from an
imitation of cattle domestication? The notion is not tenable, for
there is no iertmm quid comparationis. If ox and cat were both
domesticated on the banks of the Nile, it was on the common basis
of keeping tame animals for social and religious reasons, not because
the ancients detected a similarity between cat and cattle potenti-
alities.
To take a less extreme instance: as Laufer and others have pointed

out, and as Schmidt and Koppers admit, swine and poultry appear
in a wholly different setting from that of the larger stock animals.
"Both pig and chicken are nomnigratory animals and consequently
make their domicile only in sedentary, never in migratory communi-
"
ties. Hence the pastoral nomads uniformly lack swine, and even in
modern Turkestan hog-raising is confined to the Russian colonists. 82
How sedentary horticulturists would conceive the notion of domes-
ticating wild pigs and jungle fowl by watching the cattle- and horse-
breeding nomads of the Asiatic steppes, as Schmidt and Koppers
seem to suggest, 83 is difficult to imagine. To sum up, we shall do
well to assume several, though not many, independent achievements
of domestication.
SUBSISTENCE 311
In agreement with all authorities we may put the almost universal

dog first in order. Beyond that it is make definite chrono-
not safe to
logical statements. Domestic and donkeys ap-
cattle, sheep, pigs,
pear in Egyptian pictures dating back to the fourth millennium B.C.

Cattle and sheep bones are reported from early Neolithic North
European kitchen middens, and a vast number of pig bones were
found in Neolithic Chinese sites, but it is not easy to assign definite
dates to these finds. The domestic horse does not appear in Egypt
until approximately 1700 B.C.; in Babylonia it is mentioned as the
possession of rude nomadic tribes in about 2300 B.C., though it re-

mained rare until after Hammurabi's
reign (ca. 2000 B.C.). Camels
are mentioned in Mesopotamia about 1100 B.C., the one-humped
dromedary as an Arab introduction in 854 B.C. The earliest mention
of the domesticated reindeer as a South Siberian beast occurs
in a Chinese source dated A.D. 499.
The dates given are, of course, not conclusive as to the period of
earliest domestication: they merely tell us that at such and such a
period the Babylonians encountered horse- or camel-breeders and
that the Chinese first became cognizant of domestic reindeer toward
the end of the first half of the first millennium of our era. Never-
theless,they are the best information we at present possess. Extrav-
agant estimates have been made as to the Paleolithic antiquity of
the reindeer; the ox has been vigorously declared and vehemently
challenged as the earliest livestock species; southern Turkestan has
been acclaimed as the fountainhead of all domestication; but so far
as I can see, none of these assertions can be accepted at present as
more than guesswork.
Some other conclusions seem more tenable, even though not
strictly demonstrable. Thus, wild horses evidently were not the
easiest of beasts to tame, and Ilahn's hypothesis seems highly prob-
able, that its tamers followed the pattern offered by the closely re-
lated and gentler ass, for whose domestication there is much earlier
datable evidence. Breaking the horse in as a mount must have been
a late achievement. In Babylonia it appears originally only harnessed
to a war chariot, equestrianism not being mentioned until roughly
a thousand years later (ca. 1130 B.C.) and Assyrian cavalry not until
about 860 B.C. In Egypt the horse is also linked with the chariot.
It was ridden only in exceptional cases and never harnessed to a
common wagon or plow. 84
The history of the reindeer is beset with moot problems; yet on a
number of points there is fair agreement. Whatever may have been
the first attempts at the domestication of the beast, special features
of its utilization are patterned on the complexes developed with
other species. The reindeer sledge was a "conscious and rational
imitation of driving with dogs/' The use of reindeer as mounts by
the Tungus and some other Siberians is clearly modeled on the
practice of South Siberian equestrians. Similarly the milking of
reindeer by a few tribes is an imitation of the dairying customs of
cattle-breeders. Indeed, the Lapp vocabulary itself for milk, cheese,
and the correlated implements, betrays the Scandinavian origin of
the technique. 85
When people simultaneously own several species of livestock
nothing is more natural for them than to transfer techniques per-
fected for one type of animal to another. This leveling may stop
short of completeness from reasons inherent in the nature of the
beasts, from aboriginal caprice, or from wholly obscure causes.
However this may be, the tendency must be recognized. The Yakut,
a Turkish tribe, driven northward by political ^disturbances retained
their horses and cattle in northern Siberia, and even where they
abandoned these for reindeer they applied to the new species theii
traditional experiences as to selective breeding. On the other hand,
there is a reason the Kirghiz, who milk camels, goats,
why even
sheep, and mares as well as cows, do not produce other dairy products
from mare's milk. "It is poorer in fat, casein, albumen, and salts,
but much richer in milk-sugar, than cow's milk, and therefore is not
8G
adapted for butter and cheese making."
Pastoral nomadism. The mere possession of livestock does not
constitute pastoral nomadism. Our Plains Indians remained hunters
after they had obtained horses from the Whites. They neither milked
their mares nor took to eating horse flesh. The horse was to them
quite different from what it was to the Kirghiz not a direct eco-
nomic asset but a means of transportation that facilitated the chase
and thus indirectly affected the food supply. If the Arabs had
nothing but their horses, they, too, would fail to pass muster, for it
is the camel's milk and flesh that make their existence possible. On
the other hand, the southeastern Bantu practice garden culture and
rear cattle as sedentary farmers, so that they likewise cannot be
regarded as nomads; and the same holds, of course, for all the higher
agricultural civilizations that rest on field agriculture bound up with
animal husbandry.
SUBSISTENCE 313
But where pastoralnomadism appears in typical form in Mon-

golia, Turkestan, Arabia, or among some East Africans hunting
and farming recede into the background and may even be com-
pletely superseded. The Masai neither hunt game nor eat the flesh
of wild beasts; in the midst of their cattle wild gnu can be seen
peacefully grazing. With the Kirghiz of seventy years ago hunting
was practiced by individual amateurs and mainly as a sport and a
test of horsemanship. Falcons were trained to soar into the air and
swoop down upon their quarry while their master followed their
movements on horseback, possibly at the risk of his neck. Or an
equestrian might crush a fugitive wolf's skull with a stick while
87
galloping past his victim.
The relations with farming arc more intricate, and Hahn goes so
far as to deny that nomads represent an independent economic con-
dition. In his view they are degenerate horticulturists. They retain
the livestock which, he assumes, they had brought under domesti-
cation while still tilling their gardens, but they are unable to subsist
except by auxiliary farming or by sponging on the neighboring
peasantry. This view is demonstrably inaccurate. In the first place,
a glance at the Turkish tribes of southern Siberia and Turkestan
dispels the notion that their existence depends on alien tillage. The
Altaian Turks cultivate a quite negligible acreage of barley and buy
flour only in years of dearth. The Kirghiz east of the Caspian raise
barely enough grain for a dish of porridge, and only the well-to-do
import flour for bread. Farther east, to be sure, they did devote
part of their energies to growing wheat, millet, rye, and rice; but
their agricultural technique, which included large-scale irrigation,
was the result of contacts with higher civilizations and remained
unessential. People with ample supplies of mutton, beef, and horse
flesh; of cow's, sheep's, goat's, camel's, and mare's rnilk, and with a
variety of cheeses to boot, were not likely to starve. The Mongols

whom Rubruk encountered in A.D. 1253 had access to millet and
rice, but so long as they had kumissin the summer they cared not
for other kinds of food. The Rwala Bedouins live exclusively on
camel's milk for months at a time, and the Kababish camel herders
of Kordofan thrive on it from November until February. It is true
that great Mongol lords had their villages in the south, from which
they could import flour and millet in the winter, and that even the
poorer classes secured cereals in exchange for hides. In Arabia, too,
the Bedouins, before setting out into the interior, coerce the settled
fellahin into supplying them with wheat. But all this is doubtless
due to the common human craving for a varied diet. In North
America pure hunters like the Crow were glad to obtain from their
semihorticultural fellow-Siouans, the Hidatsa, supplies of maize, but
if they had no opportunities of visiting them they went without as
all American aborigines had to do in prehorticultural days. Con-
trariwise, such inveterate farmers as the Hopi did not scorn venison
and rabbit flesh, an indulgence which by no means implied back-
sliding into the hunting stage. And if the Bedouin takes the fellahin's
wheat, the latter looks to the Bedouin for camels to pull his plows,
so that the relationship, however abused by the stronger party, is
not that of one-sided economic parasitism. Finally, it is worth noting
that the "Hamitic" herders of interlacustrine East Africa not only
despise the peasant race but vegetable products as well, to which as
a rule they resort only in times of stress. 88
The significant thing, then, is not the rearing of livestock, which
is often coupled with a sedentary farming life; nor whether or not
a tribe obtains grain in the interests of a more diversified bill of fare.

What determines classification under the head of pastoral nomadism
is whether people depend mainly, and potentially altogether, on
their flocks and herds. The medieval Mongols used cereals as they
wore costly furs from Russia and silken stuffs from Cathay, but
these were luxuries they were able to forego; and as their true cos-
tume was of skin and felt, so their true and sufficient food was the
produce of their livestock.
But in order to subsist on what their livestock provides it is
necessary to maintain large herds and flocks whence the contrast
between the pastoral nomad, with his need of abundant grazing
lands, and the sedentary stock-breeder. Even the reindeer, under
suitable circumstances, can be kept in stables, as in parts of northern
Russia and Siberia, but obviously this is possible only where there
are, say, but three to five head to be tended. A large number of
beasts inevitably creates for them and tHeir masters a migratory
existence and considerably less individual attention. Beyond supply-
ing young lambs and fall calves with hay, the Kirghiz make no pro-
visions for sheep and cattle, which are obliged to seek their own
subsistence even during the cold season. There is also a dearth of
winter stables. 89
Nevertheless the animal husbandry of such peoples betrays a
To prevent the death of newborn
considerable degree of knowledge.
SUBSISTENCE 315
falllambs from the inclemency of the weather the northern Kirghiz

employ contraceptives of felt during several months of the year.
The Bedouins fully recognize the difference of thoroughbred and
common camels and carefully watch pregnant she-camels lest they
pasture on noxious plants or give birth in gullies or on sand drifts
where the young animals would be devoured by wild beasts. A milking
Tutsi keeps up a smudge of cow dung to ward off troublesome flies,
and in case of illness there are veterinaries who specialize in bleeding
the beasts. Herders generally make allowance for the female's reluc-
tance to yield milk except in presence of her offspring. Nearly seven
hundred years ago Rubruk noted how the Mongols tied colts in
sight of their mothers. "Then the mares take a stand next to their
foals and allow themselves to be milked." Similarly, the Kirghiz
allow a calf to suck a little first, then tear it away, milk the cow,
which isquite tractable after the process is once inaugurated, and
finally again permit access to the calf. Among the Bedouins the
milker stands on one side while the calf tries to suck from the other:
"The camel gives her milk when she sees that the young one is
approaching the udder." In this context some widespread deceptive
devices merit attention. The Arabs kill a newborn weakling, draw
the mother's nostrils together with a rope so that she cannot smell,
and make her yield milk to another sucking camel. The Tutsi and
other Africans stuff the skin of a dead calf and with it dupe the
cow into being milked by the herder. The same ruse is reported for
the western Kirghiz in connection with mare-milking. 90
The pastoralnomad, by the necessities of the case, is not an
aimless wanderer. If he and his herds are to survive there must be
adaptation to the pasturage required by each species and migrations
determined by their interests. When the Kababish Arabs first en-
"
camp, the cattle feed near by, but soon every blade of grass in the
neighborhood is devoured and nothing but sand and dry thorn
bushes remain." Then the beasts gp farther and farther away until
they run risk of capture by the enemy. A wealthy Kirghiz herder is
compelled to divide his herds according to the fodder best suited to
the palate of each species. In winter they require protection in low,
wooded tracts or low valleys not exposed to gusts of wind and with
ample pasturage. The summer calls for open, well-watered plains or
mountainous districts free from gnats and other insects. In the fall
the narrower valleys and ravines make an appeal, because there the
sun has probably failed to destroy the rich verdure, while in the
spring the livestock browse on mountain slopes where the melting
snow fosters the growth of vegetation. Since suitable winter quarters
are much the hardest to secure, their control often precipitated war-
fare in the past, and in contrast to the summer pastures they are
individually owned, marked off by topographical features or ap-
91
propriate boundary signs.
The inordinate passion for stock that develops among herders
fosters various interesting social and political developments. A cattle
plutocracy is likely to develop, with the poorer men sinking to the

status of mere attendants or vassals tending the herds of their
betters. This condition, however, may be prevented from taking the
form of a fixed class system by the vicissitudes to which livestock is
subject. When Radloff visited the Altai in 1860, there were men
owning several thousand horses; ten years later anyone owning fifty
head ranked as wealthy. The change was locally explained as due to
the rinderpest. The depletion of some Kirghiz herds and the increase
of others lead to a constant shift in the possession of the coveted
winter grounds, since an impoverished herder naturally disposes of
the superfluous pasturage. In one district the Kirghiz once lost
92
eighty per cent of their stock through a hard winter.
One aspect of the proprietary sense linked with pastoral nomadism
is the elaboration of property marks. The Altaian Turks brand their
horses' thighs; the western Kirghiz mutilate the horses' ears, cut
triangles out of the lobes of sheep's ears, and brand their camels;
and among the Bedouins every clan and tribe has its distinctive
brand. 93 The Wahuma and their interlacustrine congeners in East
Africa have even developed a cattle feudalism. The king is owner of
all the cattle in the realm and the chiefs receive herds as fiefs. By
parceling out herds and land the latter being prized only as pas-
turage by the ruling class the king exercises supreme control.
In Iluanda the provincial princes received 10,000 head apiece, and
their vassals from one to several hundred cattle; members of the
next order in the feudal hierarchy had ten each, and the peasants
had to content themselves with one or two. 94
The basic requirements of extensive pastoral nomadism bring the
herder into conflict with the sedentary farmer, whence one of the
most and typical antitheses in human history. Usually
significant
better organized and possessed of greater mobility than neighboring
peasant populations, the herders enjoy definite advantages and fre-
quently gain the upper hand even in opposition to old and stable
SUBSISTENCE 317
Thus, from about 1400 B.C. the Chinese were constantly

civilizations.
harassed by the mounted Turkish and Mongol hordes to the north.
"These ever restless hordes perpetually poured over the Chinese
frontiers and raided and pillaged the villages of the farmers." The
Great Wall was constructed to ward off these depredations, but for
a long time it was of doubtful value. The Hiung-nu (Huns) had
developed a formidable type of warfare based on their general mode
of life. "The Chinese armies in the beginning were usually the losers
as they opposed their infantry to the mobile cavalry and mounted
archers of their enemies." Only in 307 B.C. Wu-ling, the ruler of
Chao, took a leaf out of the Turks' book by adopting the horseback
archery of the nomads along with their tight-fitting costume. Sub-
sequently, under the Han dynasty, the Chinese at last took the of-
fensive and to secure
their frontiers carried the war into Hiung-nu
territory. But no
this
by means solved the problem once and for all.
The Chinese were again troubled by such nomadic peoples as the
Kitan; in 1215 Peking was occupied by the Mongols, who founded a
new Chinese dynasty; and in 1644 the Manchu, a Tungus tribe from
the north, similarly gained control over the empire. Of these, the
Mongols are noteworthy for the amazing extent of their conquests,
under Jenghiz Khan and his successors, who not only subjected
China but also such countries as Persia, the principality of Kiev,
and other parts of Russia. In fact, it was a mere chance that the
Mongols failed to exploit their crushing defeat of the German and
Polish army at Liegnitz. 95
The sudden appearance Arabs on the scene of world history
of the
and their rapid conquest of enormous areas in North Africa and the
Iberian peninsula form another example on a large scale. In minia-
ture the antithesis is still illustrated by the attitude assumed by the
nomads toward the settled population of Arabia. "The Bedouins
are convinced that the fellahin are obliged to supply them with
food. ... If the fellah does not give it to them of his own free will,
96
they have the right to take everything they find."
This typical relationship is nowhere more amply illustrated than
among the natives of Africa. In the west the Fulbe, who had been
herders in the Sudan for centuries, conquered the Haussa states in
1806 and reorganized the political order. In East Africa the pastoral
Masai lift the cattle of neighboring peasant communities and mas-
sacre those who resist their inroads. In the interlacustrine states, such
as Ankole, Unyoro, Ruanda, and Urundi, the herders conquered an
alien sedentary population and made themselves into an upper
caste, despising the farmers and obliging them to render tribute and
to perform menial tasks. Even where the direct economic exploita-
tion islimited by the aristocratic herders' contempt for vegetable
food, the economic results may be fatal to the development of farm-
ing. In Ruanda the Tutsi chiefs drive their herds into the plantations
at will, and the peasants are not permitted to drive them off irre-
spective of the damage caused. "In the aristocracy of herders of
Ruanda the Muhutu is compelled to give way to the cattle. The
cows have driven the Bahutu from certain parts of Ufumbiro. They
also destroyed completely the peasants of the lava plain of Mulera.
They transformed the region of Niansa into a wilderness. It may

therefore be said that the cattle were a powerful element in shaping
the landscape of Ruanda." In this respect the tillers share the fate
they themselves have meted out to the hunting Twa (Batwa), whom
they have expropriated by the growing necessity for deforestation in
order to create horticultural plots. Deprived of his retreat, the
hunter sinks to the level of a pariah. 97
Economic determinism of culture. The examples cited above seem
to prove the ultimate dependence even of nonmaterial culture upon
the food-getting activities of the people concerned. But the matter
is not nearly so simple as that. Certain truisms of course admit of no
argument. People must gain a livelihood in order to maintain any

culture at all; and those economic patterns which allow seasonal
leisure or free some individuals for productive specialization in other
than merely food-producing lines offer more chances to exceptional
individuals. This condition is further emphasized in regions in which
lives a denser unified population the existence of which is entirely
tied up with the development of agriculture. But within this general
framework an extraordinary diversity is possible, and we are driven
to the conclusion not that economic conditions determine the rest
of culture, but rather that between the economic and all other
phases of communal life there are functional relations, in which the

noneconomic may play the active and the economic the passive r61e.
Even in so extreme an instance as that of Ruanda the subordina-
tion of the peasantry into a class of commoners did not follow auto-
matically from the contact of herders and farmers. The Tutsi,
numbering barely 120,000, were able to conquer a million Hutu, be-
cause of the peasants' separatism, a feature not of economic but of
political culture, which made it possible for the cattle-breeders to
SUBSISTENCE 319
overcome one small community after another and to play off peasant
groups against one another. These conditions have repeatedly oc-
curred, but they are not inevitable; and in Uganda we find that the
same people who elsewhere represent a privileged nobility form
98
merely the specialized occupational caste of herders.
Some writers hold that the low social position of woman among
pastoral nomads is economically determined. Men, so the argument
runs, were the first domesticators of livestock; accordingly women
are tabooed from any connection with stock, are not allowed to own
the most highly prized form of property, and automatically assume
a lower status. This theory rests on a number of indisputable facts.
Among an appreciable number of peoples women are either wholly
excluded from dairy tasks or relegated to a humble place in the
dairying economy. Thus, the men milk among the interlacustrine
herders and perform all the relevant work except churning; and
among the Lango, Baganda, and southeastern Bantu, who combine
millet-raising with stock-breeding, no woman is permitted to milk.
Further, among a number of Siberian tribes women are precluded
from inheriting herds, and a remote kinsman may fall heir to the
property rather than the deceased man's own daughters.
Notwithstanding these facts, there is no convincing proof that
the empirical correlation found is organically fixed. Next door to the
southeastern Bantu, the Hottentot women regularly milk cows; the
Chukchee women assist their husbands in herding reindeer; and al-
though among the South Siberian nomads the men milk the mares
on account of the danger involved, women milk the cows, as Rubruk
noted among the Mongols in 1253. It is wholly possible that feminine
over a wide part of Asia and Africa are due not to a
disabilities
natural nexus but to an accidental association of ideas in the remote
past which was widely diffused and stabilized within the range of a
certain culture sphere. That is why tribes outside that range, such
as the Hottentot or the Chukchee, fail to participate in the relevant
ideology. On the other hand, this may explain why a theoretically
low status is assigned to women by Amur River fishermen, Chinese
agriculturists, Turkish stock-breeders, and Ostyak reindeer nomads."
It is certainly not legitimate to assume that the economically pro-
ductive part of the community is ipso facto the ruling class. If this
held true, the European peasants of the Middle Ages would loom as
the aristocracy of the period! For this reason I am more than skep-
tical concerning the suggested correlation between feminine garden
culture and a gynecocracy. 100 The matrilineal system of descent may
be functionally connected with cultivation by women, but of a true
matriarchate there is virtually no example. 101 Even as regards the
universal dependence of maternal descent on feminine tillage grave
doubts may be entertained. On the one hand, there are tribes like
the matrilineal Tlingit arid Haida of British Columbia who do not
practice any farming; and there are the preeminently matrilineal
Pueblo Indians with whom corn-planting is primarily a masculine
occupation. Further, a comparison of such closely related tribes as
the Crow and Hidatsa shows that both are matrilineal, and women
play much the same part in both societies. There is no ascertainable
difference that can be traced to the adoption of tillage by the Hi-
datsa or its lapse or absence among the Crow.
Economic, like geographical, determinism, is part of that ration-
philosophy which has so often obscured an understanding of
alistic
human history. Social phenomena are not simple, and accordingly

the same condition, owing to an indefinite number of unknown con-
comitants, will produce quite different results in different areas. If
wild cattle exist in a certain country, it docs not follow that the
natives will domesticate them. If they domesticate them, it does not
follow that they will milk cows or eat beef. Religious or dietary pre-
conceptions or sheer ignorance of utilitarian possibilities may play an
incalculable part, checking and even precluding economic utilization.
A fruitful investigation of economic causality will proceed by nar-
rowing the inquiry and isolating the probable influence of

field of
single factors. Is possible to discover the social status of Navajo

it
women before the introduction of sheep? How

do women among the
purely pastoral Herero compare in position with those of the neigh-
boring fellow-Bantu who breed stock and raise millet? What changes
have been wrought in the ideology of the Chukchee and Koryak by
the introduction of domesticated reindeer? How are the social and
religious conceptions of the Twa modified when they become seden-
tary potters and farmers? These questions cannot yet be satisfac-
torily answered, but they are not inherently unanswerable and their
formulation promises more ultimate illumination than the customary
vague generalizations.
It is possible to turn the tables on economic determinism and to
show how largely economic life is affected by considerations that,
although irrelevant from our point of view, are of the utmost impor-
tance to the people concerned. Religious ideas, political ideology,
SUBSISTENCE 321
notions of prestige (see pp. 327 ff .) intrude where an economist expects

nothing but the creation and exchange of economic values, together
with their practical correlates. It is presumably no mere chance
that, while Melanesians have evolved a variety of currency systems,
no equivalent phenomenon is noted for Polynesia. Where a chief
could taboo a subject's possessions and make them his own, property
was nonexistent, trading was checked, and its concomitants in the
form of exchange media were unnecessary. In the Trobriand Islands
the production and apportionment of wealth are inextricably bound
up with tribal ideology as to the chieftainship and magic. The
garden magician interposes at every stage of horticultural activity,
and it is he and the chief who jointly systematize the efforts of the
whole population. Yet, though the chief may command services, he
is obliged to offer compensation. By way of contrast may be cited
the condition of various Polynesian groups, where theoretically the

soil was vested in a supreme ruler, even great nobles holding their
lands from him, so that he was legally entitled to dispossess them as

a Ruanda monarch was in principle entitled to deprive his lords of
their cattle. The Polynesian commoners had no unqualified rights:
"The great chiefs could seize on whatever took their fancy. Besides,
the king or his representatives could assess labor upon the whole
community whenever he pleased. The chiefs also claimed a share of
all the fish taken by their tenants." 102
The king was a
Uganda illustrates typical African conditions.
despot owning all the land; the chiefs were his vassals; and com-
moners held the land from the chiefs "on condition of doing work
for them, especially building work and rendering military service."
In other words, a feudal ideology was basic to the agricultural efforts
of the people. But the mode of production and distribution of
wealth rested on further ideologies. Plantains, the staple crop, were
raised by women, who in return expected their husbands to plant
the trees that provided them with bark cloth. That is to say, there
was a definite ideology as to the sexual division of labor. Further,
the relationship between a chief and his subordinates was not wholly
that of master and slave. As among the southeastern Bantu, there
was an appreciable admixture of patriarchal sentiment. A chief had
a host of dependent relatives who formed, indeed, a body of hench-
men but expected to be rewarded with gifts or minor offices; and
unrelated malcontents might leave an unpopular chief and attach
themselves to a neighboring rival. In other words, the mores implied
the recognition of a supreme overlord but tempered the attitude of
the lesser chiefs to the commoners, as they regulated the relations
103
of husband and wife by stressing the factor of reciprocity.
FOOTNOTES
1. Hahn, E., Die Haustiere und ihre Beziehungen zur Wirtschaft des Menschen
(Leipzig, 1896) and Das Alter der wirischaftlichen Kultur der Menschheit
(Heidelberg, 1905).
2. Koppers, W. P., "Die ethnologische Wirtschaftsforschung," Anthropos, vols.
10-11 (1915-16); Schmidt, W., and Koppers, W. P., Volker und Kulturen
(Regensburg, 1924), p. 385.
3. Halt, G., Notes on Reindeer Nomadism, Memoirs of the American Anthro-
pological Association, vol. 6 (1919), pp. 94, 109.
4. Schmidt, W., and Koppers, W. P., op. cit., p. 509.
5. Wahle, E., article "Wirtschaft," in M. Ebert's Reallexikon der Vorgcschichte.
vol. 14 (Berlin, 1929), p. 324.
6. Stow, G. W., The Native Races of South Africa (1905), pp. 34, 452.
of American Ethnology, no. 78 (1925), p. 13.
8. Jochelson, W., The Yukaghir and the Yukaghirized Tungus, Jesup Expedition,
vol. 9 (1926), p. 418.
9. Kroeber, A. L., 07;. cit., p. 695.
10. Childe, V. Gordon, The Most Ancient East (London, 1929), pp. 2, 50.
11. Kroeber, A. L., op. cit., pp. 87, 529, 814, 817.
12. Seligmann, C. G. and B. Z., The Veddas (Cambridge, 1911), pp. 91, 112, 327.
13. Stow, G. W., op. cit., pp. 54-60, 71 fT., 80-94, 149 ff.
14. Lowie, R. H., in Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural
History, vol. 11 (1916), pp. 130, 180, 747.

15. Roth, W. E., North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin 5 (Brisbane, 1903);
Bulletin 8 (1906).
16. Speck, F. G., Family Hunting Territories, Canadian Geological Survey
Memoir, no. 70 (Ottawa, 1915).
17. Boas, F., Geographical Names of the Kwakiutl Indians, Columbia University
Contributions to Anthropology, vol. 20 (1934), maps.
18. Brunton, Guy, "The Beginnings of Egyptian Civilization," Antiquity (1929),
p. 462.
19. Werth, E., "Zur Natur- und Kulturgeschichte der Banana/' in Festschrift
Eduard Hahn, vol. 14 (1919), pp. 22-50.
20. Vavilov, N., Studies on the Origin of Cultivated Plants, Bulletin of Applied
Botany and Plant-Breeding (Leningrad, 1926), pp. 196-209.

21. Wilson, G. L., Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: an Indian Interpretation,
University of Minnesota, Studies in the Social Sciences, no. 9 (1917);

Linton, R., "The Significance of Certain Traits in North American Maize
Culture," American Anthropologist, vol. 26 (1924), p. 345.
22. Vavilov, N., op. cit., pp. 221-233. For review of Vavilov, see American
Anthropologist, vol. 30 (1928), p. 716.

SUBSISTENCE 323
23. Kroeber, A. L., Peoples of the Philippines, Handbook of the American Mu-
seum of Natural History, no. 8 (1928), p. 86.
24. Schweinfurth, G., Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde zu Berlin, vol. 45
(1910), p. 99.
25. Radloff, W., Aus Sibirien (Leipzig, 1893), vol. 1, p. 466; Laufer, B., Sino-
Iranica, Field Museum Publication, Anthropological Series, vol. 15, no. 3
(1919), p. 372.
26. Cf. Wissler, Clark, The American Indian (1917), chap. 1.
27. Roth, W. E., An Introductory Study of the Arts, Crafts and Customs of the
Guiana Indians, Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
vol. 38 (1924), p. 216.
28. Rivet, P., in P. W. Schmidt Festschrift (Vienna, 1928), pp. 583-586, 603.
29. De Candolle, A., Origine des plantes cultivecs (Paris, 1883), pp. 36-42; Merrill,
E. D., oral communication; Laufer, B., "The American Plant Migration,"
Scientific Monthly (1929), pp. 246 ff.
30. Nordenskiold, E., Comparative Ethnographical Studies, vol. 5 (Oxford, 1922),
pp. 64-76.
31. Smith, G. Elliot, In the Beginning (1928), p. 83.
32. Kidder, A. V., An Introduction to the Study of Southwestern Archaeology
(1924), p. 78.
33. Nordenskiold, E., "The American Indian as an Inventor," Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 59 (1929), p. 275.
34. Schweinfurth, G., The Heart of Africa (1874), p. 526.
35. Roscoe, J., The Baganda (London, 1911), p. 432.
36. Driberg, J. H., The Lango (London, 1923), p. 100.
37. Werth, E., op. cit., pp. 22-50.
38. Thurnwald, R., Die Gemeinde der Bdnaro (Stuttgart, 1921), pp. 53 ff.
39. Roscoe, J., op. cit., p. 426; Shooter, J., The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu
Country (London, 1857), p. 17; Fiilleborn, Fr., Das deutsche Njassa- und
Ruwuma-Gebiet (Berlin, 1906), p. 101.
40. Wilson, G. L., op. cit.
41. "Lowie, R. IL, Primitive Society (1920), p. 75.
42. Captain Cook's Voyages of Discovery, Everyman's Library, p. 289.
43. Roscoe, J., The Northern Bantu (Cambridge, 1915), p. 68; Driberg, op. cit.,
pp. 96 Nachtigal, G., Sahara und Sudtin (Berlin, 1879-81), vol. 2, p. 389;
if.;
Frobenius, L., Und Afrika sprach (Berlin, 1912-13), vol. 3, pp. 102, 128,
"
166; Roeder, G., article Wirtschaft," in M. Ebert's Reallexikon der Vorge-
schichte, vol. 14 (Berlin, 1929), p. 369.
44. Vavilov, N. L, and Bukinich, D. D., "Agricultural Afghanistan," in Supple-
ment 33 to Bulletin of Applied Botany and Plant Breeding (Leningrad,
1929), p. 544.
45. Schebesta, P., Bei den Urwaldzwergen wn Malaya (Leipzig, 1927), pp. 110,
198.
46. Seligmann, C. G. and B. Z., op. cit., p. 87.
47. Fraser, J., The Aborigines of New South Wales (Sydney, 1892), pp. 4, 51.
48. Spinden, H. J., The Nez Perce Indians, Memoirs of the American Anthro-
pological Association, vol. 2 (1908), p. 201.

49. Laufer, B., Jade, Field Museum Publication 154 (1912), p. 48.
50. Ranke, H., article "Pflug," in M. Ebert's Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, vol. 10
(Berlin, 1927), p. 119; Gompertz, M., Corn from Egypt (1928), p. 41; cf.
Tylor, E. B., "Origin of Plough and Wheel-Carriage," Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institicte, vol. 10 (1881), p. 74; Leser, Paul, Entsteh-

ung und Verbre'dung des Pfluges (Miinster, 1931).
51. Laufer, B., Sino-Iranica, pp. 220 fF., 415 ff.
52. Wilson, G. L., op. cit., p. 48.
53. Dribcrg, J. II., op. cit., pp. 96 ff.
54. Gutmann, Bruno, Dichten und Dcnkcn der Dschagganeger (Leipzig, 1909),
p. 111.
55. Driherg, J. H., op. cit., p. 171.
56. Thomson, The Fijians (London, 1908), pp. 70, 354-386.
B.,
57. Hosroe, J., The Baganda, p. 268.
58. Gutmann, B., op. cit., pp. 12, 24 ff.
59. Hahn, E., Die Ilaustiere und ihre Beziehungen znr Wirtschaft dcs Menschen
(Iêipzig, 1896).
60. Laufer, B., I wry in China, Field Museum Anthropology Leaflet 21 (1925),
pp. 11-14.
61. Galton, F., Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development (London, 1883),
pp. 243-244.
62. Hahn, E., article "Hund" in M. Ebert's Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, vol. 5
(Berlin, 1926), p. 403. -
63. Halt, G., op. cit., p. 108.

64. "Methods in the Study of Domestication," Scientific Monthly
Laufer, B.,
25 (1927), pp. 251-2r>5.
vol.
65. Roscoe, J., The Northern Bantu, pp. 54, 72, and The Baganda, p. 423; Evans-
Pritchard, E. E., "The Bongo," in Sudan Notes and Records, vol. 12 (1929),
p. 53; Tessmann, G., Die Pangwe (Berlin, 1913), vol. 1, p. 107; Smith,
E. W., and Dale, A. M., The lla-Speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia
(London, 1920), vol. 1, p. 134.
66. Ranke, H., article "Schwein," in M. Ebert's Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, vol.
11 (Berlin, 1928), p. 383.
67. von den Steinen, K., Unter den Naturcolkcrn Central-Brasiliens (Berlin, 1894),
p. 210; Koch-Griinberg, Th., Vom Roroima zum Orinoco (Berlin, 1923),
vol. 3, p. 79; Roth, W. E., An Introductory Study of the Arts, Crafts and
Custom* of the Guiana Indians, Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, vol. 38 (1924), pp. 551, 555; Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., The
Arunta (London, 1927), vol. 1, p. 15; Fraser, J., op. cit., p. 55.
68. Laufer, B., Insect-Musicians and Cricket Champions of China, Field Museum
Anthropology Leaflet 22 (1927).
69. Jochclson, W., Peoples of Asiatic Russia, American Museum of Natural
History (1928), pp. 50, 56.
70. Musil, A., Arabia Petraea (Vienna, 1907-08), vol. 3, pp. 140 ff., 254 ff., 263-
270, and The Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins (1928), pp. 94,
368; Seligmann, C. G., in Harvard African Studies, vol. 2, pp. 116-120;
Radloff, W., op. cit., vol. 1, p. 455.
71. Cf. Laufer, B., The Reindeer and its Domestication, Memoir of the American
Anthropological Association, vol. 4 (1917), p. 139.
SUBSISTENCE 325
72. Jochelson, W., Peoples of Asiatic Russia, p. SO; Ranke, article "Schaf," in
M. Ebert's Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, vol. 11 (Berlin, 1927), p. 221;
Driberg, J. H., op. cit., p. 94; RadlofF, W., op. cit., vol. 1, p. 439; Roscoe, J.,
The Baganda, pp. 420, 423; Musil, A., The Manners and Customs of the
Rwala Bedouins, pp. 90, 90; Laufer, B., "Methods in the Study of Domes-
tication," Scientific Monthly, vol. 25 (1927), p. 252; Herbst, H. (tr.),
Der Bericht des Franziskaners \Vilhclm von Rubruk uber seine Reise in das
Innere Asiens in den Jahren 1253-1250 (Leipzig, 1925), p. 13.
73. Tessmann, G., op. cit., vol. 1, p. 105.
74. Hatt, G., op. cit., p. 114.
75. Musil, A., The Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins, p. 382.
76. Allen, G. M., in Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard,
vol. 03 (1920), pp. 431-517; Antonius, ()., Crundziige einer Stammesge-
schichte der llausticre (Jena, 1922), pp. 89 IF.; Hilzheimer, M., article
"Hund," in M. Ebert's Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, vol. 5 (Berlin, 1926),
p. 408.
77. "Motive der Haustiererwcrbung," Archiv fur Anthropologie,
Feige, Ernst,
N. 22 (1930), pp. 7-28.
F., vol.
78. Lydekker, R., The Ox and its Kindred (London, 1912), p. 147; Antonius, O.,
op. cit., p. 185.

79. Schmidt, W., and Koppers, W. P., op. cit., pp. 506, 514, 518, 608.
80. Mead, C. W., Old Civilizations of Inca Land, Handbook of the American
Museum of Natural History, no. 11 (1924), pp. 26, 38, 65.
81 . Kroel )er A L. Peoples of the Philippines, H andbook of the American Museum
,
. ,
of Natural History, no. 8 (1928), p. 84.

82. Jochelson, W., Peoples of Asiatic- Russia, p. 82.
84. Ranke and Meissner, article "Pferd," in M. Ebert's Reallexikon der Vorge-
schichte, vol. 10 (Berlin, 1927), pp. 113, 115.
85. Laufer, B., The Reindeer and its Domestication, pp. 138 fF.; Hatt, G., op. cit.,
pp. 86, 89, 96.

86. Jochelson, W., "Kumiss Festivals of the Yakut," in Boas Anniversary Volume
(1900), ix 260.
87. Routledge, W. S. and K., With a Prehistoric People, the Akikuyu of British
East Africa (London, 1910), p. 345; RadloiF, W., op. cit., vol. 1, p. 466.
88. RadlofF, W., op. cit., Karutz, R., Untcr Kirgisen und
vol. 1, pp. 297, 463;
Turkmcnen (Leipzig, 1911), pp. 42 Herbst,
II., op. cit., pp. 8-20;
fF.;
Musil, A., The Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins, pp. 90, 348;
Seligmann, C. G. and B. Z., "The Kababish, a Sudan Arab Tribe," in
Harvard African Studies (1918), vol. 2, pp. 119, 152; Roscoe, J., The
Northern Bantu, pp. 77-79, 103.
89. The Yukaghir and the Yukaghirized Tungus, pp. 360 fF.;
Jochelson, W.,
RadlofF, W., op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 423 fF., 437.
90. Musil, A., The Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins, pp. 87 fF., 332 fF.;
Czekanowski, Jan, Forschungen im Nil-Kongo-Zwschengebiet (Iêipzig,
1917), vol. 1, pp. 141 fF.; RadlofF, W., op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 437, 445; vol. 2,
p. 264; Karutz, R., op. cit., p. 52; Routledge, W. S. and K., op. dt. y p. 45;
Roscoe, J., The Baganda, p. 419.
91. Seligmann, C. B., and B. Z., "The Kababish, a Sudan Arab Tribe," p. 118;
Radloff, W., op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 414-420.
92. Radloff, W., op. tit., vol. 1, pp. 284, 416; Machatschek, Fr., Landeskunde wn
Russisch'Turkestan (Stuttgart, 1921), pp. 153-155.
93. Radloff, W., op. cit., pp. 279, 455; Karutz, op. cit., p. 50; Musil, A., The
Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins, p. 312.
94. Roehl, quoted by Spannaus, G., Ztige aus der politischen Organisation afri-
kanischer Volker und Staaten (Leipzig, 1929), p. 89.
95. Laufer, B., "The Early History of Felt," American Anthropologist, vol. 32
(1930), p. 4; Wilhelm, R., A Short History of Chinese Civilization (1929),
pp. 179, 253.
96. Musil, A., The Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins, p. 90.
97. Spannaus, G., op. cit., p. 134; Merker, M., Die Masai (Berlin, 1904), pp. 110,
170, 196, 207, 246; Roscoe, J., The Northern Bantu, pp. 77 ff., 103; Czeka-
nowski, J., op. cit., pp. 143, 132.
98. Czekanowski, J., op. cit., p. 50.
99. Cf. Lowie, R. H., Primitive Society, pp. 193 ff.

101. Lowie, R. H., Primitive Society, p. 189.
102. Gifford, E. W., Tongan Society, Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 61
(1929), p. 171; Malinowski, B., "The Primitive Economics of the Tro-
briand Islanders," Economic Journal, vol. 31 (1921).
103. Roscoe, J., The Baganda, pp. 13, 268, 233, 426.
GENERAL REFERENCES
Forde, C. Daryll, Habitat, Economy and Society; A Geographical
Introduction to
Ethnology (London, 1934).
Thurnwald, Richard, Die menschliche Gesellschaft in ihren ethno-soziologischen
"
Grundlagen. I. Representative Lebensbilder von Naturvolkewi" (Berlin
and Leipzig, 1931).
CHAPTER VIII
THE ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF

PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
RVTH BUNZEL
Introduction. ^conomics, literally "household management," is
the total organization of behavior with reference to the problems

of physical survival. Fundamentally the function of any economic
system is to maintain some kind of equilibrium between material
needs and the potentialities of the environmeny What these ma-
terial needs are conceived to be, and by what processes and for
whose benefit the equilibrium is maintained, are matters subject
to endless variation among the peoples of the world. As in the study
of any other part cf culture, the uncovering of the basic assump-
tions underlying economic institutions of a people leads us to the
very heart of cultureÊvery economic system has a certain degree
1
of unity and integration no matter how diverse the

, origin of its
elements or how checkered its history.^
'The economic functioning of any group shows a constant interplay
of threecomplementary principles, which may be characterized
and the psychological.
briefly as the material, the formal,
The material principle deals with the physical relationship to the
environment and with the classical anthropologist's "material cul-
ture." It concerns such problems as: What does the environment
offer?What is utilized? What techniques are employed to acquire
and transform the materials at liand, and what forms are given to
them?
The forma} principle is, roughly, "social organization" the
structure of the group, the organization for production, the network
of economic obligations between individuals, the position of each
individual with reference to a group.
The psychological principle is concerned largely with the general
question of value in its widest sense, the structure of the personality
that determines choice, and the attitudes that animate institutions.
387
In these three aspects of economics we find the answers to the
three questions: What is done? Who does it? Why is it done?
This interrelation will be made clearer by a simple example. A man
an Eskimo, let us say requires food; so he goes out to harpoon
a seal. The habitat, the season, the technological means at his dis-
posal, determine the nature of the food quest. The social structure of
the Eskimo camp, the ideal of manhood which requires that each
man must be a good hunter, determine the fact that he goes fiimself
and that he goes alone, perhaps borrowing a dog or a kayak or a
sledge, instead of taking food from another, or requesting it as a
gift or in trade, or demanding it as a right. When he has caught his
prey, he does not consume it on the spot, leaving behind what he
does not need, but takes the animal back with him to his hut. The
hut is not merely a shelter from the Arctic storm, but a home which
he shares with other individuals to whom he is bound by ties of
economic obligation. The pot of soup which his wife prepares pro-
vides the occasion for assembling the inhabitants of the camp, who
linger until morning, eating, discussing the events of the day, singing,
telling stories, in an atmosphere of warm sociability., The whole
complex of behavior involved in this relatively simple act must be
referred to other concepts besides a direct response to an instinctive
drive.
Theinterplay of these three principles in shaping economic insti-
tutions is not the whole story by any means./There is a fourth factor,
that of historic accident. The position of a tribe in relation to other
tribes contributes its share to the building up of its economic insti-
from one tribe to another,
tutions. Traits of material culture spread
and the whole technological development of a people may depend
upon phenomena of contacjp The Chukchee learned reindeer-breeding
from the Tungus, who learned it from peoples to the west; it has
not yet reached the Eskimo, despite the fact that they hunt the
reindeer (see page 31 1)/ Historic accident is evident in the develop-
ment of certain types of economies. Caste systems are frequently
the result of the superposition of alien cultures, but not a necessary
result; migrations and aggressive warfare may be followed by inter-
marriage, trade, and cultural interpenetration/f Africa and Melanesia
show both types of adjustment in neighboring groups (see page 373).
Thecontact of peoples plays its part in less obvious fashion.
Large areas of the world are characterized by economic complexes,
material, formal, and psychological, developed under influences of
ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES 329
contact. Throughout Africa, from Morocco to the Cape, some form

of the bride price occurs, carrying in its wake a whole complex of
structural consequences. It is found among agricultural as well as
pastoral people. Just as conspicuous is the distribution of exchange
between groups related by marriage as an important economic
.
mechanism over the whole Pacific area. On the other hand, the
absence of important property rearrangements in connection with
marriage throughout the greater part of North America is equally
.
1
significant.
pie classification of peoples according to the dominant method of
getting food is implicit in most ethnological thought, but the widely

used categories such as hunting, harvesting, horticultural, agricultural,
pastoral,must be qualified. It is insufficient, even in simpler econo-
mics, to classify a tribe as "hunters/' The inquirer must know the
habits of animals that are hunted % whether they are solitary or
gregarious, sedentary or roving, whether they are tracked in the
forest orambushed at water holes* before it is possible to form any
conception of what mode of life the food quest entails) The Aus-
tralian aborigines form relatively permanent settlements near water
holes, with strict property rights (see page 342); the Kaingang of
"
Brazil, at the same stage" of economic development, range freely
through the forest, erecting rude shelters wherever night overtakes
thern^ The attempt

to correlate these gross classifications with
forms of social structure and economic ideals is of limited value.
Tertain correlations between habitat, Jood supply, and mode of
lifeseem obvious: hunters of solitary animals live in small groups,
widely dispersed, highly mobile, with fluid social forms; garden
people live in fairly permanent settlements, for considerations of
land tenure and other property rights produce greater fixity of social
forms. However, the Arapesh, a garden people of New Guinea, have
all the mobility and looseness of social structure that we ordinarily
associate with primitive hunters. They are agricultural nomads.
Although they depend almost entirely on garden produce and pigs,

they spend a third of their time "walking about "; they plant their
crops in other men's fields and have only the most tenuous ties to
their own homes. 3 Australian aborigines, on the other hand, although
they derive their sustenance entirely from wild game and unculti-
vated plants, are relatively sedentary. In their waterless country
each small group must stay in territory which it knows, and remain
close to water holes to which it has rights of access. The Australian
aborigines have the most inflexible social structure of any primitive
4
)
group.
/These cases are exceptional, but their existence disproves any
tlreory that derives social forms directly from the problem of sub-
sistence. The
probability of finding fixed residence, complex social
organization, and the development of luxury is greatest among agri-
cultural peoples. But it is not upon the growing of food alone that
these developments depend.. It is not the source of supply, but the
existence of surplus, that most significant for social forms. Hunting
is
and fishing people with reliable and abundant food supplies, such as
the peoples of the Northwest Coast of America 5 and the western
prairies, when buffalo were still plentiful, have developed the elabo-
rate social and religious institutions which are usually associated
with agricultural economics!^
If the character of the food quest does not determine even such a
closely related phenomenon as permanence of residence^ it is not

surprising to find a similar lack of determinism in such matters as
mode of descent, toternic organization, the relations of the sexes,
and religious ideas.Within any society social and material phe-..
nomena influence one another, but the search for general correlations
has been: unrewarding. Patriliny, patrilocal residence, bride pur-
chase, polygyny, inferior status of women, and ancestor worship are
frequently found in association with pastoral life. Matrilineal descent
and inheritance are difficult to maintain in a pastoral community
where animals are cared for by men. But the Herero 7 and the Ba'Ila
of South Africa 8 and the N|ivajo 9 of America are pastoral and still
have strong matrilineal institutions.
Comparative study shows that the pastoral configuration holds
together somewhat better than any other similar configuration. A
certain number of traits are found together often enough to give a
typical picture to which many pastoral tribes conform, at least on the
formal side. The unformalized aspects of such cultures are less
readily comparable. The Herero, Ba'Ila, and Navajo are "special
cases," with special historic backgrounds which we can trace in part.
But every culture is a special case, as unique as an individual human
being, and every event has an infinite multiplicity of causes. No
aphorism could be more untrue than the famous one that history
repeats itself. History never repeats; it is impossible for history to
repeat itself, since the cumulative effect of the past is never at two
moments or in two places the same.
Value. Even were possible to isolate causes, any general theory

if it
of determinism would hamper our understanding of cultural phenom-

ena. Underlying all is the general concept that
deterministic theories
culture is
adaptive behavior, each item of which aims at the maximum
economic efficiency in a given environment. Efficiency in the sense
in which we conceive it is conspicuously lacking in many primitive
10
societies. The Lango
become involved in endless litigations in order
to recover the particular cows paid for an absconding wife; the
Mafulu u give pig feasts of such dimensions that they devastate their
villages; the Kwakiutl deliberately break and throw into the sea arti-
cles of great value acquired after much difficulty; the Arapesh travel
for days over slippery mountain trails to harvest crops in the ham-
lets of relatives, only to find the crops eaten by the pigs. In the
face of such evidence of economic inefficiency we must abandon the
concept of "economic man" grimly making the most of his environ-
ment and his techniques. Nevertheless primitive man is not a creature
of whimsical impulse, without foresight or sense of order, unable to
make any consistent attempt to control his environment. The
material problem always part of a greater whole, a cultural economy
is
that aims at the good life, however differently it may be conceived
in different cultures. This cultural economy has its own laws of
efficiency; frequently "the good life" can be maintained only at the

sacrifice of material efficiency. Each of the seemingly inefficient ar-
rangements which we have mentioned serves some purpose in the

total culture of the people who perpetuate it. The Arapesh, for in-
stance, value wide social contacts as the most reliable guarantee of

security. The conditions of life in their rugged and infertile moun-
tains make it impossible for many people to come together at one
time; social relations and economic sharing can be maintained only
by the cumbersome method of individual wandering, and at the
sacrifice of agricultural efficiency.
One of the characteristics of the psychic economy of culture is that
a single act may serve many functions. It is easy to illustrate this
from our own culture. A man gives a dinner party. He is paying off
social obligations, indulging his taste for conviviality, exhibiting his
possessions and his attractive wife, furthering his cousin's matri-

monial schemes, and over the brandy and cigars he ferrets out im-
portant trade information from an unwary guest.
Examples of such multiplicity of aims can be drawn from any
primitive society. One may safely assume that a feast is always
complex in motivation. Among the Quiche, feasts are sacramental
meals to honor the ancestors; among New Guinea cannibals, they
are celebrations of revenge. At Zuni, house-building forms part of
the preparations for the harvest rituals; it is the occasion for impor-
tant property distributions, a social obligation of the wealthy, and a
mechanism for social integration. Among the Trobrianders 12 the build-
ing of a seagoing canoe fulfills much the same sociological function.
This multiplicity of function is not the only or by any means the
most important way which the psychic economy of culture mani-
in
whole structure which we call
fests itself; for, in all societies, the
economic serves other purposes besides that which we have defined
for it the satisfaction of material needs, food, shelter, clothing,
transportation. After these requirements have been met the eco-
nomic structure is turned to the service of other needs or pursues a
fantastic career of its own quite independent of the material needs
which gave rise to it.
A certain minimal requirement must be met, notably the need

for food and, in Arctic and sub-Arctic climates, the need for clothing
and shelter. Accustomed to our own high standards of comfort, even
among the poorest of our population, we are constantly astonished
at how actually needed to maintain life. Discomfort is often
little is
accepted where a simple and known expedient might avert it. The
Kaingang, a tropical forest people, do not like the rain and the mud;
they know that they arc uncomfortable if they have to sleep on the
wet ground. Nevertheless they wait to erect their crude shelters
until the tropical rain is actually upon them. The Arapesh are con-
stantly and, to our way of thinking, unnecessarily tramping around

in the rain and the cold, and they do not like it, but constant visiting
is part of their scheme of life. Other peoples are able to achieve con-
siderable comfort under the most difficult conditions. The Central

Eskimo 13 manage to be comfortable even in winter. If a man finds
himself away from his camp at nightfall he can in half an hour build
himself a snow house in which he can remain snug and secure until
14
morning, while the Reindeer Chukchee, caught in a storm on the
tundra, lies face down on the ground, waiting for it to pass, or else
trudges on to keep from freezing to death.

Different valuation of comfort is found even within the economic
framework of our own civilization. The French peasant does not
do without sanitary plumbing, central heating, telephones, and auto-
mobiles because of ignorance, innate conservatism, or inability to
see the advantages; nor, necessarily, because of poverty; but because

he regards them as luxuries bought too dear at the price of security.
Many small American farmers have all these conveniences because
they value them more highly than savings. The choice of values is
not individual. The spending habits of Americans are part of a social
philosophy based on the relative fluidity of our social forms and on
our traditional belief that future security is guaranteed by our un-
limited opportunities.
The question of general standards of value is not only a question of
what things one acquires, or even whether surplus wealth is used for
present enjoyment or future security. There is the further question
whether, after all, it is desirable to accumulate wealth. We believe in
the fundamental desirability of more and more things. Our hero is
the man who makes two things grow where one grew before.
Yet it is obvious that, beyond a certain point, the possession of
wealth can be of no direct and material advantage. There is a limit
to the amount of food one can eat, the clothing one can use, or the
number of horses one can ride. Among primitive peoples with rela-
tively simple materiidj^scj^ is soon reached

Bey ond_j;his sat uration point of dircctûsefiihicss wealth assumes
secondary yali^j^valijiatum oLthuiJnL j^
security, prcstigg,, powerâchie vement,. Jove. T n almost all human
societies^ wealtEThas taken on some of these secondary meanings. In
such societies individuals tend to accumulate surplus wealth pro-
vided there are institutions within which wealth can be accumulated.
There are, however, Certain primitive societies where _th_e_axyumula--_
tion of wealth is considered undesirable and where this principle is
reflected in economic mslitutIons7~The 'pursuit "of this aim 'mearis
either^
that the society remain3~aF*a suHsistcncc leveTor, if a surplus
produced, that 'tRe economic organization provides means

is actually T
for liquidating it/ The ISamoans IfvlTTn an eimronmnl especially
favolreoTby nature,"^ and their technological achievements are not to

be despised. They are expert gardeners and fishermen; they build
excellent canoes and make fine mats and bark cloth. Yet they are
not addicted to luxury and they accumulate no property. With
slight exertion and the help of relatives anyone can gather whatever
is needed for an occasional feast or a
marriage gift. The few articles
of permanent value, fine mats and bark cloth, are continually cir-
culating, passing lightly from hand to hand in a diffuse system of
16
gift exchange,
In Zufii we have the same principle worked out at a higher economic
level, with more wealth, which here is harder to get, and there are
more complex institutions for keeping it fluid.
To value present wealth as a guarantee against future want is a
reasonable idea and the first step in economic planning^ It is certainly
an idea with which we are very familiar. In our society the craving
for security drives men to accumulate and hoard far beyond any
realistic need. This craving for security is perhaps as universal as
hunger or love, but it belongs to a wholly different level of psychic

phenomena. Hunger is a mental state induced by a physical condition
of the organism, and it is removed by the restoration of the bio-
chemical balance. Anxiety about the future has no such identifiable
physical cause; originates wholly in the mind and is built out of
it
such impalpables as emotions, intuitions, memories, projected hos-

tilities. It is protean and, therefore, insatiable. The burned child
fears the fire sometimes. The man who has once been hungry will
provide against future hunger sometimes. Some hoarders have
never known hunger and some men become misers without ever hav-
ing experienced poverty.
It is difficult to tell from the accounts of primitive peoples how
much of their feeling of economic insecurity, where it exists, is
realistic. We find peoples who feel insecure without economic justi-
fication and, conversely, peoples who have no material guarantees
for the future quite free of tiny comparable feelings of insecurity.
The Trobrianders, living in the midst of plenty, practice the strictest
frugality, hoarding food in order to throw it away at the next har-
16
vest. It is impossible to guess whether it is insecurity, vanity, or
some more deeply hidden motive that impels them to such behavior.
In nearby Dobu it is clearly insecurity that produces the identical
attitude toward food stores. But the insecurity of the Dobuans is not
primarily economic. Although Tewara is not fertile and yam seed is
scarce, the island exports sago; and Dobu itself is extremely fertile
and exports its surplus of yams and sago. The insecurity that per-
vades Dobuan the terror and insecurity of a sorcery-ridden
life is
culture in which each man fears his neighbors.

17
The Chukchee of Siberia are also a people who are fundamentally

insecure in their environment, their social relationships, and their
relationship to the supernatural. Away from their own hearths and
the sacred fire of their ancestors, everything is hostile and bent to
destroy them. The fundamental emotional insecurity of the Chuk-

18
chee is shown in such obvious facts as the extraordinarily high
incidence of insanity, alcoholism, homicide, and suicide. Their whole

economic system is an attempt to build up some security in this
hostile world. They acquire great herds of reindeer, sometimes more
than can be conveniently herded or economically exploited. They
use the surplus to hire poor young men to herd for them, and then try
to marry these dependents to their daughters in order to strengthen
their camp. Their feasts, at which they distribute large amounts of
property, serve to strengthen remote kinship ties, the only ties upon
which they can count. Here wealth, power, and such poor security
as they know go hand in hand. Possibly the unfriendly environment
plays some part in their anxiety. Certainly there is nothing helpful
in the environment.
But that it is not in itself the cause of the Chukchee temperament
is shown by the contrast with the Eskimo. In an equally inhospitable
environment, without even such security of food supply as the
Chukchee have in their reindeer herds, the Eskimo present a picture
of a secure, self-reliant people, confidently facing the struggle for
existence. They make only slight attempts to lay up food stores.
When they have food they share liberally with their fellows. They
are hospitable. They know scarcity and starvation that even leads
to cannibalism. But they do not put their faith in stores of food;
they think strength and skill arc better guarantees against calamity
than wealth. No insanity has been reported among the Central
Eskimo; their suicide pattern is different from that of the Chukchee;
they commit suicide when they are old and sick, no longer able to
cope with the environment. Moreover a comparison of the Maritime
and Reindeer Chukchee shows that the stabilization of the food
supply among the latter has not served to mitigate their feelings of
insecurity. Rather the acquisition of property and its use for ex-
ploitation has intensified their violence and anxiety.
The Chukchee are not the only people who use wealth for power.
This identification seems so obvious to us that we are inclined to
think that wealth is power, or automatically gives it. Wealth can
give power only under certain frequently developed conditions of
ownership.
The desire to control others belongs to the aggressive side of our
nature. Power, which is the ability to control, is free-floating in
human society, and may become associated with any one of many
distinguishing attributes with physical strength (Eskimo), age
(Andamanese), with being the firstborn son of the firstborn son
(Polynesia), with knowledge (Zuni), psychic gifts, skill, or valor in
war, or with being born with a caul. Often it becomes associated
with wealth, and economic institutions take on an exploitive char-
acter. Capitalism is the most extreme expression of this identifica-
tion.
There is no full capitalism among primitive peoples; but there are
many societies where wealth and power are at least partially identi-
fied. The Ifugaoare partial capitalists. Their wealth is rice land. It
is prepared at enormous labor, limited in quantity, and belongs to a
class of rich men. They have all the comfort, honor, prestige, and
the choice of mates. Through a system of usury the rich become
richer and the poor poorer. Still the poor are not entirely destitute.
Yam gardens arc by definition not "wealth" and cannot be perma-
nently owned. Anyone may plant as much as he wishes and manage
to live after a fashion, but he will never be able to pay his debts,
give a feast, or meet the requirements of marriage and funeral pay-
ments without further borrowing. 10
Wealth serves the drive for power differently in Africa. Here
wealth, usually consisting of cattle, buys women. Women do the
greater share of the work, practically all the agricultural work, and
produce children to build up the political, military, and economic
power of the husband and father or of his clan. Because women are
limited the bride price is the keystone of African economic systems.
There are many societies where wealth brings power of a very
limited kind. In Bum the two upper classes theoretically own all the
wealth, of which the most important forms, next to land, are pigs
and shell money. But land cannot be alienated and shell money
can be exchanged only for pigs and special services, and pigs can be
exchanged only for shell money, and all such transactions can be
conducted only between people who stand in a certain complemen-
tary relationship to each other. Wealth validates status, status con-
fers certain rights over persons, and there is a good deal of scrambling
for Wealth and power, but this is very different from our kind of
unlimited identification of wealth and power. 20
Because of the frequency with which wealth and power are iden-
tified, it is important to remember that there are societies, like Zuni,
where wealth and power are kept distinct. Wealth is desirable there
because it contributes to comfortable living. It gives no control over
others. Power, by which is meant always knowledge ritualistically
acquired (the word for power means "that which is told to him"),
is supernatural and dangerous, and its exercise may be a great
nuisance. A man is afraid of his own power. Since men shim power
there are devices for bribing, cajoling, and even kidnapping the
unwary into positions of power, just as there are institutions to
21
facilitate the sharing of wealth.
We find among many peoples that although wealth gives no
power in the sense of control over persons, the possession (or control,
as in giving away) of wealth confers prestige. Veblen was the first
economist to be impressed by the use of wealth for this purpose, and
to point out the parallels between our own and primitive societies. 22
The psychological mechanism behind this formulation of the signif-
icance of wealth is not primarily aggression against another, but
the glorification of the self. There arc certain institutions connected
with this attitude: the development of giving away as an important
economic mechanism; the display and destruction of property. The
most extreme example of this is to be found among the Kwakiutl.
Wealth confers privileges, the right to sing songs, perform dances,
boast publicly, and insult others. None of these privileges have any
relation topower over others; they relate entirely to the self. When
used against another the point is prestige, not factual power. This
attitude toward wealth is common to all American Indians in a
greater or less degree. Even the Zuni, with their predominantly
realistic attitude toward wealth, show traces of it. It is common also
in Melanesia where it forms the basis of potlatching, which occurs
sporadically in this region. In this undisguised form it is not char-

acteristic of African or Polynesian societies, except the Maori.
There are peoples among whom wealth takes on a very special
and personal symbolism. Among the Quiche of Guatemala, for in-
stance, wealth is a symbol of (or substitute for) sexual capacity.
"A man, if he is truly aman, will not bring into his house corn that
is grown on the field of his wife. He sells it and gives her the money
for her clothing. But this is bad, for it is the duty of a man to pro-
vide the food of the house, and if the woman has money she will not
man." M They explain the bride price the same way; it is
respect the
"to make the woman respect the man." These statements can be
fully understood only in relation to the total picture of Quiche
married life, with the incidence of impotence, frigidity, refusal of
conjugal rights, rejection, infidelity, and a crushing sense of guilt.

The reasons for the failure of Quiche marriage lie far back in the
organization of family life, and are not immediately relevant. Frus-
trated in marital relations, the Quiche Indian has seized upon the
a symbol of his masculine potency. This is
fertility of his field as
not the only value that wealth has to the Quiche, but it is this
peculiar valuation of it that is used to justify and make more dy-
namic the arrangements of household economy. Like all other insti-
tutionalized wealth symbolism this too can be paralleled in our own
society.
we often make gifts directly to a person, or in his
In our society
"
name as proof of love or veneration. We
give such things as loving
cups" that are quite useless, are never sold, but are treasured "for
sentimental reasons," and become heirlooms. Or else a gift is given
publicly in the name of a relative, frequently after his death, as evi-
dence of the love in which he was held, and we often measure love
in terms of the size of these gifts.
The Dakota have made this into one of their major economic
institutions,which finds its extreme expression in the child-beloved,

the child who from birth is especially privileged in all things and
whose position is maintained by the large amount of property which
is constantly given away in his name. He is expected to maintain
this position by continued generosity, but because of the large

amount of property that has been given away in his name and be-
cause, as the Dakota phrase it, "everyone has been benefited by his
mere existence," he has special claims upon the loyalty and support
of his tribesmen. Nothing could be more explicit than the symbolic
importance of wealth conveyed in these words of a Dakota inform-

24
ant.
There a strange contradiction in our own attitudes toward
is
wealth. We
have been called "the acquisitive society." 25 Certainly
the outstanding feature of our civilization and the feature upon
which we most often pride ourselves is the quantity and complexity
of our material possessions and achievements. Nevertheless philoso-
phers in all ages have questioned the value of riches and have even
declared that wealth is the root of all evil. Official Christianity, as
well as other philosophic systems, has declared unequivocally against
the accumulation of riches. These strictures have had little effect
upon our institutions.
There is no better description of the dynamics of acquisitiveness
under modern capitalism than that given by a leading German
economist:
There are no absolute limits to acquisition and the system exercises a

psychological compulsion to boundless extension. Activity in the . . .
capitalist system is no longer determined by the needs, quantitatively or

qualitatively limited, of one person or a group of persons. Profits, no
matter how large, can never reach a level sufficient to satisfy the economic
agent. The positive drive towards boundless acquisition is grounded in
the conditions of management. Any enlargement of business reacts
. . .
to its own advantage. This provides the stimulus to continuous

. . .
expansion of a business, often contrary to the expressed wishes of its

owners and managers. In this peculiar orientation of human activity
upon an infinitely removed goal lies the reason for the dynamic potency
of the capitalistic system, a potency which renders intelligible all its
remarkable achievements. 26
The reasonfor the contradiction between our ethics and our be-
havior, and the resulting tension in individual lives, lies in this
"psychological compulsion" exercised by our institutions. The in-
tense desire for profits as an ultimate aim rather than actual needs
is the outcome of an attitude toward wealth which no longer permits
us to regard it realistically in terms of things to be obtained and

enjoyed for their intrinsic value, but as food for insatiable psychic
drives toward power, prestige, and security.
In our civilization the identification of wealth with power or ag-
gression is made on two levels: under the present form of our prop-
erty institutions wealth becomes an instrument by which one can
exercise control over others; but in addition to this the accumulation
of wealth often is a substitute for direct aggression against individu-
als.This, perhaps, is the source both of the compulsive character of
our pursuit of wealth, arid of our recognition of its antisocial ele-
ments, and the tendency to say that it is wealth which is evil, rather
than the use which we make of it.
The few examples quoted show some more obvious mean-
of the
ings which wealth may The relative

take on in different cultures.
importance which is attached to wealth in the psychic life, and the
particular symbolisms which cluster about it, will color and animate
alleconomic institutions. In analyzing that part of the economic
lifethat is not directly concerned with the control of the environ-
ment, the first question which we must ask is: What does wealth
mean to these people? Only when we have answered that question
and it is not always easy to answer it do economic institutions
become intelligible.
Property. The relation of man to wealth is expressed in his system
of property, which is a channeling of the relationships between meo
and things that has the same structural and dynamic significance in
the material field that kinship has in the field of relationships be-
tween individuals. The more we try to isolate the concept of prop-
erty from social structure and general philosophical attitudes, the
more the concept eludes us and becomes a meaningless abstraction
like "totemism," while we are with a miscellaneous collection of
left
equities, rights, interests, claims, privileges, and preferences. In

each society these are arranged into some kind of system for regu-
lating man's relations to his environment and his fellow, and it is
the underlying principles of this system with which we must con-

cern ourselves. No group lives in a wholly diffuse, undifferentiated
relationship with the environment which furnishes the w ealth upon
r
which survival and comfort depend. There is always some selection.

The relationship may be as slight and tenuous as the sentiment of
an Eskimo for the locality where he was born, and to which he
hopes some day to return, or it may be as specific as the feeling of a
Dakota for a favorite horse, a feeling so strong that the meanest
revenge one can take on a man is to kill his favorite horse. When
such relationships between men and the external world are differen-
tiated in favor of certain individuals or groups we have the institu-
tion of property. The direction, depth, and permanence of these
channels of ownership vary from one group to another, and always
they exercise their subtle influence upon social relations and psy-
chological attitudes.
This is not a definition of property that would satisfy lawyers who
try to define property in terms of abstract rights rather than in
terms of the dynamics of human behavior. A legal definition of
property based on our categories and involving such concepts as
exclusive rights, absolute control, and right of disposal, which dif-
ferentiates property from usufruct, is liable to obscure other and
more problems of proprietorship. Many primitive societies give
vital
scant recognition to such concepts. Yet such people have a clear
concept of theirown of what property is and what role it plays in
human affairs.
The recognition of the dynamic aspect of the relationship of man
to his environment makes it unnecessary to assume the existence of
a special "acquisitive instinct/' or any primordial concept of ani-
mism, or the extension of the personality, or "libidinal interest"
in the products of the body to account for the universal existence of

differentiated attitudes, such as a desire to control, for one's own
benefit or pleasure, in relation to inanimate objects. 27 Such special
ideas may dominate the property institutions of any people. Prop-
erty rights among the Maori are based on their theory of person-
ality. The chief has mana, power inherent in his personality, greater
than that of others. Whatever he touches or even names as his
becomes invested with the taboo that surrounds his person and
becomes dangerous to others. 28 This idea is found in more or less
attenuated form in all aristocracies when property rights are felt
to be inviolable in proportion to the length of genealogies. The Zuiii
have no such theories of personality. They are inclined to assume a
more or less dependent, or at least a reciprocal, attitude toward
things "owned." They have no word that denotes possession; the
word by which they express ownership means merely "to be with."
Marriage is "to be with" a person of the opposite sex; membership
in a society is "to be with" that society; one "is with" a field or a
house or a silver necklace. They sing to the corn in their storerooms
so that it may not feel neglected. This concept of property is part
of their total unaggressive, receptive attitude toward the universe.
From this it follows that there is no tendency to retain control of
things that are not in use. Thereis, indeed, little understanding of
such "ownership." Under the influence of Whites they are

being edu-
cated to it. 29
The Dobuans, on the other hand, conceive their relationship to
material objects as one of domination. Yams in the gardens like to
go visiting and must be kept at home by magical spells. 30 They
must be controlled and also defended from other men's aggression.
Though we do not formulate it animistically, this is substantially
like our own conception of the relation between men and things.
We speak of "conquering nature," "controlling the environment,"
"wresting a living from the world." Life is a struggle, and property
represents the spoils of battle.
The most important part of man's environment is the land. In
approaching the general problem of land tenure it must be recog-
nized from the outset that the relation of people to the land is
never solely economic. The farmer whose family has resided for
long periods on the same spot has not only an economic but also a
sentimental attachment to the land he tills. In our modern states
there is a feeling of "ownership" of a different character
regarding
the territory of the nation, infringement of which arouses, even
among the most peaceful, warlike sentiments and deeds.
We might expect that these attitudes which so strongly influence
our own thinking would exert a still more profound influence on the
lives of primitive peoples, and in general this is the case. Man under-
stands very well that he does not "own" the everlasting hills in the
same way as he owns a spear or a blanket or even an animal. He
may hotly defend against others his right to exclusive occupancy,
but toward the land itself there is always a feeling of dependence,
slight or strong. This feeling may be expressed symbolically in the
concept of the Earth Mother, with its mythological corollaries re-
garding the origin of life. Such myths are of very general occurrence
and exist independently of any earth fertility cults. The Eskimo, a
truly maritime people in their principal food dependence, have
transferred these feelings to the mother of sea mammals.
Strong feelings of dependence on the land are not characteristic
of agricultural people only. Among the Arunta and other tribes of
central Australia each patrilineal band inhabits a territory to which
it feels bound by mystical tics. This relationship is expressed in the
veneration of sacred places, centers of totemic worship. These places

are at the same time the sources of their own life, since it is at such
places that women conceive by the spirits of the dead, and the
shrines at which they renew the fertility of the land. The natives
belong to the land as much as the land belongs to them, and they
cannot be induced to leave the source of their life. 31
The existence of such mystical conceptions of man's connection
with the land will influence the nature of occupancy and the theories
of ownership; but such ideas are not universal among peoples at the
same economic level. In some regions the Ojibwa have toward their
territory the predatory attitude so familiar in our own culture. The
land is there to be despoiled. They stake out huge tracts for trapping
grounds, blaze their boundaries, and defend them against trespass
openly or by magical spells. These trapping grounds are owned by
individuals, without any restrictions even on rights of disposal. A
lad will not hunt on his father's trails without permission, nor a
woman on her husband's. It is up to each man to conserve the
resources of his land by moderate hunting, or to keep moving on to
new tracts after the old one is impaired. This is possible because of
the vast tracts of uninhabited land, but it results in the wide scat-
32
tering of the group.
On the other hand, there are people like the Eskimo who, in
spite of a considerable sentiment for the place of their birth, have
absolutely no idea of permanent residence or exclusive rights. A
man hopes to return to die at the place of his birth, but meanwhile
he wanders over thousands of miles, joining up with groups of
equally unanchored individuals. These groups have no great perma-
nence, no place of residence, no hunting grounds to which they
claim any rights. The fact that a man is challenged when he comes
to a strange camp is due to suspicion of personal aggression, and to
a wish to test and rank the stranger's strength; it is not in any sense
33
a defense of territorial claims against trespass.
In these three tribes we have three completely different attitudes
in relation to the land among people at the subsistence level who
gain their living by hunting and collecting; and these three atti-
tudes are cast into very different property institutions. The Aus-
tralian concept of ownership is by far the most complex and subtle.
It is relevant that of the three the Australians have also the most
complex social forms. Among the Eskimo there is no group suffi-
ciently cohesive to maintain territorial jurisdiction, and the lack of a

common stake to be defended keeps the groups fluid. Among the
Australians the sense of belonging to the place where one was born
or conceived, and of having claims upon that territory, supports the
patrilineal and patrilocal social structure, and the cohcsiveness of
the band as a social unit upholds the territorial claim.
We are not trying to answer the question about the priority of
individual or collective ownership of land among hunting peoples,
which is unanswerable. All kinds of property institutions exist among
very simple people, and property institutions must be understood

not with reference to a general economic level but with reference to
specific problems of survival. The Ojibwa trap nonmigratory animals;
the Eskimo are essentially maritime; the Australians must exploit
land they know or perish of thirst; but the Kwakiutl also are pri-
marily maritime and have rigid concepts of property in fishing
grounds; the Yukaghir trap the same kinds of animals as the Ojibwa
and have no private trapping grounds, only a right to the trap line.
In property as in everything else we must return to the same general
truth, that there is no single cause of any item of behavior.
Even
if it were possible to answer the question
concerning the
form of property, it would not tell us very much. The title
earliest
of owner is not of the same importance everywhere. It is perfectly
correct to point out that there is no collective ownership of tilled
fields among the Zuiii; all fields are owned by individuals, prac-
tically without restrictions; a man has even limited testamentary
rights, neither clans nor other groups having any jurisdiction. It is
also correct to point out that hunting and fishing grounds are not
individually owned among the Kwakiutl, but are owned collectively

by "clans." But such formulations refer only to the legal forms of
property rights. They tell us very little about the dynamic functions of
property in either tribe. We must know how property is used; inquire
whether there is a real or artificially created scarcity of necessities;
whether all individuals have free access to the main sources of food
supply; whether the control by certain groups of all or an important
part of the food supply can be used as a means of class exploitation;
whether there is any special form of wealth the unequal distribution
of which places certain individuals or groups in positions of control.
In answering the first of these questions we must not be naive
about the concept of scarcity. In discussing wealth and security we
pointed out that there can be a feeling of scarcity where no real
scarcity exists, as among the Trobrianders, and, on the other hand,
an actual scarcity without the existence of competitive pressure
within the group, as among the Central Eskimo. But the Eskimo
scarcity is never conceived as absolute it is no limitation of po-
tential wealth, but human limitations that create the temporary
shortage. The sea is full of seals waiting the spear of the fearless and
skillful hunter. When we turn to people like the Ifugao there is an
acute and irremediable scarcity of rice land. Rice fields must be

level and abundantly supplied with water. The whole Ifugao ter-
ritory consists of precipitous mountains, and level fields must be

created by terracing, an enterprise requiring enormous expenditure
of labor. There remains the problem of water, which must be ob-
tainedby irrigation from permanent sources at a high altitude, which
makes most of the land unavailable for this type of cultivation. In
any event, a rice field cannot be made overnight, and the capitalistic
tendencies of the Ifugao their acquisitiveness, the development
of interest, and the use of property for power must always be
seen against this real situation. The Quiche Indians have a real land
problem also. Such absolute limitation of resources is extremely
rare in primitive society. Usually, in more thinly populated regions,
scarcity merely means that one must go farther afield to hunt or to
pasture one's animals or to stake out new gardens.
Artificial scarcity can be brought about in many ways, by many

kinds of taboos, restrictions, and monopolies. Among the Maori the
sea and the forest are taboo at times until certain magical rites have
been performed; some plants are taboo to all except members of
Such limitations may be regulative and aimed at a
definite clans.
conservation of resources for the common good; others are protective
of property rights in certain goods; there are some few that are
definitely restrictive. The Trobriand chief kills by sorcery any man

whose garden excites his envy or threatens his power.
34
Men are
therefore careful not to make their gardens too productive. In the
neighboring island of Dobu there is no chieftainship, but the same
attitude is diffused through the whole population, and every man
fears the envy of his neighbor. It is probable that fear of envy tends
to inhibit activity among all peoples where wealth symbolism is
strongly developed, and is accompanied by in-group sorcery. Where

there are class distinctions, this attitude may become economically
and politically dynamic, as it has among the Trobrianders.
Ideas of ownership may become associated with
any object, ani-
mate or inanimate, tangible or intangible. We
have excluded slaves,
usually regarded as property, from this consideration of property
because slavery is an institutionalized relationship between persons,
involving maximum control. It has its economic aspect, as have all
status relationships and, as we shall see, relationships within the
family and between the sexes. Whatever the legal status of slaves
may be, from the sociological point of view it obscures rather than
clarifies issues to regard slaves (or women) as property.
This leaves three important classes of objects which may be
owned: natural objects, the land or sea, and all the animals, fish,
and growing things which it sustains; man-made objects; and incor-
poreal property. In general there are exceptions the rights to

natural and intangible objects are more restricted, especially as re-
gards rights of disposal, alteration, or exclusive possession. Food oc-
cupies a special position, sometimes falling into one, sometimes
another class. Among ourselves food supplies are chattels over which
we have absolute rights of ownership. However, most primitive
peoples tend to regard food as a part of nature over which only
limited control can be exercised. The Zuni believe stored corn has a
will and runs away if the laws of hospitality are violated.* Restric-
*
The Zuni family with whom I lived would never accept direct remuneration
for food. They would sell almost anything else, but to sell food violated their
tions on the ownership of food may be nothing more than rules of
hospitality, the requirement to feed every visitor, or to give food to
whoever requests it, or it may be a requirement to share in time of
need, or it may be full communality of food among members of the
35
same camp or village or compound. Among the Kaingang every
large animal is divided among the women of the camp; among the
Vedda 36 one woman cooks for the whole settlement; in Lau 37 one
38
earth oven serves a sib group; among the Bathonga the women of
the compound exchange cooked food at each meal. Communality
of food is not restricted to people at the subsistence level. The
Dakota feel that food actually cannot be owned. This attitude is
expressed in their language. The possessive pronoun cannot be used
with reference to food. One can say "the meat that is in my tipi,"
but one cannot say "my meat," any more than one can say "my
mountain" or "my buffalo." "My horse" always means my favorite
horse, regarded almost as a member of the family. Other animals
cannot be mine or thine. The attitude revealed in language is sub-
stantiated by behavior. They interpret very broadly the require-
ments of hospitality. One must be prodigal with food. On the hunt
old men or women without male providers go along and ask for
whatever portion of the kill they desire, and self-respect demands
that it must be given. Anyone may ask for anything as a gift, and
it may not be refused. Refusal would brand one as "not a true
Dakota."
The right to demand gifts, usually restricted to certain relatives,
tempers the absoluteness of ownership among many people. Another
limitation on ownership is the right of usufruct without compensa-
tion. At the simplest levels this is usually the right to borrow, either
with or without permission and for an indefinite period of time,
surplus hunting equipment. Among the Kaingang an article may be
"borrowed" without the permission of the owner. The borrower
may recognize that he does not own the object; eventually he may
even return it to the man to whom it "belongs." The owner may
even claim it, but such demands are not made within the group
39
unless one is The Eskimo, however, feel that if
looking for trouble.
the owner gave another man permission to use his harpoon it was
because he did not need it, and therefore there is no urgent necessity
deepest sentiments. They were insulted if offered money for food, but would
accept "presents" of money offered as "remembrances" of a visit.
40
for the borrower to return it while he still has need of it. The Zufii
have exactly the same attitude about land. A has let a
go out field
of cultivation. If B wishes to plant in it A cannot refuse. Although

it still belongs to A it would be "mean" and unavailing to
assert his claim so long as B is using it. It is perfectly clear to any
Zufii that B needs the field more than A. Isn't he using it? If A
presses his claim, as he has a legal right to do, offers another field B
in exchange. If he has no other field that he can spare, that proves
that he needs this one. So then A
compromises by offering a field in
exchange. B now has dear title to We have quoted
the second field.
41
this example in detail to show that although the Zufii have per-
fectly clear ideas about land tenure and what constitutes title, they
are not fanatics about it. Title they regard as a rather shadowy
factor compared to a present need. The strength with which in some
societies abstract rights are defended in the face of reality is a meas-
ure of the symbolic importance of wealth. Men for whom property
has great symbolic value as evidence of security, achievement, or
power will die defending their possessions from desperate men.*
\
There are many kinds of restrictions upon ownership of real
propertyv)A commoner in the Trobriands owns his fields; they can-
not be alienated from his lineage, but the chief claims an overlord-
ship which entitles him to tribute in the form of first fruits. So does
the garden magician who performs growth magic for all the gardens
of the village. Since he makes it grow it is "his" garden. The chief
also owns the coconut trees on other men's lands. 42 A district chief
among the Lango may grant large tracts of land to a subchief These .
grants cover nothing but hunting rights, and in no way interfere

with the occupancy of peasants who are cultivating fields within
the area. 43 Ancient Hebrew law reserved
for the poor the right to
glean in rich men's Among

primitive peoples there are many
fields.
special rules and guarantees regarding water rights, access to wells

and springs, and access to special kinds of trees and shrubs. Certain
Maori clans have the right to gather the berries of certain shrubs,
44
regardless of where they are growing. Among the Quiche the most
important of all shrines, which is visited by everyone, is in the
*
A rhyme current a few years ago expresses the idea perfectly:
"Here lies the body of Jonathan Gray
Who died defending his right of way.
He was right, dead right as he rolled along,
But he's just as dead as if he were wrong."
middle of someone's cornfield. Moreover it is the rare exception
among primitive peoples for the owner of land to have free rights of
disposal. Often the land is entailed within the kin group, arid the
rules of succession are fixed by custom. Testamentary powers are
rarely accorded the owner, and often the land can be alienated during
the life of the owner only with the permission of the heirs. Among
the Quiche to alienate land from the male line of primogeniture is a
great sin against the ancestors as well as the heirs, and carries a
burden of guilt. Still a man may legally sell land, but the sale is not
valid without the permission of the neighbors on all four sides,
45
given before official witnesses. These restrictions are common-
places. The limitations of ownership must be constantly redefined.
But the problem of land tenure goes far deeper than a definition of
limitations.
The idea of incorporeal property is not unfamiliar to us. We
recognize that "good will" has a cash value; shopkeepers can get
injunctions against pickets on the grounds that they are impairing
a value. Property interests in knowledge are protectedby patents,
and the words of songs by copyright. Even names are
and stories
property. The Kwakiutl Indians pawn their names when they have
no other way of meeting their debts. A Polish immigrant in Massa-
chusetts was enjoined from changing his name to Cabot on the
complaint of the Cabot family that he was infringing on a vested
right.
So when we say that among certain peoples intangible properties
like names, myths, songs, vision prayers, and magical formulas are
the most important form of property, we are not dealing with wholly
unfamiliar categories, although we rarely phrase it quite that way.
Among the Kwakiutl, the right to names forms the great point of
46
rivalry among the Dobuans one of the bitterest conflicts is be-
;
tween cousins over the rights to magical formulas. 47

Rights to incorporeal property merge imperceptibly into various
social privileges. The courts of the African kings contain innumer-
able functionaries such as the Keeper of the King's Umbilical Cord,
the Custodian of the Royal Tombs, the cooks and drummers and
gatekeepers (in other courts the Knights of the Bath or the Garter),
whose posts are hereditary within certain clans, although not nec-
any one line, and which carry with them estates large or
essarily in
small. The title to all land is vested by divine right in the king, who
parcels it out among those who perform personal services or who
guarantee military support, or who keep his storehouses filled.

48
This is an essential feature of the feudal state wherever it is found.

The other aspect of this relationship is the responsibility of the king
for the welfare of his subjects. Hence the right to take care of the
king's umbilical cord, or to give a daughter to make the king's bed,

has more than honorific importance. The elaborate ritualism of the
African potentates serves as a mechanism for administering prop-
erty. It gives the feudal lords something to do to justify their tenure
of land; and the peasant who brings a basket of grain to help keep
this structure going is justifying his occupancy. Partial feudalism,
in the form of local feudal chiefs, not headed up into a state, is found
in Bum and other parts of Melanesia; strong chieftainship with
overlordship that gives the right to demand tribute, but no control

of succession or occupancy of the land, is found in Polynesia and
the Trobriands. There are no traces of feudal institutions in America
north of Mexico.
Monopolistic control is found in many places especially in
Africa where iron work and the manufacture of salt are often re-
stricted to certain clans. It is not a question merely of learning a
skill; one must be born into the proper clan in order to share in their
vested interest. There is a tendency all over Africa for all industries
to become organized into monopolies; it has gone farthest among
such people as the Bakitara and the Banyankole 49 among whom the
basic occupations of agriculture and dairying have become the vested
interest of certain clans, and the whole society has become an intri-
cate structure of interdependent monopolistic groups. We must not
lose sight of the fact of this interdependence, which is the basis of
feudal economic relations. There is another point about East African
feudalism, and that is the absence of the profit motive, since there is
no way in which any group can extend its operations. 50 (This is not
true of West Africa, where, apparently, the sky is the limit.) We do
not know how these caste monopolies are maintained; we can only
guess at the sanctions; but we know how it is done in the Trobriands.
Here certain villages maintain a monopoly of fishing. The villages
of the interior need fish for their ceremonial exchanges, and the only
way they can get it is by ceremonial trade with partners in the fish-
ing villages, who in turn need gardenproduce. These villages will kill
anyone from the interior caught trespassing in the lagoon, but when
the Dobuans come on trading expeditions they may fish in the
Trobriand lagoon. This differs from the usual property rights of
primitive people in its monopolistic character; what these villages
are defending is not their food supply, but then- vested interest in
commodity for trade. Still there is no capitalism
the production of a
in the Trobriands. Trade is conducted without profit, for profits
have no reinvestment value. There is not much that one could do
with capital land cannot be alienated; "valuables" are not for
sale; pigs belong to the chief. No man can exploit the labor of an-
other, or make another dependent upon him for the necessities of
61
life.
The use of property for class exploitation which most closely

resembles our own use of it is found among the nomadic Reindeer
Chukchee. Among them there are men who have no property the
disinherited or those who have The interests of
lost their herds.
younger brothers are not always respected in inheritance; it is easy

to lose a herd through illness, bad weather, or inept handling, or
to deplete through slaughtering to satisfy ritual or daily needs.
it
Such men are in a truly desperate situation. They have no access to
any reliable source of food. No one assumes responsibility for them.
They wander from camp to camp, until they are taken on as servants
by some relative more fortunate than they. 52 The control of land by
chiefs in Micronesia has the same exploitive character.
The objects of wealth among primitive people are not always
material instruments like land, animals, and food, but articles whose
value is culturally determined and purely symbolic, like the blankets
and coppers of the Kwakiutl, the valuables of the kula trade, the
shell money (which is not really money in our sense at all) of other
Melanesian islands, the cowrie shells of West Africa. These objects
frequently do not have even an exchange value in terms of com-
modities, but their possession lends prestige. It is about such ob-
jects, rather than land or houses or food, that the competitive
passions most frequently rage. The fact that their value
is subjective
does not make it any the people, but their possession

less real to
does not afford economic security because they have no objective
reality. Our symbols have it. "Playing the market" in Wall Street
is sometimes called a game, but it is a game in which the stakes
involve the livelihood of millions. In this it differs from the potlatch
and many other speculative games of primitive peoples.

Attitudes toward wealth and property institutions constantly
interact in a powerfully dynamic relationship. The existence of
acute anxiety stimulates individuals to accumulate property and
ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OP PRIMITIVE PEOPLES 351
use it to control others; the existence of private control of the ne-

cessities of life produces anxiety in those who are shut out and also
in those who have, but fear to lose. This in turn produces a tension
between groups and individuals which serves to increase the rigid-
ity of institutions. This is the dynamic character of Chukchee or
Ifugao civilization, where it is based on a real inadequacy in the
environment, and of our own.
The dynamic trend may also be in the opposite direction; institu-
tions which permit free access to the necessities of life to all pro-
mote a sense of security. People with no worries about the future
see no need to accumulate to the exclusion of others. This is the
Zuni or Samoan picture. How these tendencies get started we do
not know, although we can see how, under cultural pressure, they
are built up individually in children. Once started the process
pursues course, sometimes with increasing intensity, or with di-
its
minishing vigor, until some new element is introduced. In Zuni the

introduction of strict property rights and profit in sheep-herding has
altered the direction of economic development. It will be interesting
to see whether the socialization of wealth under Soviet regime will
diminish the Chukchee manifestations of anxiety.
Types of economic structure. Let us now describe briefly three
economic systems as illustrations of ways in which primitive people
have worked out the problems which we have been discussing. The
choice of examples has been dictated partly by the availability of
the material, since very few primitive economies have been com-
pletely described, partly for their complexity and partly for variety
of motivation. These are societies well above the subsistence level
whose economic institutions have been subjected to considerable
elaboration but with very different aims.
The Zuni. 53 The Zuni in western New Mexico gain their suste-
nance primarily from agriculture, with sheep-herding as a secondary
source of income, but one that is increasing in importance. They
live in one compact village with three outlying hamlets occupied
during the crop season. They inhabit a terrain that on account of

climate and the character of the soil is conspicuously unsuitable for
agriculture. Game is of no economic importance at present but
probably was important in the past.
In a singularly inhospitable environment the Zuni Indians have
built up an economy with relatively high standards of living, con-
siderable surplus wealth, and a maximum of security for everyone.
There is a surplus of corn sufficient to carry the village through a
bad year, and there are large herds of sheep. Each individual pos-
sesses surplus clothing and valuable ornaments of turquoise and
silver; many have automobiles. All this wealth is derived from

native agriculture and stock-raising.
The outstanding characteristics of the economic system are the
strong development of cooperative attitudes and techniques, the
corresponding absence of competition and aggressive behavior in
general, the dominant role of women in economic affairs, the fluidity
of wealth, which implies the absence of acquisitiveness, and a thor-
oughly realistic attitude toward property, which is valued for direct

use and not as an instrument for power or prestige. Power and
authority are vested in the possessors of nonmaterial privileges,
rituals, songs, fetishes, and war honors, and these are never used for
economic ends. The "poor man" at Zuni is one without ceremonial
connections. These economic principles are related to the general
attitude toward the universe, which is one of great security. The
Zuni believe themselves part of a thoroughly benign universe in
which the supernaturals and especially the deified ancestors are
concerned with supplying man's material needs. Their religion con-
sists of an elaborate system of collective ceremonies, the purpose of
which is to keep these pleasant relationships active. In these cere-
monies everyone participates according to his social position and
shares in the collective blessings thus attained. Their optimistic
fatalism encourages unaggressive, uncompetitive, and generous eco-
nomic behavior.
The tribe forms an exceptionally cohesive unit, bound together in
a network of cross-cutting groups. In this mesh an individual's place
is fixed by varying affiliations with different groups and correspond-
ing responsibilities. Although in all matters of ultimate importance

the tribe must be regarded as the economic as well as the sociological
unit, in the day to day business of living the functioning unit is
the household. The core of the household a maternal lineage, a

is
woman or group of women and their descendants through females.

The men of the household are those who have married in and those
born in the house who have not yet married or who have returned
"home" after being divorced or widowed. Even married men con-
sider the house of their mother or sister as "home," and contribute
occasional labor to its support; but the household is supported chiefly
by the labor of men who have married in. Marriage is monogamous,
but readily broken. Young people change mates frequently before

settling into permanent unions, and even then the marriage tie is
tenuous compared to the tie of blood. Until his children are grown no
man has status or security in his wife's home, w here he lives and r
labors. This gives to women tremendous economic and emotional
security in spite of the fact that men do all the productive work and
hold all the positions of ceremonial and political importance. Men
raise the crops and build the houses; women own them. Men speak
" "
of owning fields. Actually the title is entailed in the maternal
lineage, passing from mother to daughter, and exploited, according
to expediency, by brothers and husbands. This is the Zuni theory of
land tenure, but its strictness is tempered by the Zuni insistence
that property is for use, not for power. Therefore surplus land is
freely loaned, bartered, or given away. Surplus land is that which

the household cannot cultivate. There is no labor for wages only
invited assistance of neighbors, which is uneconomical for the host;
therefore there is no incentive to increase the area under cultivation
beyond actual needs.
In all transfers of land in fact, in all transactions within the
tribe a complete absence of the profit motive. Objects
there is
have no fixed exchange value; there is no such thing as a "sale";

there are simply transfers of property within the framework of per-
sonal relationships. In "selling" a field, the size and location of the
field are lessrelevant than the kinship ties and relative ages of the
individuals concerned. "I bought this field (a good cornfield) for a
piece of calico because he was an old man" (and presumably would
not use the field). Although good land is actually scarce, land has
no scarcity value because, according to native theory, it is labor to
the land that is scarce and expensive.
till
The household group may include as many as twenty-five indi-

viduals occupying a single house of several rooms, using a common
kitchen and drawing upon a common storehouse. Agricultural work
is done jointly on fields scattered in many places arid "owned"
individually by male members. The stores are pooled as the collec-
tive property of the women. For any large task like planting, harvest,
or house-building the men invite a miscellaneous group of blood and
affinal relatives,ceremonial associates, and neighbors to assist. They
come convenient, or they stay away. The men who respond work
if
in the fields; their wives come also to help the women of the house
in their work. After the day's work all are feasted and the women
receive gifts of food. These combinations for mutual help are not
partnerships with definite obligations. They are not permanent or
even reciprocal. There is no compulsion on anyone to respond, nor
is the man who refuses penalized in any way. If he systematically
refuses aid he is regarded as uncooperative, but he can always get
help when he needs it; for a feast with meat, a day of sociability,
and the opportunity to with a pretty girl make helpfulness a
flirt
pleasure rather than a tedious burden. Also a man, by helping a

neighbor, conserves his own stores and avails himself of the neigh-
bor's surplus. This is the chief economic point of tribal feasts.
The herding complex that has been superimposed upon the old
agricultural base has a somewhat different ideology. Sheep are indi-
vidually owned by men; they are earmarked and are inherited in
the male line. But this rule, like that of land tenure, may always be
set aside in the interests of expediency. A group of male relatives
herd their sheep together at a distance from the village, and take
turns in watching them, theoretically on a strictly reciprocal basis,
each man going out for a month. But the whole system of reciprocity
isunbalanced by the feeling of social responsibility on the part of the
old toward the young. If a boy goes to herd for his father, the whole
cooperative group assumes responsibility for him, giving him pres-

ents of animals; the leader, who is also richest in sheep, gives the
most, so that the young man soon has a herd of his own. Direct
reciprocity between individuals obviously is not a principle of Zuiii
economic structure.
The varying composition of households and differentials in skill,
industry, and intelligence have resulted in great inequalities in the

distribution of wealth at any moment, but these inequalities are not
permanent. There is only one recognized "rich" family at Zuiii,

and they are half-breeds. The rest of the population rides a seesaw
of slow accumulation and rapid dissipation of surplus wealth. This
redistribution is accomplished by two mechanisms: institutionalized
gift-giving and the ceremonial extension of the work-party system.
Both of these institutions depend on attitudes of social responsi-
bility individual responsibility to one's relatives, and collective
responsibility to the tribe, directly and through the performance of
religious duties.
Within the family there is a constant giving of presents, quite
spontaneous and carrying no obligations to make any return. Parents
give presents of all kinds, even fields, to their children; women give
presents, usually clothing, to their brothers' sons, men to their

sisters' daughters. Manufactured pottery are rarely
articles like
" "
sold. If the maker is poor he gives the article to a relative and
receives for it more than its current trade value in food or clothing
or store goods. There is also a ceremonial friendship of which the
most conspicuous feature is the exchange of presents. But in this
relationship, the motive of which is frankly economic, strict rec-
iprocity is avoided. "It would be like trading, and one does not
trade with one's ceremonial friend." Gift-giving runs through the
religious system also. The rich man who undertakes to finance a
ceremony gives presents of food to all who come to help, and the
priests who take part in the ceremony receive valuable gifts. One
rich man gave away sewing machines in this ceremony. There are
"give-away dances" in which food and trinkets are thrown from

the housetops, and ritual games in which individuals are singled out
to receive presents.
The giving of a present requires no occasion. It is always done
with the maximum of publicity. This is flattering to the giver and
to the recipient who has been singled out for such distinction. Since
no one is ashamed of poverty, no one feels embarrassed at receiving
gifts. On
the contrary, it is proof of the fact that his relatives love
him. The donor values prestige more than property, and shows that
he knows how to treat his relatives. This is a point of honor. Stingi-
ness is the one unpardonable offense much more disgraceful than
adultery and worse even than surliness.
Among the most important of Zufii ceremonies to ensure tribal
well-being is the great annual harvest ceremony in which super-
naturals visit the village to bless it wr ith fertility. Each year eight
wealthy men undertake to finance this ceremony. This involves
building a large new house, which means calling many people to
help, which in turn means planting additional crops to feed the
workers, and calling in more help for this extra work. For those
who undertake this responsibility the months from July to Decem-
ber are a continuous work-party. The building of these houses is a
"good work" and everyone rushes to participate and share in the
blessing. The last weeks are a frenzy of activity; the house goes up;
all day and late into the night groups of women grind to song. The
ovens go day and night, great bins are erected to hold the bread, and
back rooms are piled high with the carcasses of slaughtered sheep.
All this is distributed to those who have helped. In all this festivity
there is no waste; the only display is the quantity of shawls, em-
broidered robes, and strips of calico which are hung on the walls of
the ceremonial room.
These feasts are costly. One family who had underwritten this
ceremony three times in twenty years estimated that each time it
cost nearly $1000 in sheep and store goods in addition to field prod-
uce. There is little prestige attached to this since it is something
that everyone does sooner or later. It is a social responsibility to the
tribe and to the supernaturals from whom all blessings come. The
higher a man's position in the ceremonial aristocracy, the more often

he will undertake this responsibility. There are other forms of cere-
monial participation that involve large expenditures; they are the
same in principle, but less striking in organization.
The Zuni are not unappreciative of beauty and physical comfort.
But they have no use for excess wealth except to give it away in
this somewhat diffuse system. It is useful to support and adorn
social position, but it does not buy status or prestige; the prestige
comes" from the position itself, which is acquired through inherit-
ance, personality, and knowledge. Commodities are used to buy
knowledge; they cannot buy the position through which power is
exercised. Material wealth is conceived as unlimited; a person who
wants more things has only to work harder. Power is limited in
amount to that given by the supernaturals at the beginning of the
world, and is attenuated by sharing. Therefore a man who parts
easily with economic goods, and even lends sacred possessions like
masks to those -qualified to use them, is "stingy" with knowledge
and not divulge the words of a prayer unless he is amply com-
will
pensated. However, the powers so jealously guarded are never used

for private ends.
The Zuni system is in the process of change due to contact with
Whites. The profit motive, so foreign to the aboriginal system, has
been introduced into the sheep-herding. There is also a new empha-
sison wealth, since only men who own sheep can get credit at the
store.But up to 1929 these attitudes were confined to dealings with
Whites. The profits were all made from selling to traders. Within
the tribe the old attitudes and values still ruled. But there are
signs of change in the frequency of litigation over inheritance of
sheep. Quarrels over land are practically unknown. This conflict
may be due to the fact that male ownership and inheritance, taken
over from the Whites, cut across the main stem of economic struc-
ture, the solidarity of the female line. It is also an indication of

increasing interest in the acquisition and retention of property, now
that they have come to realize its possibilities in relation to Whites.
The Kwakiutl^ The Kwakiutl inhabit the coast and islands of
British Columbia, a region where the struggle for existence is not
too arduous.* The people have developed techniques whereby they
can exploit the generosity of nature with the greatest economy.
The sea and the forest supply abundant materials for comfortable
living. Salmon, halibut, and shellfish are plentiful. The woods are
rich in roots and fruits. Goats live on the high mountains.
Dependent on natural sources of food, the Kwakiutl have neverthe-
less built up a rich material culture with the surplus wealth and leisure
necessary to develop an extraordinary superstructure of manipula-

tion of symbolic forms of wealth in a game of prestige and rivalry.
This fantastic game, fiercely played out to the death, is but lightly
tied to the realities of life; or rather, it constitutes a wholly different
order of reality.
Fishing and food-gathering are seasonal occupations. The princi-
pal food dependence is on salmon, which are trapped in great quan-
tities as they ascend the rivers to their breeding grounds. Salmon
are dried and packed away in huge wooden chests. The oil of the
candlefish is tried out in canoes and stored in bottles of kelp. Berries
and roots are dried in summer for winter consumption. After a brief
busy season the people have ample leisure for more amusing pursuits.
The Kwakiutl live in large plank houses, each housing several
families. In the ordinary pursuits of life these family groups are
independent, each having its own
apartments, fireplace, food stores,
and other movable property. In the struggle for prestige these
household groups are united under the leadership of the household
chief. Several such households are grouped together in lineages
claiming descent from a supernatural ancestor.! The villages, built
along the shore, contain several lineages, which are the property-
holding units. Among the forms of property which they control are
hunting and berrying grounds and fishing territories in the rivers
* The Northwest Coast civilization collapsed in the latter half of the nineteenth
century with the establishment of industrial fisheries and repressive legislation.
The description refers to the period immediately preceding the collapse.
t The word "clan" is not strictly applicable to these groups, since they are
not unilateral. Order of birth rather than sex determines succession. They are
not mutually exclusive; a man may claim and validate his claim to membership
in several such groups.
and in the sea. These properties are often situated far from the
present site of the villages, sometimes in different inlets; yet tres-
pass on them is severely punished.
The most important form of property is quite intangible, con-
sisting ofnames, which are really honorific titles, and the privileges,
songs, dances, myths, and crests that appertain to these titles.
Although these titles are hereditary, their ownership must be con-
stantly validated, and the glory of the name renewed by the distri-
bution and destruction of wealth. These property distributions take
place in ceremonial feasts known as potlatches.* The ultimate mo-
tivation of the potlatch is rivalry, not profit. Profit enters into
many of the transactions, but only as a means to an end, not as an
end in itself. Honor comes not from the possession of wealth, but
from giving it away. Property is given on many occasions, but prin-
cipally to rivals. Such a gift must be returned in due time by a gift
of greater value. The initial gift may therefore be regarded as an
interest-bearing investment. But this is a shortsighted view, for

with the liquidation of the investment the original creditor is in
the position of debtor, and beholden for an amount much greater
than that of the original gift. So the battle of property goes on,
with no quarter asked or given, until one rival is eliminated in
defeat, or is able to withdraw honorably from the contest by yielding
hisname and position to his son.
Some of these transactions are carried on in commodities
small articles like mats and paddles and dishes, and great ones like
canoes. These are used principally in life crisis potlatches. But by
far the greater part of the potlatching is done with symbols of
wealth. The unit is the cheap blanket of the Hudson Bay Company,
valued at fifty cents. Certain transactions involve the transfer of
coppers, engraved shield-shaped sheets of copper. The coppers are
ranked valuables, each with a personal name and individual his-
tory. They are exchanged for blankets and increase in value with
each transfer. To honor his name, a person "buying" a copper must
pay more for it than its last owner, who is always a rival. Sometimes
coppers are broken and the pieces given away and scattered, and
later reassembled and riveted together, and this also greatly en-
hances their value. Although these two forms of currency exist,
most of the transactions are conducted on credit. There are not
*
The word "potlatch" comes from a Chinook jargon word meaning "to give."
In the jargon an outright gift is called "kaltas potlatch/' a gift for nothing.
enough blankets in existence to cover the collective indebtedness,

but the credit structure is never menaced. It has, after all, little to
do with life. No one depends on blankets for food. The fantastic
character of the whole procedure is brought out by the fact that
since potlatching has been forbidden by the Canadian government,
" "
it is carried on surreptitiously with cheques on nonexistent bank
accounts, and some of the coppers that are still being paid for have
been peacefully reposing for years in the Ottawa Museum.
Such, in brief, are the principles of the potlatch. The actual
working of the system anything but simple. One of the compli-
is
cating factors is that these exchanges are not carried on freely be-
tween individuals, but between groups in which individuals hold
fixed positions symbolized by the names, which are limited in num-
ber, and no two of equal rank. Although the structure is fixed, the
personnel changes, and the same individual may occupy positions
in two rival groups and, like Pooh Bah, conduct business with him-
self. Furthermore these titles are inherited in the line of primogeni-
ture, regardless of sex. Moreover, vaulting ambition, backed by

wealth, cuts across the rules of inheritance and bends the structure
to its uses.
Potlatching is the prerogative of the class of "nobles"; that is,

the holders of titles in the closed aristocracy. They are assisted in
their undertakings by their untitled kinsmen, who derive vicarious
pleasure from the glories of their chiefs and profit from their own
share in his investments. The dizzy career of the prospective chief
starts in the cradle. If it is a firstborn child girls, if firstborn, are
given men's names and function as men in the potlatches his

father begins at once to launch him on his career by distributing
"trifles" to his tribe in honor of the child. There is a series of such
distributions, at each of which he acquires new status symbolized

by a new name, until the child reaches man's status, when he really
begins his career. He borrows some hundred blankets from relatives
and gives a feast to his tribe in which these are distributed. It is a
point of honor for his tribesmen to repay this gift within a month
with more than the usual rate of interest. When his debts are paid
he has a surplus with which to start operations against a rival.
After the youth has acquired by potlatching names of increasingly
higher rank, his father may yield place to his son, and the youth
assumes his father's name and position, and the father may retire
from active participation. Since a tender age he has been pitted
against a youth of equal rank, and prodded by his elders into the
approved state of rivalry. The same psychological mechanism that

makes him eager to humiliate his rival makes him excessively sensi-
tive to insult, disparagement, or the slightest loss of prestige. Having
acquired a recognized name he proceeds to make it great among the

tribes, utilizing all the techniques for enhancing prestige. He con-
solidates his position within his group by giving feasts, acquiring
new names of increasing importance, buying coppers. Also "he
shows his privileges on the sacred side" that is, he validates his
claims to the songs, dances, religious experiences, that are the pre-
rogatives of his rank, advancing through the graded secret societies
at thesame time that he builds up his secular position.
Marriage is the most important step in this advance, for certain
valued names descend in the female line, and can be acquired by
men only through marriage. The gift of blankets which a man makes
to his father-in-law at his marriage is less a payment for the woman
herself than a payment for position in her clan. In due course, after
is paid off. The father-in-law
the birth of children, this obligation
turns over an amount of property much larger than what he re-
ceived, and the name and rank. The transfer is symbolized in the
presentation of the box containing the dance paraphernalia. The
marriage debt having been paid, the marriage is at an end and the
woman is free to return home unless the husband keeps her by
making another payment, for which in due course he receives another
name. The rank of the woman increases with every marriage until
she has been married four times, maybe by the same man. The-
oretically the names received in marriage should be passed on in
time to a son-in-law of the husband, but the husband uses them for
his own ends. Marriage has become so completely assimilated to the
potlatch pattern that fictitious marriages are arranged between
men, or between a man and the left foot of another man, in order to
keep active a title that might otherwise lapse or pass out of control.
Warfare is part of the same game. The way to get a coveted name
which one cannot inherit or acquire through marriage is to kill the
owner and appropriate the name and prerogatives. Even fratricide
occurs and is condoned if one can validate with property one's
claim to the brother's rank.
Direct rivalry is carried on meanwhile by giving feasts to rival
chiefs and distributing property to their clans. Since every gift im-
plies a return, the supreme expression of the rivalry of chiefs is the
destruction of property. A man who has been potlatching with cop-

pers, and whose can
rival overtop him each time with a copper of
greater value, may, as a final gesture of defiance, break a copper
worth thousands of blankets and throw the pieces into the sea.
Unless his rival can throw away a copper of greater value, his name
will be forever disgraced. In these acts there is no possibility of
profit; they are pure deeds of honor. The destruction of property is

not restricted to the symbols of wealth. Slaves may be killed and
canoes split in these contests of defiance.
The obligation to repay gifts is not an obligation to the person of
the donor, but to the bearer of his name. After the death of a man
all debts due him become due to his successor, often his son, so that
the outstanding debts enable the successor to carry on the game of

potlatching and assure to the heir a standing in the community.
The potlatch serves as a sort of life insurance, but insurance that
carries obligations.
The destruction of tangible wealth ties the system into the econ-
omy of subsistence. It is honorable to destroy a surplus. But should
excess of ambition on the part of a chief involve him in undertakings

in which he jeopardizes the subsistence of his followers they with-
draw their support. Without the support of his followers the most
arrogant chief is helpless. The credit structure collapses and he is

forever disgraced. The Kwakiutl chief is not a capitalist. He does
not own or control the means of production; with all his violence
and aggressiveness he has no power, military or magical, which
would enable him to seize wealth and impose his will.* Kwakiutl
civilization is certainly no place for the meek, the modest, and the
mild, but neither is there for the ruthless exploiter of his

any place
own people. Good will has its place, and the chief who alienates the
good will of his followers will be broken by them.
The Trobriand Islands?5 The Trobriand Islands are flat coral islands
lying to the northeast of New Guinea. The climate is mild, the rain-
fall well distributed, and the soil fertile and well adapted to the culti-
vation of yams, taro, and coconuts. Within the fringing reef the sea
teems with fish. Among their neighbors the Trobrianders stand out as
the richest, most aggressive, and most respected they are skilled gar-
;
deners and craftsmen, able navigators and enterprising traders.

Their economy is characterized by great emphasis upon the pos-
*
As he extends his operations he contracts greater debts to his successors. It
is an economic structure in which the rich man is in debt to the poor.
session of wealth. They have a delight in mere possession which
is relatively rare among primitive peoples. "To the natives the
possession and display of food are of immense importance in them-
selves. .Pride in possession is one of their leading character-
. .
66
istics/' At harvest time there are displays of food in the gardens,
and everyone goes around to compare the yields of various gardens,
as regards quantity and quality. The yams are brought in with
great publicity and displayed again in the village. They are stored
in open storehouses, and the finest yams are placed at the front and
not eaten. In food habits the Trobrianders are extremely frugal.
Their "prosperity magic" is aimed at keeping their appetites small
and their stores large. Despite the fondness for displaying food, there
is no hospitality except at large tribal feasts; it is degrading to
accept food in a strange village. They are inordinately pleased if,

at the end of the year, their storerooms are half-full of rotten yams
which must be thrown away to make room for the new crop. But
there a powerful check upon acquisitiveness
is the chief brooks
no and can kill by sorcery. Malinowski quotes a number of
rivals
cases of men who were believed to have died because their gardens
were too productive.
The principal food dependence is on garden produce, especially
yams. The gardens lie outside the small villages, and men and
women cultivate them jointly. They are expert gardeners. They use
the most primitive tools, but they take great pride in the appearance
as well as the productivity of the gardens. In each village there is a
garden magician, working under the direction of the chief, who sets
the pace for all garden work. There is no communal work except by
decree of the chief in special circumstances. The belief in the efficacy
of magic is absolute, and no one proceeds to any stage of garden
cultivation until the garden magician has performed the proper
rituals on selected plots. This introduces into gardening a degree of
organization which the tropical climate does not impose. Everyone

has in addition individual magical charms for gardening, fishing,
sailing, trade, love. These charms constitute one of the most impor-
tant forms of property.
Although parents and young children form the household group,
work together, live together, sharing a common house and common
stores, the chief distributive mechanism of the tribe is the contribu-
tion of a man
to his sister's household, for his sister's children are
his nearest kin and his legal heirs. This payment is conceived in
three ways: as part of the marital exchanges between two lines re-
lated through marriage; as a man's provision for his minor depend-
ents; as a woman's return on her recognized title to land in her
"own" village, where, however, she never lives. A man sends almost
the whole of his yam harvest to his sister's husband. For his own
use he keeps only seed crop, inferior yams, and supplementary crops
like taro and pumpkins. For yams he depends upon gifts from his
own wife's brother. The presentation to the brother-in-law is ac-
companied by ceremony and display of food. "A man's most sensi-
honor is his
tive point of sister's position, for his sister is his nearest
relative. And since scarcity of food is especially shameful, all his

amour propre is involved in supplying his sister adequately. Those
who neglect their duties to their relatives-in-law or do not strain in
their efforts to produce gifts worthy of their dignity sink in public
esteem and fear public contempt."
Such a system of indirect reciprocity would result in a circulation
of wealth fairly evenly through the community, were it not for the
interposition of the principle of rank at the critical point of the

social structure, to tilt the balance of reciprocity and build up
the power of the chieftainship.
The keystone of the economic structure of Trobriand society is
the chieftainship. The chiefs have great power which is exercised
economically. They are not powerful because they are rich; rather
they are rich because, being born chiefs, they are powerful. A cer-
tain sacredness attaches to the chief, shown in the numerous taboos
surrounding his person. He may demand whatever
he wishes. As
titular owner and animals, he exacts tribute from
of all land, trees,
each household. Only chiefs are permitted to practice polygyny, and
powerful chiefs have many wives. Consequently through the mech-
anism of the unequal balance of marital exchange the chief con-
trols thirty per cent of all the garden produce of his jurisdiction and
seventy-five per cent of the pigs, coconuts, and betel nuts. lie alone
may order to have made for his use the valuables of ceremonial
trade; as a result, the chiefs own eighty per cent of these articles.
Although it is nowhere explicitly so stated, all the evidence is that
only chiefs can employ death sorcery against enemies.* This, un-
*
Malinowski states repeatedly that chiefs use sorcery against enemies and
rivals,but describes as the most drastic mechanism of social control among
equals the shaming of offenders into suicide. The restriction of death sorcery to
chiefs is explicit in neighboring tribes.
doubtedly, is the real basis of power. The wealth which the chief
secures through the exercise of all these privileges is used to con-
solidate his position and enlarge his activities. Between chiefs and
commoners, the relationship is complementary, an exchange of
services and support in war against commodities. Payments for
"
services are usually in the form of valuables," pigs and betel nuts
the forms of wealth of which the chief has virtual monopoly. The
surplus of garden food is used for festive and other ceremonial
occasions, such as mortuary distributions.
Among equals the relationships arc strictly reciprocal, with pre-
cise regard for the obligations of kinship. This is not conceived as
responsibility for unfortunate relatives who claim relationship, but
as a requirement to meet all the paymentsdemanded by their ex-
tended system of fraternal and affinal exchange. They are, above
all, a tribe of traders, and have very clear ideas about equivalence.
At the height of his power the great chief of the village of Omara-
kana had sixty wives, selected for economic and political reasons
from all the villages of his jurisdiction. Since all were selected from
ranking families, the whole tribe was paying tribute to the chief
through his wives. From the villages of his wives the chief received
annually between 300 and 350 tons of yams. This concentration of
wealth enabled him to finance major undertakings, such as the
building of seagoing canoes, and to underwrite wars and overseas
trading expeditions. The building of a canoe takes about two years,
and involves the hiring of laborers and skilled craftsmen; the serv-
ices of a magician are required throughout the work. All these serv-
ices must be paid for. Various stages of the work are marked by
feasts with great food distributions. On such occasions property is
exchanged between persons related through marriage. The chief,
being related by marriage to everyone on the island, is involved in
tremendous financial responsibilities. His prestige as a chief depends
on his ability to plan and carry through large undertakings.
The exchange between affinal relatives is another institution of
major economic importance. Every marriage must be validated by
exchanges of property. The first gifts of cooked and uncooked food
are returned in kind. The
large exchanges begin with the next
harvest when the family sends to the man's family a gift of
girl's
some two hundred or three hundred baskets of the finest yams.
This gift is repaid with a suitable amount of fish, pigs, or valuables.
These exchanges continue throughout the duration of the marriage,
at each harvest, at mortuary feasts, and at tribal festivals. It is

always the man's side that contributes the permanent wealth and
commodities difficult to obtain. It is the wife's family that maintains
the household. The chief's ability tomaintain polygamous marriages
is tied
up with his control of all unusual forms of wealth. The neces-
sity of maintaining strict equivalence in these exchanges and keep-
ing them at a level suitable to one's rank and dignity serves as a
check upon acquisitiveness and maintains a constant circulation of
all forms of wealth.
In addition to this flow of wealth along the channels of kinship,

there is a great deal of trade, commercial and ceremonial. Different
districts of the island, and presumably clans within these districts,

are industrially specialized. The central villages have the best
gardens. The coastal villages fish; the northern villages engage in
industry, especially wood-carving, for which they are famed through-
out the region. The inland people own canoes which they keep at
the beach. They are good navigators and go on overseas expeditions,
but they do not engage in fishing because the coastal villages jeal-
ously guard their property rights in fishing grounds. Instead, the in-
land villages bring garden produce to some coastal village, each man
leaving his contributions at the door of his trade friend. Two days
later they come back to collect the return gift. There is no bargain-
ing, but plenty of recrimination afterward should the return be con-

sidered inadequate. With the industrial clans whom they consider
social inferiors, they engage in direct barter, a form of activity which
they regard with considerable disdain.

Foreign trade for the most part is carried on according to the
nonbargaining pattern of gift exchange between trade friends. The
principal export is wood work, which ultimately finds its way all
around a ring of islands, and even beyond. The principal imports
are greenstone from Murua (northeast), pottery from the Amph-
letts (south), and sago from the volcanic islands of Dobu. This ring
of islands, with a few others, forms a trade area throughout which
57
specialized products of each are diffused.
Overseas trade is undertaken only in connection with the kula, a
system of intertribal, ceremonial exchange of valuables, which in
the eyes of the natives constitutes the real object of an expedition,
the trade in commodities being regarded as definitely secondary. Only
those who have valuables to exchange engage in any form of over-
seas trade. Only two kinds of articles are involved in this exchange:
necklaces of red shell disks that move in clockwise direction around
a closed circuit, and arm bands of white shell that move in the
opposite direction. These objects move continuously in endless cir-

cuit, for no one who receives a kula article as a gift may retain it,
but must pass it on to a partner on the other side, from whom he
will receive gift. Only certain individuals take part in this
a counter
honorific trade, and they exchange with trade friends in nearby
islands. There is an inland kula also, but the overseas trade is most
striking and forms the real focus of interest and excitement in

Trobriand life. The kula valuables are named and ranked; the his-
tory of each one is known. They are neither useful nor ornamental;
they are not standards of value against which other articles are
measured; they are never sold or directly exchanged for useful com-
modities. They are symbols of prestige "whose presence in the vil-
lage is a sign of the importance and glory of the village and of the
58
individual trader who brought it in."
The kula exchange is conducted form of gift and return
in the
gift. There is no direct barter; the return is always deferred, some-

times but a few hours, sometimes for years, but it must be equiva-
lent. It must be carried on without profit. The element of excitement
in the kula is introduced by the fact that each man has several
partners on each side and all islands practice inland kula, so that
the closed circuits are broken and crossed at many points. There
are many kinds of solicitory gifts and kula magic to attract desirable
objects, and there are opprobrium and withdrawal of support for the
man who is slow or niggardly. Every act of the kula is surrounded
by ceremony and fortified by magic. In the important kula villages
the all-absorbing topic of interest.
it is
The importance of the kula in providing a ceremonial framework

in which economic trade can be safely carried on among hostile
tribes of sorcerers must not be overlooked. 59 This does
not, however,
explain the overwhelming importance of the kula in the lives of the
participants, and the intensity, often violence, with which this
profitless trade in useless objects is pursued. Why has the kula so
completely captured the imagination of the Trobrianders? Obvi-
ously, it is symbolic behavior, behavior through which they satisfy
their conflicting attitudestoward wealth. The Trobrianders display
a cupidity that is rare among primitive peoples. To possess wealth
is, above all else, honorable. They desire wealth for its own sake,
and as a symbol of power. "Wealth, in the Trobriands, is the out-

ward and substance of power, and the means of exercising it." 60

sign
Indeed, they have constantly before them the spectacle of a priv-
ileged chief whose power is consolidated and augmented through
the use of wealth obtained by tribute and supported by sorcery.
The forbidden fruit is sweet, but it must be renounced. The com-
pleteness of the renunciation is shown in the fact that the chief
with impunity and, indeed, to preserve the social structure,
may
must by sorcery anyone who seeks to rival him in wealth. In
kill
the kula potentially dangerous possessive impulses are diverted into

channels that are not disruptive of social security. Malinowski, in
summing up the kula, describes it as follows:
A half commercial, half ceremonial exchange, it is carried out for its
own sake, in a deep desire to possess. But here again, it is not ordinary
possession, but a special type in which a man owns for a short time and
in alternating manner, individual specimens of two classes of objects.
Though the ownership is incomplete in point of permanency, it is in

turn enhanced in point of numbers successively possessed. And it . . .
isjust through this exchange, through their being constantly within reach
and objects of competitive desire, through being the means of arousing
envy and conferring social distinction and renown, that these objects
attain their high value. To the native it [the kula valuable] is
. . .
something that confers dignity and exults him and which he therefore
treats with veneration. Their behavior at the transaction makes it clear
that the vayga'u is regarded, not only as possessing high value, but that
61
it is treated also in a ritual manner, and arouses emotional reaction.
Viewed psychologically, Trobriand economy is a delicate equilib-

rium between an inordinately developed desire to possess and the
need to renounce. Viewed in historical perspective, it is a compro-
mise between two types of society developed among neighboring
peoples the Polynesian-Indonesian structure of fixed rank, firm
political discipline, and maximum economic security, and the Papuan
pattern of status based on wealth, rivalry, vertical mobility, and
relianceon sorcery as the ultimate sanction. Out of such incongruous
material the Trobrianders have built a secure society.
Economic mechanisms in primitive cultures. It is generally accepted
as axiomatic that economic function can be divided into three sepa-
rate processes: production, distribution, and consumption. have We
organized our own economic life so as to differentiate these three
aspects. The line between them is more fluid than is commonly as-
sumed, llie same act baking bread, for instance may be in-
eluded in either the productive or consumptive structure, depending
upon who does it. If we try to apply these categories to societies that
are differently organized with reference to the economic problem,
we see at once how inapplicable they are. It is not necessary to go to
the simplest societies to see these processes merged. The Zuni work-
party is a definite unit of social behavior that serves many purposes.
It is not simply a matter of hiring workers at a certain wage to ac-
complish a certain end. It is just as fair to regard it as an invitation
to participate in a food distribution. It is usual for men to emphasize
the former aspect, and women the latter. From the point of view of
the host (or employer) the social and ceremonial aspects are of
paramount importance.
From the functional or sociological point of view there is only OIK
economic process, the process of providing for material wants and
for psychological wants that can be gratified by material objects.
It is a process with two aspects, getting and using. Economic func-
tion, with all its social implications, is more than the production and
consumption of wealth. These are convenient concepts to use in the
analysis and comparative study of economic behavior, provided that
these terms are always understood as abstractions and not as de-
scriptions of behavior.
From this point of view we may consider the Zuni work-party
system either as a mechanism for utilizing the labor force of the
community for the production of vegetable food or as a means for
distributing animal food. Either view is artificial. The work-party is
one part of a social, economic, and religious structure which binds
all members of the community together by innumerable ties of social
responsibility. On its economic side the aim of this structure, never

fully achieved, is equality secured through fluidity along prescribed
channels, and the work-party provides one such channel through
which both surplus wealth and labor flow. In the following pages no
attempt is made to analyze production and distribution, but rather
to describe various mechanisms by which primitive societies achieve
their economic goals. It is impossible to discuss all such mechanisms
since each society has given the economic function some twist
peculiar to itself. It has also seemed advisable to omit certain mech-

anisms which are fairly familiar in economic history, such as slavery,
vassalage, work for wages, but which are relatively rare in primitive
societies, and to concentrate rather on those mechanisms which are
characteristic of the simpler forms of economic life.
The division of labor. The basis of all economic structure and social
structure in general lies in the division of labor. Even the peoples
whose material culture is simplest show some system of allotting
different tasks to different individuals in the group. Among the
simplest hunting peoples the division of labor between the sexes is

a necessary condition of life. This is true alike among the Eskimo,
the Andamanese, and the Arunta. Among people who hunt large
roving animals with spear or bow and arrow women's physical dis-
abilities aremost conspicuous. A woman who is carrying a child or
nursing an infant cannot pursue animals hour after hour. To women
fall the more sedentary occupations, frequently just as difficult and
arduous, but requiring less muscular strength and fleetness of foot.

While men hunt larger and swifter animals, women care for the
home, dress skins, and contribute to the food supply such animals
as grubs, shellfish and small fish, and vegetable produce. Traps and
fishhooks may be tended by women, but fishing that requires hard con-
tinuous labor falls to the share of men. An exception to women's gen-
erally sedentary role is found among the Northern Ojibwa, where some
few women hunt as men do, and even go on the war path with men. 62
Among pastoral and agricultural peoples there is no obvious
biological factor to account for the universal division of labor along
sex lines. Men
herd larger animals, as they hunt them, and perhaps
for the same reasons; however, women herd cattle successfully in
Europe, and Navajo women herd their own sheep. Throughout
Melanesia women raise pigs. Nor does the division of labor always
result in giving men the heavier share of work. Bogoras found that
the Chukchee women work much harder than the men. 63 In addition
to sharing with men the work of herding reindeer during those
seasons when they are restlessand hard to manage, the women must
prepare all food, dress skins for shelter and clothing, and take com-
plete charge of the house. Chukchee tents are heavy, cumbersome
structures, relics of the Chukchee days as a sedentary maritime
people. In making and breaking camp the women get no help from
the men, although the handling of the tents requires. great physical
strength in addition to skill.
Where agriculture is the basis of economic life still greater di-

versity prevails.* Among the Pueblo Indians the men do all the
work. The women of the Bathonga and other African tribes do
* For a fuller discussion of the relation of agriculture to the position of women
jee pages 2&9, 319.
everything except the first clearing of the bush. The Ifugao men
plant and harvest; the women weed and cultivate. The Trobriand
men and women cooperate at all stages of the work. All possible
arrangements occur.But even among people like the Trobrianders
where husband and wife share the work from day to day, going out
together each morning to their gardens, they share along sex lines.
Certain tasks notably magic are for the man; others are for
the woman. This seems to be a fundamental condition of primitive
life. The interchange of different kinds of work forms the economic
basis of marriage. In many places this basic principle is given articu-
late expression, as among the Quiche Indians of Guatemala. Here
the men do all the agricultural work. Although the women accom-
pany their husbands to the fields they sit all day in a brush shelter
"
and weave. It is the part of a man to furnish food for the house-
hold." Marriage is presented to the adolescent youth as an economic
contract. "My son, now we shall look for your woman. Your mother
is and has much work, and this woman will wash your clothes
old
and weave your kerchiefs; and when she comes here you will be
kind to her, and you will sleep together in the same room." M
In Zuni, when a man returns from his day's work his wife drops
whatever work she may be doing and goes to the door of the house
to greet him. Whatever he brings she takes from him and carries
into the house. Then she sets out food for her husband. These ges-
turesdemanded by etiquette symbolize the economics of marriage.
The house belongs to the woman and she receives her husband in it
as a guest. He in turn brings the produce of fields and ranch; as it
crosses the threshold it becomes the property of the woman. Any
omission of these formalities on the part of the woman would be
interpreted by the man as an indication that she no longer regards
him as her husband.
The economic interdependence of men and women is one of the
great stabilizing forces in family life. It does not prolong the life of
any individual marriage, but it helps to maintain the institution.
The Zuni change mates frequently, but the man-woman-child con-
stellation remains constant. There are no bachelors, spinsters, or
abandoned children.
The
physical and purely economic aspects of the division of labor
are frequently bolstered by supernaturalism. In some places this
takes the form of a general fear of the evil influence of women upon
the fertility of fields or the abundance of game. 65 In othe* places it
takes the specific form of fear of menstrual blood, which is believed

to make fields barren (New Guinea), make cows go dry (Africa),
or rob men of their power in war and hunting. Wherever such atti-
tudes exist they effectively bar women from engaging in major
occupations. As a corollary of this attitude, certain occupations may
be considered inimical to female fecundity.
An interesting parallel is found among the Maori. Men, in varying
degrees according to their rank, have a supernatural potency, tapu,
which can be destroyed forever by certain occupations, notably
cooking and carrying burdens on the head. This bars them from
these occupations, which fall to the lot of women and slaves, indi-
viduals who have no tapu
Industrial specialization on the basis of skill is characteristic of
all but the most widely dispersed people. Among the Eskimo there
are no specialists, except the specialist in the supernatural. Each

man makes his own tools, and his wife makes the clothing. But
among most other peoples there are specialists in industrial skills
or in knowledge, the professional wood-carver, potter, weaver, tat-
tooer, doctor, or sorcerer. There may also be professional marriage
brokers, arbitrators, and orators.
The high degree of specialization which is so marked in the Tro-
briands is common to all Oceania. In Polynesia experts in wood-

carving, boat-building, or tattooing are famed beyond their native
villages, and chiefs from distant places will command their services
and reward them richly. Here specialization extends to knowledge
also. There are specialists in genealogy and in the lore of the forest
and the sea. All these specialties are bolstered by supernatural
sanctions, by the same belief in tapu that operates in differentiating
the labor of the sexes. The man who knows the lore of the forest
and opens the hunting season is said to own the tapu of the forest,
and his contribution to the total economy consists of magical spells
without which the fecundity of the forest would fail.
Differentiation of skills necessarily accompanies a highly devel-
oped technology. Our own industrial civilization represents the
extreme development in the direction of complexity and differentia-
tion. Like all functional relationships in economics this is not a
simple cause-effect sequence, buf a reciprocal relationship. Complex

technology makes specialization necessary; on the other hand, the
development of highly specialized skills leads to further refinements
in technology. This process goes on at a constantly accelerating
pace and results in an increasing interdependence of an ever-widen-
ing circle of individuals. "Primitivism," the movement in our own
society that seeks to reverse this process and attain greater freedom
and security by a return to economic self-sufficiency of smaller
groups under simpler technological conditions, has always failed,
because the social factors involved in specialization are too vast to
be ignored. With increasing control of our environment we become
more dependent upon effective social integration.
Primitive peoples at the same stage of technological development
may be very differently oriented with reference to the degree of
specialization. Zuiii and Quiche do not differ much in technological
development. Among the Zuni the economic ideal, now somewhat
obscured by the intrusion of White traders, was the self-sufficient
household within the self-sufficient tribe, with mechanisms to en-
sure cooperation and fluidity of wealth. Every man commanded all
the major skills, every woman the major female skills. Organized
trade and barter were negligible; only the feeble and widowed were
forced to exchange manufactures for food. The important property
distributions were not exchanges of values of different kinds but
simple quantitative adjustments. For all purposes of daily living

each household was completely self-sufficient. This homogeneous
economy is combined with the most minute differentiation in cere-
monial function, which suggests that differentiation may have some
other basis than simply technical efficiency.
South of the llio Grande no such ideal of self-sufficient units
prevails. The Guatemalan or Mexican village swarms with special-
ists;a Quiche family head hires a mason to build his house and a
carpenter to hang the doors; he buys the adobe from an adobe-
maker and the tiles from a tile-maker, and orders the cloth for his
suit from a professional weaver. These are all imported skills, as

they are at Zuiii. He buys his pottery and baskets and mats and
certain foodstuffs in the market place and hires laborers to till his
fields while he himself earns his living as a witness and recorder of
contracts, an ancient profession throughout Central America. The

family does not constitute a closed economic unit. The same atti-
tude prevails in village economy also. The villages, although socially,
politically, and often linguistically^distinct, are industrially special-
ized and mutually dependent, bound together by highly organized
trade. This state of affairs existed previous to the Conquest. Traders
and trade maps guided the Cortes expedition into Guatemala. 67
A similar contrast may be seen between the self-sufficient Poly-

nesian communities and the specialized Melanesians, but the con-
trast is especially striking in these two American communities
because these cultures are not only similar technologically but specifi-
cally the same and historically related. Obviously in these two areas
the division of labor is more closely related to density of population
and to ideas of conquest, empire, and political integration than to
the demands of technology.
Differentiation of economic function may follow class lines. In
many parts of the world we find classes, and usually but not always
these classes are economic or make themselves felt economically
through control of wealth or power, but it is by no means a usual
picture for class structures to be reflected in productive organization.
In certain kingdoms of East Africa, especially the Bakitara and
the Banyankole, birth determines occupation. The society is com-
posed of two classes: the nobility, who are pastoral, and the peas-
ants, who are agricultural. The nobility form a hierarchy headed
by the king and his court. Theoretically the king owns all the cattle
of the land, but for all practical purposes the nobility own their own
cattle. He is a divine king; his title to the cattle is vested in his
magical control of their fecundity, and his court is a glorified dairy

in which minutiae of ceremonial preserve the health and fertility of
the cattle of the nation. All matters connected with cattle are carried
on under severe restrictions. Only nobles may own cattle or have
any share in their care, or in any of the activities of the dairy. They
marry only within their own class, thus forming a closed occupational
caste. The chiefs hold their cattle in fief from the king, to whom
they must make return in the form of women and cows upon the
demand of his tax-gatherers, who use this opportunity for a little
extortion on their own account. The rule of primogeniture and the
favors of the king have resulted in great discrepancies of wealth
within the caste of cattle people and have reduced the sons of younger
lines to positions of dependency in the kraals of powerful chiefs.
The nobility are stock-breeders exclusively; they raise no crops
and engage in no industries. The peasants control agriculture and
all industries. Among them are clans of iron-workers, salt-workers,
potters, wood-workers, cloth-makers. All skills tend to be hereditary

in certain clans. Iron- and salt-working are definitely so. The peas-
ants supply the cattle people with grain, manufactured articles, and
services in house-building and public works, in return for feasts,
gifts of butter,and protection of their land from predatory beasts.
The peasants bound to no place and no master. Since the cattle
are
people depend on them for the necessities of life and for services for
themselves .and the king, the power and influence of a chief at court
depend on his ability to attract large numbers of peasants to his
domain. When the king needs cattle he sends out his tax collector
to take them; when he needs services from the peasants, he requests
them with gifts. Although the peasants own no ^cattle, they keep
sheep and goats, and altogether form an economically self-sufficient
group, which the cattle people most decidedly do not. The one im-
portant commodity which they lack is butter, for which they depend
68
on the chiefs.
The class system of the Bakitara is usually described as a phe-
nomenon of conquest. It is unquestionably true that large population
movements and wars of conquest have marked the history of south-
ern and eastern Africa. The indigenous populations were agricul-
tural;cattle were probably introduced by warlike invaders who
swept down from the northeast. The violent juxtaposition of these

two types of economy has led to a variety of economic patterning.
Among the Bakitara this has resulted in organization along class
lines; the cattle people claim to be the descendants of the conquerors.
The neighboring Baganda, also organized into a strong state ruled
by a sacred king, show no similar caste division. Here cattle-raising
is man's province, agriculture woman's; and there are certain hered-
itary skills. It is this picture rather than the caste system of the
Bakitara that is more general for Africa as a whole. It is not the
simple fact of conquest that has produced the caste systems of East
Africa; they are one of several possible ways of combining different
and complementary economies.
On the whole, caste organization is rare in the primitive world.
In most places class systems are maintained by the manipulation
of wealth rather than by compulsory occupational reciprocity.
Individualism and collectivism in production. Wherever different
tasks are assigned to different individuals and mechanisms for ad-
justment have been devised, a certain amount of collectivism exists.
Even in the most individualistic societies, such as that of the
Eskimo,
where each hunts in his own kayak and each woman cooks
man
over her own lamp, the family forms a collective unit, organized for
joint effort toward the satisfaction of common needs. Cooperation
within the biological family, although occasionally seriously ham-
pered by disruptive forces in the social structure, may be assumed

for all primitive peoples.
Even the Eskimo sometimes organize into larger cooperating
groups. Frequently two men hunt together. When traveling in the
large woman's boat, in hunting whales, in the spring hunt of seals,
and in the summer drives on the caribou larger groups join forces.
These temporary unions are the exception in an economy that is
basically individualistic.
Large cooperative hunting and fishing expeditions are common in
many parts of the world. One of the most striking from the socio-
logical point of view was the communal buffalo hunt of the Plains
Indians, with its penalties against private hunting. The Plains
Indians were hunting gregarious animals, and the cooperative organ-
ization of the hunt appears on the surface to be an obvious response
to the habits of the animals. But the policed hunt was not the only
or even the usual method of hunting. It was employed only in con-
nection with tribal ceremonies when large groups congregated and
69
large surpluses were required. The Lango (central Africa) use
similar methods in hunting all game, large and small, solitary or
gregarious. They have five methods of cooperative hunting, all with

appropriate ceremonies. The method involving the greatest number
of persons and animals is surrounding with fire. Sometimes an area
of forty square miles is thus surrounded; men, women, and children
take part, and there is a strict distribution of the catch, specified
portions of each animal going to certain individuals. The owner of
the hunting rights of the land, who is also the organizer of the hunt
and the host at the feast that accompanies it, gets a shoulder from
each animal taken. 70
The extreme collectivism of the Maori, among whom all activities
are carried on jointly, is bound up with the development of the

hierarchy and the power of the chief. The whole community, under
organized leadership, turns out to get supplies for the common
stores, administered by the chief. Collectivism in labor can exist
also without political organization. The Pueblos, without concepts
of rank or authority, and only the vaguest ideas of reciprocity, do
all their major tasks in field and herd by a system of informal volun-
tary cooperation. The same pattern of unformalized helpfulness,

differently organized, is Arapesh of New Guinea.
characteristic of the
But the Quich6 Indians of Central America, cultivating the same
crops with the same technological equipment as the Zuni, are grimly
individualistic as regards agriculture, although cooperative enough
in matters unrelated to land.
As a contrast to the informal groupings of the Zuni we might cite
the permanent combines for mutual help found among the Lango
and other African tribes. These partnerships are for definitely speci-
fied and named units of work, and are either paid for in food or are
strictly reciprocal. Such permanent combines exist at Zuni also in
sheep-herding, but the uncongenial idea of strict reciprocity is com-
pletely obscured by the basic Zuni attitudes of helpfulness and
social responsibility. Margaret Mead in a recent study of cooperation
and competition has pointed out the lack of correlation between
collective mechanisms of production and general cooperative atti-
tudes in social relations, in the economic and noneconomic fields. 71
There are, indeed, among primitive peoples two types of collective
organization of production: the true collectivism represented by the
Maori and the Zuni, and the kind of organization represented by
the Kwakiutl, where the magnitude of the task or some other factor
makes necessary the collaboration of persons who do not unite
into a cooperating social unit. This is the type of collectivism that
has its extreme development in modern industry. In a large factory
many individuals collaborate for the ostensible purpose of producing
automobiles. But the product does not represent the same value to
all who are concerned in its production to most of them it represents
;
no value at all. The interest has shifted from the product, the osten-
sible common purpose, to the manipulation of the process of pro-
duction, in which each individual strives for personal advantage,

and in which individuals combine only temporarily against an op-
posing interest, but immediately revert to their former state of
internal rivalry. This rivalry is, indeed, part of the cooperative
structure. Since it results in increased production, it is encouraged
by the management, and any attempt to introduce true collectivism

is bitterly opposed.
To the Maori or Trobriand ship-builders a canoe represents the
same value as it does to the chief who organizes its production,
commandeers labor and goods to pay labor, and provides feasts,
and who theoretically "owns" the product. The common stake
which all feel in the product makes true cooperation possible.
True collectivism was not absent from earlier American life. It is
found in the husking bee, the round-up, even in the volunteer fire
corps and countless other institutions of American rural life. Cooper-
ation is not necessarily inconsistent with an individualistic philosophy
or any theory of ownership. In fact these truly cooperative institu-

tions flourished especially in that paradise of rugged individualism,
the frontier, and in other places where the common purpose had a
common value. But no matter what theory of ownership may be
held at the top, lack of a sense of reality in the common value will
inevitably result in lack of cooperation. In a civilization as complex
on the technological side as our own, it is difficult to maintain that
sense of reality.
The distribiition of wealth.(ZFl\e problem of distribution is twofold:
distribution in time, and distribution among the different members
of the group?) The latter problem is generally held in mind in speak-
ing of distribution, but in any one group it may well be the former
that presents real difficulties.
(The problem of the distribution of produce over time arises
wherever a people relies upon a seasonal food supply. Its solution
requires knowledge of techniques for the preservation of food. Such
knowledge is basic not only to economic security but to the growth
of any complex organization. In most cases leisure is not dependent
upon the abundance of nature but upon economic planning and, in

ability to utilize one day's surplus for the next
particular, upon the
day's hunger. When man has once learned to preserve food, he
can turn chance and the inevitable procession of the seasons to ad-
vantage instead of being destroyed by them^
Leisure and economic security are not the achievements of agri-
cultural and pastoral peoples alone. The Indians of Alaska, with
only natural sources of food supply, have greater economic security

and certainly a great deal more leisure than the Chukchee with
their huge herds of domesticated reindeer. For the herds require
constant attention, and even with the greatest vigilance they are
occasionally lost in storms or stampeded by the incursion of wild
bucks, leaving the herdsman and his family destitute and isolated,
with no stores of food and no means of transportation.
Peoples living in the tropics, in so far as they depend on flesh
foods, have a difficult problem in food preservation; yet tribes on
such low economic levels as the Andamanese 72 and the Vedda 73
have devised means for the preservation of flesh foods. The Arctic
supplies a natural cold storage plant; yet it is precisely here that
scarcely any attempt is made to preserve meat, even though groups
are constantly threatened with extinction through starvation. The
Eskimo, despite their great technological achievements, and though
they cache food, make no systematic attempt to lay by sufficient
stores to secure them against starvation. The surplus is never great;
but what there shared, not hoarded. It is not scarcity but inac-
is, is
cessibility of game that reduces Eskimo camps to starvation and

cannibalism. 74 Their failure to anticipate this contingency, so regular
in its occurrence, is generally laid to the savage's improvident nature.
But the Eskimo is by no means improvident. He breeds dogs and
rears the puppies and trains them for the harness; he spends the
summer hunting reindeer to make winter garments, and never faces
the winter inadequately provided with clothing or with inferior
hunting equipment. It is a special attitude toward food which the
Eskimo share with peoples as differently organized as the Zuiii, the
Bathonga, the Dakota, the Maori, and the Kaingang, and which is
found among peoples of all levels of technological development and
at all subsistence levels. Not
primitive people are generous and
all
improvident in regard to food, but all have a definite attitude toward
food, putting it in a different category from all other forms of wealth.

Failure to provide for the morrow's daily bread, which may be insti-
tutionalized as hospitality, is a reflection of one such special attitude.
Whatever attitude may prevail, there seems to be a regular and nec-
essary correlation between food storage, methods of hunting, and the
distribution and stability of population. Furthermore, the idea of lay-
ing by food is a necessary precursor to any form of agriculture.
The Plains Indian device of prohibiting solitary hunting (see
page 289) in order to preserve the buffalo herd intact for the- com-
munal hunt is not the only method used by primitive peoples to
insure their food supply. The Northern Algonquian family hunting
territories are divided into districts hunted consecutively in different
years; there is a central section that is never hunted at all, but is

kept as a permanent game preserve. The Northern Ojibwa keep a
careful census of the sedentary animals on their hunting territories
and restrict the number of traps to the safe yield. The Maori taboo
the forest and the sea at certain seasons of the year, i^hroughout
the world there are taboos or supernatural sanctions against the
useless slaughtering of game animals. Generally this is conceived as
the resentment of the animals or supernaturals at wanton killing^
At Zuiii the same sanction is invoked against the wanton waste or
agricultural products. The Corn Maidens become angry and run
away (that is, crops fail) if their bodies are not respected.
The existence of food stores not only offers some security against
calamity, but it profoundly affects the whole rhythm and organiza-
tion of economic life in such fundamental aspects as distribution of
population and the permanence of settlements. Where daily search for
food is the rule, each unit must remain near a known source of food
supply. This means that either the units must be small and widely
dispersed, as among the Northern Ojibwa, or they must be extremely
mobile, as among the Kaingang of Brazil, since each solitary hunter
frightens off the game and so jeopardizes the food supply.
Food-gatherers, fishing and
agricultural people with a single brief
seasonal period in which the food supply must be brought in, present
the most extreme form of natural maladjustment between the daily
demands of hunger and the productive rhythm. Alternating periods
of abundance and scarcity are a fundamental feature, and the whole
group must be geared to provide against the threat
social life of the
of those inevitable periods of hunger that precede the harvest. The
way in which each group faces this annual crisis is characteristic of

their whole approach to economic organization. Among the Dobuans
with their grim economy, their almost pathological fear of hunger,
and their well-grounded expectation of mercilessness on the part of
neighbors and relatives, the period that precedes the harvest is one
in which each family tightens its belt and goes on short rations,
jealously guarding its stores against any treachery in the form of a

generous impulse on the part of one of the spouses. The focus of the
struggle is the need to maintain the supplies of seed yams against
the demands of hunger. For if these are eaten no others will be
forthcoming, and the future will be permanently destroyed, since
native theory maintains that only inherited seed can be grown on
75
ancestral lands. The Ifugao of the Philippines also suffer from an-
nual periods of scarcity. At such times those who are out of supplies
borrow from their more fortunate neighbors at exorbitant rates of
interest that mean mortgaging their whole future security in an inex-
orable system of debt penalties. Here preharvest shortage is used as
a definite means of class exploitation. 76
At Zuni, where in spite of entailed lands the whole economy is
based on the principle of the fluidity of wealth, the preharvest
season, which runs imperceptibly into the season of harvest, is the
season of maximum and open-handed food
social activity, feasting,
and generosity are a social responsibility;
distributions. Hospitality
so no household need go hungry in the lean months. It is consistent
with this negative attitude toward hoarding that in a period of
panic following an earthquake, Zufii housewives gave away all their
77
accumulated stores of food.
There is no universal response to periods of scarcity, even the
regularly recurring scarcity which those who rely upon seasonal
food products have learned to anticipate. Whatever the economic
system may be, pressure clamps it down tighter, and serves to in-
tensify prevailing attitudes.
It has become obvious in the foregoing discussion that the prob-
lem of adjusting the irregularities of food supply to the exigencies of
daily needs cannot be considered apart from the other great problem
of distribution, the flow of wealth among members of the group.
fAny joint enterprise some formal distribution of the prod-

requires
uctamong those who take part. But distribution does not always
bear the obvious and direct correlation to production that we might
expect. There may be some purely arbitrary division of the spoils
of the chase an animal taken jointly by several men may belong
to the first man who saw it, or the man who shot the first arrow,
or the man who first touched it; or it may belong to none of the hun-
ters but may be given to someone who stands in a particular relation-
ship to one of them. The theory upon which all such distributions
work is that, assuming fairly uniform skill, it will all come out even
in the end. It serves indeed to minimize the effects of striking inequali-
ties in skill; like insurance, it distributes risks)
The way in which such a system of distribution works is well
illustratedby the Kaingang of Brazil. The Kaingang camp consists
of a small group united by close ties of blood or affinity who habit-
ually wander together. They track large animals with dogs. When a
hunter brings down a tapir he does not either keep the meat or
distribute it. He gives the whole animal to a close relative, a brother-
in-law, a brother, or a cousin, and this man butchers it, giving some
to the hunter, some to each pot in the camp, keeping the greater
part for his own use. The cleverest hunter or the owner of the best
dog has only slight economic advantages, and the camp is bound
together and made more secure by this even-handed sharing.
Not every system of distribution is as transparent as this. It is
often hard to understand the mechanisms, harder still to compre-
hend the objectives. For frequently the flow of wealth is the dynamic
principle that animates the social structure, and on the other hand
economic forces are channeled by social forms.
[Kinship claims in the distribution of wealt hj Perhaps the most

widespread and basic of all methods of distribution among primitive
peoples more important than trade or free gifts or warfare or
tribute a system of compulsory payments between relatives by
is
marriage) The importance

blood or of these payments in relation to
the total economy varies greatly from tribe to tribe, butQunong no
nrimitive people is it wholly lacking) not even among the Eskimo.
These mechanisms for the internal circulation of wealth assume
many forms bride price and dowry, affinal exchange, compulsorv
gifts, contribution at individual crisis ceremonies, and many others
but some tie-up between economy and the rights of kinship is
always present. Among people lacking political organization the
economic obligations of kinship form (one of the most potent means
of preserving group In many cases the property exchanges
solidarity
constitute the validation of social relationships, and the flow of prop-
erty along certain channels forms the strongest bond in that society.
We have already seen how the exchange of products of different
kinds the daily commonplace and necessary condition of family
is
life. This must be assumed for all peoples; we are concerned now
with some of the more common forms of distribution outside of the

group dwelling together.
tThese exchanges may be individual or collective, direct or indirect,
objects exchanged of similar or different kinds. They are always
compulsory, and although the economic motive may be extremely
conspicuous) as at Manus and in other Melanesian groups,(the social
motive of recognizing status or a relationship between individuals
is primary. Even where the economic motive is prominent, it is not
always a direct economic motive such as that which underlies simple

forms of trade) The passage of property, its amount and kind, are
strictly defined by tradition without reference to the economic needs
of the individuals involved. At a Hopi marriage the man's side con-
tributes ceremonial garments; the girl's side, basketry trays man's
work against woman's work, symbolizing the economics of marriage.
But the contribution has nothing to do with the individuals involved.
Basketry is a specialty. If the girl does not practice it, she begs the
trays from a relative or buys them from the White trader; but the pre-
scribed exchanges must be carried out. Basket trays are prescribed
78
marriage gifts even in Hopi villages that do not make baskets.
*
Transfer of property through inheritance will be dealt with in another place.
See page 423,
The bond between siblings, especially between siblings of opposite
sex, is usuallya strong one, and although it goes counter to the
marital grouping is often singled out for economic importance. The
most extreme case of this is the fraternal distribution already de-
scribed for the Trobrianders( 79
forms of compulsory distribution among relatives exist, but
(pther
none figure so importantly in primitive economics as the various
property transfer that take place as the result of a marriage^ Mar-
riage may be regarded as the founding of a new family, which is the
way we regard it, or as the passing of an individual from the juris-
diction of one group into the jurisdiction of another, or as a perma-
nent alliance for mutual advantage between two families. Each of
these attitudes has its associated economic adjustments: namely,
dowry, bride price (or groom and affinal exchange.
price),
^marital property con-

Dowry. Dowry is
sociologically defined as
tributed by the relatives of either party to a marriage*) The popular
limitation of the word to the property brought by the woman is not
in accord with the precise definition. Still less justifiable is the ex-
tension of the term to include the property that passes from the
family of the bride to the family of the groom in the course of marital
exchange. (Compared to other kinds of property adjustments at
marriage, dowry is of relatively rare occurrence in the primitive
world^ The Quich6 man, when he wishes to set up a separate estab-

lishment with his wife and children, usually several years after
marriage, can demand from his father a piece of land, his share
of his inheritance, which is entailed for the benefit of his sons. The
Chukchee woman usually, not always, brings reindeer to her mar-
riage, which are returned at divorce. A Hopi woman at marriage is
given, by her mother, rights over a portion of the clan lands, which
her husband cultivates for her. This is of more theoretical than prac-
ticalimportance since this tribe is matrilocal and the land remains

undivided and is jointly administered by the extended matrilineal
family. The Ifugao exhibit the nearest approach to our concept of
dowry. At a marriage the man and the woman each receives a tract
of rice land, agreed upon in advance, usually after long negotiations.
These fields constitute marital property so long as the marriage
endures. Neither party can dispose of any portion of the land or its
produce, but even this is not dowry in our sense of the word, since
the rights of the spouses terminate with the dissolution of the mar-
riage by death or divorce, and the property reverts to the lineage
from which it came. Dr. Ruth Benedict in a recent paper has dem-
onstrated that however descent may be reckoned, property in
primitive tribes is usually transmitted unilaterally, and to the ex-
80
clusion of spouses.
\The bride price. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that the
payment of a bride price does not necessarily involve the concept
of woman as It is not necessary to go into that point
property
here.(Nor is the payment of a bride price inevitably associated with
curtailment of woman's legal rights or her claims upon her own
family/ We may assume for the purpose of the present discussion
that the (Bride price is an economic arrangement between the two
contracting families, which may or may not accord to the husband

and the husband's family certain rights over the woman and certain
claims upon her family}
Just as not the payment of a^bride price is conceived not
as(pftety
in terms of purchase or legal claims but as a means of showing
respect for the woman) (the Crow and other Plains tribes) fb?} of
making the woman respect the man (Apache and Quiche), (as com-
pensating her family for the loss of her services, or rewarding her
parents for their care in her education) (Zulu). Or if the bride price
is regarded as a payment for certain rights, the rights so acquired
may be strictly limited and must be redefined for each group. These
may include rights to the person of the woman, to her labor, or to
whatever children she may bear, or the right to another woman of
the same family should the first prove unsatisfactory. The bride price
may be given in exchange for any one or any combination of these.
For although bride price is not bound up with the status of woman as
woman or her rights or disabilities in the marital relationship, it is
nevertheless intimately related to considerations of descent, inheri-

81
tance, and residence.
In the numerous cases where wife purchase is combined with
premarital license for girls, it is obvious that it is not the right of
sexual access or even exclusive sexual privileges that are involved.
It is frequently in just those tribes where the bride price is the
pivot of the economic structure that the differentiation of woman

as an economic asset and woman as a sex object is most complete.
Among the Bavenda, marriages are contracted between two women;
the "husband" pays the bride price, the "wife" has lovers, but any
children born to her belong to her "husband." 82
The idea that woman is valuable primarily as a producer of chil-
dren is widespread in Africa. In almost all African tribes a man
may repudiate his wife if she is barren, which is regarded as the
greatest of all misfortunes, and demand the return of the bride
price.Some tribes state specifically that the bride price is the pay-
ment for the rights over the children. The Zulu say: "Cattle beget
83
children"; "The cattle are where the children are not." Among
the Lango, if a marriage breaks up, the woman returns to her people
with her children, and the bride price is returned. The original
cattle with their offspring are returned to the husband. The offspring
of the cattle represent the woman's real and potential children. But
the husband may buy back his children from their mother's people
by paying one heifer for each child.
84
Among African societies like the Bathonga, where there is a
strict division of labor along sex lines, where agriculture is regarded
as woman's work and cattle-raising is man's province, the need for
women need for workers. But the Bathonga
in the kraal is the
headman is trying to up the security of the kraal rather than
build
his own power over his brothers and sons. Therefore the head-
man does not try to corner the women but to secure wives for
each of his dependents. He retains for himself as the reward for
the bride payment the labor of the woman for the common life of
the kraal.
All of Africa must be regarded as a region in which both the
father's line and the mother's line are recognized, different kinds of
privileges being transmitted in each line. If we recognize this kind of
organization as fundamental in Africa, then the bride price repre-
sents the compensation which the patrilineal group pays for the
rights which it acquires over a woman of another line; and over the
children in whom her family also have an interest. In this connection
it is notable that throughout Africa part of the bride price goes to
the bride's maternal kinsmen, her mother and especially her mother's
brother. This is also true of other regions.
But although common and, it would seem, obvious, this attitude
concerning the economic value of women and children is by no
means universal. In some parts of Melanesia and Papua 86 children
are rejected by men and women alike. Barrenness is no misfortune
and women practice contraception, abortion, and infanticide without
interference from the men. It is perhaps a significant correlation
that there is no bride price in this area. It is an area in which affinal
exchange is the most important economic mechanism.
Bride purchase is associated with no economic level; it is found

among hunting, pastoral, and agricultural people; in homogeneous
and but almost everywhere it is associated with
stratified societies;
patrilocality and some form of patriliny. Among the Navajo, a

matrilineal people for whom bride price is reported, the full amount
is returned to the bridegroom in the form of gifts. The same thing
is true of the Crow, the Cheyenne, and other matrilineal societies. 86

Although the bride price is definitely tied up with patriliny, there
is no corresponding economic expression of inatriliny. The most
powerful rnatriarchate of which we have records, Zuni, has no
groom price. The young man leaves his mother's household to work
for his wife's. His female relatives lose his services. But Zuni women
do not buy their husbands or compensate their husbands' families
for the loss of one of their members. The balance in the ceremonial
exchanges at marriage is all in favor of the wife's family. Nor has
any case come to notice of a groom price not dowry, but prop-
erty paid to the man's relatives that is not the return of a bride
price or a payment to secure lien on a woman of the husband's
group.
Among the tribes of central and southern Africa, where the bride
price economically important, it runs like a thread through the
is
society, binding the groups together in a never ending and intricate

web of financial responsibility. The thread frequently becomes
tangled, and the unraveling fills native courts with litigation. Junod
reports that among the Bathonga ninety per cent of the cases con-
cern lobolo (the bride price).
The difficulties of the system may be observed among the Lango,
where the bride price is still paid in cattle. When a girl is given in
marriage the cattle received are distributed among various relatives.
But the greater portion is given to her brother and forms the nucleus
of the payment for his wife, and is used in turn to provide a wife
for a young man of a third family. If now the first marriage breaks
up, the cattle that were originally given 'must be collected again,
together with their increase, and returned to the husband, even if
it means breaking up the brother's marriage to recover them. If the
woman is divorced for adultery, her family try to recover from her
lover, so that her brother may keep his wife. It is clear why Africans
are constantly in litigation. Between a man and his wife's brother's
wife there exists a special relationship. Should his wife desert him
he can, legally, claim this woman, since she has been bought with
his cattle. The right is never exercised, since it is recognized that
such a forced marriage would be disastrous. It is significant that,
in spite of bride price and the complex family involvements, fewer
than twenty-five per cent of Lango marriages are arranged. The
rest follow romantic courtship, including sexual relations, and the
marriage is generally negotiated only after the birth of the first

child, when the husband takes his wife to his village. 87 The use of
the price received from a girl's marriage to purchase a wife for her
brother is widely spread in Africa, and the complications that follow
from this are general also. It is the economic equivalent of an ex-
change of sisters, and has much the same social effects. The man
without sisters is at a disadvantage, and the kraal without women
is poor. Men carry on the line, but only women bring wealth. It is
this opposition of male and female principles that is expressed in

the different forms of descent in Africa.
Â variant of bride purchase is the custom of serving for a wife
which is found among many peoples, especially among very simple
peoples with little accumulated wealthy Among the Quiche this is an
alternative for the bride price. The bride price is the accepted and
preferred method, the method which is believed to make the girl
respect her husband always a great point with the Quiche. But
special circumstances such as the poverty of the bridegroom or the
lack of a male heir in the girl's family may induce a young man to
go to the girl's home and work for her parents for a year in lieu of
paying for her. "But it is bad," says the Quiche informant, "for
the woman will not have respect for the man if he works for her in
her house." There are other reasons why it is considered bad, but a
man gladly serves for his wife if by so doing he can gain for his
children inheritance in their mother's line. 88
In Siberia service is the regular and approved method of securing
a wife. Among the Reindeer Chukchee, the suitor, once accepted,
comes to live in the girl's camp and works for her father. During
the period of service he has no privileges and may be dismissed at
any time is not. The father, on the other hand, tries to keep
but
the young man
with him, and to defer as long as possible the day
when he leaves with his bride for his own camp. One of the preferred
marriages is for a rich reindeer-breeder to give his daughter in
marriage to one of his poor herdsmen, thus binding the man to him
permanently by familial ties. "The man without relatives is a poor
man," say the Chukchee. Marital arrangements among the Chuk-
chee tie up with other aspects of their economy food, animals,

women are used as material out of which to build security in a
all
disruptive social environment. 89

Affinal exchange. We have said that affinal exchange is the eco-
nomic aspect of a concept of marriage as an enduring contract be-
tween two groups. There are some people like the Cheyenne among
whom marriage is validated by a single exchange of gifts between
the two families. They are rare. Almost everywhere the characteristic
feature of affinal exchange is that it sets up a pattern of behavior
between two groups which frequently outlasts the union it was in-
tended to validate.
Even among people who regard marriage as a private affair of the
two individuals directly concerned, the passing of property may
constitute the formal recognition of the marriage. Such a case is
Zuni. Here marriage is by free choice. After the young people have
cohabited for four nights with the consent of the girl's parents, the
young man brings a gift of a woman's dress, which traditionally
should be furnished by his mother. (In Zufii the women were the
weavers; now he buys the dress from a Ilopi.) Next day the girl
goes to grind for her mother-in-law, and subsequently brings gifts
of corn meal "to pay for the dress." If the youth's female relatives
do not wish to acknowledge the marriage, the women tell the girl
when she comes to grind that they have no corn, and the young
man shamed out of the marriage. In that case the dress which he
is
has given as a bride gift becomes a present given in return for sexual
favors. In former days the mother would have refused the dress to
an undesirable bride.
In any event, the exchanges are unequal, the man's family con-
tributing the more valuable objects. But this can hardly be regarded
as a bride price, since the articles are given to the girl herself. She
in turn, assisted by her mother and sisters, gives to her husband's
female relatives. All the articles exchanged are women's goods, and
pass directly between women. This exchange between women, ap-
parently unique in primitive society, is an expression of the domi-
nance of women in all domestic and economic affairs. The father's
sisters(extended to include all clanswomen) are a child's most impor-
tant ceremonial relatives. This relationship has its economic obliga-
tions; the "aunt" must give gifts and service to her "child," and
the pattern of exchange set up at marriage is continued throughout
the life of the child. Initiations and other crises are marked by the
exchange of women's goods between the women of the mother's
line and the women of the father's sister's line. 90
The Zuni system is an example of extremely simple marital ex-
change. For marital exchange full-blown and raised to a position of

paramount economic importance, we must turn to Oceania. The
general structure of affinal exchange from New Guinea to Samoa is
identical. Reduced to its simplest terms the basic pattern is as fol-
lows. Whenever a marriage is arranged the extended kin groups of
the spouses are involved in enduring contractual obligations of an
economic nature. The marriage must be validated by the passage of
property back and forth between these groups, and the alliance must
be repeatedly reaffirmed by similar exchanges at crises in the lives
of the spouses and their children and, in some tribes, at every village
event. Barring divorce, these obligations continue until the dissolu-
tion of the marriageby the death of one of the spouses, the exchange
system frequently reaching its high point in the mourning ceremonies.
Upon this identical theme the Oceanic groups ring infinite changes,
according to the variations in their basic economies, their kinship
structure, and their interests and temperaments.
In analyzing the economics of marital exchange one must consider
both the kinds of property exchanged and the extension of the sys-
tem. Where the kinds of property exchanged are the same, sons and
daughters can be equated in the exchange system, which has its effect
on the status of women and the economic structure of the family.
Where, on the other hand, the property exchanged differs in kind,
any inequalities in the sex ratio produce in the economic field the
same kind of tension within the family that is produced by a marriage
system that requires an exchange of women. This may be eased by
borrowing or internal trade, or the sex ratio may be kept evenly
balanced by adoption; it becomes critical in case the property paid
on one side is rare or even absolutely limited in quantity like the
ranked valuables required for bride price on Rossel Island. 91
The other general consideration in affinal exchange, that of exten-
sion, concerns such questions as how often the exchanges are re-
peated, how many people are involved, and whether the two sides
function as groups or as individuals. Samoa represents one pattern,
Manus the other.
In Samoan exchange the man's side contributes men's goods
principally pigs, fish, other foodstuffs, and wood work against
women's goods bark cloth and mats contributed by the woman's
side.This pattern, inaugurated at betrothal, is repeated interminably

at each event in the life of the new family and at all visits. It is a
point of honor arid courtesy not to neglect the economic obligations

of remote kinship and to have ready the appropriate gift for the
distant affinal relative who comes to call. If a suitable article is not
available, it must be bought or borrowed, or requested as a gift
from a relative. The exchanges are not individual, and no accounts
are kept. The exchanges ha*e a ceremonious character, in keeping
with Sainoan emphasis on courtesy, graciousness, cooperativeness,
and the recognition of the most remote kinship ties. The characteristic
economic slant is given by the fact that men's property is largely
perishable, women's property permanent. The fine mats given with
a girl in marriage arc limited in quantity and are individually
known. They are valuables. But they pass freely from hand to hand,
and since only women give valuables, no object of equivalent value
is received in exchange. 92
Among all the Melanesian-speaking islanders who understand trade
and money so thoroughly, marital exchanges are conducted in a far
more businesslike fashion, sometimes with profit as a dominant
motive. In the Admiralty Islands all events which concern a marriage
or the children of a marriage set in motion an exchange of property.
As in Samoa there is the side of the man and the side of the woman,
each giving its own kind of property. The woman's side gives matting,
pigs, garden produce, and pots, which are traded in; the man's side
gives dogs' teeth and shell money the valuables. But here the
resemblance to the Polynesian system stops. The exchanges are not
courtesy gifts presented on joyous occasions; they constitute the
validation of status ceremonies betrothal, marriage, birth and ear
piercing, puberty of children 'and culminate in the great mortuary
exchanges that are characteristic of this part of the world. Also these
exchanges are in specified quantities, and careful accounts are kept
over long periods of time. Moreover, they are conducted between
individuals. Theoretically, each relative on the man's side exchanges
with someone similarly related on the woman's side; actually, he
exchanges with any economically competent relative. These two con-
duct their exchanges in the thoroughly commercial manner of Mel-
anesian trade partners. This exchange partnership continues so long
as the obligations set in force by the marriage exist.
A man's wealth, status, and power depend on his ability to keep
large numbers of these exchange relationships going. An enterprising
man will thus finance the marriage of as many of his young relatives
as he can corral. He may correct difficulties arising from the disparity
of the sexes in his family by adoption or by simply assuming re-
sponsibility for the marriage payments of any person younger than
himself who is related to him in any way by blood or marriage.
The motive is, as we have said, profit. But the profit is not in
the exchanges themselves, which are strictly equivalent. Nor does
the lending of required types of property at interest play any part,
as it does in Rossel Island. The profit comes from the relationship
between the entrepreneur and the young man whose marriage he
is financing. Young men have no property. They are betrothed in
childhood and henceforth, until they can assume financial respon-
sibility, must work for the man who has incurred financial obliga-
tions in their name. They fish or cut sago for their "benefactor."
This is bought and sold in regular trade or traded to the bush people,
the profit of these transactions being for the benefit of the entre-
preneur. There is no profit, apparently, in girls. They are taken on
to keep the balance even. So arranging marriages becomes the
principal occupation of the "big man" of Manus.
93
of the variety of material before us, one fact is plain. Mar-

Out
riage has economic repercussions that have nothing whatever to do
with the immediate economic problem of rearing a family of children.
Among the Kwakiutl marriage is another potlatch involving whole
tribes; in Rossel Island a marriage is another kind of pig feast; in
Manus another gamble with probability for the enterprising financier.
Among the Yoruba it is the road to wealth and power. And at a
former time in Europe royal marriages were the quickest, surest,
and least costly method of redrawing the map.
Gifts and hospitality. (&mong the important techniques of distribu-

tion among primitive people institutionalized gift-giving.
is We
our-
selves have very special attitudes in respect to gifts. Our giving is
almost wholly ceremonial. We give presents only on some occasion
in the life of the recipient) (except Christmas). Theoretically the gift
should be as far removed from the economic as possible; it should be
something useless and extravagant; above all, something which the
recipient would not think of buying for himself. Except in very
special cases gifts of money and necessary objects are tolerated only
between close relatives, or to a social inferior. There are therefore
"gift shops" devoted to the sale of articles suitable for gifts, most
of which never find any other "perfect gift" is something
use.(The
with a wholly fictitious value, like jewels and expensive perfumes.

The tactful lover sends orchids, although the lady may need shoes.
A gift must be accepted graciously *
and should be returned on a
similar occasion in the life of the original donor, with something
different in kind but equal in value. The one exception to this pattern
is the wedding gift, which is given only once, should have permanent
utilitarian value, and serves a definite economic function in estab-

the young married couple. It is in fact part of the bride's
lishing
dowr^) The conventional attitudes in giving and receiving gifts are
known to anyone beyond the age of three.
among us, has become so exclusively a social cere-
C5ift-giving,
we are apt to overlook its important economic function
monial that
among many primitive peoples.,) There is a tendency to phrase as
"gifts" transactions which have very different characters. A "gift"
at Zuni is a very different thing from a "gift" among the Kwakiutl.
It not true, as has often been stated, that among all primitive
is
people the acceptance of a gift invariably binds the recipient to

return something of equal or greater value. This is certainly not
true at Zuni, where the giving of presents is always one-sided, and
isa definite and recognized means of redistributing wealth.

Whereas at Zuni (gift-giving, like feasting, is a mechanism for ad-
justing existing inequalitiesj)the Maori manage their whole economy
on the principle of giving presents. The village is the economic unit.
In addition to offerings of first fruits, the whole catch of birds or of
fish is"given" to the chief. He proceeds to redistribute it, giving
to each according to his needs, his rank, and the obligations which
the chief may have incurred for services or other presents. large A
portion he retains for his own use, for the financing of communal
undertakings, for gifts to other chiefs.^The occasions for gift-giving
are innumerable. Moreover, the 'giving of presents has been sub-
stituted for tradeÂ chief may demand as a gift anything he desires,
and itmust be given him.(This custom is sustained by supernatural
sanction^ But a return gift of greater value is required. Gift-giving
is expressed in its most extreme form in the intertribal feast; at such
a feast large quantities of food are consumed, and still larger quan-
tities are given by the hosts to their guests to take home, and after
*
We make one exception to this rule of compulsory acceptance. A woman
may refuse a valuable gift from an unrelated male, for such a gift has a sexual
connotation. Among the Ibo, a tribe of West Africa, little girls are warned not to
accept gifts from men, for such acceptance, in the presence of witnesses, commits
the child to marriage. It is a tribe in which competition for women is acute.
it the community is impoverished in material resources, but enor-
mously enriched in prestige. Such a feast requires years of prepara-
tion. The prestige and power of the chief and the pride of a group
in its chief depend very largely on his ability to maintain a reputa-
tion for generosity at home and abroad. 94
Among the Kwakiutl the giving of a gift is an aggressive act against
a rival, an attempt to outdo him. "Rivals fight with property/'
This emphasis on the humiliation of the rival is the negative aspect
one might almost say the perversion of the same sentiment
which impels men to make gifts out of motives of self-respect. Among
the Kwakiutl gift-giving is no longer truly economic; and it is there-
fore significant that all the more important transactions are in ob-
95
jects that have only an exchange value, blankets and coppers.
The free giving of presents as an important economic function,
in contrast to mere ceremonial giving, is characteristic of all North
American tribes and of Polynesia. The African king does not receive
96
presents; he sends out a tax collector armed with royal authority.
The Melanesians in general do not understand giving a gift is the
initiation of a series of exchanges. '"(jThe efficiency of gift-giving as
an economic mechanism depends on the existence in the group of
strong inner sanctions a sense of shame or of personal dignity,
and a reliance on the will of each man to act It is the
becomingly
economic expression of self-appreciation\Most of the peoples who
make much of gift-giving have institutionalized boasting Zufii is an
exception. But the complacent disdain with which the "valuable"
man regards everyone else is the characteristic Pueblo manner of
expressing the same state of mind .(Extreme sensitiveness to criticism
and a tendency to disparage others are the negative aspects of this
personality and in these characteristics Pueblo Indians
structure^)
excel.
The Orokaiva of New Guinea, all of whose sanctions are based
on motives of self-esteem, reinterpret all of the Melanesian and
Papuan property exchange situations as occasions for honorific gift-
giving. The
usual marriage pattern is that the bride elopes; relatives
follow her and humiliate the husband. The husband then collects
the bride price, pigs, garden food, and ornaments. All his relatives,
male and female, contribute. Sometimes human victims are sub-
stituted for pigs, in which case the feather ornaments assume the
*
Dr. Mead and Dr. Fortune have reported on the difficulty of inducing even
small children to accept the gift of a trinket.
importance of homicidal honors. The bride's family comes with a

show of force to collect this tribute, and the bride's father immediately
gives away these objects to his relatives. The return of the
all of
bride price optional; the reason given is that the bride's family
is
"would be ashamed to make no return payment/' or that it is to

honor the woman so that her husband will treat her kindly. In that
case "the girl goes for nothing/' and may return home when she will.
At initiations various relatives kill pigs in honor of the initiates,
boys and girls, and give them the homicidal insignia. The pigs are
given to visitors. The child who receives these honorific ornaments
is expected to wear them with dignity.
Throughout Melanesia death is an occasion for the most drastic

economic rearrangements. The Orokaiva have a series of feasts in
which first the family of the deceased, and later the family of the
widow, distribute pigs and other property. The motive of reciprocity,
if present, is certainly not conspicuous, since Williams, a careful
observer, does not mention it. It is viewed as a series of feasts with

appropriate victims (again the pig is identified with the human
victim) "to wipe out the shame of the widow."
Williams 97 generalizes about the economy of the Orokaiva as
follows:
Perhaps the most characteristic of all [their virtues] is liberality. . . .
There is nothing, not valor in war nor prowess in the chase, that brings
an Orokuiva so prominently into the public eye as the providing of a
big feast. Yet no one could deny the existence of true generosity; this is
shown in countless details of daily life.
. .
Although there is no systematic
.
sharing of food supplies, yet constant gifts and feasts large and small
achieve in the long run what amounts to equal distribution. ... To give
freely of one's food is the proper thing to do; it is an elementary virtue in
respect of which there are few failures. . For his liberality a man re-
. .
ceives a reward of honor; but beyond that and this should not be
thought to disqualify it entirely as a virtue he constantly looks for an
equal return in kind. . . The return may be made long subsequently,
.
but it may be called a matter of honor to equal or exceed the original

gift; just as it is a matter of disgrace and lowered self-esteem to fail.
This description, which might do equally well for the Dakota, is
striking in the middle of New Guinea.

The foregoing discussion shows how ^difficult it often is to dis-
tinguish gift-giving from exchange and trade, especially where the
feeling for reciprocity is strong?) The Maori chief who exchanges
gifts with a visitor, or who taboos an article which he desires, is
from the purely economic point of view engaging in trade. The
Kwakiutl who gives away blankets on behalf of his son in order
that he may procure a potlatch name and a place in all subsequent
property distributions is really initiating his son into a system of
compulsory exchange in which he will become more deeply involved
with each new participation but in which there is always the pos-
sibility of profit. It is a matter of how the actors look at their trans-
actions. The Maori disdains any open consideration of relative values
and relies entirely on the sense of the fitting in his vis-a-vis. The
Kwakiutl aims ultimately to cap his career by giving the gift of great
value which cannot be returned. This is quite different from the
attitude, say, of the Manus entrepreneur if he receives no return
of his exchanges; instead of being proud of having downed a rival
or done a fine thing he is chagrined at having made a bad invest-
ment. Giving and exchanging may work out the same way economi-
cally, with, however, one important difference.(Jntentional and con-
spicuous waste is characteristic of those societies where economic
exchange takes the form of gift-giving and serves as a means of self-
agprobationl)
In the foregoing paragraphs, we have discussed chiefly the private
gift, made by one individual to another. But what has been said
applies equally to the custom of general giving, the "give-away"
(frequently called the "big feast") that figures so prominently in
the economy of many primitive societies. Among people who go in
for lavishness any private or public event, a birth, a marriage, the
initiation of a boy or the appearance of a menses, the return
girl's
from a annual slaughter of the
raid, the ripening of the crop, the
herd, the recovery from illness, an embarrassing event, and even
death itself may be seized upon by an individual or a group as an
occasion for wholesale property distribution. Sometimes there is no
occasion; it is simply decided to "give a feast/ Sometimes this is
simply an occasion for initiating exchanges or paying old debts. On
the face of it we can never be sure, without going into the economics
and accounting in detail, or unless there is other evidence, such as
lavishness and conspicuous waste.
The life of New Guinea tribes is the "big feast/'
great event in the
and perhaps no people carry this form of lavishness to greater excess
than the Mafulu, a mountain tribe living simply in small hamlets.
They have gardens and raise pigs, and plant special gardens of sweet
potatoes to feed their domestic pigs. In addition, the young pigs

are suckled at the breast, and tended with such devotion that a
woman will kill her newborn infant, in order to suckle the pig, if
she has no grown pig to kill for the child's name feast. Then every
ten years or so a group of these hamlets of from two to eight houses
gives a big feast to a neighboring group of villages. The feast is in-
augurated by an exchange of insults. At such a feast as many as 130
pigs maybe slaughtered and given to the visitors, who take them
away. The pigs slain are used to validate some personal crisis a
birth, marriage, an initiation in the family of the man whose pig
is After this slaughter the village is uninhabitable and is
killed.
abandoned as if in mourning. The whole village goes out to hunt
and eat the wild pig ceremonially, and a new village is founded.
Firth has described the big feast of the Maori, with its years of
preparation, lavish displays of food, much of which spoils before it
is eaten, and the dire poverty that follows in its wake.
The
feast plays a very different role, as we have seen, in the life
of the Reindeer Chukchee. Before the onset of winter there are two
large slaughterings of animals, primarily to procure skins for winter
clothing an early slaughtering of young fawns with soft thin skins,
and a later slaughtering after the full winter coat has grown. In
the camp of a large stock owner many animals are killed, there is a
great quantity of meat available, and the occasion is one of great
festivity. Invitations are sent out in advance, and friends and rela-
tives come from far away. The slaughtering takes place on different
days in adjacent camps, and visitors from afar visit from camp to
camp. There are games, wrestling matches, shamanistic performances.
And to each guest the host gives one or more slaughtered animals,
together with the skins. It would be an insult to the guest not to
give him the skin. These mark the high point in the social
feasts
lives of these widely dispersed herdsmen. They are also economically
important to those poor herdsmen who, in their anxiety to build up
their economic independence, are reluctant to slaughter animals even
for the necessities of life. The Chukchee feast has none of the charac-
teristic features of the Oceanic feast there is no display of food, no
wanton destruction, none of the formalities of insult and retaliation.
Nothing could bring out more strikingly the different psychological

aura that may surround institutions called by the same name than
to read a description of a Chukchee or Zuni feast after an Orokaiva
or a Mafulu or a Kwakiutl feast.
Intertribal economics. The importance of intertribal relations, trade,
and warfare in the economy of any group depends on other factors
than accidents of geography alone. One might reasonably assume
that poverty of the environment will lead men to establish relation-
ships, peaceful or predatory, with the inhabitants of more favorably
endowed regions. Like so many reasonable assumptions, the idea
that people trade only or chiefly under the spur of necessity is not
supported by the facts. The Eskimo, with the most rigorous envi-
ronment managed to survive with a minimum of out-
in the world,
White traders forced their way into the Arctic, and
side contact until
they managed very well indeed, as the age and stability of Eskimo
culture prove better, possibly, than they will manage in the era
of communication and trade. Eskimo self-sufficiency was not always
the result of geographical isolation; in parts of the area they were
near enough to other peoples to engage in trade. Moreover, con-
temporary Eskimo trade is characteristic; they have not surrendered
their economic independence or made drastic changes in their econ-
omy. The great majority have not given up aboriginal pursuits to

liveby the fur trade. They merely trade their surplus for improved
tools and weapons, guns and steel knives and iron for harpoon points
and sledge runners. This is a substitution of materials that has had
but little effect on economic structure. The Eskimo are not a trading
people in the way that the Melanesians and Central Americans are
trading people.
The fact that the Eskimo have made such a meager environment
do, without recourse to hostile or dependent relations with other
tribes, indicates that it is not the uneven distribution of natural
wealth alone that creates wars and trade. Animals adapt their habits
to their environment; so can human beings, unless there is some-
thing in their social structure or cultural evaluation that makes the
products of another region appear desirable. Moreover, it is fre-
quently not necessities, but luxuries like pottery and copper bells,
or objects of nonutilitarian value like large greenstone adzes and
spondylus shell necklaces, that form the most important trade articles
and that travel farthest. Trade and predatory warfare are alternative
reactions to coveting one's neighbor's goods, but they are not mu-
tually exclusive. Trade is often carried on in the teeth of intense
hostility, between tribes who customarily war on each other, like
the Navajo and the Zuni, or the tribes of New Guinea who trade
in the intervals of head-hunting.
Industrial specialization, concentration of wealth of different kinds

in different groups, and social stratification are structural factors
that predispose to the development of internal trade. Often, however,
these asymmetries of distribution are adjusted by other forms of ex-
change marriage or mortuary exchange, "gifts," symbiotic feu-
dalism. Local specialization on the basis of geographical or purely
cultural factors such as special skill is a necessary condition of inter-
tribal trade. But the development of intense specialization is con-
tingent upon the existence of a dependable market. The market

system of Central America is highly organized and thoroughly de-
pendable. Were this not the case the town of Nahuala in Guatemala
could not exist, as itby the manufacture of grindstones alone
does,
without raising food to support its own population. Nor
sufficient
could the other towns of this trade area get along without troubling
to make this necessary article at home. The case of the Amphletts
in Melanesia is even more striking. These coral islands live entirely
by pottery, but have to import their clay from overseas. Trade must
have been well developed before such intense specialization could
grow up. The existence of markets depends on the disinclination of
buyers to learn new techniques. In Melanesia local monopolies are
bolstered by faith in privately owned magic. In North America, on
the other hand, techniques spread readily from tribe to tribe, and
trade is consequently of slight economic importance.
In preceding paragraphs we have discussed (yarious forms of in-
ternal exchange*)vhich result in the redistribution of products often
products of different kinds but which Cannot be called trade)(These
exchanges are obligatory, or at least demanded by prestige; they
follow prescribed channels, without regard for such economic factors
as the needs or resources of the individuals concerned. But trade
isprimarily an economic mechanisnOlt may have a secondary social
function as in the markets of Africa or Central America. Or else the
prestige and ceremonial aspects may completely overshadow the
economic, as in the kula trade already described. However the manner
of conducting trade may differ from one group to another, however
much the interest in trade may varyAhe main economic motiva-
tions are clear and everywhere the same: to get a fair return of the
things one needs in return for the surplus of the things that one has.
Profit is not universally absent from primitive trade, but it is usually
very much curtailed. The open market as we know it is practically
nonexistent, especially in those places where trade is most important.
There no open market} in MelanesiaCwhere most trade
is is con-
ductechthrough trade partnerships, or in Africa where (the officers
of the king supervise the market, confiscating adulterated or over-
priced merchandise.^)
CThe type of primitive trade that most closely resembles the
noncommercial forftis of exchange is the so-called "silent trade" re-
ported from many of the simpler tribes, and as a method of con-
ducting trade in the face of intertribal hostility!? The Veddas, a hill
tribe of Ceylon, trade in this fashion with the Sinhalese.vThey come
down at night and leave meat at the shop of a)Sinhalese(smith as
an advance payment on arrow points. They return some days later
for the arrows, bringing more meat to pay for them. The two parties
to the transaction do not meet; there can be no bargaining over
equivalence or values. Parity of exchange depends on the fear of
98
retaliationthrough violence, property destruction, or sorcery. /
Throughout Melanesia flourishes the institution of the trade friend-
ship, a lifelong relationship between individuals in different, often
hostile, tribes or in different divisions of the same tribe, who trade
exclusively with each other. This often a relationship of tremendous
is
social importance. Within the tribe it may carry with it sexual rights,
such as rights of access to the trade friend's wife or a lien on one of
his sisters. In a hostile tribe the trade friend may be the only guar-
antee of asylum. From the economic point of view the conduct of
trade within this institution channels the movement of wealth, cur-
tails profits, and reduces commercialrivalry somewhat. It also opens
the way for transactions requiring long-term credit. This makes it
a particularly useful institution 'among people who have no money.
Typical of Melanesian trade is the relationship between tribes on
the southeast coast of New Guinea. There are continuous trade
relations up and down the coast. Articles of value from the islands
are traded as far as the Purari delta, and then inland, and food prod-
ucts move eastward, but for shorter distances. One of the longest
expeditions is that of the Motu for the Purari delta, a distance of
about 350 miles along the coast. Each year at the end of the south-
east monsoon a fleet of some hundred to two hundred canoes, lashed
together in groups and manned by about five hundred men, sets out
from Motu. They carry cargoes of pots, necklaces, arm shells, and
greenstone adzes, the last two commodities having been imported
from the east. They sail with the wind to the mouth of the Purari.
Here each man goes at once to his trade friend, giving him his pots,
arm shells, and other articles, and receiving from him a tally of
palm ribs for each They then proceed to the bush, where
article.
they work on canoes, logs for which have been cut for them by the
bush natives. They remain about four or five months and return
with the northwest monsoon. Before leaving they receive from their
trade friends sago and betel nuts to pay for the pots and orna-
ments. This kind of trade expedition is typical for the whole Mela-
nesian area."
The objects traded in this part of Melanesia are of two kinds:
objects of utility, like sago, pots, wood work, small greenstone adzes,
and valuables, conus arm shells, spondylus shell necklaces, and
large greenstone adzes, and, in other trade districts such as the
Admiralty Islands, dogs' teeth, boars' tusks, and red feathers. Along
the coast of New Guinea commodities may be exchanged for valu-
ables, but in certain districts, notably the kula district, the exchange
of valuables and commodities is kept strictly apart; commodities
are exchanged for commodities, valuables for valuables in a system
which admits neither accumulation nor profit. These valuables are
not media of exchange or fixed values in terms of which other values
are measured. They are not, therefore, "money." There is one place
in the Pacific where objects fulfilling these two functions of money
are found, Rossel Island. Here there are two systems of shell money,
each made up of a number of fixed values, the relations between which
are measured in terms of the time required for one to accumulate
interest that will raise it to the next value. (individual pieces are
ranked and named. This money is fixed in quantity and does not
circulate freely. It is used only in certain ceremonial exchanges)such
as the purchase of pigs, wives, and human victims for cannibal
feasts. Rossel Island is isolated and engages in very little overseas
trade. The "money" of Buin, which has none of the complexity of
grading of the Rossel system, is similar in principle, a permanent

object of fixed value exchangeable for certain services and com-
100
modities.
The trade picture in Central America is somewhat different.
The economic background is similar: regions of different geographic
endowment that have exaggerated their differences by the develop-
ment of special skills Jocalized in villages, jvith the resulting inter-
dependence of a large .area inhabitecH&y peoples speaking different
languages. But here trade isconducted êntirely in open markets.
Each village has a weekly or daily market for the interchange of
localproducts and imports. The weekly market at the village of
Chichicastenango, one of the great trade centers which draws thou-
sands of visitors weekly, includes local producers of foodstuffs, local
merchants with commodities like coffee or mats brought from other
villages, regular visitors from nearby towns with their local products,
and occasional traders from more distant towns with the produce
of their own or other towns for which they serve as middlemen
These men dispose of the greater part of their stock to local mer-
chants. They do not return empty-handed, but buy other objects,
such as mats or bags, to sell at home, or else 'buy foodstuffs to sell
at the railhead where they can purchase foreign wares such as steel
knives and cotton yarn. Chichicastenango is a town of middlemen;
almost every man engages in trade for profit. The town is very
wealthy, and most of this wealth is derived from trade. On the
other hand the industrial towns of the area are poor.
Within the same trade district, markets are held on successive
days in different villages. In addition each villag^ has one large fair
each year on the date of the feast of the patron saint; these in im-
portant centers attract thousands of merchants from far and near.
The market an important role in the social, political, and re-
plays*
ligious brings large numbers of people together and forms the
life; it
necessary contrast to the rather disruptive and unsocial life on iso-

lated farms.* Although the Central American market is formally
open, there evidence of competition. Prices are set by custom.

is little
Every commodity increases in price with the distance from the

source of supply. The roads are open to everyone, and everyone
likes to use them. Moreover, there are supernatural sanctions against
greed and sharp dealing, and fear of sorcery and the envy of others
keeps prices moderate.
Money used in Central American markets, the usual money
is
or moneys of the country. In pre-Columbian times the seeds of c&cao

served as a medium of exchange. But their perishable nature, their
use as a commodity, and their variation in value in different geo-
graphical regions preclude their being classed as money. They still
serve as valuables in ceremonial exchanges.

iFarioOne mechanism of intertribal economics^still remains to be
mentioned, war. predatory warfare was an established part of the
economy of many primitive peoples. Raiding for profit was the
* A
Guatemalan village is not a place where large numbers of people live; it is
a place where they foregather for religious and commercial activities.
characteristic economic relationship between the sedentary Pueblos

and their nomadic neighbors. The popular picture is that of hordes
of Navajo swooping down on the peaceable and defenseless Pueblos,
and robbing them of their corn. But the reminiscences of elders in-
dicate that the Zuiiis at least were no passive victims,, Navajo who
came to trade peaceably were treacherously killed and robbed, and
when things became dull at home the Zufiis went on the warpath
with the avowed object of stealing Navajo sheep^ After killing off
all the inhabitants of a camp, they drove off the sheep. On returning
home these were divided among the members of the war party,
according to rank, and the rest were turned loose among the people.
Warfare has been stopped and its place has been taken by trade in
sheep and turquoise in which the Zufiis drive the hardest bargains.
Ashamed of sharp practice at home, they delight in cheating the
101 ;
Navajo.
(Warfare on the northern plains, while primarily for glory, had
its economic side.]) The Crow raided systematically for horses, their
favorite form of wealth, and a stolen horse was the only acceptable
bride gift. Here, however, prestige outranked profit as a motive; it
was the exploit rather than the acquisition of the horse that was
most important. The stealing of a horse under prescribed conditions
was a recognized counter in the war-rank complex. Horses stolen
on the warpath were generally given away, adding still another cubit
to the prestige of the warrior. 102
On the other hand, Qhe whole economic system of the Kiowa
hinged upon warfare. Here also the objective was not food or valu-
ables but horses, the instruments of production in their economy.)
With the development of buffalo-hunting and nomadic life large
numbers of horses were necessary for comfortable existence. Each
man required several fast, specially trained buffalo horses for the
hunt itself, battle horses, and pack horses for carrying meat, tipi
poles, etc. Furthermore, they accumulated wealth in the form of

large herds of unbroken horses.. A
man acquired power by having
horses to lend. In this way he could get poor relatives to hunt or raid
for him. And he acquired prestige from giving horses away- The best
and most honorable way to get horses was by raiding neighboring
tribes and Mexicans. Certain seasons of the year were devoted to
raiding; parties sometimes stayed out for months and years and
drove off large herds of horses. On such raids they killed only when
necessary. They also took slaves and sold them to the Comanche. 103
\ Almost all North American tribes took captives in war, who were
brought ba<ck as slaves and frequently adopted into the family of
the captor/)But for slave-raiding as the aim of war we must turn
to West Africa.fAH the tribes of this region have slavery as an es-
tablished and important economic institution, and warfare with the
avowed purpose of capturing slaves has been vigorously prosecuted
even across the Sahara!) 04 The desert tribes raided the great king-
doms of the Guinea coast to take slaves to be sold to the North
African tribes, and during the period of the American slavs trade
the tribes of the coast raided the inland peoples with similar objec-
tives. But in addition to these great interracial movements the whole
internal economy predisposes to this form of warfare. Among all
African peoples women are the most valued economic assets. Women,
as we have seen, are capital and build power for their owners, and
throughout this part of Africa power rivalry is an important motive.
Power built through women, polygamy which creates a shortage of
women, the resulting high bride price and strong rivalry, have given
special economic importance to the taking of female slaves in war-
fare. Such captive women become wives or concubines of their
masters, and their children are free. In most parts of the worlcT this
is the only kind of slavery that is known.
Throughout New Guinea the fact that a human victim can usually
be substituted for a pig at a marriage or funeral feast most of
these tribes eat their victims and some kill for food without cere-
monial pretext has given a special coloring to their head-hunting.
Or perhaps it only the substitution of pigs for human victims
is
that has kept these tribes from completely exterminating each other.
There is no glory in Papuan warfare. The point is to kill in the
safest and most economical and the usual pattern is to send
fashion,,
out an expedition of some tywarriors against' a small isolated and
fif
defenseless settlement, or to waylay victims in the bush. In such

raids the women and children are often taken as captives*
Marriage with captive women and adoption of captive children

isso widespread in parts of New Guinea that whole tribes, like the
Marind-Anim, are of mixed descent and sometimes even of mixed
language. This fact adds still further complications to the whole
head-hunting picture for this area. Head-hunting, adoption, and
trade exist side by side between the same tribes.
(War for territorial expansion was relatively rare in the primitive
worlcQlt must have occurred in many places in the past, but for
the most part we can only infer it from authenticated records of
population movements such as we find in archaeological remains

and from such complexities of social structure as those of the caste
states of central Africa. Wars of this kind are very different from the
desultory murdering and plundering by individuals or groups of in-

dividuals. The war party, even when organized under a leader with
supernatural sanctions, is purely individualistic in aim; persons go

on war parties for individual honor or profit. Raiding for plunder
can and does occur among people with any kind of social or economic
structure. But wars of conquest involving whole populations can be
carried out only by politically organized groups. It is not merely a
question of the size of the undertaking which requires more exten-
sive organization and stronger leadership. There is a difference of
attitude. The men who go out to raid expect to come back alive,
and almost always do. The loss of life is among the passive defendants.
In North America, at least, the leader who loses men on a raid is
thereafter disqualified; he has lost his power. But a war of conquest
cannot be fought without loss of life. There must therefore be an
idea of a commonwealth for which men are willing to risk their
lives, or an authority strong enough to compel them to do so in
short, a strong state. A strong state does not necessarily mean a

large state. Some of the most outstandingly successful wars of con-
quest, such as the conquest of Mexico, have been waged by small
groups of men with a fanatical singleness of purpose, mowing down
unorganized or uncertain populations.
/Africa is the part of the primitive world that is characterized by
strong political organization. Itnot surprising, therefore, that wars
is
of conquest
have^been waged among the native states of Africa
from relatively early days down to the present. In early days there
were undoubtedly great population movements; the more recent
wars have been waged over the point of extension of political power,
wjiich always means tribute to the ruler.
(bne of the most interesting primitive wars of conquest within
historic times was the conquest of the islands of Lg,u, Southeast
Fiji, by a war expedition from Fiji proper some 150 years ago. A
relatively smallgroup of warriors conquered the islands, established

themselves as a ruling class, and proceeded to acquire title to land
by intermarriage with the indigenous population. This process is still
going on.
Among the Aztecs of ancient Mexico war was the most honorable
occupation and warriors formed a privileged caste. War formed one of
the integrating factors of the Aztec state. The whole society was orga-
nized along martial lines, the various descent groups forming military
units each under, a chief. War was waged with two objectives,
war
tribute and
captives. First coming into prominence in the thirteenth
century as the boldest of the predatory nomads who preyed upon
the civilized peoples of the valley of Mexico, the Aztec kings rapidly
built up an empire on the Roman plan, which extended into Central
America and included peoples of many languages and diverse cul-
tures. To conquered peoples they extended protection a sort of
pax Mexicana and from them they demanded tribute in the form
of food stores, local handicrafts, and precious metals. On this founda-
tion was built up the magnificence of the court of the Montezumas
whose splendor so excited the cupidity of the Spaniards, and which
ultimately formed the economic basis of Spain's age of glory. But in
one respect the conquests of the Mexicans differed from those of
any other people. The Aztecs had what is unquestionably the most
bloodthirsty religion in all recorded history. The sun required human
sacrifices, and blood had to be spilled in connection with all the
cults for rain and fertility. To supply the victims for this charnel
house the Aztecs waged merciless warfare on all their neighbors.
The warriors who brought captives to the altars were upholding the
supernatural power as well as the material prosperity of the empire.
The Aztecs after they settled in the valley of Mexico had a self-
sustaining agricultural economy, handicrafts, and an elaborate system

of trade.Warfare was the business of the warrior caste, and it sup-
ported the temple and the court, but not the people.
FOOTNOTES
1. See Sumner, W. G., Keller, A. G., and Davie, M. R., The Science of Society
(1927), vol. 4, index, p. 1274.
2. Henry, J., The Kaingang of Brazil (Ms.).
3. Mead, M,, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935).
4. Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., The Arunta (London, 1927), vol. 1, pp. 15 ff.;
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., "Social Organization of Australian Tribes,"

Oceania, vol. 1 (1930-31), pp. 63, 439; Pink, O., "The Landowners in the
Northern Division of the Aranda Tribe/' Oceania, vol. 6 (1936), pp. 275 ff.
5. Boas, F., The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl
Indians, Report of the United States National Museum, 1895 (1897);
Swanton, J. R., Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haida, Jesup Expe-
dition, vol. 5, Part I (1905-09), and Social Condition, Beliefs, and Lin-
guistic Relationship of the Tlingit Indians, Annual Report of the Bureau

of American Ethnology, vol. 26 (1908); Boas, F., Tsimshian Mythology,

ibid., vol. 31 (1916).
6. See, for instance, Lowie, R. H., The Crow Indians (1935); also in Anthro-
pological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, vol. 16 (1921);
vol. 21 (1924); Fortune, R. F., Omaha Secret Societies, Columbia Uni-
versity Contributions to Anthropology, vol. 14 (1932).
7. Irle, J., Die Herero (Gutersloh, 1906).
8. Smith, E. W., and Dale, A. M., The Ila-Speaking Peoples of Northern Rho-
desia (London, 1920).
9. lleichard, G. A., Social Life of the Navajo Indians, Columbia University
Contributions to Anthropology, vol. 7 (1928).
10. Driberg, J. H., The Lango (London, 1923).
11. Williamson, R. W., The Mafnlu (London, 1912).
12. Malinowski, B., Argonauts of the Western Pacific (London, 1922), pp. 146 ff.
13. Boas, F., The Central Eskimo, Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,
vol. 6 (1888).
14. Bogoras, W., The Chukchee, Jesup Expedition, vol. 7 (1904-09).
15. Mead, M.,Social Organization of Manua, Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bul-
76 (1930).
letin
16. Malinowski, B., Argonauts of the Western Pacific, p. 62, and Coral Gardens
(London, 1935), vol. 1, pp. 218 if.

17. Fortune, R. P\, Sorcerers of Dobu (1932); Malinowski, B., Argonauts of the
Western Pacific.
18. Bogoras, W., op. cit.
19. Barton, R. F., Ifngao Economics, University of California Publications in
American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 15 (1922), pp. 405 ff.
20. Thurnwald, R. C., "Pigs and Currency in Buin," Oceania, vol. 5, no. 2
(1934), pp. 119-141.
21. Benedict, R., Patterns of Culture (1934).
22. Veblen, T., The Theory of the Leisure Class (1917).
23. Bunzei, R., A
Guatemalan Village (Ms.).
24. Deloria, Ella, Dakota Ethnology (Ms.).
25. Tawney, R. H., The Acquisitive Society (1920).
"
26. Sombart, W., Capitalism/' Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 3
(1930).
27. Beaglehole, E., Property (Ixmdon, 1931).
28. Firth, R., Primitive Economics of the New Zealand Maori (1929), pp. 235 ff.
29. Bunzei, R., Zuni Economics (Ms.) and Zuni Texts, Publications of the Ameri-
can Ethnological Society, vol. 15 (1933).
30. Fortune, R. F., Sorcerers of Dobu, pp. 108, 128.
31. Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., op. cit., p. 63.
32. Landes, R., Ojibwa Sociology, Columbia University Contributions to Anthro-
pology, vol. 29 (1937).
33. Boas, F., The Central Eskimo, p. 609.
34. Malinowski, B., Coral Gardens, vol. 1, pp. 175 ff.
35. Henry, J., op. cit.
36. Seligmann, C. G. and B. Z., The Veddas (Cambridge, 1911), p. 86.
37. Tilting, L. T. (Ms.).
38. Junod,Henri A., The Life of a South African Tribe (London, 1927), vol. l,p.317.
39. Henry, J., op. cit.
40. Nelson, E. W., The Eskimo about Bering Strait, Annual Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology, vol. 18 (1899), p. 294.
41. Case record from Bunzel, R., Zuni Economics (Ms.).
42. Malinowski, B., Cord Gardens, vol. 1, p. 300.
43. Driberg, J., op. cit., p. 171.
44. Firth, R., op. tit, p. 372.
45. Bunzel, R., A Guatemalan Village (Ms.).
Indians, Report of the United States National Museum, 1895 (1897),
pp. 338-340.
47. Fortune, R. F., Sorcerers of Dobu, p. 86.
48. Roscoe, J., The Bakitara (Cambridge, 1923), p. 57.
49. Roscoe, J., The Bakitara, pp. 176 ff., and The Banyankole (Cambridge,
1923), pp. 63 ff .
50. Roscoe, J., The Bakitara.

51. Malinowski, B., Coral Gardens, vol. 1, pp. 18, 162.
53. The analysis of Zuni economics is based chiefly on the author's intensive
study of the functioning of ten Zuni households over a period of eighteen

months, supplemented by general studies in Zuni ethnology. The author
is indebted to R. Benedict's Patterns of Culture, pp. 57 ff ., for the de-
scription of the Zuni configuration.

54. Based on personal information and the reports of Franz Boas, especially
The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians; The
Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island, Jesup Expedition, vol. 5, Part II (1909);
Ethnology of the Kwakiutl, Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, vol. 35, Parts I and II (1921); Kwakiutl Ethnology, Columbia
University Contributions to Anthropology, vol. 3 (1925).
55. Based on Malinowski's various accounts, especially Argonauts of the Western
Pacific, The Sexual Life of Savages (London, 1929), Coral Gardens, and
a short paper, "Primitive Economics of the Trobriand Islanders," Eco-
nomic Journal, vol. 31 (1921), pp. 1-16.
56. Malinowski, B., "Primitive Economics of the Trobriand Islanders," p. 8.
57. Fortune, R. F., Sorcerers of Dobu, pp. 200 ff.
58. Malinowski, B., Argonauts of the Western Pacific, p. 89.
59. Fortune, R. F., Sorcerers of Dobu.
60. Malinowski, B., Argonauts of the Western Pacific, p. 64.
61. Ibid., pp. 510, 511.
62. Landes, R., The Ojibwa Woman, Columbia University Contributions to
Anthropology, vol. 31 (1938).
64. Bunzel, R., A Guatemalan Village (Ms.).
65. See Sumner, Keller, and Davie, op. cit., vol. 4, pp. 995, 1106.
66. Firth, R., op. cit.
67. Diaz del Castillo, B., A True History of the Conquest of New Spain, trans-
lated by A. P, Maudslay, vol. 5, p. 334.

69. Grinnell, G. B., The Cheyenne Indians (1923); Mishkin, B., Kiowa Eco-
nomics (field notes, 1935).
70. Driberg, J. H., op. cit.
71. Mead, M., Cooperation and Competition among

Primitive Peoples (1937).
72. Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., The Andaman Islanders (Cambridge, 1933).
73. Seligmann, C. G. and B. Z., op. cit.
74. Boas, P., The Central Eskimo.
75. Fortune, R. F., Sorcerers of Dobu, p. 71.
76. Barton, R. F., op. cit., p. 425.
77. Bunzel, R., Zuni Texts, p. 53.
78. Bunzel, R., field notes.
79. Malinowski, B., Sexual Life of Savages, pp. 104-107. .
80. Benedict, R., "Marital Property Rights in a Bilateral Society," American

Anthropologist, vol. 38 (1936).
81. Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., "Matrilineal and Patrilineal Succession," Iowa
Law Review, vol. 20 (1935), pp. 286-303.
82. Stayt, H. A., The Bave?ida (Oxford, 1931), p. 143.
83. Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., "Matrilineal and Patrilineal Succession."
84. Junod, H. A., op. cit.
85. Keysser, C., "Aus dem Leben der Kai-leute," in R. Neuhauss, Deulsch-
Neuguinea (Berlin, 1911), p. 26; Thurnwald, R. C., "Status of Women
in Buin," Oceania, vol. 5 (1934), pp. 142 ff.
86. Reichard, G. A., Social Life of the Narnjo Indians, p. 140, amplified in
personal conversation; Grinnell, G. B., op. cit., vol. 1, p. 140; Lowie,
R. H., The Crow Indians (1935), p. 51.
87. Driberg, J. H., op. cit.
88. Bunzel, R., Quiche Village (Ms.).
90. Bunzel, R., Zuni Economics (Ms.).
91. Armstrong, W. E., llossel Island (Cambridge, 1928).
92. Mead, M., Social Organization of Manua.
93. Mead, M., Kinship in the Admiralty Islands, Anthropological Papers, Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History, vol. 34, Part II (1934).
94. Firth, R., op. cit.
95. Boas, F., Social Organization and Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl.
97. Williams, F. E., Orokaiva Society (Oxford, 1930), pp. 316-317.
98. Seligmann, C. G. and B. Z., op. cit., p. 6.
99. Tilting, L. T., Native Trade in Southeast New Guinea, Papers of the
Bernice P. Bishop Museum, vol. 11, no. 15 (1935).
100. Armstrong, W. E., op. cit.
101. Bunzel, R., Zuni Texts, pp: 31 ff.

*
102. Lowie, R. H., The Crow Indians, p. 219.
103. Mishkin, B., Rank and Warfare in Plains Indian Culture (Ms.).
104. Meek, C. K., The Northern Tribes of Nigeria (London, 1925), vol. 1, pp. 287 ff .
GENERAL REFERENCES
Beaglehole, E., Property (London, 1931).
Ford, D. C., Habitat, Economy and Society. A Geographical Introduction to
Ethnology (London, 1934).
Hobhouse, Wheeler, Guinsberg, The Material Culture and Social Institutions of
the Simpler People (London, 1930).
Mead, M., Competition and Cooperation among Primitive Societies (1937).

Thurnwald, R., Economics in Primitive Communities (Oxford, 1932).
CHAPTER IX
SOCIAL LIFE
GLADYS A. REICHARD
There are solitary ants, bees, and wasps, but nowhere and at no
time has normal man lived alone. In discussing man's social organi-
zation, it is necessary to differentiate that which is "natural" and
that which is cultural. A glance at forms of social organization among
animals lower than man shows that forms may be found which sug-
gest certain analogies to our own social organization. In the animal
world more or less permanent polygynous, polyandrous, or monoga-
mous matings are found. Family organization occurs among certain
insects and and is familiar to all as existing among birds and
fishes
the higher mammals. Of paramount interest are the complex ant
colonies with a definite division of labor, where social classes, as
workers, agriculturists, slaves, warriors, and even guests, each have
a peculiar function in the state. A number of groups intermediate
between the small family group and the large, highly organized state,
such as the local group, herd, open and closed band with their proper
leaders and sentinels, may be differentiated. Peculiar too are the
ceremonies of bowerbirds, one of which (Amblyornis) chooses for the
dance a place which has a background of foliage, and decorates it
with berries and flowers. Most remarkable is the fact that, as soon
as the decorations wilt, they are replaced with fresh ones. Certain
cranes perform dances which seem to be an expression of pleasure
and are not made primarily for the sake of pairing. There are even
certain rudiments of property. Insects, fishes, birds, and mammals
choose particular areas for their homes and defend them against all
comers. In fewer cases animals (usually mammals) appropriate ar-
ticles for their individual use and feel ownership.
It is a moot question whether these developments are to be
still
accounted for entirely by instinct, or whether in some cases there

is actual proof of learning, or whether instinct and intelligence have
combined to create a result which may be called tradition or culture.

409
Birds change their songs by changing their environment. Examples
ofmammals learning complicated processes are common. The amount
of evidence showing that animals can learn is constantly accumulat-
ing. There are cases, too, where animals make original discoveries.
Chimpanzees work out solutions for themselves. Knowledge may be
cumulative. If birds build nests through sheer instinct, it can hardly
be said that instinct alone accounts for the finish with which the
Bests of older birds are made. The nests of the younger inexperienced
birds are adequate but untidy. The same is true of the little mouse
(Mus minutus). Examples like this show that these animals have
by experience acquired skill. Whether virtuosity has been gained
by imitation or practice is not important here. Accumulation of
knowledge, however obtained, is pertinent. At the best, however,
animals have amassed culture only in the weakest sense of the term.
Man, on the other hand, has culture; that is, a high development
of material and spiritual life which is not the result of his biological
inheritance or determined by his geographical environment.
So as not to press the analogy of animal and human organization
too far, several important facts should be stressed. The elaborate
states of ants, bees, and wasps are not comparable to human states
in that they are primarily assemblages of females, whereas all human
groups are about equally (theoretically) divided as to sex. Another

differentiation is the fact that most animals, except anthropoids,
in a state of nature have restricted periods of sexual activity. In
this respect man more closely resembles the domesticated animals.
A third fundamental difference is that man, with few exceptions,
has the same social groupings the year round, whereas animal groups
may change according to seasons. Birds may live in family groups
during the brooding season, and solitary or in unisexual flocks the
rest of the year. Where seasonal changes occur in human groupings
they are social, economic, or religious rather than biological. The

clan groupings on the Northwest Coast of America are less impor-
tant in the winter than new units centering in the winter ceremony.
In South Africa men of fighting age are segregated for years to form
military units.
Various attempts have been made to classify social phenomena
with the idea of establishing correlations between them and the
geographical environment where they occur. Dr. Lowie, in his dis-
cussion of subsistence (Chapter VII), has pointed out the fallacy
of economic determinism as an adequate cause for existing forms.
SOCIAL LIFE 411
A more detailed study of animal sociology shows that classification

even in this realm is not absolute. It shows too that social develop-
ment does not necessarily parallel biological progress. The articulates
have the most highly organized colonies of large populations. Mo-
nogamy, a form of marriage considered by many the peak of social
achievement in the evolution of marriage types, is found among
birds (penguins, herons, guineas, gulls, parrots, ravens, many pigeons,
ducks, cormorants, and others), among rhinoceri, and among the
higher apes. Monogamy among these animals is sometimes tem-
porary, although there is good evidence that it is permanent for some
ostriches, cranes, swans, and geese. Some of these animals may not
the entire year. The male lives alone for a part of it
live in pairs
and returns to the same female in the mating season. Surely this
array does not establish any kind of systematic sequence. The birds
forwhich monogamy is most surely established are not by any means
the highest biological forms, nor do they by any means belong to
the same genera. Only a twisted evolutionary scheme would account
for the rhinoceri between the birds and the apes.
The case of animal polygyny is no clearer. Bark-beetles, semi-
domesticated pheasants (wild forms are monogamous), the Indian
buffalo, deer, antelope, wild sheep and goats, elephants, and certain
apes have organized groups of one male and many females which
are intolerant of intrusion by other males. Within the same families
(bees, ants, and wasps) solitary species are found as well as highly
1
social varieties.
In the case of man many conditions other than the biological are
important. He alone of the animals possesses a complex culture.
all
There is no evidence that emotional and moral elements enter into

the social adjustments of ants. Certain emotions, such as jealousy,
from which arises combativeness, are evident among higher animals
elephants for example but only in human relations is there the
complexity due to economic, social, political, and religious factors.
To these the influence of geographical environment should be added
in order to gain some notion of the probable diversities which may
arise. It is in the infinity of possibilities resulting from a combina-
tion of such elements, most of which are uncontrollable, that the
unpredictability of social phenomena lies.
Family organization on different economic levels. The family con-

sisting at least of parents and children is a universal social unit.
All reasons which have been advanced for its necessity have their
vulnerable points. Some theorists consider the father's care indis-
pensable for the protection and upbringing of the children. Yet there
are cases, in a society with matrilineal descent, where a woman
with an independent income which she can keep up by her own ef-
forts can and docs raise a family without any assistance from the
father or fathers of her children.
2
If Malinowski's summary is correct, the Australian family could
have existed on the labor of the woman. Even if animal food must
be procured by men, some system of provision other than by family
regulation is quite conceivable, as in all cases in which game is
communally distributed. Protection also can be arranged by organi-
zation of men in military groups as it is in parts of South Africa.
Hunting and war are male group activities, but family organization
isnot necessary to carry them on.
The theory that marriage is necessary for sexual gratification is
as weak as the theory that children must be helped and protected
by their fathers. We have too many examples of satisfaction for the
sexual impulse outside of marriage to consider this a sole reason for
the establishment of the family. The reasons are probably deeply
rooted. Since many of the animals have a family organization of
some kind and since all men have it, it is perhaps the one social
phenomenon which we are justified in calling "natural."
The form of the family does not depend primarily on economic
conditions, for on various economic levels we find highly diversified
forms of families. The Eskimo, Bushmen, and Australians are fre-
quently referred to as tribes in the "lowest" stage of cultural de-
velopment. No two of these lower hunters and food-gatherers show
similar types of social organization. The Eskimo have a small family
unit but are generally considered examples of social anarchism. The
Bushmen of South Africa have a definite system of child ownership.
The child, in case of the father's death, must be raised by the mother
until adolescence. At that time he leaves his mother and goes to
live with his father's family. In this tribe there is a maternal ob-
ligation to bring a child safely to adulthood, and a privilege on the
3
part of the father's family to enjoy the benefit of the woman's efforts.
Such a combination of right and privilege does not result in a custom
as simple as one would expect from the primitive Bushmen.
It is difficult to find a more unfavorable geographical environ-
ment than that of the Australian. His economic condition is con-
sequently exceedingly low, but his social organization is so complex
SOCIAL LIFE 413
as to be the despair of observers. Not only are there moieties sub-

divided into classes, phratries, and smaller units, but the principle
of generation enters into all relationships and marriage restrictions
and, as if that were not enough, there a close relationship between
is
economic life, social organization, and religion which manifests itself

in the totem.
A consideration of the "highest" stage of economic development,
the sedentary agricultural level, reveals no closer correlation. The
horticultural Thonga of East Africa are strictly patrilineal; the
Pueblo gardeners of North America are as markedly matrilineal
It seems more profitable, then, in the face of the negative results
of such attempts at classification, to analyze in a detailed manner
the phenomena with which we are concerned, in order thus better
to determine trends in development w hich, though they may not be
r
absolute as are physical laws, may nevertheless give a truer picture

of any particular culture and finally may result in more accurate
generalizations.
We are concerned in this analysis not only with form but also
with the psychological attitude toward form as it occurs in a par-
ticular culture. A man's attitude toward his mother-in-law and hers
toward him is not the same in every tribe in which mother-in-law
avoidance is found. This has an important bearing on our final conclu-
sions. Present-day attitudes cannot be expected to give us ultimate
origins, the search for which is at best speculative, but they are cer-
tain to cause our speculations to run in a groove approaching truth.
This discussion will proceed from a consideration of the smallest
and most fundamental unit of social structure, the family, to the
larger and less obvious groups, sib, association, phratry, moiety, etc.
A series of groupings, gradually increasing in size, culminates in the
state, which is occasionally found among the peoples we call primitive,
but the most constantly used term is tribe. By a tribe we usually
mean an economically independent group of people speaking the
same language and uniting to defend themselves against outsiders.
This is a definition which requires, as do all ethnological definitions,
flexibility of meaning according to the part of the world where it is
found. The Todas of India are referred to as a tribe, but they are not
economically independent. The Dobuans of New Guinea as a tribe
comprise many hostile village groups which act as a unit only on
rare and specific occasions. In general, however, this is a working
definition.
A characteristic feature of the Jribe. is thatjtîs a closed society,
ByTEisT we mean that lawsjtnd morals apply only t<Tfts members.

Strangers may not enter it on the same terms. The individuals com-
posing it are "my" people and all others are "not mine/' There are
specific rules of behavior for "my people." Many of these are highly
ethical. Killing a tribesman is murder; butchering a neighbor of a
different tribe may be of the highest religious importance to all my
people. In Oceania many illustrations of this attitude may be found.

Strangers may be sacrificed in dedicating a canoe or a house. None
of our own moral ideas necessarily apply in our relation to other
tribes.We, as a tribe, only twenty years ago slaughtered by thou-
sands our enemies, the Germans, and they retaliated. Both "tribes"
have as one of the articles of their moral code the commandment,
"Thou shalt not kill."
The sib. The universal social unit is the family. In its narrowest
sense the family consists of parents and children. Our own family
is of this simplest type, but a family is not defined merely by mem-
bership at a given moment. In delimiting the confines of the family,

descent must be known. Without one could not determine to what
it
family he belonged, as each of his parents belongs to a different one.

We are accustomed to a bilateral organization, but many tribes con-
sider a child as belonging only to one side, the father's or the mother's.
Our family system reckons descent through the mother and father
but with strong emphasis on patriliny. The man is still the head of
the family. Inheritance is in the paternal line, although not exclu-
sively, and there is always regret if, through lack of male heirs, the
family name dies out.
Patrilineal descent is by no means necessary. In many parts of
the world a manbelongs to his mother's family and cannot become
a member of his father's family. This type of descent is called matri-
lineal. There are also tribes which have strictly patrilineal descent
so rigidly defined that a man may not be a member of his mother's
family. One-sided inheritance of position as a member of either the
male or female line is what constitutes the unilateral family. Such
family groups are designated as clans or gentes. Neither term has,
however, been used with consistency although some writers denote
by the term "clan" a matrilineal unilateral family and by "gens"
a patrilineal one. Since there is only confusion in the use of 'these
terms it is perhaps better to call the unilateral family a sib.
A sib has many more members than the restricted family. We shall
SOCIAL LIFE 415
take as example a maternal sib since it differs more radically from

our system than the paternal. The individuals belonging to a sib
are a woman, her children, her daughter's children, her daughter's
daughter's children, and so on ad infinitum. A marked difference
between such a unit and ours is that a man gets his sib name, if
the sib has a name, from his mother. Since his children also take theirs
from their mother, it usually differs from their father's because often
members of the same sib are not allowed to intermarry.
It is not at all unusual to find three, four, or even five genera-
tions of a family living in the same house, or at least in the same
general locality. The reason
that primitives often marry young.
is
For example, a girl, A, married at sixteen has a child, B, at seventeen.

This child may in turn marry and have a child when her mother
is only thirty-two, still bearing children. At the age of forty-eight,
not yet past the age of child-bearing herself, A may be a great-

grandmother. A simple illustration like this not only gives a con-
ception of the increasing number of family members in generations
vertically, we may say but it also shows how a child of B
may have as his contemporaries and playmates in his own family

his uncles and aunts, or great-Uncles and great-aunts, thus extend-
ing the family horizontally.
Grouping by residence gives a certain view of sib membership,
although not a complete one. The individuals who live together or
in close proximity will differ according to the type of residence cus-
tomary with the tribe. Sometimes newlyweds establish an inde-
pendent home; sometimes the woman goes to live at the man's
home, in which case residence is said to be patrilocal. In other cases
the man comes to live with the bride's people, and residence is termed
matrilocal.
If we consider sib membership within a residence group in which
residence is matrilocal, we may .find conditions approximately like
the following. A woman, X, of the sib Lone Tree, lives at a certain

place. She has married a man Arms
of Folded sib who lives with
her. They have children, all Lone Trees. The girls, when grown,
marry men of still other sibs ancf their husbands live with them.
The members of one such household may therefore represent a number
of sibs. On the other hand, the sons of X have married women who
also belong to other sibs and have gone to live with the families of
their wives. All the women of this particular house consequently are
Lone Trees, as are also the children, but all the men have other sib
names. Thus grandparents, parents, children, and perhaps uncles,
aunts, and cousins may all be living in one house and acting as a
family unit; yet not all are members of the same sib. Within our own
experience the intimacy between relatives more remote than par-
ents and children is more variable because our family group is more
restricted.
There may be a further extension of this already large family.
Among the group of playfellows there may be adopted children
adopted because the mother has died, or because the adopting family
lacks an heir. In many parts of the world, it is considered unlucky
not to have children. This is true, for instance, in many parts of
Melanesia, on the Northwest Coast of America, and in other places
where stress is laid on rank or property and where the lack of an heir
is looked upon as the direst tragedy; or in Africa where children are
an economic asset. Children adopted under such circumstances are

treated as own children, and it may even be considered an insult
to refer to the fact that a particular child was not born into the sib
whose name it bears.
Although the extension of the family may be illustrated along the
lines of the residence group, such a unit is not exactly or completely
a sib. Only some of the members of a sib live in such a group; others
are to be found elsewhere, for the sib may be large and, in -a sense,
an abstract conception. Except under circumstances depending on
other factors, such as moiety organization, endogamy, and the like,
which must be considered in their turn, there may be other families
who use the same sib name. The members of such a group may feel
such a close relationship that they use the same kinship terms in
addressing one another as we do members of the same family: sister,
brother, uncle, grandfather, and the like, whether actual blood rela-
tionship is traceable or not.
" "
The terms and "patriarchate" are sometimes
matriarchate
used for maternal and paternal sibs. They are misleading because,
throughout all our history, the term "patriarchate" has a special
significance. It has been used not only for tribes having patrilineal
descent but for that group of people over which some old and power-
ful leader or sib head, the patriarch, has final control, even to the
power of life and death. The Hebrew patriarchs come instantly to

mind. Patriarchate is not only a social order; it is also a system of
government. If then, we use the term "matriarchate," we think by

analogy of a society ruled over by a woman, a matriarch, who has
SOCIAL LIFE 417
equal power over the individuals of the group she heads. I know of
no case where this condition prevails. Cases where women are "the
power behind the throne" are not rare, but it is not easy to find
tribes where they are absolute rulers, even though matriliny is found
extensively in all the major land divisions. I shall be content, then,

with the more accurate term "maternal sib."
In some cases the sib may be composed of lineages that is,
unilateral families believing they are descendants of a common an-
cestor. This is the case among some Californian tribes 4 and among
the Hopi, 5 for example. More commonly, however, especially in large
tribes, the conditions are as if all Smiths in the United States should
consider themselves relatives of all other Smiths whether they have
common Concomitant with this attitude is usually

ancestry or not.
the belief that itwould not be "good" for a Smith to marry a Smith.
It would be "better" for him to marry a Jones or a MacCarthy.
When marriage within a group is not approved, the group is said to
be exogamous. Exogamous sibs are found in all the important world
quarters. Some sibs are endogamous; that is, they require marriage
within the group. The Tightness of sib endogamy was expressed by
the scorn of the Bella Bella of the Northwest Coast of America who
said, "Who ever heard of aRaven marrying an Eagle?" in con-
trasting their own custom with that of their exogamous northern
neighbors, the Tsimshian.
The Navajo like to create friendliness between sibs by marrying
many members of one sib to individuals of another. This seems to
come about quite naturally. Some time after a Lone Tree man has
married a Folded Arms girl, her brother may look for a wife. If her
husband's sister is available the problem is nicely settled, and the
sibs become doubly friendly. If the husband has no sister, his mother's
sister may have a daughter whom she is willing to let the Folded
Arms man have as a wife, and the affiliation between the two sibs
is strengthened.
The friendliness which is fostered by the Navajo is further em-
phasized by the regard in which all members of the father's sib are
held. A Navajo, meeting an entire stranger for the first time, may
give up a choice possession upon learning that he is a member of
his father's sib. Although the Navajo are always hospitable, hos-
pitality is exaggerated in the case of individuals having relationship

reckoned through the father. 6
Instead of friendship there may be conflict between sibs. In parts
of Melanesia, where the pattern is one of suspicion and distrust,
7
theremay be antagonism between the wife's sib and the husband's.
This may be the case even if the wife and husband live together in
perfect accord.
Sibs may own property of all kinds. On the Northwest Coast of
America sibs own rights to use certain crests and myths which ex-
8
plain their relationship to supernatural beings. Zufii households
which are subdivisions of the sibs own the house which the members
callhome. 9 Privilege to use land among the Hidatsa was owned by
10
the sib, as was the produce.
A man may take part in a ritual because of his membership in
11
a sib. All Hopi ceremonies are held in trusteeship within a sib.
The Todas of India have, to an exaggerated degree, combined re-
ligious functions with the sib. Some of the buffalo herds are sacred;
others are common or profane. Each of the Toda sibs has specific
duties and
privileges in connection with the elaborate rites of the
buffalo dairy, and each is entitled to respect according to the degree
12
of sacrcdness of these duties.
In parts of Australia the sib has economic as well as religious
functions. It is the duty of the sib to increase by the performance
of magic that part of the food supply over which it has control, for
the benefit of the rest of the community. The Kangaroos are not
allowed to eat kangaroo, but they perform elaborate ceremonies to
provide kangaroos for the Witchetty Grubs and the Emus. The
Witchetty Grubs and Emus reciprocate by magically increasing the
13
witchetty grub and emu supply for the other sibs.
One of the most important activities of the Plains region of North
America was the buffalo hunt. The pursuit of buffalo entailed the
moving of the tribal population, for the buffalo grounds were far from
the more permanent villages. In a region where war and horse-
stealing were esteemed there was a strong need for protection. Sibs
in some tribes had the honor and the duty of policing. The tribe
set up tipis in theform of a camp circle with the entrance usually
(theoretically at least) toward the east. The tipis at either side of
the opening to the camp circle belonged to the police sibs. Their
prime duty was to watch the camp and, if danger threatened, to
call a council of wise men to plan a defense or an attack. These
sibs not only had temporal power but were of special importance
because of supernatural power which they possessed from their names
and tradition. 14
SOCIAL LIFE 419
The functions controlled by the sib vary greatly the world over.
They may be social, religious, economic, or political.
Up to this time we have been concerned with the sib as a group.
We shall now illustrate sib relationships from the viewpoint of a
few of the members belonging to it. The first to be considered are
the father and the mother's brother. In a maternal sib the father
does not leave his wealth to his own children, but is rather the
guardian of his sister's children, who may expect to inherit from him.
He may have the final say as to whom his sister's children shall
marry. Since a payment is commonly made to the bride's family,
the amount and settlement are made by the bride's maternal uncle.
The importance of the mother's brother in the economic and social
life of, the maternal sib should not lead us to think that children
living in this sort of society do not love their fathers, or that the
fathers do not love them. There is no necessary correlation between
father-love and inheritance. Fathers in these societies may fondle
and teach their children; indeed, the men of the Trobriand Islands
of Melanesia take pride in attending to the physical care of their
15
very young children.
That type of organization which exaggerates the importance of
the maternal uncle in family affairs is called the avunculate. Where
it is found, children may be particularly fortunate in that they have
two fathers: their actual father, who plays with them, teaches them
his techniques and lore, them
takes hunting or visiting and is, in
general, a fine adult companion; and the uncle who, because of his
social and economic obligations to his sister's children, sees to it
that they learn the lessons of the tribe and grow up to be responsible
men and women. There is a degree of overlapping of social contacts
and teachings of father and maternal uncle, especially if the latter
lives near his sister's children.
The machinery does not always run smoothly. In the Tro-
social
briand Islands there is sometimes a conflict between father-love and
avuncular duties. A man may become so fond of his son that he
wishes to give him his most cherished possessions, which, according
to tribal custom, he should give to his sister's son. Among these
people magic is the most important of a man's possessions. There
is a belief that just a certain amount of each kind of magic exists.
Consequently it must be used as a whole; it cannot be divided. There-

fore, if a man knows magic, he cannot teach some to his sister's son,
to fulfil legal requirements, and some to his own son, to satisfy his
parental emotions. If he chooses his son for his favors, his sister's
son may disgrace him by publicly accusing him of running counter
16
to custom.
The avunculate by no means restricted to matrilineally organized
is
tribes. Among the

Thonga of Southeast Africa there is pronounced
patriliny. Wives go to live in the husband's village, and children
are thought of as the property of the father's village. However, the
mother's village is a secondary haven for a man. He may be sent
there as a young child and bepractically raised by his mother's
people. Later he may stay for long visits, but it would never be
"good" for him to settle there upon marrying. For among the
Thonga, as in many parts of Africa, all individuals are looked upon
as village acquisitions, and a man's male relatives would ridicule
or even censure him for choosing to "increase" his mother's village.
Together with the strongest kind of patriliny and patrilocal residence
there is, nevertheless, a strongly developed avunculate. The maternal
uncle of a Thonga child should prepare the first soft skin in which
it is wrapped. He claims a right to a part of the betrothal payment
made for his sister's daughter. As the head of the child's maternal
family, he provides also certain bridal equipment; he may be re-

quired to make sacrifices for his sister's child. He has special duties
at the time of mourning, and he has the right to "renew his vil-
lage." That means that if he has no children he may, instead of
negotiating a marriage for his sister, refuse the betrothal gift. He
willthen take the responsibility for her burial (ordinarily the duty
of a husband) by a promise, and the sister will have lovers. Any
children which are the fruit of her relationships will belong to his
village because he has refused the bride price. Thus is the continu-
17
ance of the line made secure.
If the uncle under the avunculate has duties, correspondingly the
nephew has privileges. In many of the South Sea islands there are
no restrictions whatever in the treatment by a nephew of his ma-
ternal uncle's possessions. Such freedom of behavior may amount
to destruction of property or abuse of privilege without calling
down upon the abuser any punishment whatsoever. Junod cites the
example from Africa of an uncle's anger at finding food upon which
he had depended all eaten. However, just as soon as someone ex-
plained that his sister's son had eaten it he smiled and made no
more to-do. 18 This is an example of what has been called the joking
relationship, of which we shall have more to say later. It obtains
SOCIAL LIFE
between maternal uncle and nephew in many parts of the world

but is not by any means restricted to this relationship.
In the larger family groups the relationship of a child to his
mother's sister may be as close as that to his mother. One^ reason
for this may be matrilocal residence, and another may be the soror-
ate. This term defines the custom of a man marrying more than
one sister of a family. If he has more than one wife at a time, it
often happens that the wives are sisters. The sororate may also
prevail in monogamous tribes. In such case a widower marries his
deceased wife's sister and she may bring up her sister's children as
if they were her own.
An expression of this relation is found in many kinship systems

in which "my mother" and all her sisters are addressed by the
"
same kin term, so that any one of them is really a member of the
group of sisters to which my mother belongs" (see page 454).
If, from earliest childhood, I live in close contact with four or five
women and address them by the same term and they treat me with
equal affection and care, it is unlikely that I shall regard one quite
differently from the others. If I do, it is not necessary that my
favorite be my actual blood mother. The idea of absolute mother-
love is an exaggeration of our own culture. There are many cases
where a mother's sigter, a foster mother, or even a neighbor is re-
garded more fondly by a child than his real mother. Primitive society
gives no proof of the stepmother idea as a natural human charac-
teristic. On the contrary, it shows by attitudes of different relatives
toward children and toward adoption that ours and other similar
attitudes are based on particular prejudices not founded on biolog-
ical instincts that unite parents and children.
In our own society the relationship between cousins depends
almost entirely upon rapport between families and upon where they
live. Among primitives residence is of even greater importance when
it is matrilocal or patrilocal that is, markedly one-sided, as op-

posed to the setting up of an independent home by a newly married
couple. If residence is matrilocal, mothers' sisters' children are con-
stantly thrown together, and under ordinary circumstances mothers'
brothers' children and the children of fathers' sisters and brothers
do not see one another so frequently. If residence is patrilocal, the
children of brothers have more intimate contact than the others.
In dealing with the relationships and attitudes of primitive
peoples it is necessary to distinguish two kinds of cousins. Since
English has no general word to indicate sisters and brothers, we
shall use the term "siblings." The children of my mother's sisters,
and those of my father's brothers, are my parallel cousins, so-called
because the parents through whom we are related are siblings of
the same sex. If we were related through parent siblings of opposite
sex we should be cross cousins. In other words, my parallel cousins
are children of my mother's sisters arid of my father's brothers; my
cross cousins are the children of my mother's brothers and of my
father's sisters.
Parallel cousins are often treated as brothers and sisters. They
address one another as such, and marriage rules apply to them ex-
actly as if they were blood siblings. Cross cousins are considered a
different kind of relative. Whereas the behavior
of parallel cousins
of opposite sex toward one another may savor of avoidance, especi-
ally as they grow up, it is not unusual to find a joking relationship
between cross cousins. This behavior will be further discussed under
the titles of avoidance and joking (see page 446).
We may recall that theextended family includes individuals of
two, three, or even four generations. Grandparents are often useful
and productive members of the primitive family. Perhaps this is
true because they are nearer the age of their descendants than
grandparents in our own society. Old people may, however, be
respected merely because old age is honorable. Because he is old a
man has wisdom and judgment which can come only through long
experience; hence his counsels should be regarded. The same argu-
ment may apply to old women. Treatment of the aged is by no
means uniform in different parts of tEeT world, and there are areas
where old age is despised and becomes a burden.
There are tribes, too, in which neither extreme is the case, but
grandmothers have their duties just as do the younger individuals.
Mohave grandmothers* conduct "nursery schools" while their
daughters pursue their "careers." One sees an old woman tending a
row of babies, her charges, while their mothers are at work in the
fields or away from home. One Mohave woman, upon being asked
why she had no children, replied, as if the answer were self-evident,

"
"But how could I? The child has no grandmother to bring it up!
Primitive family organization is not by any means always uni-
lateral. Since we are more familiar with the bilateral family, it will
be sufficient to emphasize by a few examples the fact that even bi-
*
Ruth F. Benedict.
Personal information from Dr.
SOCIAL LIFE 423
lateral inheritance need not be like ours. Among the Ashanti of the
west coast of Africa there is a peculiar and interesting type of de-
scent. 19 It can be explained only by dividing heritable property into
material and spiritual. A man inherits material things, as sib name,
blood (blood particularly is important), property, and succession
from his mother. From his father he inherits spiritual wealth, ntoro,
which includes soul, health, power, and success.
There are few societies in which inheritance is not important (see
below). Wealth is passed down through one line or through both,
and the privileges which it may provide differ greatly. Where a
sense of high nobility is developed, good birth gives a man a running
start in life which nothing else can equal. The înheritance a man or
woman can pass on to their children depends upon the rules of the
society in which they live. Certain tribes of the Northwest Coast of
America, for example, have sib exogamy. They reason, almost cer-
tainly ex posteriori^ that a man can give his children a better heritage
if he marries a woman of another unilateral family who is as wealthy
or nearly as wealthy as he. Another tribe in the same region has

sib endogamy, and reasons that marriage within the sib will con-
centrate wealth for its members and children. So exaggerated has
the latter reasoning become in special cases that members of very
noble families can find no other family of sufficiently high nobility,
and occasionally men are urged to marry their half-sisters. The
ancient Peruvians and Egyptians sometimes sanctioned marriages
between full siblings to retain inherited nobility in the line.
Among the Loango of the Congo region nobility is developed,
but it is not hereditary. There is alternation of class with matrilineal
descent. A
king must take a commoner for a wife, and their children
are commoners. If the power ever comes back into the king's family
it is a matter of accident. On the other hand a princess takes a
commoner for a husband, and their children will be nobles. The

explanation given for this state of affairs is that all princesses are
considered sisters of the king, and for that reason could not marry
him. 20 This case illustrates nicely the extension of exogamic rules to
include all members of the noble sibs, whether actual blood relatives
or not, and demonstrates an attitude which is the exact opposite of
that held by the ancient Egyptians and Peruvians.
The custom of destroying a man's property at his death is wide-
spread. Where it exists there is no need for inheritance rules applied
to material possessions. At the same time, however, rights to fishing
grounds, fields in short, the use of nature's gifts may be passed
down according to formal requirements.
During the course of this discussion we have seen that many
types of family organizations are possible, from the highly extended

unilateral family to the small, loose, simple family group like that
of the Eskimo or our own, and that they have no necessary connec-
tion with cultural level. It cannot be shown that one form is neces-
sarily derived from one of the others. The data do not justify the
assumption so often made that the family developed from early
promiscuity to matriliny until finally the pinnacle, patriliny, our
type of organization, was reached.
An examination of the facts shows that there are no tribes, however
rude economically, without family life. There is no positive evidence
to show that man ever existed without the family. The argument
freely advanced, that the matrilineal family was the first orderly
arrangement, is based on the assumption that everyone knows who
his mother is, but may never be certain of his father. An answer to
this the example of certain Australian tribes who, without any
is
interest in the function of the father in procreation, nevertheless

have a strongly developed family with paternal descent. 21 Even
among them the father is considered necessary, as it is put, "to
22
open the woman." The Eskimo believe that the child crawls up
the bootlace and into the womb of a woman, but the semen is neces-
"
sary to feed the child."
The proof from promiscuity to patriliny
for unilinear evolution
through definite stages would require evidence showing that, wherever

change in historical times is found, the development was in this
direction. Such a development would be "natural." Cases where
there has been a change from matriliny to patriliny are few. They
are, however, illuminating where they occur, since reasons for the
change may be detected.
The Trobriand Islanders show several weak signs of transition
from matriliny to patriliny. Inheritance of land, privilege, and ma-
terial goods is in the mother line, and some of these may be enjoyed
by a man during the lifetime of his mother's brother, provided he

pays for them. Nevertheless a man occasionally bestows such right
of use and enjoyment upon his own son gratis. Upon the death of
the father the son must return the property to his maternal cross
cousins, so that the change from favoritism of the female line to
that of the male line is so far only an emotional one obtaining in
SOCIAL LIFE 425
certain families, and not one which enjoys tribal sanction. 23 It is not
difficult to imagine that this tendency might be emphasized and
tolerated so frequently as to change a social structure. If that should
happen certain rationalizations of incompatibility between the two
basic ideas would have to be made, some of which might seem to
fall into ready-made categories of an evolutionary scheme. The
natives themselves explain the present-day tendency as an outgrowth
of father-love, and this in face of the fact that they deny the part
played by the father in procreation.
Malinowski's presentation of this material suggests that the situ-
ation may be viewed as an outgrowth of a pose protesting ignorance
of the father's function in procreation. If it is that, it is not difficult
to understand the exaggerations and affirmations of the natives
about fatherhood, or the social instead of the biological importance
of the father in the tribe. Formal protestations of the same kind are
common indeed in native explanations of social usage.
The other example of a possible change being made between
matriliny and patriliny, although it has taken place in the direc-
tion opposite that posited by the evolutionists, is more convincing
because it is further advanced than the Trobriand condition and
the details of its cause are more positive. The Kwakiutl Indians of
the Northwest Coast of America have, within historical times, taken

over certain aspects of matriliny which show themselves to be ad-
24
justments to a patrilineal system. The Kwakiutl rightly fit into the
pattern of the Northwest Coast culture south of their area and in so
doing have bilateral descent with favor on the paternal side. They
have, however, been thrown into intimate contact with their neigh-
bors to the north, who are markedly matrilineal. Accordingly, among
the Kwakiutl a nice adjustment has been made whereby a man ac-
quires certain types of rank and wealth from his wife's father. They
are given to him in trust and he transmits them in his turn to his
daughter's husband. In the north a man inherits from his mother's

side directly. Altogether the Kwakiutl case shows a meeting of two
principles due to geographical contiguity and an adjustment to make

both fit in.
A view of the prevailing types of family structure, including many

more examples than we are able to cite here, shows that there is no
"natural" basis for unilinear development; that when it prevails,
some kind of conflict, economic, sociological, or psychological, also
exists, making it necessary for the group to rationalize their behavior

or modify the structure in some way or other. After all, the family
is a two-sided group which must adjust itself somehow to the de-
mands of mother's and father's relatives.
The Trobrianders give the father social compensation for the as-
sumed deprivation of biological function, although they would cer-
tainly never put it this way, and are not conscious of the fact. The
Kwakiutl have made formal adjustments between the mother's and
father's lines based, as is to be expected here, on the transference of
wealth from one generation to another; and with all the social ma-
chinery, there are constant quarrels about individual cases. The
Navajo, who have retained their unilateral view of inheritance,
have made the compromise of friendliness with the father's rela-
tives so that they almost bend over backward in compensating the
paternal line socially for what it may seem to lose economically; and
because of this compromise, as well as because of the tolerance of
individualism in this tribe, the type of social conflict here discussed
is absent.
Totemism. A unilateral kin group often has the name of some

animal, plant, or natural phenomenon. Raven, Wolf, Corn, Sunflower,
Turquoise, Water, Sun, Cloud, are a few examples. Associated with
the name is often the feeling on the part of the sib members that
there is some special relationship between them and the animal
whose name they bear. This relationship is sometimes a belief in
direct descent from the totem animal. Tribes of the Solomon Is-
lands and others of Australia hold such beliefs. In other cases, as
on the Northwest Coast of America, there is a myth or tradition
accounting for a supernatural experience which a remote ancestor
had with an animal or some natural phenomenon. In the northern
part of this region there is no belief in actual descent, and it may
even be that the name and the supernatural with whom the ancestor
was concerned are not the same. The Raven sib of the Haida, for
example, has the killer whale as a crest animal, and among the
25
Eagles of the same tribe the beaver is as important as the eagle.
Closely connected with belief in totemic experience is the posses-
sion of a crest or coat-of-arms. Crests be of many kinds. On
may
the Northwest Coast they are patterns which some members of
particular sibs are allowed to use. These designs of a symbolic and
artistic nature may be painted or carved on totem poles, houses,
posts and doors, or ceremonial paraphernalia, or they may be tat-

tooed on the body. 26 No one would think of using a crest which does
SOCIAL LIFE 427
not belong to him. Usually he inherits it, but there are other ways
of obtaining the privilege of use, as by marriage or by gift.
The possession of a coat-of-arms by a kinship group is not con-
fined to America. In Melanesia a very elaborate type of openwork
carving has developed. Certain carvings are erected in honor of the
dead. Many of the designs are artistic or religious, but all the memorial
must include the totem animal, which is often a bird. 27
carvings
The Omaha of the Plains area had a most unusual type of crest.
It consisted of the right to cut the hair of a child in a peculiar fashion.
One sib, for instance, cut off all the hair except a ridge which stood
up from the forehead to the nape of the neck. This was said to
symbolize a buffalo's back as it stood up against the sky. Another
sib shaved the head but left four square tufts, one at the forehead,
one at the nape, and one at each side above the ears. This cut had
reference to the eagle with which the sib felt itself connected. These
peculiar crests were unusual in that they were exhibited only by the
young children; adults wore the hair long and in the more usual
hairdressings found among Indians. 28
The name, crest, and supernatural relationship of men to the non-
human world may characterize a kin group. Closely connected with
all these elements may be also the presence of a taboo. Most fre-
quently it forbids members of the group to kill or cat the animal

whose name they bear. Members Emu totem,
of a certain Australian
although performing ceremonies for the purpose of increasing the

emu supply, must never eat it, but they may hand it to individuals
of othertotems and watch them eat it. 29
Frequently taboos concern activities other than eating. In the
Santa Cruz group there is a Grass sib which may not walk on grass,
and a Bowl sib which may not eat out of a bowl. 30 A taboo against
touching certain objects characterizes the Omaha sibs, although there
are also restrictions against killing and eating. One sib is not allowed
to touch the horn of a buffalo, another is prohibited from touching
the unborn young of an animal, and to a third it is forbidden to
touch charcoal or verdigris. Still another would avoid contact with
31
creeping insects, bugs, worms, and similar creatures.
Exogamy may be connected with a totemic sib as well as with
any other kind, but there is no to be so.
special necessity for it
The Bella Coola sibs were endogamous although they have many
totemic features.
Almost any of the features and functions of the unilateral kin
group may characterize the totem. When they are the same, sib
and totem are identical, as on the Northwest Coast of America,
but the sib need not have totemistic features, even though it be ex-
ogamous. On the other hand, groups whose members do not consider
themselves kin may show many of the manifestations which have
been assigned to totemism.
Certain Australian totems, for example, consist of individuals who
reckon their totem from the place where their mothers believe them
to have been conceived. Totem spirits, which may also be called
ancestor are believed to inhabit particular localities. When
spirits,
a woman passes one of these the spirit may impregnate her, and her
child will belong to the totem named for that spirit. Such a social
group isconsequently composed of fortuitously selected individuals.

It may be considered as a horizontal rather than a vertical section
as is the sib. Except for its composition it has the characteristics of
the sib, such as an animal name and belief in descent from the
animal. Sometimes it has also its functions such as the obligation
to perform a ritual to increase the supply of the name-animal, with
an attendant taboo against eating it. In this particular case exogamy
exists not as a totem manifestation, but rather as a factor belonging
to a larger group.
Another type of non-kinship horizontal grouping is the society,
association, or lodge. Groups of this sort are determined in a variety
of ways. There are societies composed of men (or women) of ap-
proximately the same age. Payment of a large amount of valued
goods may be the membership requirement. Where this is the case,
as in Melanesia, the higher degrees are enjoyed by older men, as
they are more likely to be wealthy, even as in our own society.
In other regions, such as the North American Plains and South
Africa, associations are composed of men of military prowess and
they may or may not have military duties.
Whatever the method of selection, most of the factors mentioned
for the totem
may be present. Associations almost always have
names; frequently they are animal names. They likewise may con-
sider their relationship to animals close. The Leopard societies of
West Africa and the medicine societies of the Pawnee have animal
names. Their members believe also that they are in close rapport
with these animals. Practically all associations have some symbol
of membership which may be called a crest, be it a headdress, pos-
session of a mask, or a scar received at initiation. Taboos are also
SOCIAL IJFE 429
common. They may be killing or eating taboos and may or may not
involve the animal believed to be related.
The African secret societies, as well as the Melanesian and Pawnee,
to mention only a few, all have the performance of ritual as one of
their chief functions; still the purpose of that ritual differs in every
case.
Although in primitive society women's societies are not entirely

lacking, they are nevertheless fewer than the men's, as well as much
less powerful. They are often imitations of men's associations, for
in each community where they occur their functions are of the same
pattern, the essential difference between societies and totem groups

being that the former are divided along sex lines, thus ruling out
any question of exogamy. Nevertheless, sexual privileges may enter
into association membership as is the case among the Crow Indians.
In this tribe the Foxes and Lumpwoods are rival military societies.
There is a certain time every spring during which a member of
either society may kidnap the wife of one of his rivals provided she
has once been his mistress. There are social features of this kidnapping
which may be regarded as rules of a game, one being that a man thus
deprived of his wife must exhibit the greatest indifference. If he
takes her back he not only disgraces himself but he may cause the
32
entire society to become prey to its rival. This peculiar situation
shows that, even though association groupings along sex lines rule
out the possibility of exogamy, they are not necessarily barred from
making marital or sexual stipulations.
The do not attach themselves to
so-called totemic characteristics
associations and kinship groups alone, but even to individuals. They
often have names similar to totem names. Many individuals have
crests, symbols which they regard as peculiarly theirs and effective
in one way or janother. Not infrequently they believe in descent
from, or relationship to, an animal. The pursuit of the vision or the

attainment of the guardian spirit in North America is a religious
custom which might give rise to any of these peculiarities. 33 Indi-
viduals, likewise, often have taboos and set up rituals for themselves
which have a purely personal significance.
These brief facts, chosen from a large body of similar ones, show
that the manifestations which are often called totemic do not belong
to a kinship group any more than to a group constructed on other
lines, or to an individual.
It is quite conceivable that a personal idiosyncracy, like the
avoidance of a certain kind of food, may in a given family become
habitual and acquire some kind of additional significance. A strong
individual may well communicate his peculiarities and beliefs re-
garding them to his fellows, his kin, or associates in a closely knit

association of some other type.
I have used this simple example to show how any one of the
phenomena called totemic may attach itself to any kind of group
either in combination with all the other characteristics here men-
tioned, incombination with some of them, or quite independently.
Too much has been written of totemism in its different aspects,
and the catchwords "totem," "toternic," "totemism," have been
used too often to permit leaving it entirely out of the discussion.
34 35 36
Frazer, Durkheim, Lowie, Goldenweiser,
37
and Boas 38 have dis-
cussed the matter exhaustively from a religious and social point of
view.
In my opinion the discussion must be taken finally to conclude
that, since the manifestations are so varied in different parts of the
world, since their resemblances are only apparent, and since they
are phenomena which may occur in many settings not related
to real or supposed consanguinity, they can by no means be fitted
into a single category.
Marriage. Every individual secures a definite status by reason of

his birth.He is a slave or a noble according to the standing of his
mother or father in the community; a Lone Tree or Bitter Water
according to the name of his mother or father. After birth, perhaps
the most determining event of his life is marriage.
In primitive society the individual concerned has not much in-
fluence over his or her marriage. It is rare to find a tribe where ro-
mantic love is appreciated, and still rarer to find one where absolute
freedom of choice is allowed. Even where love is valued and theoretic
freedom of choice prevails, that freedom is not often actual. In our
own society, where we boast of such freedom, the percentage of cases
where a man or, even more so, a girl marries the mate he or she
really wants is low. Family desires, position, success, social stratifi-
cation, relative wealth, and other considerations weigh more heavily
than free choice.
In primitive societies it is common to find an attitude toward love
or passion that is very different from, and often unrelated to, the
marriage state. Motives other than that of sexual gratification lie
behind marriage, and of these motives the most common is economic.
SOCIAL LIFE 431
Two families unite by the intermarriage of one or more sons and

daughters. The affiliation may be marked by payment or a ceremony,
but such ceremony does not by any means complete the manifold
obligations assumed by both sides.
Exogamy and endogamy. Before we can discuss the various points
related to this matter it is necessary to have a clear understanding
of the terms "exogamy" and "endogamy." These two terms may
be defined most simply as meaning "marrying out" and "marrying
in," respectively. We have family exogamy, for there is no general
approval of marriage between close relatives; in other words, in-
dividuals must marry "out of the family." There is a strong feeling
of preferential endogamy among orthodox Jews and Catholics; in
these cases it is felt that one should marry "in the religion." Certain
families are opposed to their children marrying any but Americans;
this is "national endogamy." The terms may be applied to groups
of various kinds: kin groups, religious groups, political groups. There
is as much variety among primitive peoples, but the convention of
marrying in or out is almost always present.

It is quite possible, in fact common, to have exogamy and en-
dogamy"~m the same tribe. Many peoples discourage marriage with

and are therefore tribally endogamic. At the same time,
outside tribes
however, they may have class, phratry, or sib exogamy. The Todas
of India illustrate this condition. The tribe is divided socially into
two parts. When there is a twofold division of a tribe we refer to
each division as a "moiety." The number of individuals belonging
to each is not necessarily equal. One of the Toda moieties considers
itselfsuperior to the other and has definite and important religious
functions. The moieties are endogamic; therefore, each member must
marry ivithin his own moiety; but the moieties are composed of a
number and these sibs are strictly exogamic. If I,
of paternal sibs,
for instance, am
a member of moiety 1 and of sib A, I must marry
a member of moiety 1 who is not of sib A. I could choose an individual
whom we may call IB, 1C, ID, or IE, according to his sib.
Forms of marriage. The particular form of marriage permitted or

demanded is not always the same. There are only a few possible
forms, and this undoubtedly accounts for similarities in many parts
of the world. Our discussion does not concern itself with unrestricted
intercourse between the sexes before marriage, which is permitted
among some tribes, or with breaches of sanctioned forms of mar-
riage, which occur everywhere. There is a great difference between
sanctioned form and actual practice. Our own society with a pre-
tense at absolutemonogamy but with its attendant promiscuity is
a good example.
In one form of marriage a group of men may marry a group of
women, sexual relations being restricted to the members of the two
groups. This form is called group marriage. When a man or woman
has more than one mate, the marriage is said to be polygamous.
Polygamy exists in one of two forms: when a woman has more than
one husband it is called polyandry; when a man has more than one
wife, polygyny. The final possibility is that one man has only one wife
at a time, the form of marriage familiar to us and called monogamy.
Of all these types of marriage the rarest is group marriage. The
best example exists side by side with polyandry and polygyny and
is, in fact, an extension of these forms. The Todas of India formerly
practiced polyandry to a great extent. When a woman married a

man it was understood that she should be the wife of all his brothers.
Any children born to the woman considered as their father the man
who performed the so-called "bow" ceremony with the woman.
This man was ordinarily the eldest brother. It was customary for
the second eldest brother to perform the ceremony after two or
three childrenhad been acknowledged by the eldest, but the man
was the "father" of all the children born to a woman until she went
through the ceremony with another man. So highly formal has the
system finally become that a male born years after a ceremonial
father has died considers him, nevertheless, his father if his mother
failed tochange his social father by means of the ceremony. This
isanother example where form has overcome all interest in actual
fatherhood, the fixing of fatherhood for social purposes being the
significant feature.
A change in the Toda form of marriage has occurred within
historical times for a sociological reason. In former times female in-
fanticide was practiced. Since the British occupation of Toda ter-
ritory, it has decreased to a great extent. The result has been an
increase in the number of women in proportion to men and the de-
velopment of a kind of group marriage. A group of brothers now
marries a group of sisters. When a man takes a wife she is considered
the wife of his brothers also, and the group of brothers have marital
rights to her sisters as well. Rivers prefers to call the system one
of combined polyandry and polygyny. 39
There is some indication of group marriage in Australia, but the
SOCIAL LIFE 433
evidence is so highly problematical that we can merely refer to the
possibility of its existence there.

Polyandry is a more definite form of marriage and is found spo-
radically on the several continents, in Africa, Madagascar, in southern
India Toda polyandry is probably to be explained as a part of this
area in Tibet, among the Eskimo of North America, and among
the Pawnee and some other tribes of the Plains of North America.
Altogether, however, polyandry is not a common form of marriage.
Polygyny, the marriage of. a man to more than one woman, is
common in many parts of the world. It is not restricted to any
particular economic stage. There is every reason to believe that the
Navajo and Apache of the Southwest were as polygynous when they
were food-gatherers as they are at the present time when the Navajo,
at least, are primarily pastoral. The Eskimo hunters are polygynous,
as are pastoral tribes in Asia and agricultural tribes in Asia, Africa,
and America.
It is difficult for us, with our ideals of fidelity and our belief in
jealousy as an "innate" or "natural" trait, to realize how groups

of women can live peaceably with one man, or groups of men with
one woman. The example of the Todas shows that it is not only pos-
sible but quite satisfactory if the mental twist is different from that
to which we are accustomed.
The Navajo have an extended notion of fidelity. In earlier times,
a woman expected her husband to desire another woman, especially
if she herself were sexually inactive because of illness, pregnancy,
or old age. Instead of behaving jealously she sought for him a younger
woman if possible, from her own sib; if not, from an affiliated or
friendly sib. Fidelity was not absolutely lacking. There were cases
where a man remained faithful to one wife for many years, some-
times for life, but the idea of faithfulness could be extended to in-
clude two or three wives.
The reasons for the development of the different types of family
are obscure. Polygamy, although common, seems to be due to dif-
ferent causes. The theory that it is due to differences in sex ratio is
not impossible, to substantiate. We have no exact statistics
difficult, if
on the ratio of the sexes. The Todas, who practice polyandry, have
produced a lack of women through female infanticide. It is gratuitous

to claim that this custom was introduced to support polyandry or
that polyandry is its
consequence.
The prevalence of polygyny among the Eskimo is neatly explained
by the theorists who proclaim the dangers of Eskimo life as the
cause for high male mortality. It is easy then to argue that since
more women survived, a man must care for more than one. If this
isaccepted, polyandry of the Eskimo should be explained on the
same grounds. Since life is so rigorous a woman must have more
than one husband to care for her and her children. One argument
cancels the other. Infanticide, too, has been attributed to economic
causes, and it is supposed that the Todas may have killed female
babies because of food shortage. Rivers, however, can see no evi-
dence for this. 40 I venture to predict that if statistics were available
for different tribes the ratios of males and females of marriageable
age would differ greatly, and that the excess percentage of one sex
or the other would not for a large number of tribes show close cor-
relation with the forms of marriage.
In primitive tribes most individuals are married. If this is the
case and there a surplus of males or females, other balancing factors
is
must be at work. Among the Navajo, for example, where extreme

polygyny is the rule, it is likely that there are more marriageable
females than males. But even if the sex ratio is not equal, other
factors may even up the marriages. The Navajo themselves suggest
that balance maintained through instability of the marriages.
is
Suppose, for example, there are three men and three women. If one
man has three wives, then two must be without wives; but if one
woman leaves her husband after a time, another man gets her for
a while. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get data on the
length of time each individual lives with his spouses, especially since
marriages may be very unstable.
Another explanation of universal marriage with a disproportionate
sex ratio is the relative number of years the men are sexually active
as compared with the women. The women are adolescent, let us say,
at fifteen and the menopause occurs at fifty or later where many
children are the rule. Thirty-five or forty years of sexual activity
among the women compare with fifty among the men, some of whom
beget children at sixty-five or over. This is merely a suggestion that
in a statistical survey the numbers of individuals sexually active
should be compared. It has particular significance in view of the
fact thatmany primitives do not consider it necessary that mates
should be nearly of the same age. It is not at all unusual to see a
man of seventy-five with a wife of twenty, or a woman of fifty with
a husband of twenty-five.
SOCIAL LIFE 435
The evidence is too conflicting to give an absolute reason for the

existence of polyandry in one tribe and monogamy in another. As
is the case with all social phenomena, it is quite likely that one
cause, which can be determined, operated in one case; another, which

cannot be determined, in another; and that in still another various
causes combined to yield the results we find today.
Extramarital relations. There is probably no tribe in which formal
marriage alone is sexually satisfactory. Perhaps it would be more
correct to say that sex is not the most significant fact of marriage.
We have previously noted that sex relations in our own society are
anything but monogamous even though monogamy is our estab-
lished form. There is, however, one great difference between our
attitude in this matter and that of most primitives. That is, in our
society extramarital relations are not sanctioned; in primitive societies
certain such relations not only are sanctioned but may even be
obligatory. In this connection primitive conditions are more nearly
comparable to conditions in Europe, where prostitution is considered
a necessity, rather than to those in America, where it is said not to
exist even though it is a thriving business. Even this comparison is
remote in its accuracy because primitive sexual relations outside
the family after marriage are more frequently of a ceremonial and
therefore of a religious than of a business nature, although actual
prostitution is not unknown.
We have referred to the form of Toda marriage in which a number
of men have a right to a number of women in a marriage bond.
The only individuals who may live together in this way must be
members of the same moiety. The Todas also sanction intercourse
outside the moiety. The system in its entirety is complicated. man A
of moiety 1 may get permission to live with a woman of moiety 2
from her husband or husbands. He makes a small payment to the
husband, gives a larger gift to the woman's parents than the hus-
band has given at marriage, and goes through a ceremony similar
to the marriage ceremony with her. He may then live with the
woman as if she were his wife or visit her at intervals as he desires.
The chief difference between this and the regulation marriage is
that the man of the moiety not the same as that of the woman can
never be the social father of her children. Besides acknowledged
lovers of this sort, certain dairymen, who have particular ceremonial
offices in the community, may be the ceremonial lovers of the girls
belonging to their own moiety. I know of no case in primitive society

where marriage and sanctioned sexual relations are as complicated
41
as among the Todas. There is apparently no conception of sexual
immorality, or any attitude of sex jealousy.
Among the Eskimo the idea of hospitality as a moral obligation
is so highly developed that a man is willing to lend his wife to a lone
stranger visiting his village for any length of time. A

refusal to do
so attaches to him a moral stigma. In connection with a particular
ceremony held to drive off evil spirits the same tribe require extra-
marital relations for a day and a night. 42 The Ba-Ila of Northern
Rhodesia have the courtesy to lend a wife to a visitor, but consider
it an offense if the visitor takes the privilege without an invitation.
43
Sexual license isindulged in at mourning feasts.
In Australia minutely defined restrictions are placed on formal
marriages, but during the period of the tribal assemblies or cor-
roborees all these restrictions break down men, regardless of their
class, totem, or kinship, provided they are not father, brother, or
sons of the women, may have access to them. Not only are mating
taboos broken on these occasions but other customs also break down.
Ordinarily a man must avoid his mother-in-law most carefully, but
at such times he may even have intercourse with her should she be
assigned to him by the council of old men. 44 In fact, ceremonial
license commonly exists side by side with formal marriage and may
be not only sanctioned but even demanded.
The question of sexual relations may not be dismissed with mere
marital relationships and ceremonial license between married adults.
There are parts of the world where premarital intercourse is not
only allowed but expected, it being a part of the cultural fabric.
In parts of Melanesia, young people have great freedom in their
social activities. The Trobriand Islanders put no curb whatever on
young children who imitate their elders in sex matters. In these

islands there are clubhouses for unmarried men and women. Children
as they approach adolescence spend more and more time in the
house delegated to their sex. The boys visit the girls in their club-
houses at night and there is considerable experimentation in love-
making. Gradually, however, a boy and girl become more perma-
nently attached to each other and there a period of sexual life
is
in common which leads up to marriage and enables their families

to make economic preparations for it. During this preliminary period
public display of the relationship of the two individuals is proper;
it corresponds to the period of engagement.
SOCIAL LIFE 437
The Trobriand case is interesting because it marks the direct op-

posite of our own customs in affairs of love and marriage. As soon
as a girl of prudery is ob-
and youth are married the strongest kind
served. A man may not touch his wife in public, even if she is ill
and needs physical support. No matter how attached to each other
they may be, they must never give evidence of tenderness when
others are present. They may, however, joke and gossip as long as
no allusion to sex, however remote, is made. 45
The Trobriand type of trial marriage is not unique. It is found
throughout the South Sea area. Among the Bontoc of the Philippines,
the custom is pushed so far that a man will not marry a girl until
she is pregnant, for he wants proof that she is not sterile. In this tribe,
if a girl is deserted by the father of her child, her chances for a good
46
marriage are better than if she had no child.
Restrictions and preferences. Customs such as those just described
are likely to give the impression that the tribes among which they
prevail are loose as regards their morals. The fact is that morality
among them is set in an entirely different direction. There are few
primitive tribes which have no rules regulating the persons who may
mate. The most general of these rules applies to incest, which is
abhorred. The term "incest" may mean not only the mating of
parent with child, or of brother with sister, but mating between
any two individuals who are by tribal law forbidden to marry. Mar-
riage between two members of the same clan is a greater "sin" to
the Navajo than sexual immorality is in our society. Such incest
has no biological significance.
Our large, hybrid population from which to choose mates, our
simple social organization based on the most elementary unit, the
family, with practical absence of exogamy, incest laws applied only
to members of the immediate family, arid our theoretic (if not always
practical) admiration for romantic love, combine to limit restric-
tions in the choice of a mate. Such restrictions as we have are not
inherent in our tribal law, but are rather personal and individual.
A number of people still cherish the superstition that cousin
marriage is unfortunate, and some in their ignorance create such
a suggestive atmosphere as to make it so. It is of course true that
marriage between cousins of families affected by heritable diseases
increases the chance of offspring developing the same disease. How-
ever, the belief that the marriage is bad is not founded on this sort
of scientific evidence, and it does not distinguish between weak and
strong family lines. Some states have laws against cousin marriage.
A few people still believe that to marry a person of the same name
"
will bring bad luck. And we even hear the old saw, Change the name
and not the letter, change for worse and not for better." But we
cannot say that any of these superstitions, held only by the more
ignorant and unreasonable of our population, has a great influence
on our type of marriage. Much less may, they be said to be mar-
riage laws, rules, or even customs in the sense in which we find regu-
lations in primitive tribes.
No primitive tribes countenance parent-child alliances, and very
few sanction sister-brother connections. In a few sanctioned instances
of sister-brother marriage they were (or are) not the regulation type
of marriage for the group, but rather particular sanctions extended
to nobles with the underlying idea that no individuals have sufficient
prestige to perpetuate the line except the members of the ruling
family. Brother-sister marriage was known in ancient Egypt and
Peru, in Hawaii, and for half-brother and half-sister on the North-
west Coast of America, all societies in which hereditary nobility was
important.
The extension of the incest idea is well illustrated by attitudes
toward "cousins." Parallel cousins are frequently regarded as sisters
and brothers and the incest laws apply to them. This may be true
whether they belong to the same sib or not. Cross cousins, on the
other hand, not only may marry but in many cases should marry.
The incest group includes many individuals who are not blood
relatives. It may be extended to members of the sib or to individuals
belonging to a larger unit including several, even many, sibs. Such

a unit may be called a phratry. Indeed, there are tribes which con-
sider marriage within their own tribe "not so good" as marriage
outside it.
The punishment for incest differs greatly from tribe to tribe. In
parts of Australia it is death. Among many peoples it is believed

to come through supernatural means. Where that is the case any
ill luck incurred by the participants for years after will be ascribed
to the breaking of the taboo. Bad luck to the society in general may
be the result of breaking a taboo. Some tribes merely use ridicule;
some have a form of ostracism.
Although there are many marriage restrictions, there are also cer-
tain preferences of which cross cousin marriage is perhaps the most
common. There are several explanations for the preference. It is a
SOCIAL LIFE 439
way of keeping property in a family. In a matrilineal exogamic
society, a man's sister's son is his legitimate heir. His property may
be enjoyed by his own daughter, a blood relative, but not a sib
relative, if she marries her cousin (her father's sister's son), and at
the same time the marriage regulations will be followed.
Among the Miwok a man (1) in former times had marital rights
47
to the daughter (4) of his wife's (2) brother (3). If a man made use
(3) wife's brother (2) wife (1) man
(4) wife's brother's daughter (5) son of (1) and (2)
of these rights he had this woman (4) as one of his wives. Inheritance
was patrilineal and wives, except one's own mother, were inherited.
The man's son (5) then inherited from his father his own cross
cousin; that is, his mother's (2) brother's (3) daughter (4). These
two examples show clearly how different the origin of a given custom
may be in different sociological settings.
The cross cousin preference is only one of many specified for so-
called "good" marriages. Second cousins are sometimes the first
preference. The Navajo consider marriage between grandchildren

(through sons or daughters) of two blood brothers an excellent
match.
There are types of prescribed marriage other than those obtaining
between blood relatives. One of the greatest favorites is the type
called the sororate. By sororate is meant, in polygynous tribes, the
marriage of a man to two or more sisters. In monogamous tribes the

term signifies that a man takes the sister of the deceased wife as his
second wife. Where polygyny is the rule, a common explanation of
the sororate is that two sisters are likely to get along better together
as the wives of one man than would two strangers. From our own
viewpoint such a result seems unlikely, but from the point of view
of the natives, who rarely romanticize marriage, who feel family or
sib solidarity asmore important than love, and who do not neces-
sarily have the "sole possession" idea of sex, one can well under-
stand that the sororate may be an admirable institution. A Navajo
woman may of her own accord suggest that her husband marry her
younger sister. If he does, the chances are that all will be happy
in the subsequent relationship. In Africa there does not seem to be
the same harmony. The Thonga man has a preferential right to his
wife's younger sister and to the daughters of his wife's brother, but
there isconstant jealousy and wrangling among the wives. 48
A reason often given by natives for a man marrying his deceased
wife's sister is doubtless a rationalization. They say she will take
care of her sister's children better than a strange woman would.
This may be true, but orphans are frequently cared for by some
woman other than their mother's sister. Sometimes property laws
give a man rights to his sister-in-law. Marriage is almost always
accompanied by some business transaction in the form of a gift,
payment, or service. If one person is lost or destroyed, another must
be supplied by the same social group.
The levirate is a custom corresponding to sororate, and means
that a man takes over the wife or wives of his deceased brother.
He may have the duty of providing for them, or he may have rights
to them as a part of his inheritance. The brother or other male
members of a deceased husband's sib had a prerogative to the Navajo
widow, and she could not marry another unless they gave her up.
She could pay his family and be free to marry a member of another
sib. This circumstance leads to the supposition that, if the husband's
sib did not consider the woman herself a form of property, at least
her person represented rights and status. Customs as widely dis-
tributed as sororate and levirate do not admit of explanations as to
singleness of origin; yet they emphasize the solidarity of the family
or sib and the powerlessness of the individual to escape his status.
Betrothal, engagement, wedding. The interrelationship between be-
trothal, engagement, and the time when marriage is considered
achieved so close that often the three periods are not exactly
is
defined. Many tribes have some form of betrothal which is prac-
tically as binding as marriage. In parts of Melanesia, where marriage

is largely an economic matter, the betrothal is marked by a settle-
ment demanded of the man by the family. Usually the period
girl's
of engagement is the time allowed for the families of the contracting
parties to accumulate the necessary property. In the Trobriands
this period is preceded by a kind of trial marriage. Where the man
pays the woman's family, as among the Pentecost Islanders, his

family must contribute a certain amount, and the girl's family
must furnish the feast, a ceremonial matter which frequently de-
mands considerable cooperation and generous contributions on the
part of the family members. Conditions in the island of Pentecost
are so peculiar that one can hardly differentiate betrothal and mar-
SOCIAL LIFE 441
riage. What may be called the wedding ceremony is carried out;

the girl goes to live at the home of her husband's mother; and if
she is very young she does not speak to her husband for some time,
even for a number of years. He spends his time at the clubhouse
and tries, after the girl is old enough, to tempt her to speak to him.
There are no sexual relations until she does so, and there are said
to be cases where a woman has died without her husband ever
49
having really lived with her.
There are a number of methods of obtaining a wife, of which
purchase, gift, trade, and service have common elements. When
one family presents a gift to another it does not always mean that
the person of the betrothed or the bride is considered alienable prop-
erty, although that idea is possible. The northern Californians, of
whom the Yurok are typical, considered social status to depend
upon the amount of wealth paid by a man for his wife. It seems as
if a
girl's father demanded much, not because he was mercenary
but rather to assure the daughter's position as well as that of her
children. A child was legitimate or illegitimate according to the
amount paid for his mother. In this case there was no sexual im-
morality in premarital experiences, but for social and economic

reasons a girl was prudent or protected. The fact that a bride of a
well-bred, rich Yurok brought with her a amount of property
large
when she joined her husband shows that she was not considered
"sold" by her father. The sum required of the groom was exact and
bargained for; the wealth brought by the bride was turned over
without agreement and was indefinite in amount, but only rarely
equivalent to that paid by the groom. The man's family paid ac-
cording to tribal law; the woman's, according to good taste.
It is not at all unusual for the two families concerned with a
marriage to exchange rather than for one side to make all the
gifts,
demands. custom to be more directly related in some
I believe this
respects to native attitudes regarding generosity than to those of

property and property rights. That the concept of person as property
may also enter in is shown by the fact that events subsequent to
marriage are of momentas related to payment. The Yurok, for

example, consider the bearing of children as a condition of retaining
the bride price. If a woman leaves her husband, her family is ex-
pected to return the bride price. If, however, the couple have
children and the wife allows her husband to keep one of them,
only part of the bride price is returned. If two or more children are
given him, the entire payment is canceled. Betrothal of very young
children was sometimes agreed upon as a payment of debts if a man
was The responsibility of securing a good
in pressing circumstances.
price for a girlwas incumbent upon her brothers in case her father
50
died, and they were entitled to the payment.
It may happen that a man is not able, with the help of his family,
to furnish the entire price demanded for the purchase of his bride,
and he may make part of the payment in service. Indeed, there are
tribes where nothing but service is expected. The Yukaghir of Si-
beria serve the father-in-law for the bride, but Jochelson considers
such service more as a test of ability than as the equivalent of a
bride price. The period of service is indefinite and may be shortened
if the man has good qualities or shows that he would not leave the
house of his father-in-law, or if the woman becomes pregnant. Such

service as is performed takes place before the families have agreed
upon the marriage. The approval of both families legalizes the mar-
riage. To all intents and purposes the behavior of the bride and
groom only the smallest details during the time of court-
differs in
ship and after marriage. In the case of the Yukaghir the girl's
father seems to demand a guarantee of faith that the son-in-law
will stay with him. If he does not have that, he prefers a prolonged
period of courtship rather than a sanctioned marriage. The young
man is subservient to the elder man of his wife's family at least until
51
a child born, when he may leave.
is
Another method of securing a wife is by means of exchange. A

brother and sister of one family may marry a sister and brother of
another, thus squaring the indebtedness. In northern California,
although the payment by one side of the family canceled that of
the other, nevertheless two single payments were made. This ex-
ample shows how important was the public formality of payment.
Even in tribes where it is not considered necessary to go through
two transactions, ordinarily some minor formality is observed to
show the agreement between the two families, and therefore the
legitimacy of the marriage.
Examples of payment of a bride price are numerous. Payment of
a dowry, if it occurs at all, is exceedingly rare. In most cases gifts
are exchanged by the members of the husband's and wife's families.
These particular ways of acquiring a mate determine the duties
of an individual for a long period, depending on the customs pre-
vailing in the tribe to which he belongs. If there is infant betrothal

SOCIAL LIFE 443
or marriage his fate may be decided when he is born or even before.

The fact of purchase, gift, service, or exchange follows the persons
concerned through life, may attach the children to the mother's or
father's family in case of divorce, and may even determine the fate
of an individual in case the mate dies.
There are several other ways of getting a spouse, the importance
of which was previously much exaggerated. One of those is marriage
by capture and the other is elopement. It is questionable whether
there are any tribes in which marriage by capture was ever the sole
recognized formality, it being found most often side by side with
other conventions, among which capture figures less importantly.
The same is true of elopement. There are tribes in which elopement
is decried and a few in which it is countenanced, even formalized.
Among the Kurnai of South Australia elopement was the more

usual way of securing permission to marry. 52
Free choice is exceedingly rare. Among the Trobriand Islanders,
for instance, a girl may choose her husband but he will not be ap-
proved by her family unless he is of another totem and of practically
equal rank. Romantic love is known in this area, but cannot be
defined exactly as among ourselves. In former times there was regard
for romantic love in Hawaii and, if all the "ifs" regarding class,
rank, etc., were met, lovers might marry.
On the whole, there are three general features which differentiate
primitive marriage from our own. (1) The individuals contracting
the marriage have comparatively little choice in the matter. (2) The
fact of marriage with its attendant preliminaries and subsequent
obligations is a group affair, involving most particularly the families
or sibs of the contracting parties. (3) The religious and particularly
the moralistic ideas related to marriage differ so widely from ours
as to be practically noncomparable. Marriages, instead of being
made by "God," are definitely and realistically made by the families
of the incumbents and obtain sanction by frank, definite, often
public, demonstrations of some economic arrangement. The moral-
istic phase is attended to before sanctions of any kind are given,
which means usually before betrothal. The most widespread con-

ception of "sin" in reference to marriage is that of incest. Whatever
may be the definition of the incest group and the definitions are
legion marriage within it is "bad," not because it is an offense
against the supernatural punishable in another life, but because it
brings harm to the group to which the offenders belong.
A discussion of weddings would lead into descriptions too involved
in detail to be taken up here. Suffice it to say that we meet the
same amount of variability as to wedding formalities as we move

from tribe to tribe that we do in other social phenomena. We find in
some cases entire absence of formality. The tribes of California east
of the Sierra and those on the Colorado River have none. man A
and a woman go to live together, and marriage consists in that fact.
They are as simply divorced. No economic or religious elements
enter into these cases. From this simplest type of marriage there
are all gradations up to the elaborate ceremony of the Manus of
Melanesia and the wedding potlatch of the Indians of the North-
west Coast. In general, however, the negotiations leading up to
marriage, and the fulfillment of the duties and enjoyment of privi-
leges after marriage, function more strongly than anything having
to do with the wedding itself.
The fact of marriage, either potential or actual, may set in motion
a whole series of adjustments, not only between the individuals con-
cerned but also between various members of their families. It may
cause an entire change in their behavior.
Whena Manus girl is engaged, as early as the age of seven or
eight, she must begin to hide her face from certain men in the village
because of their relationship to her fianc6. Even if she herself is not
engaged, her sisters or cousins may be, and she will have to avoid
the boys to whom they are betrothed. The number of taboo relatives
is so great and the requirements of avoidance so exacting that
many childish pleasures must gradually be given up. little girl's A
father ceases to take her with him because he does not need to
avoid the men she does. The men do not retreat; if the taboo is to
be kept and kept it must be the girl must retire in their pres-
ence. Consequently it happens that her activities are much restricted
and her pleasures curtailed until at ten or twelve there is little
freedom left, and that little ceases absolutely as soon as menstrua-
tion begins. 63
This description is only one of many which might be given to
illustrate the prevalence of "avoidance." The tribes which have it
are numerous, but the forms in which it exists differ greatly from
one area to another. One of the most usual forms is that a mother-
in-law avoids her son-in-law completely. This may mean that a
woman may never even see her son-in-law, much less speak to him.
If, by accident, she happens to meet him on the trail she must turn
SOCIAL LIFE 445
aside and cover herface. One can easily imagine how inconvenient
such a custom may become, especially in small communities where
the people live close together. There is no better example of the
fact that efficiency and convenience are not felt to be important
than the Sfees where matrilocal residence and mother-in-law taboo
prevail.
The Navajo have both. A man lives with his wife's people in a
house built near that of his mother-in-law. Habits of avoidance are
developed by both parties and they are aided by other members of
the family. For example, a daughter will tell her husband where her
mother is before he attempts to enter her house. So exaggerated is
the taboo that a woman may not even attend her daughter's wed-
ding. Death alone removes it.
Among the Apache, neighbors and relatives of the Navajo, the

taboo is kept by all the sisters of thfe mother-in-law as well as by
all those called "sister" by her. Consequently, if a man has married
more than one woman, either through the practice of polygyny or
because his wife or wives have died, there is a large group of women
which he will have to avoid.
Avoidance is by no means restricted to the mother-in-law rela-
tionship. It may be found between father-in-law and son-in-law, as

in certain Siberian tribes, and between other relatives by marriage.
All individuals addressing others as siblings of the opposite sex may
completely avoid one another. This form of the custom is common

in Melanesia. Altogether the differences in avoidance are great as
to the individuals whoobserve them as well as in the degree to which
avoidance is carried. The Navajo mother-in-law is an example of
complete avoidance, as is the Melanesian type in which a brother

may never enter the house in which his sister is. Not being allowed
to hand an object directly to a person to be avoided is a milder
degree of this custom. A sister and brother may eat together, but if
the girl wants something near her brother, either she gets it for
herself or the brother picks it up and places it on the floor or table
near enough for her to reach it. Another mild form is name avoid-
ance, in which case one of the individuals concerned is not allowed
to mention the name of the other; still another is the custom of
addressing the avoided person in the third person, as "he" or "she,"
instead of as "you."
In many tribes and often they are the same as those which
have some type of avoidance there is a custom quite as peculiar
but diametrically opposite. Certain relatives, frequently those of
opposite sex, have the privilege of saying anything they wish to
each other. Whereas avoidance frequently takes the form that mat-
ters pertaining to sex must be particularly avoided, privileged
familiarity especially emphasizes the fact that sex mdy be joked

about. A typical example is joking between cross cousins. They may
tease each other about shortcomings. The teasing may go to great
lengths of criticism or censorship. The joking relatives may make
public exhibitions of fondness for each other such exhibitions
are usually denied other individuals in the community and may
joke about sex matters. For instance, the thought of marrying into
one's own clan should properly be put out of mind; nevertheless
cousins may accuse each other of doing so, or of having sexual rela-
tions with members of their own clan. In its most exaggerated form
joking is obscene, not only in our sense, but even in the native
sense of the word. The most important rule of the game it may
well be called a game is that the persons standing in joking rela-
tionship may not become angry no matter what one may say to
another. One of my Navajo informants told me he would never get
angry if one of his cousins teased him, no matter what he said, but
three or four of them could sometimes "tease him down."
The freedom of joking relationship entitles one of those concerned
to free use of the other's property. In parts of Melanesia a man and
his mother's brother observe a joking relationship. The nephew may
appropriate any of his uncle's property for use or for abuse. He

may even destroy a favorite canoe and his uncle will not object.
In an Hawaiian tale a hero begged to be taken on an expedition his
ten brothers were undertaking to get rid of him. The brothers all
refused him, but when he begged his brother's son the latter could
not refuse, and they had to take him although their undertaking
then lost its purpose. 64
The very fact that so many reasonable theories have been pro-
pounded to explain the peculiar customs of avoidance and joking is
perhaps as good proof as any that neither is subject to a blanket
explanation. There is not space here to go into a detailed examina-
tion of the theories which have been advanced. We may briefly
summarize some of them, however, in order to give some idea of
the theoretical importance of customs such as these.
Frazer has assumed that avoidance between members of the op-
posite sex is due to an extension of the incest group from the small
SOCIAL LIFE 447
and purely biological to the larger social ones. He further advances

the opinion that taboos between members of the same sex may have
55
grown out of those observed toward members of the opposite sex.
Freud applies the findings of psychoanalytic methods in a western
European culture to primitive tribes and concludes that avoidance
is motivated by a desire to prevent incest. The reasoning whereby
he evolves his conclusions differs greatly from Frazer's, which is

based on sociological factors entirely ignored by Freud. 66
Tylor, in a statistical study, correlates the various sociological
phenomena of avoidance, joking relationship, residence and tek-
nonymy (the custom of naming a parent father or mother of so and
so that is, the name of the child) and argues that each must be
explained in terms of the others. That is, customs of this kind certainly
have a reciprocal effect on one another. He concludes, on this basis,
that avoidance is due to residence; that in a society where residence
is matrilocal one might reasonably expect mother-in-law and son-in-
law avoidance; and where patrilocal residence is the rule, daughter-

in-law and father-in-law avoidance. He further argues that individuals
marrying into a family and coming to live with it are "cut" because
57
as strangers they arouse suspicion and irritation.
Tylor's theory is a part of the theory of "group hostility" which
was more specifically developed in another way by Rivers. 58 In his
study of Melanesian society he finds brother-sister avoidance only
in those tribes which were influenced by the intrusion of outsiders.
He accepts avoidance, therefore, as a means of preventing the sexual
laxity which accompanies the advent of new peoples in this par-
ticular case, the Polynesians. He suggests that brother avoidance is a
survival from a time when brothers had wives in common, the change
to a condition when only one brother had rights to a woman giving
rise to a restraint now continued as avoidance. Rivers's explanation
of avoidance between relatives-in-law is that it was established to
prevent even the semblance of approach between individuals when
one was in a disadvantageous position, thus premising an attitude of
hostility between two moieties. He realizes that particular details
seem to refute rather than support his explanation, but in general
subscribes to the theory that "hostility is a function of the social
grouping" whereas "helpfulness between relatives by marriage is a
late development based upon the development of individual mar-
riage." Rivers's arguments depend upon faith in the survivals of a
prehistoric past.
Parsons summarizes the various theories previously propounded
and advances one, in my opinion, more humanly probable. She
differentiates between hostility and embarrassment and insists that
avoidance, at least between relatives-in-law, may be explained by the
fact that strangers coming into a family cause a feeling of restraint
whether residence is common may be expressed
or not. This reserve
by requiring the newcomer to observe conditions of respect that
is, to recognize the family status. In other words, each individual
must be kept in his place. 59
Lowie assumes that the horror of incest between brothers and
sisters is instinctive and that social avoidance is not a biological
necessity. He further emphasizes the principle, advanced by Golden-

"
weiser and Rivers for specific areas, that social and sexual restric-
tions go hand in hand/' and supplements it with another, "that
licensed familiarity generally obtains between potential mates." In
order to substantiate these principles, he quite rightly finds it neces-
sary to differentiate between parent-in-law avoidance and similar
taboos observed by members of the opposite sex of the same genera-
tion. To explain the Crow restriction between father-in-law and
son-in-law, and between two brothers-in-law, he falls back on Dr. Par-

60
sons's solution of the necessity of preserving status.
No matter what the causes no one cause can be proved for the
many types of avoidance, certain it is that at the present time it is
a matter of respect. A woman does not demand that her son-in-law
observe the taboo because she is hostile to him, but because she wants
him to respect her. This is the case in many parts of America and
there is reason to believe it to be the case in Melanesia and Africa
as well. In Dr. Parsons's insistence on preserving status
my opinion,
explains more of the manifestations of avoidance than any of the
other theories and it might even include the reason for privileged
license, for that is recognition of status which allows disrespect.
Lowie's theory that privileged familiarity obtains between poten-
tial mates does not hold in such cases as that of the Navajo, where it
obtains between cross cousins of the same and of opposite sex. Cross
cousin marriage is even strongly disapproved and is rarely found in
actual practice. The joking relationship is indulged in also by a man
and his maternal or paternal uncles and aunts.
As regards the cross cousin joking occurring with absence of cross
cousin marriage Rivers would undoubtedly have argued that the fact
of joking pointed to a survival of cross cousin mafriage which was
SOCIAL LIFE 449
common in some earlier period of Navajo history. Westermarck
pointed out quite reasonably that by the theory of survivals one

might prove anything, and that since it is based on speculation it
takes unfair advantage of positive evidence. The survival theory,
which can as easily assume one form as another, cannot be accepted,
because cultural elements may be found widely scattered in space
with constantly changing interpretations, and even in a given tribe
the interpretation of a custom may change through a period of time.
The other part of Rivers's theory namely, that avoidance was a
defense calculated to ward off the influence of foreigners must
likewise be repudiated. To begin with, the amount of intermarriage
between hostile tribes is so small in comparison with the total number
of marriages within a given group as to be negligible. Even if it were
a powerful factor in that part of Melanesia discussed by Rivers, it is
nevertheless a tiny portion of the world in comparison with the other
areas where avoidance is practiced.
Of all the theories Freud's seems to me the weakest, because it
shows no comprehension of the hold culture has on individual or
group thinking. It assumes that all the world must think as a Viennese
thinks.
Parsons belongs to that school of anthropologists which contends
that the complexity and close interrelation of various social phe-
nomena forbid giving a general cause for each as it is found the world
over. Lowie also belongs to this school and emphasizes the fact that
each time the custom is found it should be studied with close atten-
tion to the entire social setting. If a society is studied as a whole,
it isquite likely that in one region a given cause is plausible, and

that in another region the cause is entirely different.
Divorce. Ideas regarding divorce among primitives are as varied as
those regulating marriage. Within a given group, however, there is
likely to be a more uniform attitude than among ourselves. In many
cases adultery is one of the least important causes for divorce. Where
considered a cause, it is often tied up with the fact that marriage
it is
represents a business transaction. A woman's person is, in some of

these cases, subject to her husband's control. Violation is the same as
theft.Such is the case, for example, in parts of Africa where adultery
is considered a crime. It is far more likely, however, to be punished
by a fine than by divorce, unless the woman remains with her lover,
in which case her family must return the bride price to the husband.
Among the Ila more common grounds for divorce, which means
the return of the bride price, are virulent or contagious disease,
61
laziness, neglect to provide food for the husband, and sterility. The
last is a cause for divorce among the Thonga, as are also incompati-
bility and witchcraft. 62
is perhaps the most common ground for divorce. This
Barrenness
fact shows how important offspring are for the family as a social and
economic unit. It is also a part of the attitude regarding the price
paid for a woman at marriage as we have previously seen in the case
of the Yurok.
There are only two reasons for a Toda to divorce his wife. One is
that she is a fool the other, that she will not work. Barrenness is no
;
reason, for in case no children are born, a man takes a second wife.
When, for cither of the reasons given, a man wants a divorce he pays
one buffalo to his wife's people and receives in return any buffalo he
63
may have paid for the bride price.
In the Southwest of North America, among the Zufii, who are
monogamous, and among the polygynous Navajo, divorce is declared
by the woman. She simply places her husband's belongings outside
the door he lives in her house to indicate that he is persona non
grata. The man, who accepts his w ife's decision, goes back to his
r
mother's house, which is his permanent home. He may also leave on

his own initiative.
In most cases where property is involved divorce consists in the
property being returned. Divorce then, as well as marriage, is a family
affair. In Africa it happens frequently that this arrangement is a
curb on easy divorce, for often the amount paid for a wife has been
used by her family to secure a wife for her brother, or for other
purposes. It may consequently be very inconvenient to allow the
divorce, and the members of the family try to tide over the differ-
ences between the spouses by arbitration.
Kinship terms. In many primitive societies the personal name is

not used as a term of designation. Often it has religious significance.
The Eskimo believe that a name strengthens a child's soul, and if the
child is sickly its name may be changed to one which will make it
64
stronger. The Navajo use the name as a charm to drive off evil, for
they believe it has strong magic power which will help its owner out
of difficulties. Consequently it should not be used except in emer-
65
gencies, for its power may wear out. Among the Ila in Africa the
birthname of any person may be used only by his closest relatives
that is, by parents and siblings because, since a person is thought
SOCIAL LIFE 451
to be the reincarnation of an ancestor, the name is sacred and is to

be treated with the greatest respect; that means it should be avoided. 66
On the Northwest Coast of America names are property, in the sense
that they may be applied only to those who are entitled to them
through inheritance, marriage, gift, or purchase.
The function of the name is so varied in different tribes that the
ethnologist tries to learn what it is before asking,"What is your

name?" The question may give rise to keen embarrassment, or it
may even be considered a grave insult. Usually there are compli-
cated rules of etiquette on the use of the name based on prevailing
beliefs and, in addition, on the relationship between individuals
bearing the name and those using it. If there is an avoidance relation-
ship likely to affect the use of the name. A common way of
it is
getting around such difficulties is to avoid the "real" name that

is, the one bestowed ceremonially or for reasons of belief and to
use instead nicknames which may have reference to an occasion, a
locality, a personal idiosyncrasy, or a form of behavior.
More commonly kinship terms are used, not only for members of
the family, but even for strangers. Almost every tribe has a title of
respect for old persons which may be the same as the kin term for
"grandmother" or "grandfather." Since the organization so often
differs greatly from ours, it is reasonable to expect that the kinship
systems will also differ greatly. Differences depend upon linguistic

and social factors, the factor of language determining to some extent
and limiting the terms. Besides this, social requirements may change
the original meaning of a kin term so as to make it vary greatly
among the different tribes using it. Widely separated tribes having
closely related languages may have the same kin terms with differ-
ent meanings; neighboring tribes speaking languages entirely unre-
lated may use certain kin terms in common. Sometimes a word is
borrowed, together with the meaning; and again the word may be
taken over in an entirely different context. Furthermore, the inter-
67
pretation of the word may be borrowed without the word itself.
The most essential features of language are classification and
generalization. When I say "flower" I do not think of all the char-
acteristics of a flower, but I may mean columbine, wild geranium,
house lily, or orchid, none of which have the same description. In
the same way I may say "uncle" or "cousin" and the listener will
understand well enough what I mean, but he will not know whether
I speak of my mother's brother or of my father's, nor will he know
a from a second or more remote
first cousin. It may not be necessary
for him to know how we are related; if it is, I explain by circumlocu-
tions, my my mother's sister's son.
father's brother's or
All a class have some features in common, and of these
words in
we are rarely conscious because we do not stop to analyze them.
We use our kinship terms just as thoughtlessly. If, however, it be-
comes necessary to learn another system, the differences between it
and ours can be understood only through analysis. "Cousin" is to
us a term having no sex differentiation, but there is a difference
between German "Cousine" and "Vetter," the former being a fe-
male, and the latter a male. All languages have similar peculiarities.
However, when we consider systems belonging to social organiza-
tions of unusual types such as have been described in the preceding
sections, greater and more fundamental adjustments must be made
than any which may be applied to European kinship systems, be-
cause they are based on entirely different principles.
In systems the relatives by consanguinity, that is, blood rela-
all
tives, must be distinguished from affinals, relatives by marriage,

even if these should be at the same time blood relatives.
In our own system only three principles apply, not all of which
function for every single term belonging to it. They are descent in
direct or collateral line, generation, and sex of the person spoken
about. This is shown in the following table.
Generation Line Sex Affinity

Father ascending direct male
Mother . . . .
ascending direct female
Uncle ascending collateral male
Aunt ascending collateral female
Brother own male
Sister own female
Cousin own collateral male and
female
Wife female
Husband male
Son descending direct male
Daughter descending direct female
Nephew descending collateral male
Niece collateral female ~
descending
For terms of affinity the same terms are used in address cousin,
nephew t niece sparingly; in description with the addition of -in-law.
SOCIAL LIFE 453
The preceding and succeeding generations are set off by the addi-
tion of the qualifying grand-] the next one by great-grand-, and so on.
The combinations of these principles, although simple enough,
may not seem adequate for a social system in which the avunculate
makes important to know whether I refer to my mother's brother
it
or my father's, nor would they suffice for a system which empha-

sizes cross cousin marriage, or a taboo against the marriage of
parallel cousins. The relationship between such sociological phenom-

ena and a given kinship system may be very close. On the other
hand, a kinship system may be based on linguistic principles which
do not reasonably or consistently meet the present social require-
ments.
Primitive kinship systems may use all the principles we find in
our own, but there are others which must be understood, and even
those which we use are sometimes omitted or take on new distinc-
tions. Many systems differentiate relatives according to sex, but it
is not necessarily the sex of the person spoken of. The distinction
may be made according to the sex of the speaker. A man, for instance,
in addressing his son may use a term quite different from that which
his wife uses. A complete set of these terms is given in the following
table.
Still another variation of the sex principle distinguishes between

sex the "same as" or "opposite from" that of the speaker. For
instance, a boy speaking to his brother, and a girl speaking to her
sister, would use one term; but a boy speaking to his sister, or a
girl speaking to her brother, would use another term. This prin-
ciple applies most often to siblings and cousins.

The kin term used may depend upon the sex of an intermediate
relative. My father's sister and my mother's sister, my father's
brother and my mother's brother, my son's child and my daughter's
child, may be designated by separate terms; and the reciprocal
terms would follow the same categories: man speaking, my sister's
child, my brother's child; woman speaking, my sister's child, my
brother's child; my father's parents, mother's parents. These
my
terms may again be differentiated according to the sex of the person
spoken of.
In the case of cousins the sex of two intermediate relatives is
relevant. If the fathers of the cousins are brothers, or if their mothers
are sisters, they are parellel cousins. If the father of the one is the
mother's brother of the other one, they are cross cousins.
Still another possibility is that to address a grandparent one may
use exactly the same word which the grandparent uses in addressing
the grandchild. For instance, the grandparent may say nali meaning
"son's child," and the child also may say nali meaning "father's par-
ent." Whenthe same terms are used in both directions they are
called reciprocal terms. In our system "cousin" is a reciprocal term; I
callmy cousin "cousin" and he or she calls me the same. Our sibling
terms are partially reciprocal. I, a female, call my sister by the
same term she uses for me, and my brother does the same for his
brother. But when address brothers, or the reverse, the
sisters
reciprocity vanishes and the sex principle enters in to require dis-

tinction. There are systems which disregard the sex principle in
fraternity, in which case all siblings use the same terms to and for
one another, regardless of Quite commonly, too, kin systems of
sex.
primitive groups use reciprocal terms across generations, especially

across two generations that is, for grandparental terms.
Many systems, like our own, distinguish only three generations;
others have special terms for relatives as many as three, four, or
even five generations apart; still others disregard generation en-
tirely. For instance, in a matrilineal sib organization all the
males of
my father's sib may be designated by the same term regardless of
generation.
Many systems distinguish between direct and collateral descent;
others do not. It is not unusual to find systems in which the mother
and all her sisters, or the father and all his brothers, are addressed
by the same terms, which are to be defined as "one w oinan of the

T
group of sisters to which my mother belongs," "one man of the

group of brothers to which my father belongs."
When a number of persons are included in a single term, the terms
are often said to be "classificatory" kin terms. Understanding as to
SOCIAL LIFE 455
which individual of the whole group is meant may depend on situa-

tion or context, or he may be defined by circumlocution. If I speak
of my aunt, the listener cannot tell whether I mean father's or
mother's sister, or the wife of my father's or mother's brother. If
he does not know me or my family it may make no difference to
him; if it does, he asks me and I name her or describe the relation-
ship of the person in question "my mother's brother's wife," or
whatever it may be. In the same way natives indicate which person
of the classificatory group they mean.A common way of describing
"
mother's sister is by using the word little mother."
*
Just as our kinship system lacks the distinction between maternal
and paternal lines, so also it lacks age groupings. None of our terms
indicates the relative age of the persons concerned. Although our
own system never makes this distinction, it is nevertheless common.
There may be no general term for brother or sister, but rather
specific terms such as "elder brother," "younger brother," "elder
sister," "younger sister." A similar differentiation may be made for
cousins, and it may even be carried beyond the contemporary genera-
tion so that a distinction must be made between an uncle or aunt
older or younger. An uncle or aunt may also be distinguished as
older or younger than parent. Psychologically we make the age
distinction between uncle and nephew, but there is nothing in either
word to signify it. We consider it a bit peculiar nowadays to have
an uncle younger than a nephew, although the circumstance occurs.
With primitive peoples marrying as young as they do, and with
little feeling against discrepancy in age between the individuals of
a pair, cases are frequent where a person of a genealogically older

generation is younger than some of his relatives of a younger genera-
tion. Often this makes no difference in the kinship term, but there
are other cases where the term we must translate as "uncle" really
"
means male, one ascending generation removed, younger (or older)
than I, related in collateral line."
The preceding examples show that the principles underlying
systems of relationship terms vary greatly. We mentioned genera-
tion, sex of person spoken of, sex of speaker, direct or collateral
descent, relative age, relations to some intermediate common rela-
tive or relatives (as in cross and parallel cousins).
The terms so far discussed are terms of consanguinity; that is,
terms applied to blood relatives or relatives reckoned as blood kin
for social reasons, such as sib organization and the like. Kinship
terms of affinity constitute another important class. They are terms
used for relatives through marriage and apply most often to the
contemporary generation and one generation removed. Whenever
the laws of intermarriage allow consanguineous marriages, like those
between cross cousins, a choice of terms results. The maternal uncle
becomes at the same time father-in-law. Where the custom of the
sororate prevails, it may happen that a male calls not only his actual
wife but her sisters and even her parallel cousins by the same term,
"a group of sisters and cousins one of whom is my wife." This may
be due to the fact that they are his potential mates. It may happen,
on the other hand, that such terms represent categories which have
purely linguistic and no social significance. It happens that two or
even three terms may be possible for a particular relative, according
to which principle determines each definition. Since that is the case,
choicesmust be made, and such choice may give a clue to the domi-
nant principle of the system or perhaps to the emphasis read into
the term according to the social organization of the group. The
Navajo, for instance, often have a choice of relationship as reckoned
through the mother or father because of the close interrelationship
between sibs which is constantly encouraged (see p. 417). The choice
of terminology invariably selected by the individuals concerned is
that based upon relationship through the mother. It is, they say,
"closer." This is certainly due to the emphasis in the whole culture
on matrilineal sibs and their accompanying functions.
Although it is possible to establish the fundamental principles of
a system of relationship terms, it is seldom totally consistent. In
our own simple system the classificatory principle of sex is disre-
garded in the term "cousin." In the affinity terms the qualifying
element -in-law is omitted in the term of mate's uncle and aunt,
who are also simply designated as uncle and aunt.
In Dakota and Coeur d'Alene the terms for brother and sister are
differentiated according to the sex of the speaker, sex of the person
addressed, and relative age; but for younger brother both sexes use
the same term in Dakota while in Coeur d'Alene both sexes use the
same term for elder sister. The principle of generation which pre-
vails in the Dakota system also breaks down in the term used by a
person for his or her father-in-law and mother-in-law and the recip-
rocalterm for child-in-law, which are closely related derivatives of
68
those used for one's own grandparents namely, grandchildren.
It should be noted that in many systems the point of view is
SOCIAL LIFE 457
established for certain close relatives such as father, mother, sibling,

etc., and then all relationships are based upon this fixed point of
view. Thus, if I call many men ''father" I reckon my relationship
to his relatives on the basis of this fact. My father's brother is my
"father"; then his children must be my "siblings," and all persons
whom he calls "brothers" must be "fathers" to me.
Systems which differentiate between cross and parallel cousins in
the contemporary generation often dispose of the distinction in the
next generation. That is to say, although my parents distinguish
between their parallel (siblings) and cross cousins and I distinguish
between mine, I do not differentiate the cross cousins of my parents
from their parallel cousins (siblings).
In order to understand any social system basically, it is necessary
to know the relationship between the kinship system and the social
customs. But a descriptive knowledge of these is not enough; it is
important also to know the attitudes behind them both. It is pos-
sible, though not necessary, that a child may have a different atti-
tude toward his mother's sister, whom he "mother," from that
calls
which he has toward his father's sister, whom he addresses by an-
other term. This attitude may be different because of the term, or
the term may be different because of the attitude; or it may be that
neither has at present a determinable connection with the other.
The Hupa Indians of northern California, for instance, have the
same attitude as the Navajo of Arizona regarding the relationship
of a woman to her sister's children. She should treat them as her
own children; if her sister dies, she should marry the widower and
become a mother to his children. In both groups the sororate is the
rule; the attitudes are the same and correspond to those which the
sororate should require. In spite of all this, Ilupa children use
different terms to address "mother" and "mother's sister"; the
Navajo use the same terms for both. The Hupa word for "step-
mother" is, however, the same as the word for "mother's sister."
Among the Teton there is a rule which regulates behavior to all
individuals, behavior which is determined not primarily by relation-
ship of the persons speaking, but by the attitude held by inter-
mediate relatives. Thus a Teton woman has a joking relationship
toward her father's brother and an avoidance relationship toward
her mother's brother because her father jokes with his brother and
her mother is avoided by her brother. Their kinship terms are the
result of classifications that arose at one time in the history of the
people, but thereis no way of telling whether the present attitudes
grew up because of the kinship terms. Certain it is that at present

the two are so closely interrelated that the attitude of an indi-
vidual toward a stranger will depend upon the kin term the two
will determine upon after considering relationships which may be
very remote.
It is to be expected that kin systems, customs, and attitudes will
not generally maintain a consistent relationship as they occur re-
peatedly from tribe to tribe. The reasons for lack of uniformity and
for inconsistency are diverse; not only do they depend upon social
organization itself, but organization, in its turn, influences and is

influenced by all the other phases of the life of a tribe, economic,
and religious. A kinship system, although in itself compli-
artistic,
cated and composite, is nevertheless only an elaborated detail of the
larger pattern of each culture.
^
Prestige. Our discussion up to this point has laid emphasis on

status due to "natural" causes, birth and marriage. The latter,
though it may be called "natural" in its universality, has been
shown to vary greatly in the machinery which brings it about and
in its interrelations with other phases of social, economic, or religious
life. Questions inevitably asked are: To what family does a man be-
long by birth? With what family has he become affiliated by mar-

riage?Where does he live? To what association does he belong?
In this respect primitives are no different from us. The answers
establish a man's place in the world, and the consequent behavior
of his fellows is regulated by them. It is likely, however, that the
attitudeis not formulated or defined; it is merely taken for granted.
On the other hand, an individual whose antecedents are modest and

whose marital affiliations are not exciting has certain means by
which he may bring himself before the public eye, means by which
he may increase his prestige. In modern America the chief of these
means is wealth. Among a small portion of the population, the title
of "doctor" or of "professor" is impressive. Sudden and perhaps

temporary prestige may be secured by some sensational achieve-
ment, no matter how trivial. There are communities where just
getting a name in a headline, even for crime, causes a rise in per-
sonal stock.
If we keep in mind such customs of our own we can better under-
stand the examples of primitives who secure prestige by what at
first thought would seem to be peculiar methods. One great differ-
SOCIAL LIFE 459
ence between them and us is that in a given tribe or area a certain

way of attaining rank is stylized, whereas among us the methods
are varied, and new ways of coming into the public eye are con-
stantly being originated. This is due to the complexity of our civili-
zation, which emphasizes rapid communication, and to the speed at

which we live.
Dr. Bunzel has described (see pp. 357 ff.) the system of gaining pres-
tige on the Northwest Coast of America. Although the status of a
person as firstborn of a noble lineage is important, the maintenance
of the status is intimately related to the economic system. Further-
more, she has pointed out that the purpose of the potlatch, the end
to which all participants devote their energies, often the struggles of
a lifetime, is to secure prestige, perhaps for self, but often for chil-
dren. The acquisition of prestige is not manifested in a subtle way,
but it is blatant. It is recited in pompous speeches; it is counted and
recounted publicly to large audiences; it may even furnish sanction
for taking a life. Many features of the potlatch arc striking, but the
desire for prestige in the abstract is the end to which a rival bends
his efforts. Property is important, but not its possession so much as
its use and even its destruction. The grease feast, which is actually
"burning money"; ostentatious squandering of food through gift;

throwing the copper into the sea all these show that something
higher than the mere possession of wealth is valued.

A man may exist in an impoverished condition as the key indi-
vidual of the system because of previous dispersal and destruction
of valued goods. His children (sons, daughters, or sons-in-law) may
bask in the warmth of the glory reflected by their father's "gener-
ous" (and always public) exploits for at least a generation. However,
if son or son-in-law should allow the source of the power to dim by
failing to add to it, his own children might suffer from weakening
of the prestige, but it will take more than two generations for the
community to forget or to discount completely the extreme pot-

latching of the most noble ancestor. A child of the family will always
have tradition to bolster up his own weakness in the system or its
failurethrough circumstances such as exist at present because of
the breakdown of the economic structure due to the laws and ex-
ploitation of the Whites.
There is one fundamental difference between this system and our
own, the difference due to use and destruction. A noble of the North-
west Coast "is" because he "has not"; he has traded his goods for
something more abstract, the respect of the community. If he piled
up his wealth ad infinitum with stress on "having/' he would not
attain his goal. Instead of attaining honor in his group, he would
simply be despised as one who had not followed the course to its
inevitable conclusion.
The rewards system and of ours are quite similar.
of the potlatch
All activities are regulated by the acknowledged position of the
individual who has himself attained the prestige and the consequent
power inherited from his forebears. In all gatherings the honor of
each is known to all the guest with highest names has the place of
;
honor, the second highest sits next, and so it goes.

An important feature of Northwest Coast culture is the winter
ceremonial, during which potlatches are given and boys are initiated
into secret societies in order to secure guardian spirits. Duties and
offices inthe winter ceremonial arc performed or held according to
rank. A man is often proud of holding an office which entails great
personal sacrifice because of taboos and restrictions.
The pantheon of one of the Northwest Coast tribes, the Bella
Coola, is organized in a manner which parallels the notions of rank
in actual life, certain gods being of great importance with only the
slightest duties whereas others not nearly so important have many

more or more greatly extended activities. One god sits in the back
of the house, a position of no significance, because he has given up
69
his position near the fire to his nephew.
A person with high prestige has, moreover, the privilege of treat-
ing his inferiors with the greatest arrogance. For, although a noble
or chief is expected to see to it that his people are never in physical
need, he nevertheless looks down upon them, derides his inferiors, and
exalts himself in his speeches. He teaches his son to behave in the
same way to the children of lesser nobles and of commoners.
Although the kula trading expedition of New Guinea (see pp. 361 ff .)
is organized on a different basis from the potlatch of the North-
west Coast, and there is no provable relationship between the two,

there are, nevertheless, certain fundamental attitudes which are
similar. The trading of armbands or necklaces is the culminating
stage of a long series of preparations and trading which gives the

participant the most desirable ranking in his community. There is
rivalry. The armbands and necklaces are not valuable in themselves
but because they have history, trade, names, magic, behind them.
In virtue of the tradition adhering to the trade objects, a man gains
SOCIAL LIFE 461
status in his group not by possessing an object but because he has

once possessed it. Only by contributing to the tradition which the
object carries with it that is, by passing it on may he add to
his ownhonor. Keeping a treasure for a time longer than the rules
specify gives rise first to mild criticism tinged with wonder, then to
censure and suspicion. If the possessor of an object keeps it unduly
long he may even lose his place altogether.
Destruction of property is not as pronounced in the kula as in
the potlatch, but artistic exhibits of choice garden products are
allowed to rot to show the owner's position in the course of kula
preparations. Place in insignificant as well as in more important
regulations of daily life is quite as important as it ison the North-
west Coast. Priority of right and privilege depends likewise upon a
man's place in the series. The element of magic, of the greatest
importance in the kula, gives it a tinge somewhat different from
that of the potlatch, into which magic hardly enters. Another of
the most apparent differences is the attitude which a Trobriand
chief, high in the kula, shows toward his inferiors. The arrogant
disdainful manner of the Northwest Coast noble toward those be-
neath him in rank is absent. "The fact that he [the chief] is ac-
corded marks of great deference, and approached in the manner as
if he were a supreme despot, does not mean that perfect good fellow-
ship and sociability do not reign in his personal relations with his
70
companions and vassals."
Prestige accredited by "divine right" that is, by right of in-
heritance only was known among the Polynesians, the ancient
Mexicans, and the Peruvians. An idea of this sort may be expected
to work out differently in different groups, but it is a prestige pattern
well understood by any student of European history. In Polynesia
the right to nobility was inherited by the oldest male in direct line,
and so exaggerated did the right of primogeniture sometimes become
that the youngest brother of a largQ fraternity might rank no higher
than a commoner. 71
Emphasis on order of birth was closely related to belief that im-
personal supernatural power (mana, see p. 630) was inherited in
large measure by the eldest male scion of a line, to a lesser degree

by his younger siblings. Because of birth and possession of mana a
high noble was "taboo" that is, doubly dangerous. He had super-
human power for good, but that very power made things touched
or used by him dangerous to his inferiors. It is sufficient to point
out the existence of these relationships between social and religious
concepts without entering into specific details of their operation.
South and West Africa are other large territories in which right
and order of birth attach prestige, usually political and economic,
to particular individuals, and once more the pattern is a familiar
one with changes, of course, in operating details.
In contrast to the Old World prestige patterns, the potlatch of
the Northwest Coast of North America is a unique development.
Even more unusual is the basis upon which prestige was developed
in the Plains region. Before the coming of the Whites the most im-
portant activity of this area was warfare. Fighting was exploited not
for territorial or tribal expansion the tribes roamed over a large
region in their pursuit of bison but for the honor it could bring
to individuals. Within this system, common to many tribes, it was
not the fact of killing an enemy which counted, but rather being the
first to touch him had fallen. Suppose, for example, there
after he
were a number* of men in a war party only the most foolhardy
charged alone and an enemy was slain. All rode as fast as possi-
ble, not for the purpose of finding out whose arrow struck the fatal
blow, but to be the first to touch the prostrate body. This custom
is referred to as "counting coup." The one who first touched counted
coup; the second, second coup; and the third, third. Even fourth
first
and fifth coups were counted by some tribes. For this purpose each
warrior carried a coupstick, a short, highly polished, clublike stick
made of yew or mulberry.
There were definite times in the tribal ceremonies when each man
of rank recited his coups. They were counted almost like blue, red,
and yellow ribbons at a county fair. The man whose total was
highest was ranked the highest, noblest of the tribe, and had the
privilege of displaying symbols of his prowess on his robe or tipi,
as well as many other honors. 72 In this area there were no classes.
One reckoned status in prowess recited, but all lived in the same
way. Those having the highest prestige might be the richest because
they had accumulated the property of their enemies. Coups were
also counted for horse-stealing, which vied in honor with killing.
The premium was put upon bravery. Horses were kept close to the
camps of buffalo-hunting or sedentary Indians. A man was therefore
exposed to great danger in stealing horses, and the greater the

danger he survived, the greater the subsequent prestige.
Among the Dakota prestige may also be obtained by the liberality
SOCIAL LIFE 463
of parents who give away freely on behalf of their child, who is thus
raised in respect and who is expected for that reason in later life to
measure up to the highest standards of conduct.
Behavior of persons of rank that is, chiefs is in direct con-
trast to that on the Northwest Coast. Hospitality, beneficence, and

kindliness were virtues inculcated in all the tribesmen of the Plains,
and required of chiefs or of men counting high war honors. The
arrogance expected of the Northwest Coast noblemen might be a
cause for the withdrawal of collective respect from a Plains chief.
The kindly relations demanded of a man with high prestige toward
his fellows who counted lower totals, or even none at all, are doubt-
less related to the Plains attitude toward property. For although
it might be "good" upon occasion to secure much, it was "better"
to distribute it periodically in the "give-away" (see p. 338). Such

distribution after a death, for example might well leave the
incumbent completely devoid of possessions; and besides, it did not
entail the necessary gain in prestige which took the place of pos-
session on the Northwest Coast. An individual did not remain bit-
terly impoverished for too long a period because of the generosity

of his fellows, but neither did he expect a return in kind and count
as did the potlatch participant. In the long run, it is likely that
many were at times wealthy, some were always poor, but all were
sometimes without any possessions whatsoever, for death came to
allfamilies and always someone survived. On the other hand, no
one suffered actual want except as he continued in a state of indi-
gence to express his emotions sorrow for instance but all were
taken care of. 73
The means of establishing or sustaining status are impressive
because they are unique or, at least, because they are manifested in
a positive manner. There are, however, many regions in which one
individual is not set off against another by artificial means or even
by the accident of birth. In some cases, modesty may be encouraged.
The Navajo chanter, in whose hands the spiritual well-being of the
tribe is is a modest soul, highly respected, but with none
entrusted,
of the blatancy which trumpets prestige on the Northwest Coast or
in the Plains. There are today men who have made their practice of
religion a source of wealth, but the ideal chanter is a man who has
given up everything, sometimes even family, to devote himself to the
cause of religion. Some chanters have greater power than others, but
that is because they "know more," not because they "have more."
Arrogance, boastfulness, impatience all these are antithetical
to the spirit of the religion which seeks to adjust the minds of the
tribesmen "in beauty" to the requirements of the supernaturals.
This means that extreme boastfulness must be avoided. Demonstra-
tion of power in the Navajo region as well as in the vast northern
region ofNorth America, including the Mackenzie and Eskimo
areas, is a matter of learning and technique. Success will do the
boasting; there is no tribal machinery for it. This is likewise true of
the vast region of Siberia, where respect is accorded individually to

him who shows close affiliations with the supernaturals. There is no
class distinction regarding the man to whom a supernatural may
appear.
Although there may be no specific social stratification according
to which individuals of a tribe are classed, most
all perhaps all
tribes have stages of respect in which certain men are classified.
Many of these respect-categories define certain ethical ideals. The

Eskimo accord high respect to a good hunter, but not to a stingy,
mean one no matter how skillful or lucky he may be. The Coeur
d'Alene of northern Idaho are only one of many tribes who value
ability to express opinion, setting great store not only on the gift of
oratory but also on soundness of judgment behind the sometimes
florid diction.
The Wiyot Indians of northern California have a short verb stem
which means "a person is most highly respected in his (or her)
community/' This word is rarely used, but the feeling it expresses
rests on solidarity of opinion, not necessarily orally expressed, and
certainly not on any kind of tribal systematization designed to

establish it.
All the attitudes which have been noted have parallels in our
own society. The manof wealth has political, social, and even re-
ligious privilege; the clergyman, although he may not be wealthy,

has economic and social privilege because of his calling. "Place" is
also recognized although it may change with changing circumstances.
Every position at Washington carries with it a theoretical social

placing, even though a question often arises about seating at table,
for instance, when there is doubt as to the rank of one office whose
position has not been numbered w ith respect to another. The whole
T
question of place in Washington is quite comparable to that of the

Kwakiutl or the Marquesans, and to some it is quite as amusing.
The zest for gain has the same rationalization among American
SOCIAL LIFE 465
business men as among the Kwakiutl or Trobrianders. They may

even say that their gains are not for themselves, and that they are
working solely for the welfare of their children. Rarely, however,
does an American turn over his place in life to an heir to occupy
the humblest position himself.
There are elements of our own society as intangible as the names
of the Northwest Coast and 'the tradition belonging to a Trobriand
arm shell. Title is one of these symbols. A man may be a successful
banker, copper king, or an oil magnate who covets that magic sym-
bol, a college or university degree. If he asserts his position openly,
as does the Kwakiutl or the Plains chief, he may buy a degree out-
right. If he is a little more subtle he presents a gift to a college or
university. The institution shows its gratitude by conferring an
honorary degree upon him, or by naming a building for him.
A matron with social aspirations may devote a lifetime and even
that of her children, if they allow her, to securing an invitation from
a woman whose position is more sure. She may even show her own
superiority by nonchalantly refusing the invitation once she has
succeeded in getting it. This behavior seems quite comparable with
that of the Trobriand Islander who exerts all his physical, artistic,
and magical powers to produce a fine crop of yams and leaves them
to rot on the seashore!
If we could stand apart and view ourselves and our own behavior
with due perspective, we should not be more surprised at the customs
of primitive people than at our own. We should find such as these
based primarily on human conceits, pleasant if we are used to them,
"funny" if we are not.
Woman in primitive society. Inheritance determines to a degree
the place otan individual in his group; marriage fixes or raises that
position; and he may even elevate it through his own efforts, such
as trading, as on the Northwest Coast or in Melanesia, or by prowess
made possible and strengthened by supernatural help, as in the
Plains. Birth into a particular family or society is an accident as far
as a particular individual is concerned. Another accident, that of
being a woman, may greatly extend or limit the position of half the
population of a tribe, for woman's place is definitely fixed in each
society although there are only a few common bases upon which this
placing is adjusted. In only a few cases is there a "woman question,"
and in no case can we determine why woman has the high or low
position she occupies.
There are certain general limitations to woman's activities created
by the function of child-bearing which has made her also home-
maker. These activities restrict her mobility, and for this reason
generally, hers are the duties which require prolonged and careful
attention, those which are tedious and enduring but not of them-
selves arduous. In contrast to this general limitation men may at
any time cut loose the shackles of home and home cares and venture
afield far afield, ifon hunting, trading, or warring ex-
.need be,
peditions. When, rare cases, women become Amazons, some
in
special arrangements have to be made for home-making. Female

warriors may be set apart as a class and are not expected or allowed
to have children.
In general, however, there are not many activities in most cultures
in which women are unable to participate. Although an Eskimo
woman can hardly exist without a man, or a man without a woman,
there are emergencies in which women may be obliged to perform
duties which are usually considered the province of the men. The
reason Eskimo women occasionally save the lives of White explorers
is that the Eskimo women have mastered the technique of combating
the environment, whereas the White men have not; it has nothing to
do with biological superiority.
Hearne in his journal 74 notes that men in the Arctic would not
start out without women in the party because they were necessary
to the success of the expedition. In this case they had to look after
the clothing of the party and were used as pack animals. have We
few examples where the "position" of women is so "low."
A
deal of anthropological literature implies that women who work
hard must necessarily have a low position in the tribe. If this were
true, it would mean that woman's position in our own country is
lower than it was before "women's rights" with so-called sex equal-
ity.Women who now pursue careers, if they are not economically

independent, have twice the responsibilities they had previously, for
the career has not permitted them to give over their former cares.
Judged by the amount of labor she performs, one might on the
other hand be forced to conclude that the woman of a luxurious
harem, or of Victorian Europe, had a high position. As a matter of
fact, stress on a useful function in a group might far outweigh the
pleasure in idleness and beauty if women in certain groups could

express their opinion.
All this really means that there is no such thing as the "high" or
SOCIAL LIFE 467
"low" position of women, but that it is low within

relatively high or
particular domains. Although woman
America has a high position
in
socially, economically, and politically, in one important realm, that

of religion, she has no status whatsoever, and this in spite of the
fact that religious forms are practiced among us more commonly by
women than by men. Female ministers and leaders are rare. Such
as there are are sneered at and condemned no less by the women
themselves than by the men. It is unthinkable that a woman could
attain to the position of bishop, cardinal, or pope.
Conditions in our own society point to a need for a different
approach to the study of woman's position among primitives. Some
tribes like theNavajo and Zufii have almost complete equality
between the sexes; in others, like some of northern California,
women 75
excel in religious activities, for there are more female than
male shamans. Some tribes, like the Ashanti 76 of West Africa and
77
the Iroquois of eastern North America, gave women so much
political power that they dictated to the "throne," but in only a
few cases did they become the "throne."
When a Navajo child is born, he or she is given a lamb or a kid;
gifts and increase are added from time to time so that the woman,
just as the man of an enterprising family, has a good flock when she
comes of age. She is therefore economically independent whether
she marries or remains single, whether her husband is rich or poor,
and even if her husband leaves her with a family of children. Besides
her flocks, she may bring cash to the family by the sale of her hand-
woven rugs. Her husband has his own resources, and although the
two may see fit to pool them temporarily, it is by no means necessary
that they should. Labor is allocated according to family personnel
and size of flocks or amount of land under cultivation. It is often the
woman who dictates the duties of the day, the direction of pasture
and the herder.
Socially the matter is about the same. The woman is hostess and
manager, cook and counselor, and if her judgment is good she may
have not only voice in family matters, but even the decisive vote.
A medicine man may be important, but he respects the opinion of
his wife, especially if she is old and therefore experienced. The arti-
ficial respect imposed by the mother-in-law taboo increases woman's

disguised power, for her wish must be obeyed blindly; there can be
no talking back.
It seems that the Navajo of early days had an institution cor-
responding to coup-counting by which people gained prestige. Prow-
ess in war entitled one to be considered as a War Chief, of which
there were twelve. By some means not clear now, but at least signi-
fying honor, twelve Peace Chiefs were also chosen. Women could
occupy these positions as well as men. Women were permitted to go
to war, although it does not seem that a large percentage did so.
They were, and are today, allowed to participate on equal terms
with men in the most important tribal activity, that of religion.
There are several women who can sing major chants, the Night and
the Mountain Chant; and the ultimate authority for another, the
Shooting Chant, is vested in a woman. These women do not practice
much now for various reasons, one being that some are too old. It
seems also that the men singers show jealousy when they do perform,
but this seems to be due to notions secured from Whites, and those
same men singers do not hesitate to go to the women to check up
on old details and to learn new ones. There is a more potent reason
for the small number of women chanters than any of those given,
namely, that women are generally not interested in the details

78
of the chant. According to Bunzel, Zufii women may belong to
medicine societies but they have little interest in doing so. I know
of no reason why this should be, or why conditions of this sort
should differ now from those of the past as they do among the
Navajo.
Iknow of no other region outside the Southwest where the position
of women is as equally divided among the various cultural activities.
One-sided emphasis is, however, quite frequently found. Among the
Papago of the Mexican border the men secured through vision the
" "
crystalswhich gave power for curing. Chona, who was not only
intelligent but powerful, refused the gift of revelation because she
was a woman; indeed, she even had the power driven out of her by
ritual. Her autobiography, recorded when she was over eighty, indi-
cates that she, as well as some of her family and tribesmen, considers
that she may possibly have erred in not accepting the power of
curing, even though the women of her tribe did not generally have
79
it.
Women of California, on the other hand, were more likely than

men to receive and accept a "call" or "dream" which gave them
80
power although both sexes practiced shamanism. The mystery of
woman's menstrual period and of her ability to bear children may
be interpreted either for or against her in religious practice. In north-
SOCIAL LIFE 460
ern California, as in regions of North America, a menstruating

many
woman is
"dangerous," but the mystery which makes her so may,
if properly treated, also enable her to use that power for good; hence
she becomes the personal exponent of the notion that "what kills
also cures/' and she controls the power as it affects others.
Political status was possessed by the Iroquois women of the
woodland region of North America. The five tribes \vere united in a
confederacy for defense and it was governed by representatives from
the several tribes. The tribes were divided in their turn into phratries
which were composed of matrilincal sibs. If a vacancy occurred in
the confederation council it wasby the vote of the women of
filled
the sibs. They selected the candidate on the basis of merit; their
suggestion must be approved by each successively larger unit in
order that the vacancy be filled. And yet there was a stricture
against a woman being one of the representatives or even a tribal
chief. Only once, and then temporarily, did a woman ever occupy
such a position. 81
r
In numerous African tribes the situation was similar though the
governmental structure was entirely different. Africa was the land
of kingdoms; a man who was king or chief had considerable judicial
and executive power. lie had, moreover, an elaborate court with
followers and insignia fundamentally no different from those of the
European courts of the past. At the same time, the Queen Mother
or Sister had her own court, which was almost an exact replica of
the King's except that it was composed of women. In some cases,
the Queen seems to have been a mere figurehead; in others, as
among the Ashanti, all executive orders must be approved by her
before they could be carried through, and the King consulted her
and conceded to her decision in all matters, large and small. How-
ever, she was seldom the actual executive officer, hardly more than
the "power behind the throne/' 82 although in some other tribes the
Queen had even executive power.
These examples, like those illustrating modes of attaining prestige,
are positive ones. They refute a point which is often only implied,
but nevertheless tenaciously held; that
is, that if the position of one
sex high, that of the other must necessarily be low. The Navajo
is
man does not consider himself downtrodden because he respects the

judgment of his intelligent womenfolk. He has his place and they
have theirs, and that is all there is to it. Because the North Cali-
fornian woman happens to be a shaman does not mean that she
treats her family and friends differently from the woman who has
not accepted a dream, nor does it mean that she can domineer over
her husband or the other men any more than the other women.
A good deal has been written of people who treat their women
badly, but the viewpoint is generally that of a White person who
interprets a situation on the basis of his own emotions and bias. If
he sees an African with many wives, they must have low position
because no husband could be equally attentive to several wives.
The writer may not record, because he may not know, the fact that
the more wives there are, the happier all may be because it means
that they have a rich husband who can afford to get help for them
in their work. Some American women consider European women
slaves to their husbands and despise the husbands for allowing their
wives to perform certain tasks for them which to us seem menial.
The European woman, on the other hand, has the deepest sympathy
for American men. She actually pities them because they have no
woman whose sole duty and pleasure it is to care for matters which
a bootblack or tailor can do better. And so it may often be among
primitives. On the surface it may appear that one or the other sex is
discriminated against, but the inner spirit and attitude of the tribe
may show that it is not; or more likely, neither men nor women ever
think of the matter at all.
Education. With all the complicated conventions primitives have
been shown to observe, and many more, it is obvious that there
must be means of passing them from one generation to another.
Our information about the education of the primitive child is scanty
enough, but it is sufficient to be highly suggestive. Besides, it shows
that educational methods are by no means uniform as we view them
from tribe to tribe. One respect in which primitives differ from us
is that they are sure of what they want to teach. The young child
of the Northwest Coast starts life in the atmosphere of the potlatch,
and his training continues to include more and more of it as he
grows older. The Plains child starts as early to practice counting

83
coup, and neither would ever have to face the choice as to whether
he should be a coup-counter or a potlatch-giver. This follows for
every tribe whether it be one with a definite cultural stress or one
with less emphasis on any particular side of the culture; consequently
limitations are set at once.
One kind of learning general among primitives sets them distinctly
off from our own particularly our city-bred children, not only
SOCIAL LIFE 471
in the kind of thing learned but also in the manner of learning it.
This is that primitive children early learn the inevitable facts of
nature, which means also the physical properties of materials and
things, matters about which our students may remain blissfully un-
conscious for life. I cannot imagine, for instance, that any primitive
child who had ever seen a coconut could possibly ask, as did a college
student, "Is a coconut a root?" or even that he could be as unaware
of his surroundings as to be completely surprised, as was another,
when told that electricity had to be paid for. She had never thought
of such a thing. She had supposed that lights just "were," like the
sun.
Most tribes know a great deal about various crafts. But even if
no definite stress is laid upon making things, the most elaborate sort
of knowledge, skill, and resourcefulness may be necessary
patience,
to carry on an existence by hunting and food-gathering. All crafts
require materials. Collecting materials requires knowledge of plants,
their times and rates of growth, the age and relative strength of their
parts, methods of preparation and preservation, to mention only a few

items. To achieve success in hunting, a man must know the habits of
the animals he pursues; he must know the dodges used by the animal
for its own protection; he must work out some device for catching
it which is a shade cleverer than the animal the point at which
curiosity or greed overwhelms caution, for example, or the time
necessary to wear out or confuse the animal in the chase. He makes
snares and cages to catch it. Some of these are simple, but they will
work only if they take due account of the senses of the animal. Does
it see well at day or night or does it depend more upon scent or
hearing for its protection? Does dependence on speed force the animal
inadvertently into an impound or a spiked pit? Will the confusion
which causes stampeding be useful or detrimental to man's attack
on the herd? Can it be controlled once it is set in motion?
There is no limit to this kind of knowledge possessed by primitive
man, and a child acquires it along with his mother's milk. One rea-
son why it is difficult to study primitive education is that one method
used to teach these things is intangible. It is a method as old as the
life of man but one which our self-conscious analysts often forget:
simply that children do not do what adults tell them to do, but
rather what they see adults do. Primitive people do not lay stress
on telliiig. In many languages the word for "teach" is the same as
the word for "show," and the synonymity is literal. One of the
things which amuses natives, at the same time making them lose
respect, is the habit White people have of asking questions: "What
are you going to do next*/" "What are you doing that for?" The
craftsman or hunter always knows what he is going to do next, but
he may not be able to give orally the reason for doing it. In most
cases, it will be apparent at the very next operation and there will
be no need to ask. It will be apparent, however, only to him who
knows the properties of the materials being used, the steps in the
process already finished, and the end result sought.

All these things the primitive child picks up by constant observa-
tion and by imitation. Our children have little chance to do this
because their elders make few things, and have very little interest
in, or knowledge of, the world of nature or materials. This fact
makes them capable of considering a coconut a root, and forms an
exact parallel to the Indian who rubbed a small stick along his
pants until he wore them through trying to get a spark, for he had
seen a White man perform this wonder. The White man knew how
to use the match, and he knew it was a specially prepared stick, but
he almost certainly did not know how it was prepared. The Indian,
though observant, did not notice the fact of this particular prepa-
ration. On the other hand, he would have been able to interpret the
entire story of a visitor to his house in his absence, that story being
written only in tracks, sometimes almost invisible, and in signs
which only the detective of a mystery story could read for us.
Knowledge of physical properties as applied to crafts or economic
techniques includes also a determination of standards. As the child
watches its mother weave, it sees her skillful hands move between
warps, setting an even line with the weft, neither warp nor weft
tearing, but when she sees her unskilled sister at work the warp
tears, the weft lies unevenly, the edge of the blanket pulls in. The
mother shows the sister what to do about all these things, and the
little girl, watching, notes that mistakes, though tolerated, are not
passed over. In addition to all the patience exhibited in mastering

complicated processes, she will hear the unbiased criticism her
mother gives not only of her own blankets but also of those of her
friends, and they in their turn will criticize hers. All this is done in
an impersonal way, and no stigma attaches to the worker, but she
derives stimulation and even encouragement from the criticism of
her errors, for the good points are appreciated and remarked as well.
The output of primitive industry at the peak of its development
SOCIAL LIFE 473
is sometimes astounding in quantity and quality as our museum

collections constantly attest. Two characteristics of handmade ob-
jects are strength and durability. A
Navajo child learns strength
and control very young. I saw a child less than two years of age,
and small for her age, pour water from a full two-quart coffee pot
into a bowl which held about half of it when filled to the brim. She
then picked up the bowl and drank from it without spilling a drop.
Strength, firmness, control, all depend upon fine accommodation
of muscles to the materials or objects handled. Generally speaking,
this adjustment which we call skill may be acquired in two ways,
for observation alone is not enough; there must be extensive ex-
perience in handling and in judging the materials and in pursuing
the ideal.
The and the commonest of these methods is the patient
first
"showing/' criticism, and help given by the adults who want their
children to learn. The large majority want to learn, and craft in-
struction is individual. There is some evidence that an indifferent
attitude on the part of the elders may stimulate a child to achieve-
ment.
Atlnaba, a Navajo girl, was patiently taught to weave by
little
an older and was expert at the age of five. Her younger sister
sister
did not even start to learn until she was over eight, although she
had always cherished secret desires to emulate her sisters. By this
time the eldest sister had died and the mother had not the patience
to help her small daughter. This, however, did not quench her
fervor,but she learned in spite of lack of instruction rather than
because of it. Secretly she made her own loom from crude sticks;
she stole bits of yarn from her mother; she used ruse to discover her
mother's manipulation of warps in making design. Her adult skill,
of which her mother was duly proud, was attained by stubborn
perseverance accompanied at times by tears and anger.
A somewhat similar example is that of the Tami who inhabit a
small island southeast of New Guinea and who are skillful wood-
carvers. These people never tell the boys to carve. If one wants to
do so, he is allowed to try his hand at making a bowl. No help is
given him. If he shows aptitude at his first trial he is encouraged
and advised, but if his first try is a failure no one takes the trouble
to comfort him, and the chances are he is never again allowed to
try. The Tami believe that one should not work unless he feels like
it. If a person were forced to work when the mood was not on him,
something dire was bound to happen and no one could expect suc-
84
cess. Since the population of the Tami area is small and the output
in wood-carving large, it is o be concluded that many individuals
showed aptitude and that there were many times when they "felt
like" working.
Learning a craft imposes its own discipline as anyone who pur-
sues one can attest. A badly spun string will tear, a granny knot
will slip, a cut in wood deeper than necessary cannot be
uncut, a
fishweir loosely fastened will be washed downstream. Consequently
art and industry need no human coercion, for nature, by her laws,
takes its place. Many of the older writers make general statements
to the effect that primitive children are not disciplined, but that
they are always indulged. The whole question, like so many others,
depends upon the side of culture to be stressed and particularly
upon the motive behind it. Although discipline does not necessarily
include corporal punishment, it may be even more severe than that
meted out by the puritanical paterfamilias who demanded un-

thinking obedience above all things.
The Manus of New Guinea have no interest in craftsmanship but
they idolize property. They are a water people and consequently
have to meet the demands made by the sea. They do not hesitate
to slap the tiniest baby in teaching it to grasp its mother's neck,
and a child who breaks one of the large pots valuable in trade is
shamed almost out of countenance. It is just as important for the
child to swim as it is to clasp its mother's neck strongly, but it is
not thrown into the water to "sink or swim." On the contrary, it
is taught gently and patiently to like the water. Every new effort is
applauded; no retrogression in learning is tolerated. Discipline along

other lines is practically nonexistent. Adults are almost slaves to a
child's minor fitsof temperament and they do nothing to free them-
85
selves.
A Fox Indian mother taught her child
by moral suasion but did not
hesitate to use force when
became necessary, for it was better that
it
her child should become a worthy woman than that she should have
"
an easy life. She says, If you happen to know how to make every-
thing when you no longer see me, you will not have a hard time in
any way. That is why I constrain you to make anything, not to treat
you meanly." The daughter learned by example, by watching her
mother, by practicing. In her tribe there was a great deal of ex-
plaining, of oral moralizing. Not many children were whipped, but
SOCIAL LIFE 475
if they were very naughty they were made to fast. Their cheeks
were painted with charcoal so that the village would know they
were being punished, and no lodge would offer them food. 86
Training in social and religious customs is perhaps more subtle,
but as efficacious as training in practical matters. In a tribe which
observes mother- and son-in-law avoidance children may be sent by
one to locate the other in cases of doubt. Or if one approaches the
place in which the other is, the children may give warning.
Indians who seem in certain respects exaggeratedly indulgent of
their children may be as exaggeratedly strict in matters relating to
fundamental beliefs. Djiba, a Navajo child of about four, was ac-
customed to go into a fit of screaming whenever she wanted some-
thing or something did not suit her. No one did anything at all to
break this habit, and it got so bad that her cousin, a boy of eight,
would use the same technique. Both had excellent endurance and
each eventually won his point. Djiba was at this time my favorite
and I was hers, so that she took advantage of every possible occa-
sion to be with me, at which times she sat on my lap or, if I was
busy, crawled over and around me in a clinging, petting way.
By undergoing the ceremonial order of the Shooting Chant I
became "dangerous" for four days. That is, the chant having been
sung for me would give me "power," but only if I took care to let
it get into me (which would mean control of it) for four days after
the last rite by not working and not touching fire or water. Only
those for whom the same chant had been sung were "safe" in com-
ing close to me or in doing anything for me. They too had the power
under control. During this period Djiba and I were left together
for about half an hour. Instructions must have been issued to her
in no uncertain terms, for during this time she remained at a respect-
able but short distance from me, constantly tempted to come but
always resisting. Her sister was once made to desist from disobedi-
ence by being told that she was "sitting on an ant." The bugaboo
is often used and because of the character of religious beliefs and
the strength with which they are held they are more numerous and
more potent than any we generally use with our children. However,
it was no different from, and certainly not as difficult as, the burden
a White mother placed upon her daughter when she taught her
always to consider first her responsibility to God.
There is no exact point at which informal education ends and
formal education begins. Many, perhaps most, tribes have no form
of formal or group education. Others again carry this form to the
extreme. They are the tribes in which all individuals belong to one
of two categories: the initiate or adult, and the uninitiate or imma-
ture, members of the tribe. The Africans and Australians are ex-
amples of these. "Initiation," "maturity," "adulthood," with them

means likewise "maleness," for women, particularly in Australia,
continue always in the class of uninitiated.
87
Among the Thonga of East Africa boys are not considered
adult members of the tribe until they have gone through the cir-
cumcision school. This school is held every four or five years and
boys of from ten to sixteen years of age attend. For three months
they are isolated from the rest of the community. During that time
they are subjected to a number of tests which purport to make them
brave and to teach them endurance Suffering is one of the important
.
features of the instruction. The boys are subjected to blows from

the attendants; they must suffer not only the cold of the long nights,
but while the top part of the body may be very cold the feet close
to the fire may be nearly burning. During the entire initiation
period they are not allowed to drink a drop of water. They are
made to eat unsavory food which at first repels them. After a few
trials, however, they become accustomed to it and thrive on it.
One of the greatest hardships is being forced to eat much more
food than is welcome or required. The large quantities of food must
be eaten fast, too. Any infringement of the rules or any disobedience
is a cause for severe punishment. Formerly those who divulged the
secrets to the uninitiated or who tried to escape were hanged, but
not until they had completed the term of the school. Thus, by the
most severe, even cruel, measures were the tests of manhood made
among the Thonga.
Besides the endurance tests the boys had instruction in formulas
and songs, learning them by rote. Many hours were devoted to
formal learning, the object of which seems to have been to praise
the school. There were a number of proverbs which taught acquaint-
ance with sex matters. The only practical art taught was hunting.
Other features of the retirement period were masked dancing, cere-
monial bathing, and the choosing of a new name. Much of this
training has the same relation to tribal life as our teaching of Latin
has had to our everyday, practical, or even intellectual world; it
was done purely for the sake of discipline.
In Australia there is also group teaching of youths. The initiation
SOCIAL LIFE 477
rites areconcerned likewise with teaching the boys the secrets of

adulthood, but the rites center around the operations of circumcision
and subincision and are more unified than among the Thonga. The
trials and tests are quite similar; there is beating, starving, hard
manual labor, not to speak of the suffering involved in the operation
of subincision. All of the tests, however, seem to have a closer rela-
tion to the future life of the boys than they have among the Thonga.
In Australia one of the most secret and sacred things is the bull-
roarer. No one may see it but initiates. It represents an ancestral
spirit, and its noise is the voice of the spirit. The penalty for an
iininitiate seeing it may be death. Other things taught along with
the knowledge of the bull-roarer are totem secrets and the history
of the ancestors. One part of the instruction takes place during the
totem ceremony. 88
In this case the training has definite reference to the tribal life.
It may be, however, that the Thonga training was also more closely
related to daily life if the interpretations were known. On the other
hand, there are numerous places where the occupation or pursuit
of the novice is related to his probable later needs only indirectly,
or to beliefs in imitative magic. An adolescent girl, for instance, may
89
spend hours picking fir leaves from the branches. She may never
have to do this afterward, but a way of keeping her busy. The
it is
fact that she dors it will cause her henceforth to be industrious in-
stead of lazy.
In the section on etiquette and ethics I shall mention cases of morals
as exacting as ours, but carried out for reasons the direct opposite of
ours. The moral ideas of a given group are taught, as are industries
and social customs, in various ways, but the most outstanding method
of impressing them is by example. Industrious women with high
standards of virtuosity will, in the long run, have skillful daughters
with high standards. The upstanding, independent good traders of
Manus have sons (either their own or adopted) who ape their be-
havior. Adults with lazy slipshod habits are likely to see those habits
reflected in their children. Primitives are almost uniformly aware
of these facts. Indeed, among the Oto Indians, parents are respected
90
according to the behavior of their children.
There are perhaps few fallacies as firmly believed in as the one
that posits for the origin of folk tales the purpose of instructing
children. Even among the Africans, where the moralizing element is
ever-present in fables, the stories are tales for adults and are enjoyed
by them as much as by the children. Among the American Indians
myths and tales may be said to be primarily for the grown-ups. This
does not mean that the children do not know them or that they do
not appreciate moral or ethical allusions. Children from the earliest
infancy hear them; they learn automatically from the intonation of
the voices of the elders, and from the discussions and analogies drawn,
what their parents consider good and what bad. However, the myth-
body not primarily for the children, but is rather an aesthetic adult
is
outlet and may be told -to put adults as well as children to sleep.
Almost every tribe has stories which they consider children's tales,
or moralizing stories for the main purpose of inculcating virtue;
but an outsider, without knowing the philosophy of the particular
tribe, would not be able to pick out these stories from the others.
I would emphasize, nevertheless, the fact that the very rehearsal
of tales by adults with the children present, as well as frequent refer-
ence to the tales in various situations of daily life, exerts a potent
influence in the teaching and learning process. Children learn the
right and wrong of a matter by implication and inference and by
repetition,and it would be difficult, if not impossible, for them to
tell how they know many things. Know them they do, and without
analyzing or thinking about them they react automatically as do

their elders to a given situation.
In Africa and other parts of the Old World the proverb is a well-
developed literary form. Proverbs have an important place in all
phases of daily life and are constantly being quoted. One class of
such proverbs refers especially to the training of children, but another
91
quite as extensive stresses the ideal behavior of parents to children.
Ethics and etiquette. Ethical behavior means conformity with the
standards of the community. According to the importance of an
action in thelife of the community, nonconformity may be merely
a breach of etiquette, an irritating misconduct, a crime, or, when

accompanied by a religious connotation, a sin. The rules of conduct
are different for behavior toward members of the community and
outsiders. They may not be the same for every tribal member, for
ethicalconduct among members of the family, sib, or society of which
a person is a member may differ from that toward outsiders.
Since the customary standards of a community are very different
the question must be asked whether there are any generally valid
standards that are binding in the narrow community of which an
individual is a member. There is no doubt that the distinction be*
SOCIAL LIFE 479
tween good and bad conduct is universal, but it is not easy to find
an absolute criterion of what is good and what is bad, for in many
cultures murder, theft, and lying are sanctioned under certain con-
ditions. It is only when we confine our consideration to the smallest
groups which have social solidarity that we find these acts con-
sidered as crimes. When there is no group of firm solidarity, when
individual pitched against individual, the concept of crime is weak.
is
Such extreme cases are rarely found. Ordinarily the ethical standard
within the group demands mutual helpfulness and respect for the
welfare of all members. Murder, rape, theft, and lying within the
group are condemned. Altruism and even self-sacrifice for individuals,

but first of all for the group, are demanded.
There is no tribe, be it ever so primitive, which does not have an
ethical code. This code refers, however, to the relations of a man to
his fellow-men and does not need to be related to rewards or punish-
ments in after life.
A sharp distinction must be made between the behavior of man
to members of his own group and to outsiders. In most primitive
societies the alien always an enemy. The custom of many people
is
to designate themselves as "men" and to give to foreign tribes

names as to animals shows the difference of attitude. The foreigner
is dangerous, and the duty to one's own tribe is to destroy him. In
the following chapter these external relations and their weakening

in more complex societies will be described. We are here interested in
the moral code which is binding for members of a society in their
mutual relations.
Weoften hear in our own society the formulation of an individual
"
code, I believe I can do anything so long as I do not cause others
to suffer from my action/'

I shall not go into the complicated matter as to how we know
whether others are affected or not, but I may point out by this atti-
tude the great difference between primitive man and ourselves. To
the mind of primitive man there are few acts which affect the in-
dividual alone. Practically everything he does, be it to us ever so
trivial, affects his group. By obeying the moral code he may bring
good fortune to himself and to his people; by neglecting it, not only
will he himself suffer, but all his fellows with him. Punishment is
real and immediate; it is not reserved for a later time and world.
I have headed this section Ethics and FAiquette advisedly, for it
is impossible even in our own society to make an absolute division
between these categories. Physical cleanliness is often a more potent
reason for accepting or rejecting a stranger than is honesty or some
other sterling moral quality. A person who eats with his knife is rarely
accepted at all if he is, it is only by the most tolerant of pur population.
;
These two illustrations show that for practical purposes the do-
main of ethics may overlap that of etiquette, and also that there is
a great discrepancy between ideals and practice, a truism we need
not discuss for our own society. There may be as great a difference
between teaching and practice in primitive society. With respect to
ideas concerning morals and manners there is a great abundance of
material. I shall be able to cite only a few examples which show
even better than our previous discussion that all depends upon a
"state of mind."
In East Africa, for example, a child who does not pay attention
to an elder when addressed is severely punished. This is a matter
of morals, for if not respectful to his living ancestors,
the child is
how can he ever properly observe the respect due to those who are
92
dead, but who nevertheless exert great power over the living?
At the present time we have no practical definition of modesty,
although it is not so long ago that the exposure of an ankle was al-
most a "sin." Missionaries have "made it a sin," in the South Sea
islandsand other places to which they have gone, for women to
appear with uncovered breasts. An example from primitive life
matches the attitude in ridiculousness. In a certain area of northern
New Guinea where women wear not a stitch of clothes it is customary
to wear a particular kind of earring. No woman would be so im-
modest as to appear in public without these earrings. To do so would
bring down violent criticism upon her head.
Cultures are composed of small elements, and it is no novelty to
find a major catastrophe growing out of the most trivial cause, but
let us consider some of the greater "sins." There is among primitives
behavior which equivalent to crime, but which may not be defined

is
just as we define it, nor is it handled in exactly the same way.
Perhaps the most general "sin" is incest. In more simply organized

tribes incest would be defined in its narrower sense as it is with us:
sexual relations between siblings or between parents and children.
In more complexly organized societies where the sib, totem, or
phratry prevails, it may be considered as great an offense to marry
a member of a sib or phratry as to mate with a parent. Punishment
for such an offense varies greatly, from mild criticism to severe super-
SOCIAL LIFE 481
natural vengeance wreaked upon the offenders, their progeny, even

on their group.
In contrast to this emphasis on incest is the almost utter lack,
in our sense at least, of ideas like our own regarding sex relations.
Polyandry and polygyny have been discussed as recognized patterns
of marriage. Trial marriage is approved in certain areas and is even
successful. The Todas of India are perhaps as loose as any regarding
sex matters; nevertheless a man may not acknowledge his own child
93
if it is born to a woman not a member of his own moiety.
The Eskimo are only one of a number of tribes who consider lack
of hospitality a social vice. This idea goes so far that a man is con-
sidered stingy and asocial if he refuses to lend his wife to a stranger
who has not brought his own with him.
The Chukchee place several other moral ideas in different order
from ourselves. Just as hospitality is a virtue and wife-lending no sin,
so filial piety is so important that a man may hav to lay aside all
paternal sentiment in favor of obedience. Old people who begin to
lose their faculties and who think they are becoming a burden to
their families may request their sons to kill them. A faithful son
should obey his parents in such a case, no matter how opposed the
action may be to his emotions. When the deeper significance of such
an obligation is known it is not understand. The Chuk-
difficult to
chee believe that in the future world everyone continues to live just
as he left this world. 94 Naturally no one wants to be for eternity old,
feeble, blind, or helpless.
The value set on human life is exceedingly varied. There is per-
haps no tribe which has no definition of murder. If an Eskimo kills
another a feud between the families is precipitated. It is a murder
and must be atoned, but if a man proves to be a menace to the
community through greed or other antisocial behavior, the men of
the community, after giving him a chance to improve his behavior,
may agree to do away with him if he does not, and the murdered
man's family will seek no redress. 95
In many places, where human life is taken, it is in the belief of a
higher good. In West Africa the power of the fetish of a secret society
may be renewed by the spilling of human blood. The renewal of this
power is for the good of the whole community. Even cannibalism
may have a lofty ideal. In parts of Melanesia where it is prevalent,
it may give power to warriors, houses, canoes. In the Trobriands
the tasting of the flesh of a deceased father, though abhorred, is
nevertheless considered a duty of love because that parent nursed
96
and cared for the child who now accords him this honor.
The origins and purpose of infanticide are difficult usually im-
possible to determine. In Africa, however, abnormal children, such
as twins and those born with teeth or with a harelip, may be killed
in order to preserve the rest of the tribe from abnormality. This,
too, in spite of the fact that mothers may love these children and
97
destroy them only because of social pressure.
These are a few of the prevailing attitudes regarding offenses and
crimes in specific communities. Not only do ethical ideas overlap
into the domain of etiquette, but they may also overlap such formu-
lation of law as may exist. Duties to an African chief may be ob-
ligatory because of his high birth, which may give him political power,
but they may be enhanced by the fact that his ancestors are tribal
gods. In the same tribe a man may be required by that chief, exerting
the power of the law, to pay a fine to another man for an offense,
and in lieu of the fine may pawn himself or his child for service to
work it out. This is an example which shows how social, religious,
political, and legal notions interlock, no behavior being easily clas-
sified in any one of these categories.
Breaches of etiquette, ethics, or law are punished in many different
ways varying from a slight feeling of insult for what we might con-
sider a major crime to punishment by death or isolation for some-
thing we should classify merely as an "act of God." The murder of

a stingy Eskimo by his fellows is not felt to require retaliation; it
is "capital punishment." The birth of twins to a woman of West
Africa, an "accident" many in our society would welcome, stamps

her as an outcast for the rest of her life. She is punished in a pitiable
manner for having been "abnormal" according to Yoruba definition.
Many offenses are social, as may be seen by the punishments they
entail, but they overlap into the realm of the religious when punish-
ment is meted out by the supernatural, as is frequently the case.
The material we have on primitive ethics is largely implicit in

other writings. Collections of African proverbs, for example, are most
instructive in pointing ideals; fables and folk tales may show the
discrepancy between ideals and practice. In studying primitive ethics
one must be hypercautious in interpretation of motives, because one
thing we may assuredly depend upon: namely, that the cultural
background, religious belief, social practice, oral tradition, even
economic and industrial habits, may determine the attitudes of the
SOCIAL LIFE 488
natives to any one ideal, and that hardly any one will agree with
ours. Consequently the question must be viewed, as should all ques-
tions of a similar nature, from the point of view of the culture in
which it is found and not from our own.
FOOTNOTES
1. The details are summarized from Alverdes, F., Tiersoziologie (Leipzig, 1925).
The English edition, The Psychology of Animals (1932), does not include
all the examples cited in the German edition. See also Wheeler, W. M.,
Ants (1926).
2. Malinowski, 13., The Family among the Australian Aborigines (London, 1913),
p. 288.
3. Trenk, Oberleutnant, Buschleute der Namib, Mitteilungen aus den deutschen
Schutzgebieten, vol. 23 (1910), p. 169.
4. Gifford, E. W., "Miwok Lineages and the Political Unit in Aboriginal Cali-
fornia," American Anthropologist, vol. 28 (1926), pp. 389-401.
5. Lowie, R. H., Notes on Hopi Clans, Anthropological Papers, American
Museum of Natural History, vol. 30 (1928), p. 330.
6. Reichard, G. A., Social Life of the Navajo Indians, Columbia University
Contributions to Anthropology, vol. 7 (1928), pp. 30, 34, 60 ff.
7. Fortune, R. F., Sorcerers of Dobu (1932), p. 8.
8. Boas, F., Tsimshian Mythology, Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, vol. 31 (1916), p. 481.
9. Bunzel, R., Introduction to Zuni Ceremonialism, Annual Report of the Bureau
of American Ethnology, vol. 47 (1932), p. 477.
10. Wilson, G. L., Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation,
University of Minnesota, Studies in the Social Sciences, no. 9 (1917),
pp. 9, 10.
11. Lowie, R. H., op. cit., p. 338.
12. Rivers, W. H.
R., The Todas (1906), pp. 542 ff., 643 ff., 679 ff.
13. Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., Northern Tribes of Central Australia (London,
1904), p. 149.
14. Fletcher, A. C., and La Flesche, F., The Omaha Tribe, Annual Report of
the Bureau of American Ethnology, vol. 27 (1911), pp. 137, 155, 162,
188.
15. Malinowski, B., The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia (Lon-
don, 1929), p. 20.
16. Malinowski, B., Crime and Custom in Savage Society (1932), pp. 78 ff.
17. Junod, IL, The Life of a South African Tribe (London, 1927), vol. 1, pp. 46,
267 ff.
18. Ibid., pp. 232-233.

19. Rattray, R. S., Ashanti (Oxford, 1923), p. 82.
20. Bastian, A., Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Kuste (Jena, 1874-75),
p. 197.
21. Malinowski, B., The Family among the Australian Aborigines, p. 179; Spencer,
B., and Gillen, F. J., op. cit., pp. 606, 616.

22. Boas, F., Eskimo of Baffin Ixind and Hudson Bay, Bulletin of the American
Museum of Natural History, vol. 15, Part I (1901), p. 483.
23. Malinowski, B., The Sexual Life of Ravages, pp. 209-210.
24. Boas, F., "The Social Organization of the Tribes of the North Pacific Coast,"
American Anthropologi.it, vol. 26, no. 3 (1924), pp. 323-332.
Ethnology, vol. 31 (1910), p. 4S1.
26. Boas, F., Primitive Art (Oslo, 1927), pp. 250-251.
27. Seligmann, C. G., The Melanesians of British New Guinea (Cambridge, 1910),
p. 74.
28. Fletcher, A. C., and La Flesrhe, F., op. cit., p. 162.
29. Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., op. cit., p. 149.
30. Rivers, W. II. R., The History of Melanesia* Society (Cambridge, 1914),
vol. 2, p. 76.
31. Fletcher, A. C., and La Flesche, F., op. cit., p. 18S.
32. Lowie, R. H., Primitive Society (1920), p. 290.
33. Benedict, R., The Concept of Ihe Guardian Spirit in America, Memoirs of
the American Anthropological Association, no. 29 (1923).
34. Frazer, J. G., Totemism and Exogamy (London, 1910).
35. Durkheim, E., The Elementary Forms of the Itcligious Life (English transla-
tion, London, 1915).
36. Lowie, R. H., Primitive Society, pp. 137 fT.
37. Goldenweiser, A. A., "Totemism: An Analytical Study," Journal of Ameri-
can Folk-ls)re, vol. 23 (1910), pp. 179-293.
Ethnology, vol. 31 (1916), pp. 515 ff., and "The Origin of Totemism,"
American Anthropologist, vol. 18 (1916), pp. 319-326.
39. Rivers,W. H. R., The Todas, pp. 518, 519.
40. Ibid., p. 521.
41. Ibid., pp. 526, 529.
42. F., The Central Eskimo, Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Boas,
Ethnology, vol. 6 (1888), p. 579.
43. Smith, E. W., and Dale, A. M., The Ila-Speaki?ig Peoples of Northern Rho-
desia (London, 1920), vol. 2, pp. 69, 114.
44. Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., op. cit., pp. 96, 97.
45. Malinowski, B., The Sexual Life of Savages, pp. 51-75, 109-141.
46. Jenks, A. E., The Bontoc-Igorot, Ethnological Survey Publications, vol. 1,
(Manila, 1905), pp. 66-67.

47. Gifford, E. W., "Miwok Moieties," University of California Publications in
American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol 12 (1916), p. 190.
48. Junod, H., op. cit., vol. 1, p. 286.
49. Rivers, W. H.R., The History of Melanesian Society, vol. 1, p. 209.
of American Ethnology, no. 78 (1925), pp. 27 ff.
51. Jochelson, W., The Yukaghir and Yukaghirized Tungus, Jesup Expedition,
vol. 10 (1926), pp. 86 ff.
52. Malinowski, B., The Family among Australian Aborigines, pp. 55, 56,
53. Mead, M., Growing Up in New Guinea (1930), pp. 155, 157.
SOCIAL LIFE 485
54. Thrum, T. G., Fornander Collection of Hawaiian Antiquities, Memoirs of the

Bernice P. Bishop Museum, vol. 4 (1910), p. 48.
55. Frazer, J. G., op. cit., vol. 4, pp. 105 ff.
56. Freud, S., "Uber einige Ubereinstimmungen im Seclenleben der Wilden und
der Neurotiker," Imago (1912), pp. 30-33.
57. Tylor, E. B., "On a Method of Investigating the Development of Institu-
tions," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 18 (1888-89),
pp. 245-272.
58. Rivers, W. H. R., The History of Melanesian Society, vol. 2, pp. 153 ff.
59. Parsons, E. C., "Avoidance in Melanesia," Journal of American Folk-Lore,
vol. 29 (1916), pp. 282-292.
60. Lowie, R. II., Primitive Society, pp. 84-110.
61. Smith, E. W., and Dale, A. M., op. cit., vol. 2, p. 51.
62. Jnnod, H., op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 190, 199.
63. Rivers, W. H. R., The Todas, p. 525.
65. Reiehard, G. A., op. cit., p. 96.
66. Smith, K. W., and Dale, A. M., op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 365 ff.
67. Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., "The Soeial Organization of Australian Tribes,"
Oceania, vol. 1 (1930), pp. 58-59. Illustrates similar varieties of com-
bination between kinship and social systems.
68. Riggs, S. R., Dakota Grammar, Texts and Ethnography, Contributions to
North American Ethnology, vol. 9 (1893), pp. xviii ff.
69. Boas, F., Mythology of the Bella Coola Indians, Jesup Expedition, vol. 1,
Part II (1898).
70. Malinowski, B., Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922), p. 65.
71. Lo\\ie, R. IL, Primitive lieligion (1924), p. 77.
72. Lowie, R. II., Primitive Society, p. 340.
73. Deloria, Ella, unpublished MS.
74. llearne, S., Journey from Prince of Wales Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern
Ocean 1760-177'! (London, 1795), p. 313.
75. Kroeber, A. L., op. cit., p. 4.
76. Rattray, R. S., op. cit.
77. Goldenwciser, A. A., Early Civilization (1921), chap. 3.
78. Bunzel, R., Introduction to Zuni Ceremonialism, pp. 518, 528, and personal
information.
79. Underbill, R. M., The Autobiography of a Papago Woman, Memoirs of the
American Anthropological Association, no. 46 (1936).
80. Kroeber, A. L., op. cit., pp. 45, 46, 63.
81. Goldenweiser, A. A., Early Civilization, chap. 3.
82. Rattray, R. S., op. cit.
83. Linderman, F. B., American: The Life Story of a Great Indian (1930), pp.
8, 19.
84. Bamler, G., "Padagogik der Taini," Beilage zu den Abhandlungen der Natur-
historischen Gesellschaft zu Nurnberg, vol. 20 (1913), pp. 1-24.
85. Mead, M., op. cit.
86. Michelson, T., The Autobiography of a Fox Woman, Annual Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology, vol. 40 (1925), pp. 295-349.
87. Junod, H., op.cit., vol. 1, pp. 71-93.
88. Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., op. cit.

89. Teit, J., The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, Jesup Expedition, vol. 1,
Part IV (1900), p. 315.
90. Whitman, W., The Oto, Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology,
vol. 28 (1937), p. 43.
91. Doke, C. M., Laniba Folk-Lore, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society,
vol. 20 (1927), p. 310.
92. Junod, H., op. cit., vol. 1, p. 360; vol. 2, p. 590.
93. Rivers, W. II. R., The Todas, p. 505.

94. Bogoras, W., The Chukchee, Jesup Expedition, vol. 7 (1904-09), p. 563.
95. The informal article by Boas, F., "An Eskimo Winter," summarizes and
emphasizes many moral ideas of the Eskimo. American Indian Life,

edited by Elsie Clews Parsons (1922), pp. 363 ff.
96. Malinowski, B., The Sexual Life of Savages, pp. 155-156.
97. Talbot, P. A., The Peoples of Southern Nigeria (London, 1926), vol. 3, p. 720.
GENERAL REFERENCES
Benedict, R., Patterns of Culture (1934).
Goldenweiser, A. A., Early Civilization (1921).
Lowie, R. H., Primitive Society (1920).
Rivers, W. H. R., The Todas (1906).
Thurnwald, R., Die menschliche Gesellschaft (Berlin and Leipzig, 1932).
CHAPTER X
GOVERNMENT
JULIUS E. LIPS
In the study of government among primitive tribes, we encounter

the same difficulties of terminology that we find in almost all ques-
tions of primitive law. This may be due to our persistent inclination
to substitute our modern conception of law for legal conditions of
an entirely different character. Even a simple description of facts
pertaining to law in a primitive tribe may, if we use our legal ter-
minology, cause a distortion of the legal content of primitive insti-
tutions. 1
The study of primitive law is further complicated by the fact that
neither in our present state of civilization nor in that of primitive
people can law be regarded apart from the ramifications of the whole
culture. Law is intimately interwoven with other correlative com-
ponent factors of human civilization, particularly with economy. 2 The
question as to the priority of law or of other social phenomena is
misleading. We may, however, state that functional interrelations
exist between economic, social, and legal institutions. This does not
mean that in the case of a people with a certain economic pattern
we must necessarily meet with corresponding legal institutions, for
entirely possible that in the course of history legal institutions
it is
were taken over from others without adoption of the corresponding

economic pattern, and vice versa. Attempts to establish the origins
of human social development and the primeval forms of law have
not been lacking. The endeavors made by modern economists and
students of law to define this primeval state by pure abstraction
have not taken into account the fact that legal terms as well as
the content of legal patterns have developed historically and are an
expression of cultural structure.
In contrast to this tendency other students, instead of trying to
establish a line of development of law among primitive tribes, ques-
tion the very existence of such development, and direct their efforts
first of all to monographic descriptions. On this basis it is gradually
487
becoming possible, through comparison of the legal institutions of
several peoples, to find what differentiates them and what they have
in common. This aim has been expressed by John Wigmore in these
words: "There almost nothing [available in literature] by way of
is
comparing and contrasting the ideas in different systems and of elu-
cidating their correspondence or divergence in short, of the evo-

"
lution of legal ideas. 3 And a similar note is sounded by the resolution
of the International Congress for Comparative Law held in the Hague
(1932): "That the next Congress put on its agenda for study and
reports . . written
. and customary laws of the peoples of Africa,
Asia, and Oceania in order to bring the study of exotic law into the
field of consideration in comparative law, and give opportunity for
the ethnology of law and the archaeology of law to be "of greater

mutual aid that there be assigned a special section to consider
. . .
legal history, legal ethnology, and folklore in future meetings of the

4
Congress."
Although the demand for a general historical study of law has
been so clearly expressed, the majority of students still follow the
historical school of law founded by Savigny. The attempt is made
to discover through deduction the primitive conditions of law; to
seek for a mathematical congruence between the differentiated legal
concepts of modern law and the laws of earlier cultural stages.
Thus Post, one of the founders of the modern study of comparative
law, accepts the views of Hobbes, and states that a legal community
in which the prerogatives of the individual are given up can arise
only through the collective alliances of individuals. In the world of

primitive man no such thing as an individual in our legal sense exists.
As in other respects, so also in legal concepts the individual in these
cultures is merged in the society in which he lives, and his individual
acts have repercussions in the whole social structure. The individu-
alistic conception of law as a matter concerning the isolated individual
5
and not the individual as a member of society has been established
in extreme form by the private law of modern civilization.
The technique of comparative law up to the most recent time
suffers therefore from three assumptions which cannot be accepted:
first, that the primitive forms of law may be traced back by means
of pure deduction; second, that a similarity exists in the concepts
of legal forms and norms in all cultures; and third, that the individual
as a legal unit and legal subject exists from the beginning. These con-
cepts are valid to a great extent among highly civilized peoples and
GOVERNMENT 489
tribeswith advanced agriculture; they fail, however, when applied

to simpler agricultural tribes, and are entirely inapplicable to food-
gatherers and hunters.
Thefailure to appreciate the connection between the problems
of law and the cultural structure as a whole has been an obstacle in
the way of studies of the historical development of law. Thus Rad-
cliffe-Brown, supported by Roscoe Pound, with the help of inter-
pretations taken from modern law, expressed the opinion that no
law whatsoever exists unless a legal norm is enforced by compelling
legal statutes and by "the systematical application of the force of
politically organized society. ... In this sense some simple societies
have no law." 6 If this method were generally applied we should
have to deny also the existence of religion, art, and other fields of
culture in primitive civilizations. However, there is no people without
fire,without language, without religion, or without law. Our social,
religious, and legal concepts do not coincide with those of the
primitives; what we must do is to find the correct equivalent for
our modern institutions in primitive societies. This consideration
should correct the impression of those students of primitive law who
cling to the idea that the existence of sanctions is necessary as a
7
definition of law.
Boas has already pointed out that in the study of primitive cul-
modern institutions cannot be used,
tures the rigid definitions of our
and he has especially emphasized the relativity of cultural factors.
Malinowski makes a fundamentally similar demand with special
reference to the field of primitive law 8 for the establishment of
the primitive equivalents as shown in the functions of institutions.
However, knowledge of the function of a legal institution does not
imply a knowledge of the primitive law of the tribe in question;
it is concerned neither with the pure nor with the preventive legal
9
norm, but merely with the dynamic factor of a legal process. The
functional study of primitive law especially neglects the problem of
the development of law and of single legal norms while stressing their
present status. Some historians of law are disinclined to regard the
function as the essential characteristic of law, but even in primitive
"
cultures there exist definite legal norms and legal statutes/' so that
law by no means has a purely functional existence.
When we look about in the world of primitive man for an in-
stitution which we moderns could describe as government, we should,
strictly speaking, first discuss the terminology of our concepts of

"government" and "state." That cannot be done here. It should
be remarked, however, that among modern ethnologists Schmidt
and Koppers 10 as well as Graebner n apply the modern term "state"
even to the earliest cultures of the food-gatherers and hunters. Lowie
is much more cautious. Leaning to a great extent on Morgan, he
would prefer to avoid even the term "political organization" in

13
reference to early cultural stages. 12 Oppenheimer, basing his eth-
nological data on Schmidt and Koppers, whom he sometimes mis-
understands, rejects the term "state" for early cultures and uses
"
this term only for the class state resulting from conquest and sub-
14
jugation." Menghin uses the term "state" in Oppenheimer's sense.
In a definition of "state," as in that of "government," the deciding
factor is whether the viewpoint we adopt is that of twentieth century
man or of primitive man within his respective society.

The aims of such institutions among primitives are much more
amenable to modern analogues than are the devices and institutions
used for their realization. For here too and this holds true of all
primitives their principal service is to secure "life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness," whatever that happiness may be, 15 for
members of the community, the local group, the tribe, or the people.
The purposes and aim of government in a primitive society are
legally and socially the same as in modern society. They serve to

regulate life within and without. However, the devices for the attain-
ment of this goal are different. It has frequently been emphasized
that the tribes of food-gatherers and hunters are completely without
16
government. Stow remarks with reason that authors who believe
this "can have been in contact only with degenerated and almost
completely destroyed tribal relics, with a miserable fugitive group."

We might use instead of "government" the terms "governmentlike
institutions" or "pre-government" for the simpler cultures, 17 in order
to indicate that the aims coincide relatively with similar ones in our
political life, but that their specific forms are distinct, although they
may seem to be similar. We may define government among primitives
as the institutions which serve the purpose of holding the community
together, safeguarding its food supply, and guaranteeing peace within
and without its borders.
Among simpler primitives there are above all two principles which
form the foundation of government: first, the territorial principle
that is, the geographically limited area belonging to a number of
people; second, the community which exceeds the single family, be
GOVERNMENT 491
itlocal group, clan, tribe, or people. On these two pillars repose the
governmentlike institutions of primitive cultures. The territorial prin-

ciple has often been neglected in literature. Whenever we hear of
communities not tied to the soil, as in the case of certain Central
African pygmies or tribes of South American fishermen, we are deal-
ing with secondary conditions, and our sources happen to contain
no reference to territory. The objection that conquering tribes, such
as the Hyksos, during their great migration and their occupation of
Egypt, had a government without territorial principle is not valid
either. They had a territorial principle in their homeland, and after
the conquests they created a similar one. The objection holds true
only for the era of migrations and expeditions of conquest.
Food-gatherers and hunters. In such tribes as the Australian ab-
origines and the Tasmanians, the Bushmen, the Veddas, Botocudos,
and Fuegians, the territorial legal unit is the local group, not the
single family or the single individual. The territory of such a local

group varies among the Australians from 4000 to 10,000 square
miles,and there are from twenty to one hundred members in the legal
community. The boundaries of the country claimed by the group
are well known, not only to the members of the group but also to
those of the neighboring groups. They are mainly natural, rarely
artificial. If the hunting territory of a local group is subdivided into
family hunting grounds, as is the case among the Bushmen and

some Australian tribes, the boundary of another family's hunting
18
ground is not violated under any conditions. Among certain tribes
of the northern part of southern Australia, boundaries are marked by
stone heaps or (among the Veddas) the forest paths are closed off. 19
The group in its entirety reacts against a violation of its territory
not the single individual or the single family. Even among the
Tasmanians a violation of the boundary -was equivalent to a declara-
tion of war. 20 The same
applies to the Australian food-gatherers and
hunters, for whom
the atonement for boundary violations always
was a war between the groups. Excepting boundary violations, the
local group resorted to war only in cases of revenge for murder or
abduction of a woman. It was the group's task to take vengeance
on the group, not the individual's or the family's task to revenge
itself on a family. The strength of feeling of solidarity of the local
group is shown a report from Northwest-Central Queensland. 21

in
"When about to swim across any big stream or river that he suspects
or fears, the aboriginal will speak to this Being [that is, the Kam-
mare, a supernatural water-snake] about as follows: 'Do not
. . .
touch me. I belong to this country/ But were he to cross even his
own country's river with a stranger he might be engulfed."
Wars waged on account of the violation of hunting grounds are
not continued until one of the local groups is destroyed. Often it is
decided that an equal number of men from each side shall fight.
In most cases the quarrel is settled by means of a duel ordered by
the group. 22 Indeed, even then there is no intention to continue the
fight until one of the combatants is killed. It is sufficient that one
shall be incapacitated. The Botocudos, in such a duel, leave their
bows and arrows at home and use sticks only. Prince zu Wied 23
describes in detail such a duel which resulted from the violation of
a hunting ground, the women taking part by general hair-pulling.
Sometimes a local group was forced, because of the increase of
its members and the consequent necessity of extending its economic
basis, to make an
active invasion into the territory of another group.
24
J. Frazer reports such a case in connection with a local group of
the Walarai. "They sent their public messenger to one of the ad-
joining subtribes, asking for a part of the hitter's land. This was
refused, as being against tribal law, and also because the 'tauraP
in question was not big enough to admit of the proposal. The former
subtribe then sent to say they would come and take what they
wanted. The latter answered that in that case they would appeal
for justice and help
to the neighboring subtribes. Thereupon both
sides prepared for war, met, and, as usual, much talking and angry
speech-making followed. It was at last agreed that next day an equal

number from each side should fight it out, but when the time came
the dispute was settled by single combat. This is the common cause
and issue of a tribal quarrel."
Though in general death was the punishment for any transgres-
sion of the boundary, there were certain preferred persons, mes-
sengers who bore some distinguishing mark, who were permitted to
enter foreign territory at the order of a neighboring clan for the
purpose of buying, exchanging, or conferring with others of their
kind. (This happened especially when the region belonging to a clan
contained needed natural products, such as stones for axes, ochre,
or the much desired narcotic pitcheri in large quantities. If such
goods were wanted in exchange, the local group concerned had to
be officially notified. In most cases an invasion of foreign territory
without permission meant death.
GOVERNMENT 493
Hewitt 25 reports from Southeast Australia that a Wudthaurung

man had broken stones from a quarry of the Wurunjerri without
their permission. The two groups met at the boundary line between
"
their hunting ground to discuss the case. At the meeting the Wud-
thaurung sat in one place, and the Wurunjerri in another, but within
speaking distance. The old men of each side sat together with the
younger men behind them. had behind him Bungerim,

Billi-billeri
to whomhe 'gave his word/ The latter then standing up said, 'Did
some of you send this young man to take tomahawk stone?' The
headman of the Wudthaurung replied: 'No, we sent no one.' Then
Billi-billeri said to Bungerim, 'Say to the old men that they must
tell that young man not to do so any more. When the people speak of
wanting stone, the old men must send us notice/ Bungerim repeated
this in a loud tone, and the old men of the Wudthaurung replied:
'That is all right, and we will do so.' Then they spoke strongly to
the young man who had stolen the stone and both parties were
again friendly with each other."
These few examples give us a picture of the local group's reaction
to outsiders in regard to land ownership. The solidarity of the com-
munity expressed in their reactions to conflicts with outside com-
munities binds with strong ties and holds it together. This is natural,
it
when w e consider that a person cannot leave the territory of his

r
local group without the fear of being killed. 26 One of the great goals
is to secure outward peace. Within the community too, the preserva-
tion of peace and mutual assistance in the securing of food is the
supreme task.
The facts just described, referring to the relationship of the local
group to its territory and the group's reaction to the outside, show
that in the legal consciousness of the food-gatherers and the hunters

the complex quality of legal norms predominates. That is to say,
when there is no legal differentiation between the soil and the plants
growing on it and the animals which are hunted we may conclude
from the local group's outward reaction that the problem of providing
food not an individual one, as Buecher believes, but a collective
is
one, for the animals and the plants belong to the community as a
whole; neither has the woman an exclusive right to the plants gathered
by her for food, nor has the man any such right to the animal he
has killed. At the most he has a right to use it, a right of usufruct
which can be nullified at any time by the community.
In fact, our sources are quite explicit on this point. The provision
of food as we should put it today, determined by a reciprocal
is,
insurance, sanctioned by public opinion. Every individual knows the

norms which bind the legal community. 27 The distribution of the kill
is definitely regulated, and the part of the animal given to the less
fortunate hunter is not a gift but merely the fulfilment of a legal

obligation. When a hunter has killed a kangaroo, 28 one hind leg
belongs to the hunter's father, the other to his paternal uncle, the
tail to his sister, the shoulder to his brother and the liver to himself.
Among the Ngarigo only the head of the killed wombat belongs to
the hunter; all other parts are distributed within and outside of
his immediate family. 29 Regulated distribution has been reported

of a great number of other Australian tribes of food-gatherers and
hunters. 30The providing of food is an obligation not only within
the family, but it extends to the local group. The same applies to
other tribes of food-gatherers and hunters, such as the Bushmen,
31
Botocudos, and Veddas. Concerning the last named the Sarasins
report that the honeycombs of the rock bees (JSambara) are equally
divided among all families. 32
Since we
see that the disposition of land and the regulation of
food supply are problems of the community as a whole, we are
justified in asking whether there any private property at all in
is
our sense, and if so, how it is regulated. The answer to this question
is not easy. But we may say that if the term "property" is used in
our modern sense, "the absolute domination of one person over one
thing/' then there is no private property here.
When our sources give reports of private property, such as self-
made weapons, tools, ornaments and articles of dress, or even quarries
of ochre deposits, we must realize that such private property is
often burdened with so many rights of third parties that we can
probably speak only of a right similar to proprietorship, a sort of
representative right which is a commission or usufruct but not a
dominium. 33 At any rate movables which are valuable and necessary
to the clan can never be private property. "The individual is not
34
recognized. He has no independent rights," write Fison and Howitt.
The consciousness of personal property in our sense is altogether
lacking, and presents from White people, for instance, which were
given to certain persons will in a short time appear in the possession
of other persons who received them from their "owner." This is by
no means contradicted by the fact that investigators, when they
want to obtain some object from a child, have their attention called
GOVERNMENT 495
to the point that this object is the child's "property." Certainly

children too may have these rights of disposition among food-
gatherers and hunters. Weapons, ornaments, dress, and household
utensilsmade by the individual may be things to which this individual
has a right. The community will not interfere so long as its interests
are not threatened. Another factor enters into the situation. Es-
pecially among food-gatherers and hunters we find the idea that
an individual's weapons, clothing, and ornaments are indissolubly
connected with his person and are given him to take along into his
grave, so that in this case these objects are legal objects of a special
type.*
No doubt we might arrive at greater clarity on the question as
to the concept of private ownership of things which are important
for the community if the language of the tribes in question were
studied with this point in mind. I have repeatedly made the point
that a study of the possessive pronoun would probably show that
in a great number of languages the terms "me" and "my" in con-
nection with certain nouns are lacking and are replaced by "our."
This would be a great help and would give greater clarity to the
problems discussed. Boas, for instance, recently showed that among
the Dakota certain objects like food, water, etc., could never be
used with the possessive pronoun. 35 A study of legal terms may cast
new light upon many legal institutions of primitive tribes. The oc-
currence and significance of expressions of gratitude in language and
behavior may also be significant. When is a term for thanking used,
if it occurs at all in a language? The
Montagnais-Naskapi have no
word for it, not even a circumlocution, while the Eskimo have the
term constantly at the tip of the tongue. Even after borrowing a boat,
the Montagnais borrower does not express his gratitude. The Dakota
gives thanks for help rendered in work, but not for gifts which honor
the giver and not the recipient. In the reciprocal aid in providing
food the use of a term for thanking might be regarded as superfluous,
since the giving of help and the dividing up of the booty are legal
obligations, but in regard to private law valuable conclusions re-
*
It might be objected that these rights which I describe as similar to pro-
prietorship do signify property even in our modern sense, especially when we
consider the present legal situation in Germany, where the legal norm of pri-
vate ownership can be and is broken at any time. From this viewpoint the food-
gatherers and hunters certainly do have property in our sense, or, I should say,
modern German law has embraced the legal concepts of the hunters and food-
gatherers.
garding individual prerogatives might be drawn from the occurrence
and the type of thanking.
Thus the entire daily life of the individual is embedded in the
social and legal care of society, whose strongest weapon for the en-
forcement of internal peace is public opinion. Preventively it forces
the individual to obey the law; actively it brings about punishment
of transgressions. The individual cannot escape unfavorable public
opinion, for he cannot leave the local group and join another com-
munity. This would be certain death. For this reason alone public
opinion is the strongest regulating agency among food-gatherers and
hunters. The agencies of execution do not need to be well developed,
and exist only in rudimentary form. Whole sections of our modern
"
law are lacking. Only a few specified transgressions in private and
criminal law" are possible; but here too the community acts only
in a secondary manner, when a settlement of the quarrel between
the two parties concerned cannot be reached. The fundamental rule
that peace within the community must be upheld does not always
permit the law of equivalent retribution, a lex talionis often not
even in the most serious of all crimes, murder within the group.
The Kaingang of southern Brazil form one of the exceptions. 36 For
most transgressions of the law definite punishment has been desig-
nated. Among the Tasmanians, for instance, adultery was punished
37
by beating and driving a spear through the offender's leg. Among
the Botocudos the woman who has committed adultery is beaten
or branded by her deceived husband. 38 In Australia the same crime
is atoned for by a duel of the conflicting parties, which, however,
never ends in death. 39
In Australia and among some other food-gathering tribes the execu-
tive agencies of public opinion were the old men who, seasoned in
life and in the tribal laws, not only informed the younger ones con-
cerning the boundaries of the clan territory but also instructed them
in the laws of marriage, the rites of initiation, the distribution of
food all those norms existing from time immemorial. In the hands
of these elders also rested that judicial power which had to do with
the community or was called upon when a settlement between the
parties was impossible. Aside from boundary violations, the settle-
ment of which I have already described, these old men had to mete
out judgment in the case of a murder committed on a clan member
by a person from outside the clan which always meant war.
Within the clan, the cases brought before the council of the elders
GOVERNMENT 497
were those connected with murder, sorcery, infringement of mar-

riage regulations, or betrayal of the secret ceremonies at the boys'
initiation.The punishment usually consisted of the wounding of the
culprit with spears, but without killing him.
40
We know very little
about the method of taking evidence in such criminal processes.
Trenk reports that the Bushmen of the Namib desert arrange a
smoke trial as soon as anyone is suspected of a crime. The column
of smoke points to the guilty one. If it divides, there are several
accomplices; if the smoke rises straight up, the suspected persons
are innocent. 41
Oursources report unanimously that chieftainship was slightly
developed or absent. The person with greater physical or mental
agility was able to exert considerable influence over his group, but
he too was dependent upon public opinion. Whenever chiefs and
their functions are described in this stage of culture, they have
usually been given such positions by the White people to facilitate

dealing with the group.
42
A revealing example is given by Dawson,
43
in the facsimile of the treaty which some of the first White settlers
in Australia concluded with some so-called chiefs about the cession
of 100,000 acres of land.
These, roughly speaking, are the regulations in the legal life of

the food-gatherers and hunters. The facts show that it is altogether
erroneous to describe the legal status of these tribes as anarchic, as
Knabenhans, and others have done. On the contrary, the
44 45
Grosse,
legal concepts and norms, their structure and their applications, are
shown with amazing clarity in the reported facts. For these societies
of food-gatherers and hunters the definite formulation of the ter-
ritorial principle is significant, a principle which, contrary to Op-
46
penheimer's opinion, makes it impossible "for families to easily
dissolve their ties with others." Added to the territorial principle is a
complexity of legal norms. Solidarity of the community against out-

siders in the case of a boundary transgression or of war, and inter-
nally in respect to the provision of food, is a characteristic feature.

There are only slight beginnings of private ownership, though it
cannot be denied that certain individual rights similar to ownership
exist,but not in reference to the soil or objects valuable to the en-
tiregroup or necessary for its sustenance. The pressure from without,
the wall formed by the limits of the tribal area, is one of the strongest
supports of public opinion and of its executive agencies for the en-
forcement of legal norms within the group.
Arctic hunters and related tribes. Among Arctic hunters and tribes
influenced by them, the institutions which serve the purpose of hold-
ing the community together, safeguarding its food supply, and guar-
anteeing internal and external peace present a picture somewhat
different from that of the societies just discussed. Almost all ob-
servers emphasize their strong communistic tendency. For example,
we find reports that among the Eskimo the borrower of a boat does
not have to return it if the person from whom he borrowed it had
47
two boats, and that the great whale hunt was an affair of the
48
entire community. The "communistic traits," if we want to call
them so, of the Arctic people are no more strongly developed than
those of the tribes of other food-gatherers and hunters, among whom
we have already found the community established as legal unit
and legal subject. The distinguishing mark of the Arctic culture is
a stronger tendency toward individualism within a definitely demo-
49
cratic pattern. Although I do not go as far as Bogoras, who says,
"
referring to theChukchee, It may be said that a lone man living
by himself forms the real unit of Chukchee society," I believe that
this individualistic trait is quite easily recognizable in the Arctic
world.
The boundaries of the local group fluctuate, and transgression of
the hunting boundaries is not punished by death, either within the
group or in the case of a member of a strange tribe. Often it is not
50
punished at all. Thus Schrenck reports that the Tungus of the
lower Amur Hiver did not usually keep within their territory but
would hunt on the land of others, especially on that of the Gilyak,
without any quarrels ensuing. 51 The hunting ground, which at first
probably belonged to the local group, is sometimes divided among
several family groups. These two principles may exist side by side or
even alternate at times. An excellent example of this was related to
me by Speck in reference to the Northeast Algonquians of the St.
Augustin band. Their land consists partly of forest and partly of
tundra, and hunting is organized either in family groups or as a
joint affair of the entire local group, according to the number of
animals to be hunted. A similar arrangement exists among the Cen-
tral Eskimo, the families scattering during the summer over a wide
territory and hunting by themselves, while in winter they live in
52
larger villages and hunt in the neighborhood.
The political unit depends upon the territorial principle and not
upon the kinship system. Among the maritime Chukchee. for in-
GOVERNMENT 499
stance, the village does not consist of families related to one another,
but of those privileged to hunt. 53 Generally the economic unit is a
smaller group than the political society. Among the maritime Chuk-
chee, for instance, the fishing unit is the crew of a boat and their
families, whose leader also divides the catch. 54 Among the people
of Arctic Asia and the Alaskan Eskimo, the economic unit, be it
the crew of a fishing boat, a hunting family, or a group of families,
often uses property marks for safeguarding its catch. 55 However,
there is no proof that these are individual property marks. They
are few in number and refer to a number of people that is, the
economic unit.
The safeguardingof the food supply is first of all an affair of the
respective economic group and beyond that, of the whole commu-

nity. The economic security of each member of the community
forms the focal point of the legal aspect among Arctic tribes to such
an extent that all individual rights are secondary to it, but this is
true only when the life of an individual is threatened by lack of
food. From the great mass of examples I shall select only two of the
most typical ones. Among the. reindeer-breeding European Lapps ex-
tensive use of individual property marks exists, together with an
obvious inclination toward strong individual definition of property
rights in connection with movables. These individual rights, how-
ever, may be broken through at any time, under certain circum-
stances. This goes so far that even the theft of reindeer can be
legal, if the thief required the stolen animals for his own use, as,
for instance, to obtain meat for eating. From the Lapp's point of
view this not considered a theft, even though the sharply defined
is
56
right of personal ownership has been violated. This example is not
typical of the herdsmen, but only of the Arctic hunters. This part
of Lapp law is a hunter's and not a herdsman's law. Another ex-
ample, taken from the Montagnais-Naskapi, is on the same legal

level.The hunting privilege referring to a particular hunting ground
can be violated at any time and by anyone who finds himself in need
of food. The stranger may hunt and may set traps, but only for his
own personal benefit that is, to satisfy his hunger and sustain his
life. Indeed, he may even prey upon a beaver house marked as some-
57
one's property when he is in
need, but only then. This mutual assist-
ance is concerned only with the maintenance of life and goes no
further especially not in the law referring to debts. Obligations are
not fulfilled by a father in his son's behalf, nor by a widow in her
dead husband's behalf. There is no such thing as solidarity in regard
to obligations among members of a family. What mutual assistance
there is, is not necessitated by pressure from the outside, as is the
case among other food -gatherers and hunters, but is compelled by
public opinion, which, in a single-class society, is much more powerful
than in ours and has a totalitarian meaning.
Public opinion is effective among the Northeast Algonquians not
only within the local group but beyond it, and can prevent an
ill-reputed member of a local group from finding refuge in another
group. In many cases this means death in the forest. Political authority
is not held by the chief if there is any chief at all; at times it is
held only by the elders. In last analysis it rests with the public opinion
of the local group as a whole. The question of the executive agency
for the enforcement of this opinion and the type of enforcement are
problems which will be dealt with later. The chiefs lack of power
58
among the Central Eskimo has been described by Boas in these
words: "His authority is virtually limited to the right of deciding
on the proper time to shift the huts from one place to the other,
but the families are not obliged to follow him. He may ask some
men to go deer-hunting, others to go sealing, but there is not the
"
slightest obligation to obey The same powerless posi-
his orders.
tion of the chief was any such office to begin with, and
if there
not one just created artificially by the Russians is reported by
59
Bogoras of the Chukchee; and from my own experience I can say
the same of the Naskapi, among whom the Mistassini band has had
no chief for years and up to now has not elected one, in spite of the
Indian agent's demand that they do so.* In certain Eskimo tribes
of Alaska we find exceptions to this rule; these are the tribes which
have perhaps been influenced by the social stratification of the
Northwest Americans and who had not only a tribal organization
with a chieftainship but also a vertical classification of society, in-
cluding a class of slaves. Beginnings of slavery are further found
among the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands, and also among the
Chukchee (probably influenced by the herdsmen tribes which were
advancing from the south), who in their battles with the Western
Eskimo made slaves of their prisoners of war. Social stratification,
however, was very little influenced by this.
Expert trappers and hunters enjoy special authority, dependent
* He
The last Mistassini chief's name was Ntdhoota (traveler). died of influ-
enza in 1928.
GOVERNMENT 501
upon their personalities, and therefore they often occupy the roles
of mediators and peace-makers in the community, but they too have
no unconditional authority. If a quarrel cannot be settled, or if one
60
party does not want to listen to reason, the elders are powerless.
To keep peace as long as possible and as long as the community
as a whole is not disturbed is the fundamental motive in the atti-
tude of these tribes. In this respect public opinion has a twofold
task: first, that of a preventative which, by virtue of its existence,
compels a positive and lawful behavior of the individual; second,

that of intervening actively in connection with any violation of law.
However, here too it is required that an interested group call for
action and that the case be such as actually to threaten the peace
of the community. Thus the occasional trap-thief or trespasser or
quarreler is not taken to task by the community, but his punish-
ment is left to the injured party or to the group concerned. The
community take part more or less as neutral spectators, as for in-
stance in the song contests of the Eskimo. Indeed, even in the case
of a murder, blood vengeance is left to the parties concerned. But
the community takes a part whenever its economic security is
threatened by the behavior of one of its members. This is the case
with incorrigible thieves, persons who habitually hunt on the land
of others, chronic quarrelers, and fighters; in brief, with those whom
today we should call habitual criminals. The punishment may be

tying to a tree, as among the Montagnais-Naskapi; beatings, as
61 *
among the Eskimo of Bering Strait exile; or a sentence of death
;
which is carried out according to circumstances by shooting, 62 knif-

63 64
ing, drowning,t harpooning, or in some other way.
The procedure and the executive agencies of public opinion were
not uniform. Among the Montagnais-Naskapi it was the chief, to-
gether with the council of elders, who had the culprit brought before
them, convicted him with the aid of witnesses, but without sworn
testimony, and then punished him. Among the fhukchee action was
taken by a group of especially notable men selected by the com-
munity. Finally, even a single person, without any legal procedure,
could receive the command or the tacit consent of the community
to kill the criminal. As proof for the conviction of the criminal, use
* A T6te-de-boule
man, Amechichi ("a man who strolls about "), was exiled
about 1870 because he kept hunting on the hunting grounds of others, although
he had his own.
f Formerly the practice among the Montagnais-Naskapi.
was often made of an oath of the accused, never of an oath by
witnesses. Thus the accused Chukchee called upon the Sun as helper,
65 *
or he swore by the Bear.
Harvesters and related tribes. I shall describe as harvesters a group
"
of tribes whose food supply isderived from the harvesting of one
or a few wild-growing food plants which provide the chief sustenance
66
for the entire year." The harvesters are neither pastoral nor agri-
cultural, but are tribes which possess an economic form based upon the
harvesting, not just the gathering, of wild plants. The regions where
they occur predominantly are Australia and Melanesia, especially
on the southern and western coasts of New Guinea, and in the most
eastern, southern, and northerly districts of Australia. In these dis-
tricts the basis of the food supply is: in New Guinea, the sago palm
tree; in Australia, the wild yam, the nardoo seed (Marsilea quadri-
67 68
folia), which is ground and made into cakes, lily root, the bunya-
bunya, and others. It is significant that these fruits are kept in their
natural state or worked over into forms more easily preserved, and
thus provide the main sustenance for the entire year. This is the
case everywhere except in the bunya-bunya tribes, who form a link
between the food-gatherers and hunters and the harvesters. In some
instances treatment of food by fermentation is known, as among the
69
tribes of the Carpentaria Gulf, a process which is further developed
in Polynesia and among certain Arctic tribes.
In Asia the ancient reindeer-breeders were probably originally
fishermen arid harvesters before the rise of reindeer-breeding. Even
today large sections of the Arctic region are inhabited by the Chuk-
chee, the Yakut, and Tungus in whose life harvested wild roots,
onions, and play an important role. The Chukchee especially
garlic
gather roots and the center portion of Claytonia acutifolia Willd. in
great quantities. This plant is pickled and eaten all year long up to
the next harvest time. The Polynesians, no matter whether they had
agriculture or not before their migrations, could not have settled on
coral atolls without the existence of the wild breadfruit tree and the
wild coco palm. The structure of their law is related in many re-
spects to that of the harvesters and herd men.
In Africa we find scarcely any real harvesters. In the middle
Sudan and in East Africa the wild rice, and in ancient Egypt the
lily root, played a certain role without, however, forming the eco-
*
The author recommends that the discussion of the Plains Indians be read
in connection with the preceding part. See footnote on p. 512.
GOVERNMENT 503
nomic basis of life. In South America, in the Chaco region, the

70
algaroba and the tusca were harvested, and among the Araucanians
and ancient Peruvians the wild potato. In the region of the Canadian
lakes the Algonquian tribes and some of the Siouan tribes based
their economic pattern in part on the harvesting of the wild water-
rice. Some of the Californian Indians must also be numbered among
the harvesters, and the legal structure of some tribes of the North-
west who are primarily fishermen, secondarily harvesters, corresponds
somewhat to that of the harvesters.
The economic basis of these tribes has been the cause of various
special forms of legal structure and government, different from those

found among the food-gatherers and hunters.
Since the Australian tribes furnish particularly good material,
and since through a study of their law I arrived at the concept of
the class of harvesters, they may be dealt with particularly. Fur-
thermore, in Australia there was no admixture of harvesters with
agriculturists, as is the case in North and South America, so that a
description of the special forms of the legal structure among Aus-
tralian harvesters will offer a clearer picture.
The territorial principle and the legal norms of the group are dif-
ferent in these tribes from those of the food-gatherers and hunters.
Though here, too, the local group holds the ownership of a limited
territory, the inviolability of the land is infringed upon. Using modern
terms, we might say that the absolute value of real estate shifts to
the harvesting ground, the part essential for the food supply of the
community. This part of the territory of the community increases
in value. Being the main source of support of the local group, it
now occupies the focal position in the economic and legal situation.
The size of this harvesting area is sometimes immense. Hodgson 71
reports that the bunya-bunya tree district extends over seventy
miles. Our source material gives us similar statistics in regard to
the lily-root territory among the Gnanji, on the Roper River, and
for the nardooamong the Arunta. The harvesting ground is usually
the place where the local group takes up its residence, 72 for the
economic structure demands a certain settled mode of living, at least
it demands secure storage space. 73 Thus the harvesting ground be-
comes the chief factor in the accumulation of people. The number
of members of a local group is far greater in these tribes than it is
among the food-gatherers and hunters. Among the Obota and Waka-
timi tribes of New Guinea,
74
tribes which live in the sago swamps,
such a camp comprises about 1000 people; among the Winnebago,
about 'WO. 75 Australian sources estimate that in exceptional cases as
76
many as 2500 persons are present on a harvesting ground. Such a
number is attained, however, only temporarily, during the great
invitation ceremonies when many tribes assemble.
This leads us again to the reaction of the local group to outsiders
and to the special legal concepts which have developed in reference
to their behavior toward the neighboring groups. While among food-
gatherers and hunters a transgression of the boundaries of the tribal

territory meant certain death, this is not the case among the har-
vesters. There is no punishment any transgression of the bound-
for
aries. Indeed, the elasticity of the boundary conditions can go so
77
far that the boundaries are in a way nullified. Curr reports that
the Hangerang and related tribes could take refuge in one another's
territory. At times two groups could even possess a common har-
vesting ground.
78
When the fruit of the harvesting ground matures,
the neighboring tribes are invited to partake of the superabundance.
Among the bunya-bunya tribes this happens only every third year.
Ridley suggests that this might perhaps be a right obtained through
war. 79 Hut neither among the bunya-bunya tribes nor among the
other harvesters is there any support for this assumption. We are
only able to state; that at the time when the fruit matures, the
80
surrounding tribes arrive, sometimes from as far as 100 miles away,
but only to harvest the bunya-bunya. The guests are forbidden to
hunt any animal and to gather any plant except the bunya-bunya.
This taboo is so effective that there is probably some truth in the
reports of occasional cannibalism among the guest tribes, on account
81
of the lack of meat. The invitation to the bunya-bunya harvest
was usually for a period of six weeks. Dawson 82 reports that over
twenty tribes speaking different languages took part in one of the
great harvesting meetings.
These meetings exercised an important cultural influence. They
affected, so to say, external politics and were the source of many new
legal institutions in the field of primitive "international law, trade
*
law and copyright' law/' The

which gave the harvesting
tribe
feast sent out invitations through envoys who from three weeks to
three months before ^ were sent out with message-sticks, 84 to carry
85
the invitations to the several local groups. These diplomats not
only were not interfered with in their travels through the territory
86
of hostile tribes but were even received with hospitality. At times,
GOVERNMENT 505
instead of these messengers, smoke signals were used to notify the

prospective guests.
Trade, the mutual exchange of local products, was important
at these meetings. Thus, for instance, the Warramunga and their
northern neighbors, the Pjingilli, in central Australia are famous
87
for their stone knives. Stones for axes, and also the selong gum,
which was especially valuable for attaching stones to handles, 88
89
spears, boomerangs, narcotics, and red ochre were exchanged for
other goods. The elders decided who was to take part in the meetings,
and participation of those so designated was obligatory. 90
Furthermore these meetings served for common initiation cere-
monies which acceptance of young men as full-fledged
signified the
members This ceremony was usually deferred until
of their tribes.
an initiation could take place in several tribes on the occasion of a
harvesting feast. Either the ciders or the respective chiefs set the
time when a number of young men were to be received into the class
of adults. 91
These meetings are extremely significant for the dissemination of
cultural elements. are not only occasions for trade, for common
They
initiations, for corroborecs and games; they also bring about cultural
exchange between these tribes. In speaking of the Kabi, Curr re-
ports the following concerning the traveling about of corroboree
plays: "The poet having introduced his work to the neighboring
tribes, these in turn invited their allies to witness it and aid in the
performance. In this manner a corroboree traveled, and was sung
with great enthusiasm where not a word of it was intelligible. The
dramatic part in these performances was sometimes very consider-
92
able." The
idea of a "copyright" law is by no means unfamiliar
to these harvester tribes, and they provide for an effective protec-
tion of this law. 92a We
already find here the beginnings of an inter-
national "copyright" protection.
Many of our sources tell of so-called neutral territories which are
not to be regarded as boundary sections abandoned out of the fear
is sometimes the case among the food-gatherers
of hostile neighbors, as
and hunters, but which are closed by what we would call today an
international treaty of neighboring tribes. 93 Curr 94 reports that the
tribes on the banks of the Gregory through mutual agreement created
a neutral territory fifty by one hundred miles in extent, in order to
hold their meetings there. The reason for the creation of such a ter-
ritory is economically as well as legally conditioned. Economically,

through the mutual agreement prohibiting the use of this land, the
supply of plants and wild animals which form the economic basis
for the meetings of these tribes is preserved. Legally this institution
indicates that only among tribes whose economic foundation is secure
within the tribal territory is the creation of neutral regions possible.

Our Australian sources leave no doubt that the harvesting ground,
like the land in general, belongs to the local group as a whole. Tem-
porarily, at the time of the harvest, individual families may receive
an assignment of certain parts of the harvesting ground, but there
isno doubt that the land as a whole is the property of the com-
munity. The situation in this respect is not quite so clear among
some of the American harvesters. Of the Chaco tribes and the tribes
which harvest the wild potato, also of the Hyanyam in the Matto
Grosso, the reports are unanimous to the effect that the ownership
of a harvesting ground is in the hands of a local group. In regard
to the North American Ojibwa, the Menomini, and the Winnebago,
early sources such as Catlin and Schoolcraft make it clear that the
harvesting ground belongs to the entire local group, which distributes
the field anew before each harvest to the single families, though the
interpretation of the custom of tying the fruits in bundles as a pro-
tection against birds is probably incorrect. This ancient custom seems
to be referred to also in Densmore's statement: "In the old days
each family or small group of families had a portion of a rice field,
as it had a 'sugar bush* for making its maple sugar." 95
The original ownership of the rice fields by a local group is even
more clearly shown in the report, likewise given by Densmore, that
the rice which had not been tied into bunches was common property,
for only through the work of preparation done for about ten days
before the harvest and consisting of the twisting up of the bunches
was the claim of a family or of several families to a certain part
of the harvestingground secured. This fact appears very clearly in
a remark by Ellis: "This gives the party twisting the bunches a
kind of preemption to so much of the rice, which before was all
common." % Ruth Landes, however, reports that she found among
the Ojibwa individual ownership of rice fields, berry bushes, and
maple trees a sign of the speedy adoption on the part of the In-
dian of the White man's conception of law, which seems quite foreign
to the general attitude of the Indian to land tenure. Originally the
harvesting ground was not divided so that each lot belonged to a
family consisting of parents and children, but rather to the larger
GOVERNMENT 507
recognized social units constituting the tribe. In Australia as well as

97
in America these were economic but not political units. Thus the
property marks erected in the fields of the Winnebago bear the sign
of the totem clan.
However, aside from the harvesting products, the plants gathered
and the animals hunted are not always the exclusive property of
the gatherer or the hunter, but are handled according to rules similar
to those prevailing among the food-gatherers and hunters. The right
to this kind of food is regulated by rules affecting a number of people.
As Strehlow has described in detail, 98 the Arunta and Loritja have
exact prescriptions for the assignment and distribution of the kill. 99
At times the hunter has no right at all to his prey and others dispose
of it. 100 The right of disposal, however, does not rest here with the
group but with a smaller unit, the totem clan, which

political local
exists in general asan economic unit, united also by supernatural
bonds. The relation between economics and totemism is also indi-
cated in North America. Thus a legend of the Menomini, whose
name means rice men, 101 says: "They visited the Bear phratry, offer-
ing maize and fire in exchange for wild rice, which is the property
of the Bear. The bargain was concluded and since that time
. . .
the Bear and the Big Thunder phratries have lived together." 102
In cases of need the economic unit was responsible for the food
supply of the individual. "It must not be lost sight of, however,
that if the food of any worthy family fails, the entire food supply
of the social group is available to make up the deficiency"; 103 and
Chief Pokagon writes of the harvesters of the Potawatomi: "Our
104
people always divide everything when want comes to the door."
While the totem group is also the economic group in regard to
food supply, the local group as a political unit takes on this func-
tion immediately whenever things not absolutely necessary for sus-
tenance are to be acquired by trade expeditions. It is necessary to
emphasize this, because W. Schmidt attempts to support his con-
ception of Australian totemism with the claim that only members
of a certain totem would take part in trade expeditions. 106 These
expeditions have no relation to the totemic division of the local group.
The selection of their numbers is made from the local group as a
whole, as Howitt and Siebert unanimously report of the ochre and
106
pitcheri expeditions of the Dieri.
Just how such an expedition takes place is described by Curr,
107
Howitt, and Gason, who give a vivid picture of the Dieri, among
whom every winter, in July or August, following a decision by all
the old men, an expedition is sent out to obtain red ochre a
dangerous enterprise, extending over a road of several hundred miles.
Older and younger people are selected for this expedition, and the
council of the elders appoints a leader. The preparations are kept
secret, especially from the women, because, owing to the dangers of
the journey, their influence over their husbands is feared. The journey
takes about six to eight weeks, and the booty brought back amounts
to about seventy pounds of ochre for every member of the expedi-
tion.On the way out and back they travel only at night, so as to
avoid hostilities, as far as possible. The narcotic Duboisia Hopwoodii,
which occurs only in isolated spots, is an extraordinarily important
trade Article which is exchanged over an area of hundreds of miles,
108
for spears, boomerangs, and other goods. The harvester tribe of
the Yaritruwunta, on its dangerous expeditions, provided itself not
only with red ochre but also with sandstone slabs from a quarry
300 miles away. These stones were used for grinding their harvested
grain. All these local products, such as stone, ochre quarries, and
narcotics, were common property of the tribe in whose territory they
occurred. 109
Besides the collective responsibility of the totem group in respect
to supplying food, and of the local group in respect to political re-
actions, there also exists among the harvesters a development of more
detailed legal rules regarding private ownership, which is protected
by the tribe. Anyone who breaks these rules is punished; however,
a violation of property rarely occurs. 110 For example, private owner-
111
ship of fruit trees exists and is always respected. Among the Arunta,
the ownership of such a tree is indicated by placing a bunch of grass
on the branches. When, in spite of this, someone steals its fruits,
the injured party has the right to "spear the thief to death." Or,
when a man finds a nest of bees, he marks the tree by pulling up the
grass around the roots and placing sticks against the tree. 112 The
punishment of spearing is also meted out to anyone who takes a
killed animal without the hunter's permission. The same punishment

also applies when an animal, merely wounded, is caught without
the consent of the hunter by someone not entitled to it. If, however,
the person asks the hunter, he has the right to demand part of the
prey. The thief who steals things not essential for the support of
life does not fare quite so badly. If he returns the stolen objects,
113
the matter is regarded as settled. But if he refuses to relinquish
GOVERNMENT 509
the stolen goods, the owner has the right to spear the culprit's leg
or throw a boomerang at him.
Private property is usually inherited by the eldest son, and if
there are no sons, by the near relatives. 114
The adulterer is occasionally punished by a temporary exile from
the local group, lasting for about two to three months. 115 Among
the food-gatherers and hunters such a sentence would mean death.
Here it is a mild punishment, and the temporal limitation can be
understood in a harvester tribe only.

Among the tribes of the harvesting peoples there has also de-
veloped what might be called a clearly defined copyright law. The
right to perform certain rituals, cults, mimic performances, songs,

and dances, or to tell certain stories, belongs to individuals (as'among
the Arunta), and sometimes to a group (as among the Warramunga),
116
represented by the chief of the respective totem. The right to per-
formances or even the exclusive right to use them may be obtained
117
by payment.
The organization of public power and its executive agencies among
these tribes show a fairly uniform picture: there is no specifically
developed chieftainship, though its beginnings are present more
clearly than among the food-gatherers and hunters. Even hereditary
chieftainship occurs. Two ways to chieftainship are open: the one
through membership in a totem group, in so far as sometimes the
head of a numerous and powerful clan could become chief of the
118
local group ;
the other through individual qualities. The deciding
power always lies in the public opinion of the political community;
that is, in the members of the local group, 119 sometimes represented
by a council of elders or a council of the chiefs of clans. It has often
been pointed out that especially among totcinic tribes the legal rules
are strongly religious in character and have their roots in the totem
myths. I have not found any support for this theory; on the contrary.
Strehlow states expressly 12 that among the Arunta the fundamental
legal concepts are not derived from the tribal ancestor, but appar-
ently have been developed by the council of elders, who impart their
knowledge to the young men at the initiation ceremonies.
Of the Narrinjerri, Taplin tells us that every local group has its
chief, whose title signifies "owner of land/' and who is war chief as
well as spokesman in intertribal affairs. 121 Even within the clan he
seems to have great power, together with the council of elders which
consists of the heads of families: "They actually have an institution
which is extremely like trial by jury, and they have had it from time
immemorial. This they call the Tendi. It is the judgment council
of the elders of the clan. Every clan has its tendi. The number of
tendi is not fixed;
it appears to be regulated by the size of the clan;
but it
always consists of experienced elderly men. When any member
of the tendi dies, the surviving members select a suitable man from
the clan to succeed him. This council presided over by the chief
is
or rupulle of the clan. He

generally chosen
is for his ready speech,
temper, and capacity for authority. The office is not hereditary but
elective in the council itself. A seat in the tendi is called 'tendi

lewurmi,' the judgment seat. All offenders are brought to this tribunal
for trial."
Curr reports of the Kabi that in this tribe two or three men who
are equally powerful administer the affairs of the community, con-
trol the relations with neighboring tribes, and see to it that the
laws are not broken; and he adds that these men had raised them-
122
selves to this position their personal courage.
by
Another especially interesting legal institution found among these
tribes is the right of asylum and the law of taboo, the two being
closely connected. We have already seen that the harvesting ground

was taboo until harvesting time, and that this taboo was lifted on
a certain day by a person privileged to do so. After this, harvesting
was allowed. Taboos similar in effect, though not in cause, arc con-
nected with certain localities which are regarded as the domicile of
the totem spirits or as hiding places for the sacred totem utensils
of the tribe. Spencer and Gillen 123 report an institution found
among the Arunta which is clearly a right of asylum for members

of the tribe as well as for strangers. The criminal and the stranger
are safe and cannot be seized when they flee to this tabooed place.
Animals and plants, too, are taboo there. 124 The right of asylum was
probably religious in origin but had predominantly economic con-
sequences. It is an example of the reorientation of purpose in primitive
law.
Let us once more between the legal insti-
clarify the differences
tutions of harvesters and those of food-gatherers and hunters. The
legal norms are no longer subordinated to the principle of tribal
territory; a transgression of the tribal or sib territory is not punished,
and only particular parts, such as the harvesting ground or the
place of refuge, are protected by taboos. However, here too the
political unit is represented by the local group, while the economic
GOVERNMENT 511
unit is smaller. The differences in economic form and the resulting
relaxation of enmity against outside groups have two obvious re-

sults. One is the accumulation of a greater number of people, not
only of those belonging to a single tribe, but sometimes even of

those belonging to distinct tribes. The legal result in reference to
outsidersis the creation of institutions intertribal in character (neu-
tral territories, intertribal festivals); in reference to internal insti-
tutions, the creation of forcesmaking for a great differentiation of

law and norms. How much
the external political picture has shifted
is shown by the fact that in the North American rice fields villages
are peacefully inhabited by members of four different tribes. 126 Ac-

126
cording to Oppenheimer's theory of the state and his law of
"Bodensperre" (soil limitation), harvesters might be expected to
develop "conquest and class states" when the harvesting ground is
conquered by a foreign tribe. Our sources do not report any such de-
velopment, unless we interpret the structures of the Inca and Aztec
empires as developed by agricultural groups conquering harvesters.
We do know about the fights between the Ojibwa and the Dakota
127
over the rice but no state formation in Oppenheimer's sense
fields,
has occurred. This may have something to do, so far as America is
concerned, with the strong democratic trait which distinguishes all
organizations of the North American Indians, to which I shall return
later.
In the realm of internal politics the organization is stricter than
among the food-gatherers and hunters; above all, however, perhaps
as a reaction, a stronger emphasis upon individual rights has de-
veloped in such matters as do not relate to the safeguarding of the
communal food supply. I have in mind here the development of the
"copyright" law particularly. These tribes, too, do not recognize in-
dividual ownership rights in respect to land. Larger unions beyond
the sib exist.
A number and further developments in the legal
of similarities
institution ofgovernment discussed above may be found among the
fishermen of the American Northwest Coast. Here too, among the
Kwakiutl for instance, the territory of the sib * is common property, 12*
and this probably applies also to the strictly defined fishing grounds, 129
though information obtained on this point is contradictory. In these
tribes the social demarcation is unusually elaborate. We find chiefs,
*
The term "sib" is used here for a tribal subdivision although its form does
not strictly conform to the usual definition.
nobility, middle class, bondsmen, and slaves, and there is even another
class of preferred people who rate above the chief, but only in the
potlateh those "who are first to receive." 130 This class division
seems to operate not so much politically as socially, for the chief's
position is politically quite limited and depends upon the public
"
opinion of the sib. I depend on it that you will stand behind me
131
in everything." Even in regard to the gifts to the chief the latter
isnot omnipotent: "Generally the chief and the fisherman quarrel
and often fight until one of them is killed, when the chief thinks
that he has not been given enough." 132 Even at the giving of a pot-
latch he is dependent upon the good will of the members of the sib,
who cannot be forced to put their property at his disposal. Therefore,
the great potlatches are not really the affair of a single individual
but rather of the entire sib, the individual members of which give
their property for the do id des game. The economic bond which
holds the members of the sib together affects the outsiders, inasmuch
as quarrels with the members of another sib who fish or gather fruit
133
without permission lead to fighting and killing. Whether we can
speak here of any stronger development of individual property right,
aside perhaps from the protection of the "copyright," seems doubtful
to me, because of the ever-recurring leveling institution of the pot-
latch. It does not permit any lasting accumulation of riches, and
serves in the end only for the attainment of abstract honors which
have no resulting political influence upon the community.
Indiatis of the Plains.* Let us sketch in brief the government of
the Plains Indians who belong economically to the hunting tribes.
Before the extermination of the buffalo it provided them with
their chief food all the year around. We know, however, that the
Plains tribes adopted a pure hunting life in historic times, and
that the introduction of the horse caused them to extend their
hunting grounds westward and to on the Plains. Their legal
settle
institutions have many with the Arctic and sub-Arctic
similarities
hunters previously described, especially with the Montagnais-Nas-
kapi; but we find also influences from the eastern agricultural
tribes. Taken as a whole, it seems that two principles which we find
among the Arctic hunters are further developed here: the individ-
ualistic and the democratic principle, the latter bound and regu-
* The author had placed the discussion of the Plains Indians following that
of the Arctic hunters (p. 502). The editor is responsible for its insertion at the
oresent place.
GOVERNMENT 513
lated by a very powerful public opinion, as Lowie has excellently

134
described. The political unit and to a certain extent the eco-
nomic unit too, especially during the great buffalo hunts was the
tribe and not the local group. It also seems that the tribe and not
the band had the right of ownership in regard to land. Land owner-
ship in our sense was entirely foreign to the thinking of these Indians.
Land and water were to them merely the conditions for that which
they regarded as their common property the buffalo. The active
element of the political organization of these tribes appears clearly
during the great buffalo hunt. It was not the local group but the
"
entire tribe which went forth to the common hunt in an organized
135
militarylike manner/' Among the Dakota, Mandan, Ilidatsa,
Crow, Blackfoot, and Cheyenne the surveillance and direction of
the hunt, the order of marching, etc., were entrusted to a special
group which was drawn from all the men who had been divided into
age classes. The members of this special group were appointed by
the council and installed by the chief. When the tribe met at the
meeting place agreed upon, every group had its traditional
local
place in the camp circle, which was open toward the east and in
the center of which stood the ceremonial tents. During these hunts
there was no room for individual freedom of action which was other-
wise so conspicuous. The police even had the right to kill an individual
who, to the detriment of the community, did not obey their instruc-
tions. Aside from these annual buffalo hunts and war expeditions,
the unity of the tribe was very lax, and a division into politically
136
independent local groups and even smaller units was the rule.
Chieftainship showed very little elaboration. Usually the chief
or chiefs were elected; only rarely was this office hereditary as among
the Omaha, but even the Omaha changed from hereditary succes-
sion to elective procedure. 137 The number of elected chiefs, who were
chosen from among the bravest warriors and the men with the best
reputation in the community, varied. The Cheyenne, for instance,
had a chiefs' council of four high chiefs and forty chiefs. The Omaha
had seven chiefs who were elected for life, but in this case there were
also, in an advisory capacity, five members of the tribe ex officio:
"The keeper of the Sacred Pole; the keeper of the Sacred Buffalo
Hide; the keeper of the two Sacred Tribal Pipes; the keeper of the
ritual used when filling them; and the keeper of the Sacred Tent
of War." 138 The responsibility for a decision of the council devolved
upon the seven chiefs. The majority principle in voting was unknown;
the chiefs' council conferred until unanimity was established. "All
must accept it and then carry it through as one man. The seven
. . .
must have but one heart and speak as with one mouth."
For the execution of its resolutions, the council appointed re-
spected members of the tribe who watched over the war expeditions
undertaken by individuals and who at times would return the booty
brought back from such expeditions to its original owners, so as to
avoid warlike complications with neighbors. The officials who or-
ganized the buffalo hunt were also, as said before, appointed by this
council. The work of these officials was over after the hunt, but
even then they or others played a certain role in the execution of
the tribal laws. Among the Cheyenne they had a sort of umpire
139
position during quarrels within the community, and Fletcher
and La Flesche report that among the Omaha the members of the
buffalo hunt police were entrusted also after the hunt with the pre-
servation of law and order within the community. "Men who had
' '
once filled the office of soldier were apt to be called on to assist the
council in the preservation of order within the tribe." 14
Since the provision of food was regulated collectively and since
there was therefore little room for the development of private owner-
ship, there were hardly ever any cases of theft. When such a case
occurred, the thief was not punished; he merely had to return the
stolen articles. Even insults, bodily attacks, and murder were sub-
jected to adjustment by the parties concerned, who, however, were
forced into action by the tribe, as in the case of the Comanche. 141
If they did not respond, the "tort" became a crime; that is to say,
the community and not the party concerned avenged the wrong-
doing. The solidarity of consanguineous groups was common among
the Plains Indians, in contrast to the Naskapi. Anyone could be held
responsible for the acts of his blood relative. Adultery was punished
severely, but even here the settlement was left to the parties con-
cerned. The guilty person was sometimes even knifed or beaten to
death. In regard to "copyright" law there was a distinction between
the property of the religious societies, that of the clans, and that
of an individual. However, among the Omaha we also find songs
which were free to be used by anyone, especially during the wafwan
142
ceremony. The immediate property of a dead person accompanied
him into the grave. Other property was inherited by the adult children
or the brothers of the deceased.
Crimes which aroused an immediate reaction in the community,
GOVERNMENT 515
as represented by the chiefs, were above all those that were directed
against the authority of the elected leaders, such as the attempt to
deride their authority or to go through with the plans for a war
party, though this had been forbidden. Today we should say that
only purely political crimes brought about an immediate action in
the community. Sometimes the culprit was warned by having his
horses poisoned or beaten to death. If he did not heed this warning,
he himself was killed. Among the Omaha this was done by wounding
him with a poisoned ironwood stick.
Larger associations, extending beyond the tribe, existed only in
weak forms, such as the "seven council fires" of the Dakota, and
were entirely different from the intertribal leagues of the eastern
farming tribes.
I have described in some detail the tribes characterized by acquisi-
tive economy, first, because our source material is scanty and frag-
mentary, and also because the existence of legal institutions with

these tribes has often been denied altogether.
I cannot here undertake to give descriptions of each of the count-
less agricultural and pastoral tribes and of those of mixed economy.
Space permits me to give only a very cursory and brief sketch of
the government of some of these societies.
Simpler farming societies. The central territorial unit of these
farming societies, which are found especially in eastern Melanesia,
western Africa, the central portion of South America, and east-
ern North America is the village; that is, the limited area of
the village, with the numerous huts of single families, or those of
family groups, or a single sib house in the center. The tribes seem
to be divided everywhere into such independent villages, headed by
a chief who sometimes is loosely dependent upon a high chief. How-
143
ever, his importance is very slight. Keysser tells of the Kai in
New Guinea that the chief's position was indicated only by the fact
that he possessed the largest field, but that his greater wealth had
to be utilized in obligatory hospitality toward the chief's own village
and toward strange guests. His power was extremely meager and lay
in representation exclusively. He had no right over life and death
at all except among a few South American tribes in case of war.
This purely representative position of the chief in the farming societies
of the central and northern part of South America is likewise reported
by other investigators. Aside from representation, it 'was the chief's

duty to arrange for new clearings for himself or for others. The de-
tails of the preparation of a new field for planting are vividly de-
scribed in Karl von den Steinen's study of the Xingii tribes.
Authority is vested in the council of elders. Among the horticul-
tural tribes matriliny was probably originally prevalent in regard to
laws of descent and inheritance, although owing to an intricate
conglomeration of factors, we have not everywhere a very clear
picture of development. Today, in the woodland tribes of
this
Cameroon the family is patriarchally organized, but this order is
144
obviously of recent origin, for even women could be chiefs and
;
14411 144l)
among the Cross River tribes, the Bakwiri, the I)uala, and the
Batanga tribes the originally matrilineal organization may still be
clearly recognized. Land was originally common property, and it is
doubtful whether its cultivation created property in our sense or
merely a right of usufruct. The limitations imposed upon the sale
of land are a criterion. The Iroquois said: "Land cannot be bought
and sold, any more than water and fire can." In Melanesia and West
Africa, too, land is not an object of trade. As a rule, land was common
property of the village, but in regard to cultivated land we find the
beginnings of sib, family, or individual ownership. In West Africa,
Melanesia, and South America women had no political rights or en-
joyed such rights only as members of a secret society. Thus in AVest
Africa certain women, members of the Bundu secret society of women,
sometimes had even the power over life and death.
political influence,
In contrast to this the Iroquois woman stepped into the political
foreground. Women apportioned the arable land every second year
and they elected the chiefs; they had a veto right in the council of
men, even when war expeditions were planned. They also had the
right to take strangers into the tribe through adoption and could
decide on the fate of prisoners of war.
The mutual help rendered in clearing fields which frequently
occurs in Melanesia and South America, and more rarely in Africa,
indicates that the provision of food is not individual but that in
last analysis the community bears the responsibility for
it. However,
this is noticeable only in times of need, and prevents a pronounced

plutocratic development. In general, movables are privately owned,
but not land. In West Africa we find a stronger development of
such private ownership. This is well illustrated by the exaction of
dues for membership in the secret societies.
Especially in Melanesia and Africa secret societies which probably
grew out of the age groups had more important juridical powers
GOVERNMENT 517
than the chief and the council of elders. 145 In the Bismarck Archi-
pelago and on the Gazelle Peninsula notably the ditkduk and the
ingiet societies, in South America the juntpari society, in Cameroon,
especially among the Ekoi of the northwest, the ewi-ngbe secret
146
society (ewi- law, ngbe- leopard society), in the south among
the Pangwe the bofamg-elong, 1 * 7 among the Bakosi 148 and Basa
the Losango secret societies, 149 play a dominant role in the legal
and social life of these tribes. Among the Ekoi the legislative and
executive power is vested in the ewi-ngbe secret society, which can
decide even on the adoption or rejection of public laws. It is also
the highest court of appeal in all legal actions. Admission to the
secret society and advancement into its higher degrees usually de-
pend on the payment of an entry fee. Anyone is free to leave the
society, but the advantages of membership are such that this is of
rare occurrence. The societies exert an authoritative jurisdiction
within the small, self-centered, democratic legal community. In groups
of more recent origin such jurisdiction is taken by the village
community, which in these tribes is represented by the chief and

the palaver of the elders. The entire legal structure, its elabora-
tion of the system of composition, the free arbitration between
parties, the often only subsidiary jurisdiction by chief and elders,
to mention only a few elements, rest on the secret societies. These
must be regarded as the strongest factor in the formation and de-
velopment of laws, and they stand out especially as the agencies of
executive power in legal procedure. They play a great role in both
criminal and civil law.
How a legal process takes place may be demonstrated by the
following example. When among the Bakosi a creditor demands a
goat which the debtor refuses to pay, the creditor goes to the mem-
bers of the Losango society and asks them to help him to obtain
justice. They put their insignia in front of the debtor's hut. This
usually works at once. For this service the society receives from the
debtor a goat. If the debt is not paid at once and if the society's insig-
nia have to remain on the hut until the next morning, the price is one
ox, which is eaten by the members of the society. For this reason
every debtor tries to satisfy his creditor and the society as quickly
as possible. The
secret society also intervenes when a man has
seduced another man's wife and refuses to pay. Among the Basa
the mungi and um secret societies in secret nocturnal
meetings decide
on orders, judgments, and punishments and also have them executed
secretly the punishment almost always being death. It was then
said: "The Mungi has judged us." 15 Anyone, even a person who is
not a member, has the right to seek legal aid from the society, just
151
as is the case in the egbo society of the coast tribes.
Political societies extending beyond the village are on the whole

unknown among these tribes of the Old World. The intertribal
instrument the secret society, which is not limited to the village,
is
not even to the tribe, but extends, especially in West Africa and
Melanesia, over large areas, without, however, leading to an organi-
zation of larger political units a significant phenomenon. Yet the
absence of political organization into larger groups is typical only
of the Old World; in the New World we find just the opposite to be
the cas^ among the corresponding tribes. The best instance of this
is found in the league, of the Iroquois. 152 The league comprised five
later six tribes represented by a central council which made
decisions unanimously, not by the majority principle. This central
power was quite loose, in spite of a hereditary chieftainship. Any
tribe could go to war independently or conclude peace as long as
the interests of the league were not interfered with. Unlike the
conquering societies of the Old World, especially in Africa and
Asia, the trend toward intertribal alliances was strong in some parts
of America, even among the tribes of pre-state structure indeed,
especially amongthe latter. Some of the later developments of this
type may be connected with the invasion of the \Vhites and their
influence, as was the case when the Cherokee created for themselves
a governmental organization after the pattern of the United States
of America. The conquest of a tribe by another and the resulting
formation of classes and of an autocratic state, which was the rule
in the Old World, especially in Africa, is entirely absent in the
American statelike structures in the regions of the present United
153
States. Another dissimilarity between the North American and
West African societies of similar economic status is to be found
chiefly in legal procedure. Among the West African forest tribes
there exists, besides the right to self-help and the appeal to the
secret society, a well-developed procedure before a palaver court,
154
composed of the chief and the The defendant is summoned
elders.
in various ways, directly through the parties or through the chief.
The methods of proof are torture, oath, ordeal of drinking poison,
testimony by witnesses, visual and documentary evidence. The

judgment is preceded by a secret conference of the court, and the
GOVERNMENT 519
decision reached through a majority of the votes. The composition

is
system dominates the procedure. Vengeance and punishment are

usually averted by the payment of a fine. This clearly regulated
legal procedure is lacking among the American tribes. Except for
certain formulas of solemn declaration by the parties, other methods
of proof, especially the many forms of the ordeal, are unknown.
Herdsmen and related societies. The foundation of the life of the
herdsmen, for whom we have no corresponding America

societies in
(in Peru we find only a tending of the llama and the alpaca), is
as a rule combined with harvesting or farming, or so strongly influ-
enced by higher civilizations that there are probably no pure societies
of herdsmen left today. Yet this economic form is the principal
foundation for a number of cultures which in the Old* World
occupy a strip extending from northeastern Siberia through Central
Asia, Arabia, North and East Africa, down to the southernmost
point of Africa and the Bushman region. Siberian and European
tribes such as the Lapp, Samoyede, Chukchee, and Tungus raise
reindeer. Central Asiatic tribes, Mongol and Turki tribes raise
cattle, sheep, horses, and camels. The Africans, especially the East
and South African herdsmen, raise chiefly cattle. In the north there
have been influences from the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, in
Central Asia from the adjacent high civilizations, in East Africa and
in part also in North Africa and Arabia from the farming societies
which had come into contact w ith the herdsmen.
r
Thus we find that most of the societies of herdsmen today are recog-
nizable clearly as mixed cultures. In Djagga law 155 the law of grant
and lieu can be explained only as the result of a mixture with the
laws of farming tribes, and among the Ovambo the law of inheritance
shows completely matrilineal characteristics. 156 Even among herdsmen
as definite arid ancient as the Chalcha-Mongol, Chinese, and Tibetan
high cultures have shown their influence and have changed the marital
law of the princes and noble families. 157 Yet we can establish common
traits of government, conditioned by the economic pattern, among
the Central Asiatic and the African herdsmen. The pastures are
always the property of the entire tribe. But as among the harvesters,
they are not clearly defined, and driving the herd to pasture on a
strange territory without permission is not punished. The tribe as
such has hardly any legal function. The individual and the patri-
archal family group are the outstanding feature. The older collec-
tivistic element is replaced by individualism. The social unit is the
patriarchal family group (brothers, nephews, sons, grandsons), which
also lays claim to political independence. The tribe is headed by
158
a chief who has been elected or whose office is hereditary. His
influence, however, depends mostly upon and upon
his personality
his liberality, which means that it depends ultimately upon the
public opinion of his tribe. Besides the chief there is a council of

elders (among the Kirghiz the so-called white-beards, among the
Herero the umakarere) without whose consent the chief cannot de-
cide anything, especially in regard to land. The fact that the chief
cannot dispose of land was demonstrated to the German govern-
ment on the occasion of the Ilerero war. The Germans had con-
cluded agreements with the chiefs concerning the cession of land,
but the chiefs did not have the right to dispose of the land, and
the war resulted from ignorance of tribal law. 159 Larger political
associations beyond the tribe did not originally exist among the
individualized societies of herdsmen, especially not among the
camel and horse breeders. Jurisdiction, especially in cases calling
for blood vengeance, was an affair of the parties involved. A
composition and payment of wergild is originally not customary,

but is due to influences of a secondary nature. Typical among the
herdsmen is, above all, the development of private ownership and
the accumulation of wealth in the form of stock. This at the same

time presented the opportunity of developing class distinctions and
of a vertical stratification of society, a differentiation of rich and
poor. These beginnings of a hierarchic system among the herdsmen

did not flourish until they came in contact with the agricultural
The law of inheritance in most of these tribes is marked
societies.
by primogeniture; only under Mohammedan influence do we find a

certain degree of equal age-right of inheritance.
The societies of herdsmen of the Old World brought about a
political revolution by the creation of large empires in Asia as well
as in Africa. Their centrifugal, warlike demeanor, which contrasts
with the centripetal, democratic one of the older farming societies,
has so intrigued modern sociology that it seems justifiable to describe
briefly a few examples of the influence of the penetration of herds-
men upon the development of law in a conquered farming tribe.
The conquest of Adamaua by the Fulbe early in the nineteenth cen-
tury illustrates all the phases of the intrusion of herdsmen into the
land belonging to settled farming societies. The reason for their migra-
tion was economic. They sought new pastures for their zebus. At first
GOVERNMENT 521
they lived among Negro tribes, merely tolerated by them, often

even oppressed by them. For a long time the Fulbe even granted
to the chiefs of the settled farming societies the jus primae noctis.
m
This peaceful penetration turned into a warlike expedition of con-
quest at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Scheu-
Usmanu called his people to a sacred war against the heathen. The
result w as the founding of the large Sokoto empire between the
T
Niger and the Shari. The war lord Modibo Adama added to this
the territory called after him Adamaua. During his forty-two-year
reign he subjugated the heathen tribes or pushed them back into
the mountains. After his death in 1847 the conquests were extended
southward, especially by his son Laual; and Tikar, Wute, and Baja
were subjugated and made tributary. These expeditions of conquest
were made possible by one factor only: the armored cavalry of the
Fulbe. This shows that not only in Asia, but also in Africa, breeders
of riding animals (camels and horses) and not necessarily the cattle-
breeders were the conquerors.
Itseems extremely important to emphasize this point. As far as
I know, the Fulbe offer the only instance in recent times which
permits us to study the process of a meeting of farming societies
and herdsmen in all its phases and without European influence. They
conquered Adamaua not as cattle herdsmen but by their tactical
superiority, through their armored cavalry, to which the farming
tribes had nothing similar to oppose. The Fulbe subjugated the
heathen tribes, made them their subjects and bondsmen, and di-
vided the whole of Adamaua into a number of despotically governed
states which merit the designation of state even in the modern soci-
ological definition of the conquest-state and in its vertical classifi-
cation. The people are divided into slaves (prisoners of war and
persons born in slavery), bondsmen (the subjugated tribes), freemen

(native members of the tribe), and the nobility, which is composed
of the officials selected from among the slaves, and the class of
lamidos. Aside from this classification we find one according to oc-
cupation. The state is headed by the emir or sultan, supported by
a large hierarchy of officials, mostly recruited from his slaves. There
is a prime minister, a chief general, a master of ceremonies. In ad-
dition to these there are numerous lesser officials.

The entire structure of a Fulbe state has much in common with
the feudal states of medieval Germany. 161 The country is divided
into a number of provinces and districts which are governed by a
vassal, a lamido of the sultan. This official must furnish support in
case of war and is obliged to pay a yearly tribute. At the court the
" "
representatives of the minorities and of the strangers were the
galadima, who functioned as mediators and councilors between their
people and the sultan. The land originally belonged to the sultan,
who could augment his income through the sale of land. His income
also comprised several kinds of taxes, of which the market toll
collectedby the ssdrika n kama (market master) was very lucrative.
Jurisdictionwas meted out by the alkali, the professional judge
appointed by the king. Among the Mohammedan Fulbe the Koran
was usually the code of law. 162 Mutilations and punishment by
degradation or imprisonment play a large role in criminal law. For
murde*, theft of slaves or of horses, a second offense was punish-
163
able by death simple theft was punishable by chopping off the
;
offender's right hand. In the law referring to debts the development

of debt slavery is worthy of notice. In place of blood vengeance we
find the payment of fines, part of which go to the sultan that is,
to the state.
This sketch of the Fulbe government is a fairly typical example
for the Sudan tribes, from the Ewe in the west to the Kafficho in
the east; indeed, even beyond this sphere, for the government struc-
tures of the Mongols and Huns in historical times. In the Sudan
we find a gradual intensification from west to east of centralized
structures of high culture. The government of the Kafficho, who
were conquered in 1897 by the Habeshi, showed ancient Egyptian
traits. The emperor-god, who remained ever invisible to the people,
was the owner of the land, the source of law (for law and king the
same word, id' Id, was used), the supreme war lord, the empire itself,
the master over life and death of all Kafficho. 164 Actually the ruler
depended on the seven mikire'to, the members of the supreme

council who had the power to depose him. In other regions of
Ethiopia and North Africa this council could even pronounce a
death sentence over the emperor after a certain number of years of
166
reign or for certain reasons. The land was divided into crown
land and hereditary fiefs, the latter given only to free Kafficho.
Among the crimes which were punished by public law we do not
find murder, which was avenged by the family through blood ven-
geance; but mutiny, treason, sorcery, robbery, cowardice in battle,

rape, and bodily injury. In the process of obtaining evidence the
testimony of children, women, liars, thieves, robbers, and strangers
GOVERNMENT 523
was not counted. Punishment was meted out immediately after

judgment, and consisted of fines, flogging, outlawing, mutilation,
hanging, decapitation, throwing off a cliff, starvation, and abandon-
ment.
An American equivalent of these more highly developed structures
which arose in Africa through the contact between herdsmen and
farming tribes may be given. In the region of the United States the
166
Natchez, an agricultural tribe, offers such a basis for comparison.
The organization of the Natchez was theocratic; that is, the king,
the "Great Sun/' was at the same time high priest. The vertical
principle of organization shows a strictly defined class structure
with slaves as the lowest class. Next came the common people,
called Stinkards. These were ruled by the nobility, which itself was
divided into three ranks: the Suns, the Nobles, and the Honored
Men. The marriage laws permitted no marriage within the same
rank, but only from one rank into another. Thus the Suns, even the
king and his sister, were allowed to marry only into the class of the
people. In general, the children among the Natchez belonged to
their mother's class, but the children of the union of a Noble with a
woman from the people belonged to the nobility. Advancement into
a higher class was also possible through bravery in war or through
specially prescribed, often cruel, religious services for the king or,
let us say, the state. Thus the Stinkards could advance into the
class of the Honored Men and the latter into the class of the Nobles.
But only a personal nobility could be acquired, as the children did
not inherit it. The role of war chief was open only to Nobles and
Suns. Here, too, the dislike of any absolutism embodied in one

person, that of the king a feature which we find in all Indian
tribes seems to have created the rule that in most important
affairssuch as war and foreign politics a council of old chiefs and
warriors was called. The decision rested with them, not with the
king. The classes had to pay tribute to the king, who also had the
say over life and death. The territorial principle was embodied in
the king, though in a weaker form.
Polynesia. The tribes of Polynesia are harvesters and farmers at
the same time. A Polynesian civilization is unthinkable nor would
a settlement of the islands, except New Zealand, have been pos-
sible without the wild breadfruit tree and the coco palm. The
question as to whether the Polynesians were originally pure har-
vesters, as I am inclined to believe,
167
or whether they have always
been agricultural, as Heine-Geldern thinks, may remain unanswered
here. In spite of the fairly uniform type of Polynesian culture the
insular isolation has brought about special formations of legal insti-
tutions. The differences are expressed in details and do not detract
from the uniformity of the general characteristics. There are obvi-
ous similarities with the harvester and herdsman societies. In gen-
eral, a definite caste system (slaves, freemen, landowners, nobles)
with godlike kings is peculiar to Polynesian society. Class distinc-
tions find expression in the use of special language and in external
insignia (fan, tattooing, the chief's axe, special ornaments). We are

best acquainted with the legal institutions of Samoa through a number
of excellent works by Kramer, Stair, Schultz-Ewerth, Mead, and
Ilogbifl, and consequently the following description of government
refers mainly to Samoa.
The territorial principle in Samoa was embodied in the sib, which
extended over several villages and in which the ownership of land
was vested. The land was subdivided among the several families of
the village, which, however, had only the right of possession and
usufruct, which was awarded by the matai, the talking chief, to the
168
single families for cultivation. The village is the smallest political
unit within the regions headed by a higli chief or king. In Samoa,
however, the village constitutes the political and legal unit. Large
169
political associations are rare in Polynesia anyway. As Lowie has
pointed out, the reason for this docs not lie in the insular charac-
ter of the country, for in New Zealand this reason did not exist.
Samoa may have been an exception, for after the wars with Tonga
the king had four titles which were acquired through conquest. In
external politics it was not the village but the district which was
the active political unit, especially in case of war. Through diplo-
matic messengers it even kept in touch with the enemy and avenged
any injury or insults inflicted upon these envoys, who were pro-
tected by a taboo. The government and administration of the vil-
lage is not despotic but parliamentary, and is in the hands of the
village assembly, which meets on the village place. Decisions are
not made by majority vote; the deciding factor is the authority
of one or several participating matai, who can, however, be influ-
enced by a third party before the assembly meets. Such preparatory
conferences were quite customary. The chief or the talking chief
tries "to discover in advance what the general temper is, and to
direct public opinion into the desired channels." The village assembly
GOVERNMENT 525
also decided on criminal processes, but only in so far as they were

of a public nature and concerned the village community as such.
Among such public crimes Mead mentions the ridiculing of a chief
or a taupou, theft as a second offense, incest, and instigation or
denunciations between two matai. 170 Other quarrels were settled by
the matai or the head of the family, who acted as arbiter. 171 For
punishment the village community decreed either fines or sentences
172
of work bondage, destruction of property,
in outlawing, exposure
173
to the sun, hanging, and the like. The condemned man, in order
to escape punishment, could ask any matai for an asylum. Whether
the matai could give him this protection depended upon his author-
ity within the village. However, there existed commonly respected
places of refuge in Samoa for instance "the house of the chief
" 174
Tofaeono in
Vaiinaunga and Kriimer tells of two public
places of refuge in Hawaii.
In spite of the collective ownership of the sib in respect to land
and of the family in respect to food there exists private ownership
of movables. Closely connected with the law of ownership and
property, but also with public law, is the institution of the legal
175
taboo in Polynesia. Polack tells of public taboos among the
Maori for the safeguarding of a conquered territory or of the inter-
ests of the community. The violation of such a taboo meant death
if the culprit was a member of the tribe, and war if he belonged to
a strange tribe. The property and food taboos in Polynesia, regarded
from an economic angle, seem to have contributed a good deal to
the accumulation of individual property and to the increase of class
distinctions. In Manga Reva the sturdiest breadfruit trees and coco
palms were tabooed for the chief, and in New Zealand anything that
the chief desired would become his property because of the power
of his taboo. 176 The sign of the taboo varied considerably. It might
consist of banana leaves tied around the trunk of a coco palm, g,
string or a thread tied around an object, a post painted with red

177
ochre, articles of clothing, bunches of grass, or other objects.
Conclusion. We have tried to elucidate the various forms of
government on the basis of the close connection between economic
patterns and legal institutions.
I do not claim that this method of approach is the only proper
one. Our investigation has shown that we are justified in speaking
of law and of legal norms even in reference to the most ancient
primitive tribes in the earliest stages of human civilization. These

laws rule the life of the community, though to a great extent the
norms are not expressed in statutes, but present negative rules of
behavior rather than positive commandment. Even in the history
of logic the rule of antithesis preceded that of identity. Character-
istic of the earlier cultures is the complexity of legal norms and the
low degree of differentiation in legal concepts. The pressure from

outside and public opinion within the society are the strongest
regulating factors. The ownership of land is originally collective, in
the hands of the local group; only the usufruct is sometimes allotted
to a group of families or to a single family. The cultivation of land
does not in itself create ownership. Even in the empires of the
Sudan and of Ethiopia, where the land belonged to the king, land
was not private property in our sense, for the king-priest was a
demigod, and as an individual he was killed if the welfare of the
people demanded it. The land belonged to him only as personifica-
tion of the state. Food was also originally collective property. Con-
nected with this is the collective responsibility of the group for a
supply for the individual. The development of private
sufficient food
property shows definite beginnings among the harvesters, who also

are characterized by their stronger development of a "copyright"
law and of intertribal law. The right of asylum is found among the
harvesters, herdsmen, and Polynesians, and its further development
may be traced to the Greek and Mexican temples. The differ-
entiation of classes has been most strongly developed among the
herdsmen and the Polynesians. In legal procedure we can clearly
distinguish between various tendencies which are described in the
several chapters. However, we have also seen that structures of the
Old World do not per se apply to tribes of the New World, and
that the individualistic and at the same time democratic traits of
the Indians stand out in strong contrast against the structures of
African societies. The state, in Oppenheimer's sense, has developed
in Asia and Africa through the conquest of societies of agriculturists
by herdsmen. For the Old World, Oppenheimer's theory is justified.
Not so for the New World, where before the advent of the Whites
there have never been any tribes of herdsmen. Yet high civilizations
such as the empires of the Incas, Chibcha, Maya, and Aztec devel-
oped in the New World, and structurally they are entirely compa-
rable to the ancient high civilizations of the Old World. In interstate
attitudes, as in the various associations of the Iroquois, the Algon-
quians, and th.^ Hurons, the resulting formations cannot be com-
GOVERNMENT 527
pared with similar ones of the Old World, but only, at best, with
the very modern institution of the League of Nations. They form a
sharp contrast to the despotic empires of Africa. Finally, the political
organizations of Polynesia also admit doubt as to the validity of
Oppenheimer's arguments. This much, however, should be clear:
that among aborigines very close relations exist between government
and land; that the land belongs to the clan, the tribe, or the people,
but not to the individual; and that also in regard to the provision
of food the community occupies the center of attention. For the
primitive it is not the individual who is eternal, but the people,

land, and law.
FOOTNOTES
1. Lips, J. E.,"Die Anfiinge des Rcchts an Grand und Boden bei den Natur-
volkern und der Begriff dcr Erntevolker," Festschrift fur P. W. Schmidt
(Vienna, 1928), and "Kamerun," in Das Eingeborenenrecht. Sitten und
Gewohnheitsrechte der Eingeborencn der ehemaligen deutschen Kolonien in
Afrika und in der Siidsee, edited by E. Schultz-Ewerth and L. Adam,
2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1930), vol. 2, p. 153.
2. This has been pointed out especially by E. Grosse, Die Formen der Familie
und die Formen der Wirtschaft (Freiburg, Leipzig, 1896).
3. Wigrnore, J., "Jottings on Comparative Legal Ideas and Institutions,"
Tulane Law Review, vol. 6 (1931), p. 50.
4. Tulane Law Review, vol. 7 (1932), p. 58.
5. Wundt, W., in his Volkerpsychologie, vol. 9, "Das Recht," (Leipzig, 1918),
pp. 460 if., supposes just the opposite eourse of development of law;
that is, from individualism to collectivism.
"
6. Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., Primitive Law," Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences,
(1933), vol. 9, p. 202.
7. Hogbin, H. I., Law and Order in Polynesia: A Study of Primitive Legal
Institutions. With an introduction by B. Malinowski (London, 1934).
8. Ibid., Introduction.
9. I use the phrase "legal norm" in the sense of K. Binding, Die Normen und
ihre Ubertretung (Leipzig, 1890).
10. Schmidt, W., and Koppers, W., Vbiker und Kulturen (Regensburg, 1924),
pp. 174 ff.
11. Graebner, F., Das Weltbild der Primitiren (Munich, 1924), p. 16.
12. Lowie, R. H., Primitive Society (1920), pp. 358 ff.
13. Oppenheimer, F., System der Soziologie (Jena, 1929), vol. 4, Part 1, pp. 1 ff.
14. Menghin, O., "Die weltgeschichtliche Rolle der uralaltaischen Volker,"
Archaeologiai firtesito, vol. 42 (1928), pp. 289 if.
15. Lips, J. E., "Public Opinion and Mutual Assistance Among the Montagnais-
Naskapi," American Anthropologist, vol. 39, no. 2 (1937).
16. Stow, G. W., The Native Races of South Africa (London, 1905), p. 33.
17. The term "pre-government" was suggested to me by K. N. Llewellyn.
18.Passarge, S., Die Buschmdnner der Kalahari (Berlin, 1907), p. 52.
19.Seligmann, C. G. and B. Z., The Veddas (Cambridge, 1911), p. 113.
20. West, J., The History of Tasmania. Quoted from Ling Roth, H., The Ab-
originals of Tasmania (Halifax, 1899), pp. 59, 76.

21. Roth, W. E., Ethnological Studies among Northwest-Central Queensland Abo-
rigines (Brisbane and London, 1897), vol. 1, p. 160; and Ridley, W.,
Kamilaroi and Other Australian Languages (Sydney, 1875), p. 159.
22. See Howitt, A. W., The Native Tribes of Southeast Australia (London, 1904),
p. 332.
23. Wied, M., Prinz zu, Reise nach Brasilien (Frankfurt, 1821), vol. 1, pp. 370 if.,
PL II.
24. Frascr, J., The Aborigines of New South Wales (Sydney, 1892), vol. 1, p. 37.
25. Howitt, A. W., op. cit., pp. 340 ff.
26. Radeliffe-Brown, A. R., "Three Tribes of Western Australia/' Journal of
tê Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 43 (1913), pp. 143-194.
27. Wundt, W., op. cit., vol. 9, "Das Reeht," p. 14.
28. Palmer, E., "Notes on some Australian Tribes," Journal of the Royal An-
thropological Institute, vol. 13 (1883), p. 285.
29. Howitt, A. W., op. cit., p. 759.
30. See for instance, Dawson, J., Australian Aborigines (Melbourne, 1881),
pp. 22 ff., and Mathews, R. II., "Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal

Tril>es of New South Wales and Victoria," Journal of the Royal Society
of New South Wales, vol. 38 (1904), pp. 56 ff.

31. Wied, M., Prinz zu, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 27 ff.
32. Sarasin, P. and F., Die \Veddas von Ceylon, in Ergebnlsse naturwisscnschaft-
licher Forschungen auf Ceylon, vol. 3 (Wiesbaden, 1893).
33. Taplin, G., The Folklore, Manners, Customs and Languages of the South
Australian Aborigines (Adelaide, 1N98), vol. 1, p. 11, expresses it clearly
when he says: "In the elan there can be no personal property ... all
implements, weapons, etc., belong to the members collectively. ... If
he [the native] has a weapon, or net, or canoe, which is in some sense
his own, he knows that his property in it is subject to the superior rights
of his clan."
34. Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai (Melbourne, 1880), p. 128.
35. Boas, F., in "Heine mid Angewandte Soziologie," Eine Festgabefiir Ferdinand
Tonnies (Leipzig, 1936), p. 264.
36. Henry, J., unpublished material.
37. Bonwick, J., Daily Life and Origin of the Taswanians (London, 1870),
pp. 60 ff.
38. Wied, M., Prinz zu, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 38.
39. Roth, W. E., op. cit., vol. 1, p. 139.
40. Howitt, A. W., op. cit., pp. 295 ff.; Knabenhans, A., Die politische Organisa-
tion lei den australischen Eingeborenen (Berlin, 1919), pp. 129 ff.
41. Trenk, "Die Buschleute der Namib," Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutz-
gebieten, vol. 23 (1910), p. 169.

42. For example, Wied, M., Prinz zu, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 3.
43. Dawson, J., op. cit.
44. Grosse, E., op. cit.
GOVERNMENT 529
45. Knabenhans, A., op. cit.

46. Oppenheimer, F., op. cit., vol. 4, Part 1, p. 3; Schmidt, W., and Koppers,
W., op. cit., p. 179.
47. liyhan, A., Die, Polarrdlker (Leipzig, 1909), p. 104.
48. Kohler, J., "Zur Urgeschichte der Ehe," Zeitschrift fur verglcichende Rechts-
wissenwhaft, vol. 12 (Stuttgart, 1S97), pp. 186-353; Rink, Tales mid
Traditions of the Eskimo (Edinburgh, 1875), p. 27.
49. Bogoras, W., The Chukchee, Josup Expedition, vol. 7 (1904-09), p. 537.
50. Amundsen, R., The Northwest Passage (1908), vol. 2, p. 45.
51. Schrenck, L. von, "Reisen und Forschungen irn Amur-Lande," Die Volker
des Amur-Landes Petersburg, 1891), vol. 3, p. 580.
(St.
52 Boas, F., The Central Eskimo, Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,
vol. 6 (1888), p. 461.
53. Bogoras, W., op. cit., p. 628.
54. Czaplickn, M. A., Aboriginal Siberia: A Study in Social Anthropology (Ox-
ford, 1914), pp. 24 if.
55. Boas, F., "Property Marks of Alaskan Eskimo/' American Anthropologist,

vol. (1899), p. 001.
1
56. Solem, E., hippiske Rettstndier (Oslo, 1933).

57. Lips, J. E., "Public Opinion and Mutual Assistance among the Montagnais-
"
Naskapi.
59. Bogoras, W., op. cit., pp. 543 ff.
60. See for instance, ibid., p. 662.
61. Nelson, N. 0., The Eskimo about Bering Strait, Annual Report of the Bureau
of Ethnology, vol. 18 (1899), p. 293.
62. Boas, F., The Eskimo of llaffin Land and Hudson Bay, Bulletin of the Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History, vol. 15 (1901, 1907), p. 668.
63. Jenness, D., "The Life of the Copper Eskimos," Report of the Canadian Arctic
Expedition, 1913-1918 (Ottawa, 1922), vol. 12, p. 197; Boas, F., The
Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay, p. 118.
64. Kane, E. K., Arctic Explorations: The Second Urinnell Expedition in Search
of Sir John Franklin, 1853, V,, '55 (1857), vol. 2, p. 127.
65. Byhan, A., op. cit., p. 106.
66. Lips, J., "Die Anfange des Rechts an Grund mid Boden," pp. 490 ff., and
Einleitung in die rergleichende Volkerknnde (Leipzig, 1928), pp. 24 ff.
67. Worsnop, T., The Prehistoric Arts, Manufactures, Works, Weapon", etc., of
the Aborigines of Australia (Adelaide, 1897). Concerning the nardoo seed
Worsnop (p. 582) tells us a not very plausible story: "Some years ago
there was a story current in the colonies that a White captive was held
by an interior tribe, whose influence on them was very great. He had

taught them (so the story runs) to cultivate the nardoo plant and store
the seed for future use."
68. Melumbium speciosum and Nymphea gigantica. Eylmann, E., Die Einge-
borenen der Kolonie Sudaitstralien (Berlin, 1908), p. 289.
69. Westgarth, W., Australia Felix (Edinburgh, 1848), p. 72.
70. H. Trimborn has successfully demonstrated the correctness of my idea in
regard to Peru: "Die kulturhistorische Stellung der Lamazucht in der
Wirtschaft der peruanischen Erntevolker," Anthropos, vol. 23 (1928),
pp. 656-664.
71. Hodgson, C. P., Reminiscences of Australia (London, 1846), p. 147.
72. Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., Across Australia (London, 1912), vol. 2,
p. 469.
73. "Die Anfiinge des Rechts an Grund und Boden," p. 492.
Lips, J.,
74. Wollaston, A. F. II., Pygmies and Papuans (London, 1912), pp. 83 ff.
75. Bancroft, G., History of the United States (London, 1840), vol. 3, p. 242.
76. Dawson, J., op. cit., p. 2.
77. Curr, E., Recollections of Squatting in Victoria (Melbourne, 1883), p. 247.
78. Perron d'Arc, H., Aventures d'un wyageur en Australie (Paris, 1870), p. 276.
79. Ridley, W., op. cit., p. 159.
80. Mathew, J., Two Representative Tribes of Queensland (London, 1910), p. 94.
81. Anonymous in Curr, E., The Australian Race (Melbourne and London,
1886), vol. 3, p. 121.
83. Ridley, W., "Australian Languages and Traditions," Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, vol. 2 (1872), p. 271.
84. Howitt, F. G. S., "Notes on Australian Message Sticks and Messengers,"
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 18 (1888), PL XIV,
figs. 1,14.
86. Fraser, J., op. cit., p. 37; Wheeler, G. C., The Tribe and Intertribal Relations
in Australia (London, 1910), p. 29.
87. Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., op. cit., vol. 2, p. 373.
89. Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., op. cit., vol. 1, p. 106.
90. Dawson, J., op. n't., p. 78.
91. Cameron, A. L. P., "Notes on Some Tribes of New South Wales," Journal
of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 14 (1884), pp. 344-370. See
also Mathews, R. H., "The Bora of the Kamilaroi Tribes," Journal of
the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 24 (1895), pp. 411 ff.
92. Curr, E., The Australian Race, vol. 3, p. 167; also Palmer, E. V., The Aus-
tralian Corroboree, Nineteenth Century (1906), p. 317.
92a. Roheim, G., "Die Urformen und der Ursprimg des Eigentums," Inter-
nationales Archivfiir Ethnographic, vol. 28 (Leiden, 1927), pp. 1-30.
93. Bischofs, P. J., "Die Niol-Niol, ein Eingeborenenstamm Nordwest-Austra-
liens," Anthropos, vol. 3 (Vienna, 1908), pp. 32-40.
94. Curr, E., The Australian Race, vol. 2, p. 293.
95. Densmore, F., Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians, Annual Report of
the Bureau of American Ethnology, vol. 44 (1928), p. 313.
96. Years' Recollections of Men and Events in Wisconsin, Wis-
Ellis, Fifty-four
consin Historical Collections, vol. 12 (1873-76), p. 265.
97. Radin, P., The Winnebago Tribe, Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, vol. 37 (1923), pp. 79, 203.

98. Strehlow, C., Die Aranda- und Loritjastamme in Zentralaustralien, Verof-
fentlichungen aus dem stadtischen Volkermuseum (Frankfurt, 1907, 1915),
4 Parts, 2, p. 4.
GOVERNMENT 531
99. See also Curr, E., The Australian Race, vol. 1, p. 81.
100. Dawson, J., op. cit., p. 22.
101. Hoffman, W. J., The Menomini Indians, Annual Report of the Bureau
of Ethnology, vol. 14 (1896), Part I, pp. 12 ff.
102. Jenks, A. E., The Wild-Rice Gatherers of the Upper lakes: A Study in
American Primitive Economics, Annual Report Bureau of American
of the
Ethnology, vol. 19 (1900), Part II, p. 1091. Also Handbook of the Ameri-
can Indians North of Mexico, Bulletin of the Bureau of American Eth-
nology, no. 30 (1910), Part II, p. 787.
103. Jenks, A. E., op. cit., p. 1072.
104. Ibid.
105. Schmidt, P. W., "Die soziologische und religios-ethische Gruppierung der
australischen Stamme," Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, vol. 41 (1909), p. 352.
106. Howitt, A. W., op. cit., pp. 710 ff.; Siebert, "Sagen und Sitten der Dieri
und Nachbarstamme in Zentralaustralien," Globus, vol. 97 (Braunschweig,
1910), p. 54.
107. Curr, E., The Australian Race, vol. 2, p. 70; Howitt, A. W., "The Dieri
and Other Kindred Tribes of Central Australia," Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, vol. 20 (1891), pp. 76 ff.; Gason, S., The Native
Tribes of South Australia (Adelaide, 1879), p. 280. See also Journal of
the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 24 (1895), p. 167.
108. Thomas, N. W., Natives of Australia (London, 1906), p. 117; Spencer, B.,
and Gillen, F. J., Across Australia, vol. 1, p. 106; Eylmann, E., Siidau-
stralicn, p. 306.
109. Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., Native Tribes, p. 590.
110. Eylmann, E., op. cit., p. 48.
111. Strehlow, C., op. cit., p. 10.
116. Grey, G., Journal of Two Expeditions to Northwest and Western Australia
(London, 1841), vol. 2, p. 304.
117. Lips, J., "Die Anfiinge des Theaters bei den Naturvolkern," Tagungsbcrichte
der deutschen anthropologischen GesellscJiaft (Leipzig, 1928); Roheim, G.,
"Die Urformen und der Ursprung des Eigentums," Internationales
Archivfiir Ethnographic (Leiden, 1927), vol. 28, pp. 1-30.
118. Mathews, R. H., "Australian Tribes, Their Formation and Government,"
Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie (Berlin, 1906), pp. 943 ff.
119. Nordenskiold, E., Indianerleben, El Gran Chaco (Leipzig, 1913), p. 34.
121. Taplin, G., op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 32 ff.
123. Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., Native Tribes, pp. 133 ff.; Hellwig, A., "Nach-
trage zum Asylrecht in Ozeanien," Zeitschrift filr vergleichende llechts-

wissenschaft, vol. 19 (Stuttgart, 1906), pp. 41-102.
124. Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., op. cit., p. 134.
125. Jenks, A. E., op. cit., p. 1112.
126. See Oppenheimer, F., "Die Wanderung, vorwiegend vom universalhi-
storischen und okonomischen Gesiehtspunkte," Verhandlungen des 6.
Deutachen Soziologentages wm
17. bis 19. September 19 2S in Zurich (Tu-
bingen, 1029), pp. 147-172.

127. Schoolrraft, II. B., Summary Narrative of an Exploring Expedition to the
Sources of the Mississippi River in 1820; Resumed and Completed by the

Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake 1832 (1855), p. 544.
128. Boas, F., Ethnology of the Kwakiutl, Annual Report of the Bureau of Ameri-
can Ethnology, vol. 35 (1921), Part IT, p. 1346.
129. Boas, F., Geographical Names of the Kwakiutl Indians, Columbia University
Contributions to Antliropology, vol. 20 (1931), p. 37, PLs. 19-22.
130. Boas, F., "The Social Organization of the Tribes of the North Pacific
Coast," American Anthropologist, vol. 20 (1924), p. 331.
131. Boas, F., Ethnology of the Kwakiutl, p. 1341.
132. IlmL, p. 1335.
133. Ibid., p. 1347.
134. Lowie, R. II., Primitive Society (1920), p. 385.
135. Wissler, C., North American Indians of the Plain* (1912), p. 21.
136. Lowie, R. 387; Fletcher, A. C., and La Flesche, F.,
II., Primitive. Society, p.
The Omaha Tribe, Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
vol.27 (1911), p. 199.
137. Fletcher, A. C., and La Flesche, F., op. cit., p. 202.
138. Ibid., p. 208.
139. Letter from K. N. Llewellyn, July 27, 1935.
140. Fletcher, A. C., and La Flesche, F., op. cit., p. 210.
141. Oral report by E. A. Iloebel.
142. Fletcher, A. C., and La
Flesche, F., op. cit., p. 376.
143. Keysser, C., "Aus dem
I>eben der Kai-Leute," in Neuhauss, R., Deutsch-
Neuguinca (Berlin, 1911), pp. 1-242.
144. Lips, J. E., "Kanierun," p. 160.
144a. Ixnischner, S., and Steinmetz, R., Kcchtsvcrhaltnissc ron cingeborcnen
Volkcrn in Afrika und Ozeanicn (Berlin, 1903), p. 16.
144b. Buchholz, R., Land und Leute in Wedafrika (Berlin, 1876), p. 42.
145. Bastian, A., Die Reehtsvcrhaltnisse bci verschicdenen Volkern der Erde (Berlin,
1872), p. 402; Lips, J. E., "Kamerun," p. 160. Cf. ibid, for further lit-
erature.
146. Mansfeld, A., Vrwalddokumcnte (Berlin, 1908), pp. 159 ff.
147. Tessmann, G., Die Pangwe (Berlin and Leipzig, 1913), vol. 2, p. 65.
148. Frobenius, L., "Die Masken und Geheimbunde Afrikas," Nom acta. Abh.
der kaiserlich Isopoldinisch-Carolinisch Deutschen Akademie der Natur-
forscher, vol. 74, no. 1 (Halle, 1898), p. 77; Lips, J. E., "Kanierun," p. 169.
149. Buchner, M., Kamerun (Leipzig, 1887), pp. 26 ff.; Bastian, A., Der Fetisch
an der Kuste Guineas (Berlin, 1884), p. 91.
"
150. See also Plehn, A., Beobachtungen in Kamerun, iiber die Anschauungen
und Gebrauche einiger Negerstiimme," Zeitfichrift fiir Ethnologic, vol. 36
(Berlin, 1904), pp. 715 ff.
151. Bastian, A., Der Fetisch an der Kuste Guineas, pp. 9 ff.
152. Morgan, L., League of the Iroquois (1904); MacLeod, W. C., The Origin
GOVERNMENT 533
of ihe State, Reconsidered in the Light of the Data from Aboriginal North
America (1924). References in this to further literature on the subject.
153. According to early descriptions the empire of Fowhatan formed an excep-
tion. At the time of its greatest extent, this empire, which was founded
mainly by conquest, comprised more than SOCK) square miles and more
than 150 towns. See Beverly, 11., History of Virginia (1855), p. 135;
Strachey, W., The Historic and Travaile into Virginia Britannia, Hakluyt
Society Publications (London, 1849), p. 63.
154. See Lips, J. E., "Kamerun," which also contains reference to further litera-
ture on this subject.
155. Gutmann, B., Das Rccht der Dschagga (Munich, 1926), p. 462.
156. Krafft, M., "Die Rechtsverhaltnisse der Ovakuanjama und der Ovan-
donga," Mitteilungcn ans den dcntschen Schutzgcbietcn, vol. 27 (1914),
pp. 17-35.
157. Consten, H., Weideplatze der Mongolcn (Berlin, 1920), vol. 2, p. 108?
158. See Paulitschke, P., Ethnographic Nordostafrikos, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1893,
189f>); Nigmann, K., Die IVahehe (Berlin, 1908); Karutz, 11., Unter
Kirgisen und Turkniencn (Leipzig, 1911).

159. Lips, J. E., "Etlvnopolitics and the Indians," Commonweal, March 15,
1935.
160. Struempell, K., "Die Gesehichte Adamauas nach miindlichen Uberlic-
ferungen," Mitteihingcn der Ceographixchen Cesellschaft in Hamburg,
vol. 26, Book I (Hamburg, 1912), pp. 52 ff.
161. Passarge, S., Adamaua, Bericht iiber die Expedition des Dentschen Kamerun-
Komitccs in den Jahren 1893-94 (Berlin, 1895), p. 490.
162. Sec also the procedure in the finding of a thief. Passarge, S., op. cit., p. 96;
Nachtigal, G., Sahara und Sudan (Berlin, 1879-89), vol. 2, p. 748.
163. The hangman's position is quite exalted. At the court and among the
people he often occupies a position similar to that of the court jester.

See also Passarge, S., op. cit., p. 278.
164. Bieber, F. J., Ka/a, vol. 2 (1923), pp. 1144ff.
165. Lips, J. E., Thomas Hobbes. Appendix, Behemoth oder das Lange Parla-
'
went (Leipzig, 1927), pp. 186 IF.; also Frobenius, L., Und Afrika Sprach
(Berlin, 1914), vol. 3, pp. 146 ff.
166. Swanton, J. R., The Indian Tribeft of the Lower Mississippi and Adjacent
Coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, Bulletin of the Bureau of American Eth-
nology, no. 43 (1911).
167. Lips, J. E., Einleitung in die vcrgleichendc Volkcrkunde, pp. 32 ff.
168. Schultz-Ewerth, E., "Samoa," Das Eingeborenenrccht (Stuttgart, 1930),
vol. 2, p. 704.
169. Lowie, R. IL, Primitive Society, pp. 362 ff.
170. Mead, M., Social Organization of Manu'a (Honolulu, 1930), p. 169.
171. Brown, G., Mclanesians and Polynesians (London, 1910), p. 290; Stair,
J. B., Old Samoa (London, 1897), p. 96.
172. Schultz-Ewerth, E., op. cit., p. 710.
173. Hogbin, H. I., op. cit., pp. 274 ff.
174. Kramer, A., Hawaii, Ostmikronesien und Samoa (Stuttgart, 1906), p. 106,
175. Polack, J. S., New Zealand (London, 1838), vol. 2, pp. 70, 252 ff.
176. Lehmiami, R., Die polynesischen Tabusitten (Leipzig, 1930), pp. 192 ff.
177. Best/E., The Maori (Wellington, 1924), vol. 1, p. 390; Firth, R., Primitive
Economics of the New Zealand Maori (London, 1929), p. 248.
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Lowie, H. Primitive Society (1920).
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1931-33).
Das Eingeborencnrecht. Sitten und Gewohnheitsrechte der Eingeborenen der ehema-
ligen deiitschen Kolonien in Afrika und in der Sudsee, edited by E. Schultz-
Ewerth and L. Adam, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1929-30).
Zeitschrift fur verglcichende Eechtswissenschaft (Berlin).

CHAPTER XI
ART
RUTH BUNZEL,
Antiquity and universality of art. In the caves of the Aurignacian

period of the Old Stone Age, associated with the bones of animals
long extinct and with human remains and tools of primitive types,
are found bits of shell and stone worked into beads and pendants
with which early man adorned himself. At about the same period
we find the beginnings of the extraordinary school of realistic paint-
ing of animals which is so eloquent a witness of early man's esthetic
sense. Before man learned to ensure his food supply by the cultiva-
tion of plants, or to lighten his labors by domesticating animals to
his use, long before he had stumbled upon simple inventions like
the wheel, or primitive industries like pottery, he had developed a
pictorial art so perfect in style that the modern painter stands in
wonder before his creations. Here is the pageant of the ancient
forest,teeming with game, from which man drew his sustenance,
and to which he reacted emotionally with great vigor. Concerning
the "purpose" of these paintings, placed in the deep recesses of
caves where daylight never penetrated, there have been many the-
ories.We may speculate endlessly concerning their possible religious
or magical significance, and nothing can be proved or disproved.
But whatever may have been the connection of these paintings with
religious cults or private magic, they still display stylistic features
in the treatment of animal figures that mark them as belonging to
a highly sophisticated art form. We know nothing about our earliest
ancestors' conceptions of the supernatural, but of their sense of form
and ideas of perspective we know a great deal.
Just as the antiquity of art proves it to be a basic form of human
behavior, so also does its universality among the living races of
man. Among all existing groups there is none, however rude its
culture, that does not have some characteristic form of art. The
Andamanese, who have been described as not knowing the art of
kindling fire, decorate their bodies with elaborate painted designs
535
and wear ornamental headbands, girdles, necklaces, bracelets, and
anklets on their otherwise naked bodies. And no people, however
harassed by economic need, without some form of literary art.
is
All peoples tell tales,presumably for the pleasure of telling them;

all peoples sing songs and dance; and all peoples have more or less
elaborate patterns of behavior for public performances. All these

activities, besides serving their purpose in the economic or social
life of the group, give pleasure by their intrinsic qualities. Wherever
these inherent values have been enhanced by formal elaboration we
may speak of art.
Ksihctic emotion. Most definitions of art presuppose the existence
in man of an esthetic emotion which can be evoked by qualities
inherent in objects or activities. Esthetic emotion differs from other
forms of pleasure in being a direct response to the object, unrelated
in any way that we can see to biological satisfactions. Therefore,
the kind of pleasure which may be evoked by a song differs from
such pleasures as those of satisfied hunger or thirst or appeased sexual
desire or repose after exertion. These things restore the normal
equilibrium of the body after a state of tension. song, by givingA

pleasure, may serve to mitigate fatigue or provide a channel of re-
lease for the pangs of unappeased hunger. But its ability so to com-
pensate depends entirely on its ability to evoke esthetic emotion.

There are two distinct aspects to esthetic emotion: the pleasure
of creating and the pleasure of contemplating beautiful forms. These
may be quite independent of each other. The Thompson Indians
decorate the sides of their leggings with fringes strung with colored
beads (Fig. 83). The beads are strung in regular patterns, showing
complex rhythmical arrangements. But the design is completely lost
when the garment is worn and the fringes fall together. Even more
striking is the case of the hide boxes and cases of the Sauk and
Fox (Fig. 71 A). The piece of hide from which the box is to be made
is covered with painted patterns, carefully balanced and symmetri-
cally arranged. But the lines of the pattern have no relation to the
structure of the box, with the result that when the box is cut and
folded, the original cohesion of the pattern is completely lost (Fig.
7 IB). Part of the original pattern is cut away, and the rest broken
up by the folding, so that on certain faces only fragments irregularly
joined appear. In these cases the artist was certainly more concerned
with the creative process than with the visual effect of the finished
article.
ART 53?
The same tendency may be illustrated in the field of primitive

literature. Animportant feature of the rituals of the Zuni Indians
is the recitation of prayers in elaborate poetic form. The
rhythm,
the grammatical structure, the use of metaphor, and the general
form into which ideas are cast are all highly characteristic. In a few
Rawhide box, Sank and

Fig. 71.
Fox Indians (after Hoas).
A. Painted pattern.
B. Folded to form box.
cases these chants are loudly declaimed, but the usual method of
delivery is to speak them very rapidly and in a low voice so that

bystanders may riot hear them. The elaborate literary pattern is
preserved for the pleasure of the performer alone.
The quality that is able to evoke this feeling of esthetic pleasure
is variously called "the beautiful," "significant form/' etc. A term
like "the beautiful" has the disadvantage of implying the existence
of absolute standards of beauty and evaluation in terms of such
standards. A
glance at the varying canons of beauty in different
ages and among different peoples shows the impossibility of assum-
ing the existence of any such absolutes. The mutilations of the
human body in the name of beauty have always been striking.
The Cretans cultivated wasp waists for men and women thousands
of years ago, and the ancient Egyptians shaved their heads and
wore wigs. The Kwakiutl Indians deform the heads of babies; the
Chinese women bind their feet. Australian aborigines cover their
bodies with raised scars; certain African tribes file their teeth to
points. So also with the objects on which men lavish their skill and
taste. The ancient Aztecs undoubtedly found the most massive
statues of their gods beautiful, although we should find it very
difficult to agree. It seems quite unnecessary to multiply instances
of standards of beauty which differ from our own; the absence of
absolute criteria in the realm of art has so long been recognized that
it is almost banal to point out again that concerning taste there can
be no argument. But, although not all peoples like the same thing,
within* any given group practically all individuals like the same
thing in art just as they do in morals. This standardization of taste
isa cultural phenomenon as striking as standardization in forms of
marriage, and presents a problem for investigation to which we
shall return later.
Among primitive peoples the production of objects solely to gratify

esthetic impulse isalthough not wholly lacking. The Eskimo
rare,
and the Koryak of Siberia make many "useless" carvings in bone
and ivory. Much of the wood-carving of Africa also is without other
purpose than its own beauty, and probably much of the ancient
1
Peruvian pottery. The manufacture of various small articles mis-

leadingly called "toys," but which arc not intended for children's
amusement, is one of the most important folk arts of Mexico. One
might quote other examples. But it is nevertheless true that the
greater part of the art of primitive man is applied to useful objects.
And usually the maker or user evaluates the object in terms of its
two functions, giving greater weight to usefulness. "Pretty but not
strong," was the criticism of a famous Hopi potter in discarding a
very handsome pot which a collector had selected for purchase.
However, ornamentation sometimes runs away with utility, and
produces utensils that are more ornamental than useful pots like
those beautiful black ones of the pueblo of San Ildefonso which will
not hold water, axes like those of the Cook archipelago that were
never intended to hew wood, and the diminutive baskets of the
Californian and Mexican Indians. These objects correspond to the
bric-a-brac of the age just past.
Usefulness may rule in other arts besides decoration. Song is
frequently, but not always, incantation or is otherwise useful.

ART 539
Ritual is almost always directed toward some practical end. Litera-

ture seems to be the art that, among primitive peoples, is most
completely independent of practical purposes. The proportion
of
primitive tales that are neither informative nor edifying, even from
the point of view of the tellers, is indeed striking.
The decorative arts. Among all peoples are found some examples of
plastic art, some objects which have been subjected to elaboration

of form in response to the esthetic impulse. Almost any object of
daily use maybe singled out for artistic elaboration. Utensils of
wood, stone, clay, or fibers; habitations; clothing; objects intended
for religious use, such as fetishes, masks, altars; and the human
body itself have all, each in its time and place, been selected as
suitable for artistic embellishment. The different groups of nmnkind
chose one or another field for exploitation. One tribe makes highly
decorative pottery and only the simplest of baskets, while their
neighbors decorate their baskets and leave their pots plain and
crude, while still another group lavishes all its skill on the orna-
mentation of the body. In the artistic products of the Indians of

Middle and North America, for example, great diversity of expression
may be noted. The tribes of the highlands of Guatemala restrict
their artistic interest to clothing, in which they exhibit skill and
taste. Each village has its distinctive costume, hand woven in
elaborate and tasteful patterns, and great importance is attached to
the making and wearing of these beautiful garments. Houses and
house furnishings and utensils, on the other hand, are simple serv-
iceable objects. The earthenware vessels used for food are factory-
made in one or two villages and traded over the region. They are
adequate in technique and attractive in design but, although hand-
made, possess no more individuality than modern American alumi-
num kitchenware. Both have forms which happen to be pleasing,
but neither has any esthetic value to the persons who make or use
them. A few miles further north, in Mexico, the aborigines, with a
few notable exceptions, especially in southern Mexico, have no
esthetic interest in clothing, accepting the factory-made uniforms
that meet the requirements of decency imposed by the ruling classes.
Here also architecture is neglected, in spite of the splendid archi-
tectural tradition. But imagination and taste are given scope in
household utensils and toys. Here, too, villages are specialized; from
one village come lacquered gourd bowls and boxes; from another
fine, brightly colored baskets; from another, decorated earthenware;
and from others the so-called toys that were never meant for chil-
dren's play. Due
to active trade, these find their way about the
country and are treasured possessions in many huts far from their
place of origin. Among the Pueblo Indians further to the north,
architecture, religious appurtenances, and, until recently, clothing
were highly artistic while household utensils, with the exception of
earthen water jars, remained plain and crude and strictly practical.
Their nomadic neighbors have no artistic architecture but find
adequate expression in clothing and ornaments, and in religious paint-
ings of colored earths. The Indians of the Plains had a highly char-
acteristic architectural form, the painted tipi, and elaborate clothing.
California was artistically the most highly specialized area, having
no art* works other than baskets. The Indians of the Northwest
Coast displayed little artistic interest in clothing but constructed
houses, boats, utensils, and religious paraphernalia of the highest
artistic excellence. Wemight multiply indefinitely the list of the
artistic products of primitiveman to demonstrate that not only do
techniques vary from place to place, which is obvious to anyone
who has visited a museum, but that different fields of esthetic in-
terest are developed in different cultural groups. Not only do some
people make pots and others baskets to solve the same problem, but
among two tribes, both making pots, one may have a ceramic art
and the other may not. Like the Navajo, they may make pots when
necessary, but use basketry in preference as a medium for plastic
expression. However, when we say that one group has a ceramic art
and the other has none, we are not presuming to evaluate the re-
spective products in terms of fixed standards, but are merely pointing
out the varying fields of esthetic interest.
Problems of form. The character of any work of art depends upon
many factors: the nature of the material from which it is made, the
technical processes involved in the handling of the material and the
skill achieved in these processes, the use if any for which the ar-
ticle is designed, the traditional standards of taste, and the per-
sonality and vision of the maker. An artistic conception must be
expressed through a medium, and in all art, whether sophisticated
easel painting or the most primitive mat plaiting, there exists a
more or less close interaction between the material and the concep-
tual factors which determine the character of the product. Even in
those cases where the artistic conception precedes the search for a
suitable medium, the artist, in the realization of his conception,
ART 541
starts with the unformed material, and the nature of this material
will exert its influence on the conception.
Consideration of materials cannot be divorced from a considera-
tion of the various technical processes to which substances lend
themselves. In order to produce a beautiful object, the artist must
know his material and the process of working it. Regularity of form
is prized everywhere, and regularity always depends upon complete
control of the technique. Wherever an industry develops until great

technical skill is attained, artisans delight in their skill and use it to
produce unnecessary refinements. The development of stone-chipping

in prehistoric times, for which
we have incontestable historic se-
quences, illustrates this process
(see page 158). Beginning with
the crudest forms, the skill of
the craftsman improved in the
course of time, until finally he
was playing with his technique,
exhibiting his skill for its own

sake. Many of the refinements in
wood-carving, weaving, and other

crafts of later ages were devel-
oped, in all probability, by simi-
lar processes. The expert weaver
Fig. 72. Coiled clay water jar, Pre-
experiments with fancy weaves;
historic Pueblo (after Holmes).
the expert potter with various
technical possibilities. Among the Pueblo Indians pottery is built
up by adding coils of clay to a cuplike base. Ordinarily these coils

are an inch or more in diameter, and after having been added to the
base they are smoothed over with a scraper and the walls of the ves-
sel are gradually shaped and thinned. At one period in prehistoric
times the virtuoso potters, instead of using thick coils of clay, worked
the clay into thin ribbons, less than half an inch broad, and built up
their vessels by winding these ribbons in continuous spirals, leav-
ing the overlapping edges unsmoothed (Fig. 72). Considering the

plastic nature of the material and the fact that no shaping tool
could touch those delicately fluted surfaces, these vessels must be
acknowledged as unsurpassed achievements in ceramic technique.
The characteristic forms and texture of this type of pottery could
be developed only by .potters of great skill who understood thor-
oughly the nature of the material with which they were working and
could exploit to the full its plastic quality.
As we go on to consider in somewhat greater detail various ma-
terials and techniques employed by primitive peoples, become
it will
increasingly apparent that each material has its own character and
presents its own problems of form. Stone must be handled dif-
ferently from clay; therefore, although clay after firing bears a
superficial resemblance to stone, the forms developed in clay must
necessarily be essentially different from those developed in stone.
Considered from the point of view of the technical problems
which they present, there are three types of materials: solid ma-
terials such as stone, wood, bone, shell, ivory; plastic materials
such as clay and metals; and flexible fibers, such as sinews and
vegetable fibers.
Stone can be handled in three ways: by chipping or flaking; by

battering and grinding; and by hewing. Flaking utilizes the property
of certain classes of rocks to fracture in smooth surfaces when
struck; battering and grinding wears away the material; hewing
breaks it away by means of a cutting tool. In all, the essential
technical problem is the same: the development of the desired form
by reduction from the original mass of raw material. Stone archi-
tecture, which is a construction of separate parts, is in reality no
exception to this, since the separate parts have been carved out of
larger blocks and retain the massiveness of the material in its original
state. This is one of the factors which contribute to make a stone
building differ esthetically as well as technically from a building of

steel construction.
The Japanese have an art of arranging stones in lacquer trays as
household ornaments. In these arrangements stones are selected for
their natural form and texture, which must be preserved unaltered
because there is an esthetic appreciation of the essential qualities of
stone, its ruggedness and permanence. The general tendency in stone

sculpture is to retain some suggestion of the form of the original
block.
Of the three ways of handling stone, flaking was the first to be
used, and the very earliest works of art preserved for modern eyes,
as well as the earliest artifacts, are chipped flints. The earliest of
these were crude and clumsy; but as skill slowly developed, forma
became more delicate andPresumably the early tool-makers
varied.
discovered that regular chipping gave a pleasing texture to the
ART 543
surface, so that with the advance of skill more attention was given
to the surface as well as to the cutting edge of the implement. By
the middle of the Old Stone Age in Europe stone-chipping had be-
come an art as well as a useful industry. The material was carefully
selected for color, translucence, and luster, and the distinctively
colored product of famous French mines was traded far and wide
over Europe. The stone was then worked with infinite care into
delicate and symmetrical forms. The minute jewellike points and
thin lustrous blades of Solutrean and later deposits answer to more
than a practical need. They should be examined with respect as the
earliest works of art that have been preserved to us.
In Neolithic times, with the development of new techniques such
as pottery and weaving, stone began to decline in importance as an
artistic medium, and in the Old World did not again become impor-
tant until the development of metal tools facilitated stone archi-
tecture and sculpture.
Among contemporary primitive peoples stone work is not one
of the more important artistic techniques. There are isolated ex-
amples of stone used decoratively the slate dishes of the Indians
of the North Pacific coast carved out of soft stone by the technique
of wood-carving; figures of animals made by flaking out of obsidian
by the Alaskan Eskimo; dishes and mortars pecked out of rough
stone; ornamental stone axes from Polynesia; occasional stone
figures from many places; monumental figures from Easter Island;
Pueblo Indian stone architecture. However, highly developed art in
stone belongs to the past of the human race. And in the past the
greatest artists in stone of any primitive people (the Egyptians and

Oriental peoples were not, according to our arbitrary definition,
"primitive") were the Indians of Middle America. The temples and
sculptures of theMayas are among the greatest works in stone of
any age. The Aztecs, although they produced some great architecture
and sculptures, never equaled their neighbors and predecessors. The
abandoned cities of the Mayas, of which the most famous are Chi-
chen Itz and Uxmal in Yucatan, and Copan, Palenque, Tikal, and
Quirigua in the lowlands of Guatemala, comprise many-chambered
palaces and temples, some of them placed on lofty pyramids. The
buildings of white limestone are all of noble proportions, massively
built with thick walls and characteristic "vaulting," and are elab-
orately decorated inside and out with relief sculpture and painting.
There are also sculptured monuments covered with hieroglyphic
PL. IV. Top. CASA DE LAS MONJAS CHICKEN ITZA,-MAYA (after Tot ten).
MAYA RELIEF CARVING (after Totten).
Bottom.
PL. V. HEAD OF A MAIZE GODDESS, COPAN, HONDURAS
Courtesy of the Peabody Museum, Cambridge.
2
inscriptions (PL IV). The Chac-Mul, a votive figure from Chichen
ItzA, the
is most famous of their sculptures in the round, and com-
pares favorably with the best sculpture of the Old World. Both the
Mayas and the Aztecs made many exquisite small sculptures in
crystal, jade, obsidian, and alabaster.
The
general problem working wood is similar to that of stone:
in
the reduction of the raw block to the required form. Wood is always
carved with a cutting tool, except for the inside of large hollow ves-
sels, where the labor of hollowing out may be facilitated by burning.
The finished surface may be polished by friction. Wood is at the
same time a more limited and a more elastic material than stone.
Blocks of stone may be had in any conceivable size and shape; the
form and size of pieces of wood are necessarily limited to the dimen-
sions of the trees from which the blocks come. However, wood,
being softer and easier to handle than stone, is susceptible of greater

variety of treatment. Wood is durable and has certain intrinsic
qualities as material which can be developed in the process of work-
ing it. The natural grain of the wood may be brought out by stains
or polishes; the tooling may be developed decoratively as in the
chipping of stone. And the formal possibilities of wood are almost
unlimited. As we shall see, it is the most versatile of all the materials
used by primitive man.
Since wood is more perishable than stone, we have no wooden
implements of an antiquity equal to that of the earliest artifacts of
stone. On the other hand, in contrast to stone work, wood-carving
is one of the most highly developed and widespread of primitive
arts today. Almost everywhere, wherever wood is found, it is utilized

for artistic purposes. Even the Eskimo, inhabiting a treeless region,
occasionally make ornamental carvings of driftwood. The highest

development of wood-carving is found in equatorial Africa, especi-
ally in the Congo and the west coast regions; in Oceania, in particular
New Zealand, and on the North Pacific coast of America.
In Africa, carving in the round is the favorite way of handling
wood. Even musical instruments, drums or stringed instruments, are
carved in the semblance of human or animal forms. From the Congo
come the famous masks and human figures, magnificently carved of
3
hard, fine-textured wood, and highly polished (PI. VI and Fig. 73) Re- .
liefcarving is of secondary importance here and, except for certain

masks, there is almost no use of applied color. On the western coast
)f North America, however, carving in the round is used on masks,
PL*. VI. AFRICAN NEGRO MASK, DAN IVORY COAST
(after Kjersmeier).
house posts, vessels, and implements (Fig. 74). Besides this the
technique of low relief on flat surfaces, with applied colors, is much

4
used. In Oceania the characteristic types of carving are relief and
open work in delicate patterns. These three areas illustrate the
enormous range of technical possibilities in wood. We have yet to
consider the even greater range of possibilities in design.
Ivory, bone, and shell appear sporadically as artistic material.
Bone ornaments and decorated tools are found in early prehistoric
deposits. The use of bone for body ornaments has shown a re-
markable tenacity. The use of 'animal teeth
and claws for the same purpose is wide-
spread. Necklaces of claws and teeth are
the mfbst common ornaments. The carved
Fig. 73. Wooden mask, Urua, Congo Fig. 74. Carved house post,
(after Boas). Haida (after Swanton).
ART 549
elephant tusks of Benin show elaborate relief carving on ivory; the

Eskimo sculptures in walrus ivory show similar material differently
handled. Shell is used for bodily adornment. Strings of shell disks
Fig. 75.
A. Canoe prow, New Zealand

B. Canoe prow, Dutch New Guinea
are used as ornaments and, in widely separated parts of the

globe,
as a medium of exchange. Its use in this capacity is
probably due
to the fact that it is valuable as an ornament,
practically indestruc-
tible, and easily transported. Carved shell gorgets were extensively
used in America.
Clay is the most important plastic material. Pottery is a very an-
cient industry; although not so ancient as work in stone and wood.
Plastic earths abound in all parts of the world, but the development
of ceramic industry depended upon the discovery of two properties
of clay: its plasticity when moist, and its hardness and resistance
to water and fire after exposure to intense heat. Clay in its plastic
state is an amorphous mass which invites the artist to experiment
in variety and subtlety of form (Fig. 76). The smooth surfaces
which may be developed lend themselves readily to decoration in
applied color. Since the essential quality of clay is its plasticity,
characteristic ceramic forms are
light and graceful, with delicate

curves that suggest the mobility
of the* material which has been
arrested in flux. Clay vessels will
therefore always have a character
ivhich is entirely different from the
Fig. 76. Prehistoric clay bowl, Arkansas Fig. 77. Terra cotta head, Yoruba,
(after Holmes). Africa (after Boas).
massive heaviness that is appropriate in hard stone. In some

places primitive people have developed sculpture in clay; an ex-
ample of clay sculpture from Africa is shown in Figure 77. But, for
the most part, clay is used for household utensils, principally cook-
ing pots and containers for food and water. In Europe, northern
and Asia the invention of the
Africa, potter's wheel introduced new
and more adaptable methods.
Clay is one of the most versatile of materials, but since most
clay objects are designed for use, considerations of strength, light-
ness, and appropriateness have resulted in a remarkable conserva-
tism in formal treatment. In general, simple forms predominate.
ART 551
The decoration of pottery may be either plastic or pictorial. Plastic

ornament consists of flutings, indentations, corrugations, and inci-
sion of the material, the addition of pellets or threads of clay, and
modeling in the round of handles, rims, and sometimes whole vessels
(Fig. 78). But the most common
ornamental device in ceramics is
painting. Painting is often used in
connection with one or more of
the plastic techniques. Glazing by
Fig. 78. Modeled clay vessels.

A. Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico (after Holmes).
B. Costa Rica (after MacCurdy).
covering the product with a vitreous coating, sometimes of con-

trasting color, is a late invention. It gives added interest to the sur-
face texture.
Aside from the purely technical problems of selection and handling
of materials, ceramic industry presents special artistic problems.
When the material has once lost its original plasticity no changes or
corrections are possible; therefore, where pottery is built up by
hand, the form must be clearly visualized from the start. Also the
types of vessels usually made present certain problems of decoration,
such as that of a decorative field which is continuous, but which
does not all lie within the field of vision at one time. This factor,
in addition to demanding a high degree of skill in modeling and
painting, has influenced the choice of decorative material and the
style of arrangement. The easiest solution to the problem of the
continuous surface, that of decoration in horizontal bands repeating
small units, has developed wherever painted pottery is found.
According to the archaeological record, pottery first appeared in
Europe in the Neolithic period and has developed continuously
since that time. At the present time there are large areas of the
globe where pottery was never developed; others where it has been
displaced by basketry, wood work,
or other techniques; and others
where it has remained in crude stages of development. None of the
primitive pottery of the present day equals the best products of the
past, either in technical resourcefulness or formal development. The
pottery of ancient Peru, which is unsurpassed among the primitive
pottery of the world, exhibits the highest degree of technical excel-
lence coupled with lively perception and imaginative sense of form.
The portrait jars, possibly mortuary pottery, are among the choicest
portrait sculpture of any 'period or in any technique (PI. VII). The
5
painted beakers and bowls are also of outstanding excellence.
Met&ls made their appearance as part of man's equipment late in
human history, and their use among primitive people of the present
is confined to very few groups. The working of metals requires con-
siderable scientific knowledge, skill, and the development of delicate
tools. An early use of metals was for ornaments. After the art of
melting metals had been invented and their plasticity in heated

state had been discovered, they were found to possess the plastic
quality of clay in a still greater degree, combined with greater tensile
strength. Metal is therefore a suitable medium for the most delicate

and intricate designs, such as could never be worked out in clay.
The metal work of Europe in the Bronze Age reached a high
excellence. Outside of Europe the most striking use of metal by a
primitive people was the bronze-casting of Benin in West Africa.

Gold, silver, copper, and bronze were used with skill and excellent
esthetic effect in Peru, and gold and copper were used in Central
America, but most of this art was destroyed by the Conquerors.
Since textiles are highly destructible, we have no idea at what
period in human history they were first developed, but the almost
universal distribution of basketry leads to the inference of great
antiquity. Baskets arc made almost everywhere where suitable
materials can be found, and there are almost no regions completely
devoid of suitable vegetation.
The most important being matting or
textile arts are various, the
plaiting, basketry,and weaving of spun fibers. In all these types of

technique the artist has to work with little strips or fibers out of
which he must gradually build the finished form of which the raw
material contains no suggestion. But whereas the form is not sug-
gested in the material, both form and ornament are largely deter-
PL. VII. CLAY EFFIGY VESSEL, CHICAMA, PERU (af.ter Lehmann).
mined by the process of construction. Plaiting and weaving result in
flat flexible forms. The same materials that
may be plaited into
mats may produce firm baskets of varying forms when tightly twined
or coiled. In all textile arts, with the exception of embroidery,
which is rare primitive peoples, ornament is an integral part
among
of structure andbuilt into the material instead of being applied
is
to it later as in pottery. This has certain far-reaching effects on the

character of all textile design. In the first place textile art, more
than any other, is dependent on a high degree of technical skill.
All the checkerboard, diapered, diagonal, and zigzag patterns are

texture patterns in which one error or a slight unevenncss in texture
muddles the whole design. Children can paint pleasing designs;
wood-oar vers with inadequate technical equipment can produce
carving which, despite its crudity, shows a vigorous and esthetically
valuable conception; but an inept weaver who makes errors in count-
ing gets no pattern at all. Moreover, since the decorative pattern is
built into the object as it is constructed, the whole decorative scheme

must be visualized in relation to a form which does not yet exist,
and must be planned to fit it. To do this without a pattern, as is
done by most primitive weavers, requires great clarity of conception
as well as skill in composition and analysis. The intimate relation
between design and structure in the textile arts has influenced the
types of ornament developed. There is a great development of all
kinds of patterns that arise out of the weaving process, such as
and broken checks, diamonds, diagonals, herringbone
stripes, simple
and diaper patterns, all types of simple angular ornament, and the
use of color contrast. Since curves cannot be rendered but only
approximated in the finest woven cloths, all designs must be angular
and representations must be conventionalized to conform to this
technical requirement. Hence textile ornament is much less free
than that of pottery or sculpture. The primitive people who went
furthest in overcoming these obstacles were the ancient Peruvians,
whose tapestries display a wealth of representative ornament. And
in this region the same type of conventionalization which was de-
veloped in tapestries, where it was made necessary by the require-

ments of weaving, appears also in pottery. Its use here was probably
a result of the transfer of patterns developed in weaving to pottery.
Matting, though by no means confined to the tropics, seems to
flourish best in warm climates where suitable materials abound.
Owing to the relative coarseness of the materials, only simple geo-
ART 555
Fig. 79. Primitive basketry.

1. Philippine, Hupa, 4. Barotsi, 5. Maidu, 6. San Carlos Apache,
2. Tlingit, 3.
7. Barotsi. (Collections, American Museum of Natural History)
metric patterns are available. Matting depends for beauty on even-

ness and fineness of texture. Occasionally color is introduced in
simple stripes and diagonals. Fine mats are made in certain parts of
Mexico and throughout Polynesia, where they are highly valued.
The materials out of which baskets are made are as varied as the
geography of the regions from which they come, and the forms of
baskets are almost as varied as the materials. Always the primary
considerations in basket-making are strength and regularity of con-
struction. Ornament is always secondary. Basketry has reached its
6
highest development in California, where it is the only well-devel-
oped art practiced. Here baskets are used alike for storage, cooking,
carrying water, for soup bowls, and for hats. For curiosities and as
a proof of skill expert basket-makers make little round baskets,
smaller than peas and ornamented with beads or feathers. Diminutive
baskets are made in Mexico also. The cooking baskets of the Hupa,
which are woven closely enough to be water-tight and are sufficiently
heat-resistant to permit the boiling of water by red-hot stones, are
among the most remarkable baskets made anywhere. The more
ornamental baskets of the same tribe show the same technical ex-
cellence coupled with tasteful decoration. The shallow baskets of
Fig. 80. Poncho, Titicaca, Peru (after
the more southerly tribes of the same region (the Porno and others),
although coarser in texture, show great smoothness and regularity
and great skill and originality in the handling of the radiating de-
signs.
The weaving of cloth involves more technical knowledge and
more elaborate tools than matting or basketry. The fibers must first
be spun and then placed in some kind of frame. However, fine
B
PLATE VIII (after Boas).
A, B. African pile cloths, Congo.

C. Carved wooden bowl, Bambala, Congo.
cloths can be woven on very crude looms, as is proved by the ancient
Peruvian tapestries and the modern figured cloths from Guatemala,
all of which were woven on simple portable looms, and the Chilkat
blankets woven on a loom consisting of a single horizontal bar be-

tween two uprights 7 (Fig. 80).
Although the technical problems in weaving are enormous, the
esthetic problem is a relatively simple one: that of the treatment of
a flat surface. The problem of ornamentation of a piece of cloth is
much simpler than that of the design of a basket. But cloth, being
made of finer materials than baskets, affords greater scope for the
development of elaborate ornamentation.
These are some of the more important materials and techniques
of primitive art. In discussing them we have not tried to give an
account of primitive industry, but merely to suggest the lines of
interrelationship between technique and form. Given a similar prac-
tical problem, say the creation of a receptacle for food, the form and
esthetic character of the vessel will be different according to whether
it is made of stone, wood, clay, basketry, or other material. Further-
rise to ornamental forms, of
more, certain technical processes give
which we have already mentioned outstanding examples. But orna-
mental forms that arise almost spontaneously in one medium fre-
quently migrate to another, where they take on a new interest in
the unusual setting. The carving of the Bambala, a Congo tribe,
is a striking example of textile patterns applied to wood-carving
(PI. VIII). The Chilkat blanket of the Tlingit Indians is one of the
rarer cases where designs developed in wood-carving and painting
have been transferred to weaving. This latter is no hypothetical
case, since the history of the Chilkat blanket clearly demonstrates
the origin of the patterns (Fig. 81).
One further caution is necessary. It is not to be inferred that,
because material influences form, there is such a thing as a "ceramic
style" or a "textile style" of ornament. Certain materials lend
themselves more readily to certain types of treatment than others.
But the most striking and successful art is frequently that which
handles the material in a completely unconventional way, even
denying its nature.
General formal principles. So far we have been concerned princi-
pally with the role of technical factors in decorative expression.
There are also certain purely formal principles that dominate all
works of art, whether they be music, poetry, dance, or decoration:
ART 559
namely, unity, rhythm, symmetry, and balance. The first principle
in art in any medium is delimitation. The work of art must be an

entity clearly separable from, although not unrelated to, the rest
Fig. 81. Blanket of mountain goat wool, Tlingit, Alaska (after Emmons).
of the universe. In the decorative arts the limits of forms are usually
clearly defined and set considerations of practicality or technique.

by
There is no difficulty for the artist or observer in distinguishing
what is pot from what is not pot. But the problem of delimitation
of form is not always so simple. An easel painting is complete in

itself wherever placed. The same picture painted directly on a wall
Fig. 82, Zuni medicine altar (after Stevenson).

cannot be considered an absolute unit. The artist may frame his
picture to preserve its unity, but, being fixed in space, it is brought
into permanent relations with other things, and these relationships
must be considered. An interesting case of artistic unity is seen in
the arrangement of altars among Pueblo Indians (Fig. 82). Various
sacred objects are set out for veneration in an ordinary dwelling
room. Sometimes the limits of the altar are indicated by a dry
painting in meal or colored earths on the floor, more often not. But
the arrangement is so closely integrated that even if one did not
recognize sacred ness in the character of the objects themselves the
arrangement alone would suffice to mark off the limits of the altar
from the rest of the world. 8
The principle of delimitation holds for literary arts as well. In
songs it is obvious; a song has a definite beginning and end in time.
One never in doubt as to what is song and what is not. A song
is
may be fixed in a cycle or embedded in ritual, and in that case its

form must be considered in relation to its antecedents and sequels.
Tales, which utilize the language and intonations of everyday
speech, present a special problem in delimitation; it is solved by many
primitive peoples by the use of formal opening arid closing phrases.
Sometimes, as in Zuni folk tales, these phrases are meaningless
syllables whose only purpose is to mark the boundaries of the liter-
ary form. Everything inclosed within these brackets is an artistic

unit.
Rhythm the regular repetition of similar units. The pleasure

is
derived from rhythm probably has a physiological basis. Regular

motion is in harmony with physiological processes. The fundamental
decorative rhythm, the repetition of a single unit, corresponding to
the regular pulsation in music, is frequently based upon regularity
of bodily movements. Examples of simple rhythms that arise directly
from bodily movements are the regular series of chippings in stone
or adzing in wood, the even stitches in basketry, regular flutings
and indentations in pottery. The simple banded designs that pre-
dominate in the pottery of all ages and places are but one step re-
moved from the basic rhythms of the craft. Holding the brush in
one hand, the potter makes simple marks at regular intervals as the
pot is slowly revolved with the other hand. Alternating rhythms are
also basic and even more closely related to physiological processes.
The contraction and expansion of the lungs and the left-right alter-
nation in walking are some of the more apparent physiological mani-
ART 561
festations of alternating rhythm. It is the alternation of stressed and

unstressed beats that underlies all rhythmic development in music,
poetry, and dancing. Indeed, even the simple repetition of a single
unit is really an alternation since there is always something, if only
a point of rest, between the two units. In weaving, alternation is
inherent in the technique; the simplest finished web always displays
double rhythms, up and down stitches alternating horizontally and
vertically. There is also a regular diagonal rhythm, which may be
emphasized in twilling. In painting and carving, the fret and the ser-
pentine line constitute the simplest alternating designs. More complex

arrangements of three or more units, especially the type in which one
unit alternates successively with several others, the a b a c a d . . .
type, is probably based on the pleasure experienced in encounter-

ing the familiar after variety. The great popularity of songs with
burdens and all developments of the rondo form in music is perhaps
due to this. Highly complex rhythms in decoration are usually re-
stricted to techniques employing many different colors, such as weav-
ing, bead work, and embroidery, the colors being used to ring changes
on one or two forms. Complexity of rhythm in a relatively simple
art, that of bead-stringing, is
illustrated in the fringed leg-
gings of the Thompson Indians

9
(Fig. 83), already referred to.
There a primary alternation
is
of plain and beaded strands in

f
groups of five ab a! ba/aba ba/ y
a and a' being the two beaded

strands which differ from each
other in the arrangement of
the beads. The fringes fall to-
gether when the garment is
worn, and the rhythm is lost,
only the balance in the dis-
tribution of color being evi-
dent The enormously complex
rhythms of Peruvian tapes-
pig g3 Fringe from legging>
Indians (after Boas),
^
trieshave been analyzed by
Boas. 10
The Peruvians used up to nine colors in their weaving,
and since the technique was tapestry-weaving, they were able to
combine the colors at will, ringing all the changes in design and
background. A most fascinating example is a cloak of nine colors
from lea, covered all over with human figures. These are alike in
form but of six types in regard to color arrangement. The figures
are arranged in groups of four, two different series alternating on
the horizontal lines, but so placed that simple alternating rhythms
emerge in the diagonals. This cloak can be read from left to right,
from top to bottom, or from corner to corner, and each way new
and interesting rhythms of color emerge.
In some cases great rhythmic complexity may be due to a desire
to distribute colors evenly over the surface with a pleasing balance
of light and dark, while yet avoiding the appearance of rigid pat-
terning. For instance, a string of kindergarten beads of six colors

and five forms is to be assembled that will utilize all varieties in a
balanced distribution while still retaining the appearance of having
been accidentally assembled. The only way in which one can be sure
of giving equal weight to each variety is by a complex system of
permutations regularly repeated. The same problem of studied casual-

ness is familiar in flower arrangements.
Symmetry is the balanced arrangement with reference to one an-
other of the elements within a unit. The most familiar type of sym-
metry isthat represented by the outward form of the human body
in which the parts on both sides of a vertical axis mirror each other.
The two hands are the same in structure, but inverted with reference
to one another. Kadial symmetry appears in lower animals, for in-
stance in the starfish.
Perfectly balanced form is the goal of
all craftsmen. The exacting craftsman
considers beautiful only the pot that
shows no bulges and that exhibits per-
fectsymmetry of line when viewed from
any angle, the basket that does not tip
over, the robe that has straight edges
and true right angles.
All types of symmetry in ornament
have been utilized by primitive peoples,
* type ve,y largely depending upon
Holmes).
t" e * orm * ie
object. Radial symmetry is
common on round objects, particularly on
round basketry (Fig. 84) and on pottery vessels. In these bilateral
symmetry is rarely found, perhaps because of the preponderance of
ART 563
Fig. 85. Designs from ancient pottery bowls, Mimbres Valley, New Mexico
(after Boas).
circular forms and continuous surfaces. In certain

circular forms inverted symmetry may be devel-
oped. In these designs the paired figures are com-
pletely inverted with reference to each other; not
only is what is right in one figure left in the
other, but what one is down in the
is up in
other. The an excellent example of
swastika is
inverted symmetry. In a round field inverted

symmetry always suggests circular motion, and
the patterns are probably developed in motion,
being derived either from border patterns that
move in to occupy the central field, or from ra-
diating patterns that revolve (Fig. 85). Such pat-
terns always have a dynamic quality that marks
them off sharply from the immobility of the bi-
symmetrical design. Inverted
laterally or radially
symmetry rarely applied in the decoration of
is
objects that are not round. One of the most

striking examples is found on Dayak shields
(Fig. 86). Similar forms of inverted symmetry Fig. 86. Wooden
occur in New Guinea. There is a considerable
amount of pottery design which is completely
unsymmetrical, as, for instance, the circular
bowls of the Hopi. 11 The single asymmetrical decorative motive is
placed in one sector of the circular field. But the heavy band that
surrounds the field anchors the design firmly and with it forms a
perfectly balanced composition (Fig.
87).
In weaving, the decorative problem
is the handling of large surfaces, and
balance of color or texture is more im-
portant than symmetry of line. How-
ever, inverted symmetry of the kinds
already spoken of is fairly frequent.
In such cases the rectangular field is
divided into four quarters, the sec-
tions being paired diagonally and
inverted.
Fig. 87. Ancient Pueblo bowl,
Hopi (after Fcwkes).
Rhythm and symmetry
are com-
plementary principles, and symmetry
is the essentially plastic quality. A Peruvian textile is highly sym-
metrical. It has a perfect balance of light and dark masses and

a regular but subtle distribution of color. On analysis this is seen
to be the result of a complex structure of small units. These units,
when viewed successively, present regularly recurring sequences.
Hopi water jars illustrate even more clearly the relation of rhythm
and symmetry in plastic forms. The decoration is applied to the
sloping upper portion. When seen from the side only half of the
decorative field lies within the field of vision
(PI. IX). As the pot is revolved, the designs

appear in regular order in fairly complex se-
quences. However, when viewed from above

the whole field is in sight and the design is
seen to be completely integrated and radially
symmetrical, like patterns appearing in op-
posite sectors (Fig. 88). The potters them-
selves always consider the designs from this
an analytical concept and Fig. 88. Diagram of
angle. Rhythm is
Hopi water jar (after
always implies a time element. It is a derived
Bunzel).
quality, not strictly plastic. It emerges in
the construction and breaking dow n of complex forms; symmetry
r
is a quality inherent in the forms themselves.
Style. We have already referred to the traditional concepts which

mould artistic products. Among all people artistic expression tends
to become set in fixed forms characteristic of particular groups and
special periods. Just as the phonetic system of a language is an
elaboration of a few sounds seemingly arbitrarily chosen from an
infinite number of possible sounds, so decorative style is a develop-
ment of apparently arbitrarily chosen formal characteristics. Just as
speech in order to be intelligible as symbols of thought must operate

with recognized sounds, so also a work of art in order to possess
formal significance must be stylistically oriented. It seems safe to
assume from the conformity revealed by an objective study of the
art of any primitive group that canons of art have much the same
traditional sanction in the minds of the makers as, say, marriage
regulations or grammar. Wherever it has been possible to study the

primitive artist at work, the binding force of tradition is felt. But
whereas adherence to traditional forms in language has always been
taken for granted, and conformity in social behavior is rarely ques-
tioned, the dominance of traditional style in art has always been
rather grudgingly admitted even by the artists themselves. For even
primitive societies have artistic rebels bent on achieving originality.
When examining a collection of contemporary pottery from the
pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona anyone who is at all familiar
with the pottery of the region can immediately identify each piece
with reference to provenience and age. There are certain minor dis-
tinguishing technical characters, such as color and texture of the
paste; but without handling the pots or examining them closely one
can identify them by their form and, with even greater certainty,
by their decorative treatment. With the exception of special treat-
ment in firing at Santa Clara and San Ildefonso, the process of
manufacture is uniform throughout the region, involving the same
materials, tools, and motor habits. Nevertheless a number of highly
differentiated styles have grown up. Historically these can be shown
to have developed by a process of local differentiation from older
types of wider distribution. This variety, therefore, represents a
purely artistic development. Iêt us examine the outstanding features
of some of these types. The six types chosen to illustrate contrasting
styles of ceramic art are all contemporary; they are made in six
villages within a radius of fifty miles, and each type is restricted to
one village, where it appears as the only type made, and shows
12
considerable uniformity (PL IX).
The pottery of the pueblo of Santa Clara is jet black and highly
polished. The forms of the vessels are varied. The most common is
ART 567
the water jar with a small base, a gradually swelling body, and
fairly long neck, with slightly flaring rim. Whatever ornamentation
these jars bear purely plastic, consisting of vertical or spiral flutings,
is
indentations, crimping of edges, modeled handles. Besides the water

jar there are many other forms, including hemispherical bowls, simi-
larlyornamented, and double-spouted jugs.
At San Ildefonso, also, the contemporary type of pottery, which
is of very recent appearance here, is a highly polished black ware.
The forms are simple, shallow bowls predominating. These are deco-
rated with very simple designs in dull black paint. The patterns are
applied in narrow bands to the rims of the vessels. Simple continuous
borders consisting of parallel lines, rows of dots, scallops, or triangles
predominate. The motives are derived for the most part fom the
more complex patterns of the antecedent polychrome pottery. Some
of the designs are of Hopi origin and are now used by Hopi potters,
but with entirely different effect. The
potters consider the greatest
beauty of the pot is its lustrous black surface, and the dull designs
are therefore made inconspicuous and serve chiefly to bring out by
contrast the polished surface. The principal artistic problem is the
handling of surfaces for balance and contrast.
The form of the water jar of Santo Domingo is similar to that of
Santa Clara, the high neck and flaring rim being its most charac-
teristic features in contrast to other types from the pueblo region.
The jar is slipped with red below, white above. On the neck and
upper part of the body is a series of narrow horizontal bands deco-
rated with very simple geometric patterns. The distinguishing feature
of these bands is an effect of negative painting. The background is
painted black; the simple triangular or hexagonal designs remain

white. The designs are small and very simple, both as regards ele-
ments and composition, and they are very regularly applied. The
resulting effect is a black and white patterned surface, almost like
that of a textile. Large bowls are similarly decorated on their outef
rims.
The Hopi water jar is low and widespreading, curving in sharply
above to a small mouth. The polished surface is creamy yellow tinged
with rose. On the almost flat top the designs are painted in brown
and red. The most common arrangement is four panels alternately
paired. Seen from above the patterns are symmetrically arranged
and frequently show duplicating symmetry within each unit. Open
bowls are decorated within with a single unit placed off the center,
touching the rim at one point. The majority of design elements are
highly conventionalized bird forms. Sometimes the head and tail
of the bird are developed, more often the tail only. All the designs
show a great feeling for line, and no interest whatever in the balancing
of masses. Potters always speak of "getting the line of the design."
At Zuni are made
large painted water jars of characteristic form
elaborately ornamented. They are narrow at the base, wider in the
upper portions, sloping in somewhat at the top, to a large mouth.
The lower portion is left unpainted and is reddish brow n in color. r
The middle and upper portions are painted white. The whole of the
white portion is decorated with designs in black with touches of red.
A heavy black line drawn on the curve above the largest portion
divides- the jar into two zones, the narrow neck and the broad body.
The neck is decorated with a paneled band of alternating units,
usually two pairs. The body may be further subdivided into rec-
tangular fields of different proportions. There may be as many as
eight such fields, two upright fields separated on each side by three
horizontal fields of different widths. A design is placed in each field
so created, the same pattern being used consistently throughout the
jar in analogous positions. The designs are named and their usage is
restricted. Most of the patterns themselves are developed from spirals
and a characteristic stepped figure. There are a few representative
forms, notably the deer, birds, and flowers, all somewhat conven-
tionalized. The designs are all executed in outline against a white
background with an avoidance of large masses of color. The decora-

tive problem is seen as a synthesis, a fitting together of distinct units
in accordance with fixed rules to form a balanced arrangement.
Acoma water jars are similar in form to those of Zuni, but very
different in decorative treatment. The decoration covers without
break the whole whitened surface from its lower border to the rim
of the vessel. The prevailing lines of the design are diagonal. The
patterns are, with one exception, geometrical and prevailingly an-

gular. The composition is very complex and the surface is broken
up There is no background, white, black, red and
into small units.
hatching constituting a four-color palette. The decorative

fine line
problem is conceived to be to cover completely a fairly large surface,

meanwhile keeping the composition light and graceful with a sym-
metrical color distribution. In the general relation of form and orna-
ment this style partakes of some of the characteristics of Moorish
arabesque.
ART 569
We have here characterized briefly six pottery types historically

and technically closely related, yet sharply differentiated stylistically
in form, color, and ornamentation. In each case the local style repre-
sents a selection and development of certain decorative ideas. Santa
Clara pottery shows the development of the plastic idea in the ma-
nipulation of clay, with great attention to surface texture. In San
Ildefonso, the surface theme is still more fully developed by the use
of painted ornament for contrast. The ornamental patterns, drawn
from several earlier polychrome wares, have been greatly simplified
to meet the demands of this new interest. At Santo Domingo also
the chief interest is in surface effects, here attained by regular pat-
terning with small motives which are in themselves extremely un-
interesting. The three polychrome wares from Zufii, Ilopi, andAcoma
all show but not necessarily representative quality. Here
pictorial
interest focused
is on the ornamentation, with manipulation of line
and color in complex composition, along with increased interest in
decorative content. Of all the pottery that of San Ildefonso is the
most complex and subtle in conception.
These six contrasting ceramic products show that style is more
than a choice of decorative material; in Ilopi and San Ildefonso pots
we have the same decorative material derived from ancient Ilopi
pottery, but applied to different problems. Style is more than the
arrangement or patterning of this material; it involves the whole
approach to and conception of the esthetic problem in the chosen
medium. From the point of view of the artist the only important
fact is that we find six such distinct types developed; hut from the
anthropological point of view the most significant fact is that each

of these types is localized in one group where it so controls the
imagination of the artists that no other type is made, although all

are known.
The hold which these traditional concepts of form have upon the
imagination of the artist is evidenced in the stylistic cohesiveness of
13
any group. Boas quotes a number of examples of fixity of form in
primitive products. In some of these cases, notably Zufii water jars
and Haussa embroideries, the same decorative elements appear over
and over again in the same combinations. In both of these cases the
characteristic feature the breaking up of the field into a number
is
of clearly defined smaller fields, a procedure which readily lends itself

to rigidity and sterility. Much more striking and provocative, how-
ever, are those cases such as modern Hopi pottery or Northwest Coast
570 GENEKAL ANTHROPOLOGY
wood-carving, where duplication never occurs, but where, neverthe-
less,each object bears the unmistakable impress of its source. In
such cases it is not always easy to isolate the characteristic features.
It is of course impossible to define any style of art since it is of its
nature without fixed limits or precision. It is
equally unrewarding
to attempt to describe individual works of art, the essence of which
is untranslatable. One can analyze in terms of underlying principles,
but never describe. The characteristic of a style of art is a tendency,

a set of principles. It is a grasp of these principles rather than an
analysis of the content of designs that is essential to an understand-
ing of any work of art. And primitive artists are by no means so
nai've concerning these matters as is commonly supposed. It is not
accideitfal that Hopi potters always speak of line, Zuni potters of
the number and distribution of designs, and San Ildefonso potters
of surface texture and luster, adding "It doesn't matter what you
paint so long as you put it on straight/' Each woman is here speak-
ing of the fundamental tendency of the style in which she operates.
What, then, is it that makes a Hopi bowl absolutely unmistakable?
Itsform and color, although characteristic within the pueblo area,
are not definitive; they are shared by pottery from other parts of
the world. The ornament, however, is quite distinctive. Its special
characteristic is the handling of line in relation to the circular sur-
face of the bowl, or, more accurately, the line that bounds the sur-
face. Hopi always refer to this fea-
artists in analyzing their designs
ture of their painting. "I study the line of the design," or "I always
use a one-line design; it must start at the rim and returns to the rim
again." .The particular decorative units that are used in any pot
are of secondary importance. These patterns are varied and highly
characteristic. represent in symbolic form animals, but in-
They
formants are never quite sure whether any particular design repre-
sents a bird, serpent, squirrel, or an anthropomorphic rainbow. Bird
forms predominate. The designs are curvilinear and, in general, form
a crescent along one side of the bowl. Usually only wing and tail
feathers are represented; rarely heads. The bodies are further em-
bellished with geometrical ornament. Obviously the interest of the
potters is in the formal rather than in the representational character

of their designs. It has been noted that many of the same elements
are used at San Ildefonso, but with what a difference! The Hopi
water jar presents a different problem; the designs used are usually
simpler and more abstract, although employing some of the same
ART 571
Fig. 89. Painted house front representing Thunderbird catching a whale,

Kwakiutl Indians (after Boas).
elements. But even in jars there is a tendency for the pattern to hug
the clearly marked line around the rim, with the balance of the jar
undecorated and the lower margin of the design frequently not
defined.
For contrast let us now turn to another highly differentiated art
of North America, and one that also uses conventionalized animal
14
representation: that of the Indians of the North Pacific coast. The
principal material is wood, with horn, soapstone, copper, and slate
occupying positions of minor importance. All the possessions of these
people, from house posts to fishhooks and dance hats, are elaborately
decorated. Carving in relief and in the round and painting are used,
but the same style and the same artistic problems rule in all tech-
niques. Even the rare textiles have in recent years been incorporated
into the same style. In all this art the problem is definitely one of
representation. The Hopi use certain animal forms, but their primary
purpose, as we have seen, is not to depict the animals; the artist is
more concerned with the formal than with the symbolic content of
his painting. From a purely objective point of view Kwakiutl paint-
ing is no more realistic in its treatment of animal forms than the
Hopi, but in the mind of the artist the compositions are strictly
representational (Fig. 89). The difference is fundamental. The North-
west Coast chooses to represent animals by a highly system-
artist
atized symbolism selecting certain characteristic features of the
animal for emphasis and treating
the rest of the body formally. Thus
the beaver is symbolized by large
incisors and a broad scaly tail
(Fig. 90), the killer whale by the

high dorsal fin and blowhole, the
sculpin by two spines over the eyes
and a joined dorsal fin, the hawk
by a sharply curved beak, the bear
by its claws and large teeth. In
addition to this there is a complex
symbolism for the treatment of
eyes, ears, tails, viscera of various
animals. The hawk has one type of
tail, the eagle another. However,
this second system is largely theo-
retical. For the most part, except
Fig. 90. Carved spoon handles for the two or three definitive fea-
representing beaver, Tlingit Indians
tures of each animal, the figures are
(after Boas).
treated in accordance with certain
general conventions and the formal requirements of the decorative
field.As we have seen, the decorative field may be anything from the
side of a house to a spoon handle. An underlying formal principle is
that the decoration must completely fill the field. With the exception
of dishes, which are given a general resemblance to animal forms and
carved, the surface to be decorated is quite unrelated to the form of

the object to be represented. All attempt at realism is sacrificed to
formal requirements; the significant parts and as much besides as can
conveniently be included are represented. Relative size is not con-
sidered important, nor the relation of the parts in life. The ideal is to
represent the object completely, both sides of an animal in profile, or
the unforeshortened body seen in full view and the internal as well as
the external anatomy. This results in further distortion of the form.
A wolf pictured on a house front may be shown with his head over
the door, his tail under the ridgepole, his right and left sides spread
ART 573
Fig. 91. Painted wooden box, Tlingit Indians (after Boas).
on either sideof the door, as if he had been split down the belly and
pinned out. Or the body may be dismembered and its various ex-
ternal and internal organs distributed in arbitrary arrangement (Fig.
91). Nor do the parts themselves bear any resemblance to living
forms. There are many other characteristic features in Northwest
Coast art. On the purely formal side there are characteristic treat-
ments of light and shade, of excentric circles, avoidance of exactly
equidistant lines, and motives within motives which cannot be de-
scribed here, but which are apparent in the illustrations. In this place
we cannot concern ourselves with details, but merely point out the
general principles. However, the hold of these stylistic features on the
imagination of artists is such that they creep into supposedly real-
istic drawings, such as the illustrations of folk tales drawn for Boas
(Fig. 92).
Those who seek to enjoy and evaluate new and unorthodox move-
ments in modern art have learned to judge works of art in terms
of the esthetic problems which the artists are attempting to solve.
Painting is not of necessity representational, certainly not realistic.

Nor, on the other hand, is content a priori irrelevant. Some artists
Fig. 92. Haida drawing illustrating a myth (after Boas).
are absorbed by the problem of repre-

sentation it may be the outward as-
pect or the inner reality of objects, or
the content of the mind which they wish
to express, but their concern is with the
intrinsic character of things. To others
content irrelevant; they have set
is for
themselves a formal problem and are in-
terested in objects only in terms of their
formal values. Pictures must therefore
be approached from the point of view of
the artist's intention. This applies no less
to the art of primitive peoples. But the
Fi S- 93 Tlingit mask repre-
problem is rarely explicit and can hardly
-
ever be revealed by a purely objective ** warrior (after

study of one or two objects. One must
know the makers or, failing that, study with sympathy a great
many objects of the same tradition for their underlying principles,
the problems, and the materials for their solution. It is the con-
sistency with which the basic problem is posed and solved
that gives cohesiveness to any style. In certain styles, such as
Zuni pottery or Kwakiutl carving, the rules may be strict;
ART 575
other styles are freer. In any vital style there will be many an-
swers to the problem. If we choose to consider art a form of play,
as many do, we might suggest an analogy from some game of skill,
say from chess. For the lover of chess the object is not only to win,
but to win in as many ways and in as original ways as possible,
without breaking any of the rules. There is plenty of evidence to
show that the good artist, whether in Paris or Walpi, will solve his
problem in many ways without breaking the rules. The very great
artistanywhere will set his own problem and make his own rules.
But great artists are rare. Most craftsmen are content to keep to
well-trodden paths and to achieve variety of detail within the fixed
patterns.
It seems impossible to give an empirical explanation of the psy-
chological basis for the development of traditional styles and their
hold upon the creative imagination of artists. Obviously one art
style is no better intrinsically than another, nor better adapted to
the physical or social milieu than another. One would like to see
some social or religious implications in the fact that Zuni pottery
contains representative forms, while Acoma and Santo Domingo pot-
tery do not. But it seems improbable that even the most confirmed
functionalist could make a case for it. Nor are universal sequences
any more valid for art than for other forms of culture. We shall
have to consider the question of the origin of art styles, like all
questions of origins, unanswerable.
If our first question is unanswerable, the second question, that of
conformity, is
hardly do not wish to
less difficult. Artists certainly
be conservative; it is often directly contrary to their expressed in-
tention. Pueblo potters reiterate the claim that each pot is a crea-
tion new-forged in the imagination. Nevertheless, with nothing to
guide her except an inner perception of form, the potter reproduces

without hesitation the characteristic vessel of her tribe. The technical
limitations are such that the finished form must be clearly visualized
at an early stage, for after the first coils are laid no corrections are
possible.The application of ornament is also largely controlled by
nonrational mental processes. Although artists' comments are fre-
quently illuminating as, for instance, the Hopi potter's comment
about line, quoted above the perception of relations is largely in-
Conscious preoccupations are largely with matters of tech-
tuitive.
Conformity to traditional forms is due in a large

nical perfection.
measure to the dependence of artists upon the visual image. Visual
.576 GENERAL ANTHROPOLOGY
images, whether consciously called up, dreamed, or otherwise in-
voluntarily evoked, are, for most people, of things once directly per-
ceived. The usual dream is a composite of different experiences,
familiar elements appearing in new combinations. Primitive artists
dream just such designs.
Is art for this reason stable? Obviously it is not. In fact, it is one
of the most unstable forms of human behavior, and therefore pro-
vides an excellent field for the study of cultural change. Modified
reproduction of the kind just described results in gradual but con-
tinuous change, frequently in a definite direction, which even-
tually ends in a style very different from the one from which it
sprang.
In cftamic art, where we can unravel some of the history because
of the imperishability of the material, a number of historically verified
sequences illustrating this kind of development can be found. On

the other hand, we must not overlook the part played by the creative
genius who appears every once in so often. The whole art style of a
group can be changed within a few years by a single gifted individual.
One of the characteristics of creative imagination is the ability to
experience mentally what has not been experienced sensually, and
to embody this experience in tangible form. In the pueblos of San
Ildefonso and llano (Hopi) ceramic art has been revolutionized in
recent years, in each case through the discriminating imagination of
a single individual. In each case the change was the result of outside
influences and general cultural instability working upon the mind
of a sensitive individual endowed with imagination, taste, and tech-
nical equipment. Art, the purpose of which is to bring beauty into
life, is, perhaps more than any other aspect of culture, continually
in a state of tension, an exciting condition of unstable equilibrium

between the exuberance of individual imagination and the weight
15
of tradition as expressed in formal patterns.
Symbolism. Thus far we have touched only incidentally upon the

content and meaning of specific art forms. We
have been dealing
with art as form, but plastic art anywhere may become a medium
for the expression of specific impressions and ideas of the outer and
inner worlds. In decorative arts w e may find represented human,
7
animal, and plant forms, the features of earth and sky, and even
abstract religious and philosophical concepts.
It is a truism to say that all art is either abstract or representative.
It is not, however, so obvious, and is as a matter of fact frequently
ART 577
overlooked, that this classification is not an objective one; it is a

classification on the basis of intention, not on the basis of accomplish^
inent. The same pattern may be representative or symbolic in one
"
place and quite without meaning in another. Furthermore, by repre-
sentative" we do not mean "realistic." Realism and symbolism are
two opposite tendencies in the art of representation.
Absolute realism is something which is impossible of attainment
in any plastic art. All art, therefore, is in a sense symbolic, no less
so when the attempt is in the direction of realism. In painting, a
relatively free medium, for example, it is impossible to represent a

three-dimensional object on a two-dimensional surface without elimi-
nating certain aspects and adopting certain conventional ways of
representing the balance. A photograph, claimed to be the* closest
approximation to reality, reproduces mechanically not the object
itself but the image which it forms on the retina of the eye. Aside
from the obvious impossibility of reproducing color and texture in

thismedium, and from distortion due to the selective limitations in
various types of lenses, a photograph is unsatisfactory as representa-
tion for a number of reasons. It does not reproduce the sense of depth
attained through binocular vision; in showing objects in motion it
shows them at one instant and in order to suggest motion a time
sequence must be indicated in different parts; it represents but one
aspect of the object; it is unselcctive, or whatever selection exists
is mechanically determined by the speed and depth of the lens, rather
than intelligently determined on the basis of significance. Systems

of perspective drawing do not have all these defects, with the result
that a good perspective drawing is a more suggestive approximation
of nature than a photograph. This type of drawing is confined to
sophisticated societies. However, all drawings must make some com-

promise with the fact that only one aspect of the object can be
shown. The Egyptians managed this by representing the head of
the human figure in profile, the torso an face, the legs in profile. In
substituting conventional for directly realistic reproduction the artist
has taken another step in the direction of symbolism. Sculpture,
which, aside from the color and texture of the material, can ap-
proximate the form of nature, suffers most from the second limitation
of the photographic approach: namely, that in a representation of
motion, time sequence must be suggested. Successive stages must be

combined, as they are in any sculpture of a man walking. The sug-
gestion of reality can be gained only by distortion. In sculpture also,
the tendency must be away from naturalism and in the direction of
symbolism.
Most art styles, especially those of primitive peoples, while retain-
ing the representative intent, definitely abandon realism. Nonrealistic

representation may be handled in several ways: by simplification,
by distortion, by arbitrary substitution symbolism in the narrow-
est meaning of the word. Of course, these are not mutually exclusive
processes or tendencies. A very simple form may be derived from a

more complex form or be arbitrarily chosen. Frequently the part
is used to represent the whole, as in Hopi bird designs where only
the feathers are depicted, but the design is nevertheless thought of

as a bird.
Simplification of forms what is commonly called conventionali-
zation is especially marked in textile arts, where it is made neces-
sary by a technique which can handle only simple angular forms.

Usually these forms are not only simplified but have been made more
regular and symmetrical than their prototypes in nature. Basketry
designs from all parts of the world and European peasant embroideries
are outstanding 'examples of this type of art. To this the peasant
embroideries of central Spain, with their grotesque animals and
fantastic flowers, are a notable exception. When life forms are used
on pottery they are usually of this simplified type the animal forms,
deer and birds, on Zuni pottery, for instance, belong to this simplified
type of symbolic representation; those on Hopi pottery, which have
already been discussed, do not.
Haddon, in Evolution in Art, and other writers have claimed that
geometric art has originated in the simplification of representative
forms due to inadequate technique. This theory is based on the fallacy
inherent in all evolutionary arguments: namely, the assumption that
universal sequences of cultural forms can be established, and that
contemporaneous variants represent points in such a sequence. The
theory as it applies to art has been disposed of many times but still
finds supporters. Boas in his study of Alaskan needle cases establishes
a sequence reversing that of Haddon's. An ancient widely distributed
geometrical form gradually took on resemblance to various animal
forms. It is especially significant that the form did not always suggest
the same animal to different artists.
Simplification is not the only method for treating the difficult
problem of symbolical representation. Much more characteristic of

primitive art is the tendency to representation by distortion. Distor-
PL. X, MASKS, SEPIK RIVER, NEW GUINEA (after Chauvet).
tion may be the result of technical exigencies, the adjustment of the
design to the form of the raw material or to the decorative field.
But more often distortion is quite independent of formal require-
ments and is the result of a selection and emphasis of what are con-
sidered the significant parts of the body (Figs. 94, 95). The emphasis of
sexual organs in African and some Melanesian sculpture and Paleo-
lithic drawings is an example of mild distortion the general outlines of
;
the body resemble the living model and the relation of the parts is as
Fig. 04. Ancient Bushman drawings (after Boas).
in life; only the relative sixes are distorted. The sexual organs are ex-
aggerated at the expense of other parts, which are correspondingly re-
duced in size and undeveloped in details. Distortion may even be
carried still further,and the whole outline of the body and the rela-
tion of parts may be sacrificed to the formal treatment of the signifi-
cant portions. We have seen in the art of the Kwakiutl to what lengths
the distortion of the animal form may be carried. A Very different
type of distortion, with a symbolism based on wholly different prem-
ises, is shown in the representations in Navajo sand paintings.
These paintings, made in colored sands on the floor of the cere-
monial hut during ceremonies, represent anthropomorphic deities,
cosmological principles, and incidents from myths. The figures of
the masked gods are greatly elongated; male gods are symbolized
by round masks, females by square masks. The identities of the
gods are shown in their costumes, headdresses, and appendages.
There is a fixed color symbolism associated with the four cardi-
nal points: white for east, blue for south, yellow for west, black
for north. The clothing of the gods and the corn plants which are
conventionally represented are of the colors appropriate to the

directions with which they are associated. In this
way the universe,
ART 581
bounded by the sky (the rainbow) with a spring of water at its center,
and covered with verdure and peopled with healing gods, can be
represented on the floor of the medicine lodge. The same system of
symbolism which appears in the sand paintings is even more fully
16
developed in myth and song.
Color symbolism similar to that of the Navajo is found among the
neighboring Pueblos. These Indians recognize six cardinal directions,
Fig. 95. Fetish Representing Antelope. Bambala, French Sudan

Left.
Right. Female Figurine, Baoule, Ivory Coast (after Kjersmeier).
including up and down. The color symbolism, carried out consistently

in all ceremonial objects and elaborated in songs and myths, is as
follows: yellow for north, blue for west, red for south, white for east,
speckled for above, black for below. There is a second symbolism of

color, blue for male and yellow for female; blue and yellow paired, as
they are in certain prayersticks, stand as a symbol of fecundity. The
prayersticks of the god of love, music, and butterflies at Zuni are
paired blue and yellow. The butterflies attached to ceremonial objects
or painted on masks or ceremonial garments are symbols of erotic
Fig. 96. Prayer sticks, Zuiii (after Parsons).
attraction. However, this use of the butterfly to attract is on the

fringe of magic. It resembles the use on all classes of ceremonial
objects of designs of frogs, tadpoles, dragonflies, and a mythical water
serpent "to call the rain." In the Pueblos the chief offering to the
gods is the prayerstick, a small painted wooden stick to one side of

which feathers are attached with a cotton cord (Fig. 96) At Zuni the .
prayerstick represents a person, the messenger to the gods. The stick

is his body, the paint his flesh, the feathers his clothing, the cotton
cord his belt, the hanging feathers his hair feather. Sex is indicated by
color, or else a shield-shaped face on one side indicates a female. The
color of the paintand the feathers all are symbolic of the individual
for whomthe offering is intended. Certain deities, such as the Rain
Makers, are associated with special directions, and their sticks are
appropriately colored. The tail feathers of the eagle are associated
with warrior gods, the downy eagle feather with the sun, the red-dyed
downy feather with the bear and other medicine gods; the tail feather
of the male turkey with the Rain Makers and the breast feather with
the dead and the masked gods; and the duck feather with the masked
gods.
Similar symbolism is found in the sacred objects of the Pawnee. 17
One of the important ceremonies of this tribe, a ceremony directed
toward fecundity and the increase of the tribe, is named from two
feathered pipestems which figure prominently in all the rituals. The
female stem, painted blue for heaven, with a red groove representing
ART 583
decorated with a fan-shaped ornament of ten feathers from the

life, is
"
brown eagle, a bird representing male power. This stick represents
the north, the moon, and the night. It is the mother and it always
leads. To one end is fastened a woodpecker's head to avert danger
from storms; to the other end a duck's head for protection on water.
Owl feathers are fastened near one end to protect by night. The blue
paint symbolizes the clear sky, the red and white streamers day and
night.The male stem, the father, is painted green, the color of the
Earth Mother, and has an orna-
ment of feathering of the white
eagle, a bird that is not sacred.

This stick represents the day, the
sun, the south. It is male and it
can never lead but must always
follow."
A case of religious symbolism ex-
pressed in more obviously decora-
tive form is found in the wicker
shields which the Huichol Indians
of Mexico hang in the temples of
their gods as votive offerings (Fig.
Fig. 97. Votive placque, Huichol In-
95). They symbolize at one time
dians, Mexico (after Lumholtz).
the attributes of the god and the
prayer of the donor. The geometric designs on these placques convey
18
this complex message. Lumholtz gives the following explanation of
"
such a shield offered to the Sun The section within the blue ring is ex-
:
pressive of the sun with his various colors. The figures in white outside
the ring, with the blue and yellow crosslike figures within them, are
the shaman's plumes. The crosslike figures represent hikuli (a narcotic
and vision-producing drug about the use of which many ceremonies
center) or, what is considered the same thing, corn. The broad sec-
tion of white, black, red, yellow outside them symbolizes the rays of
the sun. . Between the shamanistic designs are seen figures of
. .
the double water-gourd. The prayer thus indicated is addressed to

the great shaman, the Sun, whose powers are manifest in heat, that
he may surrounded by clouds, bringing rain and hence corn."
rise
The explanation is complete and consistent. But when we examine
the system of symbolism we see that in other shields each of the

elements represents other ideas. The cross, for instance, is variously
interpreted as hikuLi, corn, the four cardinal points, fire. The parallel
stripes in different contexts represent "back shield," another type
of votive offering, candles, rain, serpents, and feathers.
Among all these highly ritualized tribes the symbolism in the

decoration of sacred objects is only one phase of the symbolism of
rituals as a whole. The whole ritual is symbolic; therefore every
object connected with it, every word spoken, every gesture, carries
its weight of meaning. The specific details of the symbolism, con-

sistent within the ritual complex, are not carried over into secular
arts. When we turn to the nonceremonial articles of any people and
try to unravel the symbolism, we are on much less sure ground. It Is
not difficult to find among almost any people one or two fixed symbols
or emblems, religious symbols like the cross, or symbols of political
group* like the swastika or the hammer and sickle, or symbols of
social status like heraldic devices. But the use
of symbols of this type
is less common among
primitive than among sophisticated people.
There are some analagous cases: a figure much used in Polynesian
art, two figures turned back to back, represents one of their gods.
It is common in western America pottery and basketry for the most
important structural line of the design to be left incomplete. It is

said that this line represents life and that
is left unjoined lest the
maker end her own life in

completing the pattern. But for the most
part the mystic symbols of primitive peoples are simple conventional
representations, like the familiar cloud and sun symbols of the
Pueblos. The one valid generalization about symbolism is that it
must never be assumed or inferred. We
find many peoples, for
instance, using the cross in their decorative art. But it must not be
assumed that for all of them it has the same significance. To the
Zuni symbolizes the four quarters of the world; to the Arapaho,
it
the morning star; to the Huichol it represents corn or peyote or a

spark.
The art of the Arapaho Indians has often been taken as an example
of highly developed abstract symbolism. But Krocber, after his
exhaustive analysis in which he recorded the symbolism of hundreds
of objects and hundreds of decorative motives, found that the same
pattern was interpreted in many different w ays, and that the same
r
idea was embodied in many different forms. A simple rectangle was

variously named life, a brush hut, a camp circle, ocean, the earth,
mountains, an eye, a buffalo. On the other hand, life is represented
as a square, a diamond, a square inclosing three rectangles, a small
rectangle, a large rectangle, a trapezoid, a figure resembling the butt
ART 585
of an arrow, a right angle, and five triangles inclosed within a rec-

tangle. No one would venture to interpret the meaning of an article
which was not his. 19 On the whole the meanings imputed to abstract
designs are less likely to belong to a fixed system of symbolism than to
a set of personal and temporary associations.
Discussions of symbolism have been greatly confused by failure to
distinguish between true symbolism, the consistent and intelligible
use of one form to represent another, and post hoc reading of meanings
into designs. An observer's interpretations of designs embody both
cultural preoccupations and personal symbolism, which may not
necessarily be those of the maker. Even where maker and interpreter
are one the symbolic content of the designs may not have been in the
mind of the maker when the forms were first conceived and pro-
jected. Often the "meaning" does not emerge until the ethnologist
asks for it, and then the answer will be colored like any free associ-
ation by many factors, including what the informant thinks the
ethnologist wants to hear. There is usually no difficulty in recognizing
this type of personal symbolism. However, the fact that different
interpretations of the same design may be offered is not in itself evi-
dence of lack of fixed symbolism. The symbolic content may be
esoteric, like the symbolism of early Christian art. Nevertheless, aside
from picture writing, cryptic symbolism is less common in primitive
art than many writers would have us believe, although it is exceed-
ingly common in primitive literature, both myth and song. Multiple

interpretations are, however, very common. Boas quotes an excellent
example in the case of a Chilkat blanket made by the Tlingit Indians
of the Northwest Coast of America. The specimen in question was
"
interpreted by one informant as a whale diving with two ravens,"
u
and by another as a wolf with young." Since all art among these
Indians serves to display the crests and totemic prerogatives of the
owner, each individual refers any decorated object which comes into
his possession to his own totemic myth. But in spite of these different
interpretations it is evident that the designs of these people all have

a conceptual content. But when the same individual explains the
same design differently at different times, and when he applies the
same name to designs having no formal resemblance, or assigns dif-
ferent meanings to formally related designs without being able to
formulate any general principles, we may at once suspect that we
are dealing with a post hoc interpretation. The names of Zufii designs
illustrate this tendency. A famous Zuni potter drew a collection of
designs and identified them on two separate occasions. Here maker
and interpreter were the same individual. Out of a collection of 91
drawings for household pottery, 77 were identified on both occasions.
In 34 cases the two interpretations agreed in substance; in 43 cases
they were quite different. Sometimes a design which was given some
symbolic interpretation on one occasion was described formally on
the other, as a design of interlocking scrolls called (1) "Bow of the
Masked Gods, with feathers hanging from it"; (2) "Jar stomach
design." Sometimes very different symbolic interpretations were

offered such as (1) "Spider web, a prayer for skill in weaving," later
"
called (2) Feathers and drumsticks, and the seeds which the Masked
Gods carry in their hearts." Or (1) "Grandfather standing; a prayer
for long life"; (2) "Circle with drumsticks (of medicine men)." Or
(1) "Broken trail; the trail is blocked with a line of cornmeal to save
us from our enemies; a prayer for safety in war"; (2) "Black cloud
terraces rising, with red clouds also." Or (1) "Rainbow carrying
clouds, with arrow points and drumsticks"; (2) "Wall in the cloud
20
house, yucca suds and flowers; a prayer for luck in hunting."
The explanations that do not refer directly to rain and clouds refer
to ceremonial paraphernalia. All indicate the same preoccupations;
the associations, while not inherent in the designs, are definitely
patterned. Interpretations from other women, while somewhat less
explicit, deal with the same preoccupations. Obviously we are here
dealing with a tribal rather than individual symbolic tendency. In
some cases it is possible to isolate personal patterns of symbolism.
In San Ildefonso one man invariably sees clouds where another sees
birds, just as individuals among ourselves react differently to the
inkblot test. All these tribal and personal patterns of association,
while of great importance to the ethnologist and the psychologist,
have little to do with art and exert no influence in the creation or
development of form. They are as irrelevant as the fantasies of pro-
gram annotators with reference to music. Reading meanings into
artistic creations is very different from primary symbolism, which is
a conscious attempt on the part of the artist to use art to express
nonesthetic concepts.
FOOTNOTES
1. Himmelheber, H., Negerkunstler (Stuttgart, 1935).
2. For Maya art see: Maudslay, A. P., Biologia Central-Americana, Archaeology
(London, 1889-1902); Totten, G. O., Maya Architecture (1926).
ART 587
3. Sweeney, J. J., African Negro Art (Museum of Modern Art, 1935) Torday, E.,
;
and Joyce, T. K., Les Bushongo, Annales du Musee du Congo Beige

(Brussels, 1911); Einstein, Carl, "Afrikanische Plastik," Orbis Pictus,
vol. 7 (Berlin, 1922).
4. Swanton, J., Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haida, Jesup Expedition,
vol. 5,Part I (1905-09); Boas, F., Primitive Art (Oslo, 1927), pp. 183-298.
5. d'Harcourt, R. S. M., La Ceramique ancimne de Pcrou (Paris, 1924);
Schmidt, M., Kunst und Kultur wn Peru (Berlin, 1929); Lehmann, W.,
and Doering, H., Kunstgeschichte des alien Peru (Berlin, 1924); Reiss, W.,
and Stubel, A., The Necropolis of Ancon in Pern (Berlin, 1880-87); Gay-
ton, A. H., and Kroeber, A. L., "The Uhle Pottery Collections from
Nazca," University of California Publications in American Archaeology and
Ethnology, vol. 24, no. 1 (1927), pp. 1-46.
6. Dixon, R. B., Basketry Designs of California Indians, Bulletin of the American
Museum of Natural History, vol. 17 (1902), pp. 1 ff.; Kroeber, A. L. " Bas-
ket Designs of the Indians of Northwestern California," University of Cali-
fornia Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 2, no. 4
(1905), pp. 105 ff.; Barrett, S. A., "Porno Indian Basketry," University of
California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 7, no. 3
(1908), pp. 134 ff.
7. Emmons, G. ChUkat Blanket, Memoirs of the American Museum of

T., The
Natural History, vol. 3 (1907), pp. 329 ff.
8. Illustrations of Pueblo altars in Stevenson, M. C., Zuni Indians, Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Pkhnology, vol. 23 (1904).

9. Reichard, G. A., "The Complexity of Rhythm in Decorative Art," American
Anthropologist, vol. 24 (1922), pp. 198 ff.
10. Boas, F., op. cit., pp. 46 ff.
11. Fewkes, W., Archaeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895, Annual Report
J.
of theBureau of American Ethnology, vol. 17, Part II (1898), and Designs
on Prehistoric Hopi Pottery, Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, vol. 33 (1919), pp. 207 ff.
12. Guthe, C. E., Pueblo Pottery Making (1925); Bunzel, R., The Pueblo Potter,
Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology, vol. 8 (1929).
13. Boas, F., op. cit., pp. 166 ff.
14. Ibid., pp.183 ff.

15. Bunzel, R., op. cit.
16. Matthews, W., The Nawjo Night Chant, Memoir of the American Museum
of Natural History, vol. 6 (1902); Newcomb, F. J., and Reichard, G. A.,
Sandpaintings of the Navajo Shooting Chant (1937).

17. Fletcher, A. C., The Hako: A Pawnee Ceremony, Annual Report of the Bureau
of American Ethnology, vol. 22 (1904).
18. Lumholtz, C., Symbolism of the Huichol Indians, Memoir of the American
Museum of Natural History, vol. 3 (1900).
19. Kroeber, A. L., The Arapaho, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural
History, vol. 18, Part II (1902).
20. Bunzel, R., op. cit.
GENERAL REFERENCES
Balfour, H., The Kvolution of Decorative Art (London, 1893).
Boas, F., Primitive Art (Oslo, 1927).
Grosse, E., The Beginnings of Art (1897).
Him, Y., The Origins of Art (Ixmdon, 1900).
Schcltema, F. A. van, Die altnordische Kunst (Berlin, 1923).
Semper, G., Der Stil in den Technischen und Tektonischen Kunsten (Munich,
1878-79).
Wundt, W., Vdlkerpsyrhologie, vol. 3, "Die Kunst" (Leipzig, 1919).
For Bibliography see Eckert von Sydow, Die Kunst der Naturvolker und der
Vorzeit (Berlin, 1923).
CHAPTER XII
LITERATURE, MUSIC, AND DANCE

FRANZ BOAS
Among some of the most primitive tribes very few objects of artistic
value are found. This is easily understood, for the roaming life of the
hunter and the necessity of constant application for obtaining the
bare necessities of life do not leave much time for manual work beyond
that required for the pursuit of game and the collection of other kinds
of food. Furthermore, the whole amount of property that can be
carried along is small. The family cannot burden itself with many
unnecessary or unfinished products, and the completion of artistic
work requires time. The Eskimo who returns to his semipermanent
house every day and whose hunting gear is in good condition may
amuse himself with ivory-carving, which he may take up in long
evenings or during snowstorms that make hunting impossible, but
the total amount of such work and its size are necessarily restricted.
Still more unfavorable are conditions for the Bushman who has to
travel on foot and who has still less leisure to follow artistic inclina-
tions. Leisure is indispensable for artistic handiwork, and a certain
amount of stability or transportation by means of animals seems in-

dispensable for its development. Stone work, stone architecture, and
heavy wood work presuppose stability of residence.
Such restrictions are not present in the arts of literature, music,
and dance, for the hunter watching for game or leisurely attending
to his trapsmay give free rein to his imagination without interfering
with his watchful waiting. Out of the daydreams of the hunter and
of the woman attending to her housework, stories and songs may be
spun.
The world-wide distribution of tales and songs shows that these
considerations are valid. The Bushman and the eastern Eskimo,
although poor in the production of art, are rich in tales and songs, of
which they possess a well-nigh inexhaustible treasure. The poor
hunters of the Malay peninsula and the Australians have their
literature no less than economically more advanced people. Songs
589
and tales are found all over the world. These are the fundamental
forms of literature among primitive people.
The essential traits of song are rhythm and melody. Rhythm be-
longs not only to song but also to prose. Repetition, particularly

rhythmic repetition, is a fundamental trait of both. All prose narra-
tive consists in part of free elements the form of which is dependent
upon the taste and ability of the narrator. Inserted among these
passages we find others of fixed form which give to the narrative its
formal attractiveness. Often these passages consist of conversation
between the actors, in which deviations from the fixed formula are
not permitted. In other cases they are of rhythmic form and must be
considered poetry or chants rather than prose.
It 'is very difficult to gain a correct understanding of the form of
primitive prose, because most of the available material has been re-
corded in European languages only, and it is impossible to determine
the accuracy of the rendering. In most of the records there is an
obvious attempt to adopt European literary styles. Even when the
material is available in the original text we may assume that, at
least in the majority of cases, it does not reach the standard of
excellence of the native narrative. The difficulty of phonetic rendering
of foreign languages requires such slowness of dictation that the
artistic style necessarily suffers. The number of collectors who have
complete mastery of the native language is altogether too small.

The best approximation to the art of narrative of primitive people is
probably found in those cases in which educated natives write down
the texts, or in the records taken down by missionaries who, in long
years of personal, intimate contact with the people, have acquired
complete control of their language, and who are willing to give us
just what they hear. In some cases natives have been trained to
write with such ease that their writings may be considered as good
representation of style. Early examples of this kind are tales published
by Eskimos. Recently some attempts have been made to take down
texts on the phonograph and to have them redictated sentence by
sentence.
In almost all reliable collections the fixed formal parts are of con-
siderable importance. It is not easy to form a correct opinion regard-
ing the rhythmic character of the formal prose, partly because the
rhythmic sense of primitive people is much more highly developed
than our own. The simplification of the rhythm of modern folk song,
and of poetry intended to appeal to popular taste, has dulled our
LITERATURE, MUSIC, AND DANCE 591
feeling for rhythmic form. It requires careful study to understand the

structure of primitive rhythm, more so in prose than in song, because
in this case the help of the melodic pattern is lacking.
I believe the liking for the frequent repetition of single motives is
in part due to the pleasure given by rhythmic repetition. For example,
the tales of the Chinook Indians are always so constructed that five
brothers, one after another, have the same adventure. The four
eldest perish while the youngest one comes out successful. The tale is
repeated verbatim for all the brothers, and its length, which to our
ear and taste is intolerable, probably gives pleasure by the repeated
form. Conditions are quite similar in European fairy tales relating
the fates of three brothers, two of whom perish or fail in their tasks
while the youngest one succeeds.
Repetitions leading to a climax are also found. Thus in Tsimshian
tales
1
an eagle is said to screech every morning. The hero comes out
of the house following the call and finds every day a larger animal on
the beach in front of his house. A similar device occurs in the German
tales of the fisherman whose wife sends him day after day to ask a
wonderful fish to give him ever greater gifts. Every time he uses the
same verse when calling the fish.
2
In the tales of the Pueblo Indians the same incident is repeated
four times, happening to four sisters: the yellow, red, blue, and white
girl. In a Papua tale from New Guinea
3
the birds come one after
another and try to peck open the stomach of a drowned person so
as to let the water he has swallowed run out. In a New Ireland tale 4
the birds try to throw the cassowary off the branch of a tree on which
it is perched. One after another alights next to him on the same branch
but nearer the trunk. Thus he is compelled to move out farther and
farther until finally he drops down. Similar repetitions are found in
the German tale of Red Ridinghood, in the widely spread European
story of the rooster who goes to bury his mate, and in the story of the
Three Bears. In Oriental tales the incidents of the tale are sometimes
repeated verbatim, being retold by one of the heroes.
Much more striking are rhythmic repetitions in the formal parts of
tales or in those cases in which connecting discussion is omitted.
An example is the following Eskimo tale 5
of a woman and the spirit
of the singing-house:
"
Where is its owner? Where is its master?
Has the singing-house an owner? Has the singing-house a master?
It has no owner." "Here he is, there he is!"
"Where are his feet? Where are the calves of his legs? Where are his
knees? Where are his thighs?" "Here they are, there they
are!"
"Where is his stomach?" "Here it is, there it is!"
"
Where is his chest? Where is his arm? Where is his neck? Where is
head?"
his "Here it is, there it is!"
*
He had no hair.
Sometimes these parts of talcs are in an archaic form or in a foreign
language, so that they may be quite unintelligible. Their impressive-

ness rests on their form and the general emotional trend of the pas-
6
sages in which they occur.
In oratory, rhythmic repetitions are used for purposes of emphasis
and imprcssiveness. An Indian who welcomes his guests in his house
and who wishes to recall the greatness of his ancestors addresses his
7
hearers as follows:
"
This is the house of my great-great-grandfather Mahwa who invited
you here.
This is the house of my great-grandfather Mahwa who invited you
at Sandy Beach.
This is the house of my grandfather Mahwa who invited you at
Crooked Beach.
This is the feasting house of my father who invited you at Tide
Beach.
Now Ihave taken the place of my father. I invited you, tribes, that
you should come and see my house here."
Similar are the Polynesian chants in which the ancestors are

enumerated:
Hulihonua the husband,
Keakahuliiani the wife;
Laka the husband, Kapapaiakele the wife;
Kamooalewa the husband,
Nanawahine the wife;
and so through twenty-seven pairs. 8

In oratory rhythm is also applied to give fixed form to free dis-
course. This is sometimes obtained by a delivery in which the phrases
are given somewhat equal length with accent on the last, sometimes
"
an added, syllable. Thus the Ivwakiutl will address his guests: Wel-
*
This means that the woman felt for the supernatural owner of the singing-
house. He supposed to have bandy legs, no
is hair, and no occipital bone. To
touch his soft head is immediate death.
come-ai', brothers-ai', at my feast-ai'," always connecting the -a/

firmly with the preceding word or by introducing every phrase with
;
ha. Similar devices are used in the recital of myths, as when the Fox
Indians repeat after every phrase of their Culture Hero myth the
9
syllables nootchee nootchee. Sometimes the phrasing is made by a pause
in which the listeners supply the rhythmic break. Thus, in Africa,
the narrator may tell, "The Turtle killed the Leopard/' and the
audience will repeat, clapping their hands, "The Leopard, the
Leopard."
More definite and rhythmic structure appears in poetry.
clearer
Primitive rhythmic poetry that is not sung is, as far as I am aware,
unknown. It is therefore more correct to speak of song rather than of

poetry. All song is accompanied by body movements that are.often
associated with noise, such as hand-clapping or stamping the ground;
also by swaying of the body. Therefore poetry, music, and dance
form an inextricable unit. Only gradually is poetry dissociated from
music and dance, and music from dance, while dance seems to be
almost indissolubly connected with music.
Since song is so often accompanied by movement, there is commonly
a coordination of two kinds of rhythms: that of song and that of
movement. On the whole the regularity of emphasis on every second,
third, or fourth time-interval which is characteristic of modern folk
music, forming our regular two, three, and four part measures, is not
the rule in primitive music. Longer units are found, such as five or
seven part rhythms as well as long units that cannot be divided into
regular measures, but which are regularly repeated.
The coordination of song and movement is also often different from
ours. We are accustomed to move in accord with the accented meas-
ures, but very commonly the coordination follows different patterns
leading to various types of syncope, to the combination of one
rhythm in song with another in movement. When the movement is
accompanied by sound, as in hand-clapping or stamping, we have a
new acousticrhythm developing through the combination of the two.
In Africa this multiplicity of interweaving rhythms is augmented by
the independence of rhythmic movements of different parts of the
body, particularly of the two hands and the two feet, which create
new complexities.
The great variety of forms in which rhythm appears, as rhythm of
time in music and dance, rhythm of space in decorative art, shows
that the theory of Biicher, 10 who derives rhythm from the regularity
11
of movements in communal work, or the parallel theory of Wundt,
who derivesfrom dance, cannot be maintained. The pleasure given
it
by regular repetition of embroidery designs, painting, or the complex

arrangement of strings in rhythmically repeated order cannot be
explained by conditions imposed by the technique, and there is no
indication that this rhythm is later than the one determined by motor
habits.
In primitive music we find numerous songs in which the melody is
carried solely by vocables, like our la-la-la in songs the words of which
are not familiar to us, or in the frequent refrains. The musical ele-
ments of such songs are solely tune and rhythm. Sometimes the
vocable itself may have
a significance indicating a certain emotion or
situation. Such are the vocables of wails or those suggesting the cries
of animals or of definite spirits. In other cases the song may be inter-
spersed with a single word here and there, like an outcry adjusted
to the regular course of the tune, while the rest is carried on by
vocables. In many cases the words, even when forming continuous
sentences, are distorted by lengthening or abbreviation an ex-
tended use of the method we employ in using the apostrophe, wrong
accents, or extraordinary lengthening in order to fit words to a tune.
This, however, is not always the case. In recitations and chants the
words are often controlling, and musical phrases are added or omitted
when the words require it. In the music of the Dakota Indian we
find both tendencies, the words adapted to the tunes and the tunes
12
adapted to the words.
The contents of poetry are as varied as the cultural interests of the
people. It is difficult for us to appreciate the poetic value they may
have for the composer or singer, since the contents may have no
"
emotional appeal to us. When the Eskimo women sing, Our husbands
are coming down there, I am going to eat!" it may sound utterly
prosaic to us who do not know the privations of Eskimo life, and it
may well be that the combined joy of seeing the safe return of the men
from the dangers of the chase and the prospect of a jolly evening when
all the people are assembled over the meal and are joking and convers-
ing finds exuberant relief in these insignificant lines. The effect of

poetry does not depend upon the power of description that releases
clear and beautiful images, but upon its ability to arouse strong emo-
tion.
As we may underestimate the poetic value of such trifling songs,
we may easily overestimate the actual poetic value of stereotyped
symbolic poetry that appeals to us on account of its strange imagery,

but that may have to the native no other than the emotional appeal
of the ritual.
When the occasions of singing are varied we find commonly dis-
tinctive types of song for every one of these. Thus the Kwakiutl
Indians of Vancouver Island have children's songs which father or
mother dance on the arms; love songs, gener-
sings, letting the child
ally sung in chorus
by the young men walking up and down the street;
feast songs praising the greatness of the host; war songs; and various
types of ritual songs sung in their religious ceremonials. The types

are clearly distinct and easily recognizable. They are built on a
common principle, but each has its own style.
While the style of songs may be defined by a study of their rfeythm
and melody, it is much more difficult to define the style of prose
even setting aside the paucity of reliable material. The style depends
to a great extent upon linguistic form. What may be appealing in one
language may be repellent in one of different form. Thus the structure
of many American languages compels the narrator to express himself
explicitly in regard to the location where an event happens while
other languages remain vague in regard to this point. To one ac-
customed to strict localization the latter style is lacking in color.
The
inclination to diffuse detail characterizes the style of some tales
while others may strive for such pregnant conciseness that the most
intimate knowledge of the culture is required to make the contents
intelligible. Devices for securing emphasis are probably present every-

where. There are pathos and fun. A generalized treatment of prose
style seems hardly possible.
Certain devices may be discussed. One of these is characterization
of individuals by peculiar ways of behaving or talking. The mere
introduction of a trickster in a tale .arouses the expectation of some
exhilarating exploit. Often he and other actors in the tale are char-
acterized by peculiar mannerisms of speech that set them off from
other personalities. The character of various animals or persons is
liable to be stereotyped, and their mere introduction may call forth
the expectation of events that conform to their supposed nature.
Similes are found more often in songs and oratory than in narrative
prose. Still, they are not lacking in prose. The Polynesians seem to
appreciate their poetic value. Thus we read in the Fornander collec-
tion of Hawaiian "His skin was like a ripe banana. His eyeballs
tales:
were like the young buds of a banana. His body was straight and
without blemish and he was without an equal/' In the Hawaiian
"
I am not the mistress of this shore.
13
story of Laieikawai it is said :
I came from inland, from the top of the mountain which is clothed in
a white garment."
In Indian oratory there is ample use of similes. I will confine my
remarks to their use among the Kwakiutl, 14 with whose speech forms
I am familiar. when describing the great-
Similes are used particularly
ness of a chief or of a warrior.The chief is compared with a mountain;
a precipice (from which rolls down wealth overwhelming the tribe) ;
a rock that cannot be climbed; the post of heaven (that supports the
world); the only great tree (that raises its crown over the lower trees
of the woods or that rises in lonely height on an island) a loaded canoe
;
at anchor; the one who makes the whole world smoky (from the smoke
of the fire in the house in which he gives feasts); the thick tree;
the thick root (of the tribe). Through his great acts he burns up the
tribes (relating to warlike exploits). The people follow him as the
young sawbill ducks follow the mother bird. He makes the people
suft'er with his short-life maker; he shoves away the tribes. The great-
ness of the chief is called the weight of his name. When he marries a
princess he lifts her weight from the floor; his wealth of blankets
(which are piled up before being distributed) a mountain that
is
rises through our heavens; in the feast, surrounded by his tribe, he

stands on his fortress. Wealth is the salmon caught by him.
Examples of similar kind may be found in the oratory and poetry
of many peoples. They occur also commonly in sayings. The Tsim-
shian of British Columbia say, "A deer, though toothless, may ac-
complish something."
Allusions are also a device used particularly in oratory. The Tsim-
" "
shian, to whom I referred before, have a saying, Is this war, father?
which refers to a story in which a boy who has been told by his father
that there will be a great war, endures many hardships and asks
"
every time this question. The Dakota Indians say, Did you not see
his palate?" referring to the striped palate of the trickster of their
mythology and implying that the person referred to is unreliable

and tricky. Such allusions are intelligible only to those who know
the tribal lore. Therefore, they are not often found in published ma-
terial. Allusions of this kind are common in African proverbs. A
Lamba saying is, "The slave was redeemed through his castor-oil,"
referring to the story of a slave who paid for his freedom by presenting
his master with oil from plants he had sowed. 16 Another is: "It is
an evil omen of the Nsenga. We shall question it on our return." 16
This means that one will not be discouraged easily. It refers to the
tale of a trading expedition to the Nsenga country on which many
evil omens were encountered. The leader refused to be discouraged
and on his return journey received satisfactory explanation of every
one of them. A Djagga proverb says, "Do not cheat me like Kitiko
who cheated Ivere." 17 This refers to two men who bet that they
could fast for ten days. Kitiko was fed by his wife, although he was
being watched, and thus won the bet.
There are great differences in the manner of composition. Some
people have a preference for long, complex stories; among others,
brief anecdotic tales prevail. On the whole the incidents of which
complex stories are built up arc brief, disconnected anecdotes Vhich
are woven into a whole by various devices. Often this is accomplished
by concentrating all the anecdotes around one personage. When this
person given a definite character a somewhat greater unity is

is
secured. Thus the Raven tale of Alaska consists entirely of unrelated

18
episodes. The only connecting link, besides the identity of the hero,
is the voracity of the Raven. Similar in structure are the Spider tales
of Africa, 19 the Dwarf Antelope tales of Malaysia, 20

and the Fox
21
tales of Europe.
Sometimes the incidents are strung on the slight thread of a tale
of adventure and travel. To this class belongs the Eskimo tale of a
hero who follows his escaped wife and meets on the way with dangers
which he overcomes like the Argonauts in their search for the
Golden Fleece. Similar is the structure of the migration legends of
the Creek 22 and Pueblo. 23 An interesting case is that of a modern tale
of the Tlingit of Alaska. In the early days of Russian colonization
of Alaska the Tlingit attacked the fort of Sitka. The governor,
Baranoff, had to flee. After a few years he returned and reestablished
the fort. This interval is filled by the Tlingit with a marvelous story,
telling how he went in search of his son. He encounters fabulous
beings that are known from other tales, visits
the entrance of the
lower world, and communicates with the souls of the deceased.
There are also tales in which the incidents are brought into closer
inner connection. The
creation legends of the Polynesians are of
this character, as are their war histories, the incidents of which are
held together by a single plot or a single purpose. As an example
we may give the abstract of the origin 24
story of the Baganda, a simple
case of a connected story.
The ancestor of the people, Kintu, arrived in Uganda and
first
brought with him a cow. There was no other food in the country.
A heavenly woman came down with her brother and wished to marry
him. Her father, the Lord of Heaven, objected to the marriage on
account of Kintu's poverty. In order to test Kintu's powers he stole
his cow. The girl told him of the whereabouts of his cow and took
him up to the sky, where he saw multitudes of houses, people, cattle,
goats, sheep, and fowl. Kintu had to show his powers by being sub-
jected to a number of tests. He had to eat large quantities of food,
split a rock with a copper axe, and find his cow and her calves among
a large herd. Finally he was accepted and sent back with the herds
of the young woman. He was warned not to take her brother, Death,
along? Owing to a mistake made by his wife, Death accompanied

him, and thus death was introduced in the world. An attempt of
another brother to have Death go back to Heaven failed.
Similar well-integrated stories are also found among other tribes,
even those of simpler structure than the Baganda. Thus the Eskimo
have a tale belonging to the Swan Maiden type. 25 A youth surprises
some bird girls bathing, takes away the dress of one, and marries
her. Eventually she recovers her dress and flies away with her son
to the land of the birds beyond the hole of the sky. He follows her,
and the obstacles and dangers of the way to the sky fill the larger
part of the story, which ends with the finding of the wife.
The literary forms of the world are not uniform. Wemay observe
that a number of extended areas have peculiar characteristics. Cer-
tain literary forms are found among all the races of the Old World
while they are unknown in America. The important position held
by the proverb in the literature of Africa, Asia, and also of Europe
until quite recent times is well known. In Africa particularly the
proverb is in constant use. It is even the basis of court decisions.

The importance of the proverb in Europe is illustrated by the way
in which Sancho Panza applies it. Equally rich is Asiatic literature
in proverbial sayings. On the contrary, hardly any proverbial sayings
areknown from American Indians.
The same conditions are found in regard to the riddle, one of the
favorite pastimes of the Old World, which is almost entirely absent
in America. Riddles are known from the Yukon River, a region in
which Asiatic influences may be discovered in several cultural traits,
and from the Eskimo of Labrador. 26 In other parts of the continent
careful questioning has failed to reveal their occurrence. It is striking
that even in New Mexico and Arizona, where Indians and Spaniards
have been living side by side for several centuries and where Indian
literature is full of Spanish elements, the riddle, nevertheless, has
not been adopted, although the Spaniards of this region are as fond
of riddles as those of Europe.*
The distribution of epic poetry is also wide, but nevertheless
limited to a fairly definitely circumscribed area namely, Europe
and a considerable part of central Asia. We know in America long,
connected tribal traditions, but up to this time no trace of a composi-
tion that might be called a romance or a true epic poem has ever
been discovered. Polynesian legends telling of the descent and deeds
of their chiefs may perhaps be designated as epic poetry. The dis-
tribution of this form can be understood only on the basis \)f the
existence of ancient cultural relations.
On the ground of the distribution of these types two conclusions
may be established the one that these forms are not necessary steps
:
in the development of literary form, but that they occur only under
certain conditions; the other that the forms are not determined by
race, but depend upon historical happenings.
If at the time when Europeans first came to the New World the
literature of the Americans did not possess the three types of litera-
ture we mentioned, it does not follow that they would have appeared
at a later time. We have no reason to assume that American literature
was less developed than that of Africa. On the contrary, the art of
narrative and poetry is highly developed in many parts of America.
We must rather assume that the historical conditions have led to
a form different from that of the Old
r
orld.W
The distribution of these forms among Europeans, Mongols, Ma-
lays, and Negroes proves the independence of literary development
from racial descent. It shows that it is one of the characteristics of
the enormously extended cultural area which embraces almost the
whole of the Old World and which in other features also appears
in distinct contrast to the New
T
W
orld. I mention here only the
development of a formal judicial procedure, founded on the taking

of evidence, the oath, and the ordeal, and the absence of this com-
plex in America; and also the rarity in America of the belief in ob-
session and the evil eye, and of the use of artificial amulets, which
are widely known in the Old World.
*
Two Omaha riddles given by J. O. Dorsey in his work Omaha Sociology, 3d An-
nual Report Bureau of Ethnology (1884), p. 334 are presumably of European origin.
These conclusions are much strengthened by the study of the
literature of more restricted areas. The investigation of European
fairy tales has led to the conclusion that in contents and form they
embrace many survivals of past times. Not only Grimm's 27 theories
but also Gomme's 28 views are based on this opinion. It is quite evi-
dent that the modern European fairy tales do not reflect the political
conditions of our times, nor the conditions of our daily life, but that
they give us an imaginative picture of rural life in semifeudal times,
and that, owing to the contradictions between modern intellectualism
and the ancient rural tradition, conflicts of viewpoints occur that
may be interpreted as survivals. In tales of primitive people it is
otherwise. A
detailed analysis of the traditional tales of a number
of Indian tribes shows complete agreement of the conditions of life
with those that may tales. Beliefs and customs
be abstracted from the
in life and in tales are in full
agreement. This is true not only of old
native material but also of imported stories that were borrowed some
time ago. They are quickly adapted to the prevailing mode of life.
The analysis of tales from the Northwest Coast 29 and from the Pueb-
los gives the same result. Only during the period of transition to new
modes of life, such as are brought about by contact with Europeans,
do contradictions develop. Thus it happens that in the talcs of
Laguna, one of the Pueblos of New Mexico, the visitor always enters
through the roof of the house, although the modern houses have
doors. The headman of the ceremonial organization plays an im-
portant role in many tales, although the organization itself has

largely disappeared. The tales of the Plains Indians still tell of buf-
falo hunts, although the game has disappeared and the people have
become tillers of the soil and laborers.
It would be erroneous to assume that the absence of survivals
of an earlier time can be explained as due to the permanence of con-
ditions, to a lack of historical change. Primitive culture is a product
of historical development no less than modern civilization. Mode of
life, customs, and beliefs of primitive tribes are not stable; but the
rate of change, unless disturbances from the outside occur, is slower

than among ourselves. What is lacking is the pronounced social
stratification of our times that brings it about that the various groups
represent, as it were, different periods of development. So far as my

knowledge goes we find the cultural, formal background of the art
of narrative of primitive people almost entirely determined by its
present cultural state. The only exceptions are found in periods of

an unusually rapid change or of disintegration. However, in this case

also a readjustment occurs. Thus the stories of the modern Negroes
of Angola reflect the mixed culture of the West African coast. In
the cultural background of the narrative, survivals do not play an
important role, at least not under normal conditions. The plot may
be old, but it undergoes radical changes.
These remarks relating to literature do not mean, of course, that
in other aspects of life ancient customs and beliefs may not persist
over long periods.
The general cultural outlook is felt also in the fundamental plots
of the stories. For example, in the tales of the North American In-
dians the conception of the relation of man to the supernatural
30
powers is entirely different from the conception that is characteristic
31
of Siberian tribes. The Indian seeks the spirits that are to help him,
or at least encourages their coming. The Siberian is seized by the
powers, no matter whether he wants them or not. Even among Ameri-
can tribes there are striking differences that color their tales. In one
group the powers are supplicated, and they grant their gift in re-
sponse to the prayer; in others they are coerced to bestow their gifts.
Instructive examples of the influence of culture upon the elabora-
tion of themes are found in tales borrowed from Europe. In a nativity
story of the Zuni of New Mexico, recorded by Dr. Benedict and
Dr. Parsons, 32 Jesus appears as a girl, the daughter of the sun. After
the birth of the child the domestic animals pay homage by licking
it; only the mule refuses, and it is punished by sterility. The whole
story has been given a new aspect. It is made to account for fertility,
a thought uppermost in the minds of the Pueblos. Changes in the
mythological significance of tales will be treated in the chapter on
mythology.
The differences of cultural life which are reflected in literature
have a far-reaching effect not only upon the contents but also upon
the form of the narrative. The motives of action are determined by
the mode of life and the chief interests of the people, and the plots
give us a picture of these.
In manytypical tales of the Chukchee of Siberia the subject of
the tale the tyranny and overmastering arrogance of an athletic
is
hunter or warrior and the attempts of the villagers to free them-

33 34
selves. Among the Eskimo a group of brothers often take the place
of the village bully. Among both groups of people who live in small
settlements, without any hard and fast political organization, the
fear of the strongest person plays an important role, no matter
whether his power is founded on bodily strength or on supposed
supernatural qualities. The
story uses generally a weak, despised boy
as savior of the community. Although tales of overbearing chiefs
do occur among the Indians, they are not by any means a predomi-
nant type.
The principal theme of the Indians of British Columbia, 35 whose
thoughts are almost entirely taken up by the wish to obtain rank
and high position in their community, is the tale of a poor man who
attains high position, or that of the struggles between two chiefs who
try to outdo each other in feats that will increase their social standing.
36
Among the Blackf oot the principal theme is the acquisition of cere-
monies, possession and practice of which is a most important ele-
ment in their lives.
The differences of cultural life also influence the form of the nar-
rative, because the incidents are tied together in different ways. The
same motive recurs repeatedly in the tales of primitive people, so
that a large mass of material collected from the same tribe is liable
to be very monotonous, and after a certain point has been reached
we obtain only new variants of old themes.
Ahtsic. We have discussed the phenomena of rhythm in connec-
tion with song. It remains to describe the general characteristics of
melody, polyphony, and musical instruments.
The all-important element of music is tonality, the use of fixed
intervals that may be transposed from one point of the tone series
to another and which are always recognized as equivalent. There is
a certain similarity between the tonality of music and the tonality
of language. Many languages, like Chinese, many African, and many
American languages, give to their vowels or to syllabic consonants
different values according to their pitch. This is not absolutely fixed,
but the relative intervals between tones are maintained. Dr. George
37
Herzog has shown that parts of the songs of the Navajo and West
Africans, whose languages have pitch, are musical renderings of the
natural pitch of the spoken phrases. That means that the tones are
held more constant and the changes of absolute pitch that occur in
conversation are avoided. On this basis the Africans have developed
a drum language in w hich the different tones produced by striking
r
the middle or rim of the drum imitate the pitch-sequence and rhythm
of words. These are understood. In these cases the melody is derived
from the melody of speech. Herbert Spencer suggests that this is
the origin of all melody, but it seems doubtful whether it explains

the origin of the consistent tonality of a song which is not charac-
teristic of fluent speech in which intervals and absolute pitch vary
with emotional tone. This theory would also presuppose either that
by origin all languages had fixed pitch, or that all music originated
among a people that had pitch language. Since the origin of pitch
isoften secondary we can hardly assume that it was a trait common
38
to all the earliest languages? Carl Stumpf is of the opinion that the
sustained cry has been the most important element in the develop-
ment of music, because it used fixed intervals and stable tones*
Whatever the origin of music may have been, we must recognize
the existence of fixed intervals and transponibility as fundamental
requirements of all music.
Many have no musical instruments except those
primitive tribes
used for expressing rhythm. The tonality is carried exclusively by
the human voice. Sometimes the range of the melodies is a few tones,
as among the Chukchee; sometimes it extends over more than an
octave.
The selection of tones used presents difficult problems. Ordinarily,
to the untrained ear, the octave appears as a single tone and the
tones of the song stand in definite relation to the octave. The octave
may be divided according to overtones in a harmonic series, or it
may be subdivided in equidistant intervals. The fifth is found often
as a harmonic interval, but a neutral third which divides the fifth
in two equal parts may also be observed. On account of the un-
certainty of intonation of the untrained singer and the lack of exactly

constructed instruments among primitive people, it is difficult to
decide what they want to sing, particularly since intervals vary with
the degree of emotional excitement of the singers. Notwithstanding
these uncertainties, the definite tonal character of each musical phrase
stands out distinctly.
The musical systems of eastern Asia prove that our system is not
by any means the only possible one. The Javanese, for instance,
divide their octave into five, the Siamese into seven, equidistant
39
steps, while we have made an adjustment of the harmonic scale
by dividing the octave into twelve equal intervals.
The rhythm has been
universal use of instruments that accent
mentioned. While rhythm be indicated by hand-clapping or
may
stamping, there are commonly instruments in use that give a fuller
sound. These may be simply sticks with which resounding objects,
More complex are drums
like boards, are beaten. wooden boxes,
or much more commonly hoops or hollow cylinders, covered on one
or both sides with a drumhead of skin; notched sticks which are
pulled over the edges of hollow vessels, producing a rasping sound;
rattles of varying form, either hollow receptacles containing pebbles
or seeds which when shaken produce a rattling sound, or objects
like loose deer hoofs which are shaken and produce sounds when
striking one another. Drums give different tones according to the
way they are struck and the tension of the skins. Where skins are
used, the drums are no longer employed solely for marking rhythm,
but support melody. This is still more the case in those drums that
consist of a hollowed log one side of which has a long slit into which
two tongues of different lengths are inserted. When struck they pro-
duce different tones. The gongs of southern Asia and the xylophone
of Africa are also percussion instruments, but they are accurately
tuned and are used not only for marking rhythm but also for melodic
purposes. A curious intermediate position is occupied by an instru-
ment used in New Ireland, consisting of a block of wood, one side
of which is carefully leveled and divided by deep curved notches
into a number of sections. By rubbing over these or striking them
different tones are produced (see Fig. 46, p. 248).
Windinstruments are not as widely distributed as percussion
instruments. Their simplest forms are probably calls used by the
hunter and warrior. Others are employed for ceremonial purposes.
Large shells, horns of animals, and hollowed tusks are used. These
have only a single tone. When made of wood, lip pipes and reed pipes
are found. More complicated are flutes and flageolets provided with
stops which allow the playing of melodies. The ordinary forms are
similar to our instruments, but others, blown with the nose, occur in
the Pacific island area. In the Pandean pipe of Asia, Europe, the
Pacific islands, and South America a number of pipes, each of one
tone, are tied together in a line so that they can be blown in any de-
sired order.
Before the advent of the Europeans in America, string instruments
were entirely confined to the Old World. Since the tone of the vibrat-
ing string is weak, all these instruments are provided with a resonance
chamber. This invention does not belong to string instruments ex-
clusively, for it is also inherent in the construction of cylindrical and
box drums and in the so-called water drums, in which the body of the
drum is partly immersed in water. It is also used with the xylophone.
The simplest string instrument is the musical bow. In some forms a

broadened part of the string is held in front of the mouth, which serves
as a resonance chamber;* in others a hollow receptacle, such as a
gourd, is attached to the middle of the bow stave. The string is pulled
or struck with one hand, and its length is varied with the other.
The harp and lyre are still widely distributed in Africa.f A hybrid be-
tween xylophone and string instruments is the African zanza, which
consists of iron strips of varying length stretched over a resonance
box provided with a bridge. These are pulled at their ends like strings.
Instruments of the type of our violin do not seem to occur among
primitive people.
With the use of instruments capable of producing melodies we find
also instrumental music without song, or accompanying song.* Thus,
the American Indian plays tunes on his flageolet. Polyphony received
a strong stimulus by the development of instrumental music. Polyph-
onous singing has already been referred to.
Dance. Almost all singing is accompanied by movements of the
body. The clapping of hands and stamping of feet accentuate the
rhythm, but other parts of the body are in motion too. Trunk and
head sway, and arms are swung even without hand-clapping; in short,
simple dance movements are a common accompaniment of song.
In every region they have their own style. The Eskimo drummer holds
his drum at about the height of his head and bends the body from
side to side. Among some tribes the singer dances; often his sing-
ing accompanies the dance of others. On the Northwest Coast of

America the singers sit still and beat time while one or a few indi-
viduals dance; in certain dances of the Pueblo Indians a chorus sings
and the dance is often performed by large groups moving in forma-
tion. The body movement is also typical for each area.
style of
Polynesian singers are seated and swing their bodies; Northwest
Coast Indians dance bending their knees with each step and holding
their palms forward and trembling at about the height of the head.
A characterization of styles of dancing and a description of their dis-
tribution cannot be given, because too little is known about this
40
subject. Joint dances of the two sexes are rare, and dancers do not
often so move that their bodies are in close contact.
Symbolic or descriptive movements akin to gestures accompanying

speech appear with dance movements. Thus the chorus of the
Indians of the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico sing:
*
See Figure 47, page 248. f See Figure 48, page 249.
In the east rises the sun youth.
Here westward he moves with life and vegetation,
Carrying them in his basket while walking along.
When this song is sung the dancers are drawn up in formation

and perform their steps and movements in rhythmic accord with the
song. The singers stand in a close group around the drummer and
accompany their song with gestures. First they face west and move
a step forward. The word "vegetation" is expressed by pushing the
hands alternately upward, symbolizing the growing corn. The word
"basket" is designated by describing a wide circle with both hands
and bringing them together in front of the body. "Walking" is indi-
cated by stretching the hands out forward in front of the body and
waving them up and down.
The Kwakiutl sing as follows:
I am going around the world eating everywhere with the Cannibal
spirit.
I went to the center of the world; the Cannibal spirit is crying "food."
The singers beat time, but the dancer accompanies the song with
descriptive movements. With the words "I am going," the arms are
stretched out to one side; with "around the world," they swing
around in a wide circle; with "I," the shoulders are brought alter-
nately forward and backward; with "eating everywhere," the right

hand is stretched far out as though taking food, and then brought to
the mouth while the left describes a wide circle indicating "every-
where"; with "Cannibal spirit," both hands are bent inward and the
finger tips are moved toward the mouth. In the second line, after
making the sign indicating the Cannibal spirit, the arms are stretched
far back, palms down, and the head is lowered. This is the position
of the Cannibal when he utters his terrifying cry "ham" (that is,
"food"). When the words "the center of the world" are sung, the
dancer looks at the middle of the rear of the house in the attitude of
the Cannibal, the rear of the house symbolizing the center of the
world.
The example shows the close association between dance and
last
pantomime. As the cannibal dancer represents by movements the

ideas that are expressed in the song, so the artistic aim of the per-
formance is often the mimic representation of some impressive experi-
ence or event. To this class belong the numerous examples of animal
dances. In New Guinea a dance has been observed imitating the woo-
ing of a hen by a rooster, including the battle between two rival

roosters. The Indians of the Southwest impersonate in their dances
flying eagles. The Fijians are even said to have performed a group
dance imitating the surf of the ocean. In still other cases the dance
movements become subordinate to the pantomimic representation.
Thus the Indians of British Columbia represent the contents of their
myths and family histories. An artificial whale made of wood may

be seen to rise from the water and to bring back the ancestor who
has had a supernatural experience at the bottom of the sea. The
impressiveness of mimic dances is increased by the use of imitative
masks and dresses.
On account of the intense emotional value of music and dance they
enter into all those social situations which imply heightened effects,
and in their turn they call forth intense emotional reaction. Thus it is
that war and religion offer numerous situations which are accompanied
by music and dance, which are in part an expression of the excite-
ment inherent in the situation, in part a means of exciting the pas-
sions. It would be an error to assume that the sources of music and
dance must be looked for in these situations. It seems more likely
that they share with other ethnic phenomena, particularly religion,
the tendency to associate themselves with all those activities that
give rise to emotional states similar to those of which they them-
selves are expressions.
FOOTNOTES
Ethnology, vol. 31 (1916), pp. 225 ff.
2. Boas, F., Keresan Texts, Publications of the American Ethnological Society,
vol. 8, Part I (1928), pp. 82 ff.; Benedict, R., Tales.of the Cochiti Indians,
Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology, vol. 98 (1931), pp. 49 ff.
3. Ker, A., Papuan Fairy Tales (London, 1910), p. 106.
4. Meier, P. J., Mythen und Erzdhlungen dcr Kustenbewohner der Gazelle-
Halbinsel (Miinster, 1909), p. 262.
5. Boas, F., "Eskimo Tales and Songs/' Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 7
(1894), p. 45.
6. See for instance, Boas, F., Keresan Texts, op. cit., Part II (1925), pp. 342, 343.
Indians, Report of the United States National Museum for 1895 (1897).
8. Fornander Collection of Hawaiian Antiquities and Folk-lore, Memoirs of the
Bernice P. Bishop Museum, vol. 4, Part II (Honolulu, 1917), p. 371.
9. Jones, W., Fox Texts, Publications of the American Ethnological Society,
vol. 1 (Leyden, 1907), p. 337.
10. Bucher, K., Arbeit und Rhythmus (Leipzig, 1909).
11. Wundt, W., Volkerpsychologie, vol. 3 (Leipzig, 1919), p. 507.
12. Densmore, F., Tdon Sioux Music, Bulletin of the Bureau of American Eth-
nology, vol. 61 (1918), p. 162.
13.Beckwith, M. W., The Hawaiian Romance of Laieikawai, Annual Report of
the Bureau of American Ethnology, vol. 33 (1919), p. 403.
Indians, p. 346.
15. Doke, C. M., Lamba Folk-Lore, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society,
vol. 20 (1927), p. 357.
16. Ibid., p. 403.
17. Gutmann, B., Volksbuch der IVadschagga (Leipzig, 1914), p. 244.
18. Boas, F., Tsimshian Mythology, pp. 567 ff.
19. Cronise, F., and Ward, H., Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and Other Beef (1903);
Tremearne, A. J. N., Hausa Superstitions and Customs (London, 1913).
20. Ske at, W., Fables and Folk Tales from an Eastern Forest (Cambridge, 1904).
(
21. Daimhardt, O., Natursagen, vol. 4 (Leipzig, 1912), pp. 217 ff.
22. Gatschet, A. S., A Migration Legend of the Creeks (1884), pp. 214 ff.
23. Gushing, F. II., Outlines of Zuni Creation Myths, Annual Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology, vol. 13 (1896), pp. 321 ff.
24. Roscoe, J., The Baganda (London, 1911), pp. 460 ff.
25. Boas, F., The Central Eskimo, Annual Report of the Bureau of (American)
Ethnology, vol. 6 (1888), p. 615.
26. Boas, F., "Notes and Queries," Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 39
(1926), p. 486.
27. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie (Berlin, 1875-78).
J.,
28. Gomme,G. L., Folklore as an Historical Science (London, 1908).
29. Boas, F., Tsimshian Mythology, pp. 393 ff.; and Kwakiutl Culture as Reflected
in Mythology, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 28 (1935).
30. Benedict, R., Concept of the Guardian Sjnrit in North America, Memoirs of
the American Anthropological Association, no. 29 (1923).
31. Bogoras, W., The Chukchee, Jesup Expedition, vol. 7 (1904-09), p. 418.
32. Parsons, E. C., "Nativity Myth at Laguna and Zuni," Journal of American
Folk-Lore, vol. 31 (1918), pp. 258 ff.
33. Bogoras, W., op. tit.
34. Rink, H., Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo (London, 1875).
35. Boas, F., Tsimshian Mythology; and Kwakiutl Texts, Jesup Expedition, vol. 3
(1902-05).
36. Wissler, C., and Duvall, D. C., Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians, An-
thropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 2
(1909), pp. 1 ff.
37. Herzog, G., "Speech-Melody and Primitive Music," The Musical Quarterly,
vol. 20, no. 4 (1934).
38. Stumpf, C., Die Anfange der Musik (Leipzig, 1911).
39. Stumpf, C., "Tonsystem und Musik der Siamesen," Abhandlungen zur ver-
gleichenden Musikwissenschaft, vol. 1 (1922), pp. 127 ff.

40. An interesting attempt to analyze the dance steps of American Indians,
principally Pueblo, has been made by Bessie Evans and G. Evans, May
American Indian Dance Steps (1931).
CHAPTER XIII
MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE

FRANZ BOAS
Myth and folk tale. It is impossible to draw a sharp line between

myths and folk tales, because the same tales which occur as myths
appear also in the form of folk tales. If we define myths as tales that
give an interpretation of natural phenomena, we are confronted with
the difficulty that a tale may conform with this definition in one case,
while in another it may be a purely human tale, sometimes even void
of wonderful elements. Thus the same tale would at one time be
classed as a myth, and at another time as a folk tale.
If we take as the basis of our definition the personification of
animals, plants, heavenly bodies, and natural phenomena, another

such personifications appear also in folk tales
difficulty arises, for
that are purely imaginative or even considered as true events that
have happened to contemporaries.
The reference to religious ideas and rituals does not constitute a
useful criterion either, for these may enter into myths as well as into
folk tales relating to recent occurrences.
Mythological concepts. Definition of mythological concepts is much
easier than definition of mythological tales. Mythological concepts
are the fundamental views of the constitution of the world and of its
origin. These enter into tales relating to incidents in the lives of
mythical beings, and into folk tales referring to the exploits and
sufferings of our contemporaries, often of known individuals. Thus the
African tells of encounters with ancestral ghosts and of the misdeeds
of witches; the Koryak shaman recounts his fights with evil spirits;
the European relates the incidents of the lives of the saints and deal-
ings with the devil the Oriental listens to stories of demons controlled
;
by magic rings, and the American Indian to visits to the land of the
ghosts. In all these legends the mythological concepts appear as
1
part and parcel of the tales.
It is fairly clear that stories are unhesitatingly classed as myths if
they account for the origin of the world and if they may be said to
609
have happened in a mythical period, different from the one in which
we live now. The difference is clearly recognized by many tribes, like
the North American Indians, the Andaman Islanders, and the
Australians.
Origin of tales. In a treatment of tales the question whether they
are myths or folk tales may be disregarded. The problem relates
rather to the elucidation of the history and origin of tales, and to the
question how and to what extent mythical concepts become the
principal subject of tales. The significance of Hesiod's account of
the history of the gods is obviously different from that of the deeds
and sufferings of Odysseus.
We shall first of all consider the question of the origin of tales.
In an Inquiry for which no record of past times is available we must
try to establish the processes that are active at the present time and
see whether they may help us in an attempt to reconstruct the past.
There is no reason for assuming that the same processes should not
have been active in earlier times, at least as long as the types of
culture conformed to the standards of modern primitive tribes. This
has certainly been the case ever since the later part of the Paleolithic
period, for the remains of modern primitives found after thousands
of years would conform strictly to the level indicated by the remains
of these early times.
An analysis of folk tales shows that they deal almost throughout
with events that may occur in human society, with human passions,
virtues, and vices. Sometimes the events are quite plausible, but more
often they are fantastic and of such a character that they cannot have
had their origin in human experience, but may be understood as the
results of the play of imagination with everyday experience. The
products of imagination are not simply reproductions of sense-

experiences, although they are built of them. They are the result of
daydreams that play with them, and of their emotional tone. We are
filled with an ardent desire, and our imagination lets us see our wish
fulfilled, no matter how impossible it may be. An event strikes us

with wonder, and in our imagination the wonderful elements will be
exaggerated. We are threatened with danger, and the cause of
danger may appear to us endowed with extraordinary powers. In all
these situations the actual experience may be exaggerated or turned
into its opposite, and the impossible will be realized.
After the death of a dear friend neither we. nor primitive people
speculate as to what may have become of his soul; but we feel the
MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE 611
ardent desire to undo what has happened, and in the free play of
fancy we see the dead come back to life. The slain leader in battle
whose dismembered body is found is restored to full vigor. The war-
rior surrounded by enemies, when all means of retreat are cut off, will
wish to pass unseen through the ranks of the foe, and in a strong
imagination the wish will become a reality.
Other mythic forms may be understood as exaggerations of ex-
periences. Thus the beauty of form of the human body may transcend
the realm of reality. The shining youths with resplendent hair may
thus be understood. Deformations of the body also supply the
imagination with material. Monstrosities that cannot survive are
assumed to live and to become a source of danger. Wrinkles, moles,
warts, supernumerary limbs, discolorations, are all elemente from

which the play of imagination may build its figures.
The very fact that these experiences and situations occur in every
human society and that the psychological stimulus for imaginative
transformations is present everywhere is sufficient to explain the
general similarity of many fantastic figures and happenings in folk

tales.
Mythology and folklore cannot be understood solely from the
point of view of a primitive philosophy, as the result of speculative

thought about the origin and structure of the world and of human
life. It is no less an outflow of artistic, more specifically literary
activity. The
one-sided emphasis laid upon the intimate relation
between religion and mythology obscures the imaginative play that
is involved in the formation of myths.
Folk tales must be considered as analogous to modern novelistic

literature. The attempt which has often been made to refer all of
2
them to phenomena or sun, 3 does not take into
of nature, to the moon
consideration the actual play of imagination that is common to man-
kind the world over. It is not necessary to identify a person who is
covered with warts with the moon, on account of the suggestive
shadows oh her surface; or to assume that the cutting up or swallowing
of a hero's body represents the waning of the moon. The elaborate
theories of psychoanalysis seem also unnecessary for the purpose
of explaining the wonderful elements of folk tales or of mythological
figures. The free play of imagination operating with everyday ex-
periences is account for their origin. The vocabulary and

sufficient to
grammar of languages of primitive tribes possess forms, that express

" " "
if I could," if I were," if this had not happened," and others that
can be understood only as the expression of imaginative happenings.
Equally clear evidence of the importance of imaginative thought are
the numerous similes and metaphorical expressions in the languages
There is no need to search for the origin of meta-
of primitive tribes.
4
phor when actually the vocabulary of every language proves that the
process of restriction, expansion, and transfer of meaning is con-
stantly at work shaping and reshaping the significance of word
symbols. Every transfer of meaning may become the stimulus for
metaphoric use, if it is not itself a metaphor.
For these reasons does not seem necessary to search in nature for
it
prototypes of beings endowed with extraordinary qualities and of

events that are exaggerations or distortions of what happens in
everyday life. These are material from which tales and many mytho-
logical concepts are built.
Dissemination of talcs. A study of tales as they are now found gives
very slight evidence of the ability of man to invent new motives. It
seems rather that his imagination is restricted by the current forms
of tales.
The similarity of tales found in many parts of the world has given
5 6
rise to prolonged discussion. While Tylor, Brinton, and other early
investigators were inclined to see in these correspondences evidence
of a psychic unity of mankind, and assumed that each one of the
analogous stories had an independent origin wherever told, careful

investigation of the distribution and recent spread of talcs has
proved that most cases the occurrence of similar tales is due to
in
dissemination. This has been shown most satisfactorily for European
and Asiatic folk tales and for those of North America. The place of
origin of each tale cannot be ascertained, but the lines along which it
traveled may be traced. In Europe and Asia literature was a power-
ful means of spreading tales; in America the large continuous areas of
distribution of certain tales are ample evidence of their common
7
origin. This evidence
corroborated by the spread of European tales
is
imported into the continent after the arrival of the Spaniards and
8 9
Portuguese. French stories are widely known among the Indian
North America. Spanish tales are found even in the remote,
tribes of
10
unexplored forests of the Amazon basin.
A few complex stories consisting of a sequence of unrelated elements
have an exceedingly wide distribution. Perhaps the most convincing
one of these is that of the Magic Flight, the outstanding elements of
which are the flight from an ogre, and objects thrown back over the
shoulder forming obstacles a stone which becomes a mountain; a

comb which becomes a oil which becomes a body of water.
thicket;
The tale is known from the Atlantic border of Europe eastward over
Asia and North America, reaching the Atlantic coast in Greenland. 11
It is hardly conceivable that such a group of unrelated incidents
should arise independently in regions far apart. The continuous area
over which the tale is distributed also indicates that it was carried
from people to people, from tribe to tribe. Thus it is possible to trace
with a high degree of probability the historically determined distri-
bution of complex tales,
Origin of elements of tales. The same method cannot be pursued
when irregularly distributed elements of tales are concerned. Their
occurrence has been used to prove that they must arise not only from
the similar working of the mind among all races, but from a deep-
seated tendency to express the ever-recurring phenomena of nature
in thesame imaginative terms. It is true that the moon appears the
same, that she waxes and wanes all over the world, but this does not
prove that every tale of a disfigured face or of growth and decline, of
being swallowed up or killed and being reborn, must refer to the moon,
for there are endless other experiences in human life that suggest the
same group of ideas. Nor is it necessary to claim that every ferocious
snake must be the lightning, and that every shining youth must be
the sun.
One of the widely distributed elements is that of the swallowed
person or animal who regains freedom and, as a frequent incident,
loses his hair by the heat in the body of the swallowing monster. 12 It
is familiar to us from the stories of Jonah and the Leviathan and of
our Tom Thumb. Theactual swallowing of a whole animal may be
observed in the feeding habits of snakes. The birth of young animals
suggests the possibility of naked living beings coming out of the body
of a larger animal. Added to this are the curious feelings of bodies
moving in the stomach and intestines in cases of indigestion, and the

noises produced by gases that lead to the idea of animals infesting
the body, of which the patient ultimately rids himself. Such observa-
tions may well have stimulated the imagination and given rise to the
theme of swallowed animals, without having resort to the far-fetched
idea that in every case this animal must be the moon. It is not claimed
that this must be the only origin of the tale. It is merely intended to
show that there are human experiences that furnish all the elements.
It is also interesting to note that notwithstanding the accurate knowl-
edge of the anatomy of animals the most fanciful distortions appear.
The swallowed animal reaches up to the heart and cuts it off. It slides
straight through the alimentary canal of the monster like the piece
of bacon attached by Miinchhausen to a fishline which was swallowed
by one duck after another. The monster is so huge that whole tribes
camp in its stomach, and its breath is so strong that it inhales what-
ever approaches it.
Another example of widely and irregularly distributed incidents

is the ascent to heaven by means of a chain of arrows. Visits to the
skyland are probably universal, but the methods of ascent differ. Of

course,nobody has ever seen a chain of arrows that can be climbed,
but seems entirely within the reach of imagination to extend the
it
the game of hitting the notch of an arrow with a second one to

develop an idea of this kind. It cannot be denied that the rays of the
sun shining through the clouds in a moist atmosphere may have
helped to develop the idea.
It does not seem plausible that all incidents of the class here re-
ferred to are immediate reflexes of natural
phenomena that suggested
the tales, for those explainable as a play of imagination with the
events of human life are far too numerous. It seems most likely that
the imagination of the storytellers transferred these elements to the
anthropomorphized natural phenomena which were thus drawn into
the circle of human society.
After a mythology of this kind had developed and in course of time
lost its vigor and meaning, it may well have disintegrated again and
become the subject matter of folk tales. Thus Grimm derived the
story of the Sleeping Beauty surrounded by an impenetrable hedge
of thorns from the fire surrounding the rock of the sleeping Valkyrie. 13
The most important character-
Character of mythological concepts.
mythological concepts is personification. It is not difficult to
istic of
understand why animals should be personified, for their behavior

resembles in many ways that of man. Their actions are easily under-
stood as motivated by hunger, fear, anger, and love. When their
strength is superior to that of man and he succumbs to their attack,
proof of their greater power that is pitted against him.
it is
These personified animals appear everywhere in tales. In striking

contrast to the human actors, they are sharply characterized accord-
ing to their observed habits.The cunning fox and the greedy, stupid
wolf of European folk tales, the monkey of India, the coyote, raven,
and rabbit of North America, the jaguar of South America, the turtle
and spider of Africa, are types whose mental characteristics reappear

in every tale. The habits of the species are concentrated in one
individual. Furthermore, what happened to the one representative
individual has determined the fate of all the members of the species.
When in the European tale the cat and dog quarrel, this brings about
14
eternal enmity between the two species when the bear pulls off his
;
tail trying to free it from the hold of the ice, it accounts for the short-
15
ness of the tails of all bears. Stories of this kind are often told for
entertainment and are not taken seriously, while at other times they
are believed to account for the actual conditions of the world. Still
more frequently the observed fact is given as proof of the truth of the
tale.
Actually the relation between tale and explanatory element Js very

loose. Many examples show that the same tale appears with a great
variety of explanatory elements and that the tale has its independent
existence without any attached explanatory element. Waterman has
16
given a list of these for North America. The elements of mytho-
logical concepts are thoughts suggested by the contents of the
preexisting tale, and therefore depend upon its literary interest. It is
not the story that has been added to the observation, but the obser-
vation that has been attached to the story on account of its appro-
priateness.
Explanatory tales of this kind do not refer to the characteristics of
animals alone. Sometimes traits of the human body or phenomena of
nature are explained in the same way. Thus the occurrence of limping
or of defects in bodily proportions is explained by the tale that when a
mass of skeletons were revived the bones of different individuals were
17
confused ;
or it is said that wood burns because an animal running
18
away with fire hid it in wood.
The extension of the belief that will power exists in natural phe-
nomena that interfere in the life of man is also perfectly intelligible.
Destructive floods, gales, thunder storms, rock slides, are not con-
sidered as due to natural causes, but are believed to be endowed with
the will to destroy. All moving objects that have any influence upon
human life are thus easily viewed as endowed with human passions
and human will power. Sun, moon, stars, clouds, are included in this
group. If the phenomena of nature are once endowed with human
qualities, it is not hard to understand why imagination should not
also endow them with human form. The substitution of mythical
concepts for natural phenomena is illustrated by many examples.

Thunder is produced by the flapping of the wings, lightning by the
opening of the eyes of the thunderbird; the sun is the resplendent
nose ornament of the sun god; dangerous whirlpools are the home of
sea monsters; spring is due to the victory of the south wind over the
north wind; the earth is the mother of all vegetation or of all life,
the sky the father; rivers are living persons; the rainbow carries water
from the earth up to the sky. Wundt has discussed this process of
19
personification of nature in his work on mythology. Since the phe-
nomena of nature were considered as anthropomorphic it came about
easily that novelistic tales were transferred to the domain of mytho-
logical beings.
Myths. The mythological beings preexisted the modern order of
the world. They may still appear as actors in tales relating to the
modern world, but their great feats belong to a mythological period.
It would not be fair to assume that the myths dealing with the
origin of the world or of the gift of arts and ceremonials to mankind
were the result of a light play of imagination, as we suppose the rather
insignificant animal tales to have been. The importance of the sub-
jectmatter and the seriousness with which they are treated suggest
that they are the result of thought about the origin of the world
and of wonder about cultural achievements and the meaning of sacred
rites.The only causality known in an anthropomorphic world is the
one prevailing in human society, and thus it comes about that the
incidents of human life that result in achievements are transferred
to the mythical beings. As man takes by force or fraud from his
fellows a coveted possession, so the mythical beings overcome others
and take away from them valued possessions which thus become
their property and that of mankind conceived as their tribe. In
other cases they may freely bestow their gifts upon their people.
When offended they punish the offender. As the war leader over-
comes enemies and as the fearless hunter destroys dangerous animals,
so the mythical characters rid the country of giants and monsters.
Like the craftsman who fashions his tools and works of art, they
create man and animals or useful and beautiful objects. As the wise
man plans for the future, so the mythical being plans and his thoughts
become reality.
A detailed study of mythologies shows clearly that, viewed from
this angle, they reflect in detail the cultures of which they form part.
The mythical beings of the Eskimo are Eskimo; those of the Aus-
tralians, Australians. The chiefs of the Polynesians have their coun-
terpart in their deities; the gods of the Dahomeans are Dahomeans;

and the gods on Olympus lead the life Greek royalty.
of
One trait of the animal tale has been carried over almost con-
sistently into mythology: the idea that what happened once has
determined the fate of the world. Because a certain person died and
it was decreed that he should not rise again, all men must die and
remain dead, although before this death was unknown 20 because ;
the sun at one time was very hot, the high mountains are rocky
and full of cracks. 21 We may recognize the same thought in idealized
form in the story of Adam and Eve. Because they disobeyed the
order not to eat of the tree of knowledge all mankind is punished
with them. The individual remains the representative of the species
or society to which he belongs and is identified with it. 9
Tales referring to events that result in permanent changes are
more easily understood. The islands fished up from the deep by the
22
Polynesian hero Maui are still there the rivers into which West
;
Africans were transformed are still running 23 the hunters who were
;
wafted up to the sky and became stars may still be seen. 24

The formation of myths must be so understood that the imagina-
tion applied human experiences to mythological times and then, by
a reversion of order, made the mythical time the pattern on which
the world and life were shaped. When in Semitic mythology God
created the world, the whole world as it is now preexisted in his
thought, and the creation was a process of reobjectivation of the
thoughts representing man's knowledge of the world.
The same attitude may be observed in many mythological tales
which explain customs, particularly rituals. According to the tales,
the customs or rituals were given to man by mythological beings
who ordered the observance of a taboo or other custom, or who al-
lowed the mortal visitor to see a ritual. 25 The uniformity of many
such rituals over large areas and the diversity of mythological ex-
planations show clearly that the ritual itself is the stimulus for the
formation of the myth. As in the Semitic creation the known world
was subjectivized as the thought of God and then reobjectivated, so
the known ritual was transferred to a mythical world and explained
as revealed to a visitor. The ritual existed, and the tale originated
from the desire to account for it.
On account of the character of its origin the mythology of many
primitive tribes consists of disconnected, often of contradictory, tales.

26
Thus among the Eskimo the sun and moon are brother and sister ;
but at the same time in another tale the moon is a house.27 Among
the Tsimshian of British Columbia the Sun was kept in a box and
28
liberated by the Haven, but he is also a man wearing a flaming
mask. 29 These contradictions are not necessarily felt as incongruous.
They may be held as true by different individuals in the tribe, or
the contradiction may never rise into consciousness.
The forms of mythologies show quite consistently that systematiza-
tion goes hand in hand with greater systematization of cultural life.
Where political or religious organization is highly integrated, we are
likely to find also integration of mythological concepts that cor-
respond to the types of organization found in human society. The

converse is even more true. When the order of social life is loose,
when instead of a firm integration of social life a loose organization

prevails, the mythological world corresponds to these conditions and
the mythology is full of contradictions.
Many tribes have social divisions which are analogous in their
functions but sharply set off from one another. Quite commonly
these divisions have myths which though specifically distinct are
expressions of the same fundamental concepts and of analogous type.
Examples of this kind are the tales of the totemic ancestors of the
Australian Arunta, 30 who were cut out of preexisting mythological
animals and who later disappeared underground; or the origin myths
of the Kwakiutl Indians, who derive their family lines from beings
that came down from the sky or up from the sea in the form of ani-
mals that took off their dresses and became men. 31 Identical mytho-
32
logical concepts appear also in the Kaliths of the Pelew Islands
and in the ritualistic origin tales of the Blackfoot, 33
although neither
of these belongs to the mythical period. In these cases certain groups
of mythological concepts are brought into order. The formal agree-
ment of such classes of tales corresponds to a general principle, for
if one social group is characterized by certain features, all others of
the same kind have analogous features. If one is named, all are
named; if one has certain insignia or taboos, others will be charac-
terized also by insignia or taboos. If one has certain social duties,
others are likely to have other duties.
Effect of individual thought upon mythology. There are, however,
higher levels of mythology in which the mass of mythological con-
ceptsis worked into a more harmonious unit. It would seem that
thishappens particularly wherever a small group of people devote

much thought to ritual and mythology and where for this reason a
systematization of concepts, sometimes also of tales, develops. In

many cases the results of such speculation take on the form of esoteric
knowledge guarded by a few individuals, priests or chiefs, whichever
the casemay be. In this manner the systematic mythologies owned
by the various families of the Bella Coola 34 developed out of the
unorganized mass of myths and tales of British Columbia; in this

way must have grown up the mythologies of Polynesia perhaps
under the influence of the highly developed mythologies of south-
eastern Asia.
An example of this kind are the tales of the Andaman Islanders.
Certain menare believed to have special knowledge as to the spirits
and as to the magical efficacy of remedies for sickness. These are
the authorities on the legendary lore of the Andamanese. 35 Although
the tales are not in any way esoteric, only certain men are regarded
as having authority to speak, and in telling and retelling the tales
they modify them even in important traits. It is intelligible that,
if some of these men may adapt the
are of philosophic mind, they
current tales tophenomena and reinterpret them. This is
of nature
analogous to the processes of reinterpretation which are common in

the development of the symbolic significance of art designs and of
Radcliffe-Brown's interpretations may be accepted, many
rituals. If
tales have been centered around two deities representing the south-
west and northeast monsoons.
Mythologies of these types give us the "impression of being the
results of philosophic thought coupled with deep emotion. They are
found particularly among tribes in which a mythology of sacred
character is not the property of the whole group but is in the jealously
guarded keeping of a small group of priests, chiefs, or other guardians;
in other words, they occur where we find an esoteric and an exoteric
mythology. There is abundant proof showing that esoteric mythol-

ogies have arisen on the basis of widespread concepts.
An excellent example is furnished by the family traditions of the
Bella Coola t)f British Columbia, which are considered the exclusive
sacred property of the family. The material of which these tradi-
tions consistis the same as that of neighboring tribes. Among the
Kwakiutl, some distance to the south, the year is divided into a

secular and a sacred season, but there is no myth connected with
them. The Bella Coola say that the keepers of the sacred ceremonial
live beyond the ocean and bring it at a certain time each year to
this world. At the end of the season they depart with it. Among the
Kwakiutl, animals are said to live in separate villages inland and in
the sea. Among the nearer neighbors of the Bella Coola, in Rivers
Inlet, all animals and plants are said to reside in one house where
they perform sacred ceremonies. Among the Bella Coola this house
has been lifted to the sky, and the beings living in it have assumed
the functions of gods that rule over the destinies and cultural ac-
tivities of man.
Foreign elements appear also in the myths connected with sacred
rituals.The myth accounting for the cannibal ceremony of the tribes
just referred to is a good example. 36 It is not an esoteric myth, but
is referred to as the origin of the ceremonials. The tale contains the
well-known theme of the Magic Flight, which is circumpolar in its
distribution and has been woven into the complex.
Among the Navajo the complete knowledge of an origin myth must
be acquired by long training. There are only a few whom the keepers
of the traditions consider competent to be taught. The material of
which the whole tradition is composed is known, but the sequence
and symbolic significance belong only to those who have been taught.
In general it may be said that the patterns of ritualistic behavior
are old. Their mythological explanation is fitted to the ritual accord-
ing to the patterns of tribal thought. There has been frequent borrow-
ing of myths and also of sacred rites which have been assimilated
according to local conditions. Examples are the North American Sun
37
Dance, which has fundamentally the same form everywhere, but
varied explanations; the various forms of the Ghost Dance 38 and
the Mescal ceremonials, 39 which are derived from old elements inter-
mingled with Christian teachings; and the elaborate Melanesian
-
rituals.
Esoteric and exoteric mythology. Esoteric teaching refers to rituals
and is often largely based on mythological concepts. Wherever it
became the exclusive charge of a small, select group of guardians,
opportunity was given for a more or less conscious attempt at system-
atizing the heterogeneous mass of beliefs and practices current in the
tribe. The thoughts of the men charged with the keeping of sacred
rites are occupied with questions relating to their form and meaning.
It is intelligible that in the course of generations the esoteric knowl-
edge which its guardians had to teach to their successors increased
in cohesion. It therefore seems likely that the esoteric doctrine must
have been evolved on the foundation of the exoteric knowledge of the
tribe and must be considered as a secondary development. It expresses
the reaction of selected minds of the to their general

community
cultural environment. It is their
attempt to systematize the ideas
that underlie the culture of the community. The more or less strictly
esoteric doctrine exerts its influence upon popular belief so that
there is a mutual and inextricable interrelation between the two.
The historical investigation of popular antiquities in Europe leads
to analogous conclusions. While a romantic love of the early life of a
nation assumed naively a spontaneous and autonomous growth of its
"
culture from earliest times, the historical inquiry has shown that the
knowledge of the great, historical intermixtures of cultures in Europe,
of the dependence of the popular elements of culture upon the 'high
*
culture/ as revealed in popular art, costume or in popular poetry and
music, superstitions, popular medicine, etc., has shaken our belief in
'
a purely ethnic, national' origin of folk culture which was the be-
ginning of the study of folk lore and folk antiquities in almost every
40
European country/' As an example of the complex relations be-
tween esoteric and exoteric doctrine we may refer to the divination
of antiquity, the middle ages, arid modern times. The continuity of
the ancient tradition and its gradual infiltration into popular belief
can be proved. 41 On the other hand, the belief in witches and the
elaboration of the ideas underlying the trials of witches require for
their understanding not only the traditional transmission of belief
but also the current beliefs in witchcraft. The strength of the effect
of popular belief upon the cultivated classes may be judged from
many examples. One of these is the famous order of Ernst August,
Duke of Sachse-Weimar, 1742, who ordered that wooden plates in-
scribed with a magic formula should be thrown into burning buildings
in order to extinguish fire; another, the various magical means by
which the priests extinguished fire. The resurgence of palmistry,
spiritualism, and astrology at times of particular social stress shows
also how readily folk beliefs are taken up by the educated and how
they may be organized into systems. There is a constant give and

take between the beliefs of the select, leading classes of society and
the folk beliefs; and the relation between the guardians of esoteric
teachings to current beliefs must be conceived in the same way.
For this reason the esoteric teachings of the secret societies of all
continents have contents which agree with the popular beliefs al-
though they may differ in tone. In Africa we find systems of mythology
*
That of the classes in close contact with the technical, scientific, philo-
sophical, and artistic tendencies of the whole continent.
based on ancestor worship. Of this kind are the Yoruban Orisha, the
ancestors of every member of the extended family; and the Dahomean
Tovodun, the ancestor gods. The complex system of these tribes is
in part the result of a conscious coordination of distinct cults for the
political purpose of unification of the states, but built on the popular

42
beliefs of the constituent elements. The east Polynesian genealogies
are no less built on the popular belief in the divinity of the chiefs.
The modern American cults, like the Ghost Dance religion, the
Shakers of the Pacific coast, and the Peyote cult are built on ancient
traditionmixed with Christian teaching.
Relation of mythology to other aspects of culture. If it is true that
myths are built on the experiences of everyday life, we may expect
that the dominant cultural interests are reflected in them. The inci-
dents mirror the life and their occupations, and social
of the people
life may in part be reconstructed from these tales. 43 Only when a rapid
change of culture occurs may the tales refer to earlier conditions, as in
the fairy tales of Europe, or in the tales of those primitive tribes that
are in process of Europeanization.
The influence of cultural life is not restricted to this field but
appears also in the manifold forms of cultural concepts. The em-
phasis upon the space relations among the Pueblo Indians is an
example. The four points of the compass, the above and below, are
to them of greatest importance, and the mythological world is di-
44
vided up according to these ideas. The importance of the southwest
and northeast winds in the mythology of the Andaman Islanders
has been referred to before. The Omaha 45 have a division of sky,
the male, and earth, the female. The Winnebago 46 distinguish be-
tween the heavens, the sky, earth, the water, and the world under
the waters. The Eskimo 47 have one or two worlds above, our world,
and one or two worlds below. The Polynesians believe in an order
of worlds, one over the other, which are at the same time considered
48
as representing a genealogical sequence. Local concepts of the
49
Kwakiutl are of different character. The ancestors and super-
natural beings have their homes in the sky, or in the sea. West,
beyond the ocean, is the home of the salmon; upstream along the
coast (that is, northward) that of copper; inland the house of
the land animals, who live in villages; underground the land of the
ghosts.
A
similar variety of ideas is found in regard to time
concepts.
The frequent occurrence of a mythical age preceding the modern
age has been mentioned as one of the fundamental characteristics

of mythologies. In some cases the line between these two ages is not
sharply drawn. This is particularly true in Africa. The idea is clearly

developed in the highly organized states of West Africa. Other
50 51 52
tribes, like the Bafiote, Pangwe, Bushongo, and Barotse tell of a
deity Nsambi, Chembe, or Nyambe, as he is called among the
various tribes, who lived on earth but retired from mankind on

account of their importunities. The Bafiote follow 'this with a story
of an ancestor who brought the fire and, migrating with his children,
gave fertility to the earth wherever he went. Many of the innumer-

able African animal stories can hardly be considered as mythical,
but are analogous to the European animal tales. Others, like the
53
widespread African tale of the origin of death due to the stowness
of the chameleon or some other animal who was sent to announce
that man should be immortal but was overtaken by the lizard who
brought the opposite message, are of a more serious character, being
based on actions of a deity and belonging more or less clearly to a
mythological period. At the same time the high development of
ancestor worship which transforms the immediate ancestors into
54
mythical beings disturbs the concept of a mythical period. In
North America we find both the concepts of a mythical past and
that of a future when the mythical beings will return and bring
happiness to mankind. Thus it is said that the "Old Man" and
Coyote of the Thompson Indians will come back from their retire-
ment and bring back the shades of the Indians. 55
Each particular mythology has its own character according to
the cultural interests of the tribe. In some regions the problem of
creation foremost in the minds of the people, while others do not
is
trouble themselves about this question but assume heaven, earth,

sun, and moon as without beginning or end, while they may have
thoughts about the creation of man and of animals. Instead of a
creationwe may hear about transformation of a preexisting world
into its present shape, a work generally achieved by a culture hero
who makes the world habitable by killing monsters and by giving
man his arts and rituals.
When we find complex tales that are interpreted by the native or
may be interpreted by the student as explanations of natural phe-
nomena, it is always necessary to ask whether we are dealing with
a preexisting human story which is symbolically applied to phe-
nomena of nature. The numerous and varying interpretations of the
same stories prove that the tendency exists of using stories for the
purpose of explaining phenomena of nature.
FOOTNOTES
1. Wundt, W., Vdlkerpsychologie (Leipzig, 1909), vol. 2, Part III, p. 19.
2. Ehrenreich, P., Die allgemeine Mythologie und ihre ethnologischeu Grundlagen
(Leipzig, 1910); Siecke, E., Mythologische Briefe (Berlin, 1909).
3. Frobenius, Leo, Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes (Berlin, 1904).
4. Werner, H., Die Urspriinge der Metapher (Leipzig, 1919).
5. Tylor, E. B., Primitive Culture (1874).
6. Brinton, D. G., The Myths of the New World (1896).
7. Boas, F., Tsimshian Mythology , Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, vol. 31 (1916).
8. Espmosa, A. M., "Comparative Notes on New-Mexican and Mexican
Spanish Folk-Tales," Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 27 (1914), p. 211.
9. Teit, James, Mythology of the Thompson Indians, Jesup Expedition, vol. 8
(1913), pp. 385 fF.; Thompson, Stith, Tales of the North American Indians
(1929), pp. 201 ff. See also "Index of the Journal of American Folk-Lore"
in Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 14 (1930), under
European Folklore in America.
10. Koch-Griinberg, Th., Vom Roroima zum Orinoco (Stuttgart, 1924), vol. 2,
pp. 140 ff.

11. Bolte, J.,and Polivka, G., Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- und Hausmdrchen der
Bruder Grimm, vol. 2 (Leipzig, 1915), p. 140; Thompson, Stith, op. cit.,
p. 333, note 205.
12. Tylor, E. B., Researches into the Early History of Mankind (3rd ed., 1878),
pp. 344 ff.; Thompson, Stith, op. cit., p. 321, notes 158, 159.
13. Bolte, J., and Polivka, G., op. cit., vol. 1 (Leipzig, 1913), p. 441.
14. Dahnhardt, O., Natursagen (Leipzig, 1907-12), vol. 4, pp. 103 ff.
15. Ibid., vol. 3, p. 49; vol. 2, p. 251.

16. Waterman, T. T., "The Explanatory Element in the Folk-Tales of the North
American Indians," Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 27 (1914), pp. 41 ff.
17. Boas, F., Kwakiutl Tales, New Series, Columbia University Contributions
to Anthropology, vol. 26, Part I (1935), p. 3.
18. Thompson, Stith, op. cit., p. 289, note 63.
19. Wundt, W., Vdlkerpsychologie (1905), vol. 2, Part I, pp. 577 ff.
21. Boas, F., Bella Bella Tales, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society,
25 (1932), p. 27.
vol.
22. Dixon, R. B., in The Mythology of All Races edited by L. H. Gray (1916),
vol. 9, p. 43.
23. Talbot, P. A., The Peoples of Southern Nigeria (London, 1926), vol. 2, p. 93.
24. Koch-Griinberg, Th., op. cit., vol. 2, p. 55; Boas, F., Kwakiutl Tales, p. 92.
26. Wissler, C., and Duvall, D. C., Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians, Anthro-
pological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, vol. 2, Part I

(1908), pp. 74 ff.

27. Boas, F., The Central Eskimo, Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,
vol. 6 (1888), p. 598.
28. Boas, F., Tsimshian Mythology, p. 641.
29. Ibid., p. 727.
30. Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., The Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899),
pp. 123, 388.
31. Boas, F., Kwakiutl Culture as Reflected in Mythology, Memoirs of the American
Folk-Lore Society, vol. 28 (1935).
32. Bastian, A., Allerlei aus Volks- und Menschenkunde (Berlin, 1888), vol. 1,
pp. Iff.
33. Wissler, C.,and Duvall, D. C., op. cit., pp. 74 ff.
34. Boas, F., The Mythology of tJw Bella Coola Indians, Jesup Expedition, vol. 1
(1898), pp. 26 ff.

35. Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., The Andaman Islanders (Cambridge, 1922), p. 186.
36. Boas, F., Bella Bella Tales, pp. 46 ff.
37. Spier, Leslie, The Sun Dance of the Plains Indians, Anthropologicaf Papers,
American Museum of Natural History, vol. 16 (1921), p. 451.
38. Mooney, James, The Ghost-Dance Religion, Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, vol. 14, Part 2 (1896).

39. Petrullo, V., The Diabolic Root (1934); Radin, P., The Winnebago Tribe, An-
nual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, vol. 37 (1923), pp.
388 ff.
40. Haberlandt, A., "Die Volkskunde und ihre Grenzgebiete," Jahrbuch fur
historische Volkskunde (Berlin, 1925), vol. 1, p. 5.
41. See for instance articles "Horoskopie" and "Hydromantik" in Handworter-
buch des deutschen Aberglaubens, vol. 4 (Leipzig, 1931-32).
42. Frobenius, Leo, Atlantis, vol. 10: "Die atlantische Gotterlehre" (Jena, 1926),
p. 86; Herskovits, Melville J. and Frances S., An Outline of Dahomean
Religious Beliefs, Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association,
vol. 41 (1933), p. 35.
43. Rink, H., Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo (Edinburgh, 1875); Boas, F.,
Tsimshian Mythology and Kwakiutl Culture as Reflected in Mythology.
44. Bunzel, R. L., Introduction to Zurii Ceremonialism, Annual Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology, vol. 47 (1932), p. 514; Boas, F., Keresan
Texts, Publications of the American Ethnological Society, vol. 8 (1928),
Part I, p. 283; Dumarest, F. Noel, Notes on Cochiti, New Mexico, Memoirs
of the American Anthropological Association, vol. 6 (1919), p. 182.
45. Fortune, R. F., Omaha Secret Societies, Columbia University Contributions
to Anthropology, vol. 14 (1932), p. 13.
46. Radin, P., op. cit., p. 186.
48. Gill, W. W., Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (London, 1876), pp. 1 ff.
49. Boas, F., Kwakiutl Culture as Reflected in Mythology, p. 47.
50. Pechuel-Loesche, E., Volkskunde von Loango (Stuttgart, 1907), p. 267.
51. Tessman, G., Die Pangwe (Berlin, 1913), vol. 2, p. 24.
52. Torday, E., and Joyce, T. A., Notes ethnographiques sur les peuples com-
munement appeles Bakuba, Annales du Mus6e du Congo Beige, S6rie III,
vol. 2 (1910), p. 235.
53. Bleek, W. H. I., and Lloyd, L. C., Specimens of Bushman Folklore (London,
1911), p. 57.
54. Junod, H. A., The Life of a South African Tribe (2nd ed., London, 1927),
vol. 2, p. 371.
55. Teit, James, Traditions of the Thompson River Indians, Memoirs of the
American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 6 (1898), p. 49.
GENERAL REFERENCES
Boas, F., Tsimshian Mythology, Annual Report of the Bureau of American Eth-
nology, vol. 31 (1916).
Ehrenreich, P., Allgcmcine Mythologie (Leipzig, 1910).
F.F. Communications (Helsingfors).
Gomme, G. L., Folklore as an Historical Science (London, 1908).
Handwb'rterb'uch dts deutschen Marchens (Berlin, 1930- ).
Lang, Myth, Ritual and Religion (London, 1887).

A*.,
Wundt, W., Volkerpsychologie. Mythus und Religion, vol. 2, Part I (Leipzig, 1905),
pp. 527 ff.

CHAPTER XIV
RELIGION
RUTH BENEDICT
Thereis a fundamental difficulty in the problem of religion that
is not present in the study of other cultural traits. &11 other social
institutions rise from known bases in animal lif^ and our problem
is to relate them to their point of departure among the natural
endowments and note the very different forms they have assumed
among different peoples. The social organizations of the world, how-
ever diverse, are built on the physical facts of sex, infancy, and the
interdependence of individuals living in groups. Economic complex-
ities are varying organizations of the quest for food and shelter and
of man's need for stability in material things. However small the
original starting points may bulk in the final traits, they are never-
theless of prime importance in their interpretation and integrate
our studies of the institutions that have been built around them.
With religion this is not true.QVe cannot see the basis of religion
in animal lifejand by no means obvious upon which of thft
it is
specifically human endowments it is built up.(Ûl studies of religion

reflect the chaotic disagreement of its students) on this point. The
most diverse origins 1 of religion have been proposed. (Herbert
Spencer regarded the fundamental datum of religion as respect for
the elder generations of one's family, and derived all its manifesta-
tions from an original ancestor worship. Tylor believed that dreams
and visions furnished the experiences from which man organized
thejcpjicept of his own soul as separate from his body; this concept
man then extended to the whole material universe, arriving at ani-
mism or the belief in spirits) This belief, in Tylor's formulation, was
the inescapable minimum and least common denominator of all re-
2
ligions. $)urkheim, on the other hand, believed that religion was
the outcome oFcrowS excitement. Over against the unexciting daily
roiifine which he regarded as typically pursued by the individual in
solitude or in small groups, he saw in group ritual, especially that
connected with totemism, the original basis on which all religion has
elaborated. ReUgioixJtberefore,, he says, is ultimately nothing
627
more than society. J. W. 3
has derived religion from mystic
Ilauer
experience, which, he argues, is a permanent endowment of a certain
proportion of the individuals of any community, and this experience
communicates itself with such overwhelming authority that it out-
ranks other experiences and seeks expression through dogma and
through rite.
There are innumerable other theories of the origins of religion.

One of the most familiar is that popular version which derives
religion from fearj)and to which Petronius gave the classic expression,
[t is somewhat the fashion now to derive it from the dissatisfactions
rf life) and a modified version of Durkheim's social theory of religion
4
is
gaining ground, according to which the religious life is the social
life at those points at which it is felt most intensely.
" "
According to our emphasis upon one or other of these origins
of religion we shall regard very different aspects as important or as
negligible.The mere fact of their diversity and contradiction is

proof of our bewilderment about the essential bases of religion. In
no case are any of these origins related to the total complex in the
way, for instance, that the physiologically determined food quest is
related to economic arrangements.
Methodically it is evident that we need to keep closer to the
concrete material of primitive religions, and until we are surer of
our ground concern ourselves with their religious categories rather
than our own. Fortunately for our purpose, once we turn from
theoretical discussions of religion to the concrete data from all parts
of the world, there is an amazing unanimity. No observer of even
the most alien culture has ever failed to recognize certain aspects of
its life as religious and to set them down as such. It is only the closet
philosopher afterward who denies religion to the Australians because

5
they have no belief in an all-powerful god the man in the field
;
never confuses the nature of a nonreligious Crow Indian age-society

ceremony with the religious character of their sun dance rites.
The concept of the supernatural.\Fhe striking fact about this plain
distinction between the religious and the nonreligious)in actual eth-
nographic recording is that it needs so little recasting in its transfer

from one society to another. No matter into how exotic a society
the traveler has wandered, he still finds the distinction made and in
comparatively familiar terms. And it(is universal) There is no mono-

graph in existence that does not group a certain class of facts as
religion, and there are no records of travelers, provided they are
RELIGION 629
full enough to warrant such a judgment, that do not indicate this
category.
This category, moreover, is commonly made explicit in language.
There are several terms that have been widely used in discussions
of religion. Three of these, in three different American Indian lan-
guages, are manitou, orenda, and wakan, and they have all the same
general range. They are all terms for (supernatural power) They do
not mean specifically a supernatural person that is, a god
though manitou. may be used in this sense without further composi-
tion, Siufwaka/n when it is used with the adjective "great." The
Great Wakan is now the Siouan term for the Christian GocTTjust as
Great Manitou is the Algonquian term. But these are only specific
applications of the terms. Manitou by itself has no implicatioA as to
whether it is personal or impersonal, but it becomes one or the other
according as itgiven the personal or impersonal gender of the
is
Algonquian languages. In the sense of a virtue, a property, it is

used with inanimate gender; in the sense of spirits, with animate
gender. It means either supernatural power in the abstract, or a
Supernatural Power. It has other extensions of meaning^ A manitou
means not only a supernatural being but a holy man, a religious
practitionerjf In ordinary speech the term is constantly recurring,
too, in the sense of "wonderfuL" "surprising." A traveler comes
upon high-bush cranberries on the prairie and they are manitou;
fine
Coyote, in the tales, sees a piece of dung he does not recognize, and
it is manitou. This simple meaning of "wonderful" underlies all its
extensions however it is used.

This fundamental meaning of manitou is kept even more explicitly
in the case of the Siouan term wakan. It is used in essentially the
same range of meanings as the Algonquian manitou, but there are a
large number of words in Dakota that have been made with the
term wakan and that have become fossilized, and the essential
meaning of wakan in these uses is clearly not "sacred" or "holy,"
but "wonderful." Thus one of the commonest adverbs is wakanya,
"wonderfully," used just as we use "very," and wakan washteya is
their common way of expressing the superlative. The most important
things the White man brought were all compounded by the use of
this adjective:
fMiwakan, a sword; literally, "wonderful knife."
Shunkakan, horse; literally, "wonderful dog." Mazawakan, a gun;
literally "wnnderful iron." Mniwakan, whisky; literally, "wonderful
water/
Not all people have the same range of meanings in their analogous
terms. Distinctions are made along various lines. Especially can a
distinction bemade dividing personal from impersonal, a distinction
that is made in terms like wakanda and manitou^The Melanesian
not
term mana is definitely a term for impersonal power, v Objects are
regarded as having mana in/varying degrees, and this mana makes
them religiously important. But mana is not a term that designates
supernatural beings.
QThe fundamental concept that is represented by these native
terms the existence of wonderful power, a voltage with which the

is
universe is believed to be charged. This voltage is present in the

whole world in so far as it is considered supernatural, whether it is
regarded as animate or inanimate. A stick or a ston)is wakan and

is used as an amulet j(a
placgj and is used as a sacred grove (a formuh
and by faithful repetition it will accomplish what is inaccessible to
the techniques of everyday routineCPr it mav be persons of particular
attainments or in particular circumstances^ that are wakan:{a, seer
who can foretell events or bring about wonderful cures, a warrior
who has killed an enemy, a menstruating woman, the deadyT)iffer-
ent civilizations regard as wakan different objects or aspects of life,
sometimes narrowly limited designated objects, sometimes very

in
unsystematically, almost pantheistically. fThey are at one only in

the universal recognition of the existence of this wonderful power,
Always, moreover, the manipulation of this wonderful power, and
the beliefs that grow out of it, are
religionyThey are elaborated by
specifically religious techniques.
We have tended in our civilization to keep the phraseology of
religion and to discard the ideas that, throughout the history of
religion, have been associated with it, and this makes it particularly
difficult for us to be explicit about the basic attitude on which re-
ligion has been built. We have definitely discarded the picture of

the universe as operating on two parallel and contrasted sets of
causations, but this has been the fundamental premise of religions.
Primitive peoples recognized a matter-of-fact universe that obeyed
definite causal relations, where work could be checked against
achievement, and trial and error were possible. They built good
boats and knew the rules for building them; they cooked wholesome
food, orknew the rules for making it wholesome. On the other hand,
they recognized also more wonderful causations, the techniques of
which were not checked against natural laws and the inalienable
RELIGION 631
properties of the objects they dealt with, but which were solely
concerned with manipulating a special potency that had its own
rules quite distinct from these matter-of-fact ones of craft and in-
dustry. This is often quite clearly phrased by primitive people. An

Omaha, pressed to put into words some aspect of his religion, drew
his hand contemptuously over the typewriter and camera that were
"
on the table and said witheringly, But we are not talking of these
things." And quite rightly ^The distinction they make between the
workaday techniques and supernatural ones is a fundamental onf
Wakan and manitou are in the baldest translation simply "me
wonderful," andfthe human imagination has elaborated in religion
a really "wonderful" world, freeing itself from the limitations of
natural law and material causation. In this new w orld, results in-
r
stead of being painfully achieved by tracking game or fitting planed

board to board were achieved by believing them to be achieved;
they were achieved by virtue of the will to have them achieved
Techniques, of course, developed in this realm, and were as definite
as those of industry or craft. The point is that the two types of
technique followed different kinds of causation, and that they pre-
sent a fundamental contrast in the worlds that are manipulated.
For this world of mana and manitou we have only the term "the
supernatural." We cannot get along without it in an English dis-
cussion; yet it a
is term open to grave misunderstanding. (Every
culture defines natural in its own way, and hence also supernatural.
With our increasing knowledge of the natural world, the super-
natural has by definition become increasingly constricted) and that
fact schematicizes the whole history of religion in a way that would
not have been true if our word for the concept had been something
like mana or manitou instead of supernatural. In this discussion I
use the term without reference to this etymological implication, to
mean the "wonderful" causations, the extra dimension, which in
religion have everywhere been imputed to the external universe.
This supernaturalism among primitive peoples has two different
formulations, and they both are extensions of the knowledge man
had gained in dealing realistically with the universe*/ On the one
hand, in so far as he\extended his concepts and experience of inani-
mate objects and made these a basis of supernaturalism, he saw
this supernatural quality as an attribute of objects just as color and
weight are attributes of objects. There was just the same reason
that a stone should have supernatural power as one of its qualities
as there it should have hardness. It did not ifnply the
was that
x
personification of the stone in one case or the other. Qn the other
hand, in so far as man (extended his knowledge of himself and his
fellows as the basis of his religious the supernatural was a
notions^
function of the fact that the external world was person just as he
was himself. -The tree or the storm felt love or resentment toward
the seeker just as he himself did toward other men or other men
toward him, arid it had the power to act upon its feeling just as
men had?)
- These two religious formulates have had different consequences
in the development of religion^ The whole train of ideas that is set
up is different according as the imputed power is patterned after
analogies with color and weight and other properties of objects, or

after analogies with will and intention in the human world. *These
two have been distinguished as animatism, 6 or the belief in
beliefs
mana; and animism, or the belief in spirits.^There have been efforts

to relate them chronologically and by logical sequences. 7 There is no
need to argue the one or the other; methodologically such attempts
at single origins are unnecessary and grow out of our human desire
to make the argument as trim and neat as possible. Logically it is
quite conceivable that supernaturalism should have followed two
analogies instead of one, and that neither should have priority over
the other. In both the analogies, man seized upon a major aspect of
the external world and projected it; these gave him two patterns
well-known in his experience, both of which his imagination seized
upon and elaborated in its creation of the supernatural world. In
the process of this elaboration the two patterns intersected each
other in innumerable ways, and there is a middle ground in which dis-
tinction between the two concepts is unnecessary. Nevertheless at the
extremes of the gamut the two poles are always apparent, and without
a recognition of them much of religious practice is unintelligible.
Before we discuss the techniques of religion that are associated
with these concepts that form the core of religion, it will help to
define our problem if we point out what religion is not. There are
certain aspects of the religions of our own cultural background that
we tend to make fundamental also in the history of religions, whereas
they are local developments of our particular culture area or for-
tunate by-products of a complex civilization.
(in the first place religion is not to be identified with the pursuit of
ideal ends. It is so natural to us to associate with religion the desire
RELIGION 633
to live more virtuously and to interpret the transitory in terms of

the eternal that we introduce unnecessary complications even when
we are concerning ourselves with religion in our own civilization.
But to select this particular development of the higher ethical re-
ligions as the thread which holds together the history of religions
and explains that of primitive people is to misconceive that history
Spirituality and the virtues are two social values which were dis*-
covered in the process of social life. They may well constitute the
value of religion in man's history just as the pearl constitutes the
value of the oyster. Nevertheless the making of the pearl is a by-
product in the life of the oyster, and it does not give a clue to the
evolution of the oyster.
^
Religion was used. Its function was to accomplish something, and
it was first and foremost a technique for success. It was as material,
in that sense, as the agriculture or the hunting which it furthered.
Anything that came within the range of an individual's wishes,

without regard to its ideality, was sought in religion. The prayers
are for definite desired objects:
Let me kill a Pawnee. See, I have cut off strips of my skin; have pity
upon me. Give me a scalp.
Or the Indian lifts up a buffalo chip from his medicine bundle and
says:
Hello, Old Man. am poor. Look at me and give me good things. Let me
I
live to be old, let let me take a gun, let me count coup.
me capture horses,
Like a chief, asking help of no one, may I make a good living, may I
always have plenty.
He cuts off a joint of his finger and says:
Old Woman Grandson, I give you this. Give me good pay for it.
Some petitions are capable of more socialized interpretation than

others. Some individuals easily pursue altruistic ends and this finds
expression in their religious practices.(Nevertheless the fundamental

fact remains that religion is not historically a citizenship in an ideal
world, but had to do with success in this worlcj/ What ends were
sought was a matter of the conventions of the particular culture,
but anything that was desired might be sought by way of religion.
It follows that there is no segment of human life for instance,
interest in the welfare of others, need for personal security, desire
for health or offspring that can be universally identified with
religion. These may be overlooked in any particular religion in
favor, for instance, of providing for the fate of the soul in the here-
after or inducing rainfall. The objects of religion are not constants
that can be isolated and defined. There is probably nothing that at
some time and place has not been of fundamental religious impor-
tance. Thus there are tribes of California who come together to try
out who has the greatest proficiency in sleight of hand, for these
persons by definition are those destined to religion. Other tribes, as
the Greeks did, have valued fools and neurotics as the primarily
religious. We shall see later how diverse the aspects of human
life
are that have been regarded as belonging fundamentally to the re-

ligious realm.
The.orientation of the house may be of prime religious significance
while marriage and sex relations in general may be locally regarded
as nonreligious and primarily economic. Nor does this selection of
certain segments of life for religious elaboration necessarily show the
8
functional relation to culture that Malinowski describes. Among
an agricultural people the religion may be centered around fertility,
but it need not be and often is not. Among a hunting people this
center may be success in the hunt, but other objectives may dwarf it.
Often the curing of disease is regarded as especially the function of
the religious man, but there are some people among whom it is as
nonreligious as it usually is in our own civilization.
Mana supernatural power as an attribute of objects. vJTie theory
that a wonderful power is present in the external world as simply
as hardness is present in the stone or greenness in the grass is found
to some degree among every people of the world. It may in any
society be dwarfed in comparison with a great development of the
alternative theory of animism, the personalizing of the universe.
But even in such a society there may be amulets of specially shaped
or colored stone) for example, (thai) have no connection with the
predominantly animistic reading or the universe. They (are per se
If they have the rough
powerful, not, as spirits are, contingently so.
shape of an animal, they are carried in the belt on the hunt and
their magic power will give success in the killing of that animal. If
they have instead the shape of a fruit, they are laid at the root of
the tree and it bears a rich harvest in its season. No spirit is en-
treated, no rapport needs to be achieved with the power used; the
power that is imputed to ttese amulets is as axiomatic as any other
attribute of the same object)
RELIGION 635
Logically enough, the kind of magic power that is imputed to

objects in this way is most often suggested by some analogy with
its other material attributes. Not only does its shape suggest the use
to which it shall be put as an amulet for the hunt or for fertility,

but its outstanding qualities as an object may be transferred bodily
to the magic realm. In order to secure long life for themselves, the
Eskimo sew to their clothing bits of the hearth stone, which has
proved its enduring qualities by resisting the fire. Similarly, to make
a boy a great hunter, they sew on the talons of the hawk, the greatest
hunter of the Arctic. To give him the fox's cunning they attach a
bit of the fox's dung. In parts of Melanesia where every magic pro-
cedure must have its potency given it by the magic "specific" that
is the esoteric secret of every magician, these specifics are chosen
because of similar analogies. A twin berry is the specific of the curse

that will cause a woman to have twins, and the leaves of a lush-
growing water plant are a well-known garden specific.
QVcts as well as objects
have magic power of the same sort, as a
quality of the acts^) Planting sugar cane, the gardener sucks noisily
as if half-choking himself with the luscious juice of the ripened cane.
He makes his yams root deeply by touching them with a bone of
an animal that has been a cave. ^The
killed in the deepest recess of
lover binds closely together a hair from his own head and from that
of the girl he desires, and his desires will be realized) These are acts
of magic automatically effective, and supernatural power is regarded
as an axiomatic quality of the act.
(formulaic spells are one of the frequently recurring expressions
of this attribute theory of supernatural power^)(ff the proper words
are said, the spell has power per se, just as an herb has curing virtues
In the everyday world, if a dam is built the water will rise; in the
supernatural world, formulas in this case act in a matter-of-fact
fashion as dams do in the matter-of-fact world. It is only necessary
to know the formula. Techniques develop luxuriantly in the soil of
this idea,and have had great consequences in the history of religious
practices (see page 637).
Animism supernatural power as will and intention. The alternative
theory of the supernatural is based not on man's experience with
things and their attributes, but on his recognition of power in him-
self and in his fellows; power is attributed to the external world
after the analogy with human will power.

(Animism is a confusion between two of our most carefully sepa-
rated categories, the animate and the inanimate) Tylor and Spencer,
who first examined animistic beliefs in their relation to religion,
found animism bewildering and well-nigh incredible. They were ex-

ponents of nineteenth century rationalism, and were accustomed to
rely upon the rationality of the human processes. This ascription of
being to the external world, and the behavior that this occasioned
in religious practice, were from their point of view gratuitous and
irrational.
(Tylor derived animism from those experiences which give man the
notion of the separable human soul. These are primarily dreams,
but also shadow, reflection on the water, etc. Once primitive man
had arrived at the hypothesis of his own soul, he transferred the
notion first to other humans and then to the inanimate world/ It
was a belief, according to Tylor, based on a logical chain of reason-
ing. Modern psychology given to tracing the origins of funda-
is less
mental human attitudes to logical chains of reasoning. are moreWe

inclined to see the concept as secondary and the total reaction to
the situation as primary.
It is important to realize that (this division of the world into ani-
mate and inanimatepwith accompanying appropriate behaviors for
each,(i)a sophisticated one that is alien to folk custom everAjunong

ourselves and has to be learned by each generation of our children.
Modern child psychology is full of examples of the personalization
of the inanimate world. The child endows a moving object with the
willand intention a human being has. He strikes the door that has
slammed upon him to pay it back for the injury. These are expressions
of an attitude that has not yet made our fixed distinction into ani-
mate and inanimate, but brings the whole of experience under one
rubric, treatirig the entire external world according to the pattern
that has been acquired in dealings with human individuals)
Throughout man's history it has been the mechanistic theory of
the universe that he has found fantastic, not the animistic one. He
is equipped with a consciousness of his own purposes and motiva-
tions, but no stretch of the imagination is sufficient to give him a
conception of the workings of inanimate life. His experience of his own
inner life he uses to picture to himself those other sequences of which
he has no such knowledge, (instead of admitting his ignorance of the
reasons for the succession of rain and drought, he sees in it rain
gods blessing their chosen people or, at the least, rain falling on
the fields of the just. He uses the motivations he is familiar with in
RELIGION 637
himself to explain the world that would otherwise remain a puzzle

to him. He domesticates the world and makes it intelligible. He
sees in the external world the playing out of a human drama actu-
ated by moral significance^) that is, he sees it humanly directed
toward rewarding those who have performed their required obliga-
tions and denying those who have failed in them. He is no longer in
a blind and mechanistic universe. (This wishful thinking, which is
embodied in the religions of the world, and is worked out conceptu-
ally in mythology and theology (see pages 609 ff., 660 ff.) and behavior-
istically in the religious techniques of petition and rapport (see
pages 639 ff.), ranks with the great creations of the human mind/
Techniques of religion. Just as the theory of the supernatural
swings between two poles, one of which is magic power as an Imper-
sonal attribute of objects and acts and the other the will power of
a personalized universe, so also religious techniques cover a gamut
one extreme of which is mechanistic manipulation of impersonal
magic power, and the other personal relations with the supernatural.
(Alagic is mechanical procedure) the compulsion of the supernatural
according to traditional rules of thumb. Itfis, in the realm of the
supernatural, the technique of science in the realm of the natural*}
As Frazer has pointed out, 9 magic is primitive man's science) As
opposed to other techniques of the magico-religious realm, t operates
with cause and effect sequences) It does not involve submission,
petition, conciliation, consecration. If a man knows the rules and
follows them in detail, the effect is secured. The danger lies all in
faulty knowledge, involuntary missteps, oversights on the part of

the practitioner. From his point of view, and according to his view
of the universe, which does not separate natural from supernatural,
he is following inexorable law. He is, in Frazer's word, the primitive
scientist.
The distinction between magic and science, nevertheless, is as
obvious as the procedure they have in common. Science has no
place for(supernaturalism) whereas itfis the sole concern of magic)
The distinction in any given procedure is always clear. If the object
isto secure a good harvest, in so far as primitive man is scientific
he prepares the ground, buries the seed at the proper depth, keeps
it weeded, and frightens away insect, bird, and animal pests. But he
employs also stones shaped like the desired fruit, and these are con-
sidered to have mana to increase the harvest. This is making use of
supernatural power by sympathetic magic. Or, when the taro has
come up, the magicians go through the field breaking off its lower
leaves, because full-grown taro sheds such leaves, and this magical
procedure therefore ensures its arrival at that stage. These acts are
as mechanistic as the scientific procedure, but they employ a com-
pletely different cause and effect sequence.
(Science
and magic therefore depend upon mechanistic procedures.
Science deals with cause and effect sequences in the natural world,
and what these are can be experimentally determined and the results
gauged. Magic deals with cause and effect sequences in the super-
natural world, and these are fabrications of the human mindjlgince
supernatural cause and effect does not exist in nature, man creates
out of analogies the sequences he employs) Most of the techniques
of magic are based on these analogies and propinquities in Frazer's
terms, sympathetic and contagious magic. If the enemy's image is

melted before the fire, he will waste away and die; if the arrow
taken from the wound is kept clean and cool in a wrapping of damp
leaves, the wound will heal; a girl at adolescence digs long trenches
that she may always work hard, and a boy goes without food that
he may be magically inured -to hunger; an enemy's nail paring is
put in an opened grave box that the propinquity with the corpse
may cause his death.
(AH such practices are built on the fundamental idea that a course
of action can be laid down for the universe by these analogous acts,
and the universe will be compelled to follow the pattern sevThe
simplest form, and the one which gives us some of the most explicit
and highly dramatized expressions of primitive emotion that we
possess, is that of simple preenactment or prestatement of the de-
sired end. Religion and magic are commonly acts and rites of wish
fulfillment,but the emotional satisfaction is, other things being
equal, the more direct the simpler and less symbolic the technique,
and magic formulas and preenactments of this type give the maxi-
mum possibilities of release. The medicine man 10 hollows out a
shallow grave before him and lays in it a rotting log to represent his
enemy. He chants over it the torments of the dying. He applies
red-hot tongs to the points that are symbolically his enemy's eyes,
heart, and groins. He seizes a spear and runs the "body" through
from side to side with violent thrusts. No actual killing of the enemy
could be so satisfactory in details of vindictiveness as this preenact-
ment that is staged in the interests of magic.
(The same kind of emotional satisfaction may be obtained in

RELIGION 639
words as well as in acts?) Since magic is the stronger the more one
concentrates upon one's desires and the greater the detail with
which one invests them, it is the perfect occasion for full and satisfy-
ing expression of emotions.CThe magic spells) of the Chukchee of
Siberia (are explicit expressions of major desires.^The incantation
of the woman whose husband has shown pleasure in another woman
is typical: "You are this woman! You have so much of my hus-
band's love that he begins to lose all liking for me. I make you into
carrion lying on the pebbly shore old carrion puffed up with its
rot. I make my husband into a big bear. The bear comes from a
distant land. He is very hungry; he has been starving for a long
time. He sees the carrion. Seeing it, he eats it. After a while he
vomits it out. I make you into the stuff vomited. My
husband sees
you and says, 'I do not want it!' My
husband despises you. Then
I make this body of mine into ayoung beaver that has just shed
his hair; I make smooth every hair of mine. My husband will leave
his former liking, and turn again to look upon me."
(Such simple and emotionally satisfying prestatements of the end

desired are less common than one would a priori suppose. The tech-
niques of magical procedure that are found everywhere in the world
are more devious. They employ analogies of every sort, and the
emotional satisfaction is lost in the meticulous observance of small
rules)(St
is difficult to regard magic as man's technique of compensa-
tion in emotionally charged situations. Magic is for the most part
cold and technical and nonemotional, a rule-of-thumb procedure.
The emotional satisfaction of planting lush leaves in a garden to
secure a rich harvest, or burying banana-shaped stones at the roots
of a banana tree, is only that of following routine courses of action
that are believed to be efficacious. They have none of the direct emo-
tional release of the Algonquian medicine man or the jealous woman
among the Chukchee)
Frazer grouped these analogies of which magic makes use as sym-
pathetic (or homeopathic or imitative) magic and as contagious
magic. One can be satisfied with these groupings or can classify
endlessly. The available analogies are countless. As our collections of
primitive magic are increased, it becomes clear that practically all
the similitudes in nature have been employed somewhere in the magic
of some people. 12
Behavior toward the personalized universe. The (alternative religious
techniques that which(grows out of animistic beliefs. If the universe
is person in its motivations and purposes, behavior toward it must be
the familiar behavior men have found useful in their relations to their
fellows. Love, punishment, reverence, command, are all tried and
tested means of attaining ends in dealing with persons, and they are
indicated therefore in dealings with the personalized universe./
One of the types of behavior that are used toward the supernatural
by virtue of its known
availability toward persons is reverence, or
awe as it is
usually called in religious connections. (^ we has been
singled out by some writers as the comprehensive religious attitude,

that attitude which sets off religion from other human traits.^ Awe,
however, is only one among many attitudes characteristic of religious
behavior.(tajolery and bribery and false pretense are common means
of influencing the supernatural"J)and are especially characteristic of

regions of Melanesia. The Kai of New Guinea^swindle ghosts as they
do men/!) and the near-by Tami (deceive the spirit in the grossest
fashion, "outwitting it like an arrant blockhead," and giving as
offerings the shabbiest things they can find. Reprisals and vehement
expressions of anger also are relied upon in dealing with the super-
naturaUThe Tsimshian of the Canadian Pacific coast,^when they
suffer great misfortune, vent their anger against heaven without inhi-
bition. Scolding is one of the recognized means of dealing with the
recalcitrant supernatural. "They raise their eyes and hands in savage
anger to heaven, and stamp their feet on the ground^They reiterate,

'Youare a great slave/ It is their greatest term of reproach." The
Manus of the Bismarck Archipelago keeps in his house as a tutelary a
skull of a recent ancestor, and expects from
its aid good fortune in all
his undertakings. If he is not

satisfied, he consults an oracle or a
diviner to find out for what the tutelary has punished him, and will
immediately make restitution. If his business does not prosper there-
after or if the illness is not alleviated, he is justly angry at his
tutelary and threatens that he will throw him out of the house, "to
be washed by all rains, scorched by all suns," to be homeless and
forgotten. "You will then be made to understand! You will have no
house to rest you will be cast out and you will be miserable a
in;
14
long time before you become a crab or a jellyfish."
(On the other hand the accepted attitude toward the supernatural
may be that of courteous hospitalityJIf human beings are the more
likely to be gracious after they have been happily entertained, how
much more might this not be true in the case of the gods. Among the
Langalanga of Northern Mala, of the Solomon Islands of Melanesia,
RELIGION 641
the dead are the recognized supernatural and are represented by

which are kept in a house prepared for them. When the
their skulls,
Langalanga play the panpipes for dancing in the village, they bring
the skulls out of their house and range them in an honored audience,
saying, "Now you may watch the dance." They gather the leaves
of fragrant herbs with which the women are accustomed to perfume
themselves, and stuff these up the noses of skulls. They desire that
they shall enjoy the most hospitable entertainment that they know
how to provide. 15 The same attitude is found also in the Southwest
pueblo of Zuni. There too the dead are the supernaturals. They dance
continuously in the sacred lake, but they prefer to return to dance in
Zimi. Therefore impersonation in the masked dances provides them
with the opportunity to indulge themselves. They come a^d are
entertained participation in a dance, the favorite pastime of the
by
people. It the most pleasing hospitality that the Pueblos know how
is
to give either to humans or to the supernaturals.

(There is probably no customary behavior toward one's fellows that
isnot to be found somewhere as a religious technique, even acts that
belong to specific situations in human life such as birth and courtship
In the Malay peninsula(the rice at planting is given all the ceremonies
of childbirth and cradled by the wife of the planter; the tree whose sap
is sought is appealed to as a mother?)" O mother, often before you
have given me the breast, yet still I thirst. I ask four potfuls more."
Dr before the tree is cut it is wedded with all the appropriate human
ceremony and taken as bride by the woodsman^ In these cases it is
the appropriate behavior of the mother and the child and the bride-
groom that has set the pattern for behavior toward the supernatural.
The power that is ascribed to the gods takes
its form, just as be-
havior toward them does, from man's experiences in the human world.
We are accustomed by our knowledge of the higher ethical religions
to connect omnipotence with the gods. But this is a late and meta-
physical tenet. Primitive man had no idea of imputing omnipotence
to his gods. He saw in them the same kind of powers he felt in himself,
often less in quality than his own. The gods arepoften represented as
fools and as foiled by doddering old women.fTheir power is strictly
limited)
The Indian of the Plains collects power from personal en-
counters with a rabbit, an eagle, and a rock. He flees from his enemy
by the power of his rabbit skin till that is exhausted, by the power of
his eagle feather till that is exhausted, and he stands to face his enemy
with the boulder's power of invulnerability when he is reduced to his
He does not regard any one of them as inexhaustible
last resource.
any more than he regards his own powers as inexhaustible.

Un animistic belief and practice, therefore, man created the uni-
verse in his own image. He extended his human attitudes toward
his fellows to an anthropomorphic universe^ But this did not mean
that his animistic techniques were his only techniques; he hoed the
ground and cut his harvest as well as cradled the rice seed and be-
trothed the fertility goddess. The emphasis upon man's animistic
behavior has often obscured the facts concerning the bulk and the
exactness of man's knowledge of natural processes. He knew how to
build a seagoing canoe, how to select the tree out of which to make it,
and how to convey it to the shore and fashion it. This took, to be sure,
only the time that was lavished upon the total under-
a* fraction of
taking, because the canoe could not be built without elaborate re-
ligious observance. There is, however, no mystery about
the fact that
man elaborated anthropomorphic behavior toward the canoe at the
same time that he continued to employ matter-of-fact techniques in
its building. The along with the rest of the external universe,
tree,
was person, and he knew the attitudes that were effective toward
persons. Therefore his relations with it were incomplete without gift-
giving, prostrations, reverence, any of the behaviors he
used toward
men. It is an attitude that is familiar in our behavior even today.
We know the physical things that must be done for our children.
We must feed and clothe them and provide them with the necessary
wherewithal. But it is repulsive to us to stop there, and parents who
do so, we think, are running a great risk of failure. For children are
people, and we must not treat them only as things. As persons, for
successful handling, they call for love and consideration and praise.
It is just the attitude of primitive man toward the external world.
The tree, the sea, the pot, the corn, are all persons, and after he has
employed all the matter-of-fact skills in relation to them, his greater
obligation to them as living beings still remains, and it is a major

function of religion to discharge this obligation.
Forms of religious behavior. Every form of religious behavior runs
the gamut between the two techniques we have discussed: a tech-
nique patterned on behavior toward things, and a technique pat-

terned on behavior toward persons.
Prayer^Speech that intended to achieve supernatural ends is)at
is
thelmcTextreineQiie prayer)of the saint whose only object is to place

himself in the most intimate communion with the god, and at the
RELIGION 643
other the recital of magical formulas.(jhe prayer of intimate personal

dependence upon the god is found even among primitive people, and
a great many offerings to the supernatural are accompanied by pray-
ers which detail the efforts of petitioners to please and gratify the
supernaturaQThe Winnebago of the region of the Great Lakes pray

to the Thunderbird: "Oh grandfather, Thunderbird, here I stand
with tobacco in my hand. Grant us what you granted our grand-
fathers! Accept our humble offering of tobacco. We are sending you
buckskins from which you can make moccasins, feathers from which
you can make a headdress; we are preparing a meal for you from the
meat of an animal who is like ourselves. And not I alone, but all the
members of my clan and all the members of the other clans present
here, beseech you to accept our gifts. We

have prepared ourselves
fitly, and I and all my kinsmen sit here humble in heart, a sight to
awaken pity, so that we can receive your blessing and live a good
life."
to the supernatural may also be magical forms of words

(^Speech
which achieve their end automatically) and this may be in a given
society the accepted way of dealing witn the supernatural. In parts of
Melanesia it is strictly denied that gardens can grow without the use
of the magic fertility formulas, and this even in the face of mission-
aries'gardens which have flourished in certain islands for many years.
In northern California 16 there is a strong development of compulsive
formulas of this sort which detail incidents in the travels of the an-
imals who
figure in the myths of this area. They are used as magic.
If recitedword-perfect) an incident in Coyote's successful encounter
with Wolf and^the healing of his wounds will cure bullet wounds after
a battle) Every dangerous occasion of life is provided with these
incidents from mythology which are used in this magical fashion.
DwmaMon. (Divination, or control by foreknowledge) is similarly
of two contrasted types. Divination among many primitive peoples
Is accomplished by persons who are possessed by the supernatural
spirit. The god himself speaks through them)as through the Greek
oracle at Delphi. This is a common practice in Africa, in Polynesia,
and in Siberia.(The priest divines only by himself uttering the words
of the supernatural
person^
(At the opposite pole is divination from the entrails and the scapulae
of animals. In order to ascertain the future in thisway one requires a
technical training in the significance of spots on the liver or the con-
17
figuration of lines on a scapula. The result is entirely without refer-
ence to having placated a god or having achieved any other form of
communication with him^
Sam$r0.(Sacrifice, or control by gift, is) at the one extreme (a
bougnt-and-paid-for trafficking with a supernatural that can-not
choose but accept the arrangement offered it; if the payment is given,
the aid must be forthcoming. Sacrifice on the other hand may be one
of the means of pleasing the god?) and all possible human attitudes
toward a gift are found in various religions. The Plains Indians re-
torture as the most important sacrifice to the
gardedQJelf-inflicted
supernaturals, and they offered it in order to gain their pity) Such
sacrifice on the Plains wa^bne of the most important ways of estab-
lishing a personal relation with the supernatural) In Melanesia, on

the otter hand, it is more common to regard objects given to the
supernatural as in themselves compulsive, and as having no bearing
upon establishing personal relations. The objects are given as an
integral part of magical procedure so many betel nuts or so many
skulls, along with a magic formula, to make the canoe seaworthy or
the wind propitious.
{Taboo, or the control by abstention, is a constantly
recurring
aspect of man's dealings with supernatural power. Because the
supernatural is power, it is dangerous. A whole religion may be de-
voted to the ritual punctiliousness by means of which this danger is
surmounted. The dangerousness of the supernatural to which taboo
is the response may be conceived as automatic and an attribute, or as
a human quality and taboo will have a different character in the two
cases.
(At their most mechanical, taboos are exemplified by the)tapu

charms^pf Samoa and parts of Melanesia or the tie-tie of West Africa,
which capitalize the dangerousness of the supernaturalCThese charms
are taboos placed on private property and evidenced by a mark or a
dangle placed on the object. Property sanctions in these regions are
thus given over to the supernaturaC)The Fan in West Africa trust all
their property to the operation of the supernatural taboo of the
tic-tie, even a wealth of ebony or ivory tusks left far out in the bush.
If anyone desired the ebony he would hold it policy to kill the human
owner before breaking the ban. Only after he had thus nullified the
supernatural power the owner had affixed to his property would he
make off with the ebony. The West Africans have a pro verb, Q' One
chfirm does the work of twenty slaves.^
But taboo can be on the other hand a punctilio patterned after
RELIGION 645
that observed toward powerful persons. It may be a removing of one's

hat or one's shoes or one's blanket when one enters the presence of
the supernatural just as one shows these marks of respect to any
person of power and prestige7)In Polynesia, in the treatment of chiefs,
punctilio is carried to the point where by virtue of their great sacred-
ness and dangerousness chiefs may not feed themselves or be touched
by anyone, but are fed on long prongs which are manipulated care-
fully so that they will not touch the sacred teeth. The chiefs can do
no work, nor go out of the confinement of the chieftain's house. The
supernatural power which fills them makes them too sacred, too
dangerous for participation in ordinary life, and sets them apart by
elaborate taboos. Sacred places, sacred objects, the defiling, and the
dead have usually been surrounded by taboo. A medicine bundle or
fetish has always its rules of punctilio consequent upon its not being
an object to handle lightly.
\Taboo niay be, in its most extreme use as an element in a relation-
ship with a personal supernatural, the asceticism of the saint. The
higher ethical religions have elaborated formal restrictions and pro-
scribed indulgences not for their magic efficiency but for the sake of
ruling out "the world." Primitive peoples also have retreats and
sacred personages, and the taboos associated with them are some-
times thought of as setting them off in a peculiar dedication to the
supernatural^
Such taboos are characteristic of the American Indian
vision quest and of the Siberian shaman, and are very differently
conceived from the tapu of Polynesia.
Taboo is one of those subjects under which a great deal of mis-
cellaneous material can be grouped; it has in consequence been given
great prominence in discussions of religion. This is due very largely
to the fact that\jtaboo is by definition all that is forbidden; that is, it
is the negative aspect of everything. It is a category of prohibitions.
Taboos and prohibitions are fundamental in religions, but the category
loses its significancewhen it is separated from the positive aspects of
which the negative. For this reason taboo is best regarded not as
it is
a primary aspect of the religious complex but as a ubiquitous form of

religious behavior, that form which takes into account the dangerous
aspect of supernatural power and surrounds it with punctilious
observance^
Fetishes and amulets^ Material objects when they are treated as
supernatural are either amulets if they are the seat of supernatural

power in its guise as an attribute of things, or fetishes in its animistic
guise. Amulets by definition possess supernatural power in the same
fashion and by the same token that they possess color or any other
attribute. They work automatically, as fire does, or pressure, and are
not prayed to or personified)
"
The term " fetish is that used in Africa where the material object
is handled on the opposite theory .(The fetish) is given gifts and talked
to, and reviled if necessary. It .is regarded as being strongest in its
youth, and after use it is laid aside to recuperate its powers as a

man rests after a campaign. It (may or may not be conceptually re-
garded as person, but the behavior toward it is behavior between
persons, not that of a person toward an inanimate object as in the
case of amulet)Most West Africans treat not only medicine bundles
but all material objects in this fashion.Cjhe native about to set out
for a hunt about for days talking to his spear, rubbing it, and
sits
telling it how much he hasgiven it and how great his reliance is upon
it. He addresses it in terms of friendship as he does all objects he
wishes to usej
The weather or the river he treats in the same way. Miss Kingsley 18
"
says, You will see him bending over the face of a river talking to its
spirit with proper incantations, asking it when it meets a man who is
an enemy of his to upset his canoe, or drown him, or asking it to carry
down with it some curse to the village below that has angered him."
The contrast between West African religion and that of such
Melanesian tribes as the Orokaiva or the Dobuans is largely a conse-
quence of this contrast between the attitude toward the fetish and
toward the amulet.
Tutelary spirits^n\e guardian spirit)of the North American Indian
wadGt personal tutelary with which he alone had dealings. This rela-
tionship was strictly according to the pattern of human relationships
between a benefactor and his protege. In order to obtain the tutelary
in the first place, the youth had to go out alone fasting, concentrate
on the blessing he desired, and often torture himself in order to make
himself more pitiable to the spirits. At last he entered into complete
rapport with the supernatural and his tutelary appeared to him.
All his life thereafter he could ask for help from his spirit, but in
return he had to give a place of honoîn the tipi to the bundle which
he kept as a sacred mementoHeed it at every meal, observe punctilio
in regard to it, and open and incense it at due seasons. If his tutelary
was displeased with him at any time, the power was no longer avail-
able. All his prayers to it were a statement of the human relationships
RELIGION 647
between them. At the same time the tutelary spirit might assume
obligations and become the "servant" of the person who had ac-
quired him.}
^The attitude toward the individual supernatural in witchcraft
often contrasts strongly with thi)The supernatural slave was ob-
tained by a legalistic contract, and compulsion was the technique
that was relied upon. This slave technique is, of course, one that has
been notoriously used toward human beings, but it is that of dealing
with persons as things and it is for that reason that it is repulsive to
present-day many primitive magic practices,
ethics.(Witchcraft, like
carried into the supernatural realm. You had only to rub the lamp
it
and the djinn came. You had only to obtain the name of the demon
and he was at your
service!}
Summary. These two techniques for handling the supernatural
at the one extreme compulsion and at the other rapport occur in
alltypes of religious behavior. It is clear that they are always alterna-
tive methods for dealing with the supernatural, and that neither gives
any indication of being derivative from the other. They are two poles
between which religious behavior ranges, each pole representing one
of the two major human experiences outside of the religious realm:
on the one hand man's experience with things, and on the other his
experience with persons.
Varieties of forynitive religions) We
have been discussing those
things which are universal in the religious complex: its core of super-
naturalism, and its two contrasted and omnipresent techniques for
dealing with this supernatural. In the study of primitive religions,
however, it is not this core which they all have in common which i*
most immediately obviousjjt is rather the great diversity they exhibil
and this is the more striking the better the accounts of religion that
are available. The sacred dairy ritual of the Todas of India and the
vision quests of the American Indians of the plateau of British
Columbia have almost no objective facts in common. It is this unlike-
ness that has made so many discussions of primitive religions appear
fruitless because they seem a mere heaping up of unrelated facts.
(This unlikeness of historically unrelated religions is a consequence
of the fact that, as we saw above, religion is quite impartial as to what
arc of cultural life it shall
supernaturalizel) Historical causes, most of
them now beyond our unraveling, have determined thatGn one region
it shall be the means of livelihood) like the Toda pastoral techniques,
tJiat is the concern of religion, and in another part of the globe the
life such as birth, puberty, marriage, and
crises of the individual
death. Religion a spotlight that swings quite indiscriminately, in
is
one region bringing it about that property and all the concepts that
center around it are religiously guaranteed, and in another leaving
property entirely secular; in one region centering upon weather con-
trol, inanother upon curing)
Peoples differ, of course, as well in the amount of cultural life that
is handled by supernatural techniques as in the particular traits they
handle in this way. In some cultures, like Samoa, 19 supernatural ism is

at a minimum, while in others, as for instance in New Zealand, which
belongs to the same culture area, the concern with the supernatural
is almost omnipresent and is deeply felt. One of the generalizations
about'che contrast between our civilization and primitive peoples that

are most nearly true is that there has been a continuous secularizing
of life. A much greater area of life is commonly handled by religious
means among primitives than among any civilized peoples. Never-

theless the contrast exists as well on the primitive level, and it is only
one aspect of the larger fact that religion is always developed among
any people in relation to culturally selected traits. Religions therefore
have totally different aspects of life as their content in different parts
of the world, and their whole character develops differently according
as they are built, for instance, upon relationship with the dead or
upon control of the hunt.
There are very few ethnographic accounts of religion that are
adequate for clear description of this interrelation of religion with
other elements of culture. The religions described below have been
selected as showing different developments, and have been sum-
marized as briefly as possible.
Varieties of primitive religion: Siberia. Religion in Siberia, as so
often in the Old World, is characteristically concerned with divina-
tion. Religious occasions are those upon which the spirits are consulted
concerning their pleasure or displeasure, and the religious persons are

not those who will successfully put into effect the power received
from the spirits, but those who report it.
These oracles from the supernatural are obtained among the
Siberian tribes by those procedures which in western civilization are
known as spiritualism. The shaman is in a trance, he speaks with
strange voices, ventriloquism is used, the tent is lifted bodily, ob-
jects fly about, and spirit controls speak through the mouths of
the mediums. These controls are not thought to be the dead, but
RELIGION 649
the supernatural beings with which the Siberian tribes people the
world.
Religious persons in Siberia are recognized in their youth. They are
persons of definite instability which may take the form of trance or
epileptic seizures, abnormal periods of sleep, of irresponsible
of
wandering, and of illnessand emaciation. Usually most of these

symptoms are present, though some tribes emphasize one and others
another. This period is known as the "call," and no one can disregard
it on pain of serious illness and calamity. It is usually dreaded, and
they speak of being "doomed to inspiration." In its less severe forms

it is very common among these people. Every adult male occasionally
" "
takes the drum that is, engages in the self-hypnotic swaying and
monotonous rhythm which is always a prelude to any shamanistic
demonstration; and everyone, in so far as he is susceptible to such
stimuli, has some power from the supernatural. Every family has a
family seer who can consult the spirits for them on lesser family
occasions, and the recognized shamans of the tribe are only those who
arc more richly gifted in this direction.
The call is a period of illness or extreme instability which is ended
or cured by assuming the shamanistic role. The individual then
becomes a vehicle for the spirits. The Chukchee consider each re-
ligious performance a dramatization and reenactment of this painful
period of the call. Again the spirits seize their victim, he foams at
the mouth, sweats bloody sweat, falls in a trance, and finally delivers
the word of the spirit and is again calm and refreshed and in his
right mind.
Especially powerful shamans change their sex. There are many
degrees. Some men only assume women's dress and continue to live
with their wives and children. Some add women's occupations to the
assumption of women's dress; they are thought to learn these quickly
and well because of their instruction by the spirits. The final stage is
that of the assumption of femininity. The body outlines change, and
the shaman is supposed to marry another man. He has now a spirit
husband who is more powerful
in the supernatural world, a control
than the he could have had as a man. He outranks, there-
spirit wife
fore, the shamans who have not undergone the change of sex, and also
the women shamans, who are never thought of as equaling men in
power.
There are, of course, other aspects of Siberian religion besides this
great development of shamanism. Incantations are known by every-
one, and no occasion is too trifling or too momentous for the use of
these spells. Amulets are also universally used. Siberian religion,
nevertheless, is distinctive because of the degree to which it ignores
fertility or sex situations, crisis ceremonialism, or the dead, and pre-

occupies itself with mediumship, specializing in making use of various
unstable types of individuals. These individuals report, as returned
visitorsfrom another realm, the pleasure of the spirits; they find lost
objects; they divine in answer to the questions of the crowd. They can
summon the spirits to the lodge. So far as the activities of the shamans
go, Siberian religion thoroughly animistic, a religion of rapport
is
with personalized spirits. This does not rule out magical practices,
which are employed by everyone, shamans and non-shamans, but
religion develops in this region primarily as a phenomenon of medium-
ship, and religious persons are individuals who can develop this trait.
The Pueblo Indians of the Southwest.'21 The Pueblo Indians of New
Mexico and Arizona have a religion which has little in common with
that of the Siberian peoples. No use is made, not only of capacity
for mediumship, but of any psychic instability; religion is little used
for divining; and in place of the highly specialized individualistic
approach to the supernatural by the shaman, there is here no shaman

at all. It is rather by the group that the supernatural may be ap-
proached. Religious organization and practices differ of course in the
different Pueblos,and the description given here applies specifically
to Zuni.
Religion in Zuni is highly formalized. It follows the calendar
throughout the year with elaborate ceremonies performed by perma-
nent societies and priesthoods which stand to each other in intricate
interrelations. Until it was introduced by White contact, there was
no secular authority in the Pueblos except such as was exercised
incidentally by these religious groups. The nearest parallel, in our
own cultural background, to the Pueblo religion, in scope and in
formalism, is that of Catholicism in its great period.
The religion of the Pueblos is directed most importantly toward

securing fertility. They ask for both human and agricultural fertility,
and in the desert region they occupy it is the prayer for rain which
overshadows all else. There are specific ceremonies for the cure of
bodily ailments, for deliverance from danger, and for success in the
hunt, but even in these the prayer for rain is also present.
Religion in Zuni is always a prescribed group affair. There is no
room in it for individual initiative. All the times and seasons are set
RELIGION 651
by custom, and any man, even the highest priest, performing his
most individual act, the planting of prayersticks, at an hour or season
not designated by tradition is suspected of witchcraft. The only way
to approach the supernatural is as a member of a duly constituted
group. There isno avenue by which a man may obtain power by

any experience of his own; power comes solely by membership in a
cult or priesthood. There are therefore no shamans, in the sense of a
religious leader who has personally received supernatural power, but

only priests. There are no medicine men who cure by virtue of their
gift or of personally acquired supernatural power; curing is done only
by those who have bought their way into the highest order of curing
societies, and all that is required is this membership and the teaching
that has gone along with it. Individuals receive power either by
inheritance of membership in a cult, or by purchase into a society.
In any case they qualify for the exercise of such power by meticulous
memorizing of ritual both of word and of act. They never seek the
spirits by forms of communication outside of normal sensory experi-
ence. Rather, they are provided with endless detailed rules which, if
they are complied with, will guarantee success.

These rules are largely magical. Their purpose is to constrain the
gods so that success will follow of itself and not necessarily as the
result of some emotion, such as pity or the desire to grant a reward,
on the part of the supernaturals. On their altars they set a full bowl
of water that the springs may always be
full; they beat up suds from
a native plant that the clouds may pile in the heavens; they blow out
tobacco smoke that mist may visit the earth. The gods which they
impersonate in their dances are the rain, and they constrain their
blessing by dancing with their bodily substance; that is, with their
paint and their masks. In the same way they constrain the blessing
of the bear, which is a cure of disease, by wearing the skin of his
forepaws upon their arms when they conduct a cure. These are all
magically compulsive acts, and they must be carried out in scrupu-
lous detail.
The ritual prayers are likewise compulsive by virtue of being
22
word-perfect. These poetic rituals of Zuni are very extensive. Every
ritual post, every act of participation in Zuni religion, has its word-
perfect ritual that is part of the procedure that will insure success.
The religion of the Pueblos is one of great formalism, which dis-
trustsany individual approach to the supernatural and even in
group makes use of no ecstatic experiences. It has a great
rites
pantheon of gods who are impersonated in dances and identified with
the rain and with the dead though with no individual dead a
series of beast gods who give power in curing, and most holy fetishes
which are entrusted to hereditary priesthoods. Magical techniques
of great punctilio are associated with the worship of all these
supernaturals, and religious men are those who have learned and
either inherited or bought the power to use these procedures. It is a
religion that stresses neither sin nor conflict with the gods. Joy and
dancing and freedom from care are, as Dr. Bunzel says, pleasing
alike to man and gods, and by their impersonations they share with
the gods the pleasure of dancing, and by their magical formulas they
constrain the course of nature to their own ends.
The> Plains Indians. The Indians based religion upon
of the Plains
,
personal experience. Religion was an individual handling of super-
natural power, and every man received power from a personal contact
with the supernatural. He went out to solitary places to seek this
before many undertakings, but especially in one great experience of
his young manhood when he obtained a lifelong guardian spirit.
This experience is usually called a vision, and some of them were
complicated experiences of automatic vision and automatic audition.
They might, however, according to native ideas, be much less marked
experiences. A man recognized the power he had received by the
thrill it communicated to him, and it rested with him to try out the
power and to practice it.
Many visions were sought with self-torture. Either strips of skin

were cut from the arm, or a finger was sacrificed, or the skin was cut
and the strong muscles of the back or chest were pulled out sufficiently
so that the suppliant could be suspended from them. If a man was
particularly fortunate, however, he might be granted a vision without

torture. In any case, he fasted usually for four or eight days, and went
without water. He concentrated his mind upon what he desired, and
he prayed to the spirits to pity him. When he received the vision,
whatever he saw, an animal or a plant or a bird, adopted him as its
protege and gave him a song and a particular power, either to heal a
bullet wound, oi*to be invincible, or to run fast, or to live long, or to
gamble successfully. He gave pinches of food and tobacco to his

supernatural patron all his life. He made up a medicine bundle which
was a memento of the experience and which he cared for religiously.
His song he used whenever he used the power.
Religious observances were essentially the rites of opening, in-
RELIGION 653
censing, and singing the songs of the medicine bundle that com-
memorated the vision. Many of these fetishes passed down the
generations and grew by accretions till they were bundles of tribal
importance and great monetary value. Their handling, however, re-
mained fundamentally that of the simplest feather granted to a young
faster and worn in his hair in a war raid. It was a sign of an individual
responsibility to a personal guardian spirit. In some tribes men who

had the same type of bundle that is, the same visionary tutelary
recognized some sort of bond which almost constituted them a so-
ciety. Such a bond, however, never changed the fundamental basis
of their religion, which had regard strictly to the individual in a per-
sonal relationship to an individual guardian spirit.
Theoretically whatever the faster saw and heard in his vision he
and he was given power to
his tribe carried out in faithful detail. If
lead a war party he went back and collected young men to go under
his leadership. If he was given a variant version of a society ritual,
he went back and founded an order of the society which conformed to
the new instructions. Actually, of course, even on the Plains where
this dogma of the vision is acted on more whole-heartedly than it is
in many regions of North America which profess the same doctrine,
such rampant individualism developed institutional checks. Visions
became vested interests, and they were bought and sold and in-
herited. On
the Plains, however, it was required that everyone who
in any of these ways obtained a vision at second hand must qualify
by seeking also his own vision of the tutelary. It is probable that such
visions were in many cases mechanical, and complied with as a part
of the routine requirements in the transfer of sacred objects, and the
same observation undoubtedly applies also to other "visions." The
point to be emphasized in this connection is the tribal doctrine which
demanded always that power be acquired in a supernatural vision.
The ends for which power was sought in the Plains visions were
those which brought the greatest reward in their culture, particularly
war exploits. They sought visions to give them power to take an
enemy's picketed horse, to count coup on a living enemy, to take a
scalp. There was no religious sponsoring of more idealistic social ends.
The vision monopolized their mythology and theology. Tribes like
the Blackfoot and the Crow have a minimum of cosmology, and no
pantheon. Their religious myths are all accounts of the great visions
of great men in the olden times, and of the exploits they were thereby
enabled to perform.
~T
t The Dobuans of Melanesia. Dobu is a small island off the east
New Guinea. It belongs to a large region where magical tech-
coast of
niques are supreme. There are gods, but none of the characteristic
human relations are entered into with them; they are not besought
for pity like the Plains supernaturals, nor entertained with dancing
like the Pueblo masked gods. They are constrained by magic formulas.
The most striking difference between the religions of North Amer-
ica and that of Dobu lies in the fact that the Dobuans believe that
nothing can be accomplished in any field of activity without super-

natural manipulation. Magic is indispensable. Whether it is a matter
of the fish in the sea, of the growth of their gardens, of sex relations,
of economic exchange, of illness,or of death, there are magical
formulas to which success in each undertaking is attributed. They
categorically deny that gardens can be grown without magic, and

that in the face of gardens, in one district, of White settlers which
have flourished for two generations.
These rnagic formulas are owned as individually as the Plains
vision, but they are wholly traditional, learned lore. They can only
be acquired by gift from a relative, and the most bitter enmities are
pointed by dissatisfactions as to a relative's disposal of his magic.
This right of inheritance can pass traditionally only to the sons and
to the sisters' sons, and the sisters' sons must receive the lion's share.
A man's role in life is determined beforehand by the amount of this
magic which he obtains.
ritual
Food is Dobu, and the gardens are given the greatest care.
scarce in
This is not, of course, attention to the needs of the plant in our sense.
It is magical routine of planting, and later of keeping the yams at
home in the garden of the owner, and luring as many more of his
neighbors' yams as his magic can accomplish. The yams are persons.
They are thought to be footloose, and it is necessary to keep them at
home. Magic for this purpose should not be pronounced over them
too early in the season, for they resent unnecessary curtailment of
But it cannot be long postponed. The top shoot of the
their visiting.
yam bent over and bound to the main stem, and the ritual
vine is
pronounced. In the spells the yams are identified with the hardest
wood in the bush, the kasiera palm.
Where stands the kasiera palm?
In the belly of my garden,
At the foot of my house platform
He stands.
RELIGION 655
He stand inflexible, unbending,

will
Hestands unmoved.
The smashers of wood smash,
The hurlers of stone hurl,
He remains unmoved.
The yam kulia
He (also) remains inflexible, unbending,
He remains, he remains unmoved,
In the belly of my garden.
The spell is repeated for each of the yam varieties in the garden. If
such magic prevails, the gardener will possess his due crop at harvest-
ing. If his magic to entice others' yams is successful, he will have an
unusual harvest. Every man's harvest is therefore an evidence "of his
magical thievery, and as such is suspect. Harvest, indeed, is the
occasion of the most carefully guarded privacy. No one outside the
immediate family is allowed to see a family's magically gotten food-
stores.
It is not only in agriculture that one man's gains are regarded as
another man's losses. In every effort to succeed at the cost of another
man's failure, magic is the chief reliance. Magic is not, as in Zuiii,
the constraint of the supernatural for ends in which the whole com-
munity is concerned. The ends are definite and exclusive to one
individual. Magic used to bring success in the next trading under-
is
taking of the individualwho owns the charm. It is used to gain access

to a particular woman, or to protect the fruit trees that are the own-
er's particular property.
The asocial nature of Dobuan magic is strikingly illustrated in
their use of it in this last instance. In order to protect their betel nut
or coconut trees they use the spells which every family possesses for
causing and curing disease. These spells are placed on the trees by
the individual owning the magic, and the thief is then visited with
meningitis, cerebral malaria, elephantiasis, gangosa, or tertiary yaws.
The only reason the owner can pick his own fruit is that the knowledge
of the exorcism inevitably accompanies the knowledge of the curse,
and he removes the he approaches the tree.
spell before
Dobuan spells to cause sickness are thought to be infallible, and the
sorcerer, in laying them upon the person he wishes to harm, imitates
to the last degree the agonies of the death from the imposed disease.
Religion in Dobu is used in the great majority of instances to harm
and to steal. It is a civilization where jealousy and fear are highly
developed, and the supernatural techniques serve, as is usual, the
ends that are sought in that society.
Recurring aspects of the religious complex. It is clear that there are
several constantly recurring elements in these diverse religions. This
would be the more striking the more religions we were able to pass in
review and the more in detail we were able to describe them. The most
important are ceremonialism, the use of border-line psychological
states, the development of dogma, and the ethical sanction. None of
these are elements that are peculiar to religion. They are all found
often in secular connections. The fact that they have special religious
importance springs in each case from certain aspects of the nature of
religion.
Cer7noniaUsmleremomsi]ism is used so often with religious conno-
tations that secular forms are often overlooked. This secular aspect
its
is usually called pageantry; that is, the formal patterning of occasions
when many individuals are publicly participating. In our own culture,

secular pageantry even though the spectacle includes incidental
prayer is characteristic of ceremonies of presidential inauguration,
of the rites of many men's societies, of school graduations, and similar
occasions!/ In primitive communities, though many more occasions
arc likely to be supernaturalized than with us, the rites of the men's
societies of the Crow or of the fono of Samoa are equally secular.
Formal traditional rules of procedure are obviously overdetermined
in public spectacles of any sort, secular or religious, and symbolic
acts analogies, for instance, from sex behavior or from eating
readily serve as patterns for group behavior in which all the partici-
pating persons may unite.
Durkheim has derived all religion from ceremonialism. 24 Lowie, 25
on the other hand, has defined it as a free show on the basis of the
nonreligious pleasure the majority derive from their tribal rites.
Durkheim, however forced the steps of his argument, is right in
pointing out the way in which group participation has contributed
to religion, and Lowie is right in emphasizing the nonreligious satis-
faction in religious ceremonialism. It is not necessary to define
ceremonialism in the one way or in the other.(Ceremonialisin is the
consequence ofâ process that is evident in the study of any culture
and should be accepted in the same way that we accept the fact
trait,
of grammar in language, without deriving speech from grammar, or
without misunderstanding the fact that grammar is distinct from
vocabulary.
RELIGION 657
Any of the themes of religion which we have seen developed in

various parts of the world can be ceremonially developed and, made
the basis of great ritual. The medium's demonstration of his powers
in Siberia, the impersonation of the masked gods or the tribal healing
by the beast gods in Zufii, the handling of the medicine bundles that
are the visible symbols of the vision of the Plains, divinations, first
fruit observances, sacrifices all these and many more are occasions
for the elaboration of ceremonial.

Besides these clearly marked themes of ceremonial there are other
cases where the ceremony is as valued but the purpose of it is vague
in the extreme. It is carried out because it must be for the life of the
tribe, but reasons that are read into it are clearly rationalizations. As
Marett has pointed out, the rite has usually surprisingly little con-
"
scious ide# or purpose behind it. It is danced out, not thought out/'
and becomes, as soon as it has received traditional form, a standard
"
of reference from it proceed the random whys, and to it return
the indeterminate therefores."
A further consequence of this secondary role of the theme or pur-
pose in ceremonialism is the fact that ceremonials are often distributed
over wide areas with a surprising similarity of detail, while the reason
forwhich the ceremony is performed is hardly twice the same. The
best studied of these cases is that of the Sun Dance of the Plains
Indians. 26 It the major tribal ceremony of the Plains and adjacent
is
tribes. Everywhere, for the erection of its sacred lodge, a center pole is
scouted counted coup on, and brought into camp as if it were an
for,
enemy by scouts. Except on the edges of sun dance distribution

killed
a peculiar and bloody torture is associated with it. It is a ceremony
which has been spread by diffusion over a wide area. But it is its
outward observances that have similarity in the tribes that hold it;
the purposes for which it is performed are different in each tribe.
Among the Dakota it is given as the last step in the qualification of
high-degree shamans. Among the Crow it is given by an uncle to
obtain supernatural power to avenge the death of his nephew by a
war expedition. Among the Ponca it is the annual ceremony of the
Thunder society. Among the Hidatsa it is given as part of the cere-
monial of the son's purchase of the family medicine bundle from his
father. Among the Cheyenne it is votive; a warrior in danger or a
vows to give it the following year if his prayers
father with a sick child
are granted. The purpose for which the ceremony is performed is the
least stable and most local element in the sun dance complex.
^Vision and ecstasy) The use of border-line psychological states in
religion is found in allthe great areas of the primitive world. It is

not universal, as we saw in Pueblo religion, and even in those regions
where religion is unintelligible without this type of behavior it is
often only the shamans, a very small proportion of the tribe, who
indulge in it. It has been called the religious experience, and from
J
27
this or from "the religious thrill* religion has been derived. Hauer's
28
statement of the case for this origin of religion shows how much
there is to be said for this point of view.
In the first place it is essential to understand that the experiences
of this type of which religion has made use in various parts of the
world are not by any means the same. Each religion lays down one or
more Jypcs of experience as having religious value, and all the religious
experiences of that area conform to that type. We have seen that in
Siberia it is the gifts of mediumship that are religiously valued, and
the words of the control are for them the words of deity and their way
of learning the will of the supernaturals. Among the American Indians,
on the other hand, the experience that was valued as the source of
religious power varied with different tribes and different individuals
from a major hallucination to a dream to which meaning was felt to
be attached. It was in general an experience of automatic sight and of
automatic audition. The Plains Indians were never mediums. Many
of their visions are stereotyped in the extreme, but so were those of
the medieval monks or of the Eastern mystics. Uji all countries where
this men have seen in their sought
kind of experience has been valued,
which their culture has taught them to expecQ
visions those things
And they have received their power in an experience wtich their
culture has taught them to regard as
powerfup
^Trance has probably been the most often valued of such experi-
ences!) In our own cultural background the epileptic and the person
liable to trance were valued in Greece as oracles and spokesmen of
the gods. The Protestant church today has swung to the opposite
extreme, so that even a person with minor mystical tendencies is
aberrant, and cataleptic phenomena are thought to have religious
power only by scattered cults. Trance has often been, however, the
only gate of entrance into the religious profession. In some California

tribes 29 a woman signalized her call to shamanism shamans are
women in this region by falling rigid and remaining in this con-
dition for several hours, hardly breathing. When she recovered she
was carefully watched, for she had been taught the spirit's song in
RELIGION 659
her trance, and her moans as she emerged from trance were inter-
preted as repeating this song and calling upon the spirit's name.
When she had spoken the name, blood oozed from her mouth. Her
initiation dances were a further demonstration of her intimacy with
the proven by further cataleptic seizures. The most dangerous
spirit,
of these occasions was that on which she received the spirit's power
into her body; if those about her did not catch her before she fell in
the trance, the power would kill her, but if she survived she had in
her body from that time a small, white, iciclelike object, the "power"
so well known among tribes of California.
^Trances merge easily into experiences known as pos-

of this sort
session^)
In West Africa, especially, trances are sought in order to
receive messages from the dead king. The seer is seated on the king's
stool in the shrine of the dead ruler. lie trembles violently, foams at
the mouth, has convulsions, dances in frenzied fashion, and repeats
the message of the dead. 30 In the Marquesan Islands of Polynesia the
inspired priest who sought such messages from the supernatural in
trance ranked with the highest chiefs, and the practice was common
in this part of Polynesia. The mouthpiece of the god told Williams
"
in the early years of exploration, I do not know what I say. My
own mind leaves me, and while it is gone, my god speaks through
me." 31
Just as varied as the forms of mental abnormality that are made
use of in different regions are the means of inducing the state. It is
sometimes regarded as sacrilegious to induce it at all; it must come
unsought or not at all. This is the attitude among California Indians.
Usually, however, as among the Oriental mystics and the medieval
saints, certain methods of inducing the state are recognized. These
vary from drugs to concentration. In Uganda, in East Africa, it is
said to be produced by the use of tobacco, in some parts of Polynesia
by kava, in southern California by the datura, in Siberia by monoto-
nous drumming, in India by breath control. Qt is clear that there is
widely distributed in the human race a potentiality for these types of
experience, and if the culture bestows rewards upon those who have
them, a certain number of the population will achieve such experi-
ence.If, however, the culture does not reward the experience, very
few and aberrant individuals will give evidence of it)
The nonreligious aspects of border-line psychological states are
obvious to anyone in our civilization. Like the other traits we have
been considering, they have nonreligious provenience. The problem
that arises constantly is therefore: \What is there in experiences of
thistype that has so often allied them with different religions? Why
is it that they have tended to be so characteristic of religion?)
V.The answer lies in the fact that the supernatural world is by its
nature an "other" world. Those who have

experiences which, by
breaking through the routine world of the senses in any way, give
them experience of an "other" world are often held to be its mes-
sengers and interpreters and to have the power of that world. The
use by religion of such experiences seems therefore almost ovcrde-
termined, and it is easy to see why there is no uniformity in the
particular type of experience regarded as religious. Any breaking
through the routine sense experience will serv^ but no culture can
develop them all, and each region specializes in one or two which it
approvers religious)
Cosmology and belief. The question of belief is of such importance
in the churches today that it is necessary to justify its omission up
to this point in a discussion of religion. With us a person- is religious
or nonreligious according to whether or not he holds certain beliefs.
If he loses these he loses his religion. Our studies of comparative
religions therefore tend to discuss the history of religion as if it were

a history of certain dogmas.
The situation in our own civilization that has brought about the
great emphasis upon belief and disbelief is a very special oneQScep-
ticism is a habit in modern thought, and its extension in the field
of religion has made
the issue of belief acute. But in primitive so-
about
cieties beliefs the gods are rarely the subject of scepticisny
What any people knows about the supernatural is handed down in
the same way as their conventions about forbidden degrees of mar-
riage or about propitious behavior on the part of a hunting party. It
is traditional knowledge and is accepted as such. The question of
belief or disbelief in the gods arises only in that slight fashion in
which scepticism about agricultural techniques or exogamous re-
strictions may also arise.
Nevertheless there is belief; that is, there is a superstructure of
dogma and of cosmology that is built upon the fundamental be-
havior that is This superstructure of belief,
religious in that locality.
like the other traits ofthe religious complex we have just discussed,
is strictly analogous to the superstructures that are built up around
other cultural traits. Chieftainship may be secularly conceived and

be elaborated as in Samoa with traditional genealogies and tales of
RELIGION 661
folklore, quite after the fashion of religious cosmology. The great

potlatching system of the Northwest ("oast of North America is
similarly buttressed by traditional history and songs. Culture traits
ofany kind may acquire this kind of elaboration if they are strongly
emphasized in any culture; it is by no means a peculiarity of religion.
Nevertheless the fact that the strongest single characteristic of
religion is that it handles the world as animate gives special impetus
to this myth-making faculty in religion. Myths grow up around
kings and potlatching, but these institutions do not give the kind of
freedom to the human imagination that is provided by the religious
idea that the whole world is animate and that man can entreat it
and make it propitious. The supernatural is an "other" world that
*
he can picture as he pleases.
Cosmology and supernatural lore therefore have developed richly
upon religious soil. They have expressed themselves quite differently
in different parts of the world, sometimes finding rich expression in
myth and sometimes in temple practices, sometimes becoming an

absorbing interest in the culture, sometimes pared down to a mini-
mum. Sometimes this myth-making centers itself around pantheons,
sometimes around the dead or the unborn. With our increasing
knowledge we no longer raise questions as to whether we can
call peoples religious who have no idea of gods or of reward in the
afterworld. Myth-making may take very diverse forms and still be

analogous. No peoples need to expend their cosmological energies in
the same way, and they have by no means done so.
Cosmology should be studied always in relation to the life of the
tribe in question, the behavior of its members, and the institutions
it exalts.Cosmology is often a commentary upon this life that is
not to be excelled, and sets forth the virtues and vices of the culture
from the point of view of the native himself. It gives free play to
the wishes that are uppermost under the forms of society that pre-
vail in that culture. It is for its help in understanding an individual
culture that the study of a cosmology is primarily important. Gen-
eralizations as to the nature of primitive religious beliefs are singu-
larlyunrewarding.
Nevertheless there are a few misconceptions that may be pointed
out. There is no evidence of an evolutionary development of belief
which ends in monotheism. Various situations, in many different
parts of the world and in tribes of very different degrees of cultural

complexity, have brought about the idea of one highest and supreme
god, and there seems to be no reason for giving this dogma any
particular prominence in discussions of religion.
The question of the nature of the supernatural, whether the dead,
or spirits of places, or freely fabricated deities, is of greater interest.
The supernaturals are locally animals or ghosts or gods, and char-
acteristic practices develop on the basis of each of these beliefs. In
North America religion makes only the most tenuous use of the
deadXjTie association of the masked gods)of the Pueblos^with the
impersonal dead is unusual in Americapand even that is slightly
developed. In much of Africa, on the other hand, religion is directed
primarily toward the family dead. All the circumstances under which
an individual would give help to another in this life are thought to
hold also for the other life, and the ghost is thought to have the
greater power. Therefore a strong and influential man is considered

still a strong and influential ghost, and a person of the immediate
family group is considered still the ghost to whom a petition and
gifts supporting it should be presented. The good spirits are those

who are still kept in human remembrance by their families. When
memory them lapses, they are no longer helpful to
of man, but join
the class of bad spirits. This family cult of the dead is basic "in the
greater part of Africa even when there are also gods and fetishes
that play important roles.
Qn our own cultural background supernaturals are personifications

ofgood arid of This follows out in cosmology our prevailing pic-
evil)
ture of the cosmic conflict of these two forces. But this is not a usual
theme of cosmologies. Just as supernatural power is in most religions
eithergood or bad according to the use made of it, so a god is either
good or bad according to circumstances. This has made for much
misunderstanding in missionary work. It has led to much misinter-
pretation of primitive mythology and religion also. Many cosmolo-
gies cannot be understood at all unless we can lay aside our cate-
gories of good and evil. This is most true in cosmologies^ of the
trickster type. The trickster is a fairly common character in primitive
mythology, in many cases the person foremost in the religious

thought of the tribe. He
brought the world to its present shape; he
instituted the customs; he especially blessed the tribe to which he
belongs. But he is a figure without honor and without dignity even
from the point of view of the ethical standards of the tribe in ques-
tion. He is lascivious, or a gormandizer, or foolish, or a boaster. He
is often a dupe in the most trivial circumstances. He made this
RELIGION 663
world what it is in the course of pursuing his own pleasures. Ac-
cording to the ideas of the natives no veneration is due him, and of

course no thanks. But he is their favorite figure of mythology, and
he is the crux of their religious conceptions.
Ethical sanctions. The higher ethical religions are often distin-
guished from the primitive religions. All the former are elaborations
of the theme of the conflict of good and evil, ancf it gives a particular
cast to their moral sanctions. As \ve have just seen, primitive cos-
mologies are often elaborated in direct contradiction of this theme.
Supernatural power, likewise, is usually not thought of as a power
tor good alone. Religion has not in such cases, therefore, the thor-
oughgoing identification with morality to which we are accustomed.

The aspiration to lead a better life is not in such religions the reason
for seeking relationship with the supernatural)
This should not blind us to the fact that religious sanctions are
often massed behind many points of conduct. Behavior that is re-
garded as
wrong is often
supermiturally punished. The charms
placed upon fruit trees in Dobu act to inflict disease upon the thief.
Any unjustified claim to power on the Plains is punished by the
outraged spirit which a man has presumed to use. But there is the
greatest diversity in different cultures as to what behavior is supcr-
naturally guaranteed and what is not. Often neighboring tribes will
differ,one of them punishing the breaking of an incest ruling, for
instance, by supernatural agencies, and the other punishing the
same crime by action of an assembly of old men.
Nor are all the cultures that use religion as a sanction for ethical
conduct found upon the plane of complex civilization. The Manus
people of the Bismarck Archipelago have an ethical religion, and it
would be hard to imagine a culture that more consistently used all
their supernatural concepts to back a puritanical code of morals. 32
The recently dead, the fathers and elder brothers of the household,
become the guardian spirits of the heads of the households. They
watch their mortal charges in every word and deed. When any illness
mediums consult these guardian spirits as to
occurs in the village,
the reason they have withheld their protection from their
why
proteges. The answers give multitudes of reasons why friction has
occurred, for the mediums are women who know intimately the
persons involved, and who are in complete command of their wits.
Of these causes of friction the chief are instances of wrongdoing
that have offended the guardian spirits, and the wrongdoers must
make restitution. Minute sex offenses are held up years afterward
as the cause of deaths in related families. Feeling runs very high,
and the strict moral code of Manus is rigidly upheld by the super-
natural sanctions.
commoner, however, for any local form of morality to be
It is far
upheld without recourse to religion. In our own civilization marriage

has at times been a sacrament with religious sanction, and at other
times a secular affair. We are quite familiar with the fact that
strong affect which has no religious connection may accompany
errors in behavior. On
the other hand, w hen some item of behavior
T
is backed by religious sanctions, like the Jewish food taboos, though
the physical repulsion is not necessarily stronger than in our taboo

against dog flesh, there is a tendency for the taboo to be maintained
as long as the religion is intact, and to collapse with it when it
disappears.
FOOTNOTES
1. The study of "origins" in religion has never been anything but a eonvenient
way of designating efforts to isolate the core of religion. The "origin'*
given by each student is only what he conceives to have been the funda-
mental basis of religion in human life. For a discussion of certain anthro-
pological origins that have been proposed, see Lowie, II. H., Primitive
Religion (1024), pp.- 106-103.
2. Durkheim, E., The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (English transla-
tion, London, 1915).
3. Haucr, J. W., Die Rcligionen, Bd. I: "Das religiose Erlebnis auf den unteren
Stufen" (Berlin, 1923).
4. King, I., The Development of Religion (1910); Ames, E. S. f Religion (1929).
5. Frazer, J. G., Totemism and Exogamy (London, 1910), vol. 3, p. 142.
6. Marett, R. R., The Threshold of Religion (1914), p. 17.
7. Ibid., pp. 1-72.
8. Malinowski, B., "Magic, Science, and Religion," in Science, Religion, and
Reality, edited by Joseph Needham (1925), pp. 73-83; also "Anthro-
pology," in Encyclopaedia Britannica, Supplement to 13th Edition.
9. Frazer, J. G., The Golden Bough (3rd ed., London, 1907-15), vol. I, p. 221.
10. The Jesuit Relations. See Kenton, Edna, Indians of North America, vul. 1
(1927), pp. 117-118.
11. Bogoras, W., The Chukchec, Jesup Expedition, vol. 7 (1904-09), pp. 499-507.
12. The standard collection of magic practices is Frazer, J. G., The Golden Bough;
sec also Skeat, W. W., and Blagden, C. O., Malay Magic (1900); Williams,
F. E., Orokaira Magic (London, 1928).
13. Lowie, R. H., Primitive Religion (1924), p. 322.
14. Fortune, R. F., "Manus Religion," Memoirs of the American Philosphical
Society, vol. 3 (1935), pp. 215, 216.
15. Ivens, W., Island Builders of the Pacific (London, 1930), p. 217.
RELIGION 665
16. Goddard, P. E., Hupa Texts, University of California Publications in

American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 1 (1904), pp. 252-368.
17. Speck, F. G., Naskapi (1935), pp. 127 ff.
18. Kingsley, M., Went African Studies (1901), p. 110.
19. Mead, M., "A Lapse of Animism among a Primitive People/' Psyche, vol. 9
(1928), pp. 72-77.
20. Bogoras, W., op. cit.', Czaplicka, M. A., Aboriginal Siberia (Oxford, 1914).
21. Stevenson, M. C., Zufii Indians, Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, vol. 23 (1904); Bunzel, II., Introduction to Zufii Ceremonialism,
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, vol. 47 (1932), pp.
467-1086.
22. Bunzel, II., Zufii Ritual Poetry, Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, vol. 47 (1932).
23. Fortune, R. F., Sorcerers of Dobu (1932).
24. Durkheim, E., op. cit.
25. Lowie, "Ceremonialism in North America," American AnthroiY)logist,

II. II.,
vol. 16 (1914), pp. 602 ff.

26. Spier, L., The Sun Dance of the Plains Indians, Anthropological Papers,
American Museum of Natural History, vol. 16 (1921), pp. 451-527.
27. Goldenweiser, A. A., History, Psychology and Culture (1933), pp. 377-388.
28. Haurr, J. W., op. cit.
29. Dixon, R. B., The Shasta, American Museum of Natural History, Bulletin 17,
Part V (1907).
30. Ellis, A. B., Ewe Speaking Tribes of the Slave Coast of West Africa (London,
1890), p. 148.
31. Williams, T., Fiji and the Fijians (London, I860), vol. 1, p. 228.
32. Fortune, R. F., Manns Religion.
GENERAL REFERENCES
Durkheim, E., The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (English translation,
London, 1915).
Hauer, J. W., Die Religionen, Bd. I: "Das religiose Erlebnis auf den unteren
Stufen" (Berlin, 1923).
Lowie, II. H., Primitive Religion (1924).
Radin, P., Primitive Religion (1937).
Santavana. G.. The Life of Reason, vol. 3. "Reason in Religion
CHAPTEK XV
METHODS OF RESEARCH
FRANZ BOAS
The attempts phenomena by analogy with those
to explain ethnic
of other sciences appear to be an expression of the helplessness of
the investigator, of whom the development of a rigid method of
handling his problems is demanded. Herbert Spencer based his
1
system on the analogy between society and an organism. This
2
analogy was still more rigidly worked out by A. Schaffle. Later on,
stimulated by biological observations and hypotheses, the analogy
between ethnic phenomena and organic recapitulation of phylogcny
in ontogeny became a favorite theme of theorists who sought in the
development of the child a repetition of the development of the
race, and tried to explain child psychology on the basis of a con-
structed history of human culture and vice versa. This is largely the
basis of certain investigations of developmental psychology. 3 At
present the peculiar customs of many primitive people which remind
us of actions of the mentally deranged arc being made use of to
explain ethnic phenomena of perfectly healthy groups of primitive
man. The doubtful in my opinion fanciful interpretations of
psychoanalysis are transferred to the domain of primitive life al-
though conflicts in alien cultures may be based on social conditions
entirely distinct from our own. Such analogies seem to me entirely!
misleading. We must rather attempt to investigate primitive life
purely objectively.
It must be asked what are the data that may be secured and
what are our objectives.
For a long time conditions were such that we had to find first of
all a standard by which the activities of members of alien cultures
could be described. In other words, the handicrafts, economic con-

ditions, beliefs, and practices of primitive people had to be described
according to general observations and information received by the
observer. The individual was unimportant compared with the general
standards of culture. Even in books describing the characteristics
of European or Asiatic peoples there is a clear tendency to isolate
666
METHODS OF RESEARCH 667
from out of the mass of varying individual behavior that which is

characteristic of a people as a whole. The fatalism of the Turk, thet
logical mind of the French, the sentimentality of the German, are

such traits that are mere abstractions derived from general impres-
sions.
The essential difficulty in obtaining a clear understanding of the
problem is that we do not know how primitive cultures came to be
what they are. The standardized picture appears as a stable fabric.

We do not know whence it came nor whither, if left alone, it would
drift.
In the development of scientific inquiry a number of questions

develop; first of all, the problem whether a cause can be found for
the particular static behavior that has been observed. The answer
may be sought in various directions: it may be asked whether it it
determined by the physical character of the people or by geograph-
ical and social environment; or whether it is due to historical causes.
Speculative answers have been attempted along all these lines. On

pages 117-121 we have discussed and criticized the theory that
ascribes the character and customs of a people to their bodily build.
We repeat that the proof of an important influence of racial descent
has not been given. Individually the hereditary determination of
behavior under given conditions is presumably important; but since
each race includes a large number of biologically distinct strains
which in regard to their functional activities overlap, race alone
cannot have an essential influence upon cultural behavior. The
distinction between the behavior of pure-bred strains of domesticated
animals that do show decidedly distinct racial personalities and the
human races which include many varieties of personalities must
again be emphasized.
Not even the most opinionated biologist would dare to claim that
the cultural pattern of a group of people of the same descent has
always remained the same. The pure-blood pygmy living in the
woods and his congeners forming regiments under orders of the
Mangbattu are hardly culturally identical; nor are the Turks who
swept over Europe the same as the Kemalites of our day. The Indian
of the Plains in the days when distinction was obtained by warlike
deeds and his poverty-stricken descendant of our days are culturally
worlds apart. The Zulu of Chaka's time and the one who is assidu-
ously studying arts and sciences are of the same blood, but their
It cannot be shown by the widest stretch of the imagination thai
descent makes it impossible to partake of any given type of culture
provided the individual is completely socially one of the people
among whom he lives and, what is more important, is considered

also by society as one of its members.
The biological approach is not promising when w e wish to under-
r
stand the history of cultures. We have also shown the limitations oi

the attempts to explain culture as due to environmental and eco-
nomic These have their influence upon existing cultures,
factors.
limiting certain activities and facilitating others, but they do not

create culture. In an analysis of culture these influences have to be
considered, but they do not explain the foundations of the fabric.
The* indispensable means for clearing up the history of culture
are data that exhibit, not the static picture of our time, but the
actual changes of earlier times. Unfortunately these data are not
amenable to observation. Under unusually favorable conditions
archaeological data give us information on the gradual changes of
material culture and allow also inferences regarding a few aspects
of the inner life of the people. Arid countries like Egypt, large parts
of Asia, southwestern United States, parts of Mexico, Peru, and
Bolivia are of this character. Every one of these countries has
yielded data that allow us to sec changing cultures, local types de-
veloping here and there, inner developments and foreign elements
giving rise to new forms. The prehistory of Europe, notwithstanding
all its doubtful problems, presents the same picture.
By far the larger part of the world does not permit the application
of this method, either on account of lack of prehistoric material, or
because of breaks in the record due to a sudden displacement of one
people by another. Under these circumstances there is no truly
historical material available, and whatever results can be
obtained;
must be based on conditions as they existed at the time when each
culture was studied. Historical data can only be inferred from
these.
I The of primitive people is an unsafe guide for the recon-
tradition
struction of cultural history. Generally the knowledge of the past
treasured by primitive peopte is underestimated.tln many cases the*
names of seven or more generations of ancestors are remembered,
but the details regarding their lives are scanty and often tell no
more than their marriages and warlike deeds, which from the point
of view of cultural history give little light. In North America one
may hear of the time when horses were first introduced among a
certain tribe.The Eskimo of Frobisher Bay recall many details of
the visit of Frobisher in 1577. More often remote tradition becomes
fantastic and intermingled with mythical tales. Tales of migrations
are particularly liable to be purely mythological. Therefore tradi-
tions of early times that contain elements apparently important
from an historical point of view can be utilized only if there is ample
corroborative evidence.
*If every culture were absolutely isolated the only possible method
would consist in a comparison of similar features and of inferences

4
that could be based on theseJ The compilations of Frazer, Spencer,
Bastian, and many others are founded on this assumption^ The
method is vitiated by two facts: one, that cultures are not isolated
but interdependent; the other, that analogies of cultural traits are
often fallacious and lead to faulty identifications of diverse phe-
nomena, i
The very fact that cultures are interdependent permits us to

reconstruct historical happenings with a fair degree of certainty. It is
Ratzel's great merit to have emphasized this possibility. In some cases
concrete results may be obtained.) As an example we may recall the
distribution of maize in America. When it became known that
Mexico was the home of the wild plant from which Indian corn in
descended, it followed that the cultivation must have spread from
there north and south. Similarly with all other features the home
of which can be determined. If by good fortune archaeological evi-
dence gives us a clue as to the time when they first appeared in
parts of the area, it may even be possible to reconstruct some sort of
approximate chronology. Similar conditions prevail when the im-
portation of foreign materials indicates the direction of trade, par-
ticularly when the handling of the material imitates the methods in
use in the place of its origin.
The observation that many cultural features are spread over
limited geographical areas and do not occur outside of these gives
us a means of studying cultural relations. The Sun Bance, for ex-
ample, is confined to the Mississippi basin and part of the immedi-
ate neighborhood. It has many distinctive local features, but the

complex as a whole, with many details, is common to the whole
area. It is therefore safe to assume that it originated here and was
adopted by many tribes that differ in many other respects.
Here, however, the Question arises whether we can determine the
place of origin. Many ethnologists hold to the opinion that wherever
a certain cultural feature shows its strongest development, decreas-
ing in complexity and importance as distance from its center in-

creases, there must be its origin.
It does not require much thought to recognize that, while this
may be the case, it is not by any means a necessary conclusion to
be derived from the facts. It would be just as possible to assume a
wide distribution of the basic feature which gained its highest de-
velopment locally. It might even be that a foreign importation took
root and developed vigorously in a new soil. The argument is as
little conclusive as if we were to assume that a plant, like the Ginko,
that is confined nowadays to one locality must have originated

there, "while paleontology proves that its distribution in earlier
times*was very wide.
In other words, while we can prove in many cases the fact of dis
semination, it is often impossible to determine its direction. In some'
instances there is a strong plausibility for the direction in which
cultural traits may have traveled, particularly when stray lines of
diffusion emanate from a center or when a few stray elements are
interspersed in a foreign culture. An example of such an occurrence
is the American story of the deluge, which is ended by animals
diving for earth. This occurs in a solid area in the region of the
Great Lakes and farther west. On the Pacific coast it is found in a
few isolated spots along trade routes, in British Columbia and
California, but in very fragmentary and highly modified forms. It
does not seem likely that we should search for its origin on the
Pacific coast. If it were of wide distribution in that region the ques-
tion would be open to doubt. An example of the stray occurrence
of foreign elements is that of a few Indian stories among the Eskimo,
few in number and rather distinctive in character. Another case is
that of agriculture in North Australia, a cultural feature foreign to
the rest of the continent. On the whole the direction of diffusion
and the location of origin cannot often be ascertained, while his-
torical relations can be demonstrated.
4 Distributional areas are most impressive in the domain of mate- .
'
rial culture, because under similar methods of obtaining sustenance,
which are controlled by geographic conditions, whole complexes of

objects and activities are common to fairly large areas. I On this
basis the concept of "culture areas" has developed first of all as a
convenience in museum administration, because it made it possible

to group material from many different tribal units in one compre-

hensive scheme.
I Unfortunately the primary object of this grouping was soon for-
gotten and the culture areas were assumed to be natural group^
that divided mankind into so many cultural groups.1y\ctually the
student interested in religion, social organization, or some other
aspect of culture would soon discover that the culture areas based
on material culture do not coincide with those that would naturally
resultfrom his studies. This is most easily seen in the complete
disagreement between linguistic groups and culture areas. Attempts
to map the. distribution of definite cultural traits that occur over
continuous areas prove that various forms overlap irregularly. Cul-
ture areas have a meaning only from the particular point of view
from which they have been obtained. To give only one example.
The form of material culture of the tribes of northern Vancouver *
Island is so similar to that of the northern coast of British Columbia

that it would be difficult to differentiate between the two. On the
other hand the social organization and the concept of the origin of
families are totally different.
The establishment of culture areas as units of general validity
has also led to the concept of marginal cultures which are liable to
be considered as inferior to the centers in which the traits of the
culture area are most fully developed. Here also serious misunder-
standings arise if we generalize this concept. It may well be that a

culture is not so thoroughly institutionalized as another neighboring
one and that, at the same time, the material possessions may be
less complex. It does not follow that the cultural life of the people
is poorer, because it is not so easy for the observer to formalize a
culture permitting greater freedom to the individual. The concept ofi
culture area should therefore always be used with a clear under- 1
standing of its limitations.
We have spoken so far of the

possibility of analyzing a culture in
regard to the provenience of the elements composing the whole.
There are other indications that permit us now and then to infer
thatnew developments have occurred. This is the case particularly
when a cultural trait appears in a strong contrast to the needs of
everyday life. An example is the tent of the Reindeer Chukchee, an
exceedingly clumsy affair, difficult to transport on account of the
weight of the cover and the many tent poles required for its erection.
Its plan may be derived from the semi-subterranean house of the
Maritime Chukchee, which has low walls and a flat roof. The ar-
rangement of the low walls is imitated by a series of low tripods
placed in a circle over which the roof is erected. The contrast between
this tent and the light tent of the Eskimo, which may be transported
on a single sledge, is striking. A similar case is probably the semi-
subterranean house of Northwest America, which extends through
part of California and has its analogue in the ceremonial kiva of
the Pueblos, in w hose home climatic conditions do not require the
r
protection offered by this structure in more inhospitable climates.

" "
The whole group of survivals which has been so thoroughly
exploited by Tylor belongs to this group. There is no doubt that a
thorough analysis of cultures will indicate the persistence of earlier
stages. I am inclined to believe that the custom of the Northwest
Coast Indians of having certain initiates come in through the roof,
and their tales of supernatural beings who approach through the
roof, indicate that in earlytimes subterranean lodges with entrance
through the roof were used or at least known to the people.
In these attempts we arc naturally led to the problem as to whether
it can be decided which are the oldest traits of a culture. If it were
possible to point out chronologically those traits that are late intro-
ductions, this problem would be solved, but it seems more than
doubtful whether a generally valid method can be discovered except
in the cases of the occurrence of discordant survivals. Examples
are:, the custom of using stone implements in rituals long after the
use of bronze or iron had been invented; the production of fire by
drilling when more effective methods were known; and the many
cases of conservative resistance in our own culture to changes the
,
usefulness of which is
readily recognized for example, resistance
to changes in the forms of our alphabet, the keyboard of the piano,
our calendar, our system of measures.
were possible to determine certain groups of ethnic phe-
If it
nomena that are exceptionally constant and that are always stable
our problem might be solved. Physical type, language, social organ-
ization, invention, religious ideas, may all be stable or unstable,
according to local and historical conditions. As long as, on account
of their diverse degrees of stability or instability, no grave inner
conflicts develop, the most heterogeneous congeries of cultural traits
may exist, in which it is impossible to determine what is old and

what is new. Some kind of formalization always develops that makes
apparently contradictory ideas compatible.
The study of the distribution of cultural traits which we have so

far discussed will give us a limited amount of information in regard
to historical facts, illustrating the former relations between tribes.
The problem of the development of culture is not by any means
exhausted by even the fullest information that may be obtained by
the study of archaeology and of distribution. Notwithstanding in-
congruities that are never entirely absent, each culture is a whole,
and its form has a dynamic force which determines the behavior of
the mass of individuals. It is only from their thoughts and acts,
from the products of their actions, that we derive the concept of

How far an individual is able to free himself from the
their culture.
fetters that culture lays upon him depends not only upon his indi-
viduality but equally, if not more, upon the culture imposed upon
him. History gives us no direct clue to an understanding of the
expression of culture in individual life.
To give an example. For the illiterate speaker the history of his
language is irrelevant. What is important for an understanding of
the function of language in cultural life is the question how the
Procrustean bed of language shapes ideas; how the emotional tone
of words and phrases influences action; and how the activities of
man modify language. The same
is no less true in other fields. The
cultural conditions of a people have had a long history. We want

to know that history; but even an intimate knowledge of the past
docs not explain the reactions of an individual living at a given
moment to the cultural and individual stresses that determine his
actions. While historical data may permit us every now and then to
infer from observed changes the forces that are released by the
interplay of all the different elements of culture acting upon each

person according to his individuality and resulting in stability or
change, we can never obtain a clear insight into these except by
the study of a multitude of individuals reacting to a culture, and
by study of the cumulative effect of these reactions.
A detailed study of the behavior of many individuals at a given
moment may disclose tendencies of change, because some of them
will lag behind and represent an earlier stage of culture while others
forge ahead of their time. In some cases it will be possible to evalu-

ate the relative strength of lag and of forward push that permits a
fairly safe prognosis of the direction in which cultural phenomena
may be moving. An excellent example of such analysis has been
given by Alexander Lesser in his monograph on the hand game of
674 .
5
the Pawnee in which, through a study of the changes that occurred
during the past sixty or seventy years, adjustments of new tenden-

cies and old customs have been traced. In a similar way adjustments
may be observed in the household arrangements of the Kwakiutl

Indians. In olden times the people used tosit at meal time leaning
against a backboard, their knees drawn up, the food being spread
on a mat. In feasts they continue this habit, but when eating in
the family circle they use nowadays a low table, about fifteen centi-
meters high, and a very low stool. It may be predicted that the
height of table and stool will increase. The modern houses are also
an adjustment of the American frame house to their social require-
ments. The front room is large and unfurnished, with a stove in the
center, corresponding to the old square house with a fire in the
middle; the living quarters, which in olden times consisted of small
sheds surrounding the central room, have now been relegated to
the rear of the house. In our own culture the increasing tendency to
socialization, to the better adjustment between the needs of the
individual and those of society as a whole, presents a similar spec-
tacle.
We may perhaps compare the problem of the predictability of cul-!
tural changes with that of the predictability of the movements of a
number of bodies distributed in space, the velocity of each being
known. On the basis of our knowledge of the laws of gravitation the
future movements and positions of these bodies may be predicted.
In the case of social phenomena the "laws" are not so well known,
and on account of the multiplicity of contradictory elements predic-
tion is not certain. Nevertheless the general dynamic tendencies of
cultural change may be understood by such an analysis.
The historical study needs as its supplement knowledge of the
dynamic processes that may be observed in living cultures. These ir
their turn will throw light upon historical happenings, for conditions
of the past may be better understood by knowledge of the processes
that may be observed at the present time. Based on these considera-
tions, the hope has arisen anew that laws of general validity may
be found that control all historical happenings, that allow us to state
not only the dynamic conditions controlling the interplay between
the different manifestations of cultural life, but also the necessary
sequences of cultural forms.
A number of social tendencies that are apparently generally valid
may be isolated. Their psychological basis and the forms in which
they find expression may be studied. Thus the solidarity of social

groups and their antagonism toward the outsider; the forms anc
motives for coordination and subordination; imitation of, and re-
sistance to, outside influences; competition between individuals anc
between groups; division of labor; amalgamation and segregation
attitudes toward the supernatural to mention only a few ma>
be investigated. These expressions of social life are generally valid
The same is true of individual mental states and processes. Feai
and hope, love and hate, the valuation of good and bad, of beauti-
ful and ugly, are general human characteristics that find expressior
in social conduct. From these studies a cultural morphology may be
constructed and a social psychology developed, based on the variety
*
of manifestations of these categories.
A cultural morphology is necessarily founded on comparative
studies of similar forms in different parts of the world. If its data
are to be significant for the development of social laws, similarities
due to cultural dissemination must be eliminated. Thus the similar-
ities between administrative organization and judicial procedure
found in Africa cannot be considered as expressions of a law of

development of human culture, because they must be considered as
part of the general cultural development of Europe, and of a large
part of Asia. This is proved by the contrast between Old World
and aboriginal American institutions. The development of African
iron industry and cattle-breeding is also historically related to those
of other parts of the Old World. If these are excluded, there remain
morphological similarities that require study.

To this group belong similarities in the forms of relationship
systems based on distinct principles of classification, many of which
are so irregularly distributed that historical unity of origin is prac-
tically excluded. Their similarities may be compared to those ex-
pressed in language in which similar principles of classification of
concepts are found in disconnected areas; such as masculine and
feminine, animate and inanimate.
The morphological classification leads to two problems: the one,
how far the various types represent a progressive series; the other,
whether they can be reduced to general socio-psychological laws.
The system of forms established on the basis of morphological
likeness and unlikeness has no historical value unless it can be
proved that the forms actually follow one another in historical se-
quence. Errors, based on the assumption that these classes repre-
sent a historical sequence, are found mainly in the writings of the
evolutionary school. They appear in a variety of forms. Thus the
classification of certain art forms beginning with naturalistic repre-
sentation and leading to conventionalized forms is valid; but this
does not prove that this classification coincides with an historical
sequence, unless actual historical proof can be given. In its absence
validity can be claimed only for the constant interplay between
realism and conventionalism.
Art is also quite often associated with religious ideas; but this
does not prove that the origin of art must be looked for in religious
motives. A classification of the forms of art from this viewpoint has
no necessary relation to their historical development. In some cases
the relfgious significance of the work of art will stimulate the de-
velopment of a higher style; in other cases it will induce slovenly
execution, perhaps due to the short-lived usefulness of the object.
To this group also belongs the much discussed problem of the
development of family organization, whether maternal institutions
must precede paternal succession. The various chapters of the pres-
ent volume show that the proof of a uniform historical sequence
cannot be given.
The question of development in a definite direction is closely
connected with our concept of progress. The very concept of progress
presupposes a standard toward which culture advances, and a de-
cision cannot be avoided as to what this standard is to be. It seems
almost unavoidable that this standard will be based on our own
experience, on our own civilization. It is clear that this is an arbi-
trary standard and it is perhaps the greatest value of anthropology
that it makes us acquainted with a great variety of such standards.

Before the question can be decided as to what progress is, we must
know whether general human values exist by which we may measure
progress.
In one respect we may well speak of progress. Since earliest times
knowledge and control of nature have received constant additions
without any serious losses. New powers have been acquired and
new insight has been opened. The ability of man to cope with his
environment has improved, and new resources have been made
available. At the same time the progress of knowledge has led to
the elimination of error. The conflict between rational thought, on
the one hand, and emotional reactions and rigid tradition, on the
other, has tended to lead to the supremacy of reason, although the
emotional elements have continued and still continue to shape the

form of culture.
The step from knowledge acquired for the most part accidentally,
through daily experience, to systematic inquiry has not often been
made. The astrologers of Babylonia and Mexico, the mathematicians
of India and Yucatan, the Chinese, and the Greeks succeeded in
taking this step. Even when this advance was made, imagination
and tradition were not at once eliminated, but entered into the
structure of early science.
If we should value progress entirely by the development of inven-
tion and knowledge, it would be easy to arrange the divisions of
mankind in order of progress, beginning with the simplest cultures

of early Paleolithic man and leading up to modern civilizations in
Europe and its colonies and

many parts of Asia.
in
It is not so easy to define progress in other aspects of culture,
except in so far as increasing knowledge weakens the hold of older

concepts. This may be illustrated by the advance in ethical behavior.
6 7 8
Westermarck, Hobhouse, and Sutherland have given us full data
on the evolution of ethical behavior, but it is not by any moans
clear that this is identical with an advance in ethical ideas. Ethical
behavior may well be understood as reflecting the same moral ideas
in different types of society and modified by existing institutions
and by the extent of knowledge. The languages of people all over
the world prove that the vices that we know, such as murder, theft,
lying, rape, are recognized and in most cases discountenanced within
the social group in which mutual duties are recognized. The differ-
ence consists largely in the increasing recognition of rights of those
outside of one's own group, and these are based on an appreciation
of similarities thatwere previously not recognized. While in early
times the outsider was an enemy just as much as a wild beast, his
human rights were slowly understood, a process that is not yet com-
pleted, since to us the rights of the alien are still considered on a
9
level different from the rights of the citizen.
It is perhaps still more difficult to define progress in social organi-
zation since in this field our own ideals are not uniform. "The ex-
treme individualist might consider anarchy as his ideal. Others may
believe in extreme voluntary regimentation; still others in a power-
ful control of the individual by society or in subjection to intelli-
gent or emotional and unintelligent leadership. Developments

in all these directions have occurred and may still be observed in
the history of modern States. We may speak of progress in certain
directions, hardly of absolute progress, except in so far as it is de-

pendent upon knowledge which contributes to the safety of human
10
life, health, and comfort."
The widening of the concept of humanity has had a very slow

influence upon the breaking up of the concept of the status of an
individual. The French Revolution tried to abolish it and the young
American Republic rejected it, although it continued to maintain
the status of slavery. In modern western civilization the extent to
which the status of a person is determined by birth or by social
segregation has been losing in force. In the United States the racial
status of the Negro and East Asiatic still prevails, and Germany
has relapsed into the crudity of determining the status of an indi-
vidual by his racial descent. In primitive societies of complex struc-
ture the status of a person as member of a clan, an age group, a
ranking group, is often absolutely determined. In the group of rela-
tives depends upon his position in the family, as parent, uncle or
it
aunt, parent-in-law, and so on. In most societies the status deter-

mined by sex is rigid because it depends upon the unescapable eco-
nomic duties of man and woman and upon the limitations put upon
woman by her sexual life. With the change of these conditions in
modern life the status of woman has lost most of its fixity, and it
may be predicted that its artificial reestablishment which is being
attempted in Germany will prove futile.
These considerations show that a historical interpretation of clas-
sifications of social forms as expressing progress can be achieved to a
very limited extent only.

Another problem of the morphology of culture refers to the inter-
relation between various manifestations of cultural life.
There is an obvious interrelation between economic conditions
and other aspects of life. Hunting tribes compelled to wander about,
following the game, and having no domesticated animals to help in
the transportation of goods, cannot amass bulky property. Their
industrial products will be confined to the necessities of life. Their
handiwork may be technically perfect and even show an apprecia-
tion of adornment, but the necessity to avoid encumbering the
wanderer will act as a hindrance to the development of industries.
If the conditions happen to be more propitious, so that food may
be accumulated and stored for a longer period, perhaps to such an
extent that larger gatherings of members of the tribe and of friendly
tribes become possible, new stimuli may arise, connected with the
periodic stability of the groups and their stronger social contacts. On
the other hand, a stable population with a plentiful food supply
that does not necessitate constant exertion on the part of every
member of the tribe to procure the necessary food supply will give
opportunity for more varied industrial activities and the accumula-
tion of property. A dense population, which can arise only when the
food supply is ample, leads, if the group forms a political unit, to
division of labor and necessitates a more rigid social organization.
When the political units remain small, the influence of the density
of population may be very slight.
It is advantageous to investigate those types of social conduct
that are mutually contradictory and therefore cannot exist side by
side. Sparsity of population and complex political organization;
isolation of small groups of individuals that are economically self-
sustaining and elaborate division of labor; inability to preserve food

supply and capitalism; nomadic life and high development of archi-
tecture; elaborate music and absence of wind, string, or other tuned
instruments; formal law without any kind of legal sanctions, are
such contradictions. Others not so evident may be discovered. In
their study it will be found that sometimes the most devious ways
are used to make it possible for contradictory types of behavior to
exist side by side. Thus the Toda insist on strict endogamy in formal
marriage, but permit exogamic relations. Some North American

tribes insist on valor as a proof of manhood, but honor at the same
time a personwho refuses to go to war.
The existence of certain fundamental relations between social
phenomena of distinct types may be illustrated by many examples.
In an attempt to apply them to specific cultures many important
variations are found, so that the fundamental points are often ob-
scured. The poor hunters and food-gatherers of Tierra del Fuego are,
so far as their food supply is concerned, no worse off than the fishing
and hunting people of both coasts of the North Pacific Ocean.
Though they lack abundance of vegetable products and of wood
easily worked, this alone does not sufficiently explain the difference,
both in quality and quantity, of their industrial products. In their
case other causes have interfered with the clear expression of the re-
lation between food supply, possibility of stable location, and cul-
tural development.
The attempts to correlate forms of relationship systems with dif-
ferent cultural levels have also
failed. It is quite true that in a small,
inbreeding population the system of social relationship may include

all the members of the community, while in widely scattered groups
the social bond uniting members of common descent or those bound

by ties of affinity may be highly modified. Nevertheless there is nq
evidence that density of population, stability of location, or eco-
nomic status is necessarily connected with a particular system of
relationship and of behavior connected with it. The scattered com-
munity may preserve part of its unity in a sib organization, or it
may break apart in small families held together by cultural interests
of a different order.
The dynamic conditions controlling the permanence of large
groups* of relatives and their breaking up may be described. Their
manifestation in any particular society cannot be determined on
the basis of these dynamic laws alone, but is dependent upon each
particular social constellation.
The lack of specific coherence between various aspects of culture
has been effectively illustrated by Andrew Lang in his introduction
to K. Langloh Parker's book, The Enahlayi Tribe, 11 where he shows
that social organization and types of religious ideas cannot be con-
sidered as mutual determinants.
The very existence of society must depend upon the preponderance
of unity over disruptive forces. Native cultures are subject to such
disruptive forces during periods of transition to modern standards.

Thus the Pueblos of theNorth American Southwest have split into
separate groups of conservatives and progressives with the result that
the progressives in some cases have established villages of their own.
The struggle between the uniting and disrupting forces does not mean
that every culture strives for a maximum of harmony. On the con-
trary, there are many in which the individual cannot lead a happy
life without conflicts within the tribe. Societies torn by vendetta or
by fear of witchcraft are examples of this condition. The extend *o

which disrupting forces are tolerated depends entirely upon the type
of culture and the emotional strength of the contradictory tendencies.
It seems most desirable and worth while to understand each culture
as a whole and to define its character. In our modern civilization the
social groups are so highly differentiated that it would be difficult to
indicate more than general tendencies resulting from many conflicting
or even contradictory attitudes. The political fanatic, the scientist,
the unskilled laborer, the industrial magnate, cannot be welded into
the picture of one personality, although all of them are part and parcel
of our civilization. The impression prevails that in simple cultures
in which there is no cultural differentiation the individual is much
more strictly a representative of the whole culture, and that in these

cases it is possible to give a picture of the culture which is at the
same time a picture of a personality. It is not quite easy to determine
the value of such a picture. Is it that of a "typical" representative
personality? In how far is such a picture schematic? Can the investi-
gator grasp this picture without coloring it by his own subjective atti-
tudes?
The difficulties of this problem are obvious and are analogous to
those confronting us in the attempt to understand a personality as a
whole. Many psychologists try in vain to determine the traits of a
personality bymeans of experimental observations of its attitude in
a number of simple, controlled situations. The answers they receive
cannot give any information containing more than the observed
reactions to these situations. The
personality as a whole is not the
sum of these single reactions,which are determined in part organ-
ically, in part culturally. The multiplicity of experiences brings about
variable reactions determined by conflicts of wishes and desires, and
only by grasping the whole of these can we gain a picture of the
personality. In interpreting these results many psychologists are
concerned in the question how far the varying reactions are organ-
ically determined. The personality of the observer and its influence
upon his interpretations play an important role in the result of these
studies. Otherwise we should not have so many contradictory inter-
pretations of historic figures. When the psychologist or psychiatrist

attempts to enter more deeply into the manifestations of mental life,
he may perhaps give us new data for an understanding of personali-
ties. Nevertheless the contradictions between the interpretations that
are given to us prove that the picture is deeply influenced by the mind
of the observer. When the attempt is made to establish types on this
basis additional difficulties of interpretation are added.
New obstacles arise when we try to apply these methods to the
study of types of culture. No matter how strongly a community may
be controlled by dominating thoughts, they do not influence the
behavior of the same individual at all times in the same ways, and
different individuals also react to them each in his own way. A toler-
ably clear picture results only when the dominating form has such
vigor that individualities are suppressed by it. The range of variations
in thebehavior of members of the tribe, the frequency or rarity of
conflictswith the common behavior, determine the strength of
custom in the life of the people. The mightier their influence, the
more difficult it is for the individual to withstand it.
\ Marriage regulations may serve as an example. When endogamous

marriages are strictly forbidden, there exists apparently, on the whole,
sexual indifference between members of the opposite sexes who are
riot permitted to marry. Nevertheless passionate love between man
and woman of tabooed relationship does occur, strong enough to run
counter to custom. How far real sexual indifference exists can be de-
termined only by means of a most detailed and thorough knowledge
of the individuals. Observations of the customary behavior may be
quite misleading. Our own experience of the sexual relations between

brothers and sisters allows us to conclude that, owing to the presence
of custom, sexual indifference is the rule. This inference is strength-
ened by the observation that in cultures that are disintegrating under
the influence of European contact, restrictions of permitted marriage
rules are liable to resist for a long time. It is more difficult to under-
stand sexual indifference in those cases in which the choice of mates is
restricted to few individuals, as it is in Australia, or ingroup exclu-
sions in which the marriage of a man with a woman of another
group
prevents all reciprocal marriages of a man of the second group with a
woman of the first group, as among the Gilyak.
12
The customs regulating the hunt on which depends the well-being

of the whole community are another example. Such dependence is
found among the Eskimo. The individual is hardly in a position to
free himself from their compelling force, for the danger of starvation
is ever present; for this reason every member of the tribe is subject
to the supervision of his acts by his tribe fellows.

In some cases the orientation of the tribe in relation to certain
aspects of itsculture finds expression even in its language. Thus the
Dakota distinguish rigidly between the possession of objects that are
the exclusive property of one person and can never belong to anyone
else, such as the parts of his body; possessions that may be trans-
ferred to others; and another group that can never be the property of
a single person, such as food, including meals prepared by a single
individual, and objects of nature in short, anything that the tribe
needs for its sustenance. The categories of different types of possession
are clearly and definitely expressed by linguistic forms.
( These examples prove 'that behavior in relation to certain aspects
of life may be governed by fundamental concepts and that these are
amenable to objective observation^)

In most cases their influence does not extend over the whole range
of social forms, but is restricted in its scope. For the characterization
of a culture we need a knowledge of those fundamental concepts that
find expression in the widest range of social forms and activities.
Most attempts to characterize the social life of peoples are ham-
pered by the lack of uniform behavior of all individuals, by the
diversity of social activities, and by the subjective interest of the

student, which is challenged by the contrast between the observed
behavior and his own accustomed attitudes. The Eskimo are often
described as good-natured, of sunny temperament. This seems to
form a striking contrast to the difficulties of life in an Arctic cljmate.
It true that they are indifferent to the hardships of daily life and
is
possess a tenacity of purpose that makes them feel as slight discom-

fort what might appear to us as unsupportable hardship, and the
poor comforts of their homes give to them rest and social pleasures
which they enjoy thoroughly. By contrast we observe among them
subservience to the brutality of "strong men." The maltreated com-
munity endures their dominion until finally it rises and kills the
tyrant. We note cases of treacherous murder among friends of long
standing, fear of sickness, and a belief in the inclination of some to
livethe life of hermits. There is no fundamental trait from which the
varied manifestations of social life can be viewed. Perhaps
it might be
said that in a community and

lacking stratification characterized by
general mutual friendliness a man of unusual physical and mental
qualities and filled with an abnormal desire for power may become a
tyrant; more so than in a tribe in which the privileges of every
individual are subject to fixed norms and in which each has recognized
rights and duties provided these are not centered in one individual
or in a small group. Perhaps even the tendency to isolation of indi-
viduals might be considered as due to the general conditions of life
that force everyone to the utmost degree of self-reliance. Making
allowance for all this, a clear-cut picture does not result. The love of
the men
for a playful practice of the art of carving which leads to the
manufacture of well-executed figures of animals a feature that is
even more pronounced among the Chukchee and Koryak; the care
which the women use in developing beautiful designs of clothing by
means of contrasting effects of color of fur; the striking poverty of
stories relating to animals as contrasted with folk tales dealing with
human life, cannot be considered as closely correlated with other
traits of their life. Notwithstanding the importance of economic
conditions, there does not seem any reason why these features of
social life should be designated as superstructure, for it cannot be
shown that they are determined by economic conditions, although
they bear a relation to them, as to all other phases of culture.
Much clearer and of unified
character is the picture in those cultures
in which a dominant idea rather than the predominant occupation
controls life. This seems to be the case, for instance, among the
Indians of the Plains. principal occupation, but
Not only was war a
the worth of a man depended to such an extent upon the glory of
warlike deeds that the whole life seemed to be filled by the desire for
what jvere considered heroic deeds. The imagination of the Eskimo
dwells on the dangers and successes hunt of sea animals. The
of the
leading motive in the life of the Plains Indian was the desire for fame
as a warrior. The difference in the situation among these two groups
may perhaps be seen a in difference of affective emphasis. The Indian
finds relief in an affective situation by going on the warpath cither
alone or with some friends. Mourning, shame, annoyance, are con-
quered by warlike deeds. Conventional ornament is interpreted as
referring to war. Thus a design of two triangles with apices touching
is
viewed as two groups of warriors meeting in combat. To the observer

this attitude seems the most prominent trait of their culture, a fea-
ture entirely foreign to the Eskimo.
Another trait is their love of elaborate ceremonialism, which is
present on all occasions and plays an important role in their conduct
of war. Every important affair calls for complicated and ostentatious
ceremonies.
Nevertheless, this does not give an exhaustive picture, for the
domestic life of these people opens other vistas. Within the tribe
liberality, integrity, chastity, and mercifulness are subjects of praise.
Neither is itpermissible to generalize from the valor of the warrior
and to assume that the Indian is free of fear. Not only the supernatural
fills him with awe and frightens him; disease also breaks his courage
and finds him full of fear of sorcery and of death.
Evidently, the wider the scope of a leading motive of culture the

more it will appear as characteristic of the whole culture, but we must
not be deceived into believing that it will give us an exhaustive picture
of all the sides of culture.
As an example I may refer again to the Indians of the Northwest
Coast of America. The leading motive of their lives is the limitless
pursuit of gaining social prestige and of holdingon to what has been

gained, and the intense feeling of inferiority and shame if even the
slightest part of prestige has been lost. This is manifest not only in
the attempts to attain a coveted high position, but equally in the
endeavor to be considered the most atrocious member of the tribe.
Rank and wealth are valued most highly, but there are also cases of
criminals (in the sense of the culture we are discussing) who vie with
each other in committing atrocities. A
loss of prestige in either sense
is a source of shame which must be made good by some action
reestablishing the lost respect. If this is not possible it leads to
suicide. Art consists in the glorification of the family crest or of family
histories. A pretense of excessive conservatism, often contradicted by
obvious changes of behavior, is closely allied with the jealous watch
over all privileges.
These tendencies are so striking that the amiable qualities that
appear in intimate family life are easily overlooked. These are not by
any means absent. In contrast to the jealousy with which preroga-
tives are guarded, everyone within the family circle belittles his
position. Husband and wife address each other as "You whose slave
I am/' or "You whose dog I am." Parents and grandparents designate
themselves in the same way when talking to their children, who in

turn use nicknames when addressing their parents and grandparents.
The less pronounced the leading ideas of a simple culture, or the
more varying the ideas of a tribe divided into social strata, the more
difficult it is to draw a valid picture that does not contain contradic-
tions. We cannot hope to do more than to elucidate the leading ideas,
remembering clearly the limitations of their validity.

The socio-psychological study, more than any other aspect of
anthropological investigation, requires that freedom from cultural

prejudice which in itself can be attained only by the intensive study
of foreign cultures of fundamentally distinctive types that make
clear to us which among our own concepts are determined by our
modern culture and which may be generally valid, because based on
human nature.
FOOTNOTES
1. Spencer, H., The Principles of Sociology (3rd ed., 1888), vol.
1, pp. 435 ff.
2. Schaffle, A., Bau und Lcben
des socialen Korpers (Tubingen, 1875).
3. Briefly discussed in Kafka, G., Handbuch der vergleichenden Psychologic
(Munchen, 1922), vol. 1, pp. 412 ff.
4. Frazer, J. G., Totemism and Exogamy (London, 1910) and The Golden Bough
(3rd ed., London, 1907-15).
5. Lesser, A., The Pawnee Ghost Dance Hand Game, Columbia University Con-
tributions to Anthropology, vol. 16 (1933).
6. Westermarck, E., Tlie Origin and Development of Moral Ideas (London, 1906).
7. Hobhouse, L. J., Morals in Evolution (London, 1906).
8. Sutherland, A., The Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct (London, 1898).
9. Boas, F., Anthropology and Modern Life (1932), pp. 220 ff.
10. Ibid., p. 228.
11. See page xvi.
12. Sternberg, L., The Gilyak (Ms.).
INDEX
INDEX
Abel, O., bipedal habit of man, 40; guistic and musical pitch, 602;
effect of desiccation of Central markets, 397; maternal uncle, 420;
Asia, 116 menstrual blood, fear of, 371;
Abortion, 384 metals in, 199; migrations, 106;
Abstract concepts in language, 142 monopolies, 349; musical instru-
Acculturation, Zuni, 356 ments, 248, 605; mythologies,
Acheulian, epoch, 150; industries, 154, 621, 623; oracle, 643; origin of
178, 196 hominids, 39; pictographs, 272;
Acoma, pottery, 568, 569, 575 prehistory, 154, 155, 196-198;
Acquisitiveness, 338 proverbs, 478, 482, 596, 59^; races,
Adamaua, conquest by Fulbe, 520; 102, 104; rhythm, 593; secret so-
society, 520-522; throwing knife, cieties, 429, 516; slavery, 402;
242 status of women, 384, 470, 516;
Adjectival ideas expressed by nouns, taxes, 392; throwing knives, 243;
142 twins, 482; wild rice, 294, 502
Adjustment of conflicting tendencies in -
Central, caste, 403; lack of fixed
social order, 426 territory, 491 ;pygmies, 491
Administrative organization in Old -
East, education, 480; feudalism, 349
World, 675 -
Northeast, throwing sticks, 243
Admiralty Islands, affinal exchange in,
-
South, age groups, 410; colonization,
389; trade, 399 106; military groups, 412, 428;
Adultery, among harvesters, 509; cause prestige, 462
of divorce, 449; punishment of, 496 -
West, cowrie shells, 350; farming
Adze, 252 societies, 515; land ownership,
Aeta, climbing trees, 267 516; murder, 481; mythology,
Affinal exchange, 364, 387, 388, 389, 623; prestige, 462; secret societies,
441, 442 428, 518; slave raiding, 402; ta-
Affinity. See Kinship terms boos, 644
Afghanistan, cultivation of rye, 291 See also Adamaua, Angola, An-
Africa, adoption, 416; adultery, 449; hole, Ashanti, Badari, Bafiote,
alloys, 199; art, 538, 546, 547, 548, Baganda, Ba-Ila, Bakitara, Ba-
550, 557, 580, 581; avoidance, 448; kwiri, Bambala, Bantu Banya-
bark cloth, 256; bellows, 246; bride nkole, Baoule, Barotsi, Batanga,
price, 329; cattle breeding, 675; Bathonga, Bavenda, Benin, Bongo,
cheese, absence of, 307; coopera- Bornu, Bushmen, Bushongo, Cam-
tion, 516; copper, 199; courts, eroon, Congo, Cross River, Da-
348, 469; cult of the dead, 662; homeans, Duala, Egypt, Fan,
diffusion of maize and manioc Fulbe, Guanchos, Hamitic tribes t
culture, 296; economic value of Haussa, Herero, Hottentot, 760,

women, 336; etiquette, 482; ex- Ivory coast, Jagga, Kabyles, Kaf-
cision of clitoris, 271; fetish, 646; ficho, Kafir, Lake Chad, Lango,
filing of teeth, 538; folk tales, 477, Loango, Madagascar, Mangbattu,
593, 597, 615; gorilla, 28; intro- Masai, Negro, Nuba, Nyassa,
duction of banana, 298; iron in- Pangwe, Ruanda, Sudan, Togo,
dustry, 210, 675; kingdoms in, Tutsi, Twa, Unyoro, Urundi, Wa-
469; legal procedure, 518; lin- huma, Yoruba, Zulu
689
690 INDEX
Aggression, economic, 335 and Pacific Islands, relations be-
Agriculture, 286, 290-302; American, tween, 212
216; geographical distribution, Northwest Coast, adaptation of
221-222; government among agri- tales, 600; adoption, 416; analysis
cultural societies, 515-519; of of cultures, 671; art, 540, 543, 546,
nomadic tribes, 313; origin, 201, 548, 571-574; berry patches, 290;
299; participation of sexes in, 299, canoes, 269; chiefs, 461; clans,
369, 370; Polynesian, 205; Poly- 410; climbing, 267; clothing, 265;
nesian and American compared, crests, 426; dances, 605, 607;
209, 210, 294; use of hoe and destruction of property, 459; en-
plow, 282, 283, 298, 299; use of dogamy, 438; exogamy, 423;
terraces, 202. See Gardens, Plants houses, 264; leisure, 377; marriage
Ainu, racial type, 102, 112 ceremony, 444; massage, 270;
Alaska, languages, 136, 139; racial names, 451; pattern of culture,
types, 102. See America, Eskimo, 684; potlatch, 444, 661; prestige,
Northwest Coast 459, 460, 463; racial types, 102,
Alcoholic drinks, 255 112; sailing, 247, 269; social or-
Aleutians, slavery, 500 ganization, 330; solstice observed,
Algonquian, hunting territories, 289, 274; standards of measurement,
378; languages, 138, 139; medicine 277; tales, 597, 602; trade, 465;
man, 639; terms for God, 629 villages, 285. See also Bella Bella,
Northeast, hunting territories, 498 Bella Coola, British Columbia,
Allen, G. M., American dogs, 308 Haida, Kwakiutl, Tlingit, Tsim-
Alloys, in Africa, 199 shian
Alpaca, 309, 310 Plains Indians, 512-515; dog, 305;
Alpine type, 114 guardian spirit, 652, 653; horse,
Altruism, 479 312; hunting grounds, 285; hunt-
Amazon basin, folk tales, 612 ing regulations, 375, 378; kin
Ameghino, F., prehistory of Argentina, groups, 514; medicine societies,
213 428; officials, 513; pattern of cul-
America, agriculture, 216, 302; art ture, 684; police duties, 418; poly-
forms, 539; avoidance, 448; ca- andry, 433; private ownership,
noes, 269; contact with Whites, 514; religion, 652, 653, 663; sacred
120; democratic organization of bundles, 657; self-torture, 644;
tribes, 511; dog, 308; earliest man, Sun Dance, 657; tales, 600; vision,
90, 91, 212, 215, 216; economics 641, 658; warfare, 462
and totemism, 507; education, Central, markets, 397; money, 400;
478; flageolet, 605; Ghost Dance, trade, 396, 397, 399; use of gold
620, 622; gifts, 392; gorgets, 549; and copper, 552
guardian spirit, 429, 646; har- See also Acoma, Aleutians, Al-
vesters, 503; historical traditions, gonquian, Apache, Arapaho, Ari-
668; intertribal alliances, 518; zona, Athapascan, Aztecs, Bella
legal procedure, 518; maize, his- Bella, Bella Coola, Blackfoot, Brit-
tory of, 669; marriage, 329; mi- ish Columbia, Cahuitta, California,
grations, 107; myths, history of, Carib, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chichi-
670; oratory, 592; racial types, castenango, Chilcat, Chinook, Coeur
102; raiding, 403; religion, 662; d'Alene, Colorado River, Comanche,
steam bath, 270; stone- working Coronation Gulf, Costa Rica, Creek,
processes, 161, 162; Sun Dance, Crow, Dakota, Eskimo, Fox, Guate-
620; tales, 478, 601, 609, 612, 614, mala, Gulf of Mexico, Haida,' Hi-
615; trade, 397; twined blankets, datsa, Hopi, Huichol, Hupa, In-
258; use of fertilizers, 302; vision, dians of the Southwest, Iroquois,
647; war, 679 Kiowa, Kutenai, Kwakiutl, La-
INDEX 691
guna, Mackenzie, Mandan, Maya, Antevs, E., advent of man in Afnerica,

Menominee, Mexico, Mississippi, 91; chronology of Ice age, 15, 74
Miwok, Mohave, Montagnais-Nas- Anthropoidea, 26
kapi, Nahua, Naskapi, Navajo, Anthropometry, 95-99
New Mexico, Nez Perce, Nootka, Antiquities, arts implied by, 147-148
Ojibwa, Omaha, Paviotso, Pawnee, Antler implements, prehistoric, 165-
Ponca, Pueblo Indians, Puget 166
Sound, Quiche, Rio Grande, Sa- Antonius, O., descent of dog, 308
haptin, Salish, San Ildefonso, Anxiety, influence of, on economic in-
Santa Clara, Santee, Santo Do- stitutions, 350
mingo, Sauk and Fox, Shoshone, Apache, avoidance, 445; baskets, 585;
Sioux, Teton, Thompson Indians, bride price, 383
Tillamook, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Ape and man, ancestry, 39, 41; ape-
Washo, West Indies, Winnebago, man of Java, 44, 49; bipedal gait
Wiyot, Yucatan, Yukon River, of apes, 40; bipedal habit of man,
Yurok, Zuni origin of, 39, 40; brachiation, 34;
America, South, blowgun, 245, 251; brain, 36, 46; blood tests, 35;
bark cloth, 256; calendar, 274; central bone, 33, 35; cereltral lo-
canoes, 269; cassava, 295; chiefs, calization, 37; cheek pouches, 33;
515; climbing, 267; cooperation, chimpanzee, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 40;
516; extinct mammals, 213, 214; clothing, beginning of, 265; com-
farming societies, 515; fishermen, parison of anatomy, physiology,
491; harvesters, 503; rollers, 242; and psychology, 31-42; diseases,
slit drum, 248; status of women, 36; Dryopithecus pattern of teeth,
516; tales, 614. See also Arawak, 33; female sexual rhythm, 35;
Aymara, Bakairi, Botocudo, Brazil, femur, 48; foot, 40; frontal sinus,
Chaco, Chile, Choroli, Fuegians, 33, 34; gestation, 35; gibbon, 28,
Guiana, Kaingang, Matto Grosso, 33, 46; gorilla, 28, 33-40; ischial
Patagonia, Peruvians, Taulipang callosities, 33; jaw, 48, 57; lan-
Amphletts, trade, 397 guage, 37; laryngeal air sacs, 32;
Amputations, 270 life span, 35; menstruation, 35;
Amulets, 599, 635, 645, 646, 650 mentality of apes, 37; orangutan,
Amur River tribes, permanent settle- 33; orthograde, 34; placenta, 35;
ments, 285; status of women, 319 posture, 41; pronograde, 34;
Anatolia, cultivation of rye, 291 speech, 37; sphenoidal sinus, 34;
Andamanese, division of labor, 369; teeth, 47; uterus, 35; vermiform
mythology, 619, 622; preservation appendix, 33; vocal signals, 38;
of meat, 377; racial type, 113; whooping cough of gorilla, 36
respect shown to age, 336 Arabia, coffee, 296
Andes, distribution of languages, 139 Arabic, words in English, 136
Angkor-Vat, 200 Arabs, conquests by, 317; dromedary,
Angola, tales, 601 311; herding, 313, 315; milking,
Angora cats, hair of, 109 315
Animals, communication between, 124; Arapaho Indians, art of, 584
domestication, 201, 221, 283, 290, Arapesh, cooperation, 375; economic
302-312; kept for divination, 304; security, 331; lack of permanent
kept for sport, 305; representation settlements, 329
in Northwest Coast art, 572; Arawak, languages, distribution of, 139
social life, 409, 410; use of techni- Archaeology, Africa, 196-198; America,
cal devices, 238 212-216; Asia, 199-202; Australia
Animatism, 632 and Tasmania, 202-203; defini-
Animism, 632, 635, 639-642 tion, 146; Europe, 170-196; func-
Ankole, conquest by herders, 317 tion of, in cultural history, 668;
692 INDEX
Indonesia, 201-202; Melanesia, Pacific Coast, languages, 139
203-204; methods, 149; Micro- Southern, bark cloth, 256; mega-
nesia, 204; Polynesia, 204-208; liths, 199; pile dwellings, 265;
problems, 148; summary of re- prehistory, 154, 199; relation of
sults, 230 race to Australians, 112; use ot
Arctic hunters, government, 498-502; rice, 294
preservation of meat, 377; settle- See also Afghanistan, Anatolia,
ments, 285; fermentation of food, Armenia, Assyria, Babylonia, Bed-
502 ouins, Bokhara, Ceylon, China,
Argentina, surface finds, 214 Chukchee, Dayak, Formosa, Gil-
Argonauts, tale of, 597 yak, Hebrew, Huns, Hyksos, Ifu-
Arizona, lack of riddles, 599 gao, India, Indo-China, Indonesia,
Arkansas, pottery, 550 Iran, Japan, Java, Kababish,
Arkell, W. J., geological age of Nile Kafiristan, Kamchadal, Karen,
terraces, 196 Khasi, Kirghiz, Koryak, Lakka,
Armenian, diaspora, 106; nose, 116 Malay, Manchu, Mongols, Ostyak,
Arrogance, as a privilege, 460 Persia, Philippines, Rwala, Se-
Arrow? 245, 246; straightener, pre- mang, Semites, Siam, Siberia,
historic, 165 Tashkent, Tibet, Toda, Tungus,
Art, abstract, 576; African, 546, 547, Turkestan, Turks, Yakut, Yuka-
548, 550, 581; Aztec, 543; con- ghir
ventionalization, 578; decorative, Associations, 428, 429
539 ff. ; distortion of representa- Assyria, pollination of date palm, 291;
tive forms, 578 ff. ; factors in- use of horse, 311
fluencing, 540; formal principles, Astronomical observations, 274
558 ff.; Hopi, 538; influence of Asturian implements, 186187
technology, 540; Maori, 549; ma- Asylum, right of, 510, 526; in Polynesia,
terials, 542, 545, 549; Maya, 543- 525
545; New Guinea, 549; North- Athapascan, distribution of languages,
west Coast of America, 546, 571- 136; hunting, 288
574; objects among
hunters, 589; Aurignacian, art, 535; epoch, 150; in-
photography 577; prehistoric,
as, dustries, 180-181; of Africa, 197;
535, 543; realism, 577; representa- of Northern Asia, 200
tive, 577; Sauk and Fox, 536; Australia, absence of bow and arrow,
specialization in industries, 539; 245; agriculture, 670; arrival of
stability, 576; symbolism, 576; man, 86, 106; canoes, 269; dis-
textile, 552, 554, 556, 557, 558; tribution of game, 507; economic
Thompson Indians, 536, 561; function of sib, 418; education,
trade in art objects, 540; utility 476; elders, 496, 497, 505, 509,
and art, 538 510; environment, 412; exogamy,
Arunta, division of labor, 369; land 682; group marriage, 432; harvest-
tenure, 342; rituals and songs, ing, 502, 503, 506; intertribal cere-
509; tales, 618 monies, 505; intertribal trade,
Aryan, languages, distribution of, 139 505, 507, 508; land cession, 497;
Ashanti, inheritance, 423; position of literature, 589; message sticks,
women, 467; rights of queen, 469 272; mythical beings, 616; per-
Asia, bellows, 246; migrations, 106, manence of habitat, 329; prehis-
139; music, 603; origin of hom- tory, 202, 203; property in
inids, 39; Paleolithic bone cul- quarries, 493; punishment for
ture, 172; poetry, 599; proverbs, adultery, 496; race, 46, 102, 104,
598; stone flaking, 157; tales, 612 111, 112, 117; sexual license at
Central, prehistory, 200 ceremonials, 436; shields, 263;
Northern, prehistory, 200 size of camp, 504; social organiza-
INDEX 693
tion, 343, 412, 413; steam bath, Bakwiri, social organization, 516
270; subsistence, 282; taboos, 427; Ballast, 247
territorial limits, 284; throwing Bambala, pigeons raised by, 304; sculp-
board, 244; throwing club, 242; ture, 581; wood-carving, 558
totem groups, 428; tribal terri- Banana, history, 295; origin, 291, 298;
tory, 491; words in English, 136 use in Uganda, 297
Queensland, harvesting grounds, Bdnaro, division of labor, 298
289 Banteng, relation to zebu, 309
See alsoy Arunta, Carpentaria Bantu, division of labor, 319; garden
Gulf, Gregory River, Kurnai, New culture and herding, 312; lan-
South Wales, Tasmania, Walaroi guages, 132, 134, 135, 139; migra-
Australopithecus, 28, 29, 30, 40 tions, 139; use of beef, 307
Austrian Alps, variation of type in iso- Banyankole, hereditary occupations,
lated villages, 107 373; monopolies, 349
Avoidance, 413, 444-449, 467; expres- Baoul6, sculpture, 581
sion of reserve, 448; in Manus, Bark cloth, 256
444; mother-in-law, 413, 436; Barley, 291; place of origin, 297 1
name, 445; Navajo, 445; of Barlow, F. O., on Rhodesian skull, 88
parents-in-law, 445, 448; Teton, Barotsi, basket, 555; deity, 623
457 Barrenness, cause of divorce, 450; de-
Avunculate, 419, 420 sired in Melanesia, 384
Axe, 252 Basketry, 256; California, 555; coiled,
Aymara, cultivation of potato, 296 258; designs, 555
Azilian epoch, 150; implements, 184- Bastian, A., theory of culture, 669
185; pictographs, 184 Batanga, social organization, 516
Azilian-Tardenoisian flake industry, Bathonga, attitude toward food, 378;
159 causes for divorce, 450; circum-
Aztecs, art, 543; king, 404; sculpture, cision school, 476; division of
538, 546; warfare, 403; writing of food, 346; division of labor, 369;
numbers, 276 litigation regarding bride price,
385; marital rights, 439; maternal
Babylonia, antiquity of domesticated and paternal lines, 420; social
horse, 310; astrology, 677; culti- organization, 413
vation of rice, 294; early agricul- Batons-de-commandement, prehistoric,
ture, 290, 300 165
Bacsonian culture, prehistoric, southern Battering of stone, 252
Asia, 199 Bavenda, sham marriages, 383
Badari, early agriculture, 290 Beach lines, 13
Bafiote, deity, 623 Beam scales, 277
Baganda, Cesarian operation, 271; di- Beans, cultivated by women, 298
vision of labor, 319, 321; origin Bedouins, branding of animals, 316;
story, 597; political organization, camels, 315; horses, 308; relations
374; rights of king, 321; taboos, to fellahin, 314; subsistence, 313
304, 307; trance, 659; use of ba- Bee, use of honey, 286, 287
nana and maize, 296, 297; women Bella Bella sibs, 417
as gardeners, 298; women ex- Bella Coola, cosmology, 620; family
cluded from milking, 319 traditions, 619; rank in pantheon,
Ba-Ila, beliefs regarding names, 450; 460
divorce, 449; matriliny, 330; sex- Bellows, 246, 260
ual license at ceremonials, 436 Bending of wood, 253
Bakairi, pets kept by, 304 Benedict, R., European tales in Zufti,
Bakitara, class system, 374; hereditary 601 ; inheritance of property, 383;
occupations, 373; monopolies, 349 Mohave grandmothers, 422
694 INDEX
Benin, bronze-casting, 552; ivory- Bornu, division of agricultural labor,
carving, 549 298
Berckhemer, F., Neanderthal man, 66 Borrowing, 346
Bering Sea area, connecting Old and Boskop man, 89, 90; skull, 78
New Worlds, 111 Botocudos, duels among, 492; punish-
Berry, E. W., Pithecanthropus, 45 ment for adultery, 496; territorial
Berry patches, burning of, 290 group, 491
Berry picking, control of, 289 Boulders, erratic, 9
Betel nut, 255, 293 Boule, M., Neanderthal man, 64, 69
Betrothal, of children, 442; Melanesia, Boundaries, among Arctic hunters, 498;
440; Trobriands, 43G violation of, 491, 492, 497, 504
Bibliographies, art, 588; economics, Bow and arrow, 244; absence in Aus-
408; government, 534; human ori- tralia, 245; antiquity of, 245; pre-
gins, 94; inventions, 281; lan- historic use, 165
guage, 145; mythology and folk- Braiding, 257
lore, 626; prehistoric archaeology, Brain, size of, Australians and Veddas,
^37; race, 123; religion, 685; social 46
life, 486; subsistence, 326 Bravery, prestige gained by, 462
Black, D., Sinanthropus, jl-55 Brazil, absence of dog in parts of, 308
Blackfoot, cosmology, 653; origin tales, Breasted, J. PI., chronology of Neolithic
618; subject matter of tales, 602 age, 227; early pottery in Egypt,
Blankets, twined, 258 198
Blondness of domesticated mammals, Bride price, 329, 383-387; return of, in
109 case of barrenness, 441, and di-
Blowgun, 245; manufacture of, 251; vorce, 449
poisoned darts, 255 Bridge, 267; suspension, 268
Blue eyes of domesticated mammals, Brinton, D. G., folk tales, 612; in-
109 vention of compound implements,
Blumenbach, J. Fr., classification of 250
races, 113 British Columbia, mnemonic devices,
Boas, F., art, 569, 573, 578; definition 271. See America, Northwest Coast
of institutions, 489; Eskimo chiefs, Bronze, 261; range of use in prehistoric
500; property concepts among times, 199, 201, 223, 225
Dakota, 495; symbolism, 585; Bronze age, 149, 150, 168, 169, 192,
totemism, 430 193, 221, 552; pictographs, 192
Boastfulness, 464 Broom, R., Australopithecus, 30, 31;
Boats, double, 269; Micronesia, 275 Homo capensis, 89
Bodily form and mental characteristics, Bruckner, E., on glacial moraines, 11
correlation between, 120 Briinn race, 53, 77, 81
Bogoras, W., on Chukchee, 369, 498, Bryn, H., classification of races, 116
500 Biicher, K., on food supply, 493; origin
Boiling, 241 of rhythm, 593
Bokhara, cultivation of rye, 291 Buffalo hunt, Plains Indians, 289, 513
Bola, 243 Buffalo of India, milking of, 309; of
Bonarrelli, G., Heidelberg man, 61 Indonesia, 310
Bone, age, in Norway, 165; culture of Buhl phase of glaciation, 11
northern Asia, 172; implements, Buin, distribution of wealth, 336; feu-
prehistoric, 163-167; Polynesia, dalism, 349; money, 399
207; Tasmania, 203 Bull-roarer, 247
Bongo, use of poultry, 304 Bunya-bunya, 502, 504
Bontoc, trial marriage, 437 Bunzel, R., rank, 459; Zufii religion,
Boomerang, 243 652; Zufii women, 468
Boreopithecus dawsoni, 59 Burma, chicken-raising, 303
INDEX 695
Bushmen, 589; attachment to

art, Cauterization, 270
home territory, 285; digging stick, Cave dwellings, 263
262; gora, 248; hunting, 287; nu- Celebes, stone industry, 202
trition, 118; paintings, 580; prop- Cement, 251
erty rights, 288; punishment of Cenozoic period, 8; divisiftns, 9
criminals, 497; racial type, 117; Central Africa. See Africa, Central
stature, 109; storing of food, 288; Central America. See America
sucking tubes, 246; territorial Ceramics. See Pottery
groups, 491; use of honey, 287 Cercopithecidae, 26
Bushongo, deity, 623 Cereals, 290
Busk, G., Gibraltar skull, 63 Ceremonialism, 656-657
Butter, use in Africa, 307 Ceremonials, diffusion, 657; purchase,
509
Cahuilla, subsistence, 285 Ceremonies, underwriting of, at Zuiii,
Calendar, 274, 275 356
California, basketry, 538, 555; lan- Cesarian operation, in East Africa, 270
guages, 139; magic formulas, 643; Ceylon, racial type, 112
marriage, 444; religious practices, Chaco, use of algaroba, 503
634; shamanism, 468; sibs, 417; Chamberlin, T. C., on Ice age, 11, 15
standards of measurement, 277; Chancelade man, 79, 81, 82
trance, 659; variations of type, Chapelle-aux-Saints man, 53, 63-64, 75
107; villages, 285 Chardin, Tcilhard de, Sinanthropus, 51
Calmette, A., life span of apes, 35 Chariot, early use, 268
Camels, antiquity of domestication, Cheese, 307, 312
311; milk as exclusive diet, 313; Chcllean epoch, 150, 154; implements,
origin of domestication, 309; 154, 176, 177; industries in Africa,
raising of, 284; use of, 306 196
Cameroon, family organization, 516; Chemical processes, 248
secret societies, 517 Cherokee, political organization, 518
Campignian implements, 186-187; Cheyenne, bride price, 385; marital
forms from Solomon Islands, 204 exchange, 387; Sun Dance, 657
Campignian- Asturian epoch, 173 Chichicastenango, markets, 400
Cannibalism, 481 Chicken-raising in Burma, 303
Canoes, 246, 269; bark, 268, 269; Chiefs, behavior of, 463; Chukchee,
double, 247, 269; outrigger, absent 500; Eskimo, 500; in farming so-
in America, 209 cieties, 515; among harvesters,
Capitalism, 336, 338 509; among herdsmen, 520; among
Capsian industry, Africa, 197 hunters, 497; Kwakiutl, 511, 512;
Carib languages, distribution of, 139 Naskapi, 500; Omaha, 513; Plains
Carpentaria, Gulf of, fermentation of Indians, 513, 515; Polynesia, 524;
food, 502 powers of, 482; privileges of, 321;
Carving in wood, 546 Trobriand, 363
Caste, herders as ruling, 318; in Poly- Chilcat blanket, 558, 559, 585
nesia, 524 Childe, V. G., chronology of Neolithic
Castration of domesticated animals, 271 age, 227; food-gatherers, 285
Cat, domestication of, 310 Children, adoption, 416; economic
Catarrhines, 26 value, 384; ownership by, 412
Catlin, G., on Indian harvesting tribes, Chile, dog hair used for weaving, 305
506 Chimpanzee. See Ape and Man
Cat's cradles, 257, 258 Chin, Simian shelf, 58
Cattle, 303, 311; antiquity of domesti- Chinese, conflicts with nomads, 317;
cation, 311; descent of, 309; rais- deformation of feet, 538; exten-
ing of, 284; use of, 307 sion of region where spoken, 139,
696 INDEX
140; milk not used, 303; racial Clothing, 265, 266
type, 55, 111, 113; science, 677; Clubhouses, Trobriand Islands, 436,
subsistence, 284; status of women, 441
319; traps, 242; use of pork, 307; Coca, 255
viticulture, 301; walnut, 301 Coconuts as receptacles, 250
Chinook, loan words, 136, 137; sound Coeur d'Alene, kinship terms, 456;
symbolism in, 132; syntactic prestige among, 464
cases, 138; tales, 591 Cohuna skull, 86, 87
Chipping process, 157 Collective ownership, Polynesia, 525
Chiseling of stone, 162 Collectivism, 374, 376
Choroti, raising pets, 305 Color symbolism, 581, 582
Choukoutien, Sinarithropus, 51, 52, 56 Colorado River, marriage, 444
Chronological classification of pre- Comanche, adjustment of crimes, 514;
history, 150 raiding, 401
Chronology of prehistoric times, abso- Combativeness of animals, 411
lute, 15, 226-230; of African Combe-Capelle man, 77
prehistory, 196; of Argentine pre- Comfort, standards of, 332
history, 214; correlation of geolog- Common property of fields of wild rice,
ical, racial and cultural changes, 506
174; determined by tree rings, lf; Communication between animals, 124
of development of culture, 227; Communistic traits among Eskimo, 498
geological, 8 Competition and cooperation, 376
Chukchee, art, 683; chiefs, 500; envi- Congo, carved bowls, 557; masks, 546,
ronment, 351 exploitation among,
; 548; musical instruments, 249;
350; feasts, 395; filial piety, 481; pictographs, 272; pile cloth, 557;
hunting units, 499; individualistic wood-carving, 546
traits, 498; influence of domesti- Consanguineous group. See Kin group,
cated reindeer upon social life, Kinship
320; insecurity of, 334; language, Conservatism, in use of domesticated
130, 132, 138; leisure, 377; magic, animals, 312
639; oath, 502; procedure in crim- Cook archipelago, axes, 538
inal cases, 501; reindeer as dowry, Cooking, 239
382; reindeer-breeding, 328; serv- Cooperation, 376, 499, 500; and com-
ing for wife, 386; shamanism, 649; petition, 376; in farming, 516;
slavery, 500; songs, 603; standards in hunting, 375; in modern indus-
of comfort, 332; tales, 601 tem- ; 376; in payment of bride
try,
perament, 335; tent, 671; villages, 440; subsistence obtained
price,
498, 499; women participating in and distributed by, 380; Zufii, 352,
herding, 319 355
Chwalnyak skull,77 Copper, age, 150; implements, pre-
Cinquefoil roots, tended in gardens, 290 historic, 168, 169; industries,
Circumcision, 271, 477; school, Ba- prehistoric in southern Asia, 199;
thonga, 476 malleable, 168; range of prehis-
Civilizations, higher, in New World, toric use, 225; use in Africa, 199;
526 use of, 260
Clactonian epoch and industry, 150 Copyright law, 505, 526; among har-
Clan, definition of, 414 vesters, 509, 511; Kwakiutl, 512;
Class organization, due to conquest, Plains Indians, 514
374; in primitive society, 373 Coracle, 269
Clay, art in, 549; work in clay, 259. Core industry, 154-155
See Pottery Coronation Gulf, racial type, 102
Cleanliness, 480 Correlation between bodily form and
Climbing, 267 mental characteristics, 120
INDEX 697
Cosmology and belief, 660 Cupping, 270

Costa Rica pottery, 551 Curr, E., on Australian tribes, 504, 505,
Council of elders, Australia, 496, 497 507, 510
Counting, 276
Counting coup, 462 Dagger, 252
Coup-de-poing, culture, 172; in Africa, Dahomean Tovodun cult, 622; myths,
196; distribution of, 154, 155 617
Cousins, cross, 421, 422, 438, 439, 446, Dakota, attitude towards food as prop-
448, 456; parallel, 422, 438; sec- erty, 346, 378; concept of prop-
ond, 439; selective effect of cousin erty, 495; economics, 393; kin-
marriages, 103 ship terms, 456; language, 129,
Cow. See Cattle 130, 132, 135; music, 594; neces-
Cowrie, 350 sities of tribal life not possessed
Creek, migration legend, 597 individually, 495; pictographs,

Crest, 426; methods of acquisition, 427 272; prestige gained by liberality,
Cretans, deformation of body, 527 462; similes, 596; Sun Dance, 657;
Crickets, kept by Chinese, 305 use of dog, 305; wakan, 629;
Crime, definition of, 478, 480 wealth, symbolic importance of,
Crimea, Neanderthal man, 68 338
Criminal law, Adamaua, 522; Bushmen, Dance, 605
497 Dart, R. A., on Australopithecus, 29
Criminals, habitual among Arctic hun- Darwin, C., descent of man, 31; selec-
ters, 501 tion, 116
Cro-Magnon man, 53, 75, 77, 78, 80-83; Date palm, pollination in Assyria, 291,
trade, 252 292
Cross-cousins. See Cousins Daun phase of glaciation, 11
Cross River, family organization, 516 Dawson, C., Piltdown man, 57
Crow Indians, avoidance, 448; bride Dawson, J., Australians, 497, 504
price, 383, 385; ceremonialism, Dayak, inverted symmetry, 563
656; cosmology, 653; massage, Dead, as supernaturals, 641
270; matrilineal descent, 320; Death, economic implications, 393
raiding, 401; subsistence, 314; De Candolle, A., home of sweet potato,
Sun Dance, 657; tobacco, 293 295
Crusades, influence on mixture of popu- Deformation of body, 267
lations, 106 De Geer, G., chronology of Ice age, 15
Cultivation of plants. See Agriculture DeLamothe, L., on Ice age, 13
Culture, areas, 670; comparative stud- Deluge myth in America, 670
ies, 669, 675; conceived as per- De Morgan, H., chronology of Neolithic
sonality, 681; development, 673; age, 227
dissemination, 211, 232, 670; dy- Deniker, J., classification of races, 114
namics, 673; history of, inferred Denmark, shell heaps, 187
indirectly, 668; integration, 671, Densmore, F., on harvesting grounds,
678; laws of development, 674; 506
marginal, 671; morphology, 675; Deperet, C., on Ice age, 13
places of origin, 670; predictability Descent, among tribes of various levels
of change, 674; prehistoric cul- of subsistence, 320; bilateral, 414;
tures, distribution, 216 ff.; prog- unilateral, 414
ress, 675, 676; rate of growth, 232; Design, in pottery, 550; in weaving, 554
relation to individual, 666; rela- Determinism, economic, 318, 410; geo-
tion to speech, 141; stability and graphic, 320
instability, 667, 672; standardized Diffusion, 211, 232, 670; conditions of,
descriptions, 666; types, 667, 681- 297; of cultivated plants, 297
685 Digging stick, 262, 300
INDEX
Diminutive, formation of, 138 Easter Island, banana, 298; language,
Dingo, use of, 305 139; massage, 270; monumental
Discovery, of useful devices, 238 figures, 543; pottery, 207
Disruptive forces in native culture, 680 Economic, determinism, 318; interrela-
Divination, 304, 643, 658 tion of economic institutions, 328;
Divine right, 461 life not controlled by efficiency
Division of labor, 298-300, 319, 321, alone, 331; significance of mar-
369, 370 riage, 440; types of economic
Divorce, 449, 450 structure, 351; units, Australia,
Dixon, R. B., classification of races, 113 Menomini, Winnebago, 507
Djagga. See Jagga Economic mechanisms, 367
Dobu, charms, 663; concept of prop- Economics, definition, 327; intertribal,
erty, 341; economic conditions, 396-400
334, 345; fear of hunger, 379; Economy, acquisitive, 515
magic formulas, 348; monopolies, Ecstasy, 658-660
349; religion, 654-656 Education, 470-478; by criticism, 472,
Dog, tancestry of, 308; antiquity of 473; symbolic acts, 477; punish-
domestication, 311; distribution ment, tests, trials, 476
of, 308; draft animal, 267, 268, Kggs, 303
305, 312; eaten, 305; hair for Egypt, antiquity of horse, 311; an-
weaving, 305; Pekinese, hair of, tiquity of plow, 300; ceremonial
109; in Polynesia, 310; sledge, 312 knives, 158; division of labor, 299;
Domesticated forms, variability of, 22 domestication of cat, 310; do-
Domestication, in man, 108; of animals, mestication of pig, 304; early
283, 302-312; non rationalistic mo- agriculture, 290; endogamy, 423,
tives in, 305 438; lily root, 502; pigs and sheep,
Donkeys, antiquity of domestication, 307; representation of human
311 form, 577; traps, 242; wigs, 538
Dorsey, J. O., on Omaha riddles, 599 Eickstedt, E. von, classification of
Douglass, A. K, chronology deter- races, 114
mined by tree rings, 16 Elasticity, of wood, 245
Dowry, 382-383, 442 Elders, function of, 496, 497, 500, 505,
Drilling, of stone and bone, 251, 252 509, 516, 517, 520
Dromedary, introduced by Arabs, 311 Elephants, do not breed in captivity,
Drum, 248 303
Drum language, 602 Ellis, A. G., fields of wild rice, 506
Dryopithecus, 28, 39, 51; pattern of Elopement, 443
teeth, 28, 71 Emetics, 270
Duala, social organization, 516 Emmer wheat, 290
Dubois, E., Homo wadjakensis, 84; Endogamy, 417, 423, 427, 431, 438,
Pithecanthropus, 44 ff. ;
Sinan- 682; in Egypt, 423, 438; preferen-
thropus, 52; Solo man, 86 tial, 431; tribal, 431
Duckworth, W. L. H., classification of Enemata, 270
races, 113 Engagement. See Betrothal
Dugout. See Canoes English, sound symbolism in, 132
Durkheim, E., religion, 627, 628, 656; Environment, influence upon human
totemism, 430 forms, 20, 103; relation of cul-
Dyeing, 248 ture to, 340
Envoys, 504
Earth mother, symbol of environment, Eoanthropus dawsoni, 45, 53, 56-60
342 Eocene, 9; Primates in, 27
Earthquake, fear of, 380 Eolithic, forms, Tasmania, 202; period,
East Africa. See Africa, East 150, 170-172
INDEX
Eoliths, 58, 170, 176 Ethical conduct, relating to members
Epic poetry, distribution, 599 of family, sib, society, 478, 479;
Epipaleolithic, dogs in, 308 sanctions, 663
Esbaikian industry, 155 Ethics, 478-483; instruction in, 477;
Eskimo, absence of reindeer-breeding, and religion, 632-633
328; amulets, 635; art, 589; at- Etiquette, 478-483
tachment to home territory, 340; Eugenics, 121, 122
belief regarding names, 450; bor- Europe, coup-de-poing in, 154, 155;
rowing, 346, 498; carvings, 538, dog as draft animal, 268; end of
546; cement, 251; character, 683; hunting era, 159; epic poetry, 599;
chiefs, 500; clothing, 265; contra- fox tales, 597; popular antiquities,
dictory myths, 617; cooperation 621; proverb, 598; racial types,
in hunting, 375; cosmology, 622; 101, 104, 111, 112; repetition in
division of labor, 369; dog, 305, tales, 591; selective mating in,
308; dog sledges, 305; double- 103; stone flaking, 157; tales, 600,
bladed paddle, 247; drum, 605; 609, 612, 614. See also Cretans,
economics, 328, 344; historical Crimea, Denmark, Englisfr, Ger-
traditions, 669; hospitality, 481; man, Greece, Irish, Italians, Jews,
hunting, 288; hunting regulations, Lapps, Poles, Portugal, Scan-
682; hunting territories, 498; dinavians, Scotch, Spain, Switzer-
hunting units, 499; icing of land
sledge runners, 246; individual- Evidence, legal, distribution, 599
ism, 374; ivory carving, 589; jaws, Evil eye, 599
compared with Sinanthropus, 55; Evolution, technological, 150-170
knots, 257; lack of boastfulness, Exchange, between affinal relatives,
464; lack of individual specializa- 364, 387, 388, 441, 442; between
tion, 371; language, 130, 134, 135, kin, 381
138; lever, 241; looseness of local Executive agencies, Australia, 496 j
units, 343;maritime hunters, 343; Arctic hunters, 501

murder, 481; mythical beings, 616; Exogamy, 417, 423, 427, 431
needle cases, 578; oars, 246; obsid- Exploitation, among Chukchee, 350;
ian flaking, 543; pattern of culin Micronesia, 350
ture, 684; polyandry, 433; preser- Extinct mammals, South America, 213-
vation of meat, 378; prestige, 464; 214
pulleys, 242; punishment, 501; Extramarital relations, 435
racial type, 82, 102, 117; relation Eye, Mongoloid, 113
to land, 343; relation to sea, 342;
respect due to physical strength, Face, cross section of, 98
335; rhythmic repetition in tales, Falconry, 313
591; riddles, 598; rollers, 242; Family, definition, 414; lines, 19, 104;
sailing, 247, 269; sawing, 253; organization, 411-414; organiza-
Smith Sound, 107; snow house, tion in animals, 409; theories, 411,
265; songs, 501, 594; standards of 412, 424; types, 414, 417
comfort, 332; stone kettles, 255; Fan, taboo, 644
subsistence, 285; swan maiden Farming. See Agriculture
tale, 598; tales, 590, 597; tem- Father, duties among Bathonga, 420;
perament, 335; tent, 263; throw- function in matrilineal sib, 419;
ing board, 244; trade, 396; traps, relation to child, 419, 425, 481
242; vegetable food, 285; wife- Feast, general give-away, 394; mul-
lending, 436; women, duties of, tiple uses, 332; Zufii, 354, 356
466 Feige, E., descent of cattle, 309
Esoteric teachings, 621 Fermentation, 248, 502
Esthetic emotion, 536 Fertilization of gardens, 302
700 INDEX
Fetisnes, oô, 646 Formosa, shell heaps, 202
Feudalism, essential features of, 348; Fornander, A., Hawaiian poetic dic-
in Uganda, 321; Wahuma, 316 tion, 595
Fidelity in marriage relations, 433 Fortune, R., on gifts in Melanesia, 392
Fiji, conquest in, 403; land ownership, Fowl, 303; domesticated in Polynesia,
302; pantomimic dances, 607; po- 310; not eaten in Unyoro, 304
litical organization, 302 Fox Indians, education, 474; rhythmic
Fingerprints, 99 syllables, 593
Fire, antiquity of use of, 239; methods Fractures, treatment of, 270
of fire -making, 239, 240; preserva- Fraser, J., tribal territories, 492
tion, 239; use, 240; used for hol- Fratricide, Kwakiutl, 360
lowing out wood, 253 Frazer, J. G., avoidance, 446, 447;
Firth, R., Maori feasts, 395 magic, 637, 638, 639; theory of
Fischer, E., classification of races, 114; culture, 669; totemism, 430
Cro-Magnon man, 83; effects of Freud, S., on avoidance, 447, 449
domestication, 110; survival of Friction, musical friction instruments,
Neanderthal man, 77 247, 248; used in mechanical de-
Fish basket, 262 vices, 246
Fish hook pendant, New Zealand and Friederichs, II. F., Eoanthropus, 59
California, 212 Fritsch, G., classification of races, 117
Fish weirs and nets, 286 Fuegians, clothing, 265; dog, 305; food
Fishing, 212, 262, 286, 287 supply ,679; subsistence, 282;
Fison, L., on rights of individual, 494 territorial group, 491
Flageolet, 605 Fulbe, conquests by, 317, 520
Flake industry, time extent of, 159 Functional ism, in art, 575
Flaking process, 152-157, 252
Fletcher, Alice C., on Omaha police, Galapagos Islands, variation in island-
515 fauna, 107
Fleure, H. J., chronology of Neolithic Galilee skull, Neanderthal type, 66
age, 227; Copper-Bronze stage, Galton, F., on domesticated animals,
229 303
Flint-mining, 160, 162, 543 Game, distribution of, among hunting
Floats, 246 tribes, 494
Florida, submerged shell mounds, 14 Games, 269
Flutes, 248 Gardens, cinquefoil roots tended in,
Fly agaric, 255 290; 302; protection,
fertilizing
Folk song, rhythm of modern, 590 301. Sec Agriculture
Folk tales. See Tales Garrod, D., Gibraltar skull, 63
Folsom industry, 215 Gason, S., Australian trade expeditions,
Food, attitudes toward, 378: baking, 507
255; boiling, 254; devices for ob- Gathering stage, 284
taining, 261; distribution, 346; Gazelle Peninsula, secret societies, 517
fermented, 502; in Paleolithic Geikie, J., Ice age, 11
times, 253; poisonous plants pre- Genetic lines, 19
pared for food, 254; preparation Genotype, 19, 100, 104
of, 254; preservation, 254; rights Gens, definition of, 414
to, 494; storage, 286 Geographic, determinism, 320; distri-
Food-gatherers, 491-497 bution of cultural stages, 216ff.;
Food-gathering patches inherited, 289 range of culture stages, 220
Food-pounders, Hawaiian and Amer- Geologic periods, absolute chronology
ican compared, 212 of, 8; premises, 7
Food supply, effect of seasonal, 379; Geometric principles, knowledge of, 278
protection of, 378 Gestures, 125, 606
INDEX 701
Ghost Dance, North America, 620, 622 Guardian spirit, 429; of Plains Indians.
Gibbon. See Ape and Man 652, 653
Gibraltar, Neanderthal man of, 63 Guatemala, decorative clothing, 539;
Gieseler, W., Oldoway skull, 90 industrial specialization,
* 372;
Gifts, 346, 390; for obtaining wife, 441; stone carvings, 543
Kwakiutl, 361; meaning of, 338; Guiana Indians, cultivation of cassava,
psychological implications, 392; 295
Trobriand, 366; Zuiii, 355 Gulf of Mexico, distribution of lan-
Gillen, F. J., right of asylum, 510 guages, 139
Gilyak, exogamy, 682; hunting terri- Giinz phase of glaciation, 11
tory, 498
Glacial moraines, 11 Habitat, correlated to mode of life,
Glaciation, phases of, 11; in North 329
America, 12 Haddon, A. C., art, 578; classification
Goats, raising of, 284 of races, 1 1 4
God, supreme, 661, 662 Haeckel, E., descent of man, 32; origin
Gold, casting in lost forms, 260; pre- of man, 44 t
historic use of, 168, 170 Hahn, domestication of animals,
E.,
Goldenweiser, A., avoidance, 448; 302, 303, 311; effects of domesti-
totemism, 430 cation, 109; hoe and plow, 300;
Gomme, G. L., origin of fairy tales, nomadism, 313; types of agricul-
600 ture, 282, 283, 298, 299; women
Gorilla, fiee Ape and Man as gardeners, 299
Gorjanovic-Kramberger, K., Neander- Haida, art, 574; cultivation of tobacco,
thal man, 66 293; language, 129; matrilineal
Gourds, as receptacles, 250 descent, 320; racial type, 102;
Government, 487-534 sibs, 426
Graebner, F., definition of State, 490 Hair, forms, 102
Grammar, 132-134 Haircut as crest, 427
Grandparents, function of, 422 Hairiness of domesticated forms, 109
Gratitude, expression of, 495 Hamitic herders in P]ast Africa, sub-
Greece, deities, 617; divination, 643, sistence of, 314
658; religious practices, 634; Hamy, E. T., on Guanchos, 82
systematic science, 677; temples Handles, 251, 253
as asylum, 526 Harp, 249, 605
Greek, influence upon Latin, 143 Harpoon, 165, 286; Neolithic, Tierra
Gregory, W. K., Dry opith ecus, 28, 71; del Fuego, New Zealand, 166
on jaw of ape and man, 57; man's Hartmann, 11., on apes and rnan, 32
posture, 41; Notharctus, 26 Harvesters, 502-512; legal norms of,
Gregory River, neutral territory, 505 510, 511; size of camps, 503, 504
Grimaldi race, 78, 79, 80; trade, 252 Harvesting, America, Australia, New
Grimm, J., theory of folk tales, 600, 614 Guinea, 503; restrictions, 504
Giinding of stone, 160-162 Harvesting grounds, South America,
Gritstones, 252 North America, 506
Groom, payments to groom's family, Hatt, G., domestication of animals,
385 283; Lapp reindeer, 307
Grosse, E., legal forms, 497 Hauer, J. W., on ecstasy, 658; on re-
Group hostility, as explanation of ligion, 628
avoidance, 447 Haussa embroideries, 569
Group marriage, 432 Hawaii, endogamy, 438; Hawaiian and
Gschnitz phase of glaciation, 11 American food pounders com-
Guanaco, 309 pared, 212; language, 139; poetic
Guanchos, 82, 83 diction, 596; relation between ma-
702 INDEX
ternal uncle and nephew, 446; rhodesiensis, 53, 87; soloensis, 85;
romantic love 443 in, wadjakensis, 84
Head, hunting, 402; measurements, 96 Homo sapiens, 74-84; antiquity of, 74;
Hearne, S., woman's work, 466 origin of, 76, 78
Hebrew patriarchs, 416; right of glean- Honey, Bushmen, 287; Vedda, 286
ing, 347 Hooton, E. A., Canary Island type, 83
Heidelberg man, 45, 60-61 Hopi, art, 538, 563, 571, 578; basketry,
Heine-Geldern, R., on Polynesia, 524 562; dowry, 382; exchange of
Hellman, M., Dryopithecus, 28 property, 381; pottery, 538, 564,
Hemp, 293 567, 569, 570, 576; subsistence,
Hennepin, L., on buffalo police among 283, 314
Dakota, 289 Horse, 268; antiquity of domesticated,
Herding, influence of plagues, 286; by 31 1; origin, 309, 311; raising, 284;
men, by women, 369; at Zuni, 354 used with chariot, 311; use with
Herds, as wealth, 307 travois, 268
Herdsmen, as conquerors, 520 ff.; as Horticulture, tice Agriculture
rujing 316-318; govern-

caste, Hospitality, 390, 417, 463, 481
ment among, 519-523; individual Hottentot, calendar, 274; castration of
property among, 499 animals, 271 women participat-
;
Hereditary occupations, 373 ing in herding, 319

Heredity, law of, 16 Household, generations represented in,
Herero, status of women, 320; matri- 415; group, Zuni, 353; Kwakiutl,
liny, 330 357; sibs represented in, 416
Herzog, G., relation of language to Houses, clay, 265; rectangular, 265;
music, 602 snow, 265; underground, 264;
Hesiod, mythology, 610 wooden, 264
Hidatsa, agricultural labor, 298; castra- TTowitt, A. W., Australia, 493, 494, 507
tion practised by, 271; cultivation TIrdlicka, A., antiquity of man in Ar-
of maize, 295; cultivation of to- gentina, 215; evolution of
214,
bacco, 293, 298; matriliny, 320; modern man, 78; Pithecanthro-
sibs, 418; storage of seed, 301; pus, 54; Rhodesian skull, 89; Sin-
Sun Dance, 657; women as gar- anthropus, 52, 55
deners, 298 Huichol Indians, symbolism in art, 583,
Hilzheimer, M., descent of dog, 308 584
History of languages, 134 Humboldt, A. von, types of agriculture,
Hobbes, T., law, 488 283
Hobhouse, L. J., ethics, 677 Hunger, fear of, 379
Hodgson, C. P., harvesting in Aus- Huns, conquests of, 317
tralia, 503 Hunt, communal, among Kskimo, 498;
Hoe, 262, 298, 300 among Plains Indians, 513
Hogben, L., on heredity and environ- Hunters, 490, 491; division of labor,
mental determinants of behavior, 299
119 Hunting, 284; cooperative, 375; among
Hogbin, H. J., Samoa, 524 nomadic tribes, 313; Paleolithic,
Holmes, W. H., antiquity of man in 253; restrictions, 287; rules for
Argentina, 214, 215 preservation of game, 378; rights
Holocene epoch, 8, 12 to hunting grounds, 492; stage,
Hominidae, 32 282, 285-290; territories of Arctic
Hominids, origin of, 38, 39 tribes, 498; territories, inheritance
Homo, capensis, 89; heidelbergensis, of, 289
60-6 1 ; modj oker tensis, 50--5 1 ; Hunting tribes, differences among, 329;
neanderthalensis, 53, 61-74; pri- inheritance of privileges, 289;
migenius (see neanderthalensis) ; social organization, 288; units, 499
INDEX 703
Hupa, basket, 555; kinship terms, 457; Insecurity, economic, 334

measurements, 277 Instinct of animals, 409, 410
Huts, 263; round, 264 Intertribal leagues, Plains Indians, 515
Huxley, T. H., classification of races, Intoxicants, 255
1 13; man's place in nature, 24, 41 ;
Invention of useful devices, 238
Neanderthal man, 62; South Asi- Iran, cultivation of walnut, 300
atic racial types, 112 Irish, selective mating of, 103
Hyksos, migrations, 491 Iron, 210; meteoric, 210; smelting, 249;
Hylobatidae, 28 use of, 260
Iron age, 149, 150, 168-170, 221; im-
Ibo, pictographic writing, 273 plements, 194, 195; northern Asia,
Ice age, 9; climate, 12; evidences of, 9; 201; range of prehistoric iron in-
extent of ice cap, 10; ocean level dustries, 170, 225; southern Asia,
during, 10 199
Ifugao, capitalistic tendencies, 336; Iroquois, land ownership, 516; lan-
dowry, 382; economic conditions, guage, 138; political organization,
344; lack of arable land, 351; 518; status of women, 467., 469
seasonal food supply, 379 Irrational aspects of domestication of
lla. See Ba-Ila animals, 302 ff.
Immorality, concept of sexual, 436 Irrigation, 203, 263, 294
Implements, Asturian, 186-187; Azil- Iselin, I.,types of agriculture, 283
ian, 185; Bronze age, 192,
184, Isolation, 107
193; Campignian, 186, 187; com- Italian immigrants, intelligence of, 120;
pound, 250; Danish shell heaps, selective mating of, 103
186, 187; Iron age, 194, 195; Ivory, art in, 548; prehistoric use, 165
Magdalenian, 183; Maglemosian, Ivory Coast, mask, 547
184, 185; Neolithic, 188-191;
Robenhausian, 190, 191; Solu- Jade, sawing of, 163
trean, 182; Tardenoisian, 184, 185 Jagga, land laws, 519; proverbs, 597;
Incest, 437, 438, 443, 448, 480, 481 ruler as sole landowner, 302
Independent development, 296, 308 Japan, art, 542
India, cultivation of294; folk
rice, Java, musical system, 603
talcs, 614; mathematics, 677; Jealousy, 411, 433, 436, 440
Paleolithic culture, 172; polyan- Jews, American, changes in type, 115;
dry, 433 diaspora, 106
India, southern, throwing sticks, 243 Jochelson, W., Yukaghir marriage, 442
Indian, American. See America Joking relationship, 420, 422, 444-449,
Indian corn. See Maize 457
Indians of the Plains. See America, Judges, Adamaua, 522
Plains Indians Judicial procedure, distribution of, 599;
Indians of the Southwest, pantomimic in Africa, 518, 675
dances, 607 Junod, H. A., maternal uncle, 420
Individualism in production, 374 Jurisdictionamong herdsmen, 520
Indo-China, use of buffalo, 309
Indo-European, languages, 134, 135, Kababish camel herders, 315
139 Kabyles, relation to Cro-Magnon man,
Indonesia, prehistory, 201, 202; use of 82
buffalo, 309, 310 Kafficho, law in, 522
Infanticide, 384, 482; female, 432, 433 Kafir, clubs, 242
Inheritance, 423; among herdsmen, 520 Kafiristan, use of plow by women, 299
Initiation, 428; ceremonies, 505; edu- Kaingang, attitude towards food, 378;
cational function, 476, 477; tests, division of food, 346, 380; lack of
476 permanent settlements, 329, 379;
704 INDEX
lex talionis, 496; standard of com- Kutenai, cultivation of tobacco, 293
fort, 332 Kwakiutl Indians, art, 571, 574; burn-
Kamchadal, dog sledges, 305 ing of berry patches, 301; chiefs,
Karen, divination, 304 512; clover gardens, 301; coopera-
Keith, Sir Arthur, brachiation, 33; tion, 376; cosmology, 620; count-
internal secretion, 116; isolation, ing, 276; deformation of head, 538;
111; man's posture, 41; Paleo- destruction of property, 331; eco-
lithic man, 30, 58, 67, 68, 71, 80, nomics, 357-361; fishing grounds,
82, 86, 87, 90 343, 344; geometrical devices, 277;
Kent's Cavern, Paleolithic finds in, 43 gestures, 606; gifts, 391, 392;
Kenya caves, prehistoric remains, 198 houses, 674; hunting grounds, 511;
Keysser, C., Kai chiefs, 515 individual property, 512; lan-
Khasi, divination, 304 guage, 136, 138; marriage, 390;
Kin group, solidarity, 514; supernatural nobility, 512; observation of time,
relationship, 427 274; origin myths, 618; pawning
King, W., Neanderthal man, 62 of names, 348; potlatch, 394;
Kings v Polynesia, 524; Sudan, 522 prestige, 465; sacred season, 619;
Kingsley, M., African religion, 646 similes, 596; social structure, 425;
Kinship, economic obligations imposed songs, 595; symbolic values, 350
by, 364, 381; systems, 131, 416,
450-458, 679 Labor, division of, 369-374; between
Kiowa warfare, 401 sexes, 466; in animals, 409
Kirghiz, cattle, 307; cultivation of Ladders, 267
cereals, 294; herding, 284, 314- La Ferrassie skeletons, Neanderthal
316; horse, 312; milk, 312; milk- type of, 64
ing, 315; oxen, 307; subsistence, La Flesche, F., Omaha police, 514
312, 313 Lagoa Santa man, 213
Kitchen middens, cattle and sheep Laguna, gestures, 605; tales, 600
bones in, 31 1 Lake Chad tribes, men as gardeners,
EQaatsch, H., classification of races, 299
117 Lakka, division of agricultural labor,
Klatt, B., effects of domestication, 110 299
Klineberg, O., intelligence of Negro Lance, 243
children, 120 Landes, Ruth, fields of wild rice, 506
Knabenhaus, A., on legal forms, 497 Landownership, 302, 341-344, 353, 357,
Knots, 257 358,511,513, 516,519, 526
Knotted strings as mnemonic device, Landsteiner, K., blood of apes, 36
271 Lang, A., coherences of cultural traits,
Knowledge, practical, 471 680
Koenigswald, G. H. R. von, Paleolithic Lango, banana, 297; bride price, 384,
man, 47, 49, 50, 51, 85 385; burning over of fields, 301;
Kohler, W., mentality of apes, 37 butter, 307; cooperation, 375, 376;
Koppers, W. P., definition of State, 490; division of labor, 298, 319; gar-
domestication of animals, 283, deners, 301; land tenure, 302;
309, 310 litigation, 331; milk, 307; millet,
Koryak, art, 538, 683; calendar, 274; 297; partnerships, 376; sweet po-
reindeer, 320; tales, 609 297
tato,
Kramer, Samoa, 524, 525
A., Language, categories of classification,
Krapina, Neanderthal man of, 66 126; classification of experience,
Kula, 350, 365, 366, 460; potlatch and 451; distribution of, 139; general
kula compared, 460, 461 characteristics, 124; gesture, 125;
Kumiss, 307 relation of speaker to language
Kurnai, elopement among, 443 spoken by him, 673
INDEX 705
Lapps, cheese, 312; individual property, moan and New Zealand political
499; reduced to fishing, 286; rein- organization, 524; totemism, 430
deer, 307, 312 Lund, P. W., archaeology of Brazil,
La Quina, Neanderthal type of, 64 213
Latin, influence upon modern Euro- Lying, 479
pean languages, 143 Lyre, 249, 605
Laufer, B., domestication, 303, 310;
home of sweet potato, 295; olive MacCurdy, G. G., survival of Neander-
tree, 301; types of agriculture, thal man, 77
300; use of milk, 307 MacEnery, J., Paleolithic man, 43
Law, primitive, 487 ff. See Legal norms MacKenzie, Sir Colin, proto-Austra-
Leaching, 248, 286 loid race, 86
Leakey, L. S. B., Kenya archaeology, Mackenzie Indians, lack of boastful-
90, 197 ness, 464
Learned, B. W., signals used by ani- Madagascar, Malay language, 107, 136,
mals, 38 139; polyandry, 433
Learning, of animals, 409, 410 Mafulu, pig feasts, 331, 394
Legal norms, among hunters and food- Magdalenian, decline of bone work in
gatherers, 497; complexity in early post-Magdalenian, 165; epoch,
cultures, 526 150; flaking, 159; implements,
Legal procedure, 518 165, 183; industries, Celebes, 202;
Lehmann-Nitsche, R., antiquity of industries, northern Asia, 200;
man in Argentina, 214 ornaments, 183; pictographs, 183
Leisure, 377 Magic, 635, 637-639; Dobu, 654; eco-
Le Moustier skeleton, 64 nomic aspects, 362; formulas, 635,
Lemuroidca, 26 643; Siberian magic formulas, 650;
Lemurs, 25 Zufii, 651
Leopard society, West Africa, 428 Maglemosian, epoch, 150, 184, 185
Lesnoyer, M., eoliths, 171 Maize, 290, 296; American crop, 294;
Lesser, A., Pawnee hand game, 673 cultivated by women, 298; dif-
Levalloisian epoch, 150; flaked imple- fusion, 297; Europe, 297; method
ments, 155, 156 of cultivating, 295; origin, 295,
Levirate, 440 297; Uganda, 296; varieties, 296
Lewis, G. E., Ramapithecus, 39 Malay, betel chewing in, 293; blowgun,
Lex talionis, among hunters and food- 245; bridges, 267; climbing trees,
gatherers, 496 267; firesaw, 240; houses, 265;
Liden, R., chronology of Ice age, 15 languages, 136, 139; literature,
Lily root, use in Egypt, 502 589; migrations, 107; prayers and
Lime, preparation of, 249 ceremonies, 641; tales, 597
Lineage constituting sibs, 417 Malay-Polynesian, migration, 140
Linguistic families, 135 Malinowski, B., 412; primitive law,
Linn6, classification of races, 25, 113 489; religion, 634; theories of pro-
Literary forms, distribution, 599 creation, 425
Literature, 589 ff. ; archaic forms, 592 Man, area inhabited in prehistoric
Littorina terraces, 14 times, 217; early types of, 43 ff.;
Llama, 268, 309, 310 place in nature, 24
Loango, exogamy in, 423 Mana, 341, 630, 631, 634, 635
Love, romantic, 430, 437, 443 Manchu, conquer China, 317
Lowie, R. H., avoidance, 448; defini- Mandan Indians, bull boat, 269; maize,
tion of State, 490; economic de- 295
terminism, explanation of
410; Mandible, Piltdown skull, 57
social phenomena, 449; public Mangbattu, pygmies in Mangbattu
opinion, 513; religion, 656; Sa- army, 667
706 INDEX
Manioc, an American crop, 294; tech- Matting, designs in, 554
nique of planting, 295 Matto Grosso, harvesting grounds, 506
Manitou, 629, 630, 631 Mauer jaw, 60
Mansuy, H., Tonkin archaeology, 199 Maya, art, 543-546; calendar, 275;
Man us, affinal exchange, 389, 390; mathematics, 677; writing, 276
avoidance, 444; education, 474; McCown, T. D., Neanderthal man, 67,
ethical religion, 663; exchange of 68
property, 381, 394; marital ex- McGregor, J. H., Neanderthal and Cro-
change, 389; marriage, 390; moral Magnon types, 75
code, 664; religious behavior, 640; Mead, M., cooperation and competi-
wedding ceremony, 444 tion, 376; Melanesia, 392; Samoa,
Maori, art, 546, 549; attitude towards 524, 525
food, 378; calendar, 274; collec- Measurements, standards, of, 277
tivism, 375, 376; cultivation of Mechanical principles, 241, 243
kumara, 295; division of labor, Medicine, 255, 270
298; dog, 305; exchange of gifts, Medicine bundle of Plains Indians, 652,
393, 394; fasts, 395; gifts, 391; 653
political organization, 524; pres- Medicine societies, Pawnee, 428
tige, 337; property rights, 341; Mediterranean type, 114
supernaturalism, 648; taboo, 345, Megalithic monuments, Indonesia, 202;
378, 525; territorial law, 525 Melanesia, 203, 204; Micronesia,
Marett, R. H., ritual, 657 204; southern Asia, 199, 200
Marginal areas, 223 Melanesia, adoption, 416; age societies,
Marimba, 248 428; amulets, 635; art, 580; atti-
Marind-Anim, mixed descent of, 402 tude towards children, 384; avoid-
Marine terraces, 15 ance, 445, 447-449; bark cloth,
Marital rights, Miwok, 439; Thonga, 439 256; betrothal, 440; blowgun, 245;
Market, 397, 399, 400 cannibalism, 481 ; cooperation,
Marquesans, calendar, 274 516; death, 393; exchange, 392;
Marriage, 430-440; by capture, 443; farming, 515; harvesting, 502;
ceremonies, 444; cousin, 437, 438, houses, 265; landownership, 516;
448; development of, 447; di- magic formulas, 643; mana, 629;
vision of labor in, 370; economic megalithic structures, 203; mo-
aspects, 329, 390, 440, 441, 443; nopolies, 397; prehistory, 203;
free choice in, 443; inheritance of premarital relations, 436; prestige,
widows, 440; instability, 434; 337; racial types, 102; rituals, 620;
Kwakiutl, 360; legitimacy, 442; sacrifice, 644; secret societies, 429,
Natchez, 523; preferences, 437- 516, 518; status of women, 516;
440; restrictions, 437-440; service taboo, 644; trade, 396, 397-399,
of groom, 440; sister-brother, 438; 465; women raising pigs, 369
theories of origin, 412; Zufii, 352 Melody, 590, 603
Martin, H., Neanderthal man, 64 Mendel, G., heredity, 17
Masai, conquests by, 317; herding, 313, Mendelian heredity, 105, 121
317 Menghin, O., definition of State, 490;
-
Massage, 270 Paleolithic culture, 172, 173

Mat weaving, 256 Menominee tent, 264
Material culture, spread of, in prehis- Menstruation, beliefs regarding, 371,
toric times, 218 ff. 469
Materials for manufacture, 251 Mental traits, variability of, 118, 119
Mating, selective, 103 Merrill, E. D., home of sweet potato,
Matriarchate, 320, 416 295
Matriliny, 320, 424, 425, 516 Mescal. See Peyote
Matrilocal residence, 421 Message sticks, 272
INDEX 707
Messengers, diplomatic, Polynesia, 524 Monopolies, 349

Mesvinian phase, 150, 171 Montagnais-Naskapi, hunting privi-
Metal, industries, 207, 216, 221, 260; leges, 499; punishment, 501
prehistoric, 167-170, 199; use in Montelius, O., chronology of Neolithic
art, 552 age, 227
Metal ores, reduction of, 260 Months, 274
Metallurgical processes, range of, 225 Monumental remains, Polynesia, 205-
Meteoric iron, use of, 260 206
Meteorological observations, 274 Morant, G. M., Paleolithic races, 80,
Mexico, art, 538, 539, 555; astrology, 83, 88
677; calendar, 275; diviners, 248; Morgan, L., definition of State, 490
dogs, 109; industrial specializa- Morphological traits as racial char-
tion, 372; kings, 461; language, acteristics, 99
134; stone flaking, 157; temples Mortillet, G. de, eoliths, 171
as asylum, 526; throwing board, Morton, D. J., man's posture, 41
244; writing, 273 Mother-love, 421
Micoquian stage, 172, 175 Mother's brother's function in .natri-
Micronesia, absence of bow and arrow, lineal sib, 419
245; canoes, 275; control of land, Mother's sister, function of in sib, 421
350; prehistory, 204; sailing, 247; Motu, trade expeditions, 398
sailing charts, 275; stone money, Mount Carmel, Neanderthal man, 66,
204 67, 68, 78
Migrations, 106, 107, 139, 216-218 Moustcrian, 150; in Africa, 196; in
Milasszian beach lines, 13 northern Asia, 200; bone imple-
Milk, 284, 303, 307, 312, 315 ments, 164; forms in Australia,
Miller, G. S., Eoanthropus, 57 202; implements, 154-159, 179
Millet, 291, 297 Murder, 414, 479, 481, 482
Mimbres Valley, pottery, 563 Music, 602 ff.
Mindel, phase of glaciation, 11 Musical instruments, 247, 248, 603, 605
Mining for flint, 160, 251; prehistoric Mutilations, esthetic value of, 537
in Indonesia, 202 Mystics, oriental, 659
Minusinsk, bronze, 201 Mythological concepts, 609, 614
Miocene, 9, 27; apes in, 39 Mythology, 609 if. development of,
;
Miolithic stage, 173 661 esoteric and exoteric, 620

;
Mississippi pottery, 550

Mississippi Valley, Indian types of, 112 Nahua language, 134, 136, 137
Miwok, marital rights, 439 Nahuala, trade, 397
Mixed languages, 136 Name, beliefs regarding, 450, 451;
Mixture of populations, 105, 106 change 476; of kin group, 427;
of,
Modesty, 480 method of obtaining, 451; as
Mohammedan influence in Sudan, 520, property, 451; rank of, 460
522 Narcotics, 255, 508
Mohave, function of grandmothers, 422 Naskapi, chiefs, 500; individual respon-
Moiety, 431, 447 sibility, 514
Moir, R., eoliths, 171 Natchez, organization of, 523
Mollison, Th., Oldoway skull, 90 Nativity story of the Zuni, 601
Monasterian beach lines, 13 Navajo, art, 540; avoidance, 445; boast-
Money, 399, 400 fulness, absence of, 464; bride
Mongols, division of labor, 319; milk- price, 385; colorsymbolism, 581;
ing, 315; pastoral nomadism, 313; counting coup, 468; cross cousins,
racial types, 102, 104, 111; sub- 448, 449; divorce, 450; economic
sistence, 306, 307, 313; trade, 314 provision for children, 467; edu-
Monogamy, animals, 411 cation, 473, 475; herding, 467;
708 INDEX
joking relationship, 446, 448; kin- New South Wales, division of labor,
ship terms, choice of, 456, 457; 299
marriage, instability, 434; mar- New World, absence of iron industries,
riage, preferences, 439; matriliny, 170; crops of, 294
330; music, relation to language, New York, selective mating in, 103
602; names, 450; origin myth, New Zealand. See Maori
620; peace chiefs, 468; polygynous Nez Perec', division of labor, 299; sound
families, 433; sibs, 417; sib rights symbolism, 132
to widow, 440; status of chanter, Ngandong, skull, 84, 85
463; status of women, 320, 369, Nile, shieldson upper, 263
467; symbolism, 580; trade, 396; Nobility, Kwakiutl, 512
warfare, 401, 468 Nomadic herdsmen, 222
Neanderthal race, 54, 61-74; antiquity, Nomadism, pastoral, 283
63, 65, 67; disappearance of, 74; Nomenclature, systems of prehistoric
foot, 72, 73; neck, 74; size of periods and stages, 172-173
cranium, 70; structural features, Non- Aryan languages in Europe, 139
C9-74 Nootka language, phonetic changes,
Needle, prehistoric, 165, 251 135; words in Kwakiutl, 136
Negro, intelligence, 120; in Portugal, Nordenskiold, Erland, on Oceania and
106; racial types, 101, 102, 104, America, 209
105, 111; selective mating in Nordic type, 114; analogous to do-
United States, 103; status in mesticated forms, 109
United States, 678 North America. See America
Negroid traits among Europeans, 113 North Australian agriculture, introduc-
Neoanthmpic man. 76 tion from New Guinea, 670
Neolithic, age, 43; agriculture, 224, 227, Northwest Coast of America. See
X America, Northwest Coast
229fart, 543 Definition, 217, 218;
'dog, 308; Implements, 161-163, North Pacific Coast of America. See
188-189; in Africa, 198; in Alpine America, Northwest Coast
area, 190, 191; in North America, Nose, form of, 102
223; in northern Asia, 200; in Nose flute, 604
Polynesia, 206; in South America, Notched bones as friction instruments,
215;'fcriod, 149, 150, 173;'pig in 247
China, 311; pottery, 551; range Notharctus, 26
of, 219; stone chipping, 158 Nuba, division of agricultural labor,
Nephew, privileges of sister's son in 299
matrihneal s?ibs, 420 Numerals, 130
Nephrite, 163, 212 Nuttall, G. II., blood of chimpanzee, 35
Nets, 262 Nyassaland, women as gardeners, 298
Neutral territories, 505
New Caledonian digging stick, 262 Oars, 246
New Guinea, 580; feasts, 332;
art, 549, Oath, 502, 399
harvesters, 503; head hunting, Oats, 293
402; masks, 579; menstruation, Obercassel type of man, 81
371 ; modesty, 480; musical instru- Obennaier, H., length of Holocene
ments, 604; pantomimic dance, epoch, 15
606; racial type, 112; religious be- Occupations, hereditary, 373
havior, 640; size of settlements, Oceania, affinal exchange, 338; ma-
503; trade, 396, 398, 460 ternal uncle, 420; methods of fire
New Ireland, friction instrument, 248 making, 240; nutrition, 118; out-
New Jersey, submerged shell mounds, rigger canoe, 247; relations to
14 America, 212
New Mexico, lack of riddles, 599 Oceania including Malaysia. See Ad-
INDEX 709
miralty 1 stands , Acta, Amphletts, Outes, F., antiquity of man in Argen-

Arapesh, Bdnaro, Bontoc, Buin, tina, 214, 215
Celebes, Dayak, Easter Island, Fiji, Outrigger canoe, 247, 269
Gazelle Peninsula, Hawaii, Ifugao, Ownership, harvesters, 908, 509; pri-
Mafulu, Manus, Maori, Mar- vate, Plains Indians, 514; Poly-
quesas, Melanesia, Micronesia, nesia, 525
Motu, New Caledonia, New Guinea, Oxen used for riding and hauling, 307
New Ireland, Orokaiva, Pelew Is-
lands, Pentecost Island, Rossel Is- Pacific coast, linguistic differentiation,
land, Samoa, Santa Cruz, Solomon 140
Islands, Tahiti, Tami, Tonga. Tro- Pacific Islands. See Oceania
briand Islands Packstrap, 267
Oceanian-American connections, 208- Paddles, 246; double-bladed, 247
212 Pageantry, 656
Ochre, preparation of, 249 Paleanthropus, 61
Officials, Plains Indians, 513 Paleolithic, absolute chronology, 227;
Ojibwa, division of labor among north- range of, 224; age, 43, 149, 150;
ern, 369; hunting grounds, 342, art, 535, 543, 580; bow and ar-
343, 378, 379; pictographs, 272; row, 245; definition, 217, 218;
subsistence, 379 forms in Solomon Islands, 204;
Old age, treatment of, 422 industries, 172-185; in America,
Old World, crops of, 294 223; in northern Asia, 200; in
Oldoway skull, 90 Indonesia, 201; in Old World,
Oligocene, 9, 27; anthropoids, 39 223 ff.; in South America, 215;
Olive, cultivation of, 301 needles, 251 range of industries,
;
Omaha, chiefs, 513; cosmology, 622; 219; subsistence, 282

officers, 513, 514; songs, 514; Palestine, Neanderthal man in, 63, 66
taboos, 427 Pampean formations, 213-214
Oppenheimer, theory of State, 490,
F., Pan vctus, 57
497, 511, 526, 527 Pandean pipe, 604
Oppenoorth, W. F. F., Ngandong skull, Pangwe deity, 623; subsistence, 307
84,85 Pantomime, 606
Oracle. See Divination Papago, woman's relation to religious
Orangutang. See Ape and Man activities, 468
Oratory, 464, 592, 596 Papua, attitude towards children, 384;
Ordeal, 255, 599 tales, repetition in, 591; type, 112;
Orenda, 629 warfare, 402
Oriental tales, 609 Parallel cousins. See Cousins
Origin tales, 617 Parallelism, 22, 102
Ornamentation, 266; and technique, Parapithecus, 28, 39
558; Magdalenian, 165; prehis- Parental love not biologically deter-
toric metal work, 169; Solutrean, mined, 421
182 Parsons, E. C., avoidance, 448$ Euro-
Orokaiva, death feasts, 393; exchange, pean tales in Zufii, 601 ; explana-
392 tion of social phenomena, 449
Os Incae, 108 Pastoral nomads, 284, 307, 310, 312,
Osborn, H. F., Eoanthropus, 59; origin 313, 315, 316, 317; economy, 330
of man, 51 Pastures, ownership of, 519; selection
Ostracism, punishment for breaking of of, 315
taboo, 438 Patagonians, stature of, 109
Ostrich hunting, 287, 288 Patriarchate, 416
Ostyak, reindeer nomads, status of Patriliny, 424
women, 319 Patrilocal residence, 420
710 INDEX
Paviotso, rabbit hunting, 289 304, 307; Polynesia, 310; use for
Pawnee, history of handgame, 674; divination, 304; not used by pas-
medicine societies, 428; polyan- toral nomads, 310
dry anfong, 433; symbolism in Pig feast, Mafulu, 394
art, 582 Pigeons, raised by Bambala, 304
Payment, obligatory and voluntary at Pigmentation, 102
time of marriage, 441 Pile cloth, Africa, 557
Peake, H., chronology of Neolithic age, 264
Pile dwellings, 191, 209,
227; Copper-bronze age, 229 Piltdown man. See Eoanthropus
Pearson, K., relation between bodily Pinkley, G., Homo wadjakensis, 84
form and mental characteristics, Pitch in language, relation to music,
120 602
Pecking of stone, 160, 161 Pitched, 255, 492
Pei, W. C., Sinanthropus, 52 Pitfalls, 288
Peking man, 51, 54, 55; culture of, 56 Pithecanthropus, 50, 84, 201; alalus,
Pelew Islands, ancestor tales, 618 44; brain, 46; erectus, 44-49, 53;
r
Penck, 'A., glacial moraines, 11 femur, 48; jaw, 48; second adult
Pentecost Islanders, betrothal, 440 cranium, 49; teeth, 47
Percussion instruments, 603 Plains Indians. See America, Plains
Perforation of cheek, ear, lips, nose, 266 Indians
Perry, W. J., American agriculture, Planting patterns, 293
295; food gathering, 285 Plants, care of, without planting, 290;
Persia, rye, 291 ; wheat, 294 gregarious, cultivated, 290
Personification in mythology and re- Plaster casts of human types, 98
ligion, 614, 636, 637 Platyrrhines, 26
Perspective drawing, 577 Pleiades, observation of, 274
Peruvian, art, 552, 554, 556, 561, 564; Pleistocene, 9, 27; Central Asia, 200;
beam scales, 277; copper, 169, 552; climatic changes, 116, 197; South
divine rights, 461 ; endogamy, 423, America, 213, 214
438; gold, 552; llama, 310, 519; Pliocene, 9, 27; apes, 39
pottery, 538, 552 ff.; quipu, 277 Plow, distribution of, 294, 300; in
Pestles of Hawaii and America, 212 Egypt, 263; origin, 262, 300; used
Petri, B. E., Siberian archaeology, 200 by men, 299
Petroglyphs, Polynesia, 205 Podkoumok skull, 77
Pets, animal, 304 Poetry, relation to music and dance,
Peyote, 255, 620, 622 593
Phenotype, 19, 100 Poisoned arrows, 246
Philippine baskets, 555 Poisons, 248, 255, 270
Phonetics, 127 Polack, F. S., Maori taboos, 525
Phratry, definition of, 438 Poles, selective mating of, 103
Physiological traits, variability of, 118, Police, control in hunting parties, 289,
119 513; function of sibs, 418
Physiology and psychology, racial, 117- Polishing of flaked stone, 252, 253
121 Political organizations, New World,
Picks for flint mining, 160 527; Old World, 518; relation to
Pictographs, 272, 273; Africa, 198; war, 403
Aurignacian, 180; Azilian, 184; Pollination of date palm in Assyria,
Bronze age, 192; Magdalenian, 291
183; Polynesian, 206; prehistoric, Polyandry, 432, 433
165 Polygamous family, personal relations
Pig, 284; absence in prehistoric Amer- in,433
ica, 209; antiquity of domestica- Polygamy, definition of, 432
tion, 311; descent, 309; Egypt, Polygyny, 432, 433; in animals, 411;
INDEX 711
economic aspects, 363; relation to Preservation of meat in tropics, 377

sororate, 439 Pressure, stone flaking by, 159
Polynesia, absence of bow and arrow, Prestige, 337, 458-465
245; absence of influence on Amer- Priesthood, religious, 650
ican agriculture, 295; asylum, 526; Primariae, 32
bark doth, 256; boats, 269; chants, Primates, 25, 27
592; chiefs, 321, 461; commoners, Primogeniture, 373, 461
321; cosmology, 597, 622; divina- Privilege, in relation to property, 348
tion, 643; divine rights, 461; Procreation, primitive theories of, 424,
domesticated animals, 310; fer- 425
mentation of food, 502; geneal- Prognathism, 98
government
ogies, 622; gifts, 392; Promiscuity, 424
and law, 523-525; harvesters, 502; Property, 340; among animals, 409;
industrial specialization, 371; beehives as, 288; collective, 526;
Maui, 617; mythology, 616, 619; destruction of, 420, 423; among
poetry, 599; prehistory, 204-208; hunters and food-gatherers, 494,
primogeniture, 336; sailing, 247; 495; incorporeal, 345, 343; indi-
similes, 595; singing, 605; ta- vidual, 512, 516; interpretation
boos, 525, 645; trance, 659 of, 344; among Kwakiutl, 358;
Polynesian Islands, variation of fauna marks on domesticated animals,
in isolated spots, 107 316; of dead person, 514; private,
Polynesian words in English, 136 526; use for obtaining prestige,
Ponca, Sun Dance, 657 459
Pongidae, 28 Property rights, disregard of property
Poodle dog, hair of, 109 rights of maternal uncle, 446; re-
Populations, composition of, 104 strictions, 347
Portugal, Negro workers on plantations, PropliopithecuH, 28, 39
106 Prose, 590
Possession, in African religion, 659; in Prostitution, 435
Marquesan religion, 659 Proto-Australoid types, 86
Post, A. H., law, 488 Protolithic stage, 173
Postglacial epoch, 12 Proto-Negroid stock, 90
Potato, 294-296 Proverbs, 478, 596, 597, 598
Potlatch, 358-360, 394, 459-462 Prudery between married mates, 437
Pottery, 259, 541 ; art in, 549; Africa, Public law, Kafficho, 522
197, 198; Asia, 200; Costa Rica, Public opinion, 494, 496, 500, 509,
551; Danish shellheaps, 186, 187; 513
Easter Island, 207; Indonesia, Pueblo Indians, absence of visions, 658;
202; Mississippi, 550; Neolithic, architecture, 543; art, 540, 541,
186-191; Peruvian, 552, 553; 560, 581; cooperation, 375; cos-
Polynesia, 207; prehistoric, 152, mology, 597; disruptive forces in
551, 563; Pueblo, 551, 565, 566 culture, 680; division of labor,
Poultry, taboo in Uganda, 304 299, 369; matriliny, 320; observa-
Pound, R., definition of law, 489 tion of solstice, 274; Os Incae, 108;
Power and wealth, 335 pottery, 541, 551, 565; prayer-
Prayer, 633, 642-644 sticks, 582; religion, 650-652,
Pre-Chellean epoch, 150, 154, 176, 177 662; singing, 605; social organiza-
Pfedmost, Paleolithic man of, 53, 77 tion, 413;symbolism, 581; tales,
Prehistory, 146 ff. 591, 600; throwing sticks, 243;
Premarital intercourse, 436, 441 war, 401
Pre-mousterian, fire used in Pre-mous- Puget Sound, dog hair used for weav-
terian time, 237; flake industry ing, 305; houses, 264
in northern Asia, 201 Pulleys, used by Eskimo, 242
712 INDEX
Pumpelly, R., age of Copper-Bronze berian, 648-650; techniques of,
stage, 229 637; varieties, 647-656
Punishment, 501; used in education, Religion and ethics, 632, 633
474 Religious behavior, 642-645
Purchase of wife, 441 Residence, matrilocal, 415, 421, 445,
Pygmies, 107, 112, 282, 667 447; patrilocal, 415, 420, 447
Resonance, 248
Quaternary period, 8, 27 Respect, 479
Quatrefages, A. de, Cro-Magnon race, Rhodesian man, 53, 78, 87-89
82; Guanchos, 82 Rhythm, 560-562, 590, 591, 602
Queensland. See Australia
1
Rice, 294; wild, 502, 511
Quiche bride price, 383; division of la-
,
Rice fields, ownership of wild, 506
bor, 370; economic conditions, Rickard, T. A., beginning of use of
344; feasts, 332; individualism, iron, 229
375; industrial specialization, 372; Riddle, distribution of, 598
, inheritance of land, 348; land as Ridicule, as punishment for breaking
dfcwry, 382; serving for wife, 386; of taboo, 438
use of wealth, 337 Riding, 268
Quipu, 271, 277 Ridley, W., harvesting grounds in Aus-
tralia, 504
Ptace, 95-123; local, 104, 105; origin of Ripley, W.
Z., classification of Euro-
modern races, 116; physiology and pean types, 114
psychologv, 117-121 Riss phase of glaciation, 11
Radcliffe-Brown, A. II., Andaman Is- Ritual, symbolism in, 584
lands, 619; definition of law, 489 Rivalry, Kwakiutl, 360
lladloff, W., horse raising, 316; Kir- Rivers, W. H. R., avoidance, 447, 448,
ghiz agriculture, 294; prehistoric 449; female infanticide, 434; Toda
bronze and iron in Siberia, 201 marriage, 432
Rafts, 246, 269 Rivet, P., homo of sweet potato, 295
Raiding, 401 Robenhausian epoch, 150; implements,
Rainfall, distribution of, in geologic 190191
epochs, 12 Rock systems, 8
Ramapithecus, 39 Rollers for heavy loads, 242
Rank, Kwakiutl, 359 Rome, Neanderthal man of, 66
Ranke, J., effects of domestication, 109 Rossel Island, bride price, 388; interest
Ratio of sexes, influence upon marriage on loans, 390; marriage, 390;
relations, 432 money, 399
Ratzel, F., interdependence of cultures, Rostro-carinate forms, 155
669 Ruanda, conquest by herders, 317;
Raw materials, used by prehistoric rights of king, 321; social organ-
man, 150-151 ization, 318
Reciprocity, Trobriand, 363; Zuni, 354 Rubruk, use of mare's milk, 307, 319
Reck, H., Oldoway skeleton, 89 Rutot, A., eoliths, 171
Reindeer, 303, 306; breeders, 502; do- Rwala Bedouins, subsistence of, 313;
mestication, 283, 309; earliest use of camel, 306
mention, 311; sledge, 312; stables, Rye, 291, 293
314
Reindeer period, 74 652
Sacrifice, 644,
Reinterpretation of customs, 449 Sahaptin cases borrowed by Chinook,
Relationship systems. See Affinity, 138
Kinship, Sib Sailing, 247; charts of Micronesians,
Religion, 627-665; origin of, 627, 628; 275
participation of women, 468; Si- Salisbury, R. D., Ice age, 11, 15
INDEX 713
Salish languages, 134, 135 Semantic changes, 135

Sailer, K., Chancelade skeleton, 82 Semi-subterranean house, distribution
Samoa, ceremonialism, 656; chieftaincy, in America, 672
660; economic security, 351 ; mari- Semitic mythology, 617 ,
tal exchange, 388, 389; massage, Sergi, S., Neanderthal man, 66

270; squeezing out juice, 241; Service, as payment for wife, 386, 441,
supernaturalisni, 648; taboos, 644; 442
territorial units, 524; use of Semang, division of labor, 299
wealth, 333 Sewing, 251, 258
Sanford, K. S., geological age of Nile Sex ratio, influence upon marriages,
terraces, 196 433, 434; symbolism in art, 582
San Francisco Bay, submerged shell Sexes, social position of. See Status
mounds, 14 Sexual, immorality, concept of, among
San Ildefonso, pottery, 538, 566, 567, Toda, 436; license at ceremonials,
569, 576; symbolism, 586 436; period of sexual activity, 434
Santa Clara, pottery, 551, 566, 569 Shakes, a Tlingit chief, racial type of,
Santa Cruz, taboos, 427 102
Santee, buffalo hunting, 289 Shamanism, in Siberia, 648
Santo Domingo, pottery of, 567, 569, Shamans, women as, 468
575 Sheep, antiquity of domestication, 311;
Sarasin, P. and F., on bees in Ceylon, in Egypt, 307; raising, 284; wild,
494; on Celebes archaeology, 202 303

Sauk and Fox art, 536 Shell, implements and utensils, 207,
Savenkov, I. T., Siberian archaeology, 250; money, 350; pendants in
200 California and Polynesia com-
Savigny, F. K. von, theory of law, 488 pared, 207
Sawing, 163, 252, 253 Shell heaps, Africa, 198; Australia, 203;
Scandinavians, selective mating of, 103 California, 207; Denmark, 187;
Scarcity of resources, 344, 380 Formosa, 202; New Zealand, 205;
Scarification, as medical treatment, 270 submerged, 14, 74; Tierra del
Schaffle, A., theory of society, 666 Fuego, 215
Schmidt, W., Australian trade, 507; Shelter, 263
definition of State, 490; domesti- Shetland pony, size of, 109
cation of animals, 283, 309, 310 Shield, 263
Schoetensack, O., Heidelberg man, 60 Shoshone, use of dog, 305
Schoolcraft, H. R., Indian harvesting Siam, musical system, 603
tribes, 506 Sib, affiliations, 417; avoidance in, 445;
Schrenk, L. von, hunting territories of conflict between sibs, 417, 418;
Tungus, 498 definition, 414; economic func-
Schultz, A. H., hairiness of apes, 32; tions, 418; endogamy and exog-
man's posture, 41 amy, 417, 423; function of ma-
Schultz-Ewerth, E., Samoa, 524 ternal and paternal uncle, 419;
Science, of primitive man, 274; and kinship terms, 416; lineages con-
magic, 637, 638 stituting, 417; maternal and pa-
Scotchman, stature of, 109 ternal, 415, 416; police functions,
Sea level, changes of, 14, 15 418; property, 418; religious func-
Secret societies, 429, 518, 621 in Africa,
; tions, 418; residence of members,
429, 516, 517 415; trusteeship of ceremonials,
Secretions, internal, 110 418
Security, economic, 334, 351 Siberia, avoidance, 445; canoes, 269;
Selection, 19, 103, 116 divination, 643; lack of boastful-
Selective diffusion, of cultivated plants, ness, 464; mediums, 658; migra-
296 tions, 139; milking, 319; religion,
714 INDEX
648-650; service for obtaining ties in Africa, 516, 517; women's,
wife, 386; shamanism, 645, 657; 42&
taboos, 645; tales, 601; trance, Solidarity of sib and family, 440
659; women prevented from in- Sollas, W. J., beachlines, 14; Chance-
heriting herds, 319 lade skeleton, 82; Neanderthal
Siblings, definition of, 422; economic man, 63; Tasmanian flint indus-
relations, 382 try, 202
Sicilian, beach lines, 13 Solo man, 78, 84, 85, 89
Siebert, O., on Australian trade expe- Solomon Islands, Paleolithic forms in,
ditions, 507 204; religious behavior, 640
Signals, 271 Solstices, summer and winter, observa-
Silver, use in prehistoric America, 169 tion of, 274
Simferopol, Neanderthal man, 68 Solutrean, epoch, 150; flake industry,
Simiidae, 28, 32 158, 159; implements, 165, 182;
Similarity of Old and New World im- ornaments, 182
plements, 211 Song, 589, 595
Similes, in literature, 595 Sororate, 439
Sin, definition of, 478 Sosnovski, G. P., Siberian archaeology,
Sinanthropus pekinensis, 51-56, 84 200
Sioux, language, 129, 134; terms for Soul, 636
God, 629 Sound, number of sounds restricted in
Sivapithecus, 39 each language, 128; symbolism,
Skin, preparation of, 256 132; systems, mutual influences,
Skis, 267 137
Skull, horizontal position, 98; measure- South Africa. See Africa, South
ments, 97 South America. See America, South
Slave-raiding, 401, 402 South Seas. See Oceania
Slave trade, 402 Spade, 262
Slavery, 402, 500 Spain, prehistoric pictographs, 165
Sledge, 268, 312 Spanish, dialectic changes, 134; influ-
Sling, 243 ence upon Nahua language, 136
Slit drums, 248 Specialization of industries in relation
Slow matches, 239 to division of labor, 371-372
Smelting, 249 Species, description of, 16; origin of, 20
Smith, G. Klliot, agriculture in Amer- Speck, F. G., on hunting territories, 498
ica, 295; Paleolithic man, 40, 47, Speech, articulate, 126; relation to cul-
88
59, 80, ture, 141
Smith Sound, isolation of, 107 Spells. See Magic
Smoke signals, 271 Spencer, G., on right of asylum in Aus-
Snake-bite, treatment of, 270 tralia, 510
Sriowshoes, 267 Spencer, H., theory of culture, 669; of
Social life of animals, contrasted with religion, 627, 636; of society, 666;
human culture, 410 on origin of music, 602
Social organization, Adamaua, 521; Spinning, 258
Australia, 412-413; changes in Sport, animals kept for, 305
hunting tribes, 412; pastoral no- Spring traps, 244
mads, 316; Pueblo, 413; relation Springbok skull, 90
to economic stage, 413; relation Spy skeletons, Neanderthal type, 63
to environment, 412; Ruanda, Squashes, cultivated by women, 298
318; Thonga, 413 Stair, J. B., Samoa, 524
Social psychology, 675 Stalking game, 287
Societies, military, 429; religious, 650; Standards, ethical, 479; of measure-
secret, 429, 518, 621; secret socie- ment, 277; of value, 358, 399, 400
INDEX 715
State, development of, 526 Survivals, 449, 672

Statistical method of anthropometry, Sutherland, A., ethics, 677
95 Sweet potato, 295, 297
Stature, 96 Swimming, 267
Status, 678; determined by birth, 430; Swiss pile dwellings, implements from,
association, marriage, residence, 191, 192
wealth, 458; means of establish- Switzerland, handles of stone tools, 251
ing, 463; of men, Zufii, 353; of Symbolism, in art, 572, 576, 580, 581,
women, 299, 319, 320, 369, 370, 585; in ritual, 584
384, 440, 441, 465-470, 516 Symbols, individual, 429; as privilege,
Steam bath, 270 462
Steaming of food, 240, 255 Symmetry, 562-564
Steatopygous figures, Paleolithic, 79 Syntax, 138
Steering paddle, 247
Steinen, K. von den, chieftaincy among Taboo, 427-429, 510, 644, 645; punish-
Xingu tribes, 516 ment for breaking, 438; as privi*
Steinheim, Neanderthal man of, 54, 65, lege, 461
66,70 Tahiti, cultivation of banana, zy
Stepmother, 421 Tales, adaptation of, 600; climax in,
Sterkfontein, Australopithecus of, 30 591; distribution, 560, 589, 612;
Stone, 149; chipping, 157-159, 541; educational function, 478; ex-
chiseling, 162, 163; drilling, 163, planatory, 615; formal elements,
164; flaking, 152-157, 252, 542; 560, 591; motivation, 601; origin,
grinding, 160, 161; pecking, 160, 610, 613; structure, 597
161; sawing, 162, 163 Talgai skull, 78, 86
Stone age, 149; kettles, 255; modern Tami, education of wood-carvers, 473
stone tools in Africa, 199; money, Taplin, G., Australian chiefs, 509
204; tools, 252, 253; work, decline Tardenoisean epoch, 150; industries,
during Azilian stage, 165 184, 185; microliths, 197, 198, 199;
Stone architecture, 265 in southern Asia, 199
Storage of food, by Bushmen, 286 ff.; Tarsioidea, 26
of seed, 301 Tarsius, 26
Stow, G. W., government, 490 Tashkent rice, 294
Stratigraphy, applied to prehistory, 148 Tasmanians, lack of dog, 308; pre-
Stratz, C. H., classification of races, 117 history, 202; racial type, 117; sub-
Strehlow, C., game, distribution of, in sistence, 282; territorial groups,
Australia, 507; law among Arunta, 491
509 Tattooing, 266
Strike-a-light, 240 Taubach, teeth of Neanderthal man
String games, 258 from, 65
String instruments, 248, 604 Tauliparig, pets kept by, 305
Stumpf, C., on origin of music, 603 Taungs ape, 28, 30
Style, in decorative art, 564-576; of Taurodonty, 67, 71
narrative, 595. See Textile arts Taylor, T. G., classification of races,
Sub-incision, 271 117
Sucking tubes, 246 Teaching of crafts, 471
Sudan, distribution of languages, 139, Technique, playful handling of, 245
140; wild rice, 502 Technology, 150-170, 215, 233; and
Sun Dance, history of, 669 art, 540
Supernatural, 628-634; relationship of Teknonymy, 447
kin group, 427 Tents, 263
Surgery, 270 Terra, H. de, Sinanthropus, 51
Surplus of supplies, importance of, 330 Terraces, 12
716 INDEX
Territorial principle of government, Trails, 267
491, 497 Trance, use in religion, 658-660
Territorial rights, Botocudo, 493; Aus- Transportation, 267
tralia, 493-494 Traps, torsion used as release in, 242,
Tertiary period, 8, 27 261, 287, 288
Teton, joking relationship and avoid- Travois, 268, 306
ance, 457 Tree calabashes as receptacles, 250
Textile arts, 552, 554, 556-558 Tree shrews, 25
Thalbitzer, W., on Eskimo phonetics, Trenk, O., procedure in criminal proc-
135 ess among Bushmen, 497
Theft, 479 Trephining, 271
Thompson Indians, art, 536, 561; cal- Trial marriage, 437, 440
endar, 274; signals, 271; tales, Tribe, definition of, 413, 414
623 Tricks, 269
Thonga. See Bathonga Trickster tales, 662
Throwing board, 244 Trinil, Pithecanthropus, 45, 51
Throwing clubs, 243 Trobriand Islands, betrothal, 437; can-
Throwing knives, 242, 243 nibalism, 481; capitalism, 350;
Throwing loop, 244 chief, 461; clubhouses, 436; co-
Tibet, polyandry in, 433 operation, 376; distribution of
Tides, observations of, 274 property, 382; division of labor,
Tierra del Fuego. See Fuegians 370; economics, 334, 344, 345, 347,
Tillamook loan words, 137 349, 361, 363, 364; exchange, 364;
Tilney, F., brain of apes, 37; Pithe- feasts, 332; industrial specializa-
canthropus, 47 tion, 371; insecurity, 334; mar-
Title, as symbol of prestige, 465 riage and sexual relations, 436,
Tlingit Indians, art, 572-574; baskets, 437, 440, 443; monopolies, 349;
555; blanket, 558, 559, 585; loan prestige, 465; property rights, 347;
words, 137; matriliny, 320; racial sorcery, 345 ; theory of procreation,
type, 102; tales, 597 425; transition from patriliny to
Tobacco, cultivation of, 293, 298 matriliny, 424
Toboggan, 268 Trumpets, 248
Todas, 435, 481; dairy ritual, 647; di- Trusteeship of ceremonies in sib, 418
vorce, 450; exogamy and en- Tsimshian, cosmology, 618; religious
dogamy, 431, 679; marriage, 432, behavior, 640; sibs, 417; similes,
433; milking, 309; polyandry, 433; 596; sound symbolism, 132; sur-
religious function of sib, 418; sex gery, 270; tales, 591
relations, 481 Tungus, hunting territory, 498; rein-
Togo pictographs, 272 deer, 312
Tomahawk, 243 Turkestan, pastoral nomadism, 313;
Tonality, 602 subsistence, 307
Tonga, men as gardeners, 298; pottery, Turkish tribes, languages, 139; migra-
207 tions, 139; status of women, 319;
Torsion, mechanical principle, 241 subsistence, 313
Totem group, collective responsibility, Turks, Altaian, branding of animals,
508; economic function, 507, 508 316
Totem myths, 618 Turks, behavior under varying condi-
Totemism, 426-430 tions, 667
Toys as art forms, 538 Tutelary spirits, 646, 647
Trade, 365, 396-398, 441, 505, 507, 540; Tutsi, conquests, 318; herding, 318;
prehistoric, 224, 252 milking, 315
Tradition, in art, 569; historical value Twa, social status, 320
of, 669 Twilling, 257
INDEX 717
Twins, identical, 118; treatment of compulsive pursuits of, 339; de-

mother of, 482 struction of, 361; distribution,
Tylor, E. k., avoidance, 447; folk tales, 377; symbolic use, 337; uses of,
612; origin of pottery, 259; re-(
333
ligion, 627, 636; survivals, 672 Weaving, 256-258
Types, racial, 99-101, 105, 115; varia- Wedding, 440, 441, 444
bility of local, 95 Weidenreich, F., Sinanthropus, 54, 55;
Tyrrhenian beach lines, 13 Solo skull, 85
Weimar-Ehringsdorf Neanderthal man,
,
Uganda. See Baganda 65

Uhle, W., archaeology of Peru, 215
Weinert, H., Eoanthropus, 59; Paleo-
Uncle, maternal, duties of among
lithic skulls, 54, 66, 73, 77, 90;
Thonga, 420 Sinanthropus, 52
Units of value, Kwakiutl, 358
Werth, E., banana, 291
Unyoro, division of agricultural labor, West Africa. See Africa, West
298; fowls, 304 West Indies, drums, 248 <
Urundi, conquest by herders, 317 Westermarck, E., ethics, 677; Jheory

of survivals, 449
Valley terraces, Africa, 196
Valuables, as objects of trade, 399 Wheat, 291, 297
Value, 331
Wheel, 268
Vancouver Island. *See America, North- Wheeler, W. M., convergence, 22
west Coast White, L. A., signals used by animals,
38
Variability of types, 95, 99
White race, 105
Veblen, T., wealth and prestige, 337
Vedda, beehives, 289; boundaries, 491; Wied, M. Prinz zu, Botocudos, 492
brain, 46; division of food, 346; Wife-lending, 436, 481
division of labor, 299; honey, 286; Wigman, J., comparative law, 488
Wilbert, R., life span of apes, 35
preservation of meat, 377; racial
types, 112
Wilder, H. H., apes and man, 32
Will power imputed to nature, 615
Vegetable food of hunters, 284, 285;
of nomads, 313, 314 Willey, A., convergence, 22
Verneau, R., prehistoric races, 79-82 Williams, F. 10., economics of Orokaiva,
393
Vicuna, use of, 310
Virchow, R., Neanderthal man, 62 Willis, B., antiquity ofman in Argen-
214
tina,
Vision, 429, 658-660
Viticulture in China, 301 Wilser, L., Neanderthal man, 69
Vocables, in songs, 594
Wind instruments, distribution of, 604
Winnebago, camps, 504; cosmology,
Wadjak man, 84; skull, 78 622; prayer, 643
Wahle, E., hunting stage, 284 Winnowing, 263
Wahuma, cattle feudalism, 316 Wisconsin, prehistoric copper in, 169
Wakan, 6^9, 631 Witchcraft, 621, 647; cause for divorce,
Wakanda, 630 450
Walarai, territory, 492 Wiyot, prestige among, 464
Walnut, wild in China, 301 Wolf trap, 261, 287
War, economic aspects of, 400-404; Wolfel, D. J., Guanchos, 83
means of gaining prestige, 462; Women, as chiefs, 516; disabilities of,
Plains Indians, 513, 514; woman 319; economic value of, 383, 384,
participation in, 468 402; as gardeners, 298; as herd-
Washo, inheritance of pine-nut trees, ers, 319; occupations of, 369; po-
289; rabbit hunting, 289 litical status of, 469; as shamans,
Waterman, I., explanatory tales, 615 468; societies, 429; status of, see
Wealth, attitude towards, 361, 362; Status
718 INDEX
Wood, art in, 546; use of, 253 Yurok, bride price, 441; divorce, 450;
Wood-carving, distribution of, 546; premarital relations, 441; social
teaching of, 473 status of married woman, 441;
Wooden implements, Polynesia, 207; tobacco, 293
prehistoric, 164, 167
Woodward, A. S., Eoanthropus, 56; Zanza, 248
Homo rhodesiensis, 87 Zebu, descent of, 309
Wool, lack of use of, in Egypt, 307 Zither, of bamboo, 249
Words, number of, restricted in each Zulu, behavior at varying conditions,
language, 128; symbolic value, 667; bride price, 383, 384
142 Zufii, absence of groom price, 385; al-
Work-party, Zufii, 368 tars,559; art, 582; attitude to-

Wounds, treatment of, 270 wards food, 378; attitude towards
Writing, 271, 273 power and wealth, 336; concept
Wundt, W., origin of rhythm, 594; of property, 341, 345; coopera-
theory of folk tales, 616 tion, 376; division of labor, 370;
Wurm phase of glaciation, 11 divorce, 450; economics, 351-357;
economic security, 351; feasts,
Xylophone, 604 332; gifts, 391, 392; impersonation
of gods, 657; lack of industrial
Yakut, use of horse, cattle, reindeer, specialization, 372; marital ex-
312 change, 388; ownership of fields,
Yerkes, II. M., mentality of apes, 37; 344; partnership in herding, 376;
signals used by animals, 38 pottery, 568-570, 574, 575; pray-
Yerkes, R. M. and A. W., life span of ers, 537; prayersticks, 582; pres-
apes, 35 tige, 337; religion, 650; religious
Yoldia terraces, 14 activities of women, 468; religious
Yoruba, Orisha cult, 622; terra cotta behavior, 641, 650; respect shown
head, 550; twins, 482 to knowledge, 336; ritual, 651;
Yucatan. See Maya seasonal food supply, 379; status
Yukaghir, dog sledges, 305; service of of women, 467; symbolism, 584,
groom, 442; subsistence, 285; 585; taboos, 378; tales, 560; trade,
trapping, 343 396; war, 401; water jars, 569;
Yukon River, riddles, 598 wealth, 334; work-party, 368

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GENERAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Ruth Benedict Robert H. Lowie

Franz Boas James H. McGregor

Ruth Buiizel N. C. Nelson

Julius E. Lips Gladys A. Reichard

D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Geological Premises, by N. C. Nelson .............. 7-16

Biological Premises, by Franz Boas ............... 16-23

II. HUMAN ORIGINS AND EARLY MAN, by James H. McGregor . . . 24-94

til. RACE, by Franz Boas ..... .<-.... l ......... 95-123

IV. LANGUAGE, by Franz Boas

V. PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY, by N. C. Nelson 146-237

VI. INVENTION, by Franz Boas

THE ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES, by Ruth

IX. SOCIAL LIFE, by Gladys A. Reichard 409-486

X. GOVERNMENT, by Julius E. Lips 487-534

XI. ART, by Ruth Bunzcl 535-588

XII. LITERATURE, Music, AND DANCE, by Franz Boas T~ . . . . . 589-608

XIII. MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE, by Franz Boas 609-626

XIV. RELIGION, by Ruth Benedict 627-665

XV. METHODS OF RESEARCH, by Franz Boas . 666-686

with Alpine glacial phases . 15

cusp, characteristic of the Dryopithecus pattern 33

space and time distribution of the successive culture levels 228

Subject matter: History of mankind. The science of anthropology

languages, customs, and beliefs. These are evanescent, and there

science, of speech and their known

ticularly in languages for which no historic records exist, must be

deceptive impression of relationship. For this reason geographical

nomena may be used for historical reconstruction. The mere fact

points of view. We may compare the observed sequences and see

undergoes through the actions of individuals. We must also inquire

1. The reconstruction of human history.

These problems have to be investigated in the domains of biologi-

organization. Here belong also the relations 01 social groups in war

the terms of ethics, esthetics, and religion.

important problems of human history if we treat social life as though

understand life and culture as a whole.

arrangement connect anthropology with history, those of the latter

dynamics of society; it will give us only a partial insight into the

mental phenomena of the lives of individuals.

GEOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PREMISES

Geological background. Human remains have been found in strata

Paleontologists and geologists have been equally active unraveling

posit is said to be more than fifty miles. Earth movements of various

years. Such round-numbered figures are not of course to be taken

1. Kozoic (dawn life) characterized by the simplest forms of organ-

European archaeologists at once fitted their discoveries into this

geo-zoological scheme of chronology in the following manner:

As has been stated, some systematists prefer to omit the Quaternary

periods with the preceding Cenozoic under the designations First

subdivided into epoclis, based primarily on the classification of the

1. Eocene (dawn of the new referring to surviving faunal species)

region as well as on those throughout the rest of the world, even in

through a lowering of the world's average temperature by merely

presence of fossilized plant and animal remains found in the deposits

as yet uncertain, the earlier glacial deposits perhaps having been

slowly approaching, in which case the Holocene epoch would have

alternating cold and warm episodes by their numerical designations