Anthropology

by A. L. Kroeber

174. Culture-areas

The native cultures of the New World are signalized by the two outstanding traits already alluded to. First, they have come to us virtually in momentary cross section, flat and without perspective. In general there are few historic data extant about them. Second, they represent the civilizations of by far the greatest geographical extent and highest attainment that have developed independently, in the main at least, of the great web of culture growths which appear to have had their principal origin in the regions not far from the eastern Mediterranean. They offer, accordingly, a separate problem, and one which, on account of the dearth of temporal data, has had to be approached through the medium of space. As soon, therefore, as knowledge of American cultures became orderly, its organization was inevitably effected in terms of geography. The result has been the recognition of a series of culture-areas or culture-centers, several of which have already been referred to (§ [150-152]). These geographically defined types of culture are gradual and empirical findings. They are not the product of a scheme or imagination, nor the result of theory. They are not even the formulation of any one mind. They do represent a consensus of opinion as to the classification of a mass of facts, slowly arrived at, contributed to by many workers, probably accepted in exact identity by no two of them but in essential outlines by all; in short, a non-philosophical, inductive, mainly unimpeachable organization of phenomena analogous to the “natural” classification of animals and plants on which systematic biology rests.

These culture areas, centers, or types have been established with greater exactitude for North than for South America. The ten usually recognized (see [Fig. 34]) are:

1. Arctic or Eskimo: coastal

2. Northwest or North Pacific Coast: also a coastal strip

3. California or California-Great Basin

4. Plateau: the northern inter-mountain region

5. Mackenzie-Yukon: the northern interior forest and tundra tract

6. Plains: the level or rolling prairies of the interior

7. Northeast or Northern Woodland: forested

8. Southeast or Southern Woodland: also timbered

9. Southwest: the southern plateau, sub-arid

10. Mexico: from the tropic to Nicaragua.

The only serious divergence of opinion as to distinctness or approximate boundaries might arise in regard to numbers 4 and 5 of this list. The culture of the Mackenzie region is so deficient and colorless that some students have hesitated to set it up as a separate unit. The Plateau culture is also vague as to positive traits. A plausible argument could be advanced apportioning it between the adjacent Northwest, Plains, California, and Southwest cultures. In fact, usage has here been departed from in reckoning the Great Basin, that part of the plateau which is without ocean drainage, with California instead of the Plateau.

Fig. 34. Culture-areas of America. The numbers refer to the names as listed on pp. 336, 338. (Modified from Wissler.)

The Mexican area is less homogeneous than any of the preceding. At least three sub-centers must apparently be recognized within it: those of the Nahua or Aztec, Zapotec, and Maya. The Nahua were politically and economically dominant at the time of discovery, but the Maya center is likely to be the oldest. To it seems due most of the progress achieved in architecture, sculpture, calendry, and writing. The sources of knowledge in the Mexican area are historic and archæological rather than contemporaneously ethnological, and are available through the medium of Spanish writings. Also the phenomena are more diverse and intricate, as is only natural with higher cultures. The consequence is that they are scarcely as well ordered as those from north of Mexico and have not yet been brought into as close a comparable relation with the latter as these among themselves.

South American cultures seem to arrange themselves on fewer lines of cleavage than those of the northern continent. Only five areas are as yet distinctly recognizable. This paucity is perhaps due to a less intensive search for facts and less systematic attempt to classify them, so that future studies may increase the number of areas recognized. Yet a simplicity of plan of culture relationships is evident. The narrow strip between the Andes and the Pacific is a region of rather high culture throughout, the whole remainder of the continent one of much lower and comparatively uniform culture. The areas determined are:

11. Colombia or Chibcha: western Colombia with the nearer parts of Central America and northwestern Ecuador. This is in the main a timbered region.

12. Andean or Peruvian: from southern Ecuador to northern Chile and northwestern Argentina. This is distinctively an arid to sub-arid and unforested belt.

13. Patagonia: characteristically an open, semi-arid country.

14. Tropical Forest: the vast Orinoco, Amazon, and La Plata drainages, prevailingly lowland, humid, and containing the greatest forest in the world. Three sub-regions stand out with a certain ethnic differentiation, although the basis of their culture seems to be that of the woodland. They are: the savannahs of the Guiana region; the highlands of eastern Brazil; the Chaco, west of the middle La Plata system. All three of these are open areas or only part timbered.

15. Antillean: the West Indies, including probably the Venezuela coast. This culture was the earliest to perish in the New World. It received the first shock of Caucasian discovery and settlement, and its carriers had no hinterland to which to retreat. It is therefore imperfectly known. Its closest affiliations are with the preceding area. In fact, the Antillean may yet prove only a subdivision of the Tropical Forest culture. In the discussions that follow, it has been omitted, but can in the main be understood as included in what is said of the Tropical Forest area.