THE BEGINNINGS OF CULTURE
Some remarks upon the antiquity of man in America will be presented in the concluding chapter of Volume II.
No one will deny that the present high culture enjoyed by most races and tribes of men is the result or culmination of thousands of years of development. Practically the entire world has advanced beyond the Stone Age, and much of it may be said to have gone even beyond the Iron Age, and into that of electricity. No sane man doubts that at some time or other all the divisions of the human race were in the Stone Age. Whether all the various peoples of many tongues and different colors are derived from the same stock, it is not my purpose to discuss. It is sufficient to state that while certain races of men developed a high culture, others did not. Whether all these peoples had similar advantages or began more or less in the same fashion, is beyond the scope of this work. Suffice it to say that even so far back as in times undoubtedly prehistoric, in every country the archæologist observes differences in culture. This is true of America as of Egypt, or Europe, or Asia. We have heard much with regard to the late date of the Stone Age in our own country. True, stone implements and arts persisted some time after the discovery by Columbus. Yet the recentness of the Stone Age in the United States is easily explained when one considers that America was unknown until 1492. Because stone implements were in use in remote portions of the United States two centuries ago, it does not follow that man on this continent is of no antiquity as compared with his brother in Europe.
In fact man may be, for aught we know, as old in America as in Europe or Asia. There have been hundreds of pages published by Professor Holmes, Dr. Abbott, the Reverend Dr. Wright, Dr. Wilson, Professor Chamberlin, and others as to whether man of the glacial period, or earlier tertiary man, existed in America. The evidence for and against the presence of man twenty or thirty thousand years ago in the United States has been presented in numerous places, and the Bibliography will acquaint readers with what has been said. It is not my purpose to attempt to decide this question—as to the age of man on the American continent.
There are certain cultures that appear older than others, and it is quite likely that they are older. All of these will appear in the forthcoming pages, properly substantiated by such evidence as I am able to present.
Let us, then, drop glacial or tertiary man and consider quarry material and methods of working.