Man, Past and Present

by A. H. Keane

THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES

American Origins—Fossil Man in America—The Lagoa-Santa Race—Physical Type in North America—Cranial Deformation—The Toltecs—Type of N.W. Coast Indians—Date of Migrations—Evidence from Linguistics—Stock Languages—Culture—Classification—By Linguistics—Ethnic Movements—Archaeological Classification—Cultural Classification—Eskimo Area—Material Culture—Origin and Affinities—Physical Type—Social Life—Mackenzie Area—The Déné—Material Culture—Physical Type—Social Life—North Pacific Coast Area—Material Culture—Physical Type—Social Life—Plateau Area—Material Culture—Interior Salish—Social Organisation—Californian Area—Material Culture—Social Life—Plains Area—Material Culture—Dakota—Religion—The Sun Dance—Pawnee—Blackfeet—Arapaho—Cheyenne—Eastern Woodland Area—Material Culture—Central Group—Eastern Group—Iroquoian Tribes: Ojibway—Religion—Iroquois—South-eastern Area—Material Culture—Creeks—Yuchi—Mound-Builders—South-western Area—Material Culture—Transitional or Intermediate Tribes—Pueblos—Cliff Dwellings—Religion—Physical Type—Social Life.

Conspectus.

Distribution in Past and Present Times.

Present Range. N. W. Pacific Coastlands; the shores of the Arctic Ocean, Labrador, and Greenland; the unsettled parts of Alaska and the Dominion; Reservations and Agencies in the Dominion and the United States; parts of Florida, Arizona, and New Mexico; most of Central and South America with Fuegia either wild and full-blood, or semi-civilised half-breeds.

Physical Characters.

Hair, black, lank, coarse, often very long, nearly round in transverse section; very scanty on face and practically absent on body; Colour, differs, according to localities, front dusky yellowish white to that of solid chocolate, but the prevailing colour is brown; Skull, generally mesaticephalous (79), but with wide range from 65 (some Eskimo) to 89 or 90 (some British Columbians, Peruvians); the os Incae more frequently present than amongst other races, but the os linguae (hyoid bone) often imperfectly developed; Jaws, massive, but moderately projecting; Cheek-bone, as a rule rather prominent laterally, and also high; Nose, generally large, straight or even aquiline, and mesorrhine; Eyes, nearly always dark brown, with a yellowish conjunctiva, and the eye-slits show a prevailing tendency to a slight upward slant; Stature, usually above the medium 1.728 m. (5 ft. 8 or 10 in.), but variable—under 1.677 m. (5 ft. 6 in.) on the western plateaux (Peruvians, etc.), also in Fuegia and Alaska; 1.829 m. (6 ft.) and upwards in Patagonia (Tehuelches), Central Brazil (Bororos) and Prairie (Algonquians, Iroquoians); the relative proportions of the two elements of the arms and of the legs (radio-humeral and tibio-femoral indices) are intermediate between those of whites and negroes.

Mental Characters.

Temperament, moody, reserved, and wary; outwardly impassive and capable of enduring extreme physical pain; considerate towards each other, kind and gentle towards their women and children, but not in a demonstrative manner; keen sense of justice, hence easily offended, but also easily pacified. The outward show of dignity and a lofty air assumed by many seems due more to vanity or ostentation than to a feeling of true pride. Mental capacity considerable, much higher than the Negro, but on the whole inferior to the Mongol.

Speech, exclusively polysynthetic, a type unknown elsewhere; is not a primitive condition, but a highly specialised form of agglutination, in which all the terms of the sentence tend to coalesce in a single polysyllabic word; stock languages very numerous, perhaps more so than all the stock languages of all the other orders of speech in the rest of the world.