Man, Past and Present

by A. H. Keane

This view has been emphasised afresh by Fewkes[777], though of recent years it has met with vigorous opposition. At the conclusion of his article "Die melanesische Bogenkultur und ihre Verwandten[778]" Graebner attempts to trace the cultural connection of South America with South-east Asia rather than with the South Seas, the main links being represented by head-hunting, certain types of skin-drum and of basket, and in particular three types of crutch-handled paddle. According to him the spread of culture has taken place by the land route and Behring Strait, not across the Pacific by way of the South Seas, a view to which he adheres in his later work. An ingenious and detailed attempt has also been made by Pater Schmidt[779] to trace the various cultures determined for Oceania and Africa in South America. Apart from the great linguistic groups usually adopted as the basis of classification, Schmidt would divide the South American Indians according to their stage of economic development into collectors, cultivators, and civilised peoples of the Andean highlands. Though this series may have the appearance of evolution, in point of fact "each group is composed of peoples differing absolutely in language and race, who brought with them to South America in historically distinct migrations at all events the fundamentals of their respective cultures.... As we pass in review the cultural elements of the separate groups, their weapons, implements, dwellings, their sociology, mythology, and religion we discover the innate similarity of these groups to the culture-zones of the Old World in all essential features[780]." The author proceeds to work out his theory in great detail; the earlier cultures he too considers have travelled by the enormously lengthy land route by way of North America, only the "free patrilineal culture" (Polynesia and Indonesia) having reached the west coast directly by sea[781].

W. H. Holmes[782] draws attention to analogies between American and foreign archaeological remains, for example the stone gouge of New England and Europe. He hints at influences coming from the Mediterranean and even from Africa. "Even more remarkable and diversified are the correspondences between the architectural remains of Yucatan and those of Cambodia and Java in the far East. On the Pacific side of the American continent strange coincidences occur in like degree, seeming to indicate that the broad Pacific has not proved a complete bar to intercourse of peoples of the opposing continents ... it seems highly probable considering the nature of the archaeological evidence, that the Western World has not been always and wholly beyond the reach of members of the white, Polynesian, and perhaps even the black races."

Walter Hough[783] gives various cultural parallels between America and the other side of the Pacific but does not commit himself. S. Hagar[784] brings forward some interesting correspondences between the astronomy of the New and of the Old Worlds, but adopts a cautious attitude.

More recently the problem has been attacked with great energy by G. Elliot Smith[785]. His investigations into the processes of mummification and the tombs of ancient Egypt led him to comparative studies, and he notes that certain customs seem to be found in association, forming what is known as a culture-complex. For example, "in most regions the people who introduced the habit of megalithic building and sun worship also brought with them the practice of mummification." Also associated with these are:—stories of dwarfs and giants, belief in the indwelling of gods and great men in megalithic monuments, the use of these structures in a particular manner for special council, the practice of hanging rags on trees in association with such monuments, serpent worship, tattooing, distension of the lobe of the ear, the use of pearls, the conch-shell trumpet, etc. In a map showing the distribution of this "heliolithic" culture-complex he indicates the main lines of migration to America, one across the Aleutian chain and down the west coast to California, the other and more important one, across the Pacific to Peru, and thence to various parts of South America, through Central America to the southern half of the United States. Contrary to Schmidt, Elliot Smith postulates contact of cultures rather than actual migrations of people; he considers it possible that a small number of aliens arriving by sea in Peru, for example, might introduce customs of a highly novel and subversive character which would take root and spread far and wide. The Peruvian custom of embalming the dead certainly presents analogies to that of ancient Egypt, and Elliot Smith is convinced that "the rude megalithic architecture of America bears obvious evidence of the same inspiration which prompted that of the Old World." In a later paper Elliot Smith[786] adduces further evidence in support of his thesis "that the essential elements of the ancient civilization of India, Further Asia, the Malay Archipelago, Oceania, and America were brought in succession to each of these places by mariners, whose oriental migrations (on an extensive scale) began as trading intercourse between the Eastern Mediterranean and India some time after 800 B.C. and continued for many centuries." This dissemination was in the first instance due to the Phoenicians and there are "unmistakable tokens that the same Phoenician methods which led to the diffusion of this culture-complex in the Old World also were responsible for planting it in the New[787] some centuries after the Phoenicians themselves had ceased to be" (l.c. p. 27). Further evidence along the same lines is offered by W. J. Perry[788] who has noted the geographical distribution of terraced cultivation and irrigation and finds that it corresponds to a remarkable extent with that of the "heliolithic" culture-complex, and by J. Wilfrid Jackson[789] who has investigated the Aztec Moon-cult and its relation to the Chank cult of India, the money cowry as a sacred object among North American Indians[790], shell trumpets and their distribution in the Old and New World[791] and the geographical distribution of the shell purple industry[792]. He points out that we have ample evidence of the practice of this ancient industry in several places in Central America, and refers to Zelia Nuttall's interesting paper on the subject[793]. Elliot Smith also discusses "Pre-Columbian Representations of the Elephant in America[794]" and remarks "coincidences of so remarkable a nature cannot be due to chance. They not only confirm the identification of the elephant in designs in America, but also incidentally point to the conclusion that the Hindu god Indra was adopted in Central America with practically all the attributes assigned to him in his Asiatic home." Elliot Smith believes that practically every element of the early civilisation of America was derived from the Old World. Small groups of immigrants from time to time brought certain of the beliefs, customs, and inventions of the Mediterranean area, Egypt, Ethiopia, Arabia, Babylonia, Indonesia, Eastern Asia and Oceania, and the confused jumble of practices became assimilated and "Americanised" in the new home across the Pacific as the result of the domination of the great uncultured aboriginal populations by small bands of more cultured foreigners. These highly suggestive studies will force adherents of the theory of the indigenous origin of American culture to reconsider the grounds for their opinions and will lead them to turn once more to the writings of Bancroft[795], Tylor[796], Nuttall[797], Macmillan Brown[798], Enoch[799] and others.

Classification.

There is no satisfactory scheme of classification of the American peoples. Although there is a good deal of scattered information about the physical anthropology of the natives it has not yet been systematised and no classification can at present be based thereon. A linguistic classification is therefore usually adopted, but a geographical or cultural grouping, or a combination of the two, has much practical convenience. As Farrand[800] points out "It must never be forgotten that the limits of physical, linguistic and cultural groups do not correspond; and the overlapping of stocks determined by those criteria is an unavoidable complication."

Linguistic Classification.

An inspection of the map of the distribution of linguistic stocks of North America prepared by J. W. Powell[801] which represents the probable state of affairs about 1500 A.D. shows that a few linguistic stocks have a wide distribution while there is a large number of restricted stocks crowded along the Pacific slope. The following are the better known tribes of the more important stocks together with their distribution.

Eskimauan (Eskimo), along the Arctic coasts from 60° N. lat. in the west, to 50° in the east. Athapascan, northern group, Déné or Tinneh (including many tribes), interior of Alaska, northern British Columbia and the Mackenzie basin, and the Sarsi of south-eastern Alberta and northern Montana; southern group, Navaho and Apache in Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico; the Pacific group, a small band in southern British Columbia, others in Washington, Oregon and northern California. Algonquian, south and west of Canada, the United States east of the Mississippi, the whole valley of the Ohio, and the states of the Atlantic coast. Blackfoot of Montana, Alberta, south and further east, Cheyenne and Arapaho of Minnesota. The main group of dialects is divided into the Massachusett, Ojibway (Ojibway, Ottawa, Illinois, Miami, etc.) and Cree types. The latter include the Cree, Montagnais, Sauk and Fox, Menomini, Shawnee, Abnaki, etc. Iroquoian, in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec; Hurons in the valley of the St Lawrence and lake Simcoe. Neutral confederacy in western New York and north and west of lake Erie. The great confederacy of the Iroquois or "Five Nations" (Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga and Mohawk, to which the Tuscarora were added in 1712) in central New York; the Conestoga and Susquehanna to the south. A southern group was located in eastern Virginia and north Carolina, and the Cherokee, centred in the southern Appalachians from parts of Virginia and Kentucky to northern Alabama. Muskhogean of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, including the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole, etc. and the Natchez. There are several small groups about the mouth of the Mississippi. Caddoan. The earliest inhabitants of the central and southern plains beyond the Missouri belonged to this stock, the largest group occupied parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, it consists of the Caddo, Wichita, etc. and the Kichai, the Pawnee tribes in parts of Nebraska and Kansas and an offshoot, the Arikara in North Dakota. Siouan, a small group in Virginia, Carolina, Catawba, etc. and a very large group, practically occupying the basins of the Missouri and Arkansas, with a prolongation through Wisconsin, where were the Winnebago. The main tribes are the Mandan, Crow, Dakota, Assiniboin, Omaha and Osage. Shoshonian of the Great Plateau and southern California. The two outlying tribes were the Hopi of north Arizona and the Comanche who ranged over the southern plains. Among the plateau tribes are the Ute, Shoshoni, Mono and Luiseño. Yuman, from Arizona to Lower California.

Ethnic Movements.