Some of the native tribes, as those of southern California and certain of the peoples of Mexico and Central America, were in a state of savagery, and, in fact, have not advanced beyond that state at the present day. A large majority of the aborigines, as, for example, the Algonquins, Shoshoneans, etc., or, in general, all of the Indians to the northward of Arizona and New Mexico, together with certain of the tribes to the south of that boundary, had definite tribal organization, permanent homes at least for winter use, in part practised horticulture, and for these and other reasons are to be classed as in the barbarous stage of development. The Aztecs, Mayas, etc., of Mexico and Central America had well-established governments, built permanent and frequently large and elaborately decorated houses, some of which were of hewn stone, practised horticulture with the aid of irrigation, had developed a system of picture-writing, and were skilled in working native metals. These and other advances towards civilization were great and promising, but the use of iron was unknown, and their practice of human sacrifice and the absence of phonetic writing denies them a place among truly civilized peoples.
Another scheme for the classification of peoples in terms of the highest grade of implements used by them is current under which they are placed in certain ages on the assumption that man in all regions has passed through an orderly sequence in his development, and that the successive changes are expressed by the nature of the material used in the manufacture of implements. Under this plan of classification we have an age of stone, an age of bronze, and an age of iron. The stone age is commonly divided into two parts: an earlier or paleolithic, during which the highest type of implement used is fashioned of stone by chipping; and a later, or neolithic, when implements of stone are shaped by grinding and polishing. Following the stone age came one of bronze, when a mixture of copper and tin was used for implements; and later the age of iron, beginning when the art of reducing
metals from their ores was discovered. In this scheme a copper age is sometimes included, with doubtful propriety, however, if, as in America, the metal referred to is obtained in its native condition.
Under the somewhat indefinite scheme of classification just referred to the North American aborigines, inclusive of the Aztecs, etc., previous to the coming of European civilization were in the stone age of development, although bronze was in use among the Incas of Peru, and to some extent had found its way northward as far as Mexico. Certain of the tribes still used implements of chipped stone, but in the great majority of instances implements of polished stone were the highest type known. Native copper was widely used for axes, knives, ornaments, etc., but iron, except such as occurs in meteors, was unknown.
The difficulty met with in selecting any one article or any one material used by primitive peoples as a basis for their classification is illustrated by the facts just cited, as it places the lowest savage of America in the same group as the Aztec and the Maya. Obviously, in the classification of peoples as with the lower animals all characteristics should be included.
THE ESKIMOS
The extreme northern part of North America is included in the circumpolar lands described in another volume of the series of which the present book forms a part, and the Eskimos as a people will therefore receive but passing attention at this time.
One of the most interesting facts to the geographer concerning the Eskimos is their peculiar distribution. From choice or necessity they make their homes on the bleak, inhospitable northern border of the continent, and do not extend inland except where the coast is indented or large rivers enter the sea. In all localities their dwellings are near the water. They are the most northern people on the earth, and their still greater northward extension is checked only by the absence of land on which to build their winter homes. Their present inland limit on the continent is no doubt determined
in part by long-established custom and by the distribution of the animals on which they have become dependent for food, clothing, fuel, etc., but the chief control formerly, no doubt, more potent than at present, is to be sought in the aggressiveness of the Indians. In Greenland, the arctic archipelago, and throughout the immense extent of coast-lands from Labrador to Alaska they have been isolated and withdrawn from contact with other peoples for a long period of time, and their slow development unmodified by extraneous influences. In Newfoundland and Alaska, however, they have been in contact with the Indians, trade relations established, and to a limited extent an interchange of ideas as well as some intermarriage has taken place.
Throughout the vast extent of arctic coast between Newfoundland and Alaska, as well as in Greenland and on the islands of the arctic archipelago, the Eskimo was the sole inhabitant before the coming of Europeans, and one language current from the Atlantic to the Pacific. No other primitive people has such an extent in longitude. The reason for this peculiarity is that between the sea margin, where the Eskimo makes his home, and the southern border of the subarctic forest and adjacent prairies, where the Indians have their hunting-grounds, there intervenes the tundra—a neutral ground attractive neither to the Eskimo nor the Indian.