THERE remains one question to be discussed; namely, whether some tribes
represent a lower cultural stage when looked at from an evolutionary
point of view.
Our previous discussion has shown that almost all attempts to
characterize the mind of primitive man do not take into account racial
affiliations, but only stages of culture, and the results of our efforts
to determine characteristic racial differences have been of doubtful
value. It appears, therefore, that modern anthropologists not only
proceed on the assumption of the generic unity of the mind of man, but
tacitly disregard quantitative differences which may very well occur. We
may therefore base our further considerations on the theory of the
similarity of mental functions in all races.
Observation has shown, however, that not only emotions, intellect, and
will-power of man are alike everywhere, but that much more detailed
similarities in thought and action occur among the most diverse peoples.
These similarities are apparently so detailed and far-reaching, that
Bastian was led to speak of the appalling monotony of the fundamental
ideas of mankind all over the globe.
Thus it has been found that the metaphysical notions of man may be
reduced to a few types which are of universal distribution. The same is
the case in regard to the forms of society, laws, and inventions.
Furthermore, the most intricate and apparently illogical ideas, and the
most curious and complex customs, appear among a few tribes here and
there in such a manner that the assumption of a common historical origin
is excluded. When studying the culture of any one tribe, more or less
close analogues of single traits of its culture may be found among a
great diversity of peoples. Instances of such analogues have been
collected to a vast extent by Tylor, Spencer, Frazer, Bastian, Andree,
Post, and many others, so that it is not necessary to give here any
detailed proof of this fact. A few examples will suffice. Among the more
general ideas, I may mention the belief in a land of the souls of the
deceased, located in the west, and reached by crossing a river,—known to
all of us from Greek mythology, but well known also among the native
tribes of America and Polynesia. Another example is the idea of a
multiplicity of worlds,—one or more spanned over us, others stretching
under us, the central one the home of man; the upper or lower, the home
of the gods and happy souls; the other, the home of the unhappy,—an idea
familiar to us from the positions of heaven and hell, but no less
developed in India, Siberia, and arctic America. The idea of the ability
of man to acquire protecting guardian spirits offers another example.
Another domain of mental life furnishes equally striking instances. The
universal knowledge of the art of producing fire by friction, the
boiling of food, the knowledge of the drill, illustrate the universality
of certain inventions. Still other phenomena of this class are furnished
by certain elementary features of grammatical structure, like the use of
expressions for the three persons of the pronoun,—namely, the speaker,
the person addressed, and the person spoken of,—or the frequent
distinction of singularity and plurality.
Special curious analogues that occur in regions far apart may be
exemplified by such beliefs as the possibility of foretelling the future
by the cracking of burnt bones (Andree), the occurrence of the Phaëton
legend in Greece and northwest America (Boas), the bleeding of animals
by the use of a small bow and arrow (Heger), the development of
astrology in the Old World and the New, the similarity of basketry
technique and design in Africa and America (Dixon), the invention of the
blow-gun in America and Malaysia.
These examples will suggest the classes of phenomena to which I refer.
It follows from these observations that when we find analogues of single
traits of culture among distinct peoples, the presumption is, not that
there has been a common historical source, but that they have arisen
independently; and the theory suggests itself that a common cause
accounts for the constant recurrence of these phenomena among the most
varied members of mankind, no matter to what race they may belong.
Further investigation shows that these customs are not quite evenly
distributed, but that certain more or less intimate associations exist
between the industrial development, social organization, and religious
beliefs of the peoples of the world; so that, among people with simple
industries, thoughts are found that differ somewhat from those of people
who have advanced further in the development of material culture. It has
also been noticed that a relation exists between the ethnic life of a
people and the geographical environment that favors or hinders their
material development.
The common cause for this similarity of actions and beliefs of peoples
and tribes widely separated, belonging to different races, and being on
certain stages of cultural development, has been looked for in several
ways.
Some investigators—like Ratzel, and in older times Karl Ritter and
Guyot—have laid particular stress upon the influence of geographical
environment upon the life of man, and emphasize those similarities which
appear in similar types of environment.
Others believe that many of the customs, beliefs, and inventions common
to people who live in regions far apart are an old heritage derived from
the earliest times, when mankind was still confined to a small part of
the earth’s surface.
Still others have tried to isolate the most generalized forms of similar
ethnic phenomena. Bastian, the most important representative of this
group of investigators, has called these forms “elementary ideas,” and
has tried to show that they are unexplainable.
Psychologists finally have endeavored to explain the similarities by an
analysis of mental processes.
It seems necessary to discuss these four methods of approach a little
more fully.
It is not difficult to illustrate the important influence of
geographical environment upon forms of inventions. The variety of
habitations used by tribes of different areas offer an example of its
influence. The snow house of the Eskimo, the bark wigwam of the Indian,
the cave dwelling of the tribes of the desert, may serve as
illustrations of the way in which protection against exposure is
attained, in accordance with the available materials. Other examples may
be found in the forms of more special inventions: as in the complex bows
of the Eskimo, which seem to be due to the lack of long elastic material
for bow-staves; and in the devices for securing elasticity of the bow
where elastic wood is difficult to obtain, or where greater strength of
the bow is required; and in the skin receptacles and baskets which often
serve as substitutes for pottery among tribes without permanent
habitation. We may also mention the dependence of the location of
villages upon the food-supply, and of communication upon available
trails or upon the facility of communication by water. Environmental
influences appear in the territorial limits of certain tribes or
peoples, as well as in the distribution and density of population. Even
in the more complex forms of the mental life, the influence of
environment may be found; as in nature myths explaining the activity of
volcanoes or the presence of curious land forms, or in beliefs and
customs relating to the local characterization of the seasons.
When, in our theories, we lay stress alone on observations which show
that man is dependent upon geographical environment, and upon the
assumption of a sameness or similarity of the mind in all races of
mankind, we are necessarily led to the conclusion that the same
environment will produce the same cultural results everywhere.
This is obviously not true, for the forms of culture of peoples living
in the same kind of environment show often marked differences. I do not
need to illustrate this by comparing the American settler with the North
American Indian, or the successive races of people that have settled in
England, and have developed from the Stone Age to the modern English. It
may, however, be desirable to show that even among primitive tribes,
geographical environment alone does not by any means determine the type
of culture. Proof of this fact may be found in the mode of life of the
hunting and fishing Eskimo and the reindeer-breeding Chukchee (Bogoras);
the African pastoral Hottentot and the hunting Bushmen in their older,
wider distribution (Schultze); the Negrito and the Malay of southeastern
Asia (Martin).
A second and more important element to be considered is the social
status of each people, and it would seem that environment is important
only in so far as it limits or favors the activities that belong to any
particular group. It may even be shown that old customs, that may have
been in harmony with a certain type of environment, tend to survive
under new conditions, where they are of disadvantage rather than of
advantage to the people. An example of this kind, taken from our own
civilization, is our failure to utilize unfamiliar kinds of food that
may be found in newly settled countries. Another example is presented by
the reindeer-breeding Chukchee, who carry about in their nomadic life a
tent of most complicated structure, which corresponds in its type to the
older permanent house of the coast dwellers, and which contrasts in the
most marked way with the simplicity and light weight of the Eskimo tent
(Bogoras). Even among the Eskimo, who have so marvellously well
succeeded in adapting themselves to their geographical environment, we
may recognize customs that prevent the fullest use of the opportunities
offered by the country, an example of which is the law forbidding the
promiscuous use of caribou-meat and of seal-meat (Boas).
Thus it would seem that environment has an important effect upon the
customs and beliefs of man, but only in so far as it helps to determine
the special forms of customs and beliefs. These are, however, based
primarily on cultural conditions, which in themselves are due to
historical causes.
At this point the students of anthropo-geography who attempt to explain
the whole cultural development on the basis of geographical
environmental conditions are wont to claim that these historical causes
themselves are founded on older conditions, in which they have
originated under the stress of environment. It seems to my mind that
this claim is inadmissible as long as the investigation of every single
cultural feature demonstrates that the influence of environment brings
about a certain degree of adjustment between environment and social
life, but that a complete explanation of the prevailing conditions,
based on the action of environment alone, is never possible. We must
remember, that, no matter how great an influence we may ascribe to
environment, that influence can become active only by being exerted upon
the mind; so that the characteristics of the mind must enter into the
resultant forms of social activity. It is just as little conceivable
that mental life can be explained satisfactorily by environment alone,
as that environment can be explained by the influence of the people upon
nature, which, as we all know, has brought about changes of
water-courses, the destruction of forests, and changes of fauna. In
other words, it seems entirely arbitrary to disregard the part that
psychical elements play in determining the forms of activities and
beliefs which occur with great frequency all over the world.
The second theory that has been advanced to explain the sameness of a
number of fundamental ideas and inventions is based on the assumption
that they represent old cultural achievements belonging to a period
previous to the general dispersion of the human race.
This theory is based on the universal distribution of certain cultural
elements. Obviously it can apply only to features that occur the world
over; for, if we should admit the loss of some of them in the course of
historical development, the door would be open to the most fanciful
conclusions. A few ethnological data seem to favor this theory, and make
us inclined to believe that some of the universal traits of culture may
go back to a very early time before that dispersion of mankind which is
demanded on biological grounds. Most important among these is perhaps
the occurrence of the dog as a domesticated animal in practically all
parts of the world. It is true that in all probability native wild dogs
constitute the principal ancestry of the dogs of the various continents;
but nevertheless, it seems plausible that the living-together of man and
dog developed in the earliest period of human history, before the races
of northern Asia and America separated from those of southeastern Asia.
The introduction of the dingo (the native dog) into Australia seems to
be most easily explained when we assume that it accompanied man to that
remote continent.
Other very simple activities may perhaps be derived from achievements of
the earliest ancestors of man. The art of fire-making, of drilling,
cutting, sawing, work in stone, belonged probably to this early age, and
may have been the heritage on which each people built up its own
individual type of culture (Weule). If archæological investigations
should show that implements and other evidences of human achievement are
found in a geological period during which mankind had not attained its
present world-wide distribution, we should have to infer that these
represent the early cultural possessions of man, which he carried with
him all over the world. In this lies the great and fundamental
importance of the eolithic finds that have been discussed so extensively
during the last few years. Language is also a trait common to all
mankind, and one that therefore may have its roots in earliest times.
The activities of the higher apes seem to favor the assumption that
certain arts may have belonged to man before his dispersion. Their habit
of making nests, that is, habitations, the use of sticks and stones,
point in this direction.
All this makes it plausible that certain cultural achievements date back
to the origin of mankind. The defenders of this theory, like Weule and
Graebner, also believe that a sporadic occurrence of certain inventions
like the boomerang, among races that are held to be akin in descent, may
have originated before the differentiation and dispersion of these
races.
In the case of many of the phenomena which may be explained from these
points of view, it is quite impossible to give incontrovertible
arguments which would prove that these customs are not due to parallel
and independent development rather than to community of origin: the
decision of this problem will be found largely in the results of
prehistoric archæology on the one hand, and in those of animal
psychology on the other.
The problem is made still more difficult by the dissemination of
cultural elements from tribe to tribe, from people to people, and from
continent to continent, which can be proved to have existed from the
earliest times on. As an instance of the rapidity with which cultural
achievements are transmitted may be mentioned the modern history of some
cultivated plants. Tobacco and cassava were introduced into Africa after
the discovery of America, and it took little time for these plants to
spread over the whole continent; so that at present they enter so deeply
into the whole culture of the negro, that nobody would suspect their
foreign origin (Hahn). We find in the same way that the use of the
banana has pervaded almost the whole of South America (Von den Steinen);
and the history of Indian-corn is another example of the incredible
rapidity with which a useful cultural acquisition may spread over the
whole world. It is mentioned as known in Europe in 1539, and, according
to Dr. Laufer, had reached China by way of Tibet between 1540 and 1570.
It is easy to show that similar conditions prevailed in earlier times.
Victor Hehn’s investigations show the gradual and continuous increase of
the number of domesticated animals and cultivated plants, due to their
importation from Asia. The same process was going on in prehistoric
times. The gradual spread of the Asiatic horse, which was first used as
a draught animal, later on for riding, the spread of cattle over Africa
and Europe, the development of European grains, may serve as
illustrations. The area over which these additions to the stock of human
culture were spread is very large. We see most of them travel westward
until they reach the Atlantic coast, and eastward to the shores of the
Pacific Ocean. They also penetrated the African Continent. It may be
that the use of milk was disseminated in a similar way; for when the
people of the world enter into our historic knowledge, we find milk used
all over Europe, Africa, and the western part of Asia.
Perhaps the best proof of transmission is contained in the folk-lore of
the tribes of the world. Nothing seems to travel as readily as fanciful
tales. We know of certain complex tales, which cannot possibly have been
invented twice, that are told by the Berbers in Morocco, by the
Italians, the Russians, in the jungles of India, in the highlands of
Tibet, on the tundras of Siberia, and on the prairies of North America;
so that perhaps the only parts of the world not reached by them are
South Africa, Australia, Polynesia, and South America. The examples of
such transmission are quite numerous, and we begin to see that the early
inter-relation of the races of man was almost world-wide.
It follows from this observation that the culture of any given tribe, no
matter how primitive it may be, can be fully explained only when we take
into consideration its inner growth as well as its relation to the
culture of its near and distant neighbors, and the effect that they may
have exerted.
It may be well to indicate here that there seem to have been two
enormously large areas of extended diffusion. Our brief remarks on the
distribution of cultivated plants and domesticated animals prove the
existence of interrelations between Europe, Asia, and North Africa, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Other cultural traits corroborate
this conclusion. The gradual spread of bronze from Central Asia westward
and eastward, all over Europe and over China, the area in which the
wheel is used, where agriculture with plough and with the help of
domesticated animals is practised, show the same type of distribution
(Hahn). We may recognize the sameness of characteristic traits in this
area also in other respects. Oath and ordeal are highly developed in
Europe, Africa, and Asia excepting the northeastern part of Siberia,
while in America they are hardly known (Laasch). Other common features
of the cultural types of the Old World appear also most clearly by
contrast with conditions in America. One of these features is the
importance of formal judicial procedure in the Old World, and its almost
entire absence among all the tribes of North and South America, who, in
their general cultural development, might well be compared with the
African negroes. In the domain of folk-lore I would mention the
frequency of the riddle, the proverb, and the moralizing fable, which
are so characteristic of an enormous part of the Old World, while they
are lacking in northeastern Siberia and in America. In all these
features, Europe, a large part of Africa, and Asia except in its extreme
northeastern part, and its island connection east of the Malay
Archipelago, form a unit.
In a similar manner we may trace certain very general traits over a
large part of America. Most convincing among these is the use of
Indian-corn all over that part of America in which agriculture is
practised; but we might also mention the development of a peculiar type
of ceremonialism and of decorative art. It would seem as though the
middle parts of America had played a rôle similar to that of Central
Asia in the Old World, in so far as many of the most characteristic
traits of civilization may have had their home here before the higher
type of Central American and South American civilizations were
developed.
The third point of view is represented by Bastian, who recognizes the
great importance of geographical environment in modifying the analogous
ethnic phenomena, but does not ascribe to them creative power. To him
the sameness of the forms of thought found in regions wide apart
suggested the existence of certain definite types of thought, no matter
in what surroundings man may live, and what may be his social and
psychical relations. These fundamental forms of thought, “that develop
with iron necessity wherever man lives,” were called by him “elementary
ideas.” He denies that it is possible to discover the ultimate sources
of inventions, ideas, customs, and beliefs, which are of universal
occurrence. They may be indigenous, they may be imported, they may have
arisen from a variety of sources, but they are there. The human mind is
so formed that it invents them spontaneously, or accepts them whenever
they are offered to it. Bastian’s theory of the permanence of these
forms of thought seems to me related to Dilthey’s conception of the
limitation of possible types of philosophy; and the similarity of lines
of thought of these two men appears also clearly in Bastian’s constant
references to the theories of philosophers as compared to the views held
by primitive man. The important phenomenon in Bastian’s mind was the
fundamental sameness of forms of human thought in all forms of culture,
no matter whether they were advanced or primitive.
In the views as propounded by him, a certain kind of mysticism may be
recognized, in so far as the elementary ideas are to his mind intangible
entities. No further thought can possibly unravel their origin, because
we ourselves are compelled to think in the forms of these elementary
ideas.
To a certain extent a clear enunciation of the elementary idea gives us
the psychological reason for its existence. To exemplify: The fact that
the land of shadows is so often placed in the west suggests its
localization at the place where the sun and the stars vanish. The mere
statement that primitive man considers the animals as gifted with all
the qualities of man shows that the analogy between many of the
qualities of animals and human qualities has led to the view that all
the qualities of animals are human. In other cases the causes are not so
self-evident; for example, in the instance of widespread customs of
restrictions of marriage which have puzzled many investigators. The
difficulty of this problem is proved by the multitude of hypotheses that
have been invented to explain it in all its varied phases.
The problem of the origin of elementary ideas has, however, been
discussed from a psychological point of view; and the elaborate attempt
by Wundt to work out a theory of folk-psychology, as well as the studies
of psychological sociologists, indicate lines of attack of the problem.
To illustrate this point, I may mention the general discussion of the
function of association in the beliefs of primitive people, given by
Wundt, or the study of suggestion and hypnotism in primitive life, made
by Stoll. A more detailed discussion of this method of treatment of the
common elementary ideas may be deferred until a later time (see Chapter
VIII).
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