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 Dene--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.
#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._
#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_.
#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_.
#Religion#, _various grades of spirit and nature worship, corresponding
to the various cultural grades; a crude form of shamanism prevalent
amongst most of the North American aborigines, polytheism with sacrifice
and priestcraft amongst the cultured peoples (Aztecs, Mayas, etc.); the
monotheistic concept nowhere clearly evolved; belief in a natural
after-life very prevalent, if not universal_.
#Culture#, _highly diversified, ranging from the lowest stages of
savagery through various degrees of barbarism to the advanced social
state of the more or less civilised Mayas, Aztecs, Chibchas, Yungas,
Quichuas, and Aymaras; amongst these pottery, weaving, metal-work,
agriculture, and especially architecture fairly well developed; letters
less so, although the Maya script seems to have reached the true
phonetic state; navigation and science rudimentary or absent; savagery
generally far more prevalent and intense in South than in North
America, but the tribal state almost everywhere persistent_.
I. _Eskimo._
II. _Mackenzie Area._ Dene tribes.
1 Yellow Knives, 2 Dog Rib, 3 Hares, 4 Slavey, 5 Chipewyan,
6 Beaver, 7 Nahane, 8 Sekani, 9 Babine, 10 Carrier,
11 Loucheux, 12 Ahtena, 13 Khotana.
III. _North Pacific Area._
14 Tlingit, 15 Haida, 16 Kwakiutl, 17 Bellacoola,
18 Coast Salish, 19 Nootka, 20 Chinook, 21 Kalapooian.
IV. _Plateau Area._
22 Shahapts or Nez Perces, 23 Shoshoni, 24 Interior Salish,
Thompson, 25 Lillooet, 26 Shushwap.
V. _Californian Area._
27 Wintun, 28 Pomo, 29 Miwok, 30 Yokut.
VI. _Plains Area._
31 Assiniboin, 32 Arapaho, 33 Siksika or Blackfoot, 34 Blood,
35 Piegan, 36 Crow, 37 Cheyenne, 38 Comanche, 39 Gros Ventre,
40 Kiowa, 41 Sarsi, 42 Teton-Dakota (Sioux), 43 Arikara,
Hidatsa, Mandan, 44 Iowa, 45 Missouri, 46 Omaha, 47 Osage,
48 Oto, 49 Pawnee, 50 Ponca, 51 Santee-Dakota (Sioux),
52 Yankton-Dakota (Sioux), 53 Wichita, 54 Wind River Shoshoni,
55 Plains-Ojibway, 56 Plains-Cree.
VII. _Eastern Woodland Area._
57 Ojibway, 58 Saulteaux, 59 Wood Cree, 60 Montagnais,
61 Naskapi, 62 Huron, 63 Wyandot, 64 Erie, 65 Susquehanna,
66 Iroquois, 67 Algonquin, 68 Ottawa, 69 Menomini, 70 Sauk
and Fox, 71 Potawatomi, 72 Peoria, 73 Illinois, 74 Kickapoo,
75 Miami, 76 Abnaki, 77 Micmac.
VIII. _South-eastern Area._
78 Shawnee, 79 Creek, 80 Chickasaw, 81 Choctaw, 82 Seminole,
83 Cherokee, 84 Tuscarora, 85 Yuchi, 86 Powhatan, 87 Tunican,
88 Natchez.
IX. _South-western Area._ Pueblo tribes.
89 Hopi, 90 Zuni, 91 Rio Grande, 92 Navaho, 93 Pima,
94 Mohave, 95 Jicarilla, 96 Mescalero.
[Illustration: MAP OF AREAS OF MATERIAL CULTURE IN NORTH AMERICA
(after C. Wissler, _Am. Anth._ XVI. 1914).]
#North America#: _Eskimauan_ (Innuit, Aleut, Karalit); _Athapascan_
(Dene, Pacific division, Apache, Navaho); _Koluschan_; _Algonquian_
(Delaware, Abnaki, Ojibway, Shawnee, Arapaho, Sauk and Fox, Blackfeet);
_Iroquoian_ (Huron, Mohawk, Tuscarora, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga);
_Siouan_ (Dakota, Omaha, Crow, Iowa, Osage, Assiniboin); _Shoshonian_
(Comanche, Ute); _Salishan_; _Shahaptian_; _Caddoan_; _Muskhogean_
(Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole); _Pueblo_ (Zunian, Keresan,
Tanoan).
#Central America#: _Nahuatlan_ (Aztec, Pipil, Niquiran); _Huaxtecan_
(Maya, Quiche); _Totonac_; _Miztecan_; _Zapotecan_; _Chorotegan_;
_Tarascan_; _Otomitlan_; _Talamancan_; _Choco_.
#South America#: _Muyscan_ (Chibcha); _Quichuan_ (Inca, Aymara);
_Yungan_ (Chimu); _Antisan_; _Jivaran_; _Zaparan_; _Betoyan_; _Maku_;
_Pana_ (Cashibo, Karipuna, Setebo); _Ticunan_; _Chiquitan_; _Arawakan_
(Arua, Maypure, Vapisiana, Ipurina, Mahinaku, Layana, Kustenau, Moxo);
_Cariban_ (Bakairi, Nahuqua, Galibi, Kalina, Arecuna, Macusi, Ackawoi);
_Tupi-Guaranian_ (Omagua, Mundurucu, Kamayura, Emerillon); _Gesan_
(Botocudo, Kayapo, Cherentes); _Charruan_; _Bororo_; _Karayan_;
_Guaycuruan_ (Abipones, Mataco, Toba); _Araucanian_ or _Moluchean_;
_Patagonian_ or _Tehuelchean_ (Pilma, Yacana, Ona); _Enneman_ (Lengua,
Sanapana, Angaites); _Fuegian_ (Yahgan, Alakaluf).
* * * * *
It is impossible to dissociate the ethnological history of the New World
from that of the Old. The absence from America at any period of the
world's history not only of anthropoid apes but also of the
_Cercopithecidae_, in other words of the Catarrhini, entirely precludes
the possibility of the independent origin of man in the western
hemisphere. Therefore the population of the Americas must have come from
the Old World. In prehistoric times there were only two possible routes
for such immigration to have taken place. For the mid-Atlantic land
connection was severed long ages before the appearance of man, and the
connection of South America with Antarctica had also long
disappeared[737]. We are therefore compelled to look to a farther
extension of land between North America and northern Europe on the one
hand, and between north-west America and north-east Asia on the other.
We know that in late Tertiary times there was a land-bridge connecting
north-west Europe with Greenland, and Scharff[738] believes that the
Barren-ground reindeer took this route to Norway and western Europe
during early glacial times, but that "towards the latter part of the
Glacial period the land-connection ... broke down." Other authorities
are of opinion that the continuous land between the two continents in
higher latitudes remained until post-glacial times. Brinton[739]
considered that it was impossible for man to have reached America from
Asia, because Siberia was covered with glaciers and not peopled until
late Neolithic times, whereas man was living in both North and South
America at the close of the Glacial Age. He acknowledged frequent
communication in later times between Asia and America, but maintained
that the movement was rather from America to Asia than otherwise. He was
therefore a strong advocate of the European origin of the American race.
There is no doubt that North America was connected with Asia in Tertiary
times, though some geologists assert that "the far North-west did not
rise from the waves of the Pacific Ocean (which once flowed with a
boundless expanse to the North Pole) until after the glacial period." In
that case "the first inhabitants of America certainly did not get there
in this way, for by that time the bones of many generations were already
bleaching on the soil of the New World[740]." The "Miocene Bridge," as
the land connecting Asia and America in late geological times has been
called, was probably very wide, one side would stretch from Kamchatka to
British Columbia, and the other across Behring Strait. If, as seems
probable, this connection persisted till, or was reconstituted during,
the human period, tribes migrating to America by the more northerly
route would enter the land east of the great barrier of the Rocky
Mountains. The route from the Old World to the New by the Pacific margin
probably remained nearly always open. Thus, while not denying the
possibility of a very early migration from North Europe to North America
through Greenland, it appears more probable that America received its
population from North Asia.
We have next to determine what were the characteristics of the earliest
inhabitants of America, and the approximate date of their arrival. There
have been many sensational accounts of the discoveries of fossil man in
America, which have not been able to stand the criticism of scientific
investigation. It must always be remembered that the evidence is
primarily one of stratigraphy. Assuming, of course, that the human
skeletal remains found in a given deposit are contemporaneous with the
formation of that deposit and not subsequently interred in it, it is for
the geologist to determine the age. The amount of petrifaction and the
state of preservation of the bones are quite fallacious nor can much
reliance be placed upon the anatomical character of the remains.
Primordial human remains may be expected to show ancestral characters to
a marked degree, but as we have insufficient data to enable us to
determine the rate of evolution, anatomical considerations must fit into
the timescale granted by the geologist.
Apart from pure stratigraphy associated animal remains may serve to
support or refute the claims to antiquity, while the presence of
artifacts, objects made or used by man, may afford evidence for
determining the relative date if the cultural stratigraphy of the area
has been sufficiently established.
Fortunately the fossil human remains of America have been carefully
studied by a competent authority who says, "Irrespective of other
considerations, in every instance where enough of the bones is preserved
for comparison the somatological evidence bears witness against the
geological antiquity of the remains and for their close affinity to, or
identity with those of the modern Indian. Under these circumstances but
one conclusion is justified, which is that thus far on this continent,
no human bones of undisputed geological antiquity are known[741]."
Hrdli[vc]ka subsequently studied the remains of South America and says,
"A conscientious, unbiased study of all the available facts has shown
that the whole structure erected in support of the theory of
geologically ancient man on that continent rests on very imperfectly and
incorrectly interpreted data and in many instances on false premises,
and as a consequence of these weaknesses must completely collapse when
subjected to searching criticism.--As to the antiquity of the various
archaeological remains from Argentina attributed to early man, all
those to which particular importance has been attached have been found
without tenable claim to great age, while others, mostly single objects,
without exception fall into the category of the doubtful[742]."
The conclusions of W. H. Holmes, Bailey Willis, F. E. Wright and C. N.
Fenner, who collaborated with Hrdli[vc]ka, with regard to the evidence
thus far furnished, are that, "it fails to establish the claim that in
South America there have been brought forth thus far tangible traces of
either geologically ancient man himself or of any precursors of the
human race[743]." Hrdli[vc]ka is careful to add, however, "This should
not be taken as a categorical denial of the existence of early man in
South America, however improbable such a presence may now appear."
According to J. W. Gidley[744] the evidence of vertebrate paleontology
indicates (1) That man did not exist in North America at the beginning
of the Pleistocene although there was a land connection between Asia and
North America at that time permitting a free passage for large mammals.
(2) That a similar land connection was again in existence at the close
of the last glacial epoch, and probably continued up to comparatively
recent times, as indicated by the close resemblance of related living
mammalian species on either side of the present Behring Strait. (3) That
the first authentic records of prehistoric man in America have been
found in deposits that are not older than the last glacial epoch, and
probably of even later date, the inference being that man first found
his way into North America at some time near the close of the existence
of this last land bridge. (4) That this land bridge was broad and
vegetative, and the climate presumably mild, at least along its southern
coast border, making it habitable for man.
Rivet[745] points out that from Brazil to Terra del Fuegia on the
Atlantic slope, in Bolivia and Peru, on the high plateaux of the Andes,
on the Pacific coast and perhaps in the south of California, traces of a
distinct race are met with, sometimes in single individuals, sometimes
in whole groups. This race of Lagoa Santa is an important primordial
element in the population of South America, and has been termed by
Deniker the Palaeo-American sub-race[746].
The men were of low stature but considerable strength, the skull was
long, narrow and high, of moderate size, prognathous, with strong brow
ridges, but not a retreating forehead. There is no reliable evidence as
to the age of these remains. Hrdli[vc]ka, after reviewing all the
evidence says, "Besides agreeing closely with the dolichocephalic
American type, which had an extensive representation throughout Brazil,
including the Province of Minas Geraes, and in many other parts of South
America, it is the same type which is met with farther north among the
Aztec, Tarasco, Otomi, Tarahumare, Pima, Californians, ancient Utah
cliff dwellers, ancient north-eastern Pueblos, Shoshoni, many of the
Plains Tribes, Iroquois, Eastern Siouan, and Algonquian. But it is apart
from the Eskimo, who form a distinct subtype of the yellow-brown strain
of humanity[747]."
Rivet[748] adds that an examination of the present distribution of the
descendants of the Lagoa-Santa type shows that they are all border
peoples, in East Brazil, and the south of Patagonia and Terra del
Fuegia, where the climate is rigorous, in desert islands of west and
southern Chili, on the coast of Ecuador, and perhaps in California. This
suggests that they have been driven out in a great eccentric movement
from their old habitat, into new environment producing fresh crossings.
There is an absence of this high narrow-headed type throughout the
northern part of South America, and a prevalence of medium or
sub-brachycephalic heads which are always low in the crown. These are
now represented by the Caribs and Arawaks, but there was more than one
migration of brachycephalic peoples from the north.
To return to North America. As we have just seen Hrdli[vc]ka recognises
a dolichocephalic element in North America, and various ethnic groups
range to pronounced brachycephaly. Nevertheless he believes in the
original unity of the Indian race in America, basing his conclusions on
the colour of the skin, which ranges from yellowish white to dark brown,
the straight black hair, scanty beard, hairless body, brown and often
more or less slanting eye, mesorrhine nose, medium prognathism,
skeletal proportions and other essential features. In all these
characters the American Indians resemble the yellowish brown peoples of
eastern Asia and a large part of Polynesia[749]. He also believes that
there were many successive migrations from Asia.
The differences of opinion between Hrdli[vc]ka and other students is
probably more a question of nomenclature than of fact. The eastern
Asiatics and Polynesians are mixed peoples, and if there were numerous
migrations from Asia, spread over a very long period of time, people of
different stocks would have found their way into America. "It is indeed
probable," Hrdli[vc]ka adds, "that the western coast of America, within
the last two thousand years, was on more than one occasion reached by
small parties of Polynesians, and that the eastern coast was similarly
reached by small groups of whites; but these accretions have not
modified greatly, if at all, the mass of the native population[750]."
The inhabitants of the plains east of the Rocky Mountains and the
eastern wooded area are characterised by a head which varies about the
lower limit of brachycephaly, and by tall stature. This stock probably
arrived by the North Pacific Bridge before the end of the last Glacial
period, and extended over the continent east of the great divide.
Finally bands from the north, east and south migrated into the prairie
area. The markedly brachycephalic immigrants from Asia appear to have
proceeded mainly down the Pacific slope and to have populated Central
and South America, with an overflow into the south of North America. It
is probable that there were several migrations of allied but not similar
broad-headed peoples from Asia in early days, and we know that recently
there have been racial and cultural drifts between the neighbouring
portions of America and Asia[751]. Indeed Bogoras[752] suggests that
ethnographically the line separating Asia and America should lie from
the lower Kolyma River to Gishiga Bay.
Owing to these various immigrations and subsequent minglings the cranial
forms show much variation, and are not sufficiently significant to serve
as a basis of classification. In parts of North America the round-headed
mound-builders and others were encroached upon by populations of
increasingly dolichocephalic type--Plains Indians and Cherokees,
Chichimecs, Tepanecs, Acolhuas. Even still dolichocephaly is
characteristic of Iroquois, Coahuilas, Sonorans, while the intermediate
indices met with on the prairies and plateaux undoubtedly indicate the
mixture between the long-headed invaders and the round-heads whom they
swept aside as they advanced southwards. Thus the Minnetaris are highly
dolicho; the Poncas and Osages sub-brachy; the Algonquians variable,
while the Siouans oscillate widely round a mesaticephalous mean.
The Athapascans alone are homogeneous, and their sub-brachycephaly
recurs amongst the Apaches and their other southern kindred, who have
given it an exaggerated form by the widespread practice of artificial
deformation, which dates from remote times. The most typical cases both
of brachy and dolicho deformation are from the Cerro de las Palmas
graves in south-west Mexico. Deformation prevails also in Peru and
Bolivia, as well as in Ceara and the Rio Negro on the Atlantic side. The
flat-head form, so common from the Columbia estuary to Peru, occurs
amongst the broad-faced Huaxtecs, their near relations the Maya-Quiches,
and the Nahuatlans. It is also found amongst the extinct Cebunys of
Cuba, Hayti and Jamaica, and the so-called "Toltecs," that is, the
people of Tollan (Tula), who first founded a civilised state on the
Mexican table-land (sixth and seventh centuries A.D.), and whose name
afterwards became associated with every ancient monument throughout
Central America. On this "Toltec question" the most contradictory
theories are current; some hold that the Toltecs were a great and
powerful nation, who after the overthrow of their empire migrated
southwards, spreading their culture throughout Central America; others
regard them as "fabulous," or at all events "nothing more than a sept of
the Nahuas themselves, the ancestors of those Mexicans who built
Tenochtitlan," _i.e._ the present city of Mexico. A third view, that of
Valentini, that the Toltecs were not Nahuas but Mayas, is now supported
both by E. P. Dieseldorff[753] and by Foerstemann[754]. T. A. Joyce[755]
suggests that the vanguard of the Nahuas on reaching the Mexican valley
adopted and improved the culture of an agricultural people of Tarascan
affinities whose culture was in part due to Mayan inspiration, whom they
found settled there. Later migrations of Nahua were greatly impressed
with the "Toltec" culture which had thus arisen through the impact of a
virile hunting people on more passive agriculturalists.
On the North-west Pacific Coast similar ethnical interminglings recur,
and Franz Boas[756] here distinguishes as many as four types, the
Northern (Tsimshian and others), the Kwakiutl, the Lillooet of the
Harrison Lake region and the inland Salishan (Flat-heads, Shuswaps,
etc.). All are brachycephalic, but while the Tsimshians are of medium
height 1.675 m. (5 ft. 6 in.) with low, concave nose, very large head,
and enormously broad face, exceeding the average for North America by 6
mm., the Kwakiutls are shorter 1.645 m. (5 ft. 4-3/4 in.) with very high
and relatively narrow hooked nose, and quite exceptionally high face;
the Harrison Lake very short 1.600 m. (5 ft 3 in.) with exceedingly
short and broad head (C. I. nearly 89), "surpassing in this respect all
other forms known to exist in North America"; lastly, the inland Salish
of medium height 1.679 m. (5 ft. 6 in.) with high and wide nose of the
characteristic Indian form and a short head.
It would be difficult to find anywhere a greater contrast than that
which is presented by some of these British Columbian natives, those,
for instance, of Harrison Lake with almost circular heads (88.8), and
some of the Labrador Eskimo with a degree of dolichocephaly not exceeded
even by the Fijian Kai-Colos (65)[757]. But this violent contrast is
somewhat toned by the intermediate forms, such as those of the Tlingits,
the Aleutian islanders, and the western (Alaskan) Eskimo, by which the
transition is effected between the Arctic and the more southern
populations. It is not possible at present to indicate even in outline
the chronology of any of the ethnic movements outlined above. Warren K.
Moorehead[758] agrees with the great majority of American archaeologists
in holding the existence of palaeolithic man in North America as not
proven[759], the so-called palaeoliths being either rejects or rude
tools for rough purposes. When man migrated to America from North and
East Asia whenever that period may have been, he appears to have been in
that stage of culture--or rather of stone technique--which we term
Neolithic, and the drifting movement ceased before he had learnt the use
of metals.
A further proof of the antiquity of the migrations is afforded by
linguistics. A. F. Chamberlain asserts[760] that "it may be said with
certainty, so far as all data hitherto presented are concerned, that no
satisfactory proof whatever has been put forward to induce us to believe
that any single American Indian tongue or group of tongues has been
derived from any Old World form of speech now existing or known to have
existed in the past. In whatever way the multiplicity of American Indian
languages and dialects may have arisen, one can be reasonably sure that
the differentiation and divergence have developed here in America and
are in no sense due to the occasional intrusion of Old World tongues
individually or _en masse_.... Certain real relationships between the
American Indians and the peoples of north-eastern Asia, known as
'Paleo-Asiatics,' have, however, been revealed as a result of the
extensive investigations of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition.... The
general conclusion to be drawn from the evidence is that the so-called
'Paleo-Asiatic' peoples of north-eastern Asia, _i.e._ the Chukchee,
Koryak, Kamchadale, Gilyak, Yukaghir, etc. really belong physically and
culturally with the aborigines of north-western America.... Like the
modern Asiatic Eskimo they represent a reflex from America and Asia, and
not _vice versa_.... It is the opinion of good authorities also that the
'Paleo-Asiatic' peoples belong linguistically with the American Indians
rather than with the other tribes and stocks of northern or southern
Asia. Here we have then the only real relationship of a linguistic
character that has ever been convincingly argued between tongues of the
New World and tongues of the Old."
It is not merely that the American languages differ from other forms of
speech in their general phonetic, structural and lexical features; they
differ from them in their very morphology, as much, for instance, as in
the zoological world class differs from class, order from order. They
have all of them developed on the same polysynthetic lines, from which
if a few here and there now appear to depart, it is only because in the
course of their further evolution they have, so to say, broken away from
that prototype[761]. Take the rudest or the most highly cultivated
anywhere from Alaska to Fuegia--Eskimauan, Iroquoian, Algonquian, Aztec,
Tarascan, Ipurina, Peruvian, Yahgan--and you will find each and all
giving abundant evidence of this universal polysynthetic character, not
one true instance of which can be found anywhere in the eastern
hemisphere. There is incorporation with the verb, as in Basque, many of
the Caucasus tongues, and the Ural-Altaic group; but it is everywhere
limited to pronominal and purely relational elements.
But in the American order of speech there is no such limitation, and not
merely the pronouns, which are restricted in number, but the nouns with
their attributes, which are practically numberless, all enter
necessarily into the verbal paradigm. Thus in Tarascan (Mexico):
_hopocuni_ = to wash the hands; _hopodini_ = to wash the ears, from
_hoponi_ = to wash, which cannot be used alone[762]. So in Ipurina
(Amazonia): _nicucacatcaurumatinii_ = I draw the cord tight round your
waist, from _ni_, I; _cucaca_, to draw tight; _tca_, cord; _turuma_,
waist; _tini_, characteristic verbal affix; _i_, thy, referring to
waist[763].
We see from such examples that polysynthesis is not a primitive
condition of speech, as is often asserted, but on the contrary a
highly developed system, in which the original agglutinative process
has gone so far as to attract all the elements of the sentence to
the verb, round which they cluster like swarming bees round their
queen. In Eskimauan the tendency is shown in the construction of
nouns and verbs, by which other classes of words are made almost
unnecessary, and one word, sometimes of interminable length, is
able to express a whole sentence with its subordinate clauses. H. Rink,
one of the first Eskimo scholars of modern times, gives the instance:
"Suerukame-autdlasassoq-tusaramiuk-tuningingmago-iluarin-gilat = they
did not approve that he (_a_) had omitted to give him (_b_) something,
as he (_a_) heard that he (_b_) was going to depart on account of being
destitute of everything[764]." Such monstrosities "are so complicated
that in daily speech they could hardly ever occur; but still they are
correct and can be understood by intelligent people[765]."
He gives another and much longer example, which the reader may be
spared, adding that there are altogether about 200 particles, as many as
ten of which may be piled up on any given stem. The process also often
involves great phonetic changes, by which the original form of the
elements becomes disguised, as, for instance, in the English _hap'oth_ =
half-penny-worth. The attempt to determine the number of words that
might be formed in this way on a single stem, such as _igdlo_, a house,
had to be given up after getting as far as the compound
_igdlorssualiortugssarsiumavoq_ = he wants to find one who will build a
large house.
It is clear that such a linguistic evolution implies both the postulated
isolation from other influences, which must have disturbed and broken up
the cumbrous process, and also the postulated long period of time to
develop and consolidate the system throughout the New World. But time is
still more imperiously demanded by the vast number of stock languages,
many already extinct, many still current all over the continent, all of
which differ profoundly in their vocabulary, often also in their
phonesis, and in fact have nothing in common except this extraordinary
polysynthetic groove in which they are cast. There are probably about 75
stock languages in North America, of which 58 occur north of Mexico.
But even that conveys but a faint idea of the astonishing diversity of
speech prevailing in this truly linguistic Babel. J. W. Powell[766]
points out that the practically distinct idioms are far more numerous
than might be inferred even from such a large number of mother tongues.
Thus, in the Algonquian[767] linguistic family he tells us there are
about 40, no one of which could be understood by a people speaking
another; in Athapascan from 30 to 40; in Siouan over 20; and in
Shoshonian a still greater number[768]. The greatest linguistic
diversity in a relatively small area is found in the state of
California, where, according to Powell's classification, 22 distinct
stocks of languages are spoken. R. B. Dixon and A. L. Kroeber[769] show
however that these fall into three morphological groups which are also
characterised by certain cultural features. It is the same, or perhaps
even worse, in Central and in South America, where the linguistic
confusion is so great that no complete classification of the native
tongues seems possible. Clements R. Markham in the third edition of his
exhaustive list of the Amazonian tribes[770] has no less than 1087
entries. He concludes that these may be referred to 485 distinct tribes
in all the periods, since the days of Acuna (1639). Deducting some 111
as extinct or nearly so, the total amounts to "323 at the outside" (p.
135). But for such linguistic differences, large numbers of these groups
would be quite indistinguishable from each other, so great is the
prevailing similarity in physical appearance and usages in many
districts. Thus Ehrenreich tells us that, "despite their
ethnico-linguistic differences, the tribes about the head-waters of the
Xingu present complete uniformity in their daily habits, in the
conditions of their existence, and their general culture[771]," though
it is curious to note that the art of making pottery is restricted here
to the Arawak tribes[772]. Yet amongst them are represented three of
the radically distinct linguistic groups of Brazil, some (Bakairi and
Nahuqua) belonging to the Carib, some (Auetoe and Kamayura) to the
Tupi-Guarani, and some (Mehinaku and Vaura) to the Arawak family.
Obviously these could not be so discriminated but for their linguistic
differences. On the other hand the opposite phenomenon is occasionally
presented of tribes differing considerably in their social relations,
which are nevertheless of the same origin, or, what is regarded by
Ehrenreich as the same thing, belong to the same linguistic group. Such
are the Ipurina, the Paumari and the Yamamadi of the Purus valley, all
grouped as Arawaks because they speak dialects of the Arawakan stock
language. At the same time it should be noted that the social
differences observed by some modern travellers are often due to the
ever-increasing contact with the whites, who are now encroaching on the
Gran Chaco plains, and ascending every Amazonian tributary in quest of
rubber and the other natural produce abounding in these regions. The
consequent displacement of tribes is discussed by G. E. Church[773].
In the introduction to his valuable list Clements Markham observes that
the evidence of language favours the theory that the Amazonian tribes,
"now like the sands on the sea-shore for number, originally sprang from
two or at most three parent stocks. Dialects of the _Tupi_ language
extend from the roots of the Andes to the Atlantic, and southward into
Paraguay ... and it is established that the differences in the roots,
between the numerous Amazonian languages, are not so great as was
generally supposed[774]." This no doubt is true, and will account for
much. But when we see it here recorded that of the Carabuyanas (Japura
river) there are or were 16 branches, that the Chiquito group (Bolivia)
comprises 40 tribes speaking "seven different languages"; that of the
Juris (Upper Amazons) there are ten divisions; of the Moxos (Beni and
Mamore rivers) 26 branches, "speaking nine or, according to Southey,
thirteen languages"; of the Uaupes (Rio Negro) 30 divisions, and so on,
we feel how much there is still left to be accounted for. Attempts have
been made to weaken the force of the linguistic argument by the
assumption, at one time much in favour, that the American tongues are of
a somewhat evanescent nature, in an unstable condition, often changing
their form and structure within a few generations. But, says Powell,
"this widely spread opinion does not find warrant in the facts
discovered in the course of this research. The author has everywhere
been impressed with the fact that savage tongues are singularly
persistent, and that a language which is dependent for its existence
upon oral tradition is not easily modified[775]." A test case is the
Delaware (Leni Lenape), an Algonquian tongue which, judging from the
specimens collected by Th. Campanius about 1645, has undergone but
slight modification during the last 250 years.
In this connection the important point to be noticed is the fact that
some of the stock languages have an immense range, while others are
crowded together in indescribable confusion in rugged upland valleys, or
about river estuaries, or in the recesses of trackless woodlands, and
this strangely irregular distribution prevails in all the main divisions
of the continent. Thus of Powell's 58 linguistic families in North
America as many as 40 are restricted to the relatively narrow strip of
coastland between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, ten are dotted
round the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to the Rio Grande, and two
disposed round the Gulf of California, while nearly all the rest of the
land--some six million square miles--is occupied by the six widely
diffused Eskimauan, Athapascan, Algonquian, Iroquoian, Siouan, and
Shoshonian families. The same phenomenon is presented by Central and
South America, where less than a dozen stock languages--Opatan,
Nahuatlan, Huastecan, Chorotegan, Quichuan, Arawakan, Gesan (Tapuyan),
Tupi-Guaranian, Cariban--are spread over millions of square miles, while
many scores of others are restricted to extremely narrow areas. Here the
crowding is largely determined, as in Caucasia, by the altitude (Andes
in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia; Sierras in Mexico).
It is strongly held by many American ethnologists that the various
cultures of America are autochthonous, nothing being borrowed from the
Old World. J. W. Powell[776], who rendered such inestimable services to
American anthropology, affirmed that "the aboriginal peoples of America
cannot be allied preferentially to any one branch of the human race in
the Old World"; that "there is no evidence that any of the arts of the
American Indians were borrowed from the Orient"; that "the industrial
arts of America were born in America, America was inhabited by tribes
at the time of the beginning of industrial arts. They left the Old World
before they had learned to make knives, spear and arrowheads, or at
least when they knew the art only in its crudest state. Thus primitive
man has been here ever since the invention of the stone knife and the
stone hammer." He further contended that "the American Indian did not
derive his forms of government, his industrial or decorative arts, his
languages, or his mythological opinions from the Old World, but
developed them in the New"; and that "in the demotic characteristics of
the American Indians, all that is common to tribes of the Orient is
universal, all that distinguishes one group of tribes from another in
America distinguishes them from all other tribes of the world."
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.
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."
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 deg. N. lat. in the
west, to 50 deg. in the east. _Athapascan_, northern group, Dene 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 Luiseno. _Yuman_, from
Arizona to Lower California.
From the data available J. R. Swanton and R. B. Dixon draw the following
conclusions[802]. "It appears that the origin of the tribes of several
of our stocks may be referred back to a swarming ground, usually of
rather indefinite size but none the less roughly indicated. That for the
Muskhogeans, including probably some of the smaller southern stocks,
must be placed in Louisiana, Arkansas and perhaps the western parts of
Mississippi and Tennessee, although a few tribes seem to have come from
the region of the Ohio. That for the Iroquoians would be along the Ohio
and perhaps farther west, and that of the Siouans on the lower Ohio and
the country to the north including part at least of Wisconsin. The
dispersion area for the Algonquians was farther north about the Great
Lakes and perhaps also the St Lawrence, and that for the Eskimo about
Hudson Bay or between it and the Mackenzie river. The Caddoan peoples
seem to have been on the southern plains from earliest times. On the
north Pacific coast we have indications that the flow of population has
been from the interior to the coast. This seems certain in the case of
the Indians of the Chimmesayan stock and some Tlinglit subdivisions.
Some Tlinglit clans, however, have moved from the neighbourhood of the
Nass northward. Looking farther south we find evidence that the coast
Salish have moved from the inner side of the coast ranges, while a small
branch has subsequently passed northward to the west of it. The
Athapascan stock in all probability has moved southward, sending one arm
down the Pacific coast, and a larger body presumably through the Plains
which reached as far as northern Mexico. Most of the stocks of the Great
Plateau and of Oregon and California show little evidence of movement,
such indications as are present, however, pointing toward the south as a
rule. The Pueblo Indians appear to have had a mixed origin, part of them
coming from the north, part from the south. In general there is to be
noted a striking contrast between the comparatively settled condition of
those tribes west of the Rocky mountains and the numerous movements,
particularly in later times, of those to the east."
With regard to the Pacific coast Dixon[803] notes that it "has
apparently been occupied from the earliest times by peoples differing
but little in their culture from the tribes found in occupancy in the
sixteenth century. Cut off from the rest of the country by the great
chain of the Cordilleras and the inhospitable and arid interior
plateaus, the tribes of this narrow coastal strip developed in
comparative seclusion their various cultures, each adopted to the
environment in which it was found....
"In several of the ingenious theories relating to the development and
origin of American cultures in general, it has been contended that
considerable migrations both of peoples and of cultural elements passed
along this coastal highway from north to south. If, however, the
archaeological evidence is to be depended on, such great sweeping
movements, involving many elements of foreign culture, could hardly have
taken place, for no trace of their passage or modifying effect is
apparent.... We can feel fairly sure that the prehistoric peoples of
each area were in the main the direct ancestors of the local tribes of
today....
"In comparison with the relative simplicity of the archaeological record
on the Pacific coast, that of the eastern portion of the continent is
complex, and might indeed be best described as a palimpsest. This
complexity leads inevitably to the conclusion that here there have been
numerous and far-reaching ethnic movements, resulting in a
stratification of cultures."
W. H. Holmes has compiled a map marking the limits of eleven areas which
can be recognised by their archaeological remains[804]. He points out
that the culture units are, as a matter of course, not usually
well-defined. Cultures are bound to over-lap and blend along the borders
and more especially along lines of ready communication. In some cases
evidence has been reported of early cultures radically distinct from the
type adopted as characteristic of the areas, and ancestral forms grading
into the later and into the historic forms are thought to have been
recognised. Holmes frankly acknowledges the tentative character of the
scheme, which forms part of a synthesis that he is preparing of the
antiquities of the whole American continent.
North America is customarily divided into nine areas of material
culture, and though this is convenient, a more correct method, as C.
Wissler points out[805], is to locate the respective groups of typical
tribes as culture centres, classifying the other tribes as intermediate
or transitional. The geographical stability of the material culture
centres is confirmed by archaeological evidence which suggests that the
striking individuality they now possess resulted from a more or less
gradual expansion along original lines. The material cultures of these
centres possess great vitality and are often able completely to dominate
intrusive cultural unity. Thus tribes have passed from an intermediate
state to a typical, as when the Cheyenne were forced into the Plains
centre, and the Shoshonian Hopi adopted the typical Pueblo culture.
Wissler comes to the conclusion that "the location of these centres is
largely a matter of ethnic accident, but once located and the
adjustments made, the stability of the environment doubtless tends to
hold each particular type of material culture to its initial locality,
even in the face of many changes in blood and language." It is from his
valuable paper that the material culture traits of the following areas
have been obtained.
I. Eskimo Area. The fact that the Eskimo live by the sea and chiefly
upon sea food does not differentiate them from the tribes of the North
Pacific coast, but they are distinguished from the latter by the habit
of camping in winter upon sea ice and living upon seal, and in the
summer upon land animals. The kayak and "woman's boat," the lamp,
harpoon, float, woman's knife, bowdrill, snow goggles, trussed-bow, and
dog traction are almost universal. The type of winter shelter varies
considerably, but the skin tent is general in summer and the snow house,
as a more or less permanent winter house, prevails east of Point Barrow.
The mode of life of all the Eskimo, as F. Boas[806] has pointed out, is
fairly uniform and depends on the distribution of food at the different
seasons. The migrations of game compel the natives to move their
habitations from time to time, and as the inhospitable country does not
produce vegetation to an extent sufficient to support human life they
are forced to depend entirely upon animal food. The abundance of seals
in Arctic America enables man to withstand the inclemency of the climate
and the sterility of the soil. The skins of seals furnish the materials
for summer garments and for the tent, their flesh is almost their only
food, and their blubber their indispensable fuel during the long dark
winter when they live in solid snow houses. When the ice breaks up in
the spring the Eskimo establish their settlements at the head of the
fiords where salmon are easily caught. When the snow on the land has
melted in July the natives take hunting trips inland in order to obtain
the precious skins of the reindeer, or of the musk-ox, of whose heavy
pelts the winter garments are made. Walrus and the ground seal also
arrive and birds are found in abundance and eaten raw.
The Eskimo[807] occupy more than 5000 miles of seaboard from north-east
Greenland to the mouth of the Copper river in western Alaska. Many views
have been advanced as to the position of their centre of dispersion;
most probably it lay to the west of Hudson Bay. Rink[808] is of opinion
that they originated as a distinct people in Alaska, where they
developed an Arctic culture; but Boas[809] regards them "as,
comparatively speaking, new arrivals in Alaska, which they reached from
the east." A westward movement is supported by myths and customs, and by
the affinities of the Eskimo with northern Asiatics. There was always
hostility between the Eskimo and the North American Indians, which,
apart from their very specialised mode of life, precluded any Eskimo
extension southwards. The expansion of the Eskimo to Greenland is
explained by Steensby[810] as follows:--the main southern movement would
have followed the west coast from Melville Bay, rounded the southern
point and proceeded some distance up the east coast. From the Barren
Grounds north-west of Hudson Bay the Polar Eskimo followed the musk-ox,
advanced due north to Ellesmere Land, then crossed to Greenland, and,
still hunting the musk-ox, advanced along the north coast and down the
east coast towards Scoresby Sound. Another line of migration apparently
started from the vicinity of Southampton Island and pursued the reindeer
northwards into Baffin Land; on reaching Ponds Inlet these
reindeer-hunting Eskimo for the most part turned along the east coast.
Physically the Eskimo constitute a distinct type. They are of medium
stature, but possess uncommon strength and endurance; their skin is
light brownish yellow with a ruddy tint on the exposed parts; hands and
feet are small and well formed; their heads are high, with broad faces,
and narrow high noses, and eyes of a Mongolian character. But great
varieties are found in different parts of the vast area over which they
range. The Polar Eskimo of Greenland, studied by Steensby, were more of
American Indian than of Asiatic type[811]. Of their psychology this
writer says, "For the Polar Eskimos life is deadly real and sober, a
constant striving for food and warmth which is borne with good humour,
and all dispensations are accepted as natural consequences, about which
it is of no use to reason or complain." "The hard struggle for existence
has not permitted the Polar Eskimo to become other than a confirmed
egoist, who knows nothing of disinterestedness. Towards his enemies he
is crafty and deceitful--he does not attack them openly, but indulges
in backbiting.... It is only during the hunt that a common interest and
a common danger engender a deeper feeling of comradeship[812]."
Still less Mongolian in type are the "blond Eskimo" recently encountered
by Stefansson in south-west Victoria Island[813], who are regarded by
him as very possibly the mixed descendants of Scandinavian ancestors who
had drifted there from west Greenland. It is known that Eric the Red
discovered Greenland in the year 982 and that 3 years later settlers
went there from the Norse colony in Iceland.
The winter snow houses, which are about 12 x 15 ft. in diameter and 12
ft. high, usually with annexes, are always occupied by two families,
each woman having her own lamp and sitting on the ledge in front of it.
If more families join in making a snow house, they make two main rooms.
Whenever it is possible the men spend the short days in hunting and each
woman prepares the food for her husband. The long nights are mainly
spent in various recreations. The social life in the summer settlement
is somewhat different. The families do not cook their own meals, but a
single one suffices for the whole settlement. The day before it is her
turn to cook the woman goes to the hills to fetch enough shrubs for the
fire. When a meal is ready the master of the house calls out and
everybody comes out of his tent with a knife, the men sit in one circle
and the women in another. These dinners, which are always held in the
evening, are almost always enlivened by a mimic performance. The great
religious feasts take place just before the beginning of winter.
There are three forms of social grouping: the Family, House-mates, and
Place-mates. (1) The family consists of a man, his wife or wives, their
children and adopted children; widows and their children may be adopted,
but the woman retains her own fireplace. Sometimes men are adopted, such
as bachelors without any relatives, cripples, or impoverished men. Joint
ownership and use of a boat and house, and common labour and toil in
obtaining the means of support define the real community of the family.
(2) House-mates are families that join together to build and occupy and
maintain the same house. This form of establishment is especially common
in Greenland, but each family keeps its separate establishment inside
the common house. (3) Place-fellows. The inhabitants of the same hamlet
or winter establishment form one community although no chief is elected
or authority acknowledged.
Generally children are betrothed when very young. The newly married pair
usually live at first with the wife's family. Both polygyny and
polyandry occur. A man may lend or exchange his wife for a whole season
or longer, as a sign of friendship. On certain occasions it is even
commanded by religious law. There is no government, but there is a kind
of chief in the settlement, though his authority is very limited. He is
called the "pimain," _i.e._ he who knows everything best. He decides the
proper time to shift the huts from one place to another, he may ask some
men to go sealing, others to go deer hunting, but there is not the
slightest obligation to obey him. The men in a community may form
themselves into an informal council for the regulation of affairs. The
decorative art of the Eskimo is not remarkably developed, but the
pictorial art consists of clever sketches of everyday scenes and there
is a well developed plastic art. Many of the carvings are toys and are
made for the pleasure of the work. "The religious views and practices of
the Eskimo while, on the whole, alike in their fundamental traits, show
a considerable amount of differentiation in the extreme east and in the
extreme west. It would seem that the characteristic traits of shamanism
are common to all the Eskimo tribes. The art of the shaman (angakok) is
acquired by the acquisition of guardian spirits.... Besides the spirits
which may become guardian spirits of men, the Eskimo believes in a great
many others which are hostile and bring disaster and death.... The
ritualistic development of Eskimo religion is very slight[814]."
II. Mackenzie Area. Skirting the Eskimo area is a belt of semi-Arctic
lands almost cut in two by Hudson Bay. To the west are the Dene tribes,
who are believed to fall into three culture groups, an eastern group,
Yellow Knives, Dog Rib, Hares, Slavey, Chipewyan and Beaver; a
south-western group, Nahane, Sekani, Babine and Carrier; and a
north-western group, comprising the Kutchin, Loucheux, Ahtena and
Khotana. The material culture of the south-western group is deduced
from the writings of Father Morice[815]. All the tribes are hunters of
large or small game, caribou are often driven into enclosures, small
game taken in snares or traps; various kinds of fish are largely used,
and a few of the tribes on the head waters of the Pacific take salmon;
large use of berries is made, they are mashed and dried by a special
process; edible roots and other vegetable foods are used to some extent;
utensils are of wood and bark; there is no pottery; bark vessels are
used for boiling with or without stones; travel in summer is largely by
canoe, in winter by snowshoe; dog sleds are used to some extent, but
chiefly since trade days, the toboggan form prevailing; clothing is of
skins; mittens and caps are worn; there is no weaving except rabbit-skin
garments, but fine network occurs on snowshoes, bags, and fish nets,
materials being of bark fibre, sinew and babiche; there is also a
special form of woven quill work; the typical habitation seems to be the
double lean-to, though many intrusive forms occur; other material
culture traits include the making of fish-hooks and spears; a limited
use of copper; and poorly developed work in stone.
The physical characteristics vary very much from tribe to tribe. The
Sekani, according to Morice, are slender and bony, in stature rather
below the average, with a narrow forehead, hollow cheeks, prominent
cheekbones, small eyes deeply sunk in their orbit, the upper lip very
thin and the lower somewhat protruding, the chin very small and the nose
straight. The Carriers, on the contrary, are tall and stout, without as
a rule being too corpulent. The men average 1.66 m. in height. Their
forehead is much broader than that of the Sekani, and less receding than
is usual with American aborigines. The face is full, and the nose
aquiline. All the tribes are remarkably unwarlike, timid, and even
cowardly. Weapons are seldom used and in personal combat, which consists
in a species of wrestling, knives are previously laid aside. The fear of
enemies is a marked feature, due in part, doubtless, to traditional
recollection of the raids of earlier days. Their honesty is noted by all
travellers. Morice records that among the Sekani a trader will sometimes
go on a trapping expedition, leaving his store unlocked, without fear
of any of its contents going amiss. Meantime a native may call in his
absence, help himself to as much powder and shot or any other item as he
may need, but he will never fail to leave there an exact equivalent in
furs.
The eastern Dene are nomad hunters who gather berries and roots, while
the western are semi-sedentary, living for most of the year in villages
when they subsist largely on salmon. The former are patrilineal and the
latter are grouped into matrilineal exogamic totemic clans. The headmen
of the clans formed a class of privileged nobles who alone owned the
hunting grounds. Morice speaks of clan, honorific and personal totems.
The first two were adopted from coastal tribes, the honorific was
assumed by some individuals in order to attain a rank to which they were
not entitled by heredity. The "personal totem" is the guardian spirit or
genius, the belief in which is common to nearly all North American
peoples. Shamanism prevails throughout the area. The mythology almost
always refers to a "Transformer" who visited the world when incomplete
and set things in order. They have the custom of the potlatch[816]. If a
man desires another man's wife he can challenge the husband to a
wrestling match, the winner keeps the woman[817].
III. North Pacific Coast Area. This culture is rather complex with
tribal variations, but it can be treated under three subdivisions, a
northern group, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian; a central group, the
Kwakiutl tribes and the Bellacoola; and a southern group, the Coast
Salish, Nootka, Chinook, Kalapooian, Waiilatpuan, Chimakuan and some
Athapascan tribes. The first of these seem to be the type and are
characterised by: the great dependence upon sea food, some hunting upon
the mainland, large use of berries (dried fish, clams and berries are
the staple food); cooking with hot stones in boxes and baskets; large
rectangular gabled houses of upright cedar planks with carved posts and
totem poles; travel chiefly by water in large seagoing dug-out canoes
some of which had sails; no pottery nor stone vessels, except mortars;
baskets in checker, those in twine reaching a high state of excellence
among the Tlingit; coil basketry not made; mats of cedar bark and soft
bags in abundance; no true loom, the warp hanging from a bar and weaving
with the fingers downwards; clothing rather scanty, chiefly of skin, a
wide basket hat (the only one of the kind on the continent, apparently
for protection against rain); feet usually bare, but skin moccasins and
leggings occasionally made; for weapons the bow, club and a peculiar
dagger, no lances; slat, rod and skin armour; wooden helmets, no
shields; practically no chipped stone tools, but nephrite or green stone
used; wood work highly developed; work in copper possibly aboriginal
but, if so, weakly developed. The central group differs in a few minor
points; twisted and loosely woven bark or wool takes the place of skins
for clothing and baskets are all in checkerwork. Among the southern
group appears a strong tendency to use stone arrowheads, and a peculiar
flat club occurs, vaguely similar to the New Zealand type[818].
Physically the typical North Pacific tribes are of medium stature, with
long arms and short bodies. Among the northern branches the stature
averages 1.675 m. (5 ft. 6 in.), the head is very large with an average
index of 82.5. The face is very broad, the nose concave or straight,
seldom convex, with slight elevation. Among the southern tribes, notably
the Kwakiutl, the stature averages 1.645 m. (5 ft. 4-3/4 in.), the
cephalic index is 84.5, the face very broad but also of great length,
the nose very high, rather narrow and frequently convex.
The social relations of these peoples vary from tribe to tribe, but on
the whole they fall into a sequence from north to south. In the northern
portion descent is matrilineal, but patrilineal in the south. J. G.
Frazer does not accept the view of Boas "that the Northern Kwakiutl have
borrowed both the rule of maternal descent and the division into totemic
clans from their more northerly neighbours of alien stocks; in other
words, that totemism and mother-kin have spread southward among a people
who had father-kin and no totemic system[819]." He inclines "to the
other view, formerly favoured by Boas himself, namely, that the
Kwakiutl are in a stage of transition from mother-kin to
father-kin[820]."
Each village is autonomous and originally may have been restricted to a
single totem clan. The population is divided into three ranks, nobles,
common people and a low caste consisting of poor people and serfs who
cannot participate in the secret societies. In addition there is a
totemic grouping. There may be several totemic clans in one village and
the same totem may not only occur in every village, but may extend from
one tribe to another. This suggests that there were originally two, or
in some cases more than two, totemic clans which in process of time
became subdivided into sub-clans; these, while retaining the crest of
the original clan, acquired fresh ones, and the families contained in
each sub-clan may have their special crest or crests in addition. New
crests and names are constantly being introduced. Marriage is forbidden
between people of the same crest, irrespective of the tribe. The natives
according to Boas do not consider themselves descendants from their
totem. A wife brings her father's position, crest and privileges as a
dower to her husband, who is not allowed to use them himself, but
acquires them for the use of his son, in other words this inheritance is
in the female line.
The widely spread American custom of a youth acquiring a guardian spirit
is far more prevalent among the southern section than the northern, but
among the Kwakiutl he can only obtain as his patron, one or more of a
limited number of spirits which are hereditary in his clan. In the
northern tribes the secret societies are coextensive with the totemic
clans; among the Kwakiutl they are connected with guardian spirits and
it is significant that during the summer, when the people are scattered,
society is based on the old clan system, but when the people live
together in villages in the winter, society is reorganised on the basis
of the secret societies. There is a highly developed system of barter of
which the blanket is now the unit of value, formerly the units were
elk-skins, canoes or slaves. Certain symbolic objects have attained
fanciful values. A vast credit system has grown up based on the custom
of loaning property at high interest, at the great festivals called
"potlatch" and by it the giver gains great honour. The religion is
closely related to the totemic beliefs; supernatural aid is given by
the spirits to those who win their favour. The raven is the chief figure
in the mythology; he regulates the phenomena of nature, procures fire,
daylight, and fresh water, and teaches men the arts.
To the south, and extending inland to the divide, forming a much less
characteristic group are the Salish or Flat-heads who are allied to the
Athapascans. The coastal Salish assimilate the culture just described,
but the plateau Salish are more democratic, less settled and more
individualistic in religious matters[821]. The Chinooks or Flat-heads of
the lower reaches of the Columbia river are nearly extinct. They
deformed the heads of infants. These tribes and the Shahapts or Nez
Perces are differentiated by garments of raw hides, cranial deformation,
absence of tattooing and plain bows, but they still have communal houses
though without totem posts. They cook by means of heated stones and have
zoomorphic masks[822].