progress in culture. In Michoacan, to the northwest of the valley of
Mexico, dwelt the Tarascos. They spoke a totally different tongue, but
according to Aztec legend had accompanied the Nahua from a northern
region into their Mexican homes. Physically they are described as a
taller and handsomer folk than the Nahuas, with a language singularly
vocalic and musical. Bold in war, they were never subject to the
Aztecs, and appear to have been their equals in the arts. They
constructed houses of stone, and made use of a hieroglyphic writing to
preserve the records of their ancestors.[188]
The Mixtecs and Zapotecs were neighboring tribes, who lived on and near
the Pacific above the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. By tradition both nations
came together from the north; “mixtecatl” in Nahuatl means “people from
the cloudy land.” To them are attributed the remarkable edifices of
Mitla, stone-built structures, whose walls are elaborately ornamented
with rude stone mosaics in meander designs or “grecques.” The roofs
seem to have been supported by solid pillars of granite, some of which
are still in place. Of the age or purposes of these buildings we know
nothing, as they were deserted and in ruins when first visited by the
Spaniards.
There are many smaller tribes in Mexico of independent stocks, but
a catalogue of their names would be of little use. The most widely
distributed are the Otomis. They are of small stature, dolichocephalic,
and averse to civilization. According to tradition they are the oldest
occupants of the land, possessing it before the arrival of the Nahuas.
Their language in singularly difficult, nasal and primitive. In form it
is almost monosyllabic, with a tendency to isolation. This has led some
writers to believe it akin to the Chinese, for which there is not the
slightest ground.
_5. The Inter-Isthmian Group._
Between the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and that of Panama the continent
narrows to a point, and the pressure of the population advancing from
both directions forced a large number of diverse nationalities into
a limited area. Only one of these could lay claim to a respectable
civilization, most of the others living in primitive savagery.
This people, the Mayas, occupied the whole of the peninsula of Yucatan,
and the territory south of it to the Pacific Ocean. It was divided into
a number of independent tribes, the principal of which were the Quiches
and Cakchiquels, in the present State of Guatemala. In all there were
about eighteen dialects of the tongue, each of which can easily be
recognized as a member of the stock.
There can be little doubt that the common ancestors of these tribes
moved down from the north, following the shore of the Gulf of Mexico.
This is the statement of their most ancient traditions, and it is
supported by the presence of one of their tribes, the Huastecas, on
the shore of the Gulf, near Tampico. It has been calculated that their
entrance into Yucatan was about the beginning of the Christian era.
Physically the Maya peoples are of medium height, dark in hue, the
skull usually long (dolichocephalic), the nose prominent, and the
muscular force superior. The artist Waldeck compares their features to
those of the Arabs.
Their mental aptitudes are reflected in the culture they developed
under circumstances not the most favorable. As architects they
erected the most remarkable monuments on the continent. The elaborate
decorations in stone, the bold carving, the free employment of the
pointed arch, and the size of the edifices in the ancient cities of
Palenque, Copan, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, and others, place them in the
front rank among the wondrous ruins of the ancient world.
They were a decidedly agricultural people, cultivating maize, cotton,
tobacco, peppers, beans, and cacao. The land was portioned out with
care, each house-holder being granted an area in proportion to the
size of his family. The cotton was woven into cloth, skilfully dyed,
and cut into graceful garments. The dyes were vegetable substances,
collected from the native forests. What is not elsewhere paralleled in
America, they carried on an extensive apiculture, domesticating the
wild bee in wooden hives, and obtaining from its stores both wax and
honey.
Their weapons and utensils were mostly of stone. There is no evidence
that the Maya tribes had the metallurgical skill of the Nahuas.
Obsidian, jade, agate, and chert were the materials from which they
made their tools and weapons.
In war and the chase they were expert with the bow, the long lance, and
the blow-pipe or sarbacane, a device recurring in both North and South
America, as well as familiar to the Malays. The war-club, the sling and
the tomahawk or hand-axe were also known to them.
Small quantities of gold, silver and copper were found among them, but
not in objects of utility. They were prized as materials for ornaments,
and were employed for decorative purposes.
The art of writing was familiar to most of the Maya tribes, and
especially to those in Yucatan. The Spanish authors assert that the
Quiches in Guatemala had written annals extending eight hundred years
before the conquest, or to 750 A. D., and the chronicles of the Mayas
which have been preserved, refer to a still more remote past, possibly
to about 300 A. D. The script was quite dissimilar in appearance from
the Mexican.
Adjoining or near the numerous branches of the Maya peoples, there
dwelt several outliving colonies of Nahuas in the Isthmian region,
who have left there interesting relics of their culture. The Pipiles
near the Pacific coast were the authors of a series of excellent
bas-reliefs carved on slabs of stone, which have recently come into the
possession of the Berlin museum.[189] The Nicaraos, between the Pacific
Ocean and Lake Nicaragua, and on the islands in this lake, were the
sculptors of the strange figures in stone pictured by Squier in his
travels, and some of which are now in the Smithsonian museum; while the
Alaguilacs in Western Guatemala have left ruins which have not yet been
explored.[190] All these tribes were Nahuas of pure blood.
On the shores of Lake Managua, to the east and west, were the Mangues,
a people of some cultivation, acquainted with a form of hieroglyphic
or picture writing, very skilful in pottery, and agricultural in
habits.[191] It has been ascertained that they are a branch of the
Chapanecs, who dwelt in the province of Chiapas, Mexico.
The other tribes around Lake Nicaragua were wild. The Woolwas on the
north, and the Huatusos along the Rio Frio to the east, depended on
hunting and fishing for a livelihood. So also did most of the tribes of
Honduras, Vera Paz and the Isthmus. The only nation which distinguished
itself in the arts were the Cuevas, in and around Chiriqui Bay. They
were adroit in the treatment of gold. The early writers describe them
as prominent in general culture and certain technical arts. To them
we attribute the gold figures disinterred from the mounds of Chiriqui
and its neighborhood. They are manufactured by two methods, the one
by soldering gold wires drawn out into the finest thread upon thin
hammered plates of the same metal, the wire forming the design; the
other by casting hollow figures.[192] The skill displayed often excites
the astonishment of the jewellers of our own day.
_6. The South Atlantic Group._
The interminable forests of Brazil and the endless plains of the Pampas
were at the discovery thickly peopled by bands of roving nations,
dependent chiefly on the products of woods and streams for their
support. None of them had sedentary dwellings, none knew the art of
building with brick or stone, and none laid much stress on agriculture.
Some of them had, however, considerable technical skill in various
directions, and few if any of them could be assigned to as low a status
as the Australians, for example.
The ruling people on the northern coast and the Lesser Antilles at that
time were the _Caribs_. They possessed much of the coast line from the
Isthmus of Panama to the mouth of the Orinoco, and many of the smaller
southern islands of the West Indian archipelago. They had established
a colony on Hayti, but probably not on Cuba, and their expeditions,
so far as we know, never reached Florida. According to their own
statements, all the island Caribs came from the mainland at no long
period before the Discovery. Recent researches have shown that the
original home of the stock was south of the Amazon, and probably in the
highlands at the head of the Tapajoz River. A tribe, the Bakairi, is
still resident there, whose language is a pure and archaic form of the
Carib tongue.[193]
They were a finely formed set of men, the skull long but variable,
their color dark, large narrow nose, prominent cheek bones, wide mouth,
and thin lips.
Their language is rich in vowels and pleasant to the ear. In some
districts that spoken by the women varied in some degree from that
in use among the men. This is not without other examples among the
American race, and appears to have arisen partly from the custom of
capturing women from other tribes for wives, partly from a tendency to
easy dialectic variation in the languages themselves.
The _Arawaks_ occupied on the continent the area of the modern Guiana,
between the Corentyn and the Pomeroon rivers, and at one time all the
West Indian Islands. From some of them they were early driven by the
Caribs, and within forty year of the date of Columbus’ first voyage the
Spanish had exterminated nearly all on the islands. Their course of
migration had been from the interior of Brazil northward; their distant
relations are still to be found between the headwaters of the Paraguay
and Schingu rivers.
The extensive slope which is watered by the Amazon and its tributaries
is peopled by numerous tribes whose affinities are obscure. Those
on the plains near the coast belonged to the _Tupi-Guarani_ stock.
This extended along the Atlantic from Rio de la Plata to the Amazon,
embracing in the north the Tupis or Tupinambas, and on the south the
Guaranis. Scattered tribes of the stock extended westward to the
Paraguay and Madeira rivers, reaching to the foot hills of Andes.
Though positive data are lacking about their early migrations, the
evidence at hand tends to show that these were from south to north, and
that the Tupis displaced an earlier people of a different physical type
and a lower grade of culture.
This is the result derived both from a comparison of existing
dialects and from explorations in the artificial shell-heaps, or
_sambaquis_, which are found along the coast. Many of them are of
great size and very ancient. They contain skulls of an inferior type,
with low foreheads, prominent and strong jaws, and short skulls
(brachycephalic), while the Tupi skull is more fully developed and long
(dolichocephalic). Similar shell-heaps, proving an equally rude people,
are found along the coast of Guinea, and both among the Arawaks of
that locality, and still more among the Goajiros of the peninsula of
that name on the coast of Venezuela, who are distantly related to the
Arawaks, do we find the brachycephalic skull and strong jaws of the
builders of the “sambaquis.” We may suppose, therefore, that the Tupis
drove these earlier residents to the shores of the northern ocean.[194]
In frequent contiguity with the Tupis was another stock, also widely
dispersed through Brazil, called the _Tapuyas_, of whom the Botocudos
in eastern Brazil are the most prominent tribe. To them also belong the
Ges nations, south of the lower Amazon, and others. They are on a low
grade of culture, going quite naked, not cultivating the soil, ignorant
of pottery, and with poorly made canoes. They are dolichocephalic,
and must have inhabited the country for a long time, as the skulls
found in the caves at Lagoa Santa, in connection with the bones of
extinct animals, are identical in form with those of the Botocudos, and
probably belonged to their ancestors.
West of the Paraguay River is an extensive plain called El Gran Chaco,
beginning at the eighteenth degree of south latitude, and continuing
to the Pampas of Buenos Ayres. This region was peopled by numerous
wandering tribes, the Abipones, the Guaycurus, the Lules, and scores
of others. They were in nowise related to the Guaranis, having short
skulls, different linguistic stocks, and an inferior grade of culture.
As they were warlike, and in constant strife with the whites, as well
as among themselves, they have now nearly disappeared.
The tribes of the Pampas were on a similar plane of development, and
have also given way before the march of the white race.
In the extreme south of the continent are the Patagonians and Fuegians.
The former are sometimes called Tehuelches, or Southerners. They are a
nomadic and hunting people, dark olive-brown in color, tall in stature
and robust.
The Fuegians are generally quoted as among the most miserable of
savages. Though exposed to a damp and cold climate and always
insufficiently nourished, they wear scarcely any clothing, and are
content with wretched huts of branches and weeds. They have long
skulls (about 75), long, narrow eyes, well-shaped noses, and generally
are good specimens of one of the American types. Their language is
eminently polysynthetic and rich in terms to express the objects and
incidents of their daily life.
_7. The South Pacific Group._
The principal nations in the South Pacific group are the Chibchas and
the Qquichuas.
The former, called also Muyscas, resided near the Magdalena River,
near the present city of Bogota. They were sedentary, agricultural,
and skilful in a number of arts. Their agriculture extended to maize,
potatoes, cotton, yucca and other vegetables, and their fields were
irrigated by canals. As potters and goldsmiths they ranked among the
finest on the continent, and both for symmetry of form and richness of
decoration some of the vases from their district cannot be surpassed
from American products.
The most powerful and cultivated of the South American nations were
the Qquichuas of Peru. Originally they were a small tribe near Lake
Titicaca, where they dwelt in close relations to the Aymaras. About
1000 A. D., their chief, Manco Capac, conquered the valleys to the
north and founded the city of Cuzco. His successors added to the
territory of the state until it extended from a few degrees north of
the equator to about 20° south latitude, or a distance along the coast
of over 1500 miles. In width it varied from 200 to 400 miles. Of course
it embraced a variety of distinct stocks, so that it is impossible
to speak of any “Peruvian” type of skull or features, the less so as
it was the policy of the Incas, as the rulers were called, to remove
conquered tribes to distant parts of the realm.
The social organization of Peru rested upon the political union of
clans or gentes, as it did in most other American nations. The ruler of
the realm acted in accordance with the advice of the council elected
by the gentes, but also exercised at times an autocratic power, and
it would be an error to consider him not more independent than the
war-chief of one of the hunting tribes. The office was hereditary in
the female line, provided a satisfactory candidate appeared; otherwise
it was elective.[195]
No American nation surpassed the Peruvians in agricultural arts. Maize,
cotton, coca, potatoes, and tobacco were the principal crops. As the
arable land in the narrow vales of their country was limited, they
increased its extent by constructing terraces along the mountain sides,
and to guard against the aridity, numerous dams were built, from which
canals carried the water for miles to the various fields. Fertilizers
were dug into the soil, and a rotation of crops observed to prevent its
exhaustion. The domestication of animals had advanced further in Peru
than elsewhere on the continent. Besides the dog, and a fowl like a
goose, they had large herds of lamas, an animal they used for food and
also for carrying burdens, though its chief value was its wool. This
was spun and woven into articles of clothing, mats, etc. Quantities
of cloth from this substance and from cotton are exhumed from the
ancient tombs. The specimens are often in good preservation, showing
geometrical designs worked with symmetry, and dyed of various bright
colors.
In the mountain regions the houses were generally of stone, and
in the arid coast lands, of sun-dried bricks. They were located in
groups surrounded by walls, also of stone or brick. The stones were
sometimes fitted together with extraordinary nicety, or elsewhere were
united with mortar or cement. Recent travellers have stated that the
stone-work on some of the ruins of the Inca palaces is equal to that in
any part of the world; this is especially true of the mysterious ruins
of Tiahuanaco, near Lake Titicaca, where some of the most complete work
on the continent is to be found.
These architects had not discovered the pointed arch, as had the Mayas,
and in the details of their structures, as in the forms of their doors
and the perfect simplicity of their walls, it is clearly seen that they
had no connection with the northern civilizations. The structures were
rarely erected on pyramids or mounds, and frequently were of several
stories in height.
Their skill in the reduction and manufacture of various metals excited
the admiration of the Europeans. Among the articles they offered the
Spaniards were utensils, both solid and hollow, of gold, imitations of
fruits and animals of the same substance, golden butterflies, idols,
birds, masks, and mace-heads. Groups of half a dozen figures in various
attitudes have been found of solid silver, the symmetry and expression
being well preserved.
There was a like exuberance in the forms they gave their pottery.
The jars and vases were imitations of every kind of object around
them--fish, birds, reptiles, fruits, men, houses. Often the product
is so symmetrical that one is tempted to believe it was formed by a
potter’s wheel; but this invention, so ancient in the old world, was
never known to the American Race. Curious ingenuity is displayed in the
production of whistling or musical jars, which will emit a note when
the fluid is poured in; or trick-jars, which cannot be emptied unless
turned in a certain direction, not at first obvious. The art of glazing
was not known, and most of the pottery seems to have been sun-dried
only.
With the materialistic notions of religion and of a future life which
they entertained, it was regarded of the utmost importance that
the body should be preserved undisturbed in the tomb. Hence it was
often carefully mummified, and the sepulchres were selected in the
most secret and inaccesible location, either a cave on the side of a
precipice, or if in the plains the grave was levelled, so that no sign
of it appeared on the surface.
South of the Peruvian monarchy were the Araucanians, occupying the
area of the modern state of Chili. They were a warlike, hunting race,
physically and also linguistically akin to the tribes of the Pampas.
Neither the Incas nor the Spaniards succeeded in reducing their
indomitable spirit. In culture they had gained an advantage over the
Pampean tribes by their relations to the Qquichuas, but were far behind
the latter in general aptitude in the arts. Much of their subsistence
was dependent on the chase, and they are not classed among the partly
civilized natives of the continent. They are described as tall and
robust, the skull brachycephalic, the face round, the nose short and
rather flattened.
LECTURE X.
PROBLEMS AND PREDICTIONS.
CONTENTS.--I. ETHNOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS. 1. The problem of acclimation.
Various answers. Europeans in the tropics. Austafricans in cold
climates; in warm climates. The Asian race. Tolerance of the
American race. Theories of acclimation. Conclusion. 2. The problem
of amalgamation. Effect on offspring. Mingling of white and black
races. Infertility. Mingling of colored races. Influence of
early and present social conditions. Is amalgamation desirable?
As applied to white race; to colored races. 3. The problem of
civilization. Urgency of the problem. Influence of civilization
on savages. Failure of missionary efforts. Cause of the failure.
Suggestions.
II. THE DESTINY OF RACES. Extinction of Races. The American race.
Are the Indians dying out? Conflicting statements. They are
perishing. Diminution of insular peoples; causes of fatality. The
Austafrican race. The Mongolian race stationary. Wonderful growth
of the Eurafrican race. Influence of the Semitic element. The
future Aryo-Semitic race.
Relation of ethnography to historical and political science.
The population of the world in this year of 1890 is estimated at over
fifteen hundred millions. This vast multitude have passed in review
before us in their races, peoples and nations. What is the future of
these jostling millions, each individual of whom is striving after some
goal, seeking to satisfy some desire?
This momentous question depends directly on the solution of certain
problems with which the ethnographer especially has to deal. On the
right reading of these problems rests the destiny of races, and on the
destiny of races hangs the fate of Man. We shall do well therefore to
take home from the study of this science the horoscope it forecasts.
The first of these inquiries is
_The Problem of Acclimation._
How far can the various races not merely support and live through, but
do good work in the varied climates of the world?
Never was this question so urgent as to-day. With fleets of steamships
ploughing every ocean, and the iron horse racing on its steel track
over every continent, the movement of men is conducted in such masses
and with such rapidity that the most extensive migrations of nations of
other ages seem insignificant in comparison.
Like many other questions in ethnography, this one has been answered
very variously, too often, evidently, by writers influenced by other
motives than a single desire to reach the truth. It has been in close
proximity to political and social movements, and facts have been
twisted to serve the purposes of advocates.
The facts, indeed, are easily liable to misinterpretation. Take the
white race, for instance. It has for centuries possessed flourishing
colonies not only in the southern temperate zone, which would not
surprise us, but under the torrid suns of India, Mexico and Brazil,
in Java and the Isle of France, in the West and East Indies, not to
speak of the Hamitic tribes, who thousands of years ago established
themselves on the borders of the Sudan (see above, p. 116). Long before
that, the Indo-Aryans had crossed the Hindu Kush and extended their
sway over the Dravidian peoples of Hindostan.
But in these tropical regions have they not merely existed, but
also prospered? Have they retained, along with the purity of their
blood, also their fecundity, their viability and their energy? I
must reply emphatically, No. In the words of a medical observer of
ample experience in the tropics--“The changes which a torrid climate
impresses upon the constitution of Europeans and upon their descendants
are pathological, and tend with fatal certainty to the extinction of
the race.”[196] In India the children of English parents must be sent
back to Great Britain or they will perish. It is said that in the
history of the civil service there has not been a single family which
survived three generations. Even the first generation loses the energy
which characterizes the parental stock. The whites nowhere in the
tropics can undergo continuous physical toil exposed to the sun. They
are always found subsisting on the labor of the native races.
The Spanish and Portuguese population of tropical America have survived
in their new home for nearly four hundred years. But when have they
displayed the astonishing energy of the early _Conquistadores_? Many
of the so-called Spanish creoles are really of mixed blood. In Peru
and Mexico it is hard to find a family without the strain of another
race in its pedigree. In Cuba, where there has been the least exposure
to this result, owing to the prompt extinction of the natives, the
descendants of the early European immigrants are enfeebled and
infertile. While in Mexico, in Guatemala, and in Yucatan, the men of
prominent energy are either of mixed blood or, like the late Governor
Barrios, are of the once conquered, the pure American race. I do not
call a race acclimated which merely manages to exist, at the sacrifice
of those qualities which are its highest claim to distinction.