California region one art, basketmaking, reaches its acme of development in the hands of woman. A large female influence in religion is noticeable among the Pueblos Indians. Among some tribes, for example, the Hurons, the weregild for killing a woman was greater than that for a man. Some sort of matriarchal system, with maternal descent, prevailed very commonly in pre-Columbian America; among certain of the Koloschan Indians, for example, a man was considered to be in no sense related to his father, his sole parent being the mother. Besides this extreme form, numerous other varieties occur among the tribes now existing, the system in vogue among the Iroquois, etc., being more complicated and adapted to social needs. The systems of marriage known to the American Indians varied from the absence of any particular rite or ceremony to selection of the wife by the old women of the tribe, as among the Hurons, or the uniting of the couple by the "medicine men." Some of the tribes of the Brazilian forests, ranking very low in culture, are strictly monogamous; while people's of higher civilization, like the Chibchans, Mexicans, Peruvians, etc., were polygamous or concubinative, or both. Marriage by purchase was found over a large area of America; but here as in other parts of the globe, the " money " received was often rather a compensation to the parents for the loss of their daughter than a real sale of her to a suitor. Divorce, in many forms, is known to the primitive Americans, both by mere word of the husband and according to set forms and rites. Consanguineous marriages were strictly avoided by many tribes; but among a few, such as some of the lowest Athapascans, incest was not condemned. In the matter of the sex-relations, as in many other fields, the American Indians exhibit almost all possible phases from the monogamic chastity of some of the lowest peoples to the unnatural indulgences of the Peruvians. Runaway matches and marriages for love, in spite of the contrary opinion entertained by some authorities, have been by no means uncommon throughout the continent. Suicide on account of unsuccessful wooing by both sexes is also not at all rare. Some peoples, too, have developed love-songs of a romantic order, for example, the yaraveys of the Quechuas. Government. The systems of government of the American Indians and their tribal organizations range from the simple democracy of the Kootenays and some of the Brazilian Indians to the elaborate state institutions of the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians, which in several respects resembled the corresponding institutions of medieval Europe or the ancient classic world. The power of the chief, however, seems everywhere to have TRADE AND COMMERCE; EDUCATION. had limitations, and some tribes distinguished the permanent peace chief and the temporary war-chief. Chiefs were generally elected, either from the body of the tribe or from certain specified families. Totemism" and secret societies are not found to any extent, if at all, among certain tribes. (the Kootenay, for example); while with many of the peoples of the northwest Pacific Coast they are perhaps the chief feature of aboriginal society, as Boas has recently shown. Property rights are represented in many stages, from the semi-anarchic Eskimo to the Aztecs of Old Mexico and other peoples of Central and South America. Slavery existed among many tribes, and on the northwest Pacific Coast a sort of traffic in human chattels had arisen. Trade and Commerce. Within the spheres of the culturecentres of Mexico, Central America, Peru, etc., trade and commerce were well developed. The Columbia River region was the scene of a less developed trade; while the southeastern United States, the region of the Great Lakes and country west and south of them, had also their important distributing points. The region of Bering Strait was likewise an AsiaticAmerican commercial centre. Education. With the lower tribes generally, such education as was imparted to the children was given by the father 53 to the boys and by the mother to the girls. Peoples like the Iroquois, the Siouan Omahas, etc., used the instruction of tales, legends, and proverbs. The ancient Aztecs and some of the other semi-civilized peoples of Mexico and Central America had schools for boys and others for girls, in which the duties proper to each sex were taught under the supervision of the priests. Physical Characteristics. The physical characteristics of the aborigines of America mingle uniformity with diversity. The skin color, popularly styled "red" or 66 copper, " is designated by Mantegazza, "burnt coffee," and by Brinton"brown of various shades, with an undertone of red." This but varies from rather dark to rather light. Among the lighter tribes have been reckoned the Koloschan Tlinkit, the Bolivian Yurucari, etc., and among the darker the Charmas of the Gran Chaco, the Bolivian Canisianas, and a few other tribes of South and Central America. The hair is generally termed black," but, as Brinton notes, there is in it "a faint undercolor of red," which shows up more in childhood and seems much more prominent with certain tribes than with others. Red hair is known among American Indians, but in some cases (certain South American tribes, for example), its occurrence may be due to infusion of white blood. The eyes of the Indians are, with rare exceptions, dark brown. The stature varies from rather low to rather high, represented on the one hand by some of the shorter Brazilian tribes and on the other by the Patagonian "giants." Among the peoples presenting many individuals of tall stature, may be mentioned the Yumas and Pimas, some of the Muskhogean tribes, some of the Crees, Ojibwa and eastern Algonkians, Pawnees, IroPawnees, Iroquois, Siouans, Huaveans, Ramas, some of the Cariban tribes, Yurucari, Cayubabas, Guaycuruans, Patagonians, etc. So far as is known no dwarfish people comparable to the dwarf races of the Old World existed in America, although the skeletons from certain Peruvian tombs prove the existence of a dwarfish element in the general population; and the stature of many individuals among certain Brazilian tribes is so low as to induce some authorities, with Kollmann, to predicate the former existence of a dwarf race. In the relations of trunk and limbs and in the relation of one limb to another many variations occur among the Indians, due to occupation (canoeing, etc.and, since the advent of the whites, horse-riding). In primitive America all the chief forms of skull (often with artificial flattening, etc.) are found. Among the dolicho-cephalic (longheaded) peoples are the Eskimo and Iroquois generally, some of the Muskhogean tribes, Otomis, Aymaras (partly), Tapuyas, and Tupis (largely), etc. Of the brachycephalic (broad-headed) may be mentioned 66 the Araucanians, Caribs, Arawaks, Patagonians, Mayas, many of the tribes of the Pacific Coast region of North America, etc. The civilized peoples of Mexico, Central America, and Peru appear to have been of stature below the average and of varied skull form tending to brachycephalic, indicating mixtures of types. In the Columbia River region typemingling is indicated also by both stature and skull-form. The Peruvian region is another centre of racemixture, as evidenced by skull-form. The oldest skulls discovered in prehistoric burial-places or in geological situ are not distinct from the American types the latest found, the Lansing skull," is quite Indian. The skull capacity of the Indian is below that of the white in general, but many exceptions occur. The brains of the less cultured Indian peoples (Fuegians, Eskimo), show no decided anatomical inferiority to those of civilized Europeans. Great varieties of build and set of body are found among the American Indians, from the half-starved Fuegians to the well-fed and corpulent Iroquois. Small feet and hands are very common. Among many tribes in various parts of the continent handsome men and women of considerable beauty are to be found. In the case of women an admixture of white blood often enhances their beauty. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Annual Reports Bureau of American Ethnology (1879 to date); Annual Reports Smithsonian Institution and United States National Museum; Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America (1882); Bastian, Die Culturländer des alten Amerikas (1878); Brinton, Myths of the New World (1900), American HeroMyths (1882), Essays of an Americanist (1890), The American Race (1891); Brühl, Die Culturvölker Alt Amerikas (1887); Catlin, Illustrations of the Manners, Customs and Condition of the North American Indians (1866); Congrès International des Américanistes (1902); Contributions to North American Ethnology (Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1877-93); De Nadaillac, Prehistoric America (1885); Deniker, Races of Man (1900); D'Orbigny, L'Homme américain (1839); Drake, Indians of North America (1880); Ehrenreich, Urbewohner Brasiliens (1897); Friederici, Indianer und Anglo-Amerikaner (1900); Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana (1883); Journal of American Folk-lore (1888 to date); Keane, Ethnology (1896); Library of American Aboriginal Literature (1880-90); von Martius, Beiträge zur Ethnographie und Sprachenkunde Amerikas zumal Brasiliens (1867); Memoirs and Bulletins of the American Museum of Natural History (N. Y.); Morgan, Houses and House Life of the American Aborigines (1881, vol. iv. of Centr. Amer. Ethn.), League of the Iroquois (1902); Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen (1867); Papers of the Archæological Institute of America, American Series (1890); Payne, History of the New World (1900); Pilling, Proof Sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians (1885) - and subsequent special bibliographies - Algonquian,, Athapascan, Chinookan, Eskimo, Iroquoian, Muskhogean, Salishan, Siouan, Wakashan; Publications of the Field Museum; Ratzel, History of Mankind (1898); Relations des Pères Jésuites (1902); Reports of Ontario Archæological Museum; Reports of Committee of British Association on Northwestern Tribes of Canada; Reports and Memoirs of Peabody Museum; Von den Steinen, Durch of Zentral-Brasilien (1886); Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens (1894); Schmidt, Die Vorgeschichte NordAmerikas (1894); Thomas, American Archæology (1898); Tooker, Algonquian Series (1901); Winsor, Aboriginal America (1884-9); Colden, History of the Five Indian Nations; Hale, The Iroquois Book of Rites; Gatschet, A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians; Squier, Aboriginal Monuments of New York; Squier and Davis, 55 Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, in Smithsonian Transactions, vol. 1; Cusick, History of the Six Nations; J. S. Phillips, Admeasurements of Crania of the Principal Groups of Indians in the United States; H. R. Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois; ibid, Algic Researches ; ibid, History, Condition and Prospects of Indian Tribes; Tanner, Narrative of Captivity during a Thirty Years' Residence among the Indians; Clark, History of Onondaga; Mrs. Eastman, Legends of the Siour; Beach, Indian Miscellanies; Hawley, Early Chapters of Cayuga History; Donohue, The Jesuites and the Iroquois; Walworth, The Lily of the Mohawk; Roger Williams, Key into the Languages of the Indians, together with Brief Observations on the Customs, Manners, Worship, etc., of the Aforesaid Nations (1642), reprinted in Massachusetts Historical Collections, vol. iii.; Eliot, Indian Grammar (with notes and introduction by Pickering) reprinted in Massachusetts Historical Collections, vol. xviii.; Edwards, Observations on the Language of the Mohegan Indians, reprinted in Massachusetts Historical Collections, vol. xx.; Cotton, Vocabulary of the Massachusetts (Natick) Indian Language, reprinted in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, vol. xxii.; McKinney, History of the Indian Tribes of North America; Priest, American Antiquities and Discoveries in the West; Bradford, American Antiquities with Researches into the Origin and History of the Red Race; Atwater, Antiquities of the State of Ohio, in Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society, vol. i.; Jeffries, History of the Human Race; Martin, Crania Americana; George B. Grinnell, Story of the Indian; H. C. Yarrow, Introduction to the Study of Mortuary Customs among the North American Indians; R. I. Dodge, Our Wild Indians; Short, North Americans of Antiquity; Frederick Starr, First Steps in Human Progress; ibid, The American Indian; E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture; James Adair, History of the American Indians; Johnson, Six Nations and Tuscaroras, et al.; E. M. Chadwick, The People of the Long House; E. M. Ruttenber, History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River; N. S. Shaler, Nature and Man in America; Lucien Biart, The Aztecs, their History, Manners and Customs; G. E. Heckwelder, History of the Indian Nations Who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States; J. A. Teit, The Thompson River Indians; W. H. Dall, Tribes of the Extreme Northwest; Minnie Moore-Wilson, The Seminoles of Florida (1910). THE INDIANS PAST AND PRESENT AND THEIR INFLUENCE UPON THE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN CIVILI ZATION IN THE UNITED STATES. Antiquity of man and of human civilization in the United States - Indigenous origin of American Indian culture - Variety in Indian culture in the United States Effect of the presence and distribution of the Indians upon the general course of European history and civilization in the United States - Influence of the Indians upon language - Fishing and hunting - Agriculture and agricultural processes - Foods - Storage, preservation of foods, etc. - Medicine, materia medica, etc. - Clothing, furniture, ornament, etc. — Games, recreations, etc. The Indian as a subject and an inspiration in literature, art, etc.- Race-mixture and the future of the Indian. History has very often been made the mere chronicle and description of kings and their wars; the deeds and achievements of the multitudes of common men and women, who have continued, even inter arma, industriously and successfully to pursue the arts of peace, upon which the evolution and the perpetuity of human civilization primarily depend, being commonly passed over with but scant recognition. This is particularly true when, as is the case in the New World, the story to be told is that of the contact of ethnic stocks, and the subjection and partial extermination of a "lower" by a so-called "higher " race. In recording the history of America, up to the present time, too much attention has been given to the physical conflicts between the white man and the red man, and far too little to the consideration of the peaceful epochs and those cordial relations subsisting not infrequently between the Europeans in different parts of the country and many of the Indian tribes, which have resulted in [56] the former borrowing from the latter numerous minor culture-elements besides others of momentous importance. Of course, among the fifty or sixty distinct linguistic stocks existing in the United States and Canada (a dozen or more are now completely or practically extinct) at the time of the coming of the Europeans, the great majority may be left out of consideration here, since the Indians speaking their languages did not exert, or have not hitherto exerted, any appreciable influence upon the current of American history, or upon the life, activities, institutions, ideas or ideals of the white men who now possess the land. But the rôle of such peoples as compose the Algonkian and Iroquoian stocks has been significant in stimulating, and, to some extent at least, in shaping the development of European culture in North America. The writer of this article, therefore, who for many years has made a special study of the problems in Alexander F. Chamberlain, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Clark University. |
