American Anthropologist 1925
Bogoras, Waldemar. Ideas of Space and Time in the Conception of Primitive Religion. American Anthropologist April, 1925 Vol.27 (2):205-266.
In this article Bogoras examines the ideas of space and time in shamanistic societies across Asia and America that were connected with the “primitive conception” of the world. Bogoras formulated his theory while reading about new ideas in physics related to space and time, in the work of Einstein, Minkowski, Mach, Umov, and others. When the physicists tried to put their equations into concrete form they closely resembled shamanistic stories and descriptions. The majority of Bogaras’ data was collected from Northeast Asia, including the tribes of the Chukchi, the Koryak, the Yukaghir, and the Asiatic Eskimo.
Bogoras reviews many of the ritual practices of these shamanistic peoples. He recounts incantations for hunting rituals, for health, love, and many other things. Bogoras explains the layout of the spirit world of these people, where each spirit resides, and what they have dominion over in the real world. He goes into great detail about the customs involved with the hunt and how each practice is intended to make the hunt successful and all the spirits happy. Bogoras continues to delve into each facet of shamanistic and animistic religion and beliefs in over 60 pages of explanation.
In conclusion, Bogoras attempts to relate examples given during physics lectures about the real world to his analysis of the shamanistic view of the world. Depending on your depth of understanding of the principle of general relativity this may make from some to no sense at all. This article may very well improve your understanding of these theories.
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JASON LEE Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Bogoras, Waldemar. Ideas of Space and Time in the Conception of Primitive Religion.American Anthropologist 1925 Vol.27(2):205-266.
The author attempts to correlate certain religious concepts of space and time embodied in “primitive” myth, folklore, ritual, art and philosophy with analogous concepts in “modern” physics and psychology. His main hypothesis is that primitive ideas mirror modern ones because people all have identical cognitive faculties of perception. To support his hypothesis, Bogoras provides data on the Chukchi, Koryak and Yukaghir of North-eastern Asia and the Inuit. He also includes many examples from various Western and Eastern myths, religions and fairy-tales.
Bogoras begins his discussion by laying out scientific principles on the relativity of time. He then explains how primitive people perceive the world through an ideological lens. Life’s events are a result of supernatural forces and are swayed using magic, witchcraft and ritual. He introduces the concept of animism, where the multi-tiered universe is full of invisible spirits. Only shamans and spirits can move freely between the dimensions of the universe.
The size of spirits is relative to their level of antagonism. Simply put, attacking spirits grow to large proportions and vanquished spirits diminish. It can be said that people and spirits reside in different “systems” which act and react against each other in a kinetic fashion. This corresponds to a physics formula in which the size of bodies belonging to separate systems are determined by the differential motion and velocity of these systems.
The perception of experiencing a prolonged sequence of events within a short time-span occurs in a shamanistic trance. The shaman is ostensibly able to complete a long journey to a spirit world within the short period of his trance. This phenomenon mirrors another formula of physics: There exists no absolute time. There exists in the primitive mind the concept of co-existent forms of being existing outside of time. This is exemplified by dualism in much religion, myth and folklore.
The ways of perceiving the objective world for modern humanity lies in the cognitive, psychological realm. Dreams are a source of religious knowledge, yet they are a psychical anachronism: “Our dreams are palaeolithic” (242). For the primitive mind, dreams are the same as waking life. The primitive conceptions of space, time and dualism coincide with dream-world elements. These primitive concepts are also found in hallucinations, drug or alcohol induced visions, schizophrenia, hypnotical suggestions, children’s play and in the “double consciousness” of actors, poets and novelists. The same elements of space and time are found in primitive art.
Finally, Bogoras discusses the theory of “mana”: the pre-animistic, impersonal conception of religion. If there is a “supreme being”, it is passive and aloof. The self and the universe are one. There is no death, only eternal life. Other religious ideas evolved out of the mana concept, including dualism, and it is only with the separation of self from the universe that a fear of death arose.
This esoteric and somewhat ambitious article presents an unlikely fusion of science and religion. Despite being nonsensical at times and glaringly racist at others, the author’s argument is quite enthralling.
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ANTOINE GIRAUD University of British Columbia (John Barker)
De Angulo, Jaime. Kinship Terms in Some Languages of Southern Mexico. American Anthropologist January-March, 1925 Vol.27(1):103-107.
This article is a collection of kinship terms from nine groups in southern Mexico. The author assembled the information from Oaxaca for the Dirección de Anthropología of Mexico. The language groups included are from the Zapotecan family, the Chontal, and the Mixe. The nine specific groups listed are: the Zapotec, Mixtec, Mazatec, Chatino, Chocho, Cuiatec, Chimantec, Mixe, and the Chontal.
The author uses symbols which were commonly accepted by all American ethnologists of the time, omitting pitch tones. In addition, all open vowels were approximated to the nearest closed one and nasal breaths were noted with the symbol “.
The list of data included in the article are terms for: father, mother, paternal uncle and aunt, maternal uncle and aunt, older brother and sister, younger brother and sister, offspring, son, daughter, paternal grandfather and grandmother, maternal grandfather and grandmother, grandchild, grandson, granddaughter, cousin, second cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, second wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, and brother of either spouse. In several cases the data is either lacking (second cousin and second wife) or is the same for two particular kinship terms (i.e. maternal and paternal uncle or older and younger brother).
This article consists solely of the lists of kinship terms, lacking any sort of analysis of the data. There is a brief introductory paragraph which simply outlines from where the data is derived as well as a brief explanation of the symbols used.
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CHRIS SWOPE Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
De Angulo, Jaime. Kinship Terms in Some Languages of Southern Mexico. American Anthropologist, 1925. Vol. 27(1): 103-107.
In this article, Angulo presents a list of kinship terms from several Southern Mexican languages. He uses languages from the Zapotecan, Chontal, and Mixe families. More specifically, he lists words in Zapotec, Mixtec, Mazatec, Chatino, Chocho, Cuicatec, Chinantec, Mixe, and Chontal. He gives examples of words such as Father, Mother, Paternal Uncle, Paternal Aunt, and Older Brother and Sister. All of the languages differ greatly from each other as far as the words themselves are concerned, but when it comes to patterns, such as word for “brother” also being the word for “cousin,” the languages are very similar.
In all the languages, the words for Paternal Aunt and Uncle are the same as the words for Maternal Aunt and Uncle. In Zapotec and Mixtec, the word for Older Brother and Sister change depending on who is addressing them. For example, if a sister is talking to her brother (in Zapotec), she calls him “pizaa,” but if a brother is talking to his brother, he calls him “betza.” In all the languages except for Mixe and Chontal, the terms for younger brother and sister match the terms for older brother and sister. In all languages except for Mixe, there is a collective term for children, and sons and daughters are not differentiated through terminology.
This article was fairly hard to comprehend simply because Angulo gave no commentary on the lists of vocabulary he presented. After a brief introduction, in which he did not really give his purpose in writing, he stated that he had “assembled the following list of kinship terms” and then left the reader to figure it out for himself.
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NICOLE MCMILLAN Barnard College (Paige West)
De Angulo, Jaime. Kinship Terms in Some Language of Southern Mexico. American Anthropologist January-March, 1925 Vol. 27(1): 103-107.
This article is simply a list of kinship terms collected from nine different groups in southern Mexico. The author gathered this information in Oaxaca for the Dirección de Antropología of Mexico. There are three main language groups which are as follows: the Zapotecan family, Chontal, and the Mixe. The nine specific groups included are: the Zapotec, Mixtec, Mazatec, Chatino, Chocho, Cuicatec, Chinantec, Mixe, and the Chontal.
Omitting pitch tones, the author simplified the phonetic transcription for the symbols he chose. The symbols were limited to those which were commonly accepted by all American ethnologists of that time period. In an attempt to indicate pronunciations as cleary as possible, the author approximated all open vowels to the nearest closed one and nasal breaths were noted with the symbol “.
The data included in the article are terms for the following: father, mother, paternal uncle and aunt, maternal uncle and aunt, older brother and sister, younger brother and sister, “offspring”, son, daughter, paternal grandfather and grandmother, maternal grandfather and grandmother, grandchild, grandson, granddaughter, cousin, second cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, second wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, and brother of either spouse. For some of the cases the data is either incomplete, such as for second cousin and second wife, or the data is exactly the same for two particular kinship terms, such as for maternal and paternal uncle or older and younger brother.
This article is just a simple list of kinship terms. The author does not analyze the data in any way or state the purpose of collecting this data. The short introductory paragraph provides information on where the data comes from and an explanation of the symbols used. However, this article is just a list of terms and does not seem to have a purpose.
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HANNAH AHN Barnard College, Columbia University (Paige West)
Delabarre, Edmund Burke. A Possible Pre-Algonkian Culture in Southeastern Massachusetts. American Anthropologist July, 1925 Vol. 27(3):359-369.
Delabarre wrote this article to propose that the archaeological evidence he discovered on Grassy Island could possibly represent a pre-Algonkian tribe that lived in southeastern Massachusetts a thousand years ago. He says there is little evidence as to when the Algonkian tribes first arrived and displaced previous pre-Algonkian tribes. He believes that the various stone tools he has collected indicat a probable village site, since the tools were found scattered over a large area.
The article includes the location, size, and a photograph of the archaeological site, Grassy Island, which Delabarre says became submerged at high tides and was covered by a layer of salt-marsh and peat. Delabarre also describes the soil texture and stratigraphy of the site. He attempted to plot his excavation units with stakes, but the wash of the tides made it impossible. He gathered approximately four hundred artifacts, including projectile points, flakes, angular fragments, pestles, hoe-like implements, cores, grinding stones, and unworked pebbles.
Half of the artifacts were excavated from a maximum depth of nine inches below surface and the other half were collected from the beach during low tides. Of the sample collected, three-fourths of the artifacts were various projectile points. Delabarre notes that some of the projectiles found look similar to Algonkian tools, but others represent an earlier form differing from the later projectiles. He found that the Grassy Island Indians made a larger proportion of stemmed projectile points than did the later Wampanoags who manufactured a larger proportion of smaller, triangular arrow points. Delabarre also provides data on the various types of materials (quartz, green shale, rhyolite, sandstone, quartzite, felsite) used to manufacture the tools and suggests that some of the materials were obtained from a considerable distance, because they are exotic materials not located on Grassy Island.
Delabarre realizes his limitations and says that the sample of artifacts he discovered may not be enough to represent an entire culture, but he feels that the large sample and the variety of types of artifacts he collected at Grassy Island represents a cultural occupation of a pre-Algonkian group over a long period of time. Delabarre says that the occupation of the island probably wasn’t continual because of rising tides, but rather a seasonal area of occupation. From the evidence collected he determined that the Grassy Island Indians engaged in agriculture and used red and black paints, but there was no evidence to link this culture to that of the Red Paint People of Maine. Delabarre says the chief value of his observations is that they help give clues as to the earliest inhabitants of New England.
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JESSICA ZIMMERMANN Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Delabarre, Edmund Burke. A Possible Pre-Algonkian Culture in Southeastern Massachusetts. American Anthropologist 1925 Vol.27: 359-369.
This article looks at evidence in which suggests that there may have been an indigenous culture that occupied the Massachusetts area before the Algonkians. Yet it is not determined whether this is evidence points to a separate indigenous group or simply earlier evidence of Algonkian culture. The Algonkians existence could thus possibly date back to one thousand years ago (at the time this article was written). This conclusion is based upon the discovery of approximately 400 lithic artifacts found in the southeastern Massachusetts area, which the author believes are indicative of an early village settlement.
Burke provides an extensive description of the site where the lithic artifacts were found. He notes that this area are problematic, as the deposits are now covered by
several feet of salt-water peat. This area was difficult to excavate systematically as the tide frequently shifts the context of the artifacts (361). However Burke was able to determine a rate of peat growth that would imply that this site dates from as early as [AD] 1640 (368)
In order to analyze the lithic artifacts found, Burke divides them into several groups. Three quarters fall under the category of chipped objects, being arrowheads, knives and perforators, which he then classifies into smaller groups based upon shape. These objects were made of various materials such as quartz or rhyolite. Some of the materials used have come from considerable distances, which may indicate trade networks or natural movement processes of these materials such as glacial drift(363). Burke also makes special note of lithic tools similar in morphology to contemporary indigenous hoes, which implies that these earlier peoples may have been agriculturalists (364-365). Other artifacts include ground stones such as mortars and pestles. Some of these artifacts are especially important, as they possess evidence of fire damage indicating that at the time of inhabitation the site was out of the way of the tide zone (365). These lines of evidence such as the lithic scatters themselves, hearths, and indicators of agriculture lead Burke to determine this to be a locate of early settlement.
This article has a clear statement of purpose and a strong emphasis on description, and classification. Burke further supplements this article with numerous pictures of the lithic artifacts of which he describes.
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JAIME HOLTHUYSEN University of British Columbia, Vancouver (John Barker)
Hoernle, A. Winifred. The Social Organization of the Hottentots of Southwest Africa.American Anthropologist January – March, 1925 Vol. 27(1):1-24.
This article is an overview of the social organization of a group living in an area known as the Protectorate of Southwest Africa in the 1920’s. Hoernle begins with a short history of the groups that make up the present-day Nama Hottentots, and a survey of the area in which they live.
The Nama were originally two groups, known to Dutch settlers as the Little Namaqua and the Great Namaqua. The Little and Great Namaqua were nomadic pastoralists who were divided into tribes. At the time this article was written the tribes were no longer distinct groups, but had mixed. Some of the tribes no longer had living members. Therefore, the information presented is a historical record of the original social organization of the Nama Hottentots, inferred from information gathered from “old headmen.”
According to the headmen, the tribes were broken down into groups called sibs. Members of a sib were considered to be blood relatives. The sib formed the strongest social group. Hoernle found that the Hottentots had a classificatory kinship system. She gave evidence of this using a categorization devised by Professor Radcliffe-Brown that breaks the terms used for kinship into levels of ascending and descending generations. The Hottentots use the same terms for grandparents on the mother’s and father’s sides. They also use the term for wife to describe their wife’s sister.
Hoernle’s main evidence for the structure of the system is based on Hottentot kinship terminology, and the way in which relatives behave toward one another. She ends the article by bringing the two together to argue that a Hottentot kinship term actually defines appropriate behavior.
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TRACCI GABEL Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Hoernle, Winifred. The Social Organization of the Nama Hottentots of Southwest Africa. American Anthropologist January-March, 1921 Vol.27(1): 1-24
In this article the author concerns herself with detailing the social organization of the people generally known as the Hottentots, but call themselves the Nama, who reside within the territory, that in 1921, was called the Protectorate of Southwest Africa. She attempts to describe Nama social structure as it existed in the past before the influence of colonization and other incoming tribes. This work can be classified as “salvage” ethnography; she pieces together information gathered from the old headmen of the tribes and accounts from the younger generation to reconstruct Nama social patterns of interaction and kinship terminology.
The first section of article provides a historical backdrop of the region, outlining how the external influences that effected the area have resulted in a culture that is “in the last stages of decay” (8). The author begins with a description of the landscape and the Nama’s relationship with its resources. She then goes on to explain how the Nama originally believed themselves to be descended from one line of ancestors that then divided into seven groups. A discussion follows outlining how the influence of incoming tribes (where there was evidence of the existence of European-Native admixture and the use of European languages) and the increasing presence of colonists resulted in a breakdown of the Nama way of life. These external variables caused: a disruption in migration that was tied to resource use, a dismantling of tribal organization and politics, and the loss of traditional social organization patterns and kinship terminology.
The author now moves into a discussion of Nama social organization as it existed in the past. She discovers that the “sib” is the strongest social unit in Nama existence, overriding even the importance of tribal allegiance, and that this finding is consistent throughout the region. The tribe is composed of a number of patrilineal sibs, a patrilineal sib being a group of people claiming to be related along the male line. The author then describes the how the interplay between hereditary status, leadership, politics and marriage patterns function within the Nama sib system. She focuses on Swartbooi tribe believing this tribe to be representative of Nama social organization in general. The effect of the sib system on settlement and living arrangements is discussed next, following by a description of the quality of relationships between non-sib and sib members of the tribe. Members of the same sib regard themselves as blood relatives and certain taboos mark their conduct towards each other.
The remainder of the paper lays out the classificatory kinship terminology. It should be noted that in this system, devised by Radcliffe-Brown, the relative age of the person speaking and the person being spoken to are carefully recognized. The terms are outlined according to 1st and 2nd ascending and descending generations with the ego falling into the contemporary generation category. A brief mention of behavioral protocol is touched upon in the conclusion, highlighting the moral and social regulatory aspects of the sib system and the respect that is shown for elders.
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MICHELLE ROGERS University of British Columbia (John Barker)
Hooten, E.A. Louis Robert Sullivan. American Anthropologist April, 1925 Vol.27(2): 357-358.
This obituary for Louis Robert Sullivan describes a man who lived a short life of only 33 years, however still accomplished a lot in that little time. The majority of Sullivan’s work dealt with race mixtures in the Hawaiian Islands, where Sullivan worked for the Bishop Museum of Honolulu by the American Museum of Natural History upon completion of his Ph.D in anthropology, which he obtained from Columbia University. Sullivan unfortunately died before he was able to complete an analysis of the data that he had gathered.
Hooten describes Sullivan as a man who was respected by his peers not only as a professional, but also as an individual. The loss of Louis Sullivan, in Hooten’s opinion, deprives anthropology of what could have been one of the best minds to come around. Still, during that short time he was able to complete more than most people. His work covered many subjects, but primarily Polynesian anthropometry, and included a manual so people could do field work in anthropometry.
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MITCH DOWNING Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja).
Hooton, A.E. Louis Robert Sullivan. American Anthropologist April, 1925 Vol. 27 (2): 357-358.
This article addresses the untimely death of Louis Robert Sullivan, an anthropologist responsible for collecting vast amounts of anthropometric data in the Hawaiian Islands. Hooton gives a brief biography of Sullivan’s life, while expressing regret that Sullivan will not be able to continue his innovative research. Hooton also uses Sullivan as a vehicle for explaining the inadequate funds and salaries given to anthropologists during this time.
Hooton’s purpose is to emphasize the importance of exceptional anthropological work, accomplished under the guidance of a devoted anthropologist. By using examples from Sullivan’s life, Hooton is able to present an argument for increased spending on anthropological research without appearing self-centered. For example, Hooton states that Sullivan’s anthropometric data on race mixtures in the Hawaiian Islands constitutes the most important contribution to this vital problem yet made (357). With the death of the author, the analysis of this invaluable material is left in doubt.
After defining this first problem, Hooton goes on to examine the living conditions of Sullivan. Hooton states that Sullivan lived in poverty during the early years of his life. Hooton then slyly mentions that research anthropologists attached to museums cannot possibly make enough money to support themselves and/or their families (358). Although the museum did make every effort to aid Sullivan financially when he contracted pleurisy, he enjoyed the social relaxations of a first-rate mechanic during his early 20s. To play on the reader’s emotions, Hooton insists that Sullivan had an unbiased attitude toward new ideas and new methods for his work. Hooton stresses the need for people like Sullivan in the field of anthropology, instead of independently wealthy people who want to do field work (358).
In this article, Hooton presents a concise, yet elegant, biography of anthropologist Robert Louis Sullivan. While doing so, Hooton craftily inserts an argument for greater allocations of money towards anthropological research and/or the salaries of anthropologists. In the process of remembering his friend, Hooton seeks to better the conditions of the anthropological community.
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JULIA NAGLE Columbia University (Paige West)
Hooton, E.A. Louis Robert Sullivan. American Anthropologist 1925 vol. 27: 357-258
Although three-quarters of this article act as an appreciative remembrance for the life of Louis R. Sullivan and his work to physical anthropology; the true message and larger social concern emerges somewhat rashly in the closing statement. E.A Hooton advertently uses Louis Sullivan as an instrument to bring about social awareness of the economic oppression which attacked research anthropologists during the early 20th century.
Hooton structured the article with intentions, not to immortalize Sullivan’s great efforts towards anthropological progress, but rather claim that Sullivan’s death would have been preventable if anthropologists were given the basic capitalistic means in order to survive.
The Article begins and goes on to exposes the life and accomplishments of Louis Sullivan. It quickly became obvious that Sullivan was a man who held deep passion towards his field of work. Hooton showed Sullivan’s path into the field of anthropology through the schools he attended, degrees he earned, and work he did; he exposed Sullivan’s background, and by doing so showed his caliber. After graduating and receiving his A.M. degree from Brown University, Sullivan worked at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, and after the war (where he did anthropometrical studies); Sullivan completed his requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in anthropology at Columbia University. His background proved him as a strong worker, smart individual, and a well accomplished student of anthropology.
After providing a background, Hooton delved into the actual work Sullivan accomplished as a professional anthropologist. Although his professional career was short, due to his prolonged illness that inturn ended his life; Sullivan took on interesting studies and forged through with new ideas. He worked in Hawaii, concentrating on race mixtures, and he also undertook Polynesian expeditions for the American Museum of Natural History. Then when he fell ill with pleurisy he relocated in Arizona in hopes to recuperate- still continuing to write his scientific papers. After returning to New York he relapsed into illness and died. Hooton stresses the fact that Sullivan’s work was cut short by his untimely death at age 33, and implies much was invaluable research was lost from the world, because of the incompletion of his analyses.
Hooton blames Sullivan’s untimely death on the “poverty” of the anthropologist, claiming that his death would have been preventable if Sullivan received a “living wage.”
At one level this article was written to memorialize a dedicated anthropologist. However, it also carries indignation towards society. Hooton faults the economic tier and implies that anthologists are not financially supported enough to live in relation to the jobs they do.
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LAUREN BELIVE Barnard College (Paige West)
Kantor, J. R. Anthropology, Race, Psychology, and Culture. American Anthropologist April, 1925 Vol. 27(2):267-283.
J. R. Kantor aggressively critiques the role and responsibility of psychology in the study of culture and the willingness of anthropologists to accept psychological tools without questioning their cultural biases.
Kantor first questions the validity of psychological tests to measure the “mentality” of other cultures. He claims these tests are a “product of cultural development” and therefore inaccurate in other cultures, and cannot be used to determine if innate mental endowment even exists. He asserts that there is no “native mental endowment” based on biological differences of race. He also believes the mentality of a specific group is dependent upon materials found within the group or those taken from others, which are then passed down the generations and altered over time.
Kantor defends his dismissal of “racial mental endowment” by explaining the role of biology to direct a “physiological response of a psychological organism to particular stimuli.” The response is determined by experience and stimulus and cannot be isolated to one biological function. He uses language acquisition as his example. All humans have the same biological structures to produce speech, but language is a psychological function that differs from group to group. It is a complex interaction of the individual, culture and stimuli. He warns readers of the dangers of seeking anatomical structures for every psychological feature such as politeness, intellect, or patriotism. In doing so, psychology has all too easily ignored the influences of culture on psychological development and the interaction of nature and nurture. He states the issue is not one of race but of the general character of psychological activities.
Basing cultural differences on racial endowment highlights psychology’s inability to critically observe human behavior and is ethnocentric science. Anthropology is not without blame either, as Kantor admonishes that “the anthropologist is insensitive to the temperature of his own intellectual bath.” He stresses the importance of recognizing the influence our own culture has on scientific interpretations. He critiques both fields for succumbing to the force of tradition instead of observable evidence. Kantor states the two fields of psychology and anthropology are compatible and can assist one another. By being aware of the bias that can occur due to our own culture, we can then alter the field of study to accommodate it and become more accurate in reporting.
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ANNA SAPPINGTON-SANDIDGE Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Kantor, J.R. Anthropology, Race, Psychology, and Culture American Anthropologist, 1925. Vol.27:267-283.
Kantor’s article begins with a discussion of the ways in which both cultural anthropology and human psychology, two disciplines that study human behavior, are not only similar to each other but, in fact, overlap. Kantor maintains that when disciplines are as related as these two, they should help each other. He laments the fact that they do not, explaining that psychologists rely mostly on biologists, and that although some anthropologists have approached psychologists they have been met with very little enthusiasm.
Kantor discusses this lack of communication between disciplines in the context of the psychological race factor. Kantor believes that when studying race, anthropologists do not take into consideration the newest and most groundbreaking research and thought within in the field of psychology. Instead, they continue to turn to traditional, outdated, and unproductive ways of thinking.
Kantor’s main point is focused around the idea that since it is impossible for every scientist to know everything from all scientific disciplines, it is helpful, when borrowing ideas and facts from another discipline, to be able to tell the difference between traditional or cultural ideas and genuine scientific data. It is important at least to keep such a distinction in mind.
Kantor argues in this paper that when anthropologists study the psychological race factor, the tradition and the weight behind it outweighs the use factual observation and discusses the ways in which this is problematic. Kantor discusses the arguments for and against belief in native traits, as well as the relationships between mentality/ psychological phenomena, and culture
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AVIGAIL APPELBAUM Barnard College (Paige West)
Kantor, J.R. Anthropology, Race, Psychology, and Culture. American Anthropologist April, 1925 Vol.27(2):267-283.
Kantor critiques the position of psychology in reference to anthropology. He asserts that some considerations of the fundamental tenets of objective or biological psychology will help anthropologists to attack the theory of objective psychology which suggests ideas about the psychological features of race. Kantor states that anthropologists fail to explore the some intellectual circumstances in their own culture. Kantor strongly believes that by studying the psychological race factor, the anthropologist neglects psychological concepts that apply to their own culture’s problems. Instead, anthropologists borrow from the traditional way of thinking, which in fact, according to the author, does not benefit them at all.
Kantor first explores the role of the mental endowment. He states that we assume that mental endowment even exists and if not, then there is no point in identifying the whether other human groups have different degrees of it. Psychology tests are used to measure the mentality of other cultures, but Kantor refutes this point. He believes that the tests are purely just a product of culture, so it can not be used to justify that mental endowment exists. He does not believe that mental endowment is passed down through generations because the endowment is solely based on the stimulational objects in the group, which is consistent throughout generations.
He considers the biological functions of an organism as factors that can be analyzed outside of the psychological conduct because beyond an animal’s basic reflexes, all other factors are not needed. Kantor supports his assertion that racial mental endowment does not exist by explaining biology even further by reducing it to reflexes. The response, or reflex, is provoked by experience or a stimulus. To support this, Kantor uses the example of language. Humans all have the same mechanisms to formulate speech, however speech still remains something that varies group to group. It is based on the interaction of an organism and its culture and surrounding stimuli.
Kantor draws attention to the fact the importance of seeing the influence our own culture has on scientific interpretations. He emphasizes the strength of looking at both anthropology and psychology together and recognizing the biases will lead to more accurate anthropological reports.
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MICHELLE MORSE Barnard College (Paige West)
Kidder, A. V. Theophil Mitchell Prudden. American Anthropologist January-March, 1925 Vol. 27(1):149-150.
This article is a short biography of Dr. Theophil Mitchell Prudden, one of the foremost students of Southwestern archaeology during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although Dr. Prudden was an avocational archaeologist, he advanced the study of Southwestern culture dramatically. For many years it was Dr. Prudden’s custom to relax from his professional duties at the Rockefeller Institute with trips to Colorado, Arizona and Utah where his interest lay in the fundamental problems of culture growth. Every summer season he traveled by pack train across the arid plateaus of the San Juan country where he drew maps of the intricate canyon systems, collected notes on the climate, and took descriptions and photographs of the hundreds of ruined pueblos and cliff houses that he encountered. He was the first to describe in print the early Basket Maker culture in an article in Harper’s magazine in 1897. This was followed by “The Prehistoric Ruins of the San Juan Watershed” in 1903. Especially important in the latter article is his identification of the old “unit-type” of pueblo structure. The scientific methods he brought to the field laid the foundation for all subsequent research on the developmental side of Southwestern civilization. In his later years ill-health kept him from returning, however he became a generous contributor to the funds of expeditions, he read everything that was published on the Southwest, and he was a strong source of advice to younger men entering the field. Kidder’s description of Dr. Prudden portrays a brilliant man devoted enough to his love of studying Southwestern culture that he was able to define the techniques of how later generations of archaeologists would study that culture.
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PATRICK THOMPSON Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Kidder, A. V. Theophil Mitchell Prudden. American Anthropologist January-March, 1925 Vol. 27(1):149-150.
This is a short biography promoting the work of the late Theophil Mitchell Prudden who is here written as one of the foremost students of Southwestern archeology as well as one of the Founders the Anthropological Association. Prudden worked at the Rockefeller Institute but traveled to Arizona, Utah and Colorado by pack train across San Juan country and collected masses of data and drew maps. He wrote about Southwestern life and discovered the unit-type of the pueblo structure that “laid the foundation for all subsequent research on the developmental side of Southwestern civilization” (149). He published several works on the region: he gave the first description of Basket Maker culture in Harper’s magazine of June 1897, wrote “The Circular Kivas of Small Ruins in the San Juan Watershed,” “A Further Study of Small House Ruins” published in the ‘Anthropologist” of 1914 and the “Memoirs” of 1918. Dr. Prudden continued support expeditions and research in San Juan through fund contributions and friendly advice until his death.
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SABRINA MONDSCHEIN Columbia University (Paige West)
MacLeod, William Christie. Certain Mortuary Aspects of Northwest Coast Culture. American Anthropologist January, 1925 Vol. 27 (1): 122-148.
This article examines some of the mortuary practices of the Native American peoples of the North American Northwest Coast. He first focuses on what he believed Tylor overlooked, the so-called “mitigated survival” of widow burning. MacLeod begins by explaining the mortality customs of three groups (the Carriers, the northern Kwakiutl, and the Sikanni) who require the widow to throw herself onto her husband’s funeral pyre—a pile of wood used when cremating a dead body. It is believed that these groups borrowed this custom from the Tsimshian and that the cremating practices of each group did not arise independently. He later goes on to explain the mortuary practices (including cremation and mummification), of several of the different groups of the Northwest Coast including: the Tlingit, Tsimshian, Tcilquek, Kwantlem, Haida, Kutchin, Tahltan, Nootka, Salish, Pitlatlq, Quinault, Cowichan, Clallam, Aleuts, Kadiak, and Clayoquot; and how each group may be related or unrelated to each other. MacLeod also notes some of the similarities of mortuary practices of the Northwest Coast that are also found in Siberia as well as in Japan. He also compares some of the Northwest Coast mortuary traditions to those of aboriginal groups in the North American Southeast.
As far as cremation is concerned, it is probable that the practice among the various groups found in the plateau regions may be a result of diffusion from those groups found on the coast. It is also possible that cremation use came from areas to the south of the Northwest Coast. For many groups the shaman was not cremated because of the belief that fire could not touch them. For other groups, the shaman was cremated like any other individual—these groups often had two distinguishing classes of shamans, the sorcerer and the shaman proper.
Although many groups did practice cremation, it was not the only fate that would result upon death. MacLeod mentions that some of the ceremonies involved with cremation suggest a previous practice of burial. In addition, mummification was a mortuary custom used among some of the peoples of the Northwest Coast. It is believed that mummification practices were a result of diffusion from the coasts of Asia in the North Pacific. Mummification was found to be most prevalent among the Aleuts and the Kadiak (South Alaskan Eskimo). An interesting note is that the Ainu in Japan have similar mummification practices. It is very possible that the practices found in the Northwest Coast were a result of diffusion from the Ainu in the 18th century.
MacLeod’s article illustrates the various mortuary traditions of the aboriginal peoples of the North American Northwest Coast and explains how and where these practices may have come about. His article will appeal to anyone interested in Native American ways of life or to those interested in the mortuary practices of any culture.
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LEONA WESTOVER Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja).
Macleod, William Christie. Certain Mortuary Aspects of Northwest Coast Culture. American Anthropologist 1925 Vol.27(2):122-148.
The author discusses the immolation of widows by burning, cremation, shaman mortuary officials and mummification in Northwest coast culture. The data are taken from secondary sources, primarily from other anthropologists. The specific peoples concerned include the Kwakiutl, Sikanni, Tsimshian, Carriers, Tlingit, Haida, Tahltan, Kutchin, Nootka, Coast Salish, Chinook, Cowichan, Quinault, Tcilqeuk, Clallam, Aleuts and Kadiak.
The immolation of widows by burning occurs during the cremation of her spouse and is confined to the Carriers, the northern Kwakiutl and the Sikanni. Widowers are also subject to this practice, but less often and less cruelly. After the mortuary potlatch, the deceased individual is placed on an elevated pyre and set alight. The widow is suspected of contributing to the death of her spouse. She is obliged to lie on the funeral pyre and embrace the burning remains of her husband until covered in blisters. If she is known to be an unsatisfactory wife, she is repeatedly flung back into the flames by the mourners. After the cremation, she carries the charred bones of her husband in a back-pack for several years until the mourning period is over. Widows often commit suicide to avoid this torture.
Cremation seems to be limited to the Northern groups on the Pacific coast. The corpse is placed in a box before being burnt, and the heart is removed and buried. Due to their status, shamans are never cremated, but rather interred in isolated grave-houses. For some groups of people, cremation is only practised in special circumstances, for example, those who die far from home or by violence (such as warriors killed in battle). Corpses are also burned so that they will be warm in the afterlife.
Shaman mortuary officials usually prepare and bury (or burn) the corpse. This responsibility is assigned to them because shamans are in contact with the spirit world and are qualified to deal with the dead. In some cultural groups there is a distinction between the shaman proper and the healer, herbalist, sorcerer or soothsayer. The soothsayer, for example, is responsible for protecting the living from evil spirits and can communicate with the corpse’s ghost. Shamans conduct sacrificial rituals where the deceased’s property or presents may be burnt. Food for the dead may also be thrown into the fire.
Mummification appears fairly recently in the historical period and is reserved for the wealthy or those of high status. Among the Aleuts, the body is eviscerated through the pelvis and body fat is washed out with runnning water. It is dried and wrapped in a sitting position. Sometimes the mummified body is positioned “as if engaged in some congenial occupation, such as hunting, fishing, and if a woman, sewing, etc.” (144). Replicated tools, masks and effigies carved of wood are placed in the burial chamber. The Kadiak only mummify male whale hunters. The author believes mummification was introduced by diffusion from the Ainu.
This article is primarily descriptive, the data is presented as verbatim accounts from fieldworkers and there is little further interpretation.
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ANTOINE GIRAUD University of British Columbia (John Barker)
Macleod, William. Debtor and Chattel Slavery in Aboriginal North America American Anthropologist July, 1925 Vol. 27(3): 370-380.
In this article Macleod addresses the different cases and forms of slavery in different areas of the Pacific Northwest, using several accounts documented by different observers. Of the different types of slavery he discusses debtor and chattel slavery. Debtor slavery involves giving oneself, wife, or children to one to whom he owes a debt. Chattel slavery, on the other hand involves no debt or wrongdoing. The areas discussed for the most part are the Northern Pacific Coast from Puget Sound to Northern California. Macleod gives his purpose for the article in the first paragraph quite simply. He states that the forms of slavery used in these areas are of great importance to understanding the “economic history” of America.
The article is laid out in a very straightforward manner. Macleod states his purpose, and proceeds to give documented cases of the forms of slavery and how they came to be.
Macleod starts off with an excerpt from the Jesuit Relations volumes. It mentions the case of a woman who wagered herself in a gamble and lost. The repercussion of her loss was a sentence of slavery to the winner for two years. Macleod gives several accounts of one becoming another’s slave for reasons of gambling. In some cases enslaved men remained slaves until they could repay their debts. In other cases men or women become enslaved for reasons of commercial debt, negligence, or harm (intentional or unintentional). Macleod gives an instance observed by A. L. Kroeber where a man became enslaved to another where intent did not play a part. A poor man was burning off his field when the blaze grew out of control and ruined a neighboring field. The poor man could not compensate for the damage and was sentenced by the “law of the region” to be the other man’s slave until the debt was paid.
Macleod explains chattel slavery and gives different accounts of it. He states that it mainly existed in non-agricultural Pacific North Coast regions and was the result of young boys and girls being taken during war times. Macleod concludes that these forms of slavery were widespread throughout North America and were perhaps diffused from Asia.
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RICK ANDREWS Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Macleod, William Christie. Debtor and Chattel Slavery in Aboriginal North America.American Anthropologist 1925 Vol. 27:370-379
This article looks at the practice and origins of slavery among various indigenous groups in North America, as Macleod notes that it is a significant aspect of the economic history of these peoples. Macleod looks at debtor slavery in the first section of the article, which is slavery due to failure to pay off debts usually as a result of gambling and also chattel slavery, in the second section of the article, which usually results because of intertribal warfare.
Based upon numerous sources such as documentation from expeditions and travelogues, as well as anthropological works, Macleod determines that slavery appears to be a wide spread practice across North America. He determines that slavery of this kind existed throughout the “agricultural, non-agricultural and stone age” (373) yet notes that there is not much evidence of debtor slavery for the peoples of the North Pacific Coast, north of Puget Sound (374). He attributes this to better social cohesion or perhaps simply a lack of documentation by anthropologists. As for chattel slavery, Macleod explores this in notion in relation to heredity. He finds that chattel slavery was prevalent among the non-agricultural peoples of the North Pacific Coast, but amongst agricultural groups of the North Pacific Coast chattel slavery was not hereditary.
His conclusions on the origins of slavery state that hereditary slavery may have been a result of diffusion from Asia, and non-hereditary slavery a variation of this diffusion (379). It is also suggested that non-hereditary slavery may be result of intertribal warfare and an attempt to recoup lost labour forces (379).
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JAIME HOLTHUYSEN University of British Columbia, Vancouver (John Barker)
Phillips, George Brinton. The Metal Industry of the Aztecs. American Anthropologist October-December, 1925 Vol. 27(4): 550-557.
The main focus of this article is the use of copper and the open question of a Bronze Age independent of European influence among the Aztecs and other Central American groups of the pre-Columbian period. For this purpose, collected artifacts are examined for their sophistication and mineral content. In trying to determine the existence of bronze among Central American artifacts, Phillips consults descriptive texts of the pre-Columbian period, such as Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico. He also notes the scarcity of copper in Aztec metallurgy while there was great skill and workmanship applied to silver and gold. A brief description of the general metal artifacts found in museum collections follows, listing the primary artifacts as bells, T-shaped implements, hatchets, chisels, and lance points.
The regions inhabited by the Aztecs had copper in short supply, resulting in fewer copper implements. The arrival of a Bronze Age into this area is blurred by the arrival of European groups, trading throughout Central America, and varying degrees of tin and other metals present in copper artifacts. Phillips often ends a list of findings with a question as to whether bronze-working was a skill learned from Europeans or the result of “discovery of the American race independent of foreign knowledge.” The artifacts themselves, upon analysis, prove to have usually insignificant or variant amounts of tin and other metals mixed with copper, most likely from natural impurities rather than being employed to create a hard alloy. Phillips doesn’t seem to so much conclude this short article as point out further the questionable nature of the pre-Columbian Bronze Age of Central American cultures, and ends by simply commenting on the skill of these peoples reflected in their stone structures and artistic ornamentation, made all the more impressive by an apparent lack of certain metallurgical concepts and techniques. Short, succinct, and not entirely conclusive, this has the feel of being a summary of a larger study, but brings the information together well, making it a good starting point for theories on pre-Columbian and early American metallurgy as well as European influence on them.
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ATHENA LOTT Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Phillips, George Brinton. The Metal Industry of the Aztecs. American Anthropologist October-December 1925 Vol. 27 (4): 550-557.
The article focuses on the idea that Aztecs (and other Central American groups before Columbus’ voyage to America) had a Bronze Age, and their sophistication assessed, in order to determine whether bronze was a material commonly used by Aztec artifact makers. Phillips also notes that Aztecs were greatly skilled in working with gold and silver, but seldom worked with copper, due to its scarcity in the Aztec region.
The Bronze Age in Mexico could either have been a result of the arrival of European explorers and colonizers into the area, or of the increased amount of trade in Central America. And there are also varying amounts of other metals in the artifacts that the Aztecs have produced. Phillips also notes that other metals, such as tin and copper, are also found in the Aztec artifacts, but attributes this to natural impurities, not deliberate compositional additions. Phillips also suggests that it is uncertain whether the Bronze Age in Mexico was a result of European influence or of domestic or non-foreign knowledge that led to a significantly more advanced use of bronze. He concludes his article by still questioning the origin of the Central American Bronze Age prior to the sixteenth century, and suggesting that this origin is indeterminable.
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NATHALIE NEPTUNE Columbia College (Paige West)
Philips, George Brinton. The Primitive Copper Industry Of America. American Anthropologist April, 1925 Vol.27 (2):284-289.
Phillips argues for the existence of a pre-Columbian copper industry in the Americas based on the percentage of the purity of the copper used in copper artifacts. Phillips believes that the native found “float copper” that had been pushed south in the ice age glaciers. Because of the copper’s availability and the fact that it is easy to hammer into shape in natural form, he believes that natives were using it much earlier than previously contemplated. Excavation sites have produced items such as duck bill pendants and fully hammered chest plates as proof of his argument. He explains that sites may have been misdated because of the assumption that Europeans were the first to introduce copper into America. Phillips argues against this assumption by noting research conducted by chemists at the Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. After analyzing the excavated artifacts most of the copper found in the excavation sites were 99.901% pure. These results are the same as the chemical analysis that were given to the Lake Superior copper samples. European copper has a chemical status of only 97.935%, containing a two percent impurity, so it can clearly not be the same as was found in the excavation site.
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GEORGIA F. MERRICK Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Phillips, George Brinton. The Primitive Copper Industry of America. American Anthropologist January-March, 1925 Vol.27(1): 284-289.
In this article, Phillips discusses the early use of copper by the Native Americans and the subsequent research that proves that this industry existed before contact with Europeans. His main assertion is that although there is little documentation of pre-Columbian copper use, evidence of an abundance of copper in the Americas as well as archaeological findings shows that the Native Americans indeed went through a prolific “copper age” before being introduced to European copper.
Phillips begins his discussion with a basic explanation of copper use in pre-Columbian America. He describes how the discovery of copper changed the tool industry in America; whereas before, tools had to be chipped out of stone, copper was much more pliable and could be hammered into shape. Because of the unique properties of copper, it was highly prized and often buried with individuals in burial mounds. The Native Americans created a wide variety of tools, weapons, implements, ornaments, and ceremonial objects out of copper. Because copper was used so widely, it can be inferred that copper had been used for many centuries, even before the arrival of Europeans.
Because of relatively recent excavations, many of the Native American burial grounds are being uncovered and more is being learned about their use of copper. By examining objects placed with the bodies and determining their origin as either European manufacture (objects such as glass beads) or American manufacture, the burials can be dated as either pre- or post- Columbian burials. In the same vein, a chemical analysis of the metals can be used to determine whether the burial occurred before or after contact with Europeans. American copper is 99.9% pure, while foreign copper is about 98% pure. A great deal of the copper artifacts found in Native American burial mounds is remarkably pure, which leads one to conclude that the artifacts were created in pre-Columbian times.
In summary, Phillips provides evidence of pre-Columbian copper use by the Native Americans based on the wide-spread use of copper and the variety of objects created, as well as the pure chemical composition of the artifacts. The majority of these objects now rest in either museums or private collections, where they are being studied and analyzed.
This article is relatively easy to read, though Phillips tends to focus more on the present-day excavation techniques and analysis of the copper than on the actual use and significance of the copper for the Native Americans.
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ANNE ATKINSON Barnard College (Paige West)
Radin, Paul. Maya, Nahuatl, and Tarascan Kinship Terms. American Anthropologist January-March, 1925 Vol. 27(1):100-102.
Radin briefly summarizes some kinship terms within these indigenous languages of Mexico. Some of the terms are similar and are no doubt related, while others show no apparent relation at all. The kinship terms come from various Spanish authors and are arranged in lists by culture.
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TANA HIBBITTS Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Radin, Paul. Maya, Nahuatl, and Tarascan KinshipTerms. American Anthropologist January-March, 1925 Vol.27(1): 100-102.
Four lines of explanatory text accompany this list of kinship terms for the Maya, the Nahuatl and the Tarascan. In each case the kinship terms were extracted from the work of a Spanish author. The Maya terms came from the Arte del Idioma Maya (1742), the Nahuatl terms from the Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana (1571), and the Tarascan terms from the Diccionario de la Lengua Tarasca (1559). As these cultures no longer exist as they did in the past the author referred to literary sources, concerned with the lexicon of the culture, to find the information. For each group the kinship terms didn’t extend beyond 1st and 2nd ascending and descending generations. For example, if ego is considered to be wife or husband, relations beyond grandparents and grandchildren are not included on the term list. Generally the same term categories were collected for each culture. Although an analysis of the terms reveals that relative age distinction appears to have been more important for the Nahuatl and the Tarascan, as there are more categories referring to “older” and “younger” kin for these cultures. Those terms used more than once in the kinship system are marked with an asterisk. Obviously it is impossible to observe how these terms were used in a practical, behavioral setting, but a comparison could be done between the terminology used by present-day populations in the area, possibly revealing something about the evolution of kinship terminology.
During the time this article was printed there was a focus and fascination around uncovering genealogical information and kinship terminology. Through this type of data it was believed that one could more accurately comment on marriage relations, law regulating descent and the inheritance of property, the migration of people, social organization and many other cultural phenomena. The fact that a list of terms could stand alone as a scholarly contribution reflects this importance.
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MICHELLE ROGERS University of British Columbia (John Barker)
Ricketson, O. Burials in the Maya Area. American Anthropologist July, 1925 Vol 27(3): 381-398.
In this article, Ricketson uses the findings of other archaeologists to document the different burial practices of the Mayan people during the existence of their empire. He gives various examples of inconsistencies in the treatment of the dead for burial, as well as differences in the burial locations of the bodies. He has been able to piece together some information about Mayan funeral practices but calls for an examination into the overall feelings about death and dying in that society.
Ricketson starts by discussing the different types of Mayan burials. He writes that some were simply buried beneath homes, while others were cremated. Still others were buried in tombs that contained more than one body. Burial “furniture” or goods like pottery accompanied some of the dead in their graves. In other cases, body parts such as skulls, were displayed by families in their homes. The author gives many accounts of sites found by archaeologists and describes the state of the bodies in great detail. He also writes of the handling of the fragile remains and how some sites were discovered.
The author firmly supports his conclusions by giving a vast amount of evidence as well as detailing the exact condition of the burials and the remains. He uses the writings of Mayan experts to piece together the motives for burial and to try to find some similarities between the different practices. Ricketson has studied extensively the works of the archaeologists who first came onto the scene of the various Mayan sites and he cites their work in great detail. He does not try to give any answers as to why the differences occur but he does state that the archaeologists involved have shown no inclination to further examine the social reasons behind the varied practices.
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REBECCA HENDERSON Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Ricketson, O. Burials in the Maya Area. American Anthropologist 1925 Vol. 27:381- 401.
This article looks at various types of Mayan burials in Central America, while also providing a critique of previous archaeological works on this subject. Ricketson article is a review of what has previously been written, while also providing his own insights. He notes that there have been several excavations done of Mayan burials, however, “exhaustive examination of any one important site is the hope of the future” (381).
In writing this article Ricketson examines the different kinds of Mayan burials uncovered at various sites such as Palenque, Copan, Chichen Itza. These burials range from simple inhumation, to burial in complicated vaults, to cremation preceding urn burial (381), and can included grave goods as well as evidence of human sacrifice. He notes that it is important to examine burials, as they are a key to understanding social stratification and thus Mayan culture as a whole. Unfortunately according to Ricketson, the archaeological literature of the time on this topic is quite lacking.
Ricketson’s criticisms fall under two categories: “the paucity of material [and] the great unevenness of work reported” (381). The first point of criticism addresses the absence of detailed documentation of the observations or excavations of these various Mayan sites. This is regrettable to Ricketson, as detailed information that may seem redundant at the time may prove useful to others studying this topic. It is not obviously apparent as to what Ricketson means by “great unevenness of work reported” (381). Upon reading the article I can only assume that he means the descriptions recorded are somewhat subjective, choosing to provide details only on certain aspects. For example Ricketson states that Landa fails to mention the character of the graves, whether they are simple inhumations or elaborate stone vaults (383).
Ricketson concludes by stating that there is an obvious lack of systematic or thorough documentation of the excavations or observations of Mayan burials. The emphasis of archaeological work prior to 1925 was on exploration (398). Ricketson notes that the archaeologists where perhaps impatient and failed to make inferences into the anthropological side of these burials.
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JAIME HOLTHUYSEN University of British Columbia, Vancouver (John Barker)
Sapir, Edward. The Hokan Affinity of Subtiaba in Nicaragua. American Anthropologist July, 1925 Vol. 27(3): 405-435.
This article is the first half of Edward Sapir’s analysis of Subtiaba, a language spoken by “a small number of Indians” in the village of Subtiaba near Léon on Nicaragua’s Pacific slope. In this portion of his analysis, Sapir began his argument that Subtiaba is one of the southern languages in his proposed North American language family called “Hokan-Coahuiltecan”. The information used for both articles came chiefly from data Dr. W. Lehmann of Germany obtained in the Subtiaba village from an elderly female informant in 1908-1909. Lehmann’s comparison of seven words in Subtiaba and Washo guided his hypothesis that Subtiaba might be related to languages in California such as Washo, which spurred Sapir’s initial interest in analyzing Lehmann’s Subtiaba data. Sapir then took Lehmann’s hypothesis a step farther to suggest the Subtiaba affinity with Sapir’s Hokan language family.
Before beginning his Subtiaba analysis, Sapir noted that he “simplified and normalized” the writing system he used to compare the languages to make his paper more accessible to American readers. He then proceeds to provide 23 pages of cognates connecting Subtiaba with other proposed Hokan languages. The cognates are broken into the following categories: body-part nouns; animal nouns; natural objects; cultural objects; verbs; adjectives; numerals; demonstratives, interrogatives, and other pronominal stems; particles; and grammatical elements. The remainder of this half of his analysis focuses on Subtiaba phonology, including vocalic changes and loss and contraction of vowels, among other things. The article’s table of contents facilitates easy access to each aspect of the Hokan languages that Sapir analyzed, and its tables help visualize the sometimes complex relationships Sapir describes between the languages.
For Sapir’s conclusion, see American Anthropologist, 1925 Vol. 27 (4): 497-527. Although it has been heavily criticized in the last 30 years, this analysis was definitely seminal in that it, along with many of Sapir’s other works, provoked intense interest in the field of historical linguistics, especially in North American languages.
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CASEY REID Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Sapir, Edward. The Hokan Affinity Of Subtiaba In Nicaragua American Anthropologist 1925 Vol. 27:405-434.
The object of Edward Sapir s article was to do a follow up on a valuable hypothesis which Dr. W. Lehmann proposed in regard to the Subtiaba language, a language which at the time was spoken by a small number of Indians of this area in Nicaragua. Other names for this language are Maribio and is known mistakenly for Orotina and Nagrando. The material was collected between 1908 and 1909 from an elderly woman from the village of Subtiaba. For a long time the language was thought to be an isolated language aside from a small group of people farther north in Salvador. It appeared later closely related to Tlappanec or Yopi, a language spoken in southern Mexico, Guerrero – on the western border of the Mixtec area.
What is known of this second language is that there is a vocabulary of sixty-nine (69) words published by N. Leon in 1912. The article states that Subtiaba and Tlappanec are really only dialects of a single language, differing no more, say, then Cree and Fox (p. 403). This the researchers felt was astonishing due to the distance which separates them. The author continues to discuss that this Mexican and Central American language is of very special interest to students of the languages and cultures of the United States because of the great likelihood that Dr. Lehmann is correct in his surmise that it is related to certain languages of California. He seems to believe in a special relationship with Washo, of eastern California and western Nevada. (p. 403) Sapir does not accept this theory.
Since Dr. Lehmann first observed the remarkable analogy between the nominal
d-prefix of Subtiaba and that of Washo, Dixon and Kroeber, J.P. Harrington, and the writer have been led, independently of each other, to affiliate Washo with the Hokan group (then consisting of Karok, Chimariko, Shasta-Achomawi, Yana, Pomo, Esselen, Yuman, Chumash, et al.) The present writer was further led to connect with these Hokan languages a group of languages (Coahuilteco, including Comecrudo and Cotoname; Tonkawa; Karankawa; and perhaps Atakapa) spoken in north-eastern Mexico and southern Texas, along the Gulf of Mexico, and introduced the term Hokan-Coahuiltecan for this enlarged group (p. 403-404).
He does not accept this theory because there appears to be a group of languages outside of this research. Dr. Lehmann may be essentially correct however, Sapir states that the Subtiaba and Tlappanec are to be regarded as a southern outside language of the Hokan-Coahuiltecan stock as a whole and not of a sub-group and therefore should be researched outside of this language group. Sapir concludes his argument by discussing:
that aside from the d-prefix, which is shared by Salinan and Chumash (San Luis Obishpo dialect) and of which reflexes probably exist elsewhere in Hokan-Coahuiltecan, there seem to be no lexical or morphological agreements that would justify our setting of Washo and Subtiaba-Tlappanec against the other Kohan and Coahultecan languages (p. 404).
Sapir then provides a list of cognate words and elements in Subtiaba (and Tlappanec) and Hokan-Coahuiltecan. He suggests that there appears to be more cognate related elements of the languages in the America s. He divides the article within the elements of Hokan Elements in Subtiaba; body part nouns to animal nouns, natural objects, personal nouns, verbs, adjectives, numerals, particles and grammar elements. In concluding, Sapir provides notes on Subtiaba phonology and discusses loss and contraction of vowels and again, provides examples. However to understand this material one must study these languages intently, and in more detail… taking a linguistic approach. I found this article very difficult to follow and understand.
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EDNA NYCE: University of British Columbia (John Barker).
Sapir, Edward. The Hokan Affinity of Subtiaba in Nicaragua (Conclusion). American Anthropologist October-December, 1925 Vol. 27(4): 491-527.
In the first half of this article, Edward Sapir began his argument that the Nicaraguan language Subtiaba is one of the southern languages in his proposed North American language family originally called “Hokan-Coahuiltecan,” focusing primarily on comparative word lists and phonology (See American Anthropologist, 1925 Vol. 27: 402-435). At the time of his study, Subtiaba was only spoken by a small population of “Indians” in Subtiaba, “a village near Léon, on the Pacific slope of Nicaragua.” The information used for both articles came chiefly from data Dr. W. Lehmann of Germany obtained in the Subtiaba village from one elderly female informant in his 1908-1909 visit.
In this article, which continues from the first, Sapir stressed that only the more surface elements of Subtiaba distinguish it from the rest of the Hokan family; if investigated more deeply with a “historical perspective” rather than a descriptive one, he felt the language’s Hokan affinity would become more readily apparent. Essentially, Sapir attempted to connect Subtiaba with his Hokan group by reconstructing what he felt were fossilized forms of Hokan morphology and linking these fossilized forms with morphological forms in Subtiaba. Sapir concluded the article by outlining a new potential classification of North American languages he called “Hokan-Siouan” that extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific and included the Hokan-Coahuiltecan, as well as numerous other language families, based upon morphology.
Focusing specifically on typical morphological stem patterns in Subtiaba and “the alternation of forms with and without (an) initial vowel,” Sapir systematically compared linguistic evidence about noun, adjective, and verb prefixes in the then-established Hokan languages with those in Subtiaba. While he obviously compiled as much information as possible to defend his point, Sapir was also quick to note instances when Subtiaba did not resemble its proposed Hokan relatives and certain aspects of the various Hokan languages that needed further study before reaching any decisive conclusions. The article’s table of contents facilitates easy access to each aspect of the Hokan languages that Sapir analyzed, and its numerous tables help visualize the sometimes complex relationships Sapir describes between the languages.
Although it has been heavily criticized in the last 30 years, this analysis was definitely seminal in that it, along with many of Sapir’s other works, provoked intense interest in the field of historical linguistics, especially in North American languages.
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CASEY REID Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Sapir, Edward. The Hokan Affinity Of Subtiaba In Nicaragua, Part 2 American Anthropologist 1925 Vol. 27:491-525.
This article is part two of Edward Sapir s research on the Subtiaba language. He focuses his discussion on comparing languages in which he considers are remotely related, i.e English to Irish. He argues that there are obvious differences in grammatical structure, but if studied more intently one will notice significant resemblances in which he believes makes more genetic sense. He says these grammatical structures are merely secondary dialectic developments which yield no very remote historical perspective (p. 491). What is considered or conventionally called grammar are of little value to the remoter comparison which may rest largely on submerged features that are of only minor interest to a descriptive analysis. In this way language is viewed (studied/researched) in a descriptive manner as opposed to a historical approach. He uses another example of the Haida and the Tlingit/Athabaskan in which he says the differences are based on a purely descriptive method and against all attempts at reconstructing the historical perspective (p. 491).
In the second part of part two of this article Sapir discusses the historical aspect of vowels within the Hokan-Coahuiltecan languages, he refers to this as the, Form of Stem. There are a large number of stems in these languages which begin with a vowel and this vowel has a tendency to drop out either in other forms of the same word or in cognate words in other languages of the group (e.g. Po.uyu eye : yu-xa eye-water,tear ) (p. 493).
Hokan noun prefixes. The prefixed d-, in which Sapir discussed in part one of this article, he explains is a freely movable element, as is the corresponding element in Washo and Salinan. In many cases the noun, if beginning with a vowel, may occur with or without the d-prefix. Except in the case of body part nouns which may have the d -prefix (p. 495).
Based on the evidence of his research, Sapir concludes that Subtiaba is a Hokan-Coahuiltecan language and is genetically related to widely different languages spoken far to the north [and northeast in areas] such as Tonkawa and Karankawa on the Texas coast. This evidence is lexical, phonological, and, above all, morphological (p. 525).
Part two of this article is a fairly lengthy article and must be read very thoroughly, slowly and carefully to begin to even understand the linguistic terminology in which Sapir uses. I found this article difficult to comprehend, if the author had used examples such as language family s with respect to dialect it might have been a bit easier to understand. He provides numerous examples in which one may have to write down themselves in order to understand the proper pronunciations and language use. Perhaps if this copy wasn’t taken from a micro-film it may have made a difference.
CLARITY RANKING: 2
EDNA NYCE: University of British Columbia (John Barker).
Shonle, Ruth. Peyote, the Giver of Visions. American Anthropologist January-March, 1925 Vol. 27(1:53-75.
Despite what the title may suggest, the article’s emphasis is placed much more on how forced movement to reservations caused Native American Indian groups to change, assimilate and manipulate their religious beliefs than how and why peyote is “The Giver of Visions.” Upon a closer look though, one could discern that diffusion of the plant occurred in response to many adverse changes that threatened these peoples with losses of identity and religious practices. Because peyote facilitated their respective religious needs for visions, many mid-American tribes accepted the use of peyote and assimilated it into their existing ceremonials. Shonle implies that the spread of peyote was only a part of the larger picture of adjustment these peoples were forced to go through.
Several themes prevail throughout Shonle’s article: the role that the Christian religion played in the diffusion of peyote; the focus of diffusion of peyote amongst various mid-American tribes from 1890 to 1920; differences/variations between respective Native American groups regarding peyote’s function during ceremonials and associated symbolism; and how peyote’s usage changed over time within certain groups of native tribes. Shonle points out that only “five or six tribes [used peyote] north of the Rio Grande” some “400 years prior to 1890.” In response to such information, and conclusions drawn from it, Shonle admitted the short-sidedness of much of the data that existed, stated that much more research needed to be done and offered suggestions to further its study. Existing studies of certain tribes and the author’s own research through interviews with reservation agents and peyote users were used as source material for this article.
Shonle identifies several factors in the spread of peyote to some parts of the U.S. and not to others. They include friendly relations, easy means of transportation and communication, belief in the supernatural basis of visions, and a need to reorganize religion. Other factors were intertribal visits of kinship groups, the proximity of tribes (especially in Oklahoma), friendships that developed between tribes, and marriage practices. All the above occurred notably in Oklahoma, expanding as far north as the Dakotas, as far east as Wisconsin (the Winnebego), and as far west as Utah (the Utes). Shonle then pointed out some reasons why peyote usage did not spread to other parts of the U.S., namely the West and Northwest. The main reasons for this were geography (the Rocky Mountains) and the Indian Shaker religion, which was in direct conflict with the Peyote cult. The author, however, failed to give any definitive reason as to why it did not spread to the Southwest.
Visions that peyote elicits are not mentioned at length until the end of the article. Here, Shonle refers to “seasoned” users and their ability to control their visions, establishing a clear religious purpose for its usage.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
AARON MENDENHALL Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Shonle, Ruth. Peyote, the Giver of Visions. American Anthropologist 1925 Vol. 27: 53-76.
Peyote, the giver of visions, is a hallucinogenic mushroom. In this article, the author uses anthropological studies of North American Indian tribes, correspondence with reservation agents, and correspondence with native peyote users to inquire as to the origin and subsequent diffusion of peyote use and the rituals associated with it, as well as its psychological effects.
While the specific tribe that was the first to use these mushrooms remains unclear, Shonle lists possible factors that may have contributed to the spread of its use, which she judges to be more important. Among the factors she lists are the segregation of Indians onto reservations, which engendered a host of cultural changes; the advent of mechanical means of communication, such as postal services and railways; the proximity of tribes in relation to each other; intermarriage; and cultural geographical factors such as the location of mountain ranges and its ecological effects on cultural diffusion.
Due to its hallucinogenic properties, the peyote mushroom is connected to supernatural beliefs that not only contribute to the spread of its use, but also to the diffusion of the religious and medicinal rituals subsequently associated with it. Here, the author compares characteristic features of these rituals and uses positive correlation to formulate her inferences about diffusion dynamics. She then uses this information to classify the tribes themselves and the types of variations found in different ceremonies. Among these different categories of variation is the adaptation to previous ideas of tribal dance ritual and the influence of Christianity. These in turn are due to the fragmentary manner in which a given ritual is introduced to a tribe, and the significance of cultural differences.
Finally, she discusses the psychological and physical effects of peyote mushrooms. Due to their effects, they are attributed medicinal and curative powers. Seasoned users claim they can control their hallucinations, and those who become talented enough are said to use the mushrooms as “the means for interpreting the Bible” (72).
To conclude, Shonle recapitulates the evidence she used to trace the diffusion of peyote and suggests additional methods for future studies, such as recording peyote songs and myths.
CLARITY RATING: 5
ARTHUR AYERS University of British Columbia (John Barker).
Skinner, Alanson. Songs of the Menomini Medicine Ceremony. American Anthropologist April, 1925 Vol. 27 2:290-314.
This article focuses on the preservation of the songs and customs of the Menomini tribe. The author provides the reader with information about the meanings of the songs, what rituals they were used for, and the links the songs had to sacred animals. Skinner does this in order to educate the layman about the tribe’s culture in order to preserve the knowledge of the dying Menomini culture before it is forgotten.
Skinner outlines each song in the article, translates the words, and explains the further meaning of the song. For example, he tells how the songs, and words in the songs, can mean the opposite of what is actually being said. He also tells of the rituals that go along with each song and the reasons why the rituals were important in order to give a better feeling for not only what the tribe was doing in the ritual, but also why they were doing it. Skinner shows the link between the medicine bag songs and animals whose skin the bags are made of. He explains the group that the animals belong to and the magic the animals have, and fits each animal into the upper and lower worlds in accordance with Menomini beliefs. He then identifies how the songs are used and the purpose each has. Towards the end of the article Skinner identifies rules for prospective fathers, rules for child bearing and raising of children, rituals for hunting and eating various game animals, and a myriad of other customs used by the Menomini tribe.
The author accomplishes his goals of fully explaining many of the songs and customs of Menomini culture in great detail. The article may need to be read over carefully to get an entire understanding of each cultural practice. This article would be of great interest to anyone interested in Native American cultures.
CLARITY RANKING : 4
JAY HANEWINKEL Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Skinner, Alanson. Songs of the Menonimi Medicine Ceremony. American Anthropologist April, 1925 Vol.27(2):290-314.
The author discusses the imminent extinction, both physical and cultural, faced by members of the pagan portion of the Menonimi tribe. Not only have a great number of Menonimi perished from the influenza epidemic of 1919-1920, but there is a palpable resistance by the surviving elders to give up the secrets of the Medicine Lodge. Added to this resistance, the songs sung in the Medicine Lodge are made immensely difficult to understand by the insertion of nonsense syllables, inverted meanings, circumlocutions, and archaic speech. However, the author, with the assistance of an informant, records the songs and presents a selection of them in this article, thereby participating in a long anthropological tradition of salvage ethnography.
The author goes through a litany of songs sung at the Medicine Lodge: songs announcing the opening of the Medicine Lodge and the entrance of its members, songs invoking the gods, songs dedicated to the medicinal herbs and roots, etc. The author notes the importance of the medicine bag songs, songs sung in honor of the animals whose skin is used to make the medicine bags and from whom supernatural healing power is derived. The songs sung during the Jebai Noke ceremony are also presented. The Jebai Noke ceremony is held one year after a member of the Medicine Lodge has died, and it is during this ceremony that the soul of the deceased is transferred to the member who shall take his/her place in the Lodge.
Included at the end of the article are addenda on Menonimi customs, including rules for pregnant women and prospective fathers, rites and rituals of childbirth and childrearing, laws of cleanliness and purity, burial customs, hunting traditions, and directions for the construction of elm-bark canoes.
CLARITY: 4
SAM MYEROWITZ-VANDERHOEK Columbia College (Paige West)
Skinner, Alanson. Songs of the Menomini Medicine Ceremony. American Anthropologist, 1925. Vol.27(2):290-314
The article tells of the ritualistic songs that are sung by the Menomini, a group of Native Americans who live on a reservation near Keshena, Wisconsin. These powerful songs are slowly dwindling down to extinction and have also been fused with other alien dialects. More often than not, members of the same tribe from other regions cannot understand the tainted songs. Skinner does not have a palpable solution for the long-term problem, but he does record the songs down for the first time onto phonograph records. The Medicine Ceremony begins by placing blue paint on the candidate’s face and ten songs are sung which call on the power of spirits. One interesting part of the Medicine Ceremony is the medicine bags. It is thought that each animal whose skins are used as bags, possess supernatural powers, these animals are divided into classes of powers. Depending on which bag one possesses, whether if the animal belongs in the Lower or Upper powers, determine where one belongs in the dance house.
Each animal has its own song that is characteristic to the animal. For example, the weasel songs are about burrowing the earth. Other songs in the Medicine Ceremony deal with the dead. There are also other songs that do not deal with the Medicine Ceremony that represent every aspect of life. Songs about love, gambling, and bravery are also sung. Towards the end of the article, Menomini customs are mentioned. There are stringent rules that apply especially to an expectant mother about what they can eat and see. Detailed procedures of childbirth and childrearing are given. There are specific instructions for twins for they are seen as a reincarnation of an old couple. Specific guidelines are also included about how to kill a bear, ancient burial customs, pigeons, canoe making, and traditions of the Sauk War. The article was very coherent and concise.
CLARITY RATING: 4
CHRISTIE AUW Barnard College (Paige West)
Smith, Harlan I. Entomology Among the Bellacoola and Carrier Indians. American Anthropologist July, 1925 Vol. 27(3): 436-440.
This article is about the similarities and differences between two western Canadian American Indian tribes in the naming of insects, and what each group uses to prevent insects from bothering them. Smith gathered this data while spending three years with the Bellacoola and the Carrier Indians of Ulkatcho.
The first thing Smith mentions is that both tribes give name to insects that they find bothersome. The Bellacoola also name insects that they find to be useful while the Ulkatcho do not. Both of these tribes give names to only a few insects in comparison to the names that they give mammals and plants.
Smith goes on to talk about the different types of insects that exist in these two Native American groups, making no clear argument in this article.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
MITCH DOWNING Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja).
Smith, Harlan. Entomology Among the Bellacoola and Carrier Indians. American Anthropologist 1925 Vol. 436-440
Smith compares entomology of two Indian groups in the Pacific Northwest: the Bellacoola and the Carrier Indians. By entomology means knowledge of the names and uses of various insects. He compares how the Bellacoola and the Carrier people relate to insects and the natural environment. Smith doesn’t make an argument with this article; he conveys information from data he has gathered. Smith briefly mentions the differences in social organization between the Bellacoola and Carrier people, but his focus remains a comparison between insect knowledge.
The method Smith uses seems to be the use of informants among the Carrier and Bellacoola. Smith’s writing style is as detached and scientific as possible. He mentions his inability to transcribe perfectly the Indian names for the insects. Smith seems to consider the Bellacoola a more “highly developed social organization.” He compares the Bellacoola to the English and the Carrier to the Turks.
Smith organizes his article by cataloguing the uses and significance of the Carrier Indians, which he refers to as the Ulkatcho. He mentions how among both the Bellacoola and the Ulkatcho, insects are given far less attention than mammals and plants. Only those insects that gave them trouble were named. Among the Bellacoola, if the ashes of a yellow jacket nest were rubbed on a child, the child would grow up belligerent. The gadfly has the same name, clez, among the Ulkatcho as it does among the Bellacoola.
CLARITY RATING: 3
BRETT BELL Barnard College (Paige West)
Smith, Harlan I. Sympathetic Magic and Witchcraft Among the Bellacoola. American Anthropologist January-March, 1925 Vol.27 (1): 116-121.
Smith discusses the theory of sympathetic magic that “like produces like” or “that the effect of something resembles the cause.” He goes on to tell us about a group located in the North Pacific Coast, the Bellacoola, who have great skills at woodworking. They have produced items such as totem poles, cedar plank houses, and sea-going canoes. Smith’s informants, Captain Schooner and Joshua Moody, who both endured the effects of Christian missionary suppression, informed Smith of the different types of sympathetic magic and how it can be beneficial or injurious. Smith gives us detailed accounts of certain magical uses, such as one that makes baby girls grow up to be efficient workers. He also enlightens us on the dangerous side of sympathetic magic and how the Bellacoola can make individuals go crazy or die. All of this magic is associated with animals and some involve the actions of the animals. In conclusion Smith gives us specific examples of individuals who have been killed by sympathetic magic.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
GEORGIA F. MERRICK Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Smith, Harlan I. Sympathetic Magic and Witchcraft among the Bellacoola. American Anthropologist 1925 Vol.27(2):116-121.
The author describes how certain animal and plant materials are used magically to affect people or events, either for good or harm. He briefly describes Bellacoola culture, then provides numerous examples of magic derived from information given by his First Nations informants.
Smith points out that despite European contact, and integration into Western religious and economic systems, many Bellacoola still believe in magic. Numbering about two hundred and fifty, they live on a reserve at the mouth of the Bella Coola river. They use red cedar extensively to build canoes, houses and totem poles. Their social organization is complex and they belong to the Salish linguistic group. The majority of Smith’s information was obtained in Chinook jargon from Captain Schooner and Joshua Moody from 1920 to 1923. The data concerned the properties of certain plants and animals. From this data, Smith isolated those properties concerning magic and witchcraft.
Magic is used sympathetically to precipitate positive outcomes. The magical actions and materials used are as follows: To make a child grow up to be a good dancer, ashes of aspen leaves are rubbed on the hands, knees and elbows. Various beaver body parts are applied to a baby girl to make her industrious or a fast berry picker. To make a boy grow to be strong, a bear skin is thrown over him. To cure lung sickness, a ritual involving the eating of phlegm and salmon eggs by crows is performed. Beaver feet are planted at spots on a river-bank to make it erode there. The sun is summoned by burning a wood-rat’s nest or poking an ant hill.
Magic is also used for harm. A fire-warmed dead mouse or wood-rat rubbed onto the hands of a baby will make it a thief. To make people crazy, a piece of their clothing is tied around a red squirrel. The ashes of a burned yellow jacket’s nest, rubbed on a child, makes it grow up to be quarrelsome. Toads have strong magical associations, and can be used to kill people. In conjunction with a person’s hair, red cedar bark or thimble berries, three different kinds of gruesome death can be effected. Smith concludes by listing some claims and boasts of various people who believed they successfully killed through witchcraft.
This brief article provides straightforward examples of magic practice among the Bellacoola. Although lacking sufficient ethnographic detail and context to be useful in further comprehensive research, it is an interesting account nonetheless.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
ANTOINE GIRAUD University of British Columbia (John Barker)
Smith, Harlan I. Unique Prehistoric Carvings From Near Vancouver, B.C. American Anthropologist April, 1925 Vol. 27(2): 315-318
This article is about two elk antler carvings found on the shore of Boundary Bay near Vancouver, B.C. The two specimens were secured on September 16, 1922, and given to the Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa: the National Museum of Canada. They were found by Mr. M. H. Whalen of Boundary Bay, Washington. The two specimens were found while digging in the road cut in a large and well-known shell-heap that extends along the western shore of Boundary Bay.
The heap is perhaps half a mile long and for a considerable distance reaches a height of over six feet. In the heap there is a row of several very large, deep pits, parallel to the beach, apparently house sites. The age was difficult to determine and was figured to be about as old as the shell heap itself. Dr. Harlan counted the annual growth rings on stumps of trees that had grown on top of the heap. Some of the stumps had as many as 400 growth rings, which would have been the minimum age of the heap and the carvings.
The carvings themselves were rather faint and slightly weathered in places. On one, the carving consisted of shallow grooves, usually narrow, outlining an animal form. The carving, one on each side, represented an open mouth with protruding tongue, an eye with a long line running back from it, short lines extending downward from both the eye and this line, and a long longitudinal line which with the corresponding line on the reverse forms a V-shaped figure pointing towards the back. The second carving represents an eye, the two edges of an open mouth, and the rear limit of the jaw or head. On the reverse, faint short lines extending up perpendicular to the upper edge of the mouth probably represent teeth. The base of this antler is irregularly rounded and smooth. The use of these two objects was unknown to Dr. Harlan.
This would be an interesting article for anyone who has an interest in ancient carvings or in Native American Prehistoric Art.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
PATRICK THOMPSON Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Smith, Harlan I. Unique Carvings From Near Vancouver, B.C. American Anthropologist 1925 Vol.27:315-318.
This short article describes two intricately carved elk antlers, originally discovered as roads were being constructed near the border of Washington and Vancouver. These artifacts were then retrieved and analysed by the author. Smith includes a full-page illustration of these two carved elk antlers, and documents the location of the site and the context of the artifacts within the site. He then attempts to determine the age of these artifacts, which First Nations group was responsible for their manufacture, and also the possible function.
Smith provides a high level of detail in his description of the site and the artifacts. He begins by establishing the antiquity of the carved antlers, using the indirect method of dendrochronlogy, also known as tree ring dating. The artifacts were located in a shell midden, which had trees growing over top. After counting the rings of a stump, Smith assumes the carved antlers to be over four hundred years old at the time this article was written.
Smith also uses methods of association in attempts to deduce which indigenous group
manufactured these artifacts. Since skulls of both, what Smith terms Athe rare narrow type and the common type@ (316), were found in the same deposit with the carved antlers, either group could have made these artifacts. Smith also concludes that these carved antlers had a ceremonial function.
This is a very short article with a strong emphasis on description.
CLARITY: 4
JAIME HOLTHUYSEN University of British Columbia, Vancouver (John Barker)
Strong, William D. and W. Egbert Schenck. Petroglyphs Near the Dalles of the Columbia River. American Anthropologist January – March, 1925 Vol.27(1): 76-90.
In this article, the authors describe a set of petroglyphs discovered in an archaeological reconnaissance along the Lower Columbia River in the summer of 1924. The article includes an in-depth look at the glyphs’ location, a classificatory analysis of the glyphs, and finally a comparative analysis of the glyphs with others in the surrounding area.
Petroglyph Canyon, as the place was suitably named by its researchers, is situated on the Washington side of the Columbia River approximately seven miles north and across from the town of The Dalles, Oregon. The petroglyphs are located on the western wall of the canyon in a channel that fills with river water only in times of extreme rainfall. There is one pictograph in the canyon and the rest are petroglyphs, which alone are not typical in the Dalles region. Pictographs are rock drawings that are typically “painted” on to the face of rocks. Petroglyphs are rock drawings that are created by making intrusions into the rock either by pecking or grounding; the petroglyphs in Petroglyph Canyon were made by the latter method.
The petroglyphs in Petroglyph Canyon are characterized by simple, broad lines and a certain “spirited and realistic nature” (p.79) that distinguish them stylistically from the typical pictographs found in the area. The glyphs are further divided into four classes or categories: anthropomorphic figures, identifiable animals (eight specific species), “water animals” (as best classified by the researchers), and conventional designs. The article discusses these categories in great detail, particularly the animal forms. It lists the eight identifiable animal species in order of their relative frequency, beginning with the mountain sheep which appears most frequently, followed by the elk, the mountain goat, the deer, the horse, the wolf (coyote), the buffalo, and ending with the rattlesnake, which appears only once. The single pictograph is of an American buffalo or bison and it is painted in a dusty red color on the highest rock of the west wall. According to the authors, the style of the pictograph is similar to that of the surrounding petroglyphs and both are “quite different from any other local styles” (p.84).
Towards the end of the article, the authors compare the petroglyphs with others found along rivers in the Northwest. There are comparable glyphs at one location on the Columbia, one location on the Snake, and one on the Colorado River. After further analysis, the authors deduce that the petroglyphs in Petroglyph Canyon were probably made by the Snake Indians, a branch of the Shoshoni. The authors clearly state however, that such conclusion are only tentative and further research would be required to verify such results. The overall purpose of the article is to present the reader with a complete classificatory analysis of the petroglyphs discovered in Petroglyph Canyon and to suggest from the analysis the glyphs’ possible artists.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
ANGELIA SMITH Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Strong, William Duncan and W. Egbert Schenck. Petroglyphs near the Dalles of the Columbia River. American Anthropologist 1925 Vol. 27: 76-90.
Strong and Schenk attempt to associate the “interesting rock drawings,” or petroglyphs found on the north shore of the Columbia River, across from the Oregon town of the Dalles, with one of the known North American Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest. This is also presumably part of a larger effort to trace the cultural geographical distribution of these tribes in that region. In effect, they correlate these drawings with all of the Great Basin tribes, but conjecture that the artist was a Snake Indian, based on a meticulously detailed description and subsequent comparison of the petroglyphs’ aesthetic, symbolic and morphological characteristics (90).
There is one pictograph in the canyon, and the rest of the artifacts are petroglyphs, some of which are superimposed upon others, suggesting intense and prolonged use of the site. The authors make direct inferences as to what the drawings depicted based on the archeological data available at the time, and from local informants. Thus, the objects said to be depicted fall into four categories: anthropomorphic figures, animals, “water animals,” and “conventional designs” (85).
As for the human-like figures, the authors make inference as to the symbolic meaning of the images. The animal figures are similarly analyzed, but in far greater detail. Eight “species” of animals are described: mountain sheep, elk, mountain goat, deer, horse, wolf or coyote, buffalo, and rattlesnake (80). The “water animals” are thought to be mythical creatures as they represent abstractions of real animals. And finally, glyphs that cannot be fit into the first three categories are understood to be “conventional designs” (80).
They note that certain generic resemblance among the pictures suggests they were made by one man. This would also explain the site’s apparent idiosyncrasy in relation to other sites of the Columbia River Area. The most closely related petroglyphs the authors knew of were located in three sites: the east side of the Columbia Sentinel bluffs, above Priest Rapids; Buffalo Rock, just north of Lewiston, Idaho; and Shinume Canyon, Utah. Based on this evidence, they conclude that the petroglyphs were most likely made by Snake Indians, a branch of the Shoshoni.
CLARITY RATING: 4
ARTHUR AYERS University of British Columbia (John Barker).
Teeple, John E. Maya Inscriptions: Glyphs C, D, and E of the Supplementary Series.American Anthropologist January-February, 1925 Vol.27(1):108-115.
This article deals with Mayan inscriptions associated with their calendar system. The inscriptions in question are called the Supplemental Series, which are associated with the Initial Series. The purpose of this article is to determine a method of reading three of the glyphs (C, D, and E) from the Supplemental Series, along with their attached number, and apply them to the reading of the Initial Series.
The Supplementary Series of glyphs usually contains eight inscriptions which are known as Glyphs G, F, E, D, C, X, B, and A (from left to right). Glyphs C, D, and E, of concern for this article, usually have a number attached to them. These Supplementary Series of glyphs, with their attached number, are supposed to help “determine the date of the Initial Series in some other form of reckoning” (p. 108).
The author states that the work consisted of an arithmetical analysis of eighty-four glyphs from the Supplementary Series to bring the various series into agreement for reading. Instead of compiling a list of the several thousand computations, an explanation of the findings is shown. However, the explanation is mainly in a raw data format.
In the explanation, the author goes through several of the eighty-four glyphs, giving examples of how many days each stands for. For example, “Glyph E itself apparently stands for 20 days, 3E represents 23 days, 6E represents 26 days, etc.” (p. 109). He then goes on to explain how group readings would work; for example “10D, 5C would represent 10 plus 148 days = 158 days” (p. 109). For the inscriptions not included within the text, there is a series of tables outlining the complete results.
The results, as inferred from the tables, were gathered where there was a known (complete) initial starting date, as well as a complete glyph. The results show that 70 dates are in complete agreement, 8 dates needed slight corrections, and 6 dates do not agree with reading used, in that they do not match up with the next cycle’s beginning date. Possible sources of error for the readings included those on the part of the original sculptor or most likely that they were not fully clear as to the forms used by the sculptor, causing a misreading of the glyph.
The reader should have some understanding of the Mayan calendar system, including the Initial and Supplementary Series. The interpretation of the data seems as though it is the opinion of the author, not necessarily definitive.
CLARITY RANKING: 2
CHRIS SWOPE Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Teeple, John E. Maya Inscriptions: Glyphs C, D, and E of the Supplementary Series. American Anthropologist 1925 Vol.27: 108-115.
This article is about the seven to eight glyphs in the Supplementary Series that accompany most Initial Series in Maya inscriptions. The Supplementary Series is assumed to determine the date of the Initial Series in (probably) lunar terms but until now the exact time system used is unknown. This piece depicts the author’s findings, after “many thousands of computations,” of the possible temporal values of glyphs C, D, and E.
The author includes previous works and theories on the glyphs that function as starting points for his project. One theory is that Glyphs C, D, and E may refer to “lunation” groups in the Dresden Codex in which successive moons are recorded in groups of five or six. He assumes that Glyph C represented “the number of complete lunations which had occurred since the end of the last five or six group.”
The author finds that Glyph C does represent the number of completed lunations since the end of the last moon group. He even calculated the value of Glyph C with numerals attached: 2C is equal to 59 days, 4C is equal to 118 days, etc. Glyphs D and E represent the remaining days less than a complete “lunation.” When the remaining days are greater than twenty, Glyph E is used and Glyph E alone stands for 20 days. 3E represents 23 days, 6E represents 26 days, and so on. When the remaining days are less than twenty, Glyph D is used which stands for a single day: 8D stands for eight days, 19D for 19 days, etc.
A table is provided which includes the name of the monument on which the inscriptions are found, the city where the monument is located, the Initial Series, the values of Glyphs C, D, E, and the date when the last moon group ended. The values in his table supports his reading of Glyphs C, D, and E. The previously mentioned lunations or months in five or six groups seem to vary from city to city and the author has yet to determine the exact temporal system if there was a uniform system used at all.
The author assumes too many things in this article. He seems to assume that all his readers are Mayan inscription experts and he jumps into his analysis with hardly an introduction into this dense subject matter. The author hardly pauses to explain any of his terms or reasoning. Terms such as “lunation”, “tzolkin” and “glyphs” were vaguely if at all defined in this article. His table though organized and interesting, is a puzzle to Mayan culture and temple inscription novices. The topic of this article is very interesting and the lack of clarity is therefore frustrating.
CLARITY RANKING: 2
CHRISTINE MESIAS Barnard College (Paige West)
Teeple, John E. Maya Inscriptions: Further Notes on the Supplementary Series. American Anthropologist October-December, 1925 Vol. 27(4):544-549.
This article is a continuation of another written by the author earlier that year (“Maya Inscriptions: Glyphs C, D, and E, of the Supplementary Series” American Anthropologist Vol. 27: pg. 108-115). In the previous article, Teeple deals with the reading of Supplementary Series Mayan glyphs in relation to the Initial Series glyphs they accompany, with the theory that the Supplementary Series represented a form of dating.
Most Initial glyphs are accompanied by a group of seven or eight glyphs, called the Supplementary series. Most of these Supplementary glyphs have numerals attached. Teeple focuses on glyphs C, D, and E and their numerals. He surmises that D equals the number of days elapsed since the last point of observation of the moon provided the days are less than twenty. E is used with the days equal twenty or more, and C is the number of complete “lunations in addition that had elapsed since the end of the last moon group of five or six lunations.” While there is ample proof for D and E, C is assumed from examples. In this article, Teeple shows that when applied to varied inscriptions, these date calculations show lapses in accuracy in the Maya calendar, causing discrepancies of two-three days at most. Teeple allows that absolute accuracy to the day was “too much to expect from people in their state of development and with their means of reading data.”
Using this dating system, Teeple demonstrates the Maya Tzolkin as an instrument for following eclipse dates, if you have any fixed starting point as provided by various Maya inscriptions. In this part of the article, Teeple starts getting more and more technical, citing actual glyph data regularly and using various sorts of astronomical notes and terminology. Teeple ultimately concludes that the Maya held the age of the (new) moon in days to be of great importance, and that their calendars arranged moons in groups of five or six to end on possible eclipse dates. While these groupings of five or six can be found in patterns among any one group, the pattern fails when applied to another series of inscriptions.
Teeple ends this article with a numbered summary of eight parts: that the Dresden Codex Table was only in use at Naranjo and Copan after a certain date (either 9.14.0.0.0 or 9.15.0.0.0), that it is probable that no Initial date is the date of an eclipse, that an error of two to three days in a Maya calendar was not uncommon, that the moon and eclipse season data here “may be used to check correlation with Christian chronology,” that there is unlikely to be an exact correlation of Maya chronology with ours (after 1500 AD) due to normal two or three day discrepancies and the effects of assumed disturbances in Maya-land that preceded the Spaniards, and that any correlation must account for a new moon on 9.16.4.10.7 or the day after (this is also a likely eclipse date if within two days after the sun had passed the moon’s node).
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ATHENA LOTT Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Teeple, John E. Maya Inscriptions: Further Notes on the Supplementary Series. American Anthropologist, 1925. 27(4): 544-549.
In this article, Teeple continues his interpretation of the Mayan calendar from stele inscriptions. He uses his prior readings of specific Glyphs to then apply them to inscriptions and interpret new meanings. He addresses the issue of accuracy in the dating of the calendar in increments of days proceeding and following new moons and eclipses, in the hopes that correlations could then be checked between Mayan and Christian chronology as it was understood to that point.
Contrasting a number of specific stele engravings which give certain dates in relation to days following a new moon, Teeple finds a consistent discrepancy of 2 to 3 days in the calendar system, and he concludes that absolute accuracy should not be expected when the Mayan’s state of development and means of collecting data is taken into account. Furthermore, he reasons that the arrival of the Spaniards could have only increased the disturbance of their chronology, and therefore he has little hope that Mayan dates would prove useful in deriving correlations with the Christian calendar in the years after 1500 C.E.
Teeple refers to numerous terms and locations and utilizes a specific dating system, all presumably defined and explained in previous articles, but with no prior knowledge of the subject matter, this renders most of the article unintelligible to the common reader. Therefore, this article will be of little use to anyone unfamiliar with Teeple’s previous works or the Mayan calendar system.
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INGRID BERGER Barnard College (Paige West)
Teeple, John E. Maya Inscriptions: Further Notes on the Supplementary Series. American Anthropologist, 1925. Vol.27: 544-549.
Teeple’s findings about lunar and solar eclipse readings on Mayan glyphs are further explicated in this article after an earlier one he wrote published in the same journal explained the methods and meanings of reading glyphs. He concluded that after further study of Glyph C, which unlike its counterparts Glyphs D and E, had few examples and probability without proof of complete lunations, can be cautiously accepted. The main problem that Teeple had to deal with were probable errors of two to three days in reading exact dates of the new moon. Complete accuracy would be impossible to expect from a developing people because of infrequent intervals of calendar recording during unstable times, e.g. war or famine.
The Tzolkin, a Mayan instrument used to follow eclipse dates with any fixed starting point, was used in connection with the Dresden Codex, a book that contained eclipse-prediction tables, as a starting point of investigation. For example, days two hundred and sixty-eight on the Lamat calendar, Teeple noted, showed the unlikelihood of lunar and solar eclipses because it was noted that it occurred fourteen to fifteen days after the new moon.
Professor Wilson and Dr. Guthe’s study on eclipse dates was used as evidence for Teeple’s data. In terms of the Tzolkin, the zero day was 11 Manik, or day 167 of the Tzolkin. The first group of six moons was to have ended at 6 Kan, day 84 of the Tzolkin. The second group ended at 1 Imix, the first day of the third Tzolkin. Corresponding days on the Codex allowed for the sixty-nine dates placed in two groups of twenty-three, with the last group having varying days. The first twenty-three days were from 149-183 days with the center day 166, the second twenty-three groups started from 322-353 with day 339 as the center, and the last group was said to start from day 496 and end at the tenth day, with day 513 as its center.
Teeple concluded that the average eclipse happening in the middle of the year is 173.31 days. No dates near 9.11.0.0.0 could have been an eclipse day unless it was within days 171, 344, and 518 for solar eclipses and eighteen days for a lunar eclipse. This narrowed the field down; leading to identifying secondary series data at the eclipse dates and helped correlate Mayan and Christian calendars. Inscriptions did not show any apparent attempt to connect moon groups to eclipse seasons. The only cities that the Dresden Codex corresponded to were the Copan and Naranjo, since indications of groups of five and six cannot apply to other descriptions.
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SUE ANN NELSON Barnard College (Paige West)
Wallis, Wilson D. Diffusion as a Criterion of Age. American Anthropologist January-March, 1925 Vol. 27(1):91-99.
The main problem addressed in this article is the controversy about two classifications of people whom Wallis describes as the Ancients and the Moderns. The debate that the scholars of his day had was locating the starting point of human civilization. The familiar theory of Wallis’ day was that of evolution; however, he supports a new theory called diffusion. Wallis states that “The diffused trait is a superimposition rather than a growth,…it has not evolved out of the content of the tribe…, but has been introduced” (p. 91).
Wallis cites different books that argue the theory of diffusion is a more likely explanation for the progress of time than evolutionism. He also states that similarities in different cultures are evidence that diffusion happened, not evolution. We can use diffusion as a means to date advancements in a culture because the diffused trait is older, based on the fact that a culture trait spreads; therefore, the diffused trait is the predecessor of other traits that may evolve from the diffused culture trait. The diffused traits can expand or shrink. If they expand, then they diffuse to other cultures, and if they shrink, then they die out. The factor that determines whether the culture trait will diffuse or terminate is how open the culture is to the trait and whether or not they are ready for the advancement. If they are not open to it or if they are not ready for it, then diffusion of that trait stops at that culture. It can still diffuse elsewhere, but not within that group or its close relatives. However, we cannot estimate the age of the traits from the distribution unless we are cautious enough to make the assumption at the appropriate instance in history, but “in the absence of history we can make no inference” (p. 98).
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TANA HIBBITTS Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Wallis, Wilson D. Diffusion as A Criterion of Age. American Anthropologist, 1925, Vol. 27: 91-99
In this article, Wallis explores the idea that the diffusion of a cultural trait and its subsequent levels of development over a period of time is not necessarily a good indication of the age of the trait or the age of the culture that displays it. He claims that people have cultural traits because their neighbors accepted the traits and passed them on, instead of their being developed within the tribe. It is diffusion itself, he claims, that has a huge effect on the interpretations of similarities between cultures, and this prevents a culture from stagnating due to isolation. He also states that the spread of a trait and the rate at which it spreads depends upon the nature of the trait (93), and also the nature of the culture to which it is introduced. An example of this that he provides is the telephone, which he believes “has not spread with equal facility in all lands, the main reason being that all lands were not in the same state of culture preparedness.” (94). He outlines the fact that technology, or symbols, or religious beliefs have become parts of many cultures in the world, but only because the accepting societies were ready and willing to incorporate them into their own culture, or to accept them through assimilation.
In terms of age determination, Wallis states that diffusion of a trait can either be superimposed upon older traits, or displace older traits since a culture must already exist in order to accept a diffused trait. He also states that the possibilities of diffusion are greater in civilization than in savagery, but that this difference is simply an intensification of the factors at work in savagery, rather than the introduction of new ones (99). He concludes that the region in which a trait originates is not always the one in which it fully develops, and uses the spread of Christianity as an example of a culture trait that flourished best in lands far from the place of its origination. It is also noted that, “the place of origin does not remain the center of the area of distribution.” (97). Because of development or the lack thereof in different areas, diffusion remains a poor criterion for the determination of age.
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ALISHA ANDREA ADAMS Columbia University (Paige West)
Wallis, Wilson D. Diffusion as a Criterion of Age. American Anthropologist 1925 Vol.27(1):91-99
This article concerns the subject of diffusion and raises the question of whether or not it can be used to determine age. Wallis argues against this with a variety of points. He states that the conditions leading to the cultivation of a cultural trait differ, that the region in which a trait develops extensively is not necessarily its origin, that traits both appear and disappear and that this provides evidence of negative correlation of age with distribution. Because the degree to which a trait will flourish, Wallis argues, depends as much on the nature of the culture as it does on the nature of the trait itself an older trait can easily be less widely diffused than an older trait. In addition to this he states that when a trait is first introduced to a culture it will either superimpose itself over older traits or displace these traits entirely. To illustrate this he uses the example of the automobile which replaced the use of horse transportation.
To explain his theory Wallis relates diffusion to water, stating that cultural phases do not radiate in a uniform direction. Instead they move like a stream, spreading in much direction and with varying degrees of strength. Sometimes this stream forms a lake, other times it dries up. Wallis makes note of the fact that he believes new traits to be more easily accepted into “civilized” cultures than into “savage cultures”. He believes that this is due to the fact that so-called savages are slower to perceive the utility of new devices. In conclusion he argues that unless one is capable of placing a trait within its precise historical moment age cannot be inferred from distribution.
This argument is well presented. Wallis clearly states his theory and proceeds to justify it in a well-organized fashion. Based on his arguments I agree with his thesis that distribution does not determine the age of a trait. The one point I disagree with is his statement that “ savages” are slower to accept new traits. This is clearly unfounded and influenced in outdated theories of culture. Wallis makes no effort to prove that any culture is less inclined to incorporate new traits and instead seems to assume that the reader will naturally believe in the superiority of “ civilization” over “savagery”. Although this point was annoying and weakened his argument, it was a minor enough detail to easily be ignored. Despite this I found the argument to persuasive and well presented.
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JULIA MCCALLUM Barnard College (Paige West)
Walton, Eda Lou and T. T. Waterman. American Indian Poetry. American Anthropologist January – March, 1925 Vol. 27 (1):25-52.
“Is the Indian a poet?” The authors of this article, T. T. Waterman, who is interested in Indian poetry, and Eda Lou Walton, who has studied the poetry of the Navajo and has a professional interest in poetry, want to prove to you that “he” is. They want to prove to you that the Indian is not the “untrammeled child of nature” that so many people of the time had made them out to be but a truly refined poet.
The authors present many samples of Navaho poetry, being specialists in the field. They begin by trying to explain the symbolism behind the words and go on to further point out the meter and verse of the Navaho song and those of other Native American peoples by comparison to poetry from other societies. One of the main points brought forward by the authors is that, often, to understand the poetry of a people you must know more than their language. You must understand their symbolism and the context in which the words are being spoken and even, at times, the physical actions involved in the telling of this story. The authors go to great lengths to point out the underlying structure and form of Native American poetry by comparison with Hebrew Psalms from the Old Testament, contemporary English writing, and several older Irish and Celtic songs.
In reviewing all published Indian poetry of the time the authors categorize the works by form, complete parallelism, incremental parallelism, and repetitive parallelism, then present percentages of each, showing that the majority of Indian poetry is of the same level of complication as what we may consider refined poetry. The authors go on to state their desire to map out these forms based on social group and geographic location for the purpose of constructing a graphical representation of the dispersal of poetic styles used by Native Americans. The final point brought up by the authors is the difficulty inherent in translating Indian verse accurately with the limited knowledge of some languages and the ever so problematic issue of personal liberty taken by the original story teller and the translator.
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JASON LEE Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Walton, Eda Lou and Waterman, T. T. American Indian Poetry. American Anthropologist January-March, 1925 Vol.27(1):25-52
In this article the authors jointly put forward the idea that Native Americans are indeed poets based on the fact that their verse exhibits certain imaginative qualities, indicative of a higher literary form, and the evidence of a variety of verse structures. They theorize that one cannot regard the Native peoples as a homogenous unit, instead each tribe or culture area has its own mode of cognition, behavior and cultural representation. The authors disregard the romantic idea that Native poetry coincides with the general rhythms of nature and the “flicker of the campfire”, rather poetry relates and reflects a tribe’s specific rituals and beliefs. To further this idea of poetic specialization the authors suggest that, “even his mind is cramped, and he conforms religiously to the mores of his time and place” (26), suggesting that a shared tribal ideology results in poetic structures unique to each group.
Three pages outlining segments of Navaho poetry are included followed by a discussion of the poetry itself. Topics broached in relation to Navaho poetry include the following: the spiritual quality of the work, the emphasis on musical rather than verbal rhythm, the evidence of a connecting thread of meaning running through each poem, and the involvement of the subconscious when listening to poetry. Subconscious involvement means that the onus is on the listener’s mind to supply the narrative and spiritual connections because the meaning is not made entirely explicit. Parallelism is brought up next, this being the correspondence of terms in one line to those of another in respect to meaning rather than syllables or rhythmic groups. If present in poetry the authors believe this to reflect an “inner orderliness of intellectual expression” (38). They find the existence of parallelism in seventy percent of Navaho poetry, reinforcing their belief that this is a highly evolved and refined product. A comparison of parallelism in Navaho poetry is done with English verse and song.
The poetry of the Pueblos and the Pima are touched upon next, with examples of both included in the text. The authors believe that there is nothing truly majestic about the songs of the Pueblos Indians; line follows line in a fixed order based on ritualistic procedure. Based on their assumption that the Pueblos’ culture is “higher” than that of the Navaho they find this pattern surprising. Pima poetry is considered last and it is also regarded as less advanced than that of the Navaho. It being a form that rambles on with ideas flowing in no concise direction. The authors suggest more work needs to be done with the aim of putting together a poetic map of North America, to look more closely at the patterns of similarity and difference that emerge among tribes.
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MICHELLE ROGERS University of British Columbia (John Barker)
Waterman, T. T. Village Sites in Tolowa and Neighboring Areas in Northwestern California.American Anthropologist October- December, 1925 Vol. 27(4): 528-543.
Dispatched in 1909 by A. L. Kroeber to Northern California to “look into the native life existing among the Yurok,” T. T. Waterman decided in 1921 to investigate, at his own expense, “local ethnology” in the Tolowa territory, which borders the Yurok to the north. Waterman describes the Tolowa as an “unusually interesting group, to me, very different in some respects from the Yurok.” Waterman points out “that when we go from the Yurok northward to the Tolowa we pass rapidly out of a highly developed California culture into the much more primitive culture of Oregon.” He believes that this “degeneration of culture” is “a curious thing… and needs some sort of explanation.”
Waterman goes into brief detail about the differences between Tolowa and Yurok culture. He does point out that although they are neighbors, the Tolowa trade with the Yurok indirectly, through their common neighbor the Karok, and therefore have little contact with them. As for the Tolowa “degeneration of culture” and “more simple way of life” he provides few details and no explanation. It appears that Waterman’s main interest here is a comparison of Tolowan and Yurokan geographical terms and place names.
Waterman points out that English speakers tend to anglicize Yurokan and Tolowan place names (for example the Yurok ErL becomes Lake Earl or the Tolowa village Ybn-t’akit becomes Yontucket), while the Yurok have their own names for Tolowan villages and places and vice versa (juxtaposed clearly on two tables). Both cultures tend to name places and villages by describing the surrounding geography. For example, the Yurok refer to one of their villages as otsepo’r, which means “where it is steep.” A Tolowa example, tata’ten, is translated as “in-a-corner place.” By employing similar approaches, it follows that some Yurok and Tolowa place names share similar English translations. For example, the Yurok village, weitspãs’, is called LtcoilI’ntEn by the Tolowa. Both translate to mean “confluence.”
In the last few pages of the essay, Waterman goes into great detail about other Athapascan (the language group to which the Tolowa belong) place names to the north in Oregon. Though full of interesting details, such as the mythological origins of places and names, this article seems to be missing any real thesis. The purpose, it seems, is Waterman’s desire to share information which “may interest the readers of Anthropologist.”
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JOHN BERNHARDI Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Waterman, T. T. Village Sites in Tolowa and Neighboring Areas in Northwestern California. American Anthropologist October-December, 1925 Vol. 27(4): 528-543.
This article provides an account of the local ethnology of the tribe of the Tolowa. Waterman provides information pertaining to this tribe’s habitat. He focuses on the local geography of the Tolowa in the early 1920’s. He comments on other people who also examined the region that he was camped in and he uses their prior discoveries to enlarge his compilation of information regarding this American Indian tribe.
Within this article, Waterman continually refers to different neighboring tribes for comparison of lifestyles. By deduction, he reasons that the Tolowa and other Oregon tribes appear to live more simply than the tribes of California and Alaska who seem to have a higher culture. He illustrates the connections that exist between neighboring tribes through the likeness of some words used in their different languages.
The majority of his essay is centered on the study of words that exist within the Tolowa language and what these words are translated to in English. He provides charts that give meaning to particular words and he also offers stories, mostly myths that lie behind certain words that are used to describe the landscape and to offer greater understanding of the tribe.
Waterman concludes with a comparison of two different tribes in which the phonetic types of their languages are in contrast with one another. He accounts that the Tolowa’s phonetic type is that of tones. He goes on to say that he believes that all the tone languages are most probably connected in some way or another. His commentary on the phonetics of a language lead the reader to understand that the intermingling of different groups has led to commonalities among languages to produce words that are shared among various groups of peoples and languages.
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MIA NATHANSON Barnard College (Paige West)
Waterman, T.T. The Village Sites in Tolowa and Neighboring Areas in Northwestern California. American Anthropologist, 1925. Vol.27: 528-543.
In his article, The Village Sites in Tolowa and Neighboring Areas in Northwestern California, T. T. Waterman examines and interprets the importance of the names of local villages, towns, and native groups within the Yurok and Tolowa societies. The Yurok live in Northern California; across the bay, in Oregon, the Tolowa are located at Point St. George. Waterman was very interested in the “peculiar way of living [that] characterizes the northwest California tribes” (528). Due to a desire to take on an anthropological role in these tribes, Waterman traveled to the Yurok and Tolowa villages to live among the tribesmen. When making the trip from the former to the latter, Waterman quickly noticed the lack of development in the Tolowa tribes. He especially took note of the local geography and focused on the names of the Tolowa villages (which were actually named by the Yurok).
Through many charts and tables, Waterman looks at the names of a number of different Tolowa villages, towns, and native groups and directly translates their meaning from the original tribal language. The article gives a plethora of examples of village names and their translations. Often times, the English equivalent is a key into old tribal legends that have been passed on for centuries. The names are also commonly a description about the actual land. For example, the translation of the Tolowa name for what is now Trinidad is “Calm Ocean,” which refers to the still, calm water near Trinidad.
Although the article is composed mainly of examples of names of villages, Waterman does describe the atmosphere of the Tolowa frontiers. The Tolowa tribes mostly lived on the California-Oregon boarder. While the Tolowa and Yurok are separate for the most part, the two communities do share a few small towns on the boundaries. However, away from the boarder, the Tolowa have little contact with other tribes, for the mountains prevent any interaction.
Partly due to the fact that the Tolowa were so isolated, their culture and dialect greatly differ from “neighboring” tribes. Waterman clearly highlights the richness of culture and language within the Tolowa tribes.
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ANNA BENNETT Barnard College (Paige West)
Webb, William S. Report of a New Double Conoidal Pipe From Kentucky. American Anthropologist July, 1925 Vol. 27(3):441-446.
This article describes a prehistoric pipe that was obtained from Mr. John Cinnamon of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, who found it while cultivating land on the farm of Mr. T. J. McCouan, one mile east of Farmdale, Kentucky. When found it was not known to be of any historical significance, but because of its unusual form and color was preserved in the home of the finder, serving for many years as a door stop. The author goes on to give a detailed description of the pipe.
Several small chips had been split from the edge of the base and one of four figures carved into the sides was slightly marred, but all of the chipping appeared to be of great age and, according to Webb, pointed to the conclusion that all damage that the specimen had sustained was done while still in the service of the prehistoric possessor.
The pipe was cut from a block of sandstone into a cubicle form with the four vertical faces protruding out. The base was 4-1/4 inches long from front to rear and 4 inches wide with a height of 3-1/4 inches. The four sides of the pipe rose from the base almost perpendicularly. Into the rear face was cut the large conical stem hole having a diameter of 1-3/8 inches tapering down to ¼ inch. The bowl was an almost exact duplicate of the stem hole.
The material of the pipe was originally a rather heavy block of sandstone, probably having a large iron content, probably carbonate of iron. As a result of being hundreds of years in the soil the specimen has become covered with limonite, giving the pipe a fairly smooth hard surface, dark red in color. The author goes on to talk about the figures carved into the sides and how the pipe might have been only for ceremonial use, considering that it weighed 2.9 pounds and would have been difficult to use as an ordinary smoking pipe. The author reports that the pipe was put into his personal collection and that it had not been assigned to any particular linguistic group, tribe or culture.
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PATRICK THOMPSON Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)
Webb, WM. S. Report Of A New Double Conoidal Pipe From Kentucky. American Anthropologist 1925 Vol. 27:441-446.
Webb’s article takes an archaeological approach discussing the accidental finding of an Indian Pipe in which he refers to as the, Double Conoidal Pipe. His main objective is to describe in detail the size and shape, the distinguishing characteristics, the interesting features and how this artefact was well preserved over a period of time.
The pipe was obtained from Mr. John Cinnamon, of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky who found it while cultivating land on a farm one mile east of Farmdale in Franklin County, Kentucky. An old pasture which had been in bluegrass sod for many years had been ploughed up in the spring of 1913. When found it was not known to be of any historical significance but because of its unusual form and colour it was preserved in the home of the finder, serving for many years as a door stop. A use to which it is well adapted, being roughly cubical in form and rather heavy, weighing 1212.5 grams (2.9 lbs). Webb also provides illustrations noting dimensions and engraving.
Considering what the pipe had undergone, and the estimated age, it showed very little damage. The author states that the pipe was probably cut from a block of sandstone and presents a general cubical appearance, having four vertical faces, each being an approximate rectangle. The four faces of the pipe rise from the base almost perpendicularly. Into the rear face is cut the large conical stem hole. The stem hole is almost an exact duplicate of the bowl, which as the same depth and slope of side. These two conical drillings could have been made by the same blunt reamer.
The original material was a heavy sandstone possibly having a large content of iron, however the sandstone had undergone a change, (after the manufacture of the pipe) as a result of being hundreds of years well preserved in the soil. He describes the specimen as being covered with limonite, giving the pipe a fairly smooth hard surface and dark red in colour. One of the most striking features of this artefact is the medallion-like disks raised nearly a quarter of an inch above the face of the pipe, one on the right and another on the left face of the pipe as one views the stem hole. Upon each of these raised disks is engraved a human face.
Webb then speculates the fundamental use of the pipe, because of its shape it was fairly easy to hold in the hand, and because of its weight it might easily have served to crack nuts, or buffet a stone chisel, it being not an unusual thing to find evidence that among stone age men one tool served two or more purposes. And considering the weight of the pipe would make one wonder, how it was supported while in use as a pipe. There is no real estimation of how old this pipe is and as far as the owner knows it had not been assigned to any one linguistic group, tribe or culture.
In terms of archaeology, this article was easy to understand. Webb accomplishes his objective of describing The Double Conoidal Pipe, in detail, although he could take this a step further in estimating what tribe or culture this pipe may have originated from by where the pipe was located.
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EDNA NYCE: University of British Columbia (John Barker)