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AN INTKODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

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AN INTRODUCTION TO
ANTHROPOLOGY

A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EARLY HISTORY
OF THE HUMAN RACE

BY THE

REV. E. O. JAMES, B.Lirr., F.C.S,

VICAR OF ST. PETER'S, LIMBHOUSE
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
AUTHOR OF "PRIMITIVE RITUAL AND BELIEF," ETC.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1919

COPYRIGHT

•JUN 3 1958

GLASGOW : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY

BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.

PREFACE

IN recent years the progress of scientific research
in the department of prehistoric archaeology has
been such that there seems to be room for a small
volume setting forth the results arrived at by
archaeologists in terms that can be understood
by ordinary intelligent readers. The books hither-
to published on the subject have been confined
for the most part to special aspects of early culture,
and, therefore, are not intended to cover the whole
field of the life of man before history (i.e., the
era prior to written records). In the selection
of subject matter, it has been the purpose of the
author to give a resume of the conclusions arrived
at by specialists in their several departments,
in such a manner as to present a consecutive
account of the early history of the human race.
References are given in footnotes to enable the
serious student to investigate the evidence for
himself, and frame his own conclusions. In this
way it is hoped that the book may be of value

vi PREFACE

to those persons who are about to pursue a
systematic course of training at the University
of Oxford or London for a Diploma in Anthro-
pology, as well as to the general reader.

It will be readily understood that in a work of
this kind no attempt can be made to enter into
detailed investigations of such complex problems
as those dealing with the migrations of early
culture. It must be left to Prof. Elliot Smith
to verify his hypothesis by comparing the dis-
tribution of the various elements belonging to
the supposed megalithic culture on a world-wide
scale, and to Dr. Rivers and Mr. Perry to test
the theory by means of more intensive regional
studies. If their conclusions are correct, then a
vital transformation must take place in our whole
attitude towards the culture of savage people
and its supposed primitiveness. But for the
present the writer of an " introduction " to pre-
historic archaeology must be content to follow
the more generally accepted view, and merely
state as fairly as possible the points at issue. The
same applies to the controversy regarding the age
of the Grime's graves and Cissbury flint-mines.

The author desires to express his indebtedness
to Mr. Henry Balfour of Oxford for revising the
entire MS., and, with his characteristic attention

PREFACE vii

to accuracy, enabling him to avoid many pitfalls.
To Dr. W. H. E. Eivers of Cambridge, Mr. J.
Reid Moir, and Mr. Demant for their invaluable
assistance and suggestions ; also to Mrs. James
for her help with the preparation of the MS.

E. 0. JAMES.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,
LONDON.

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION

A SURVEY OF THE EVOLUTION HYPOTHESIS- -. - 1

CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 23

CHAPTER II.
THE CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN 65

CHAPTER III.

THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF PRIMEVAL MAN - - 93

CHAPTER IV.

THE RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN - - - - - 132

CHAPTER V.

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION - 180

CHAPTER VI.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES - - - 213

INDEX 256

INTRODUCTION.

A SURVEY OF THE EVOLUTION HYPOTHESIS.

ANTHROPOLOGY (" the science of man," from
av6p<*)7To$ and Ao^o?), in the usually accepted
sense of the term, deals more particularly with
the origin and place of man in evolution, his de-
velopment as an individual and as a race ; the
physical and mental changes he has undergone
in his struggle for existence ; and lastly, his social
organization and religion. The large and steadily
increasing amount of material in this new field of
research more than justifies its existence as a
separate branch of natural science ; in fact, so
wide is the range of the subject that it has been
found necessary to divide it into various sections.
In England we employ the term " anthropology "
to cover all the phenomena dealing with the earlier
stages of the history of mankind, subdividing
it into its several departments. The following
classification proposed by the Committee for
Anthropology of the University of Oxford sets
forth the scope of the science :

2 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

I. PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY.

(1) Zoological : The comparative study of the
anatomical and other physical characters which
determine the zoological position of man, with
special reference to the group anthropomorpha.

(2) Palaeontological : The antiquity of man,
as ascertained by geological and anatomical
evidence.

(3) Ethnological : The comparative study of
the physical characters which distinguish the
principal races of mankind from each other.
The classification and geological distribution of
races and sub -races. The influence of environment
upon physique. The elements of anthropometry,
the physiology of sensation, and the methods of
the comparative study of the senses.

II. CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY.

(1) Archaeological : The antiquity of man as
ascertained by the earliest remains of his handi-
work. The chief characteristics of the prehistoric
periods, and the methods employed in determining
their sequence and duration. The persistence of
early conditions of culture in later times.

(2) Ethnological : The comparative study and
classification of peoples, based upon conditions of
material culture, language, and religious and social
institutions and ideas, as distinguished from physical

INTRODUCTION 3

characters. The influence of environment upon
culture.

(3) Sociological : The comparative study of social
phenomena, with special reference to the earlier
history of :

(a) Social organisation (including marriage-

customs), government, and laws ;

(b) Moral ideas and codes ;

(c) Magical and religious practices and beliefs

(including treatment of the dead) ;

(d) Modes of communicating ideas by signs,

articulate language, pictographs, and
writing.

(4) Technological : The comparative study of
the origin, development, and geographical distri-
bution of the principal arts and industries, with
their appliances.

In the following pages we shall confine our
attention to that part of the subject which throws
light on primeval man as distinct from modern
races that have remained in a primitive state of
culture, using the latter to supplement the archaeo-
logical evidence at our disposal.

Since the publication of The Origin of Species
in 1859, the outlook of the scientific world has
been entirely changed regarding the early history
of mankind. Long before Charles Darwin formu-
lated his hypothesis scientific opinion had been

4 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

inclining towards the view that species were
derived from other species by some unknown law.
The idea of the mutability of species is to be found
in the teaching of the Greek philosophers, as, for
example, Aristotle, who thought that there had
been a continuous succession of animals, plants,
and zoophytes, resulting from the original meta-
morphosis of inorganic matter, which constituted
the origin of life. On this hypothesis man was no
exception to the universal rule, since he was only
distinguished from the other animals by certain
features — by the relative size of the brain, by two-
leggedness, and mental characters. But he was
too impressed with intelligent design in Nature to
appreciate the principle of natural selection dimly
foreshadowed in the writings of Empedocles.
Lucretius, who attributes all his philosophy and
science to the Greeks, in his De Rerum Natura,
gives a wonderful picture of primeval man, " strong
built of ampler bones," without knowledge of
agriculture, fire or clothing, living on the products
of the chase, gradually softened by the " warm
hearth " and " fond caress of prattling children."
Similarly we find in the Satires of Horace a reflection
of the current Greek thought. Man, when first
he crept from out of earth's womb, was, we are told,
but a " dumb, speechless creature, with scarce
human form," fighting " with nails and double
fists for acorns or sleeping-holes at night." Thus

INTRODUCTION 5

the speculative minds of ancient Greece had in a
measure formulated the evolution hypothesis ;
but with the displacement of philosophy by Chris-
tianity, interest centred round the Creator rather
than the creature.

The early Church was content to regard the
whole realm of Nature as the work of the Divine
Logos (cf. St. John i. 1), acting in conjunction with
the other persons in the Blessed Trinity (Acts iv. 24).
The disciples, like their Master, were absorbed in
the thought of the loving Father Who " maketh
His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth
rain on the just and on the unjust," Who feeds the
birds of the air, and clothes the grass of the fields,
and in Whom man " lives and moves and has his
being." St. Paul's teaching was more or less
based on the Hebrew cosmogony, although the
Gnostics were the first actual Christian cosmog-
onists. This sect assumed the existence of a good
God and a Demiurge, a Divine world and a material
world (£A>/), a world of light and a world of
darkness. The cosmos and man were created by
the Demiurge, although the latter received sparks
of the Divine Nature, and struggles to free himself
from the bondage of the material universe. Thus,
Gnosticism is a combination of Greek and Zoro-
astrian dualism. The Logos, who became manifest
in the Christ, was set by the good God to rescue
man from " the Prince of this world," and the

6 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

bondage of evil (v\y). The Fathers in contro-
verting this heresy applied a literal interpretation
to the story of the Creation and the Fall as given
in Genesis. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of
Alexandria, Origen, Hippolytus and the Nicene
Fathers rejected the Gnostic theory of the Demiurge,
and emphasized the co-operation of the Logos in
the work of creation.

St. Augustine distinctly formulated a theory of
evolution based on the cosmogony of Genesis.1
He said nothing of the inter-relations of species,
but he emphatically declared in favour of creation
by growth. The schoolmen likewise interpreted
creation more or less in Aristotelian terms, even
going so far as to find the origin of life in putrefac-
tion 2 — a theory revived in scientific dress at the
present day by Dr. Bastian. Anselm, some years
before, had reconciled the creation narrative in
Genesis with platonic philosophy,3 postulating the
existence of the cosmos eternally in the Divine
Mind. This view was taken more or less by the
Mystics of the later Middle Ages. It was, however
(as Huxley and Mr. A. L. Moore have pointed out),
largely through the influence of Milton's Paradise
Lost that the doctrine of special creation found its
way into post-reformation theology. People have

1 De Genesi ad literam, lib. v. cap. v. and xxiii.

2 S. Thorn. Aq. Summa Theol i. Ixix. 2.
8 Monolog. ix.

INTRODUCTION 7

unconsciously come to regard the theory as a kind
of inspired gloss on the early chapters of Genesis.
Yet there is a huge difference between the text
and the commentary. In the Bible we have,
" And God said, Let the earth bring forth, etc.,"
words which are at least consistent with a gradual
development. But Milton says :

" The grassy clods now calved ; now half appeared
The tawny lion, pawed to get free
His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds
And rampart shakes his brinded mane ; the ounce,
The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole
Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw
In hillocks : the swift stag from under ground
Bore up his branching head : " 1

This literal interpretation of the narrative was
characteristic of Protestant theologians about the
time of the Keformation. Thus Luther, com-
menting on Genesis I. says, " Moses is writing
history and reporting things that actually hap-
pened." 2 Again, Calvin maintains that " God
was pleased that a history of the creation should
exist," and (quoting from St. Augustine) he adds
that " He made a hell for the inquisitive." 3 The
theory of special creation is therefore one of the
many heritages of doubtful value bequeathed to
us by Protestantism.

1 Par. Lost, bk. vii. 414 ff. ; cf. Moore, p. 178.

2 Meldet geschenene Dingi. 3 Instit. i. Ixiv. 1.

8 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Gradually this doctrine of the fixity of species
took definite shape through the labours of John
Ray, Milton's younger contemporary, and others,
till it reached its climax in the great work of
Linnaeus (1707-78), the able botanist who " found
biology a chaos and left it a cosmos." The genius
of Linnaeus lay in classification. In his Systema
Naturae he placed Homo Sapiens as a distinct
species in the order Primates together with the
apes, the lemurs, and the bats, and further classified
the varieties of man into four divisions, according
to the colour of the skin and other characteristics.
Nevertheless he concluded that " species tot sunt,
quot diversas formas ab initio produxit Infinitum
Ens, quae formae secundum generationis in inditas
leges produxere plures, ab sibi semper similes." 1
Had Linnaeus carried his researches farther and
tackled the question how the existing differences
in species came about, he would have probably
arrived at another conclusion.

Contemporary with the great botanist lived
another biologist, Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte
de Buff on. Like Linnaeus he attacked the subject
from the hypothesis that species were endowed by
the Creator with certain fixed characteristics, but
he had no sympathy with the former's system of
classification. " Une verite humiliante pour 1'homme
c'est qu'il doit se ranger lui-meme dans la classe des

1 Philosophia Botanica.

INTRODUCTION 9

animaux," he says. A further examination of the
anatomical evidence, however, soon showed him
that there are in the animal body organs of little or
no purpose ; in fact, that each organism is in reality
a combination of other organisms, and that man
too " must take his place in the ranks of animals,
being, as he is, an animal in every material point."
This conclusion was a distinct step towards the
formulation of the hypothesis of the mutability
of species, and the conception of the derivation of
groups of species showing structural resemblance
from a common ancestor. Buffon, however, care-
fully avoided suggesting this theory of the origin
of species, mindful of the fact that the eyes of the
Sorbonne were upon him. He went so far as to
hint at a possible ancestor of the horse and ass, and
of the ape and man, carefully adding the saving
clause that since the Bible affirms the contrary
" of course the thing cannot be."

His immediate successors apparently did not
share his regard for the doctrine of special creation,
since both Erasmus, Darwin and Lamarck put
forth almost simultaneously a theory of evolution,
in which they attributed alteration in type to en-
vironment, the acquired characters becoming heredi-
tary. The latter believed that the more complex
species were developed from pre-existent simpler
forms. The change, he thought, was brought
about by the use or disuse of organs and other

10 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

physical conditions of life such as environment, etc.
After tracing organic life back to the monad stage,
in 1809 he boldly proclaimed the descent of man
from the anthropoid apes, showing their anatomical
resemblances, and setting forth an hypothesis of
a race of quadrumanous apes, that mastered all
the other animals, spreading in all directions, and
gradually acquiring the power of speech and other
human faculties.1

Against this view Cuvier threw the weight of
his geological knowledge. He contended that the
geological ages ended with sudden catastrophes
which annihilated all life, and that species were
then created afresh. His great knowledge of
comparative anatomy and geology rendered him
a powerful adversary against the Lamarckians,
more especially as the science of embryology was
hardly born when Cuvier won his famous victory
over the evolutionists at the Academy of Sciences
at Paris in 1830.

Von Baer published in 1827 an account of the
development of the chick, and at the same time
showed the similarity in the mode of origin
of these animals with others lower in the scale.2
His further researches showed the marked resem-
blance between the early embryos of the vertebrates.
In the course of development the fish-like qualities

1 Philosophic Zoologique.

2 Epistola de ovi mammalium et Jiominis genesi.

INTRODUCTION 11

(gill-clefts, etc.) of the embryo destined to become
a bird disappear, and unmistakable avian character-
istics become pronounced.

Contemporary with these revelations appeared
LyelPs Principles of Geology (1830), which showed
that there is no reason for supposing the inter-
polation of a series of cataclysmal changes in the
rocks as suggested by Cuvier. By abolishing the
catastrophe theory of special creation the palaeon-
tologist was faced with the problem of explaining
the connexion between the fossil and modern
forms of life, and accounting for the apparent
genetic continuity between them. To-day the
botanist of the Linnaean school is faced with a
similar difficulty, since the apparently clear dis-
tinction between the flowering and non-flowering
plants has been broken down by the discovery of
the connecting links in the Lycopodiaceae, Rhizo-
carpeae, and Gymnospermeae. The groups of fungi,
algae, and licheneae have now completely run into
one another, and when the lowest forms of each
are alone considered, even the animal and vegetable
kingdoms cease to have a definite dividing line.

But perhaps the greatest opponent of the doctrine
of special creation is the science of comparative
embryology. Among other things it has shown
the existence of numerous rudimentary organs
in the bodies of man and beast. The whale, for
instance, possesses in the embryo state a complete

12 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

set of teeth together with rudimentary hind legs,
furnished with bones, joints and muscles, of which
there is no trace externally. The teeth disappear
before birth, but the vestigial legs remain, though
concealed from view within the body. The vermi-
form appendix, the canine teeth, the caecum, the
coccyx, the inter and supra condyloid foramina
of the humerus, are rudimentary or vestigial
organs, useless in the human economy, which
testify to the fact that " the original form of all
organisms is one and the same, and that out of
this one form, all, the lowest as well as the highest,
are developed in such a manner that the latter
pass through the permanent forms of the former
as transitory stages." l Mr. Robert Chambers in
his famous Vestiges of the Natural History of
Creation (1844) pointed out that on the hypothesis
of special creation the existence of rudimentary
organs " could be regarded in no other light than
as blemishes or blunders." 2 On the other hand,
on the theory of a genetic connexion between the
different forms of species they become intelligible
and exactly what would be expected. " Thus we
can understand," says Darwin, " how it has come
to pass that man and all other vertebrate animals
have been constructed on the same general model,

1 Quoted from Meckel in Osborn's From the Greeks to Darwin,
p. 212.

2 Ibid. p. 202.

INTRODUCTION 13

why they pass through the same early stages of
development, and why they retain certain rudiments
in common. Consequently, we ought frankly to
admit their community of descent : to take any
other view is to admit that our structure, and
that of all the animals around us, is a mere snare
to entrap our judgment. This conclusion is greatly
strengthened if we look to the members of the
whole animal series and consider the evidence
derived from their affinities or classification, their
geographical distribution and geological succes-
sion." l This conclusion had in a measure been
reached by Goethe (1749-1832), who was the first
to use the evolution idea as a guiding principle in
the interpretation of vestigial structures in man.
At the same time he realised that organisms try
to compromise between specific inertia and indi-
vidual change. The Goethian theory of an in-
herent progressive impulse which lifts organisms
from one stage of organisation to another influenced
Chambers in the production of the Vestiges.

Three years after the publication of the Vestiges
M. Boucher de Perthes, who had been working for
years on the gravel beds of the Somme, exhibited
a number of flint implements associated with
extinct fauna in the high terrace river gravel beds.
This was by no means the first time that pre-
historic flints had been laid bare. Towards the end

1 Descent of Man, p. 25.

14 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

of the seventeenth century the first recorded dis-
covery was made in England. A fine pear-shaped
implement — obviously a human artefact — was
found, with the tooth of an extinct elephant,
opposite to Black Mary's, near Grays Inn Lane in
London. This was described as a British weapon,
and put in the Sloane collection as such. Stone
implements of the Neolithic type had already been
found in Italy, and placed in the Vatican Museum
as thunderbolts — the explanation of stone axes,
etc., given by writers in the Middle Ages, such as
Gesner and Agricola. The flint arrowheads which
were found from time to time on the surface of the
ground were regarded by the uncultured folk as
the weapons of a mythological race that inhabited
the earth in former days. Several people, acquainted
with native customs, who were therefore familiar
with the use of flints by aboriginals, suggested
that these so-called thunderbolts were in reality
human artefacts,1 but their true significance was
not recognised till 1797, when Mr. John Frere, in
describing his discoveries at Hoxne in Suffolk,
referred these implements to a very remote period
indeed, and to a people who had not the use of
metals.2

1 Mercati, physician to Clement VIII., at the end of the sixteenth
century appears to have been the first to assign the flints to a people
unacquainted with bronze and iron.

2 Archaeologia, xiii. p. 204.

INTRODUCTION 15

In the next century geologists and archaeologists
worked together, and concluded that the imple-
ments associated with gravel beds and extinct
mammals must be connected. In 1806 a com-
mission was appointed to investigate the geology
of Denmark. This led to the examination of the
famous kitchen middens (shell mounds) and the
dolmens, and in consequence to the collection of
a vast quantity of flint implements, which in due
course were arranged and classified in chronological
order. In 1825 the Rev. J. MacEnery, the Roman
Catholic chaplain at Tor Abbey, explored Kent's
Cavern near Torquay, in company with Mr. North-
more, and found flint implements in association
with the remains of the cave-bear and cave-hyena,
below a thick, continuous sheet of stalagmite.
Three years later a similar discovery was made in
France by Tournal and Christol, and shortly after
(1833) Schmerling described his explorations in
the caves near Liege, in which flints were not only
associated with the bones of such extinct animals
as the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, etc., but also
with a few human remains. Then came the afore-
said researches of Boucher de Perthes between
1839 and 1846, which led not only to archaeologists
assigning to man a tremendous antiquity corre-
sponding to that of the fauna of the Pleistocene
or Glacial epoch, but also suggesting that at first
man was but a tool-making animal. This latter

16 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

conclusion was greatly supported by the discovery
of human remains — to be described in the subse-
quent chapters — bearing a striking resemblance
to the anthropoid apes, and primitive man of
to-day.

Contemporary with these finds there appeared
in 1859 the epoch-making work by Charles Darwin,
The Origin of Species. In this volume, which has
probably influenced human thought more than
any other book of modern times, Darwin summarised
the former evidence in favour of interpreting
creation in terms of evolution ; and, at the same
time, enunciated the principle upon which progres-
sive changes are brought about. He accumulated
a vast store of facts to show that the origin and
development of species is due to natural selection
in the struggle for existence. A. R. Wallace had
come to the same conclusion quite independently
at the same time. The latter was careful to point
out, however, that although natural selection
explains the origin of man's physical nature, it is
altogether^ inadequate when applied to his spiritual
and intellectual nature.

Both Darwin and Wallace found in Malthus'
article on Population " the long-sought clue to
the effective agent in the evolution of organic
species."1 In this essay Malthus showed that
disease, accidents, famines and war act as " positive

1 Wallace, My Life, 1905, vol. i. p. 232.

INTRODUCTION 17

checks to increase," and keep down the population
of savage races to a lower average than that of
civilized peoples. Darwin and Wallace inde-
pendently applied this line of argument to the
struggle for existence in the animal kingdom, and
came to the conclusion that this self-acting process
would necessarily improve the race, because in
every generation the inferior would inevitably
disappear, and the fittest survive.1 Things now
began to move. In 1863 Lyell, in his Geological
Evidences of the Antiquity of Man, showed how
the ape-like characters of the skeleton found at
Neander on the banks of the river Dussel, in
Rhenish Prussia, supported Lamarck's doctrine
of progressive development and transmutation.
Subsequently he carefully reviewed all the evidence
at that time available, in favour of the existence
of primeval man in the Glacial period, concluding
that the implements found at St. Acheul on the
Somme belonged to the early Pleistocene (i.e.
Glacial) Age.

The newly formulated theory of the origin of
species met with serious opposition both in
scientific and in theological circles ; but the hypo-
thesis was confirmed from every available source,
in addition to the able writings of Prof. Huxley,
Romanes, Weismann, and Sully, to say nothing
of those of such speculative students as Ernst

1 Op. cit. p. 361 ; cf. Darwin, Life and Letters, i. p. 83.
J.A. B

18 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Haeckel, Herbert Spencer, etc. Controversies have
arisen from time to time over some of the details
of the scheme of development. Thus, the Neo-
Darwinian school, headed by Weismann, maintain
that natural selection explains all transformation
of species, while Spencer, Haeckel, Cope, etc.,
adhere to Darwin's original hypothesis of trans-
mission of the effects of use and disuse. Certain
rearrangements of and additions to the original
hypothesis as set forth by Darwin have been made
of late years. New facts have been added, such
as Mendel's botanical researches in heredity of
characters, which strengthen the position con-
siderably.

As we shall have occasion to show in the following
pages, no branch of natural science has contri-
buted more to the theory of evolution than an-
thropology— "the child of Darwin"— and no line
of thought has more materially reacted on religion
for good than this doctrine of development. It
has shown the Creator in an entirely new light ;
it has unfolded an aspect of the Divine Mind and
Purpose in creation which was altogether hidden
from view by the quasi scientific-theological dogma
of special creation. At first, of course, the new
theory seemed likely to prove a deadly enemy to the
theologian. Hitherto Paley had been the recog-
nised authority on the order of nature. The
substitution of Darwin and evolution for this

INTRODUCTION 19

theologian and his metaphysical explanation of
the universe, naturally raised a storm of indig-
nation in the breasts of pious souls committed to
the doctrine of special creation. Consequently
" Christians in all good faith set to work to defend
a view which has neither Biblical nor patristic,
nor mediaeval authority." L

Mr. Darwin himself endeavoured to show, how-
ever, that " the theory of evolution is quite com-
patible with the belief in a God." 2 In fact, he
concludes The Origin of Species by saying, " there
is grandeur in this view of life, with its several
powers, having been originally breathed by the
Creator into a few forms or into one." As Prof.
Tyndall has wisely remarked, the evolution hypo-
thesis " does not solve — it does not profess to
solve — the ultimate mystery of this universe." 3
So far then as the " origin of species " is concerned
we may conclude with Huxley that " evolution
does not come into contact with Theism, con-
sidered as a philosophical doctrine. That with
which it does collide, and with which it is abso-
lutely inconsistent is the conception of creation
which theological speculators have based upon
the history narrated in the opening of the Book
of Genesis." Similarly, he explains that " Anthro-

1 Science and the Faith, p. 180.

2 Life and Letters, i. p. 307.

3 Scientific Use of the Imagination, p. 49.

20 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

pology has nothing to do with the truth or false-
hood of religion — it holds itself absolutely and
entirely aloof from such questions — but the natural
history of religion, and the origin and growth of
the religions entertained by the different tribes of
the human race, are within its proper and legitimate
province." l It is not creation or the existence of
a Creator, still less the matter of a final revelation
of God to man in Christ, that evolution and anthro-
pology disproves, but merely the so-called " Mosaic "
cosmogony. The true purpose of this ancient
myth has been ably set forth by the researches of
the late Canon Driver and others.

It is hardly necessary to point out in a work of
this kind that myth is not so much untruth as the
childhood stage of history before it has drawn a
clear distinction between imagery and actual
occurrence, between fancy and fact. The problems
of creation, the origin of man, and of evil, the
beginning of social organization, and the distribu-
tion of races, are cast into narrative form in language
suitable for the mental capacity of the people for
whom they are written. God teaches His people
" precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little
and there a little." The caves and rocks had not
yet revealed their secret when the opening chapters
of Genesis were written. The primitive mind askecf
" Whence came man ? ?: " How does he differ

1 Brit. Ass. Dublin, 1878.

INTRODUCTION 21

from the beasts ? ': Such questions as these, as we
hope to be able to show, were answered with child-
like wisdom and fascinating spirituality freed
from the crude and gross mythologies of those who
" had not the fear of God before their eyes." The
book of Genesis was written to teach religious truth,
and to this end human tradition was made the
vehicle of bringing home to the minds of its original
readers certain spiritual realities. Matters that
are discoverable by human reason, and the means
of investigation which God has placed within the
reach of man's faculties, are not the proper subjects
of Divine revelation, any more than the material
facts of nature are the concern of revealed religion.

It is to the successive discoveries of a series of
human fossil remains that have been made since
the middle of the last century that we must turn
to ascertain the true history of early man, and
the gradual process of development through which
he passed ere he became Homo sapiens. In the
forthcoming pages we shall endeavour to set forth
in some detail the anthropological and archaeo-
logical evidence which has accumulated since the
days of Lucretius, Lamarck, Darwin and Lyell,
and completely verified the anticipations of these
original thinkers. On such matters the Bible
can throw little light. The old belief that " there
are just as many species of plants and animals as
there were different forms originally created by

22 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

the Infinite Being ; and that these different forms,
according to the laws of reproduction imposed
upon them, produced others, but always forms
like themselves," has yielded to a " view of life,
with its several powers, having been originally
breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into
one ; and, that whilst this planet has gone cycling
on according to the fixed laws of gravity, from
so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful
and most wonderful have been, and are being
evolved.'1

CHAPTER I.

THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN,

So long as man was believed to have come into the
world as a fully equipped being — the last of a
series of special creations — there was little room
for scientific research in the matter of prehistoric
man, although even as long ago as 1843 Dr. J. C.
Prichard, who may be regarded as the founder
of modern anthropology, wrote, in his Natural
History of Man : " The organised world presents
no contrasts and resemblances more remarkable
than those which we discover on comparing man-
kind with the inferior tribes. That creatures
should exist so nearly approaching to each other
in all the particulars of their physical endowments
and capabilities, would be a fact hard to believe
if it were not manifest to our observation. The
differences are everywhere striking : the resem-
blances are less obvious in the fulness of their extent,
and they are never contemplated without wonder
by those who, in the study of anatomy and physi-
ology, are first made aware how near is man in his

23

24 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

physical constitution to the brutes. In all the
principles of his internal structure, in the composi-
tion and functions of his parts, man is but an
animal. The lord of the earth, who contemplates
the eternal order of the universe, and aspires to
communion with its invisible Maker, is a being
composed of the same materials, and framed on
the same principles, as the creatures which he had
tamed to be the servile instruments of his will, or
slays for his daily food. The points of resemblance ;
they extend to the most recondite arrangements
of that mechanism which maintains instrumentally
the physical life of the body, which brings forward
its early development and admits, after a given
period, its decay, and by means of which is pre-
pared a succession of similar beings destined to
perpetuate the race."

Since these words were written more than half
a century has elapsed, during which time Lamarck's
theory of the development of species has been
enlarged into a definite scheme of evolution de-
pending upon natural selection, the survival of
the fittest in the struggle for existence and the
hereditary transmission of acquired characters.
By many infallible proofs, some of which have
been briefly considered, the doctrine has won its
way to universal acceptance by those who are
acquainted with the facts. The science of anthro-
pology, whose business is to study man as a unit

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 25

VH V -^SS

H^ g'3
X» u S H

1*11

lias

So W

in

wS

,* PL, ,2

11

J

26 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

in the animal kingdom, has therefore become one
of the most prominent and fascinating branches
of this method of regarding the world of nature.
Closely allied to it are other sciences. Geology
and palaeontology investigate the secrets hidden
in the rocks, and thus prepare the way for the
anthropologist, by telling him the age of the
deposits in which human remains are discovered,
and identifying the associated prehistoric fauna.
The anatomist and physiologist explain the struc-
ture and functions of the human body, while the
psychologist deals with the operations of the human
mind. Ethics treat of man's duty to his neighbour,
and theology deals with his duty to his God, and
God's relation to him. Philology is concerned
with the origin, development and racial significance
of language. Sociology, technology and prehis-
toric archaeology investigate the social and legal
organization, customs, institutions, artefacts, etc.,
of man from the earliest times onwards. Thus,
the compleat anthropologist must be acquainted,
though perhaps not very intimately, with all these
allied sciences.

Before proceeding to give some idea of the
progress that has been made during the last fifty
years in investigating the early history of humanity
and civilization from the new standpoint we will
first briefly survey the geological and archaeo-
logical situation. The geologist divides the earth's

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 27

strata into definite ages, of which, the earliest to
contain indisputable evidence of human remains
is the Pleistocene Period. The duration of this
period is variously estimated. Prof. Sollas regards
the deposits which were laid down during the age
as forming, when superimposed, a depth of 4000
feet. He estimates that the formation has pro-
ceeded at the rate of a foot per century, and that
therefore the collective deposits of the Pleistocene
period have taken approximately 400,000 years
to form.1 Prof. Eutot thinks that 140,000 years
will suffice to account for the formation of the
Pleistocene gravels of Belgium, and therefore
argues that what applies to Belgium applies to
the rest of Europe. Penck, on the other hand,
requires at least half a million years to account
for the changes produced by Alpine glaciers during
the Pleistocene phases of glaciation. Prof. Keith
is content with an Ice Age lasting from 450,000
to 700,000 years. In the present state of our
knowledge the estimates are little better than
guesses, although rough calculations have their
value as rough guides of the enormous antiquity
of primeval man.

Beyond the Pleistocene we enter the Pliocene
Period of the earth's geological history. The
presence of man in this age is still sub judice, as we
shall see when we come to discuss the problem in

1 Nature, 1900, vol. Ixii. p. 481.

28 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

its various aspects. Suffice it to say at this juncture
that the Palaeolithic Period of archaeology
corresponds roughly to the Pleistocene of the
geologist, while the pre-palaeolithic or Eolithic
Period extended far back into the Tertiary era.
During the Pleistocene epoch there was a distinct
change in the fauna from time to time, due to the
alteration in climate. In the temperate intervals
the richly wooded and well-watered plains of
Europe became happy hunting grounds for large
herds of animals grazing over the verdant plains,
together with a number of rhinoceri and mammoths
seeking their pasture in the fresh herbage of the
forest. Ranging the moors were troops of ele-
phants and elks ; the bear watched over her young
in the cave ; the hippopotamus sported among the
gigantic foliage, or plunged majestically into the
river, while the cave-lion, the hyena, and other
beasts of prey lay in wait amongst the dark thickets
and large rocks ready to spring upon the herds of
grazing animals or hippopotamuses hurrying to the
water. Then came the north winds, and with
them the return of glacial conditions. Pursuer
and pursued alike were caught as in a trap, and
the majority left but their carcases as evidence
of their existence on the earth. Those that
sought safety in flight were sooner or later exter-
minated. This fate befell the hippopotamuses, and
also one or two species of elephant. Elephas anti-

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 29

quus, Trogontherium, Machairodus or Trucifelis—
the early cat — and a species of beaver, Elas-
motherium, likewise perished in the Drift period.
Other animals, like the lion and hyena, withdrew
to the sunnier south and there lingered on till the
glacial conditions passed away.

On the other hand, according to Von Zittel,
an immigration of cold-loving animals took place,
which still survive in the Arctic regions, on the
Asiatic Steppes, and in the high mountain ranges.
These mixed with the old drift fauna surviving
in the temperate zone. The thick woolly rhino-
ceros (Rhinoceros antiquus) and the woolly-
haired mammoth (Elephas primigenius), together
with Rhinoceros merckii, were able to defy the raw
climate and thus were preserved. The reindeer
followed the musk ox and other arctic fauna
northwards, and pastured in large herds on the
edges of the glaciers. The ibex, chamois, Alpine
hare, marmot, etc., that now live on the Alps,
have also survived.

According as the glaciers advanced or receded,
the animals of the drift were forced southwards,
or wandered northwards. During the inter-glacial
phases, the mammoth especially seems to have
penetrated far to the north of Europe. In con-
sequence of these oscillations in the climatic con-
ditions of the Drift era we have to distinguish the
pre-glacial and inter-glacial phases as warmer

30 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

sub-periods of the glacial epoch. Prof. Sollas
illustrates these revolutions of climate from the
Hotting 1 breccia, and, notwithstanding Prof.
Lepsius' criticism of the doctrine of interglacial
episodes as set forth by this stratum, we may with
advantage refer to it as an example in favour of
glacial oscillations.2

This breccia consists of fragments of a dark
grey dolomite limestone, cemented together by a
reddish marly matrix. The rock on which it rests
is a dark blue clay containing scratched glacial
boulders ; it is a true boulder clay, and represents
a moraine of the third glacial phase. Since the
breccia overlies this, it must be of later date.
Higher up, at a height of about 2500 to 3000 feet,
we encounter a second deposit of boulder clay, a
moraine formed during the fourth or last glacial
episode. This rests directly upon the smooth
surface of the breccia, which must therefore be of
earlier date. Thus the breccia is older than the
last glacial phase, and younger than the
last but one, and may provisionally be regarded
as representing an interglacial epoch, since it
contains numerous fossil remains of non-alpine
flora.3 From this evidence Penck concludes that

1 Hotting is a village on the northern slope of the Inn
valley, near Innsbruck.

2 Ancient Hunters, pp. 24-28.

3 Of. R. von Wettstein, Die Fossile Flora der Hottingen Breccia.

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 31

the climate of Innsbruck in the days of the Hotting
breccia was 2° C. warmer than it is now ; and
therefore the snow-line stood 1000 feet above its
present level. That is to say, only the higher
peaks of the Alps were snow-clad.

Thus the Hotting region furnishes us with
geological evidence of the oscillations of climate
in the Glacial period. The lower boulder clay,
representing the third glacial phase, witnesses to
a time when the snow-line of the Alps had descended
4000 feet below its existing level, and the valley
of the Inn was filled with ice ; the Hotting breccia,
representing the third interglacial phase, testifies
to a time when the ice had disappeared and the
mountains had been denuded of their snow, when
also forest growth, thickets of rhododendrons, and
a quantity of flowering annuals covered the bare
rocks, and adorned the dreary expanses of boulder
clay. The upper boulder clay, representing the
fourth and last glacial phase, witnesses to a final
advance of the ice when the snow-line again crept
down to its previous level, 5000 feet below that
of the Hotting interval, and glaciers replaced the
forests of the Inn.

Space prevents any further discussion of the
vexed question of the various stages in the Glacial
period. The subject is really one of geology,
though its bearing on anthropology is of the utmost
importance. Looking at it from a purely un-

32 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

biased standpoint, we feel that the general scheme
of four Ice Ages separated by interglacial phases,
as suggested by James Geikie, Penck, Sollas, and
Bruckner, is supported by stronger evidence than
the arrangement advocated by the French school
— Boule, Breuil, Obermaier, etc. — or that of Messrs.
Dawkins and Lamplugh, in this country.

The appearance of the human race on the earth
is supposed to belong to a past more remote than
the beginning of the Glacial period, although the
evidence of the existence of man in very early days
is somewhat unconvincing. It is difficult to
definitely assign any human remains except flints
to the Pliocene, although Dr. Eugene Dubois, the
discoverer of the famous Pithecanthropus Erectus
—the ape-man of Java — refers the strange creature
he unearthed at Trinil to the Tertiary epoch.

The story of Pithecanthropus is well known to
anthropologists. The site lies on the east bank
of the Solo, a stream which rises among the volcanic
hills in the centre of Java. From the deposits
of the east bank of the Solo, Dr. Dubois, between
1891 and 1894, removed fossil bones representing
twenty-seven different kinds of animals, which he
assigned to the late Pliocene. Below the fossil-
iferous bed is a stratum of conglomerate, under
which is a layer of clay, resting on a marine deposit
containing fossil shells of early Pliocene type.
It was in the fossiliferous bed, among the late

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 33

Pliocene (?) fauna, that a skull-cap, a human
thigh bone (left), and two molar teeth were dis-
covered. In his memoir, which he published in
1894, he assigns the remains to an animal having
an erect attitude like man, and a brain case with
mixed characters, partly simian and partly human.
Thus he named it Pithecanthropus Erectus, because,
although it possessed the human erect posture, yet
it presented many ape-like traits. It occupied,
in fact, according to Dubois, a position midway
between anthropoid apes and man. Therefore
it was the harbinger of a family of " Missing
links." L

Unfortunately, however, the bones, though
found in the same strata, were some distance apart,
and therefore it has been suggested that they may
not belong to the same individual. The femur is
almost unanimously regarded as human, but
expert opinion is divided over the teeth, some
regarding them as simian, others as human. This
testifies to their intermediate character. The chief
interest, however, attaches to the calvaria or
skull-cap. Prof. Cunningham emphasizes the
similarity it bears to the gibbon ; Prof. Schwalbe
sees more resemblance to the chimpanzee, while
both agree that it is simian rather than human.
The opinion of anatomists is thus divided. Six

1 Pithecanthropus Erectus : eine menschenahnliche Uebergangsform
aus Java. Cf. Royal Society of Dublin, 1895 : Dubois.

34 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

authorities regard the skull as human and six
describe it as simian, while eight (mostly French)
consider it to be intermediate, i.e. a missing link.
The forehead recedes more than that of the chim-
panzee, but the length and breadth of the skull is
well within the range of human dimensions. The
cranial capacity, however, is considerably reduced
by the thickness of the supra-orbital torus in front,
and the occipital wall behind. The capacity of an
average European man is about 1500 c.c., and
that of the highest apes 600 c.c. A Tyrolese skull
has been found to only measure 880 c.c., and a
female skull in Peru 920 c.c., but these are ex-
ceptional cases. Sir W. Turner found the capacity
of an Australian woman's skull to be limited to
930 c.c., and that of a Dravidian Bheel to be 940
c.c.1 The normal cubic content of the cranium
in Australia is about 1250 c.c. to 1350 c.c. Dubois
estimated the volume of the head of Pithecan-
thropus at 850 c.c., a calculation rather lower
than that arrived at by other investigators of the
creature. But even making allowance for a re-
duced estimate, the brain capacity of Pithecan-
thropus is about half-way between the highest
ape and the lowest men. Nevertheless it should
be remembered in this connexion that the size of
the skull-cap, or even of the brain itself, is by no

1 Trans. Royal Soc. Edin. 1911, xlvii. p. 456. Of. Ancient Hunters,
p. 38.

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 35

means a safe guide in estimating mental capacity.
Some of the most primitive remains show an
exceedingly large calvaria. The capacity of several
of the Neanderthal type of crania, for example,
often exceeds, or at least equals, that of the modern
European. Furthermore, it is by no means in
accordance with the general character of the
artefacts unearthed from the Pliocene strata by
Mr. Reid Moir, Mr. Benjamin Harrison, etc., to
assign to " Eolithic " man a small mental capacity.

Quite apart from the vexed question of cranial
capacity, a cast of the brain reveals that " the
average area of the exposed superficies equals half
the average area in twelve European hemispheres,
but at least double that in the brain of a large
chimpanzee or of an orang-utan. This seems to
indicate that our fossil being possessed already a
certain amount of power of speech." l On the
other hand, the pithecoid condition in the parietal
lobe lying between the centres for sensation show
that the brain of Pithecanthropus was unable to
reason by the association of memorised ideas.
That is to say, the ape-man was hardly human
in intellect.

Adding to this evidence the definitely human
femur, and the animal represented by the remains
justifies its name of Pithecanthropus Erectus—

1 Dubois, 4th Internal. Congress Zoology, 1898, p. 78 ; Journal
Anat. and Physiol. 1899, vol. xxxiii. p. 273,

36 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

the ape-man who walked erect. But does this
mean that he is the " Missing Link ? ?: In Pithe-
canthropus we find a being who is human in stature,
gait, and, in fact, in every respect save his brain.
All the structural characters of this interesting
specimen from Java are exactly what we should
expect to find in the transitional stage between
man and ape. Does Pithecanthropus, then, re-
present the long sought missing link in the evolution
of the human organism ?

Before answering this question there are two
facts that have to be considered : (1) What
exactly is the antiquity of the Java remains ?
(2) What relation does Pithecanthropus bear to
Palaeolithic man, and the embryonic history of
the human body ? There is also, of course, the
momentous question as to whether the bones
belong to the same skeleton, for if two skeletons
are represented, one may be human and the other
anthropoid. It seems, however, highly probable
that the bones belong to the same species, and, as
no trace of a burial is discoverable, it is reasonable
to assume that they are parts of the same individual.
If we do not admit this, we must suppose that the
teeth and femur belong to a human being possessed
of simian features, while the calvaria is part of an
anthropoid skull. Again, if two skeletons are
represented it is curious that no further remains
should have been discovered in the immediate

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 37

neighbourhood. We may therefore decide this
latter point in favour , of Prof. Dubois, who
assigned the bones to one and the same creature.
To pass on to the matter of the date of the
remains, we find ourselves faced with a more
difficult problem. It has already been shown
that Prof. Dubois claims Pliocene antiquity for
Pithecanthropus. This conclusion has been con-
tested by several authorities, who place the Solo
deposits in the Pleistocene. To settle the age of
the strata more definitely, and to re-investigate
the site, Frau Lenore Selenka and Prof. Max
Blanckenhorn arranged an expedition in 1906 to
visit Trinil, with the result that a number of fossil
forms were brought to light. Again expert opinion
is divided. Dr. Stemme regards the fauna as late
Pliocene, while others refer it to the older Pleisto-
cene. Prof. Keith is of the opinion that the
mammalian remains of the fossiliferous bed at
Trinil resembles that of the Cromer forest beds,
which oscillate in the geological scale on either
side of the border-line between the Pliocene and
Pleistocene.1 This seems to be the most probable
solution to the problem, since they include such
forms as Elephant, Stagodon, Rhinoceros, Hyena,
Hippopotamus, Babalus (identical with a Siwalik
Pliocene form), Deer, etc. Prof. Klaatsch has
recently explored the region in search of flint

1 The Antiquity of Man, p. 260.

38 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

implements made by Pithecanthropus, but without
success.

The relation of Pithecanthropus to the ancient
types of Palaeolithic man is complicated by
the recent discovery of several types of ancient
humanity of an entirely different nature. Granting
that the Trinil ape-man lived at the end of the
Pliocene, it is inconceivable that the rudimentary
brain represented by his calvaria should have de-
veloped into that of the later type, in the interval
between the Pliocene and the mid Pleistocene.
This difficulty is greatly enhanced by the discovery
made a few years ago at Piltdown in Sussex. The
site of this epoch-making discovery is situated in
a shady avenue leading to Barkham Manor, a
short distance from a beautiful piece of Sussex
moorland — Piltdown Common — eight miles north of
Lewes, and three miles from Uckfield. Near the
Manor, between the roadway and the hedge, there
is a small gravel-pit on the right hand side of the
avenue. A less likely spot for a momentous dis-
covery it would be difficult to imagine. Even
the trained eye of the expert would not expect
to find beneath this shallow stratum of river-gravel,
which is less than four feet in depth at this point,
human remains calculated to materially advance
our knowledge of primeval man. The gravel is
stratified and was evidently laid down by running
water, judging from the water- worn appearance

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 39

of some of the flints, although the Ouse is now
nearly a mile away to the north-west. In the
lowest layer, which is only six inches in thickness,
Charles Dawson of Lewes procured an unusually
thick human parietal bone. A few years later
(1911), on again visiting the spot, he picked up
another piece of the frontal region of the same
skull, including a portion of the left superciliary
ridge. On examination of his finds he was im-
pressed by the resemblance the fragments bore to
the Heidelberg jaw,1 and consequently took them
to Dr. Smith Woodward at the Natural History
Museum in London. This led to further excava-
tions, and the discovery in the spring of 1912 of
the greater part of what is perhaps the most im-
portant prehistoric skull yet unearthed.2

The remains consist of a large part of the left
side of the skull, and a portion of the lower jaw.
In the same deposit a number of eoliths were found
(bearing a striking resemblance to the eoliths
discovered by Mr. Benjamin Harrison in the red
gravels at Ightham in Kent), together with some
unworn palaeolithic implements of the Chellean
type. In the summer of 1914 Mr. Dawson found
in the upper layer of gravel a fossilised piece of an
elephant's femur, showing evidence of having been
worked into shape by human hands. If this is
really a bone implement, then the industry that

xSee p. 43. 2 Quarterly Jour. Geol Soc. March 1913, vol. xix. p. 117.

40 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

has hitherto been confined to Mousterian or post-
Mousterian times must be carried back to the
pre-Chellean era !

A very interesting collection of animal remains,
such as the mastodon arvernensis, a Pliocene ele-
phant (elephas meridionalis), two teeth of the
hippopotamus, horse, beaver, and a large red deer,
were found near the skull. The two Pliocene
beasts — elephas meridionalis, and the mastodon —
were, like the eoliths, in a water- worn condition,
and prove that the gravel was partly composed of
the remains of some Pliocene deposit, probably a
higher and older gravel of the river Ouse. The
skull, however, appears to be contemporaneous
with the palaeoliths rather than the eoliths and the
Pliocene fauna, as the bones show no signs of being
waterworn. If this assumption is correct, the age
of Piltdown man — Eoanthropus Dawsoni as he is
called — should be fixed as early Pleistocene. At
the same time it should be pointed out that Mr.
Reid Moir, the well-known expert on early flints,
assigns the " more Palaeolithic-looking specimens "
to a period preceding the " Chelles " phase. In
this case the Piltdown skull belongs to an inter-
mediate period between the Pliocene eoliths and
the early Pleistocene palaeoliths. In fact Prof. Keith
would go so far as to definitely assign Eoanthropus
to the Pliocene.1

1 Antiquity of Man, pp. 306-315.

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 41

It is impossible here to review all the evidence
regarding the antiquity of this important discovery.
Sufficient, however, has been said to show that the
Piltdown remains takes us very far back, into at
least the earliest phases of the Pleistocene, and
therefore not far removed, in point of time, from
Pithecanthropus. But the most cursory glance
at a cast of these two early types of humanity-
granting that the latter is human — will show at
once the enormous difference between their physical
features. Pithecanthropus is, as we have seen,
a creature with an extremely low receding forehead,
prominent brow-ridges, a small cranial capacity,
and other ape-like features. Eoanthropus, on the
other hand, has a cranial capacity of about 1397
c.c.,1 a very high forehead (higher than in the
Neanderthal race), feebly developed brow-ridges,
thus in some respects resembling modern man.
The shape of the upper part of the skull is thoroughly
human, and the low cranial capacity is partly
explained, if the supposition is correct, that the
Piltdown skeleton is that of a woman.

The lower jaw is perhaps of greater significance
than any other feature of the skull. So nearly
does it resemble the mandible of a young chim-

1 Smith Woodward's latest estimate is nearly 1300 c.c., Keith *
suggests as much as 1397 c.c., if the two sides of the skull were
properly restored, but Elliot Smith's rearrangement would reduce
the capacity to 1100 c.c.

42 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

•panzee that Dr. Smith Woodward has taken the
jaw of that ape as a model for his reconstruction.
He has given the creature ape-like front teeth,
and a correspondingly elongated upper jaw, thus
making the face very prognathous (protruding).
The jaw, like several other very early mandibles,
is chinless, and therefore the front teeth must
have been very large, though it is possible that the
anterior curve of the jaw passed more sharply
upwards than in Dr. Woodward's cast, and the
teeth are in consequence smaller and more human.
This conjecture is supported by the two molars
that have been preserved, both of which are per-
fectly human. Jutting in from the jaw where it
is broken off there is a small piece of bone which
makes the extent of the symphysis (bony union of
the two sides of the jaw) very great. This again
is an ape-like feature.1 Enough has been said to
show that Eoanthropus represents a new genus
combining a human cranium with an ape's jaw,
and therefore, that Dr. Woodward is justified in
placing it in a class by itself with a distinctive name.
Before discussing the relationship of Pithecan-
thropus to the Piltdown man and the rest of
humanity, the other discoveries that have thrown
light upon the origin and antiquity of man must be
briefly reviewed.

1 Gerrit S. Miller in Bureau American Ethnol. (Nov. 24, 1915)
refers the mandible to an adult chimpanzee.

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 43

Eighteen years separated the discovery of Pithe-
canthropus from that of the second great find which
takes man back to late Pliocene or early Pleistocene
times. In 1907 an immense and extraordinary
human jaw was found by workmen in a sandpit
near the village of Mauer, about ten kilometres
south-east of Heidelberg. The mandible was
buried about eighty feet below the surface in a
layer of sand and shingle, from which a number of
extinct animals have been extracted. The fauna
includes Elephas antiquus, Rhinoceros etruscus, two
species of bear ( Ursus arvernensis and Ursus denin-
geri) ; a cave lion, wolf, boar (Sus scrofa priscus),
deer (Cervus patifrons), red deer, roe deer, bison,
beaver, horse (Equus stenonsis), and shells similar
to those of the Cromer forest bed. It will be seen
that there is, so far as the evidence goes, a very
close similarity in the animals known to the Heidel-
berg man and Eoanthropus. Elephas antiquus,
Rhinoceros etruscus, and the two bears, suggest,
if not Pliocene, at least one of the early genial
episodes of the Pleistocene.

The jaw itself presents several remarkable feat-
ures. The dentition is absolutely human, the
teeth being almost absurdly small in comparison
with the enormous strength of the rest of the
mandible. Notwithstanding the small teeth, there
is complete absence of any prominence at the chin.
The chin of modern man is the result of the con-

44 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

traction of the upper surface of the jaw, owing to
less room being required for the teeth. It is there-
fore surprising to find such small teeth in what is
admittedly the largest human jaw yet discovered.
In fact the dentition of the Heidelberg jaw is in
some respects (excluding the grinding molars,
which are enormous) less primitive than that of the
Australian of to-day, though, of course, exceeding
that of any modern Europeans. It is thus clearly
impossible to assign the possessor of this mandible
to the anthropoid variety of Primates. On the
other hand, its huge proportions, and the slight
depression replacing the sigmoid notch (the upper
margin of the ascending ramus) testify to its primi-
tive character. Prof. Keith thinks that the jaw
is too massive to fit the skull of Pithecanthropus,
though he is prepared to admit a comparison be-
tween the teeth of the two creatures. Be this as
it may, Homo Heidelbergensis represents a human
genus far removed from the later types of Palaeo-
lithic man, and at the same time a definitely human
creature.

To pass from the remains that possess good
claims to occupy an intermediate position between
mankind and the anthropoid apes, we come to the
human fossils in mid-Pleistocene deposits. The
first discovery of remains of Palaeolithic man to
receive serious attention was made in 1856, when
some workmen brought to light a human skeleton

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 45

in the Feldhofen Cave, at the entrance to a small
ravine called Neanderthal, on the right bank of
the river Diissel, in Rhenish Prussia. It lay em-
bedded in a hard loam, and unfortunately was
badly damaged before it was extricated. How-
ever, Dr. Fuhlrott, a physician who happened to
be interested in cave exploration, was near at hand,
and superintended the excavation, with the result
that the cranium, the thigh bones, the right and
left humerus, fragments of the pelvis, shoulder-blade,
collar-bone, and of the ribs, were preserved, and
are now in the Rheinische-Antiquitats' Museum
at Bonn. When the remains were first exhibited,
doubts were freely expressed as to their human
character. Virchow pronounced his opinion that
the cranium was diseased ; Broca declared them
to be normal ; and Dr. Shaafhausen, an expert
anatomist, who . in 1858 published an excellent
account of the bones, in which he described them
as the " most ancient memorial of the early in-
habitants of Europe." 1 Huxley recognised the
skull as human— " the most brutal of all known
human skulls " —though he always maintained
that Neanderthal man was merely an extreme
variant of modern man, and not a separate type
—Homo Neanderthalensis*
The most striking features of the skull are the

1 Of. G. Busk, Natural Hist. Review, 1861, p. 283.
8 Man's Place in Nature,

46 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

thickness of the bones, the low retreating forehead,
the heavy brow-ridges, and the widening of the
occipital region. The cranial capacity is estimated
at 1230 c.c. The bones and teeth of the cave-
bear, the cave hyena, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, and
Elephas primigenius, were found in a similar cave
in the same stratum, thus suggesting that the
Neanderthal man lived in company with Pleistocene
fauna. This conclusion the world in the middle
of the nineteenth century was by no means ready
to admit. All kinds of interpretations were put
upon the remains. It was impossible to argue
that the narrow-headed individual with the low
retreating forehead and projecting brow-ridges,
embedded in a cave eroded in Devonian limestone
in which such fauna as the mammoth also occurred,
was only 4000 years old. Since the chronology
of Archbishop Usher could not err, the Neanderthal
skeleton could only be that of an idiot, of an usual
species of ape, or of a diseased person.

So long as this skeleton was the only one of its
kind, and an imperfect one at that, its testimony
was unconvincing. Even among scientists, who
had no creation theory to maintain, there was,
as we have seen, a sharp divergence of opinion
as to whether the relic should be ascribed to an
extinct race, or whether it belonged to a degenerate
and diseased individual of the modern type of
man. In the sixty years that has elapsed since

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 47

the first discovery many other similar remains
have been brought to light, which prove the exist-
ence of a definite Neanderthal race widely spread
over Europe in the earlier part of the Pleistocene
epoch.

While the scientific world was thinking hard,
its meditations were disturbed by the discovery,
in 1866, of a woman's jaw in the Trou de Naulette
—a limestone cave in the banks of the river Lesse
in Belgium. Only the region of the chin and the
left part of the mandible remained. All the teeth
had dropped from their sockets after death, but
the sockets show that they were of the Neanderthal
type. The conclusion that the Naulette mandible
belongs to the same species as the skeleton from
the Neander valley is also supported by the absence
of chin and its massive proportions, together with
the geological evidence furnished by the site in
which it was found. The jaw lay fourteen feet
below the surface of the ground, and in the same
stratum remains of mammoth, woolly rhinoceros,
bear and reindeer occurred, together with flint
implements of the Mousterian type.1

A skull of a similar nature had been found in
Forbes Quarry, Gibraltar, in 1848 ; but, as this
discovery took place before the epoch-making
discovery at Neanderthal, it attracted little atten-
tion, till in 1862 Mr. George Busk brought the

1 See p. 73.

48 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

skull to England, and subsequently presented it
to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons
in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. In 1864 he
published a description of the skull, and a few
years later Broca described its osteological charac-
ters. But it was not until 1907, when Prof. Sollas
took the matter up, that a detailed and critical
account of the remains was put forth. Additional
information on the subject has been given by Dr.
Duckworth and Dr. Sera — the former, having
explored the site in 1910, found Mousterian flints
in an adjoining cave. The most important feature
of the specimen consists in the fact that the bones
of the face and of the skull have remained intact.
The mandible and upper molars are wanting, as
is a part from the vault of the skull. The upper
jaw does not project, therefore the face is not
prognathous. The cranial capacity is estimated
by Keith at 1100 c.c.,1 and is therefore less than
the typical Neanderthal type. A striking feature
of the skull is the enormous size of the orbital and
nasal cavities. Keith regards the Gibraltar man
as a more primitive type than the true Neanderthal
race ; in fact, it appears to him to bridge the gulf
between Pithecanthropus and the typical Nean-
derthal man.2

The ball having been set rolling, it moved rapidly.

1 Sollas gives the capacity as 1260 c.c., and Boule 1296 c.c.

2 Ancient Types of Man, p. 121 f. Cf. Antiquity of Man,Tp. 135.

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 49

The caves at Le Moustier, Chapelle-aux-Saints,
La Ferrassie, in France ; Spy, in Belgium ; St.
Ere" lade, in Jersey, revealed traces of their ancient
inhabitants, so that at the present time we have
more than twenty examples of the Neanderthal
type of Palaeolithic man. Space does not permit
of our describing these various discoveries. Suffice
it to say that while presenting certain variations,
the Neanderthalers were a short, sturdily built
race, standing about 5 feet 3 inches. They had
projecting brow-ridges, massive jaws and teeth,
prognathous faces, and chinless mandibles. Their
bodies were very probably hairy. They walked
upright, and protected themselves from the icy
climate of the mid-Pleistocene period by clothing
themselves in skins, living in caves and making
fires. A minute examination of their bones re-
veals certain resemblances to the white, Mongol
and Australian races of modern times, and also a
few ape-like characters which are not found in any
of the present day varieties of man.

During the last inter-glacial phase the Neander
thai race seems to have become extinct in Europe,
but some time before its disappearance a type of
man with different anatomical features arrived,
and succeeded in establishing himself in France
and elsewhere. Until recently it was supposed
that there was but one race in Europe, and that
this evolved passing through the stages of culture

J.A.

50 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

known as the Mousterian, Solutre'an, and Mag-
dalenian. But this hypothesis has now been
abandoned by most archaeologists. A theory
advanced by M. FAbbe Breuil suggests that at the
end of the Mousterian phase a new race of men,
the Aurignacians, entered Europe by way of the
land bridge connecting Tunis with Sicily and Italy
traversed by the fauna in the previous age. Thence
these people proceeded to France with the hippo-
potamus, elephas antiquus and rhinoceros merckii,
and established themselves in the Pyrenees and
the valley of the Vezere, where they came into
contact with the Neanderthal race. Further, it
has been supposed that other races — of a negroid
character — subsequently entered France and Italy,
having affinities with the Pygmies. Before passing
judgment on this hypothesis we must examine
the evidence upon which it is based.

In excavating a railway cutting in the valley of
the Vezere, near Les Eyzies in the Dordogne, a
rock shelter (Cro-Magnon) was found in 1868,
containing five almost entire skeletons. These
differ from the Neanderthal type in exhibiting
certain marked resemblances to modern man.
Their cephalic index — i.e. the ratio of the breadth
of a skull to its length, expressed as a percentage
—is about 73.6 and the cranial capacity 1590 c.c.
The teeth are small, and the average height of the
skeletons about 5 feet 1 1| inches. The strata of the

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 51

lower floor of the cave in the limestone cliffs showed
traces of hearths and the culture of the Aurig-
nacian period. This type of humanity is character-
ised by massive skulls with large cranial capacities,
but slightly developed brow-ridges, well-marked
chins, prominent cheek bones, long slender limbs,
with short humeri or upper arm bones. Examples
of the Cro-Magnon race have been discovered at
Paviland (Wales), Grottes des Enfants (Mentone),
Engis, Chancelade, Kent's Cavern, and possibly at
Gough's Cave, Cheddar.1

In 1909 a complete skeleton belonging to a lower
type of Palaeolithic man was discovered by the
Swiss archaeologist, M. 0. Hauser, near Combe
Capelle (in Perigord, France). Near the skeleton
a number of flint implements of the Aurignacian
type were found, together with a quantity of pierced
snails' shells, which had evidently been used as a
necklace. The skull presents a marked contrast
to the Neanderthal type. In place of the low,
flat cranium it has a high, well-developed fore-
head. The superorbital ridges are less prominent,
while the jaw shows little sign of prognathism.
The chin has been described as a transition between
a negative and a positive chin. The absence of a
definite chin, however, shows that the man was of
an early type, much less advanced than his Cro-
Magnon successor. The Combe Capelle skeleton

1 Cf. J.A.I, vol. xliv. 1914, pp. 241 if.

52 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

has been associated with several others by Prof.
Klaatsch. A very similar skull has been found
at Galley Hill, near Northfleet, in Kent. It was
discovered in 1888 in terrace gravels, although
it was not until 1895 that it was described. The
matter was then put before the Geological Society
of London by Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., but much
difference of opinion was expressed by authorities ;
some contended that the remains were those of a
man living in the river-drift period ; others that
they represented a late Palaeolithic or Neolithic
interment. Prof. Keith describes the Galley Hill
man as a type of a new race, which is still repre-
sented in the modern population of Britain, although
it was originally evolved long before the valley
system of England had taken its present configura-
tion.1 M. Rutot, in 1903, assigned the remains to
an early pre-palaeolithic culture period named by
him the Mafflian, a conclusion he modified in
1909, bringing the skeleton down to the Strepyan
epoch.

The Galley Hill remains were found in a gravel
bed, 10 feet thick and 90 feet above the level of the
valley. The skeleton was at a depth of eight feet
from the surface, but unfortunately no associated
fauna or implements have been found. However,
the mammalian remains of the " high-level terrace "
in the immediate vicinity include such early species

1 Antiquity of Man, pp. 178-193.

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 53

as Elephas antiquus, various forms of rhinoceros,
ox, trogontherium, etc., and Palaeolithic imple-
ments of the Chellean type are said to have been
obtained from the same gravel. The chief difficulty
lies in the fact that the spot at which the remains
were discovered had been quarried away by the
time the matter was scientifically investigated, and,
therefore, it is impossible to definitely prove that
the bones were in undisturbed strata. The skeleton
itself is so distorted that measurements tend to
become misleading. It appears to have belonged
to a man of short stature, resembling in some
respects modern human beings. The skull is
dolichocephalic (long headed), with well marked
superciliary ridges, a prominent glabella, and but
a slightly developed chin. The large size of the
last molar and of the head of the femur was
thought by Dr. Gar son to be peculiar. The cephalic
index is 64, and the thickness of the skull is 12
millimetres. Through the courtesy of Prof. Keith,
the present writer recently carefully examined the
cast of the skull at the Museum of the Eoyal College
of Surgeons, and came to the conclusion that the
anatomical features of the specimen are primitive
but not Neanderthaloid. The thickness of the
cranial walls, the extreme length of the cephalic
index, the strong bony ridges over the eyebrows, and
the dimensions of the last molar, are all primitive
characters, but at the same time it does not present

54 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

the crude and beastial appearance of Homo Neander-
thalensis.

In 1911 Mr. Reid Moir discovered at Ipswich a
human skeleton in what is thought to be pre-boulder
clay.1 The fact that the remains were only 4j feet
below the surface makes a later interment a highly
probable explanation of the presence of the skeleton
in the stratum. If, however, it can be proved that
the site is really undisturbed, the discovery is of
the utmost importance, as it constitutes an example
of very early man. An examination of the actual
remains do not suggest so great antiquity. The
Neanderthaloid characters are absent, and the
cranial capacity is estimated at 1430 c.c. True, the
tibia was without the sharp, bony crest — a simian
feature — yet this alone cannot be taken as of much
value. With this passing reference, we deem it
expedient to defer judgment on the archaeological
value of the Ipswich skeleton till more convincing
evidence is forthcoming.2

Before concluding this survey of ancient human
remains, mention should be made of an interesting
discovery at Grotte des Enfants, near Mentone,
France. This cave derives its name from the fact
that in the upper strata of the floor the skeletons

1 J.A.I. 1912, vol. xii. p. 351.

2 Mr. Reid Moir has lately published in Nature a letter in which
he gives up the claim to a pre-boulder clay age to the Ipswich

man.

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 55

of two children were found. These, however, do
not concern us now. Further excavations, carried
out under the patronage of the Prince of Monaco,
revealed, in another stratum, two human skeletons
(those of an aged woman and a young man), which
show a certain resemblance to a negroid type.
The late Prof. Gaudry, after examining the jaw
of the male skeleton, pointed out the similarity of
the mandible to that of the natives of Australia —
large teeth, feeble chin development, and degree
of prognathism.1 Dr. Verneau saw in the same
remains African negroid affinities, a conclusion
supported by the long and slender lower limbs
and forearms. Adding to these latter features
the prominent molars, markedly prognathous jaws
and sloping teeth, there seems to be good reason
for assigning the remains to a distinct type. It
has been called after the family name of the Prince
of Monaco, the Grimaldi Race.

From the foregoing descriptions, it follows that
the remains of primeval man may be divided into
three main groups. In the first place come the
examples from the late Pliocene or early Pleistocene
epoch — Pithecanthropus, Eoanthropus, Homo
Heidelbergensis, and the disputed Galley Hill man.
In the second category are instances of the definitely
human Neanderthal type. These are often called
Homo Primigenius. The third division consists

' 1 L' Anthropologie, 1903.

56 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

of three varieties of Homo recens — the Aurignacian,
Cro-Magnon, and Grimaldi types.

We are now in a position to discuss the relation-
ship, or absence of relationship, of these various
species. Are we to regard the first group as
" missing links," since they all appear to be coeval
in point of time, and represent a very early type
of man having definite simian features ? Or do the
remains found at Piltdown belong to one race,
those in the Mauer sands to another, and the semi-
human creature in the Trinil beds to a third species ?
It would be easy to suppose that the Heidelberg
man and Eoanthropus were preceded by still
more primitive ancestral forms, of which Pithecan-
thropus is an example. But the difficulties in the
way of accepting this simple explanation of an
extremely complex problem have already been
pointed out. And only recently the question has
been further complicated, for about two miles from
Trinil a definitely human, though primitive, tooth
has been discovered, which is thought to be older
than Pithecanthropus.1

Prof. Klaatsch puts forth an ingenious but highly
speculative supposition when he assumes the
existence of a quantity of propithecanthropi
(pre-ape-men or common progenitors of apes and
men) which broke up into mighty hordes dispersing
in all directions. From these hordes the ancestors

1 Blanckenhorn, Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, Bond 42. 5. 337.

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 57

of the various anthropoids sprang. Thus, one
concourse of pre-men wandered into Asia, and from
them originated the orangs, whilst the main horde,
ever evolving, came into Europe with the glacial
fauna and produced the Aurignacian race. Had
the Piltdown man been discovered when Klaatsch
drew up his scheme, he would probably have placed
Eoanthropus as the forerunner of the Aurignacians.
Pithecanthropus is explained, on this hypothesis,
as a propithecanthropi who has failed to attain to
definite humanity. The more primitive and gorilla-
like Neanderthal type is introduced into Egypt
as an invader from Africa.1 Keith takes violent
exception to this theory.2 No doubt the weakness
lies in attributing to the ancestors of the orang-utan
so close an association to any human ancestral forms.
Keith adopts the view that the Neanderthal type
is ancestral to the modern types, the alteration in
physical features being largely due to the altera-
tion in the pituitary angle (the pit or fossa situated
on the upper-intracranial-aspect of the basal axis),
consequent on a change in the function of the pitui-
tary gland.3 The fact that some of the Australians
actually exemplify this process lends weight to the
suggestion, but, at the same time, it should be
remembered that Dr. Sera, after careful examina-

1 Prehistorische Zeitschrift, i.

2 Nature, Feb. 16, 1911 ; Dec. 15, 1910.

3 Antiquity of Man, p. 156.

58 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

tion of the Gibraltar skull, in which the pituitary
angle is very open (and therefore tends to pitch
the face forwards), concludes that the change in
the pituitary gland may be due to environment
and not to a condition of evolution.1

If Dr. Sera can prove definitely that the degree
of platycephalism — the downward flattening of
the cranial arc — in the Neanderthal skull is the
result of environment, the theory of Homo Neander-
ihalensis as a distinct type of primeval man will
have to be abandoned, and the Gibraltar man
regarded as presenting the essential features of
Homo primigenius before he was affected by glacial
environment, the result of which conditions is
exemplified by the Neanderthal species. It is un-
fortunate for Dr. Sera's argument that the Eskimos,
who to-day represent an arctic race, display any-
thing but platycephalic features. It is also difficult
to reconcile Sera's view with the skull formation of
Homo recens (Aurignacian and Cro-Magnon) who,
in the Aurignacian period, lived side by side with
glacial fauna, and yet had a well arched cranium.

In the present state of our knowledge it is im-
possible to speak with any degree of precision on
the exact mode of development of the races and
types of mankind. It seems highly probable that
the Aurignacians were not evolved from the Nean-
derthal race ; at least not in Europe. Kramberger,

1 Archiv. Antropologia, 1909, vol. xix. p. 5.

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 59

Schwalbe and Keith consider that the Neander-
thal people represent a distinct species of human
being. In this case it is justifiable to divide
humanity into Homo primigenius and Homo
recens (or sapiens). According to Schwalbe's view,
the following classification would be allowable :

Briix1

Neanderthal

Spy

Krapina
Gibraltar

Homo Galley Hill
Primi- Cro-Magnon
genius. Australian

Homo
recens.

European J

The discovery of a human form like Eoanthropus
and the Galley Hill man, wherein the features of
modern man are represented, at the close of the
Pliocene or the beginning of the Pleistocene age,
is against any theory of a continuous gradual
development from Pithecanthropus through Homo
Heidelbergensis and Homo Neanderthalensis to the
later types. Even if the Galley Hill skeleton be
assigned to a more recent date, Eoanthropus has to
be considered. Does he represent a separate human
genus which became extinct and left no progeny,
or does he constitute a stage of evolution reached
by man at the commencement of the Pleistocene
period ? These are indeed momentous questions

1 A skull found at Briix (Moravia) is suggested as the connect
ing link of the two species Cf. Keith's genealogical tree of man's
ancestry reproduced on page 61.

60 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

which have yet to be satisfactorily answered.
If man of the Galley Hill-Piltdown type preceded,
in point of time, man of the lower Neanderthal
order, the ancestry of the former must be sought in
the early Pliocene, or even in the Miocene or
Oligocene, contemporary with eoliths. In this
case Pithecanthropus and the Neanderthal race
must be regarded as degenerate forms of humanity,
which in course of time became extinct. Some
authorities have tried to prove that the Neanderthal-
Spy race survived the Palaeolithic age as the
dolichocephalic Europeans ; others have attempted
to show that the native Australians and the Eskimos
are the direct successors of Neanderthal man.

We, however, incline to the view (if we might
venture to put forth a tentative suggestion, while
awaiting further evidence) that man evolved from
a common precursor early in the Pliocene, leaving
behind him those pre-chellean implements which
show undoubted signs of human workmanship.
The discovery of Propliopithecus in the Oligocene
strata of the Egyptian desert, having almost human
dentition, slightly developed canines, perpen-
dicular incisors and premolars, is a step towards
the finding of the hypothetical common ancestor.
It is quite within the bounds of probability that
further research in the neighbourhood of the
Siwalik hills in northern India will reveal one more
of the Tertiary forerunners of the apes and man.

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN 61

GENEALOGICAL TREE OF MAN'S ANCESTRY,
AFTER KEITH

Oldoway

Neanderthal

Cornbe Capelle

Galley Hill

PLEISTOCENE

4,000 ft.
400,000 years

PLIOCENE

5,oco ft.
500,000 years

MIOCENE

9,000 ft.
900,000 years

62 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Palaeopithecus may be cited as an example from
the Pliocene of the Siwalik hills, of a generalized
type of extinct ape, related to the chimpanzee,
the gorilla, and the gibbon, with upper premolars
resembling those of man. Primitive representa-
tives of the four existing types of anthropoids have
been discovered in southern India.

It therefore seems highly probable that in the
Pliocene period there existed a type of man suffi-
ciently high to serve as a common ancestor for the
Neanderthal and the Eoanthropus-Galley Hill-
Cro Magnon species of the human organism. -In
our opinion Pithecanthropus does not represent
either a precursor or an early phase of Neanderthal
man, but a development on lines of its own. It is
clearly impossible that the Piltdown or even the
Gibraltar man could have evolved from the Trinil
ape man, and there is good reason to believe that
the Neanderthal type does not represent a develop-
ment of Pithecanthropus. It seems more probable
that the Heidelberg mandible constitutes a part of
the remains of an early Neanderthal species living
at the beginning of the Pleistocene, and perhaps
contemporary with Eoanthropus. Towards the
end of the Ice Age the Neanderthal type became
extinct, while the Piltdown- Galley Hill race sur-
vived as Aurignacian and Cro-Magnon man. It
is possible that a certain amount of fusion between
the types in Europe in the later Pleistocene resulted

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 63

in the variation from the Cro-Magnon race pre-
sented by the remains found at Grimaldi.

At the close of the Mousterian culture phase new
races seem to have entered Europe — perhaps bear-
ing a resemblance to Eoanthropus on the one hand,
and to a negroid variety on the other — with them
came the warm-loving fauna, such as the horse,
bison, cave lion, and cave hyena, and an advance
in culture. As the dry and cold climate of the
later part of the ancient loess reappeared, a new
race — the Magdalenians — migrated into Europe
with the reindeer, producing weapons made of
bone and horn and decorating their dwellings with
wonderful pictures and designs. By the close of
the Palaeolithic period the ice had retreated to-
wards the pole, thereby affording ample space for
racial expansion. Thus is explained the great
movements of peoples which characterised the
transition from the Old to the New Stone Age.
That a new and higher type of man entered Europe
with the Neolithic period is highly improbable,
since, as has been shown by Keith, the physical
features of Neolithic man bear a remarkable
similarity to those of the Cro-Magnon species.1
It was not until long after the close of the Palaeo-
lithic Age that the characteristic dolichocephalic
skull is found in company with a round or brachy-
cephalic type of cranium in the archaeological

1 Antiquity of Man, pp. 1-45.

64 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

remains of Central and Southern Europe, although
some have maintained that brachycephaly is of
extremely ancient date, going back to the mid-
Pleistocene.

Amongst the Neanderthalers, one skull, that of
Krapina, is distinctly round-headed, having a
cephalic index of 85.5 ; while the much discussed
skulls of Furfooz, Grenelle, and La Trenchere, are
also brachycephalic. The last mentioned skull
combines a prognathous jaw and prominent nasal
bones with a cephalic index of 84.32. M. Breuil
suggests an immigration from the east in the
Solutrean culture-phase to account for the finds
characteristic of this epoch in East Central Europe.
« On this hypothesis the above-mentioned brachy-
cephals might be regarded as the forerunners of the
round-headed Alpines who invaded the continent
in Neolithic times. It is reasonable to suppose
that the makers of the famous laurel leaf flints l
followed the reindeer eastwards to the Steppes and
Asia before the Magdalenian invasion began, and,
after mingling with the brachycephals of Asia,
returned to the Central highlands in later times.
But since no human remains can with certainty
be attributed to the Solutrean, the theory of a
Palaeolithic brachycephalic race must be regarded
as at present unproven.

1 See page 75.

CHAPTER II.

THE CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN.

PROF. SOLLAS is undoubtedly correct in describing
man in the earliest stages of the Palaeolithic
period as an " Ancient Hunter." A hunter he
must have been, not essentially by choice but from
necessity. His life consisted in wandering over
the fertile country, in the warm inter-glacial
phases, chasing wild beasts on the densely forested
banks of the immense rivers, collecting birds' eggs,
grubs, wild fruits and berries. Homo primigenius
was probably at first mainly a vegetarian, till,
through the deficiency of the food supply caused
by the advancing glacial period, he was obliged
to acquire flesh-eating propensities, and thus
added animal food to his original diet. But even
so, his earliest attempts at " hunting " would most
likely be confined to frogs, and the small rodents,
till, as his implements, weapons, and skill became
more developed, he became a hunter of big animals.

J.A.

66 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

It can be pretty safely assumed, judging from the
teeth of the earliest skulls, and from the lack of
implements, that prior to the Chellean Age prim-
eval man was chiefly a vegetarian, except for such
flesh as was furnished by small animals. There-
fore hunting, like the other arts of life, must be
regarded as a product of evolution.

It was probably not until the Neolithic period
that the great revolution in the mode of life led by
our ancestors took place, when the hunter became
the shepherd and farmer, settling down to a less
nomadic existence. In the cave of Mas d'Azil little
heaps of burnt wheat have been found, together
with stones of plums and cherries, and the shells
of nuts. Thus, some anthropologists have been
led to think that agriculture was first practised
at the extreme end of the Palaeolithic Age. Be
this as it may, the epoch-making discovery pre-
ceded by a long interval the discovery of metals,
although a complete mastery over stone had been
acquired at this time.

The Stone Age as a whole is not, 'however,
divided into a hunting and an agricultural
stage, but according to the nature of its
weapons into the ancient or Palaeolithic Period,
characterised by flaked implements ; and the new
or Neolithic Period, characterised by ground and
polished flints.1

1 Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, p. 60.

CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN

67

The former is subdivided thus :

Reutelian
Mafflian
Mesvinian
Strepyan

Pre-
Palaeo-
lithic or
Eolithic
stage.

Chellean
Acheulean
Mousterian

Aurignacian
Lower c< , , ,

bolutrean

Magdalenian
Azilian

lithic.

Upper
•Palaeo-
lithic.

These so-called epochs are merely landmarks
representing the successive phases of culture in the
early Stone Age. By assuming the erect attitude
man became differentiated from all other animals
by being free to pick up and hold or throw stones,
etc., an accomplishment of the greatest value in
the daily quest for food. With a piece of flint
he could pound up his roots, berries, etc., scrape
with a similar weapon the skins of the animals he
had killed, dig holes in the ground for storehouses, or
increase the warmth of his hut, and in later times
could hollow out trees to make canoes. In short,
flint, or, perhaps, a bone implement was used for
everything for which a tool could be used. At
first a stone haphazardly picked up no doubt
served for many purposes.' Monkeys have been
observed to use stones for cracking nuts, etc., and
therefore there is no definitely human mental
activity necessary in the performance of such an
act. But as soon as man appeared, it was not
long before he discovered that a shaped implement
was far more practical than an unshaped one, and
thus he began flaking his tools to the desired

68 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

proportions. The earliest tools must have been
made by flaking or hammering a piece of gravel
with another stone to improve its shape and adapt
it for use. Such roughly hewn pebbles or nodules
and naturally broken stones showing work, with
thick ochreous patina, have been found in the
plateau gravels of Kent, Belgium, etc., and have
been called eoliths (w, dawn, X/Oo?, stone)—
a name proposed by Mr. J. Allen Brown, and now
almost universally adopted by archaeologists to
describe all alleged artefacts belonging to an age
earlier than the Palaeolithic. Such nodules have
been subdivided by M. Rutot into three stages—
Reutelian, Mafflian, and Mesvinian.1

The controversy as to whether they were or
were not the work of man is still unsettled. Sir
Joseph Prestwich, Sir E. Ray Lankester, Mr.
Benjamin Harrison, Mr. Reid Moir, and Dr. Black-
more in England, and M. Alfred Rutot in Belgium,
are among the chief advocates of the human origin
of the flints. The first investigator in this field
was the Abbe Bourgeois, who discovered in 1867
a number of flints in upper Oligocene strata which,
he thought, showed signs of intelligent design.
This opinion was shared by several authorities,
but repudiated by others. The question bristles
with difficulties. On the one hand everyone feels
that the precision of workmanship set forth in the

1 J.A.I. 1905, xxxv. pp. 337-364.

CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN 69

earliest forms of the Palaeolithic implements (the
Chellean) presuppose an earlier stage when rougher
implements prepared the way for the most finished
types. On the other hand, it has been shown by
Mr. Hazzledene Warren and others that eolithic
forms are constantly being produced by cart wheels
breaking up newly mended roads, the concussion
of adjacent pebbles, the effects of weather, and
other natural processes. Moreover, no other
human remains have been found from the lower
Tertiary strata. There are forms, however, that
have been discovered in the upper Miocene which
shows signs of regular chipping only explicable
when regarded as the result of human workmanship.
This conclusion is supported by the fact that
implements of a similar kind (hollow scrapers)
were used by the Tasmanians before they were
ruthlessly exterminated by English Colonists be-
tween 1825 and 1877. It should also be rerflem-
bered that the argument that eoliths carry man's
existence too far back is at best merely of the
negative order, and for this reason it must be
discounted to some extent. When man first used
stones as implements he undoubtedly employed
natural forms with sharp edges, and his first
attempts at shaping must have been very erratic.
It is therefore clearly impossible to say if a given
flint owes its form to natural or accidental causes,
such as weathering, movements of deposits, ice,

70 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

crushing in landslips, etc., or if it was chipped by
man.

When, however, definite forms are produced
like those found by Mr. Reid Moir in the detritus-
bed below the decalcified red crag (middle Plio-
cene), in Messrs. Bolton and Loughlin's brick pit
near Ipswich, and elsewhere in the district, there
can be little doubt of human workmanship. The
implements in question are about four or five inches
long, slightly compressed from side to side, with a
curved point like the beak of an eagle — hence they
have been called the " rostro-carinate " type.1
These crag implements resemble in many parti-
culars the ordinary Strepyan " hand- wedge "
the most ancient palaeoliths previously known.
The presence of ice scratches on rostro-carinate im-
plements shows that a glacial climate prevailed when
the red crag was formed, and therefore they belong
to the middle deposits of the Pliocene period, since
the sharpest change of climate occurs between the
coralline crag (early Pliocene) and the red crag. In
the Strepyan or pre-chellean stage, as represented in
the gravels of the third terrace of the Somme at St.
Acheul, the implements consist of almond-shaped
nodules generally flaked at the point somewhat in
the shape of a hand- wedge. Rude examples of side
scrapers and end scrapers, and primitive forms of
the boucher, are not uncommon at this stage. It is

1 Ray Lankester, R.A.I. Occas. Papers, 4, 1914.

CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN 71

possible that this culture was contemporary with
Homo Heidelbergensis. If Eoanthropus can be
proved to be really Pliocene he must be assigned
to a much earlier culture-phase than the Strepyan,
but, as has been shown, it is more likely that the
skull is contemporaneous with the associated palaeo-
liths rather than with the eoliths.

The Strepyan implements were succeeded by
an industry that produced lozenge-shaped imple-
ments naked all round, called by Prof. Sollas
" bouchers," after M. Boucher de Perthes, the
first to set forth their significance. This culture-
phase is named from the place Chelles, eight miles
east of Paris, which has produced an abundance
of these almond or lozenge-shaped hand-axes
worked on both sides — coup-de-poing type — in
company with Elephas antiquus, and meridionalis,
Rhinoceros merckii, Trogontherium, cave-bear, etc.

Mr. Reid Moir, in a paper before the Royal
Anthropological Institute (December 14, 1915),
endeavoured to show, and, as it appeared to the
present writer, with no little success, the evolution
of the earliest palaeoliths from the rostro-carinate
implements. A series of ten implements recovered
from the basal layers of the Red Crag of Suffolk,
the Norwich Crag, the middle glacial gravel of
Suffolk, and the river gravels in the Thames valley
and at Warren Hill (Suffolk) were taken as typical
examples. The^^^Bk^evolution from the most

72 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

primitive form of the rostro-carinate to the more
highly developed implement of the earliest Chelles
type was shown to have taken place by removing
flakes by means of blows on the flat lower or ventral
plane of a rostro-carinate. Thus a sharp-cutting
edge was produced, and the implement rendered
rhomboidal in section, approximating to the earliest
Chelles type. Mr. Reid Moir, after conducting
various experiments, has found that the easiest
way to make a Chellean implement is to proceed as
if he desired to make one of the rostro-carinate
form. In support of his theory he points out that
there are traces of a " lateral platform " in many
of the St. Acheul implements. This lateral plat-
form is supposed to be the remains of the dorsal
or upper plane of the rostro-carinate.1

Be this as it may, there was obviously a gradual
development of type from the pre-Palaeolithic
to the Palaeolithic culture. Thus, the next step
after the Chellean boucher had been reached, was
to sharpen the point or distal end of the flints and
straighten the edges, which produces the Acheulean
type, so called from the place of their discovery
at St. Acheul in the valley of the Somme (Amiens).
In the Upper Acheulean (St. Acheul II.) the boucher
acquires a fine lanceolate form, and is accompanied
by numerous smaller implements. The exact use
of the Chellean and Acheulean boucher is a matter

1 J.A.I. Jan. 1916, vol. xlvi. pp. 197-220.

CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN 73

of some dispute among archaeologists. Mr. Henry
Balfour is of the opinion that some of them were
hafted and employed as a stone axe. This seems
probable, notwithstanding the criticism of M.
Commont, since similar implements (celts) were
used in Neolithic times, and are, in fact, still used
among primitive people.

The next stage is the Mousterian, named from
the cave at Le Moustier, on the right bank of the
Vezere. The fauna suggest a cold climate, as
the two earlier elephants, hippopotamus, and
Rhinoceros mercki, had given place to the thick-
coated mammoth. The flints also show a change
in workmanship. Instead of being made by flaking
a piece of flint (the core) to the required shape,
they are made by carefully preparing the core
and striking off flake implements at one blow
(Levallois flakes). The nuclei are known as " tortois
cores." It is usually supposed that this phase
represents an advance in culture, as the result of
the return of glacial conditions, which necessitated
man seeking shelter in caves and clothing himself
with skins, the preparation of which called for
new and delicate instruments. After spending
some weeks in a Mousterian shelter a short time
ago, and there carefully examining a great number
of implements, etc., the writer came to the con-
clusion that, in many respects, the workmanship
displayed in Mousterian flints is inferior to that of

74 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

the preceding Aeheulean types. The fact that the
Mousterian culture-phase is coeval with the reign
of Neanderthal man lends support to the suggestion
of a set back in the evolution of the flint industry,
since the Neanderthal type appears to represent an
inferior human species, destined, in course of time,
to become extinct.

At the close of the Mousterian age new races of
men entered Europe — perhaps successors of Eoan-
thropus — together with a new fauna consisting
of warmth-loving animals, such as the horse, bison,
cave lion, and cave hyena. With the more con-
genial climate signs of progress in the manufacture
of implements became manifest. In the Aurig-
nacian culture-phase, so called from the grotto of
Aurignac whete typical examples of the particular
culture were found, the " keeled scraper " (grattoir
carene) makes its first appearance. When freed
from Mousterian influence there is a marked im-

.u

provement in the art of flint working. It was in
the middle of the Aurignacian that the art of the
period attained its highest point of excellence, and
such special tools appear as the beaked burin,
used for graving, the saw, the drill, the spokeshave,
the grattoir, etc. The multiplicity of tools found
in Aurignacian deposits shows that the workman
exercised his skill in many different handicrafts,
the most interesting of which is the introduction
of a new material for implement making. Rough

CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN 75

awls of bone and rods of ivory have been found in
lower Aurignacian sites, which tend to become
more specialized in the middle and upper Aurig-
nacian, till definite weapons such as arrow-heads
without barbs made from reindeer horns at last
appear, together with bodkins of the more compact
horn of the roe-deer.

During the succeeding phase — the Solutrean—
flint working reached its Palaeolithic zenith. The
industry receives its name from the station of
Solutre (Saone-et-Loire), where some of the finest
examples were discovered during the cutting of a
canal near Volgu. It is also well represented at
the rock shelter of Laugerie Haute on the banks
of the Vezere. The distinguishing features of these
implements are the fine flaking (the secondary
work could only have been produced by pressure,
and not by the ordinary method of hammering),
and the thinness and the unusual size of the blade.
In fact the flaking on the so-called laurel and
willow-leaf lance-heads can only be compared with
the delicate workmanship on the sacrificial knives
of Egypt ; and it is quite beyond the powers of
the most experienced flint knappers to in any
way imitate the degree of skill attained by the
Solutrean workers. The apparent lack of prac-
tical utility of these works of art has led some
archaeologists to suggest that they were votive
offerings not intended for common use. In support

76 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

of this suggestion it may be mentioned that one
of them had marks of red ochre — a sacred sub-
stance among some peoples — upon it. Another
characteristic implement is a finely-chipped point
with a shoulder on one side, the pointe d cmn
of French anthropologists.

In this age sculpture on stone and engraving
on bone was practised, although only a few in-
stances of the latter are known. The earliest
engravings seem to be those found in an upper
level of the Aurignacian period at the Trilobite
grotto, Arcy-sur-Cure. They consist of a reindeer
bone engraved with a plant, and a schist pebble
with a woolly rhinoceros and capridae. But it
was in the Solutrean and Magdalenian periods that
the artistic sense of Palaeolithic man reached its
highest point. Whether the Solutreans practised
the art of mural decoration is an open question,
though there can be little doubt that the lumps of
pigment and ochre occasionally found on the
hearths are the remains of the painting materials
of this age. The engraving of a cave lion from
Combarelles has been referred to the Solutrean,
and several drawings are assigned by the Abbe
Breuil to this period. It was, however, chiefly
in flint working that the artistic sense of the
Solutreans finds expression.

The next stage is named after the celebrated
rock shelter of La Madeleine, also situated on the

CULTURE OP PRIMEVAL MAN 77

banks of the Vezere. As Magdalenian man sup-
planted the Solutreans, the magnificent laurel-leaf
blades immediately disappeared. So great and
so sudden is the change in the general character
of the flint implements that it is impossible to
believe that the Magdalenians were evolved from
the Solutreans.1 True, the artistic sense developed
in other directions, but this is not sufficient to
account for the fact that the former were as un-
skilled in flint-working as the latter excelled in it.
It is therefore more reasonable to suppose that
the Magdalenians migrated into Europe with the
reindeer, producing the characteristic long thin
flaked implements, the duck-billed blade scrapers
and double-ended scraper, together with a quantity
of weapons made of bone and horn — daggers,
harpoons, lance-heads, dart-points, etc. The flints
consist chiefly of implements for making these
weapons, and thus an entirely new industry
developed in this epoch. The Magdalenian
caves reveal three stages in the progress of its
development :

1. Lower, without harpoons. Needles, orna-

mented bone-plates, chisel-ended lance-
heads and flints are common.

2. Middle, with harpoons, having one row of

barbs. Lance-heads with forked base, and
scrapers and engraving tools appear.

1 Abb6 Breuil, Congress Internal. d'Anthrop. 1912, xiv. p. 201.

78 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

3. Upper, with harpoons having a double row
of barbs. In this stage chisels and end-
scrapers are found.

The new lance-heads consist of flat or conical
rods, pointed at the distal ends, and having a
wedge-shaped slit or a similar device for attachment
to a shaft, at the proximal end. The union of the
head with the shaft was no doubt secured by
threads of sinew tightly bound round the joint.
Both spears and harpoons were thrown by the
hand, sometimes with the assistance of a spear-
thrower, consisting of reindeer horn hook-shaped
at one end.

Both arrow-heads and spear-heads are usually
ornamented with some engraved design. In fact
so common was the art of engraving in the Mag-
dalenian age that there is hardly a manufactured
tool but is adorned with figures of the fauna
characteristic of the period — horse, reindeer, goat,
mammoth, etc. Into this category comes the
wonderful carving of a mammoth on a piece of ivory.

The artistic conceptions of Magdalenian man,
however, were not confined to sculpture and en-
graving, but included extensive mural decorations
in the caves in which he dwelt. These consisted
of incised outlines and colour paintings in black
and ochre of the fauna of the period. The first
to discover these prehistoric art galleries was the
little daughter of Marcellino de Sautuola, a Spanish

CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN 79

nobleman, who accompanied her father to the
Palaeolithic cave at Altamira in Spain. Growing
weary of watching the digging operations she
began to look restlessly around ; suddenly her
attention was arrested, and she cried out " Toros "
(bulls). Her persistence attracted the attention
of M. Sautuola, who stopped his digging to enquire
into the matter. There sure enough on the roof
of the cave he saw a number of figures representing
bison (which the child took for bulls), deer, horses,
wild-boars, asses, etc. Some of the animals were
merely engravings in outline, but others were
painted in black or in brownish red. This happened
in 1879, and during the last forty years a number
of similar discoveries have been made in the Dor-
dogne caverns. (La Mouthe 1895, Pair-non-pair
1896, Font de Gaume 1901, etc.) One of the most
interesting cave finds was the discovery in the
cavern at Niaux (Ariege) of animal figures traced
on the mud floor and on the walls, a system of
dots and lines in red suggesting picture-writing.
Some of the lines appear to indicate a kind of
thro wing-club or boomerang, and on a bison (which
forms part of the picture) an arrow is marked
behind the shoulder. On quite a number of primi-
tive drawings markings resembling arrow and
arrowheads are to be found, as, for example, in
the polychrome paintings of the Zuni,1 and in the

1 B. Amer. Ethnol 1880, pp. 9-43.

80 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

famous Bushmen paintings. The purpose of such
drawings is undoubtedly to control, by sympathetic
magic, the fortunes of the chase.1

In the next stage of French Palaeolithic art,
which is represented by the cave of Azil, the rein-
deer had apparently disappeared, and the red
deer had alone survived. In fact the realistic art
of the Magdalenian period suddenly vanishes in the
Azilian — the closing phase of the Palaeolithic epoch.
There is no working in ivory, as the mammoth
had disappeared with the bison and reindeer, and
thus made room for the existing fauna, characterised
by the red deer. Although horses, cattle, pigs, etc.,
were the companions of the Azilians, these later
Palaeolithic folk appear to have been as ignorant
of the rearing of domestic animals as they were of
agriculture. It should, however, be pointed out
in this connexion that in the cavern Mas d'Azil,
together with the heaps of burnt wheat, stones of
plums, sloe and bird-cherries, and also shells of
nuts, have been found. But the most ancient
hand-mills for grinding corn are those discovered
in Campigny (France) in strata more recent than
the Azilian. The manufacture of pottery and the
arts of spinning and weaving were also unknown
in the Palaeolithic Age.2 The only remains of the

1 For a detailed account of Palaeolithic art see Prehistoric Art by
E. A. Parkyn, pp. 19-131.

2 Dupont and Rutot claim to have found fragments of pottery

CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN 81

Magdalenian artistic development are a few gener-
alised representations made with a paste of ashes,
and pebbles marked with stripes or dots. These
latter bear a certain resemblance to the designs on
the sacred churinga among the Arunta tribe of
Central Australia, and to the engravings on the
rocks at Pigeon Creek in Queensland.- M. Piette
claims an alphabetical significance for some of
these graphic signs,1 but it seems more probable
to explain them as totemic in origin.

The flint working during the close of the Palaeo-
lithic period shows signs of a return to Aurignacian
types ; the keeled scraper and the burin reappear,
while the tiny flints known as pygmy flints, which are
occasionally found in the Aurignacian, now become
one of the characteristic features of the industry.
These so-called " pygmy flints " are extremely
minute. Some measure only T3^th inch in size. It
seems highly improbable that they belong to any
one particular industry, since they are found from
the Aurignacian to the Bronze Age. All kinds of
explanations have been offered as to their use.
Some archaeologists suggest that they were scrapers
or knives, others that they were fish-hooks (which

in an Upper Mousterian level in a cave in Belgium, associated with
the usual extinct animals. Fragments are also alleged to have been
discovered in Belgium in Aurignacian and Magdalenian strata, and
by Mr. Reid Moir at Ipswich (J.A.I. 47, p. 409).
1 1? Ant hropologie, xiv. p. 41, and xvi p. 1.
J.A. F

82 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

is very unlikely, as the Magdalenians used bone
implements for this purpose) or employed in
tattooing. The most absurd of all suggestions is
that they are the normal implements of a relatively
small pygmy race. It is reasonable to imagine
that the flints were fixed into wooden handles and
used as saws and razors, and possibly on to heavy
clubs as a means of making the weapon more
effective. Neolithic harpoons have been discovered
studded with rows of tiny flints, and in Egypt
saws are represented in some of the ancient monu-
ments. A tool of this kind was also found in a
peat-moss at Palada, in northern Italy.

The characteristic Azilian implement is the broad,
flat, harpoon usually fitted with two rows of barbs
and a hole at the base through which the string
passes. This weapon is made from the antler of
the stag. The only bone implements are awls
and punches.

Judging from the fact that remains of the Azilian
industry are sporadically scattered over nearly
the whole of the western hemisphere, it seems
that the close of the Palaeolithic period was charac-
terised by great movements of peoples. When at
the end of the Glacial epoch the ice retreated
towards the pole, ample space was afforded for
racial expansion. As we pass from the Palaeo-
lithic to the Neolithic period we find great changes
not only in the mode of life of the people but in the

CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN 83

geographical distribution of land and sea. Hither-
to Britain was part of the Continent of Europe,
but with the dawn of the Neolithic, land submer-
gences took place which separated Britain and the
Channel Islands from the mainland, leaving traces
here and there of submerged forests in the North
Sea, the English Channel, and the Irish Sea. The
Palaeolithic fauna and arctic flora quickly dis-
appeared, giving place to animals and plants
characteristic of a temperate climate. Man too
speedily changed his customs. Finding the pro-
duce of the chase becoming scarce he gave up his
nomadic life for a more settled existence, domes-
ticating a number of the animals by which he was
surrounded (horse, dog, sheep, goat, etc.), and
cultivating the " kindly fruits of the earth " (wheat,
barley, millet, fruits, etc.). Whether this new
departure was a result of immigration of new races
into Europe, or whether it was merely an outcome of
the new environment on a people directly descended
from Palaeolithic man it is difficult to say. At any
rate the experiment was eminently satisfactory.

From agriculturalists Neolithic man became
acquainted with the useful arts — the manufacture
of cloth by spinning and weaving wool and fibrous
textures ; 1 the making of pottery, etc. — but

1 Since the evidence of weaving could not be preserved it is there-
fore impossible to definitely affirm that the art was unknown to
Palaeolithic man.

84 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

apparently he was absolutely devoid of that par-
ticular artistic taste that led the people of the later
Palaeolithic epoch to decorate the walls of their
caves and engrave designs on pieces of mammoth
tusk. The energies of the inhabitants of Europe
in the new Stone Age were spent in the erection
of houses, and the making of clothing, utensils,
etc., and the various features of which make for
civilization.

The flint industry continued much the same as in
the later stages of the Palaeolithic period, except
that, after flaking the implement to the desired
shape, the Neolithic workers often ground and
polished it, thereby improving not only the appear-
ance but also the cutting edge. The flint arrow-
head became a characteristic feature in the new
industry. So great is the contrast between the
tools of the later Palaeolithic and those of the
Neolithic Age that several archaeologists have
maintained that there must have been a hiatus
between the two periods. The discoveries, how-
ever, at the cavern of Mas d'Azil suggest an
intermediate stage between the two cultures,
which may reasonably be supposed to link up
the apparently divergent civilizations. For here
we have Palaeolithic hunters living side by side
with existing types of animals, but unacquainted
with the use of pottery, and possibly in the
earliest stages of agriculture. Mr. J. Allen

CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN 85

Brown maintained that a " mesolithic period,"
intermediate between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic,
is represented by such forms as those found in the
chalk rubble at Birling Gap, near Eastbourne.
The animal remains at this site showed a complete
mixture of Pleistocene and recent forms : musk
ox, bear, cave hyena, elk, wolf, deer, fox.

The flints of the early Neolithic period are often
rough axe-like weapons, resembling in many cases
Mousterian types. In Norfolk, at Grime's Graves,
and in Sussex at Cissbury near Worthing, disused
flint mines have been discovered, and a quantity
of implements, hammer stones, etc., excavated.
These were at one time put forth as a proof of a
mesolithic period, because they showed forms like
the Neolithic, but at the same time no evidence of
polishing.1 But since Cissbury is usually regarded
as a factory site the absence of polished implements
is explained by supposing them to have been sent
away while the wasters and unground celts remain.
There is a series of flints in the Pitts Rivers Museum
at Oxford from an American site which shows
implements in every stage of manufacture, in
percentages decreasing from the roughest to the
most nearly finished. It would not be difficult to
mistake some of the early stages for Palaeolithic
forms, though the finished product is a fine leaf-
shaped point. Bearing this fact in mind, we may

1 A polished celt has since been discovered at Cissbury.

86 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

turn to the lively controversy that has taken
place regarding the age of these finds since Mr.
Reginald Smith, of the British Museum, read a
paper before the Society of Antiquaries on May
9th, 1912, in which he assigned the Grime's Graves
and Cissbury flint-mines to the Palaeolithic, con-
necting the typical Cissbury celt with the transi-
tional period between Moustier and Aurignac, of
which the typical site is Abri Audi.1

At the suggestion of Mr. Reginald Smith the
writer recently examined a site at Stourpaine, in
Dorsetshire, where this particular type of celt has
been found, but as all the specimens he discovered
were " surface " finds, he concludes that the
evidence from this district is unconvincing. Of
course it by no means follows that all surface finds
are Neolithic, since the plough in chalk downs
would in all probability go below the six inches
of soil, and therefore it may easily throw up Palaeo-
lithic forms. At Grime's Graves and Cissbury,
however, we are dealing with disused mines, with
deer-horn picks embedded in the strata, just as
the prehistoric miners left them, and containing
the actual marks of the stone axes on the walls of
the subterranean galleries proceeding from the
shafts. In such sites as these there is abundant
opportunity for accurate investigation.

The implements procured from these mines

1 Archasologia, vol. Ixiii. p. 108, May 1912.

CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN 87

undoubtedly bear a striking similarity to mid-
palaeolithic types, but taken in conjunction with
other facts the conclusion in favour of a " Cave "
date for the deposits is not so obvious. So far no
traces of exclusively Pleistocene fauna have been
recorded from these mines, all the animal remains-
horse, red-deer, sheep, dog, fox, beaver, etc., being
characteristic of a Neolithic deposit. Of course
it is possible that these animals may have existed
in the Abri Audi period, but it is remarkable, to
say the least, that there is no evidence of the
exclusively mid-palaeolithic fauna. Surely frag-
ments of mammoth, bison, cave bear, Rhinoceros
tichorinus, or R. merckii must have survived in
these mines as in all well authenticated Mousterian
sites. Again, the antler picks, found in abundance
at Grime's Graves, are typical of Neolithic deposits,1
while the flora — oak, pine, beech, yew, spruce — and
pottery point to the same conclusion. As regards
the flints, it must be confessed — after spending an
interesting hour with Mr. Reginald Smith at the
British Museum — that the present writer sees a
remarkable similarity of culture between Grime's
Graves and certain Mousterian caves, as, for
example, La Cotte de St. Brelade, Jersey. But
analogy of type is not sufficient evidence to prove
that the flint mines at Grime's Graves and Cissbury
are Mousterian or Aurignacian factory sites, especially

1 W. Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Britain, p. 400.

88 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

as implements of the same patina and form
occur in such Neolithic stations as Weeting, Ave-
bury, Beechamwell, Cranwich, etc. Even the
tortoise core and facetted butt, upon which the
argument in favour of a Palaeolithic date for
the deposits is largely based, are not unknown in
neighbouring Neolithic deposits (Weeting, Beecham-
well, etc.), where large blocks of flint have had
to be reduced to workable dimensions.

Viewing all the available facts, while admitting
the strength of the case for a Palaeolithic date of the
implements, we feel bound to follow the orthodox
path until further geological and archaeological
evidence is forthcoming, and regard the worker at
Grime's Graves as a small, dark, long-headed
Neolithic man — one of the invaders from the south
who discovered the art of pottery-making, of
domesticating animals and planting crops, and
who probably succeeded in driving Palaeolithic
man northwards, whither the reindeer had ere
this retreated. Here at Grime's Graves lay scat-
tered about in all directions spear-heads, hatchets,
scrapers and discs bearing a striking resemblance
to those of the Mousterian culture, together with
hammer stones, cores, red-deer antlers, and rudely
made cups apparently used as lamps. Surely
none other than a Neolithic workshop ? The flints
were evidently worked on the spot, as battered
hammer stones, cores and flakes, as well as finished

CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN 89

implements such as axe-heads, scrapers, and borers
are found in the fields around. The axe-heads
were no doubt made in such factories as these and
then taken away to be ground and polished, the
grindstone being a large flat slab of rock or boulder,
on which the implement was rubbed (often with
the assistance of sand) backwards and forwards
until a smooth surface was obtained.

A word here should be added on the famous
kitchen middens (kjokken moddinger) of Denmark
—the large mounds, consisting of kitchen refuse
(shells, bones, implements, and fragments of
pottery), discovered early in the last century along
the eastern shores. Similar heaps have been found
in the British Isles, in France, and, at the present
day, at Tierra Del Fuego and many other parts.
In Denmark they appear to belong to the earliest
period of the Neolithic Age, for the implements are
of a rude description and unground, although some
of the flakes show evidence of considerable skill on
the part of those who produced them. The animal
bones are chiefly those of the stag, wild boar, wolf-
fox, and roe-deer. No trace of the reindeer, horse
or sheep has been found. The presence of the
capercailzie, a bird extinct in Denmark since
the destruction of pine forests, shows the antiquity
of the Danish middens. There is no trace of
domestic animals, nor of cultivated cereals.

The most characteristic home of Neolithic man

90 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

was the pit dwelling. A circular pit, similar to
that found among the Bushmen, was dug in the
ground to a depth of several feet. This was roofed
with wattle and daub, and often surrounded by an
earthen mound. In these habitations scrapers,
arrow-heads, celts, saws, drills, flakes, cores,
hammer stones, fragments of coarse pottery, grain
crushers, and bronze and iron implements have
been found. The presence of metal tools and
even Roman coins shows that this form of dwelling
survived long after Neolithic times, although
before the first traces of metal had appeared higher
types of houses were being built. Thus a cluster
of pit dwellings have been found at Grossgartach,
Wiirtemberg, in which separate rooms are con-
structed.

On the banks of lakes in ; Switzerland and
elsewhere some of the Neolithic tribes erected what
are known as pile dwellings — houses built on stout
poles, over the water on the shores of lakes. The
security afforded by natural islands probably first
suggested the idea of constructing dwellings on
lakes. The situation was advantageous for many
reasons, but chiefly for the protection it offered
against attack by man and beast, and the ease
with which a plentiful supply of fish could be
obtained. It is therefore not surprising that a
great number of such villages came into existence
during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages in Central

CULTURE OF PRIMEVAL MAN 91

Europe, once the idea was put into effect, and
have lingered on to the present day in New Guinea,
Borneo, and on the shores of the lakes of Central
Africa. In Britain pile dwellings (called Crannogs)
do not appear to have been constructed before the
Bronze Age, and frequently they belong to late
Celtic and Romano-British times. Thus, the well
known lake village of Glastonbury has revealed a
valuable collection of relics of late Celtic civilization.
The antiquities discovered in the settlements
show that this manner of life extended from Neo-
lithic times through the whole of the Bronze Age
into the early Iron Age. The remains found on
these sites throw considerable light on the manners
and customs of man in the Neolithic and Bronze
periods. The number of domestic animals appear
to have been small, and the food supply furnished
by the wilder species. The horse, pig and sheep
were rare until the Bronze Age. Wheat, barley
and millet were cultivated by the lake dwellers.
Garments woven from flax supplemented skins for
clothing. Numerous earthenware vessels which
have been discovered testify to the progress made
in the art of the potter. Flaked celts subsequently
ground and polished — often made of diorite, etc.—
constitute the characteristic implement, although
arrow-heads, knives, hammers and corn-crushers were
also frequently used by the Neolithic pile-dwellers.1

1 Cf. R. Munro, The Lake Dwellings of Europe.

92 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

With the close of the Neolithic period we must
leave the culture of primeval man, as with the
introduction of metals the progress of civilization
made such rapid strides that a separate chapter
on the beginnings of civilization must be devoted
to the culture of the Metal Ages. Our endeavour
in this chapter has been to survey briefly the human
artefacts of the Stone Age in their entirety. Ere
the Palaeolithic period closed man had attained a
complete mastery over the flint industry. In the
subsequent Neolithic Age his attentions were dis-
tracted by the rise of such arts as pottery-making,
weaving, etc., the practice of agriculture and
the domestication of animals. As a flint worker,
therefore, he tended to deteriorate, although there
are many very brilliant exceptions to this rule.
Throughout the whole of the Stone Age there is a
gradual evolution in culture, which, as we shall see
in the next chapter, was not confined to the tool-
making aspect of the life of primeval man.

CHAPTER III.

THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF PRIMEVAL MAN.

THE following description of the life of early man,
from the pen of Mr. Worthington Smith, in his work,
Man, the Primeval Savage, .may serve by way of
introduction, and incidentally of criticism, to a
discussion on the manners and customs of our
ancient ancestors :

" If we imagine the darkness to have lifted, we
see the men and women standing about or crouch-
ing— many carrying bones and stone tools — near
fires. There is one central fire and several minor
fires bounding the fringes of the human haunt.
The fires are kindled from sparks (derived from
concussion of flints) applied to dried grass. Some
of the men and women are feeding the flames with
ferns, twigs, tree-branches, and logs. Other men
and women are seen sitting or lying about in dens
or hovels formed of tree-branches and stones, or
resting under bushes, trees, fallen trunks, or natural
sheltering banks of earth. Hairy children are
seen running about or crawling on all fours. Bones,
some with half-putrid meat attached, are seen

93

94 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

strewn about in all directions. . . . The women
have gestures and sounds sufficient for their wants.
At a signal of danger they point and imitate the
roar of the lion, the growl of the bear, or the bellow-
ing of the elk. Some of the female adults are seen
to be nursing or suckling hairy infants. Some
of the older and feebler males and females are seen
walking with branches or sticks hacked from trees.
Some, especially the young people and children,
are full of vivacity and frolic, others are in ill-
health, burnt with fever or wheezing and coughing
with colds. . . . Fever patients, consumptives,
the blind, the half-blind, and fractious children
are driven off and killed, for the earliest human
savages probably possessed but scant sympathy
for either pleasure or pain in their fellows. He
did not bury his dead, and our remote precursors
probably paid little or no more attention to a human
being than a dog now pays to the dead body of a
fellow-dog. Death was not foreseen or understood.
A dead man was really a man lying down who did
not, could not, or would not get up again. His
carcass was left for wolves and hyenas. . . .

Any curiously twisted or contorted branch or
twig, any curious stone or fossil, he would pick up,
examine, smell, and possibly dread. Perhaps
primeval men set up fetiches in their haunts. . . .
Of course there was no marriage, but there was
pairing, and it is probable that one male would

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 95

keep more or less to one female, but only till one
birth had taken place. After one birth there
would probably be fresh pairing. ... At pairing
seasons there would be terrific roaring, yelling,
biting, and fighting amongst the males. The
weaker males would be torn and killed, and left
for the hyenas ; the fittest, strongest, and hand-
somest would survive." l

This dreary picture of " Man, the Primeval
Savage," is hardly equalled by the gloomy view of
modern people in a primitive state of culture
portrayed by Sir James Frazer in The Golden Bough.
Just as the latter writer represents the savage of
to-day as the victim of all kinds of hallucinations,
and the prey of malignant spirits at every turn,
so the former regards the customs and manners of
primeval man as more brute-like than those of the
lowest savages now existing. No doubt the theory
of a gradual development from a creature like
Pithecanthropus has led many anthropologists to
see in Palaeolithic man nothing but a rude, tool-
making animal, devoid of all ordered social organ-
ization, and incapable of any conception of religion.
With the discovery of human remains bearing a
striking resemblance to modern man, in the very
early gravels, primeval man has been regarded as
capable of something more than mere tool-making.
In fact the high degree of skill attained in the later

1 Pp. 49-54.

96 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Palaeolithic — especially during the Solutrean
culture-phase — suggests that the being who made
the wonderful " laurel-leaf " lance-heads, delicately
flaked on both sides, in a manner surpassing all
imitation by modern European flint- workers, was
endowed with an artistic intelligence such as is
not possessed by primitive man of to-day.

Unfortunately we have no time-machine by
which to revisit the scene of man's earliest life in
this world. But by laboriously combining the
evidence derived from the discoveries of the im-
plements, caves, river-gravels, settlements, and
other works of primeval man, together with that
of his bones, and then interpreting these survivals
in the light of modern primitive culture, we are
able to determine to some extent the manner of
man our ancestor was, the kind of life he led, and
the customs and rites he practised.

In the last chapter we had a glimpse of " Man,
the primeval tool-maker," and from the evidence of
human artefacts alone we see that Mr. Worthington
Smith's " primeval savage " was an exceedingly
skilful artificer. Furthermore, in later Palaeo-
lithic times he was an artist and an engraver of no
small ability. Can it be, we repeat, that the being
who was responsible for these Palaeolithic arts
and industries was in reality the howling, biting,
fighting, fever-stricken creature, without natural
sympathy and devoid of all social and religious

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 97

organization, as he is portrayed to have been by
Mr. Worthington Smith ? l His assumption is, of
course, pure conjecture — as, to a certain extent,
must be every picture of the mode of life of early
man which is not supported by evidence from
existing races now in the Stone Age.

In the very earliest stages of human development
it is, of course, true that man was very primitive in
his way of life. The person who first exercised
his handicraft on chipping flint for a specific use
was doubtless very much more rudimentary in
his habits than his skilled descendants in the later
Palaeolithic. But even so, unless we are pre-
pared to identify Homo Primigenius with proto-man
—a sort of Prepithecanthropus inhabiting the
earth in the Oligocene or Miocene epochs of the
Tertiary period — we shall find it difficult to fit in
the archaeological and the anthropological evidence
to the requirements of Mr. Worthington Smith's
"primeval savage." For our part, we are content
to confine our attention to the definitely human
being that arose at the end of the Pliocene or the
beginning of the Pleistocene, till such time as
sufficient evidence is forthcoming of the existence
and habits of the hypothetical potential ancestor
of Homo Primigenius.

1 Of course if Mr. Smith's description refers to " pro to man " it
may be more or less correct, but it does not describe, so far as we can
judge, the. life of Palaeolithic man.
J.A. G

98 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Let us now try and visualize man as he was at
the earliest known human stage of evolution. As
regards stature he was not very different from
modern man, but with a longer body and arms and
shorter legs. The head was not abnormally small,
but invariably dolichocephalic ; the jaw was power-
ful and prognathous, but the chin receded. The
brow ridges were probably prominent and the nose
broad. Until he became a hunter of large animals
he would be presumably unclothed, as he would
not have skins at his disposal. Furthermore,
fur-bearing animals were not plentiful in the warm
climate prior to the Glacial period. It may be
therefore reasonably supposed that clothing, like
cave-dwelling, was one of the arts of life learnt
by man in the Pleistocene — probably early in the
Mousterian phase.

Likewise fire, though familiar to man from the
beginning, was not used by him till he had learnt
the secret of its properties and devised some means
of obtaining it. How and when this was accom-
plished is not known. In the early Pleistocene
there is evidence of its existence, as, for example,
in the hearths discovered in Mousterian sites.
There are two obvious sources of natural fire-
lightning and volcanic lava. The latter is limited
to certain areas, and the former would be but
sporadic. Moreover, at such conflagrations he
would be so terrified that he would not be in a

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 99

position to appreciate the result. Another way
in which forest fires are accidentally kindled is by
friction of boughs in a stormy wind creating a dust
that in due course would ignite. In the sort of
climate in which earliest man apparently lived
bamboo, and the sort of wood that most readily
ignites by attrition, would be plentiful, and, there-
fore, it is possible that an observant mind experi-
mented in the generation of heat, and the
consequent manufacture of fire by rubbing together
two pieces of wood. This suggestion is sup-
ported by the widely distributed custom of
frictional fire-making among primitive people
to-day, and, all things considered, appears to be
the most probable explanation of the origin of
fire.

Having discovered a method by which fire could
be obtained, it would not be long before our primeval
ancestors found abundant uses for this all- essential
phenomenon. It would soon be ascertained that
fire was a means of safety from the attacks of
hostile animals, and that cooked food is more
palatable than raw flesh. The hardening effect of
this force would be of much value in the manufac-
ture of spears, etc. Little wonder then that, in
process of time, it came to be regarded with super-
stitious awe as a gift from heaven.

Passing from the arts of life to the question of
primeval social organization, we are at once faced

100 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

with, very difficult and complex problems. Obviously
little light can be gleaned from archaeological
remains, and therefore we must turn for clues to
the lower creation, on the one hand, and, on the
other, to those races which have remained in more or
less a Palaeolithic stage of culture. Many of the
lower creatures, such as baboons, monkeys, dogs,
bees, etc., live in communities governed by a chief
who controls the movements of the troop. On the
death of one leader another is assigned to the office
by the general consent of the herd ; strength, size,
and shrewdness being the qualifications usually
demanded for the position. The community is
divided into smaller groups — families — each of
which is allotted a special territory, with definitely
established boundaries. A regular system of
mating, often of a semi-permanent type, is common
among the higher animals, constituting a prototype
of primeval marriage. It seems that earliest man
inherited from his ancestors in the lower creation
the instinct of a social organization which developed
into the system still set forth by modern races of
primitive people. It is, of course, open to argue
that such people as the Australians, Bushmen,
and the now extinct Tasmanians, have had countless
ages in which to evolve social and religious systems
which was not the case with Pleistocene man.
On the other hand, it may be contended that the
same people have also had equal time to degenerate

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 101

in an isolated environment. Be this as it may,
it is now recognised by anthropologists that, for
purposes of securing a working hypothesis, the
manners, customs, and beliefs of modern savages
may be taken as a standard from which to deduce
general principles. We will, therefore, now pro-
ceed to a further investigation of the manners and
customs of primeval man by the method of reason-
ing by analogy.

Of all recent races of man in a primitive state of
culture the Tasmanians were the lowest. When
they became extinct in the latter part of the nine-
teenth century, they were still living in the Palaeo-
lithic age — some have gone so far as to describe
them as an Eolithic race, since their implements
were made by simply chipping a piece of flint in
eolithic fashion. Mr. Henry Balfour, on the other
hand, is inclined to regard them as representing
a separate industry, while Prof. Sollas inclines to
Tylor's opinion that they resemble the Mousterian
culture. The flints in question were made from
artificially produced flakes, in a few cases with
neatly trimmed edges, but mostly showing an
irregular outline. The implements may, therefore,
be safely described as pre-Aurignacian in character,
and, unless they belong to a separate industry,
they can perhaps most correctly be assigned to an
early stage of the Mousterian. Huxley regarded
both the Australian and Tasmanian skulls as more

102 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

or less Neanderthaloid, and some authorities have
actually described these races as survivals of
Neanderthal man. But the type has little in
common with the Neanderthals, except in so far
as they are platycephalic and show a retreating
forehead, flattened occiput, prominent supra-orbital
ridges, and slightly developed chin. Boule there-
fore seems justified in concluding that " all these
modern so-called ' Neanderthaloids ' are nothing
more than varieties of individuals of homo sapiens,
remarkable for the accidental exaggeration of
certain anatomical traits which are normally de-
veloped in all specimens oiHomo Neanderthalensis."1
It would, therefore, seem that there is reason to
regard the race as unchanged descendants of an
independent stock — Homo sapiens tasmanianus, as
Dr. Sergi calls it. In any case the Tasmanians
were a Palaeolithic race, surviving but little changed
throughout the ages.

Most unfortunately, practically nothing is known
of these highly interesting and instructive people
beside the fact that they lived a nomadic hunting
life, wore little or no clothing, except in winter,
when skins were sometimes worn, and that they
used flint and wood implements. They were
certainly acquainted with fire, which they made
by rubbing the pointed end of a stick to and fro
in a groove cut out in another piece of wood, or by

1 Ext. Ann. Pal. 1913, pp. 66-75.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 103

rotating one stick on another in a hole. They
made rough attempts at drawing and painting
which compare favourably with the efforts of
Magdalenian man. With canoes proper they were
unacquainted, but they are said to have possessed
a useful substitute, consisting of a bark " raft,"
made by lashing together with coarse grass the
bark of the eucalyptus tree. But of their social
and religious organization nothing is known.1

Of the other primitive race still in the Stone Age
more has been determined, thanks to the researches
of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, Dr. Howitt, Ling
Eoth, and other first-hand investigators. It is
now generally admitted by anthropologists that
of all surviving races the Australians are apparently
the lowest in culture, and nearest to the primeval
type. In their native state they are unacquainted
with the use of metals, pottery, and agriculture, nor
do they practise any of the arts and industries
found in the higher civilizations. Their flint im-
plements and bone awls resemble in certain aspects
Magdalenian types, while their polished celts show
Neolithic characteristics. But with this latter
exception the Australians are still in a Palaeolithic
stage of culture, a conclusion supported, with the
aforementioned reservations, by their physical
features. The low retreating forehead, progna-
thous jaws, depressed cranial vault, and small

1 Cf. Ling Roth, The Aborigines of Tasmania.

104 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

capacity, large teeth, prominent brow-ridges, and
dolichocephalic skull, all suggest Palaeolithic
characteristics.

The origin of the people will be considered in a
later chapter. Suffice it to say here that although
the Australians are not necessarily direct descend-
ants of the species that inhabited Europe in the
mid-Pleistocene, they must have become isolated
at a very early period while still living a life of
primitive simplicity. This is suggested by the
absence of all traditions and myths relating to
their migration to the continent. Moreover, they
agree in type so closely among themselves that
they are now regarded as a distinct race.

The Australian is a cheerful, but treacherous,
individual, who lives on the products of the chase.
He never, in his native state, rears cattle, domesti-
cates animals (except the dog), cultivates the soil
for any kind of food-crop, builds permanent dwel-
lings, manufactures clothing, nor wears anything
on his body except a hip girdle, necklaces of animal
teeth, and similar adornments (nose pins, etc.).
Sometimes in cold weather he puts on skins or
matting. The Australians dwell for the most
part in rude huts or wurleys, made of grass-tree,
or occasionally of paper-bark. These are made
by the women. In some districts more permanent
structures are erected, built of logs of wood and
thatching plastered with clay, and erected on a

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 105

wooden frame. Circular stone erections are said to
have been used in North- West Australia. The large
huts are intended for more than one family, or for
the unmarried men and youths.

The Australian is an able and sagacious hunter,
and, unlike the Tasmanian, he is also a fisherman.
The famous boomerang is a deadly weapon in the
skilful hands of the native, and in West Australia
fish are even procured by a special fish boomerang.
Besides this, clubs with various shaped heads and
stone-headed spears are in use throughout the
country. The women are usually provided with
a digging-stick which is sometimes used for defen-
sive purposes. In hunting animals the Australian
black usually follows his prey till he has tracked
it down. When it runs he runs, when it stops he
stops, and so on, till at last the man proves sturdier
than the beast (usually a kangaroo). This method
of catching kangaroos requires a hunter of ex-
ceptional endurance to bring it to a successful
issue, and is therefore less frequently adopted than
hunting with dogs or securing the prey in nets.
Emus, being powerful birds and fleet of foot, are
not easily captured. The native usually watches
the tracks near a waterhole. When the birds come
down the hunters set up an immense net behind
them, or else drive them into pits dug near the
feeding grounds. Ducks are often taken by stretch-
ing a net across a river, although they are also

106 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

stalked, speared, or snared by nooses set in the
swamps. Fish are procured by the simple method
of the native walking into the water and catching
the fish with his feet. Big reptiles, such as the
turtle, are captured with the aid of a sucker fish.
This is taken out to sea, the native tying a string
to its tail and putting it overboard to serve as a
means of securing his prey. Thus he is enabled
to aim correctly his harpoon. In some parts
bone or shell hooks with worms, shrimps, and
crabs as bait are used. In New South Wales
fishing with hook and line is the special province
of the women. To catch water-fowl the black-
fellow will swim under water and pull the bird
down. In like manner, to procure a meal of
pigeon or cockatoo, he gets into a tree at night and
lashes out with a stick at the birds as they fly
past.

Opossum hunting is a most sportsmanlike
pursuit in South Australia, where the animal
abounds. The hunter carefully examines the
trunks of the trees in the forest, to see whether
there are any recent marks of opossum's claws
upon them. The trained eye can at once tell by the
scratches if the animal's last move was up or down
the tree. If the former be the case, he either makes
a fire at the bottom and smokes him out, or he
climbs the tree, cuts a hole in the trunk where he
believes him to be concealed, and pulls him out !

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 107

The flesh of animals and fish is usually cooked.
Occasionally, if the native is very hungry after a
long chase, he will eat his prey raw, or, in the case
of a fish, just fling it on the fire and eat it almost
immediately. But when not so ravenous he cleans
his fish, and plucks and draws his birds, cooking
them on hot ashes, and serving them on a dish of
bark in a most appetising manner.

Before leaving the subject of the food quest
we must refer to the practice of cannibalism.
Except as part of a religious ceremony, or on very
rare occasions, human flesh is not eaten. The
Australian aborigines are not cannibals. Usually
the revolting practice is only resorted to in order
to acquire the strength of a dead man, or to estab-
lish a vital union with the dead. Enemies are
sometimes eaten to prevent their coming together
again, and should a man in the Turribul tribes be
killed in the ceremonial combats that follow initia-
tion ceremonies, portions of the flesh are eaten as
a sacred meal.

As regards vegetable food, yams and similar
roots are dug up by the women and eaten raw or
roasted. Seeds are collected and ground between
two stones, and often baked into cakes. Nuts are
roasted in the fire, after having been soaked in
water for a considerable time. Grubs are also
eaten, sometimes raw, sometimes cooked. Ants'
eggs are also a favourite article of food. The black

108 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

tracks down bees to their hives in trees, cuts out
the nest (the bees being stingless), and extracts
the honey.1

Notwithstanding the fact that primitive people
are usually skilful hunters, as has been shown above
—there is no tribe in Australia unable to secure
food by natural means — yet supernatural or magical
influence is invariably brought to bear on the chase.
This has been illustrated, as regards Palaeolithic
man, by the Aurignacian and Magdalenian cave
paintings. As M. Salomon Reinach points out,
all the animals represented are such as are desirable
for food,2 although his second statement, that
" undesirable animals " are not depicted, is not
correct, since a lion, a bear, and a wolf have been
found on the wall of Combarelles, and a wolf at
Font de Gaume. It by no means follows, however,
that these animals were not eaten by Palaeolithic
man. Nevertheless, there seems little doubt that
the metaphorical magic of the artist's pencil had
once a literal meaning. Mr. F. H. Gushing de-
scribes the images of their totems carved out of
stone by the Zuni Indians, with a flint arrow bound
to the fetish.3 This apparently corresponds to the
arrows painted on the side of the bison at Font-
de-Gaume. The image is set apart for magical

1 N. W. Thomas, Natives of Australia, pp. 88-118.

2 V Anthropologie, xiv. p. 357.

3 Bureau Amer. Ethnol 1880, pp. 9-43.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 109

purposes at the New Year Festival. Every
hunter carries the fetish with him in the chase.
Likewise among the Ojibwa Indians the medicine
man makes a drawing of the animal to be hunted
and paints the heart in vermilion, drawing a line
from it to the mouth, along which the image passes
at his incantation.1 Again, the paintings of the
Bushmen recall the mural decorations of the French
and Spanish caves, and these we know were for
sympathetic magic, rather than for aesthetic pur-
poses.2 In the sandstone caves of the Natal Downs
(Australia) the Pegulloburra tribe make drawings
of emu and kangaroo, and incidents of the chase,
together with impressions of the hand daubed with
red.3 From an artistic point of view these sketches
are inferior to those of Palaeolithic man, and
obviously belong to a different school from the
Aurignacian, but, nevertheless, judging from similar
decorations on Churinga or sacred amulets, weapons
and various other objects used in sacred ceremonies,
they must be magico-religious in intent.

Here is an actual case of Palaeolithic customs
being practised by primitive man of to-day. These
designs are therefore interesting, not only because
they represent another aspect of the food quest,

1 W. J. Hoffman, B.A. Eth. vii. 221-223.

2 H. Tongue, Bushmen Paintings and Anthropos, viii. 1913,
pp. 652 ff. and 1010 ff.

3 Curr, Australian Race, ii. p. 476.

110 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

but also because they show a real connexion between
the manners, customs, and beliefs of primeval man
and those of modern savages. Thus is justified
the anthropological principle of determining the
manner of life of the earliest human inhabitants
of the earth, by an investigation of the rites
and customs of surviving primitive people. The
brief description of Australian culture given above
will doubtless suggest to the archaeologist many
Palaeolithic parallels. The aborigines, like Palaeo-
lithic man, are hunters and flint- workers, they are
unacquainted with agriculture, the domestication
of animals, the erection of permanent dwellings,
and yet the same artistic concept found among the
men of the later Palaeolithic epoch is set forth in
their caves and on their rocks. Is it too much to
suppose that Palaeolithic man also performed
Intichiuma ceremonies, whereby the Arunta and
other Australian tribes increase the supply of the
particular totem, animal, or plant by sacred
rites ?

Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, the well-known
anthropological investigators of the tribes of Central
and Northern Australia, have described what took
place at the Intichiuma ceremonies in connexion
with the witchetty grub totem at Alice Springs,
in the Arunta country. The men of the local
group assemble in the spring, and on a given day
proceed, late in the afternoon, to Emily Gap, a

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 111

place especially associated with the Alcheringa x
ancestors of the group. On its walls are the sacred
drawings characteristic of the totem, a fact that
suggests a totemic significance for some of the
Palaeolithic paintings. The Alatunja, or leader
of the ceremonies, carries a small bark food vessel
(called a pitchi, or, in this particular case, an apmara)
and the rest of the party have in their hands little
twigs of the Udniringa bush, on which the totem
feeds. When the party reach a spot known as
Ilthura oknira, placed high up on the western wall of
the gap, they gather round a shallow cave, in which
there is a large block of quartzite, surrounded by
several small stones. The big stone represents
the adult animal, the little stones being the eggs.
First the leader taps the big stone with the twigs
he carries in his hand, and invites it to lay eggs.
He then rubs the stomach of each of the men with
one of the smaller stones, saying " You have eaten
much food." After visiting some ten of these
spots, and repeating the same ceremony at each,
the party returns to the camp and holds sacred
ceremonies in the wurley erected for the purpose.2
Other ceremonies of a similar character are

1 The mythical past or " Dream Time," in which the ancestors
instituted the native ceremonies, and regulated the social organiza-
tion.

2 Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 170-179. Cf. the author's
Primitive Ritual and Belief, p. 94.

112 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

performed in the autumn, but since their purpose
is to effect a union of a sacramental character
with the sacred species rather than to secure a
supply of the totem, their description will be re-
served for the next chapter. In the rites we are
now considering there are several important links
with prehistoric times, of which the drawings on
the walls at Emily Gap and the use of red ochre
may be quoted as examples. This evidence is
supported by the fact that the Intichiuma cere-
monies are closely connected with the magical
control of the food supply, which has also given
rise to cave paintings among the Bushmen and the
Indians of America, analogous to those of the
Magdalenians.

Now, if we are correct in our view that cere-
monies corresponding to the Intichiuma rites of
the Australians — we do not suggest that they were
in any way identical — were performed by man
at the end of the Palaeolithic epoch, then another
conclusion of no small importance naturally fol-
lows. The Intichiuma rites are the outcome, on
the social side, of the totemic organization of society.
Among primitive people a certain relation is assumed
between man and animals and plants, and occa-
sionally an inanimate object such as wind, rain,
a stone, etc. Very often this kinship is supposed to
be due to the original groups having arisen out of
animals and plants. In Australia the Inapertwa

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 113

(rudimentary men) are regarded as a stage in the
course of transformation of complete men and
women from lizards, rats, parakeets, emus, hakea
trees, etc. Naturally when the groups were even-
tually formed they were intimately associated with
the animals and plants out of which they were
evolved, the particular object becoming the totem.
It is not unreasonable to suppose that some of the
Palaeolithic paintings and carvings have a totemic
significance, as, for instance, the mystic signs
found on the painted pebbles at Mas d'Azil, which
bear a certain resemblance to the Australian totemic
designs. Again, according to Dr. Marett, the
curious arabesques, made by the fingers in the
gluey clay of the walls and roof of the cave at
Gargas, are imitations of the scratches left by
the cave-bear — the totem of these particular Aurig-
nacians.1 Taken collectively and in conjunction
with the fact that the primeval inhabitants of
Europe, like the Australians, depended on the
chase for their food supply, the evidence suggests
the probability of the existence of totemism in
the Palaeolithic age.

There are three important features of the re-
lation between human beings and their totems.
(1) The totem is connected with a definite social
group, and in the typical form of the institution
this social division is exogamous (i.e. the law of

1 The Threshold of Religion, p. 217.

J.A.

114 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

marrying out of the totem group). Often the
group makes the name and the badge of the totem
its own. (2) The members of the totemic group
believe themselves to be " one flesh " with the
totem, and often think they are descended from
it. (3) There is a mystic bond between the totem
and the totemite which is of a sacramental nature.
The result of this is that the totem tends to
consolidate a group of individuals, having a com-
mon relationship — being all " one flesh " with
the sacrosanct animal — into a distinct social unit.
These totem groups are comparatively small, and
form sub-divisions of the phratries or moieties into
which the tribe is in the first place divided. In
Australia the phratries are again divided into
classes, either four or eight in number. This is
a special variety of the exogamous system in which
a person has not only to marry outside his own
class, but also into a specified group. The totem-
kins are cross-divisions with the classes. There
seems to be no limit to the number of totem
groups which may exist in a tribe, but the same
group is seldom found in the two phratries. The
relationship between the totem and the totemite
makes the members of the same totem-kin regard
themselves as brethren, and therefore they act
together on all occasions, and an injury wrought
by any one of them may be avenged on any other,
so close is their relationship.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 115

Closely associated with the totemic organization
of society is the practice of exogamy. This custom
forces men and women to contract unions with
the members of distinct food-groups, a practice
not without economic advantage among people
in a hunting stage of society. Thus, supposing
the Cockatoo and Crow people are food-groups of
the same totem-kin, all the members of each group
are brethren because they are " one flesh." These
are, we suppose, exogamous, and, therefore, Cock-
atoo men must marry Crow girls. To borrow
further from Dr. Marett's excellent example,1
let us imagine that the groups are separated by a
river. After marriage the Cockatoos and Crows
each abide on their own side of the river,
where they are visited by their partners from
across the water, who naturally are regarded more
or less as outsiders, notwithstanding the fact that
they are totemic brethren. The children mean-
while grow up in the Cockatoo and Crow quarters
respectively as little Cockatoos and Crows. Any
correction that is found to be necessary in the
upbringing of the young Cockatoo is exercised by
the Cockatoos and not by the Crows though the
father be a Crow. As the child grows to manhood
he shares in the Cockatoo toils and spoils of the
chase, inherits the weapons and other property
of his group, and is initiated into their totemic

1 Anthropology, pp. 169 f.

116 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

mysteries. In the event of the Crows entering
into deadly conflict with the Cockatoos, the youth
has to fight for the latter against his father's people.
It is therefore evident that where the wife stays
with her group — a system technically known as
matrilocal marriage — the life and interest of the
children is wholly bound up with the mother's
totem-kin, and, in consequence, descent is usually
reckoned matrilineally. When matrilineal, matri-
local, and matripotestal (supreme authority exer-
cised over the children by the mother and her group)
conditions are found together, we have mother-right
at its fullest and strongest. It, however, does
not follow that wherever a totemic basis of society
prevails mother-right is found, although where there
is an evolution it invariably happens that the
development is from mother-right to father-right.
The simplest organization is represented by the
Urabunna and Dieri tribes of Australia, where dual
organization, the system of marrying across, pre-
vails. Among the Dieri the totem-kins are found
in the phratry, but it is so arranged that no kin
exists in both phratries, and marriage is regulated
simply by the rule of exogamy. Among the
Urabunna one totem-kin may not intermarry with
any and every totem-kin of the opposite phratry,
but each is limited to one kin. Thus, Wild Ducks
are only allowed to marry Carpet Snakes, the
children taking the name of their mother's totem

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 117

(i.e. matrilineal descent). A similar dual organ-
ization is found in Melanesia.1 The Kariera tribe
on the north-west coast of Australia is divided into
four classes — Banaka, Burung, Karimera, and
Palyeri.2 A Banaka man may only marry a Burung
woman. Their children will be Palyeri, while
those of a Burung man and a Banaka woman will
be Karimera. The system may thus be described
graphically : —

Banaka = Burung

| \/

Karimera = Palyeri

It will be observed that man and wife must
belong to opposite phratries, and that " descent
follows the distaff " ; the children belong to the
same phratry, though not to the same class, as
their mother.

These examples suffice to show that the totem-kin
is the social unit with the tribe — the political unit
of the inter-marrying groups. Occasionally an
inter-tribal gathering takes place, as for example,
for the purpose of holding initiation ceremonies,
but this is a more or less rare occurrence. First
a man belongs to the phratry, which is divided
into two, four, or eight exogamous classes. But
he also has a narrower relationship, that of the
individual family.

It has been asserted by many anthropologists in

1 Dr. Rivers, History ofMelanesian Society. * J.A.I, xliii. pp. 143 f.

118 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

the past, of whom Morgan, Bachofen, MacLennon,
and Lubbock may be taken as examples, that
primeval society consisted of an undivided commune
in which marriage was unknown. No doubt the
popularity of this hypothesis was largely due to
the fact that it supported the theories of primitive
common property and of economic determinism
of the Marxian school of socialists. Almost the
only positive evidence in its favour is the frag-
mentary testimony of some ancient classical writers
such as Herodotus and Strabo, but even if the
examples quoted refer to promiscuity, they are
too few to justify the conclusion that all peoples
lived originally in the conditions which they
describe. As to the indirect evidence in favour of
the theory, consisting of inferences from such
customs as matrilineal descent, religious prostitu-
tion, unrestrained sexual intercourse before mar-
riage, and primitive community of property—
every one of these conditions can be explained
more easily on other grounds than on the assump-
tion of promiscuity. The attitude of recent authori-
ties to the theory is thus set forth by Howard :
" The researches of several recent writers, notably
those of Starcke and Westermarck, confirming in
part and further developing the earlier conclusions
of Darwin and Spencer, have established a proba-
bility that marriage, or pairing between one man
and one woman, though the union be only transitory

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 119

and the rule frequently violated, is the typical j
form of sexual union from the infancy of the human ;
race."1

Morgan, who is largely responsible for the pro-
mulgation of the doctrine of primitive promiscuity,
first studied the Iroquois, and, no doubt, thoroughly
digested their social organization. He subse-
quently put Fison on to collect similar facts in Fiji.
This latter investigator afterwards went to Aus-
tralia, where he met Howitt. It is, therefore,
easily explained why Howitt is inclined to find
group marriage everywhere in the South-East
district, since he had been indirectly (through Mr.
Fison) brought under the influence of Morgan.
Dr. Frazer, in his Totemism and Exogamy, adopts
much the same lines as Morgan.

There are four main arguments put forth in
favour of communal marriage :

(1) The Classificatory System. — Because the
savage calls all men father it is argued that he has
no conception of individual paternity. But it
should be remembered that he also calls all women
mother. It is surely contrary to the natural order
of things to suppose that a woman does not know
her own child as distinct from other children, and
that the child regards all women as its mother.
Again, it is said, the matrimonial class does not define
actual marriage but marriageability. That is to say,

1 History of Matrimonial Institutions, i. pp. 90, 91.

120 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

it defines a group in which a selection of partners
may be made according to choice. But the mere
fact that the class system shows a man where to
look for a wife, presupposes the existence of indi-
vidual marriage. The classificatory system is
based on exogamy. The question, ' Why do
people marry out ? " necessitates by way of
answer, the definition of marriageability.

(2) Supplementary Unions. — According to Gason1
the Dieri girls are betrothed to one man in infancy,
who in due course becomes her Tippa-malku
husband. This is an individual relationship, since
no woman can be Tippa-malku to two or more men
at the same time. In due course certain supple-
mentary unions are sanctioned by the council of
old men. This is called the Pirrauru relationship,
which is one in which a group of men and women
have the right of sexual intercourse with one another.
But a Pirrauru is always a wife's sister, or a brother's
wife, or in some such definite relationship to her
partner. Therefore the system is merely an extension
of conjugal rights within what the savage regards as
the " family circle." Furthermore, the relation-
ship is only supplementary. When a man goes
on a journey the Piraungaru husband steps in his
place ; or, if a visitor, being of the proper class,
calls upon a friend, the host may offer him his

1 Woods, Native Tribes of South Australia, and Howitt, S.E.
Tribes, p. 177.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 121

Tippa-malku as a temporary Pirrauru, provided
he is Noa (i.e. in the relation of " spouseship ") to
her. Therefore this system, though regrettably
loose, does not constitute promiscuity, but rather
represents an extreme degree of private ownership.
In like manner, the sexual relations between groups
of men formed by the husband's brothers and the
group of women formed by the wife's sisters in
Melanesia are but the extension of marital rights
to members of a conventional brotherhood.1

(3) Ritual Defloration. — Among all the tribes
examined by Spencer and Gillen ritual defloration
is practised on the girl by men standing to her in
a definite relationship, as a marriage ceremony
connected with the handing over of the girl to her
allotted husband.2 There is, however, no reason
to suppose that this is a survival of primitive pro-
miscuity. It is rather, as will subsequently be
shown, a religious ceremony — a " rite de passage "
safeguarding the dangers to which individuals are
subjected at any transition from one period of
life to another.

(4) Ceremonial License. — Besides ritual deflora-
tion and the Pirrauru relationship, considerable
license is allowed on certain occasions when large
numbers of men and women are gathered together
to perform corrobborees.3 At such times conven-

1 Howitt, p. 175 ff. ; Seligmann, Mel of Brit. New Guinea, p. 473.

2 Native Tribes, p. 9 ff. 3 Native Tribes, pp. 96, 97.

122 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

tional restrictions such as class rules are broken
down, but blood ties are respected. A man may
have, in connexion with certain ceremonies, access
to his mother-in-law, who under normal conditions
is strictly tabu to him, but under no circumstances
can there be any relaxation of the rule of chastity
observed within blood relationships (actual father,
brother and sons of a woman). Therefore it may
be concluded that on all occasions when ceremonial
license takes place, the strict class exogamy
does not hold good, but incest as regards blood
relationship is always strictly forbidden, and con-
sequently a state of real promiscuity does not
exist.

Enough has been said to show that there is good
reason to suppose that primeval society was not
an undivided commune in which " there is no
marriage." If our surmise is correct, that Palaeo-
lithic society was ordered on a totemic basis, the
theory of primitive promiscuity absolutely falls
to the ground. We are therefore of the opinion
that from the earliest days of man's pilgrimage on
the earth there was marriage and giving in marriage,
if by marriage is meant " a union regulated by
custom and law." l The tribe has yet to be found
I in which unions are not regulated by custom and
/ law. Dr. Malinowski, in his Family among the
Australian Aborigines, has clearly proved the

1 Westermarck, Origin and Development of Moral Ideas, ii. p. 364.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 123

existence of individual marriage as opposed to primi-
tive promiscuity among the modern representatives
of Palaeolithic man. He quotes forty-nine instances
of the way wives are obtained by the natives,
most of which are of a specific nature.1 The
simplest, and therefore perhaps the commonest,
method of procedure is to exchange a sister for a
wife. Betrothal often takes place at or even before
birth, showing ipso facto how deeply rooted is the
idea of the individual right of a man to a woman
in the primitive mind. Even in elopements there
are certain rites and formalities that have to be
observed, as, for instance, the magic sleep into
which the parents are cast and the hasty retreat
of the lovers to a convenient distance from the
camp ere the irate parents awake. Marriage by
capture is not unknown ; but Mr. Curr is probably
correct in saying that this method is more or less
rare, as it would lead to constant attacks from the
tribe from which the woman was stolen.2

The elaborate system of phratry organization
described above greatly restricts a man in the
choice of a wife. By the class system intermarry-
ing between brothers and sisters is prevented,
though the object of the system originally was
probably to prevent marriage between people of
different generations not related by blood. In
the Arunta there is, unlike most Australian tribes,

1 Pp. 34-66. 2 Australian Race, i. p. 108.

124 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

no restriction whatever, as far as totems are con-
cerned. In several of the Central tribes the totem-
kin is found in both phratries, and tends to coincide
with the local groups. Although methods of
securing wives in the Arunta district include the
magic use of love-charms to entice a girl to her
lover, and also capture and elopement, it is the
custom of Tualcha-Mura that is the most useful
method of obtaining a wife. An arrangement is
made between two men that the relationship
shall be established between their two children,
one a boy and the other a girl, both of tender
years. They are then taken to the women's camp
where each mother rubs the other child all over
with a mixture of fat and ochre in the presence of
all the other women. Some of the girl's hair is
cut off and given to the boy to signalise the fact
that when grown up it will be her duty to provide
him (her son-in-law as he will be) with her own hair
from which to make him a waist-girdle. The girl
must be Mura to the boy, that is, one whose daugh-
ters belong to the class from which his wife must
come. By this ceremony she becomes Tualcha-
mura, i.e. his actual or prospective mother-in-law.
This relationship indicates that the man has the
right to take the daughter of the woman ; she is,
in fact, assigned to him, and this, as a general rule,
many years before she is born.1

1 Primitive Ritual and Belief, pp. 51 f.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 125

Enough has been said to show that if the Aus-
tralians can be taken as an example of a really
primitive community, there is no reason to suppose
that primeval society consisted of an undivided
commune. The martial relations of the tribes fall
under three headings. The first is the normal one,
when the woman is the wife of one man ; and no
one, without his consent, can have access to her.
The second is the wider relation in regard to par-
ticular men at the time of marriage. The third
is the still wider relation which obtains on certain
occasions, such as the holding of important corrob-
borees. It must not be forgotten, however, that
licentious as is the last named relationship, it is
the exception rather than the rule. Under ordinary,
circumstances, for a man to have intercourse with
a woman who is not his lawful wife is a very grave
offence, and liable to punishment by death.
Furthermore, except in those tribes in which the
Pirrauru relationship exists, the system of in-
dividual wives prevails, modified as indicated
above.

Among all the tribes described by Messrs. Spencer
and Gillen, there seem to be some marriage rites.
The ceremonies usually consist of ritual defloration
by men standing in a definite relationship to the
girl, followed by intercourse and decoration of the
head and body with a mixture of fat and ochre.
This is undoubtedly the crudest form of marriage

126 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

known, and yet it is a definite social and religious
act constituting a valid union of man and woman.
In the case of marriage brought about by magically
attracting a woman from one camp to another,
the act of union appears to effect a kind of sacra-
mental alliance. If St. Paul considers that casual
intercourse with a harlot produces a permanent
union between man and woman (1 Cor. vi. 16),
how much more should the merging of two lives
into one by marital relations be considered a valid
marriage effecting a permanent alliance. We
therefore conclude, judging from the Australian
evidence, that marriage is the socio-religious act
by which, from the earliest times, the natural
inclinations of man for woman and vice versa
are satisfied in a lawful manner, and that the
principle of monogamy has prevailed from the
beginning.

In confirmation of this view it may be pointed
out that the ceremonies connected with marriage
in primitive society invariably refer to the union
of the two individuals and not to groups. There can
be little doubt but that the joining of hands, the
placing of feathers, the exchange of fire-sticks, etc.,
have some inherent force, and constitute a form
of sacramental marriage between two persons. It
would be contrary to the evolutionary principle
by which the world is governed, to find a perfect
monogamous system in vogue in primitive society,

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 127

though the principle of monogamy is certainly
discernible even in the Australian marital rela-
tions. In the full sense of the term the wife has
only one husband, since the first husband enjoys
conjugal rights superior to men who are in a totemic
sense " one flesh " with the woman. In the case
of supplementary unions the very fact that the
husband's consent has to be obtained proves that
a woman only has one proper husband, and that
individual marriage exists though slightly modi-
fied. The greater number of polyandrous unions
(the union of several husbands with one wife) are in
Australia of the fraternal kind, and therefore the
custom is softened in the direction of monogamy,
since the wife belongs to a group of men united by
the closest ties of blood. Again, the right of access
to a woman exercised at the time of her marriage
is simply a religious duty for removing the " danger"
attached to the sacredness of sexual intercourse,
rather than a survival of primeval promiscuity.
As regards polygamy, it is almost unknown in the
most primitive society, because hunting and fishing
are the chief means of livelihood, and female labour
has not the value that attaches to it when a man's
wives can be employed in tending flocks, culti-
vating the fields, and performing handicrafts. As
wealth increases the practice becomes more general,1

1 Of. 1 Kings xi. 3. The threescore queens and fourscore con-
cubines of Songs of Solomon, vi. 8 is a more probable estimate.

128 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

till, in a higher stage of culture still, it tends to
give way to monogamy.

There is yet another reason for deciding against
the theory of primitive promiscuity. It is not too
much to say that the institution of marriage is
founded on the requirements of man's nature. In
all stages of culture it has been found that it is not
good for man to be alone. As a mere individual
he can hardly exist, and certainly cannot fulfil his
purpose in the world. Man is, in the words of
Aristotle, " naturally a civic animal." Some kind
of community is necessary for him to live the
fulness of his life, and therefore marriage is not an
artificial regulation of civilized society, but a
natural necessity in all ages of man's terrestrial
history. Were the human species constituted as
the lower animals, a merely passing union of the
sexes would suffice ; but more than this is required.
The offspring needs long continued care after birth.
A parallel is, of course, to be found in some of the
lower animals, but in a less degree. Child-bearing
in the human organism continues for some time,
while the elder children are growing to maturity,
whereas in the other animals the young are usually
independent of the mother before other offspring
are born. The connexion of human parents is
therefore indefinitely prolonged, extending beyond
the age of child-bearing. As a consequence of this
prolonged intimacy there appears the phenomenon

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 129

of human love apart from sexual desire. In the
same way the parental and filial affections of the
human species pass the bounds of mere devoted
care, as seen in the case of the lower animals,
which terminates with the period of protection.

Marriage, then, is the permanent connexion of
man and woman, and as such it is natural in
purpose, though religious and social in origin. It
is sacred, being intended primarily to perpetuate
life. Its secondary ends are the " mutual society,
help and comfort that the one ought to have of the
other both in prosperity and adversity," as well
as a lawful remedy of concupiscence. But if
marriage is " the permanent living together of man
and woman" in a natural relationship1 — a state-
ment in perfect accord with anthropological
evidence as well as Christian tradition — it therefore
follows that it is indissoluble. A momentary
connexion suffices for the purposes of procreation,
but the community spirit and the instincts of
parentage and human love are all against a passing
union of man and woman. " For this cause shall
a man leave his father and mother and shall be
joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one
flesh," is the underlying principle of marital rela-
tions in all stages of culture. Our Lord revoked
the dispensations granted in the Mosaic Law by
assigning the origin of the union to the Divine

1 Crawley, Mystic Rose, p. 319.

J.A. I

130 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

order of tilings and thus raised marriage to the
dignity of a sacrament. This is again in accord
with anthropological evidence, since marriage is
founded on the requirements of man's nature, and,
granting that man's nature was ordained by God,
being natural it is Divinely ordered.

Christ was content to describe the beginning
of the institution in the language of the Book of
Genesis, probably because this was the only origin
known to the Jews to whom He was speaking.
He asserts that the union is in one flesh. " And
they twain shall be one flesh, so then they are no
more twain but one flesh." (St. Mark x. 6-9,
St. Matt. xix. 4-6.) The result of such Divine
joining is that man may not put it asunder. The
Christian Church has therefore at all times upheld
the sanctity of the marriage tie against the on-
slaught both of polygamy and divorce, maintaining
throughout a pure monogamy, which is the only
natural form of marriage. It is therefore the
system which the race has approved at all stages
of its development.

Westermarck has admirably summed up the
whole situation by saying : " It is not, of course,
impossible that, among some peoples, intercourse
between the sexes may have been almost promis-
cuous. But there is not a shred of genuine evidence
for the notion that promiscuity ever formed a
general stage in the history of mankind. . . .

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 131

Although polygamy occurs among most existing
peoples, and polyandry among some, monogamy
is by far the most common form of human marriage.
It was so among the ancient peoples of whom we
have any direct knowledge. Monogamy is the
form which is generally recognised and permitted.
The great majority of peoples are, as a rule, mono-
gamous, and other forms of marriage are usually
modified in a monogamous direction. We may
without hesitation assert that, if mankind advances
in the same direction as hitherto.; if, consequently,
the causes to which monogamy in the most pro-
gressive societies owes its origin continue to operate
with constantly growing force ; if, especially,
altruism increases, and the feeling of love becomes
more refined and more exclusively directed to one
—the laws of monogamy can never be changed,
but must be followed much more strictly than they

are now." l

History of Human Marriage, pp. 133, 459, 510.

CHAPTEK IV.

THE RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN.

THE origin and evolution of religion runs on
parallel lines with the origin and evolution of
human society considered from a social and cultural
standpoint. The precise origin of religion is a
matter of considerable controversy. One school
of anthropologists led by Sir James Frazer, who
defines religion as " the propitiation of personal
beings regarded as superior to man/'1 maintains
that an age of magic developed into an age of
religion, the magician becoming the priest when
" the fallacy of magic becomes more and more
apparent to the acuter minds, and is slowly dis-
placed by religion ; the magician renouncing the
attempt to control directly the processes of nature
for the good of man, seeking to attain the same end
indirectly by appealing to do for him what he no
longer imagines he can do for himself."2

This theory, that originally man tried to control

1 Golden Bough, 3rd ed. pt. 1, p. 222.

2 Early History of Kingship, p. 127.

132

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 133

nature by using what he conceived to be immutable
laws till, in process of time, the method proved a
failure, and in consequence primeval man came to
believe in the existence of divine powers whom he
could not control, is simply stated, but it is by no
means so easily shown to account for the whole
body of primitive rites and beliefs. According to '
this hypothesis the Australians are still in an " age
of magic," an assumption contradicted by the mere
fact that they recognise a Supreme Being or All-
Father who presides over their sacred ceremonies,
and is such a " High " God that he has been found
by missionaries a convenient means of presenting
to the native mind some of the attributes of the
Christian conception of the Deity. To justify the
distinction between magic and religion, Frazer
has been led to surround primitive man with all
kinds of malignant spirits to account for the rise
of protective magical rites in a godless era. Thus
he has fallen into the fundamental error of assuming
stages in the evolution of magic and religion as
clearly defined as those exhibited by the geological
record of the earth.

The more primitive cult is intensively studied
the more apparent it becomes that magic and
religion are so intermingled that the two aspects of
" control " are found in the same rite. Even the
medicine man in Australia is often initiated by
the tribal god or by spirits, and, therefore, the

134 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

procedure is raised from the level of pure magic.
This applies to most, if not to all, beneficent rites.
The hypothesis that the human race has passed
through a wholly non-religious era is therefore
scarcely susceptible to historic proof. Dr. Marett's
view that in the primitive conception of the super-
natural there was the germ of both magic and
religion which tended to become differentiated
seems to be far more tenable, in the light of actual
fact.1 In the most primitive cult magic and
religion are interfused. In process of development
the one separated from the other, each going off
on lines of its own. Magic, as well as religion,
seems to be a thing of gradual growth. At first
it gathered round ideas connected with tabu — the
Polynesian word used by anthropologists to describe
religious or magical prohibitions. With the rise
of animistic beliefs and practices the magician
became associated with the spirits of the dead, of
animals and of evil spirits, but this does not neces-
sarily imply that the anthropomorphic deity, so
prevalent in primitive cult to-day, was evolved
from a primeval belief in a divine animal or
plant. In Australia gods are neither spirits of
the dead nor deified divine animals. They are
simply Supreme Beings — magnified non-natural

1 Jevons' criticism of this view, in Folk-Lore (vol. xxviii. No. 3,
Sept. 1917, pp. 259 ff.), should be considered, though the present
writer inclines to Marett's theory.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 135

men, often dwelling in the sky — who have never
died.

To obviate such difficulties as would arise from
the adoption of the Frazerian " stratification "
theory, we shall use in this chapter (and elsewhere)
the expression magico-religious. This term stands
for a working hypothesis. In Notes and Queries
on Anthropology — the locus classicus of anthropo-
logical definitions — it is stated that " the distinc-
tion between magic and religion, about which the
framers of general theory are in dispute, may be
ignored for purposes of particular description/'
the phrase magico-religious sufficing to cover all
the facts relating to magical, religious, and quasi-
magico-religious rites, beliefs, and customs.1

Another school of anthropologists follow the
late Sir Edward Tylor in seeking the origin of
religion in " the belief in spiritual beings/'2 that
is to say, of " spirits " in the wide sense that in-
cludes souls. This theory asserts that the proto-
type of soul and spirit is to be sought especially
in the " dream-double " and " trance-double,"
that " vaporous materiality, " as Dr. Tylor de-
scribes it, that is suggested by psychological
experiences, such as dreams, trances, shadows,
hallucinations, breath, sleep, death, etc. There
is no doubt that the phantasm plays a considerable
part in primitive religion. Savages have vivid

1 p. 251. 2 Primitive Culture, i. p. 424.

136 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

dreams, see ghosts, and are subject to hallucinations,
and thus the phantasm is a connecting link
between the material and the spiritual planes of
being. But by animism Tylor means not only
the belief in spiritual beings but also " a general
animation of nature." Now there is no reason
to suppose that primitive man attributes anything
phantasmal to a running stream, a peculiar tree,
or a heavenly body, yet he often regards such
natural objects as sacred.

Again, it is obvious that the Tylorian doctrine
of animism cannot account for all religious and
magico-religious practices among primitive people.
The anthropomorphic deity is not included in this
hypothesis any more than in Frazer's stratification
theory. Primitive religion must be represented
by something vaguer and wider, resembling more
the conception set forth by the Melanesian word
Mana, a generic name for the mystic influence
which fills certain sacred things. "It is a power
or influence," says Codrington, " not physical,
and in a way supernatural ; but it shows itself in
physical force, or in any kind of power or excel-
lency which a man possesses. This mana is not
fixed in anything, and can be conveyed in almost
anything ; but spirits, whether disembodied souls
or supernatural beings, have it, and can impart it,
and it essentially belongs to personal beings to
originate it, though it may act through the medium

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 137

of water, or a stone or a bone."1 This wonderful
supernatural power gives success in war, makes
pigs multiply, gardens become productive, nets
catch fish, and arrows inflict mortal wounds.2
The ultimate source of mana is in " personal
beings." Codrington includes living men in
this category, but since mana is something
supernatural, it must pre-eminently belong to
supernatural personalities such as ghosts or
spirits. From these it may be communicated
to any animate or inanimate object. But
although its ultimate source is in conceptions
of spirit or ghost, in practice it covers all cases of
magico-religious efficacy either automatic or pro-
ceeding from a spiritual being.

Any startling manifestation of nature, a curi-
ously shaped rock, animals of uncanny appearance,
a dead body, a mighty chief, a rushing stream, etc.,
is conceived as having mana, and in consequence
rites and tabus grow up around it. All things
having about them this mysterious energy are
regarded as sacred quite apart from their being
the abode of a spiritual being. This force may
be called " god," as it is by the people of Mada-
gascar.3 So, too, the Masai and Akikuyu con-
ception of Deity is equally vague. Anything
that is to them incomprehensible or peculiar is

1 Melanesians, p. 119 n. 2 Op. cit. p. 120.

3 W. Ellis, History of Madagascar, i. pp. 391 f.

138 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

ngai (god),1 just as among the Algonquin it is
manitou, or orenda to the Iroquoian. Not dis-
similar is the conception of mulungu among the
Yaos, east of Lake Nyassa. This term signifies
the " Great One " and is equivalent to god, although
to the native mind it does not convey the notion
of personality. It denotes rather an inherent
supernatural energy associated with such myste-
rious objects as the rainbow, a sacred tree, etc.
In Morocco the Arabs designate the mystic force
connected with " holy " people and places as
baraka.2 The term is also used to describe
" sacredness " in general. Thus, for instance, a bride
or a rain-maker is said to have baraka.*

The conception of mana is, therefore, by no
means confined to Melanesia. It is rather a world-
wide aspect of primitive cult. Around it gather
all the fundamental principles of savage religion.
It is sufficiently vague to describe those early
religious ideas before the conception of personality
enters into the primeval consciousness, and yet
it is also connected with a belief in spiritual and
anthropomorphic beings. That this attitude of
mind, called by Dr. Marett animalism, is psycho-
logically an earlier phase than animism, is shown by
the case of the Trojan offerings to a sacred river,

1 Thomson, Masailand, p. 445.

2 Westermarck.

3 Cf. Primitive Riiiial and Belief, pp. 225 f.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 139

narrated by Homer. Originally the Trojans re-
garded the river as containing mana, and, in
consequence, they sacrificed a bull to the stream.
The animal was thrown into the water whole and
entire. In later times, when they had reached an
animistic stage, an altar was erected by the side
of the river on which a bull was offered, the belief
being that the spirit in the water came out and
consumed the essence of the sacrifice.

It must not be assumed, however, that there
was, in primeval days, a stratigraphical evolution
from animatism to animism. As a matter of fact
animatism, animism, and anthropomorphism con-
stantly exist side by side, and therefore presumably
they may be supposed to have arisen simul-
taneously as an explanation of many different
phenomena. Animatism originally may have
been applied to non-human objects, whereas ani-
mism may have arisen by way of explanation of
such phenomena as dreams, hallucinations, trance,
sickness, death, reflections in water, shadows, etc.
On the other hand, anthropomorphism did not
evolve out of animistic conceptions. In Australia
All-Fathers are neither animistic nor even anima-
tistic in character. They are conceived of as
magnified non-natural men, often dwelling in the
sky — supermen who have never died. The origin of
these truly religious ideas may reasonably be sought
in such awe-inspiring events as thunderstorms,

140 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

calculated to suggest the existence of an external
supernatural being. This threefold origin of religious
phenomena — animatism having reference to nYm-
human objects containing mana, animism arising
by way of explanation of the mental nature of man,
and anthropomorphism as the result of the spiritual
and theistic yearnings of the human soul, seeking
a supernatural Creator of nature outside the world
—seem to us a possible and reasonable explanation of
the magico-religious beliefs and customs, at any rate
among modern people in a primitive state of culture.
Before passing on to the consideration of the
light thrown on the religion of primeval man by
archaeological evidence, we must remind the reader
that the primitive mind is incapable of abstraction,
and, therefore, any search for an organized theology
either in ancient or modern representatives of
Palaeolithic man will be in vain. Certain things,
animals, places, and persons are sacred because
they are endowed with mana, and therefore they
are hedged round with tabus, and rites have, in
consequence, to be duly performed. The ritual
acts in course of time become more and more
elaborate, and mythology grows up to explain
the ceremonies. But spiritual religion, as prac-
tised in the higher systems, is unknown in primitive
cult. To the savage religion is but a series of ritual
acts, a routine of worship, except, perhaps, as
regards certain aspects of the All-Father belief.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 141

Nevertheless, primitive man is a distinctly religious
person, and his ritual is not mere ceremony, since
it is performed for the specific purpose of bringing
him into contact with the supernatural or sacred
world. Thus, primitive religion may be described
as the attitude towards, perhaps the exploitation
of the sacred, embodied in attempts to come into
beneficial contact with it and appropriate to
himself as much as possible of its transferable
force by various ritual acts, while safe-guard-
ing himself from its dangerous and excessive
manifestations.

These beliefs and practices lie at the root alike
of religion and of magic ; they constitute the
magico-religious attitude, out of which both magic
and religion are to be differentiated. To define
the special line of development which constitutes
religion is not easy. From one point of view it
might be said that the recognition of mana from
without leads to religion, while the consciousness of
mana from" within leads to magic. But there is a
constant fusion of the two, if only because man is
always seeking to reinforce his own mana by the
virtue of every sacred, mysterious, and wonder-
working object which seems to him to possess it.

In attempting to unravel, in some measure, the
mystery of the religion of primeval man we shall
work on the lines adopted in the last chapter,
endeavouring to interpret the archaeological

142 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

evidence from the culture-remains of Pleistocene
times, by the aid of the researches of anthropo-
logists among the Australians and other primitive
people living under conditions similar to those
prevailing in Europe in the Palaeolithic epoch.

Formerly it had been generally supposed that
primeval man had no religion, because among the
relics disinterred on the inhabited sites no materials
were found which suggested funerary rites. But
a fresh interpretation of the sepulchral phenomena
associated with some of the skeletons from Palaeo-
lithic sites leave little doubt that in those far-off
days man realised that he was composed of two
separate entities — body and soul — the latter pass-
ing on to the world of spirits after somatic death.
On August 3rd, 1907, a grave was discovered
at La Chapelle aux Saints in which the skeleton
lay on its back from east to west. Around it
were a quantity of Mousterian flints, fragments
of red ochre and broken bones, while over the head
were several long bones lying flat, one of them still
in connexion with some smaller bones of the foot
and toes, so as to suggest that it was still clothed
with flesh when it was placed in this position. This
was evidently a ceremonial interment, accompanied
by offerings of food and implements for the use
of the deceased in the spirit world.1

1 U Anthropologie, 1913, xxiv. pp. 609-634. Cf. Ancient Hunters,
pp. 180-181.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 143

On March 7th, 1909, another Palaeolithic in-
terment was found in the rock-shelter of Le Mous-
tier. The body — that of a youth about sixteen
years of age — lay on its right side with the right
arm bent so as to support the head on a pillow of
flints, and the left arm extended. Within easy
reach of the latter lay a magnificent oval-shaped
implement, worked on both sides, and a little
farther on a flint scraper. About the skull were
disposed burnt bones and flints, suggesting the
remains of a funeral feast. Dr. Klaatsch, the
expert who examined the interment, came to the
conclusion that the individual to whom the skeleton
belonged had been ceremonially buried. The fact
that these interments with funeral rites have been
so circumstantially carried out, suggests that they
were founded on an already established cult of the
dead. Furthermore, the placing of weapons, food
offerings, etc., in the grave can only be explained
on the ground that they were so arranged for the
use of the Soul in the spirit world. If it can be
proved that the interment at Galley Hill is really
of early Palaeolithic antiquity, it will then be shown
that man, at the very beginning of the Pleistocene
period practised rites which point to his having a
somewhat definite conception of a life after death.

The skeletons found in the Aurignacian Caves
at Mentone supply additional evidence for the
assumption that funeral rites were practised in the

144 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Palaeolithic age. Here, again, implements and
red ochre were buried with the bodies. In some
cases the interment was made over a hearth, in
others in a grave or rudimentary tomb, made by
placing flat stones on edge for the wall, and roofing
it over with larger slabs. The skeletons, all of
which show Cro-Magnon features, were adorned
with a necklace made of the teeth of deer, vertebrae
of fish and carved pendants. No doubt these
adornments were part of the burial rites. The
Magdalenian remains found at Laugiiae-Basse and
the Azilian site at Ofnet show that similar customs
were in use at the close of the Palaeolithic age.
At Ofnet twenty-seven skulls were orientated in
the same direction, looking towards the setting
sun.

When these prehistoric interments are compared
with the funeral rites of the Bushmen, the con-
clusion that Palaeolithic man believed in a life after
death is placed beyond doubt. Among these
primitive people the body of the deceased is painted
with red ochre and grease, and buried facing the
east. His bow and arrow5 — corresponding to the
flint implements found in Palaeolithic interments-
is laid by his side.

In Neolithic times the evidence for ceremonial
interments is overwhelming. In the kitchen mid-
dens of Mugem, in Spain, no less than a hundred
interments were found at different levels in the

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 145

shell mounds, although, grave-furniture does not
appear to have been associated with them. In
later Neolithic times the Megalithic culture grew
up, as an outcome of simple inhumation (i.e.
placing a body in a hole in the earth, and covering
it over with soil). In this very early form of burial
the spot was marked by an earth mound or by
stones.1 Subsequently the grave was lined with
stones over which a large capstone was placed by
way of protection. Thus came into being the cist,
the most widely distributed type of early grave
known. From this to the megalithic monument,
with its separate chambers, entrance passage, and
cairn, was an easy transition. But the erection
of the elaborately constructed chambered cairn
was not merely a matter of respect for the deceased.
The general view of archaeologists is that the
grave was regarded as the temporary abode of the
soul till the body had become completely decom-
posed, and thus it constituted an intermediate
state between earth and the spirit- world. From
very early times fire was looked upon as a purifying
agent (which probably accounts for the numerous
partially burnt bodies found in graves long before
cremation was generally adopted), and therefore
in due course cremation became a religious cult,

1 Burial mounds are called " cairns " when they are made of
small stones, and " barrows " when the material is soil. It often
happens that a small cairn is found inside a barrow.
J.A. K

146 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

since the practice was thought not only to purify
the soul but also to speedily set it free from its
fleshy entanglement.

The Long Barrows of the North of England show
that an elaborate system of cremation was adopted
in Yorkshire and Westmoreland, while in Wiltshire
and Gloucestershire unburnt burials prevail. In
the Bronze Age both burnt and unburnt remains
are found in barrows that are circular and more
or less conical ; an instance may be quoted in which
the circumstances show that both methods were
resorted to on occasions ; as, for example, in a
mound excavated in 1849 on Acklam Wold, York-
shire. In it were found a pile of burnt bones in
close contact with the legs of a skeleton buried in
the usual contracted position. It seems to have
been deposited while yet hot, for the knees of the
skeleton were completely charred. It has been
suggested that in cases like this, or where an un-
burnt body is surrounded by a ring of urn-burials,
the entire skeletons may be those of chiefs or heads
of families, and the burnt bones those of slaves,
dependants, or even wives, sacrificed at the
funeral.1

When the corpse was burnt the ashes were care-
fully collected in an urn and buried, either in the
earth or in a prepared grave. Sometimes the
incinerated remains were laid in heaps in a barrow

1 Brit. Mus. Guide to Bronze Age Antiq. p. 16.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 147

or other sacred place. Cremation led to a con-
siderable reduction in the size of the grave, since
the body was reduced to a few ashes, and thus
megalithic chambers may have given place to
stone-lined cists. The large chambered cairns in
Britain were generally the burial places of the
earlier dolichocephalic race, except in the Yorkshire
barrows where this race was mixed with the later
brachycephals.

The barrows of the earlier part of the Neolithic
period are usually known in England as " long
barrows," to distinguish them from the " round
barrows," which belong to a succeeding time,
although no hard and fast rule can be laid down
as to the chronological sequence of earth mounds.
These elongated graves are commonest in Wiltshire,
Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, and Gloucestershire.
A few exist elsewhere, but they are by no means
of such frequent occurrence in Britain as those of
circular shape. Some contain no chamber, while
others contain a structure of the megalithic type.
There is, however, one common feature in all long
barrows wherever they are found, viz., that no
traces of metal, with possibly the exception of
gold, have ever been discovered in them. There
is also a similarity of burial custom, but the skulls
clearly show that this does not prove identity of
race, as was formerly supposed. Also in the suc-
ceeding round barrows metal seldom occurs, and

148 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

when it is found, the type always indicates the
earliest phases of the Bronze Age. Moreover, the
pottery of the barrows belong to the Neolithic
period. It is therefore evident that the vast
majority of the barrows must be assigned to the
Stone Age.

Chambered long barrows are most frequent in
the neighbourhood of Wiltshire. The megalithic
chambers within the mound are of three types.
In the first there is the central gallery entering the
mound and leading to a chamber or chambers
formed of large slabs set on edge. The roof is
made by laying large slabs across the tops of the
sides. When there is no central corridor, the
chambers are so arranged as to open outwards on
the edge of the mound. Where the chamber is
not connected with the outside, the barrow is
composed of a series of cists or small dolmens
within the mound. A megalithic monument may
therefore be described as a building made of large
stones, or, in some cases, a single rough stone pillar
(called a menhir) with its base fixed into the ground.

Megaliths for the most part belong to the Neo-
lithic period and part of the Copper and Bronze
Ages, although their exact age, like the precise
purpose for which they were erected, has never
been definitely settled. Until recently megalithic
remains were thought to be burial places of mighty
chiefs, or temples used by the Druids. Numerous

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 149

legends have collected round these monuments ;
thus, for example, the Penrith circle is known by
the local peasants as " Meg and her daughters/'
and a dolmen in Berkshire near the " white horse "
is called " Wayland Smith's Cave," while the menhir
in the Orkney Isles is termed " Odin's Stone."
Dolmens (megaliths consisting of two or more
upright stones standing a short distance apart,
supporting a roofing stone, called a capstone) are
usually regarded as houses of dwarfs, caves of
fairies, or forges of the devil, while menhirs
are the arrows and cromlechs (stone circles) the
cauldrons of his satanic majesty. Megaliths are
sometimes associated with saints in France, and
King Arthur in England. The circle at Penrith,
according to one legend, is the round table of the
latter, and a dolmen in Wales is thought to be his
quoit. The allees couvertes (or long rectangular
gallery leading to or taking the place of a chamber)
of Aries are called shops of the Saracens, and
dolmens in India are often thought to be stones
of the monkeys. Even to this day megaliths are
looked upon by the credulous as sacred, and there-
fore dangerous. Peasants in France will not
shelter under them, nor go near them at night.
A dolmen at Finistere is said to cure rheumatism
in anyone who rubs against the loftiest of its stones,
and another heals fever patients who sleep under
it. Oaths sworn near a megalith in Scotland are

150 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

supposed to have a peculiar sanctity. On the
Berkshire Downs when a horse casts a shoe near
' Wayland Smith's Cave " the rider must leave it
before the dolmen, placing a coin on the capstone.
He then withdraws. On his returning to the spot
he finds the horse shod and the money gone ! 1

In 1898 the British Association investigated
" stone circles " with a view to ascertaining their
age. Operations were begun at the cromlech at
Arbor Low (Derbyshire) with the result that the
erection was assigned to the Neolithic period.
Dr. Gowland shortly afterwards carried out in-
vestigations at Stonehenge, and, in a paper before
the Society of Antiquaries on his recent excava-
tions, came to the conclusion that the structure
was a temple dedicated to the worship of the sun,
and assigned its erection to the end of the Neolithic
period on the ground that no traces of metal imple-
ments were found during his explorations (Dec.
19, 1901.)2 It does not necessarily follow, however,
from the fact that only flint implements were
discovered in association with the monolith ex-
amined that the monument was erected prior to
the Metal Age, as Neolithic implements of the
type found at Stonehenge (mostly axes) survived
long into the Bronze Age. The archaeological
evidence suggesting a late Neolithic antiquity to

1 T. E. Peet, Rough Stone Monuments, p. 10 ff.

2 Archaeologia, Iviii. pt. 1.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 151

the megalith is strengthened by the astronomical
experiments carried out by Sir Norman Lockyer,
which try to prove that on Midsummer Day, 1680
B.C., the sun would rise over the summit of the
upright stone called the " Friar's Heel."1 This
theory has been severely criticised by Mr. Hinks,
who points out that the direction chosen for the
avenue leading up to the Friar's Heel is purely
arbitrary, since the bench-mark he fixed on Sidbury
Hill has no connexion with Stonehenge.2 Although
the dating of monuments on the evidence of
" observation lines " for determining certain move-
ments of the sun involves much conjecture lacking
in proof, yet, taken in conjunction with the more
definite archaeological data, it is not to be despised,
since there can be little doubt that the megalithic
builders were influenced by a solar cult. What
the nature of the worship carried on in megaliths
was it is quite impossible to determine, but that
they were temples dedicated to the sun or to other
of the heavenly bodies seems to be highly probable.
The frequency with which menhirs occur in a
north-easterly direction suggests the watching of
solar phenomena.3

We therefore conclude that Stonehenge, like
most other megalithic monuments, was erected

1 Nature, Nov. 21, 1901.

2 Nineteenth Century, June 1903, pp. 1002 f.

3 Cf. Peet, op. cit. p. 29.

152 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

at the end of the Neolithic or possibly at the very
beginning of the Bronze Age, and that very probably
it was a temple dedicated to the sun. The occur-
rence of a stain of copper oxide on a worked block
of stone at a depth of seven feet does not necessarily
suggest the presence of bronze, as the stain may
have been caused by the disintegration of malachite
and not of metallic copper. It is most unlikely
that such quantities of flint implements and no
bronze or copper tools should be found if the
remains were erected in the Bronze Age.

As England is the home of the stone circle or
cromlech, so France is the home of the dolmen.
Some of the latter we have seen were covered
under a mound of earth, thus forming chambered
barrows. Exactly how the capstone was put into
position is not known, it being not infrequently
of great weight. That at Ballymascanlan, County
Louth, for instance, weighs as much as sixty tons.
The Egyptian monuments furnish us with an
indication of the methods adopted in moving
large stones to the required spot. The pictures
at the tomb of Tahutihotep at El Bershah may be
taken as an example. A rough road of beams is
represented as laid in the required direction, on
which rollers are placed under the stone. Ropes
are attached to the rollers, and oxen, with the
assistance of men, drag the stone along. In the
seventeenth century the castle of Osaka in Japan

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 153

was erected on megalithic lines, by dragging huge
stones (one of which weighed 160 tons) on rude
wooden rollers. Another method is suggested by
Peet. A gentle slope is erected on to which the
stone is gradually hoisted by means of levers resting
on beams or stones as fulchra, while other men fill
up the space beneath it with earth and stones. This
process is repeated till the stone is level with the
top of the slope of hard earth covered with wet
clay. On to this it is then slipped, and allowed
to slide down the inclined plain. A fresh slope is
then built, and the whole procedure repeated.1
The upright stones could then be placed in position
by ropes and levers, and the capstone placed on
top by erecting further slopes against the uprights,
along which the slab could be moved by rollers.
This ingenious suggestion seems to be reasonable
and probable.

The size of dolmens varies considerably, ranging
from the simplest form, as represented by the well-
known example at Kits' Coty House between
Maidstone and Rochester in Kent, which consists
of three upright stones supporting a capstone
11 feet by 8 feet, to the huge structures known as
Giant's Graves or Allee Couvertes. La Roche aux
Fees near Esse, may be taken as an example of an
Allee Couverte. It consists of no less than thirty
supports, covered by eight capstones. Another

1 Rough Stone Monuments, pp. 8 f.

154 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

monument about the same length is the Dolmen
of Bagneux, near the town of Saumur, which is
constructed of huge flagstones — four in number
on each side — and four capstones.1

No less than 4000 dolmens are to be found in
France, of which 618 are in Brittany. They are
fairly abundant in North Germany, Spain, and
through Portugal to Andalusia ; in Denmark and
in the South of Sweden. The culture appears to
reach England by way of the Channel Islands-
Jersey contains several examples, and Guernsey
is even more prolific. In the British Isles dolmens
are more common in the west country — Cornwall,
Wales, the Isle of Man, Ireland and Scotland.
Sepulchral remains do not exist in Central Europe,
but reappear in North Africa from Tripoli to
Morocco, passing Eastwards through Persia, Syria
and Palestine to India, Australia, Polynesia, Mada-
gascar, Peru, etc. The manner of distribution of
this type of megalithic monument has led to the
theory of the existence of a migratory race known
as " the People of the Dolmens," moving from
Scandinavia in a southerly direction to Africa.
Others would reverse the direction, while Mr. Leeds
of Oxford finds the original home of the dolmen
culture in France.

For some years Professor G. Elliot Smith has
been trying to show that the distribution of these

1 R. Munro, Encyc. Brit., art. " Stone Monuments."

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 155

megalithic monuments can be reduced to a single
origin. A study of mummification in Torres Straits
suggested a marked resemblance to the process
employed in Egypt in the XXI Dynasty. From
this and other indications he concludes that
migrations which carried eastwards megaliths,
mummification and the allied customs (circumcision,
incision, tattooing, artificial deformation, the boom-
erang, the couvade, the deluge myth, and serpent-
worship, called collectively the " Heliolithic "*
culture-complex) set out from Egypt about 800 B.C.
in pursuit of wealth. He cites evidence from
several writers that about this time India and
China were in a state of development, which he
attributes to migrations from Egypt. By the year
900 B.C. he thinks that practically the whole com-
plex structure had become built up and definitely
conventionalized in the country, with numerous
purely accidental additions from neighbouring
lands. The * great migration of the heliolithic
culture, according to this theory, began shortly
before 800 B.C. and is ascribed to the Phoenicians.
Up to 800 B.C. these interesting people had, it is
implied, limited their wanderings to the Mediter-
ranean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and India.
After receiving from Egypt the art of erecting
megaliths and some of the allied culture, they

1 The culture is labelled " Heliolithic " because of the association
of megalithic monuments with sun-worship.

156 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

proceeded to East and West Africa, and along the
coast-lands of Asia to India, China, Japan, the
Pacific, and to America. The culture reached the
Persian Gulf strongly tainted with the influence
of North Syria and Asia Minor, and by the time
it reached the West Coast of India and Ceylon
(about the eighth century B.C.) it had taken over
Mediterranean, Anatolian and Babylonian accre-
tions, with East African modifications. These
Ethiopian influences became more pronounced in
Indonesia, because in India and the west the
disturbances created by other cults have destroyed
most of the evidence. From Indonesia the helio-
lithic culture-complex passed into the Pacific and
eventually reached the American Coast in the
neighbourhood of Peru and Mexico.1

The proof of this migration, according to Professor
Elliot Smith, lies in the mass of associated customs
in the lands thus visited. He denies altogether
the possibility that cultural resemblances may be
due to the common tendencies of the human mind
called into play by similar conditions. He is
content to chart out on rough maps the distribution
of ten associated customs to mark the path of the
dolmen builders after their migration from the
original centre. The researches of Dr. Rivers,
Mr. Perry, and other anthropologists suggest the
propagation of culture far out in the Pacific, and

1 The Migrations of Early Culture,.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 157

perhaps across it, such as was probably associated
with the building of megalithic monuments similar
in type to those that are known in Europe. Prof.
Elliot Smith has certainly made out a fairly strong
case for a relation between the dolmens of Western
Europe and the megalithic culture of ancient
Egypt. He has also shown with no small measure
of success that the practice of mummification
accompanied the setting up of megaliths as the
culture proceeded eastwards. The natives of
Torres Straits, for example, mummified their dead
by processes resembling those of the XXI Dynasty
in Egypt. It is, perhaps, to be regretted that, in
the present state of our knowledge, he did not stop
at this point till such time as the unaccountable
gaps in the allied customs can be filled up. How-
ever, the monograph only professes to be a fore-
word to a more elaborate treatise to be put forth
when Professor Elliot Smith and his collaborators
have collected further proofs of the migration of
the culture-complex. Pending the production of
a full statement of the evidence the hypothesis
may be regarded as legitimate and plausible,
though in a somewhat nebulous state at
present.

It seems evident that megalithic architecture
was due to culture contact, since the monuments
present a uniformity of structure hardly "com-
patible with a theory of independent origin.

158 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Again, it is difficult to explain the fact that they
are confined to the coast-lands, except on the
supposition that they were erected by a migratory
race at the end of the Neolithic period and early
in the Bronze Age. Could it be that so widespread
and homogeneous a system arose simultaneously
unless it were spread by a single race from a single
centre ? True, it is no uncommon thing to find
customs passed on from one people to another
as a result of culture contact, especially if some-
thing was to be gained by the adoption of a new
custom. Thus the use of metal, amber and
enamel spread along definite trade routes in the
Iron Age, and many arts and appliances have been
distributed over widely separated areas in a similar
manner. But primitive man, though not slow to
adopt new practices that will make for his pecuniary
enhancement, is by no means ready to in any
way alter his religious rites and beliefs. It is,
therefore, highly improbable that the introduction
of megaliths and their associated rites were due
to culture contact.

Bearing these facts in mind, and remembering
at the same time the similarity in structure and
the date of erection, there seems good reason to
suppose that the megalithic monuments represent
the work of one race. The objection to this con-
clusion raised by Dechelette that the skulls found
in the tombs do not present a uniformity of type

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 159

overlooks the fact that on a long migration racial
intermixture and consequently variation in features
is almost sure to take place. At the same time
there is a marked similarity in physical type
among the people of the dolmens. Nevertheless,
to grant the probability of the megalithic culture
representing the work of a single race in a series
of migrations is by no means the same thing as
setting forth a cut and dried scheme of the dis-
tribution of a culture-complex, with unaccountable
gaps in the allied customs, after the manner of
Elliot Smith. The hypothesis, as far as it con-
cerns the megalithic culture (and perhaps also
mummification) is, we venture to think, sound as
a general principle, but the details, as to how,
when, and where the transmission took place
can only be decided when sufficient data is forth-
coming to supply the many deficiencies.

The precise significance of the megalithic monu-
ments is by no means easy to decipher, and various
theories have been put forth to explain their origin
and purpose. They have been described as Druid-
ical and solar temples, places of sacrifice, religious
or commemorative monuments and sepulchres.
That most of the smaller cromlechs have been
used as sepulchres has been proved by the finding
of urns and burnt bones in association with human
remains. At the same time it is difficult to believe
that burial was the sole purpose of the large

160 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

cromlechs such as Stonehenge, Avebury, etc. It
seems highly probable that by the end of the
Neolithic Age a complex cult of the dead had arisen,
and that these large cromlechs represent religious
monuments erected near the graves of deified
heroes, and were used for the performance of the
ceremonies of the cult. Exactly what were the
rites and beliefs of Neolithic man regarding life
after death it is impossible to say, but evidently
they involved a quasi-materialistic conception of
the continued existence of the soul in the spirit-
world, and the intercourse of mankind with the
supernatural planes of being. The grave-goods,
consisting of weapons, ornaments, the remains
of food, human beings (presumably the wife or
slave of the deceased) and animals, found in

\ Neolithic interments, show that the people of those
times did not regard life beyond the grave as
differing widely from that on earth. To them
death was the gate to a more perfect state of exist-
ence— the blessed company of departed heroes
and friends — to which they looked forward with

/ hopeful anticipation. Therefore, since the spirit-
world was superior to this transient life, the abodes
of the dead were considered of greater importance
than those of the living. In the Neolithic period
they were constructed of durable material, as we
have seen in the case of the megaliths and pyramids
of Egypt, and often placed on high ground so as

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 161

to form an enduring and prominent memorial for
many generations.

Having briefly considered some aspects of the
eschatology of primeval man, it remains to examine
the evidence at our disposal of the existence of
other rudimentary conceptions of religion amongst
the earliest inhabitants of Europe. It is to the
Palaeolithic caves of France and Spain that we
again turn for traces of primeval cult. First of
all we will wend our way towards a valley in the
Pyrenees near Tasascon-sur-Ariege, in which is
situated the mile-long subterranean picture gallery
known as the cave of Niaux. Here amid stalac-
tites and stalagmites that remind the Britisher
of the home of Cheddar Man in the Mendips, the
walls are found to be decorated with curious marks,
apparently made with black oxide of manganese
and red ochre, leading up to a projecting ridge of
the rock, cleverly shaped into a bison in its last
agonies. The imagery is completed by the addi-
tion of a red dot on the flank, which indicates
the wound that is proving fatal. The other
marks are presumably meant to signify the throw-
ing-club or boomerangs that are to deal the deadly
blow.

Penetrating farther into the recesses, we come
upon the drawing of a horse outlined in thick
black manganese, standing out prominently despite
the fact that other works of art surround and

J.A.

162 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

trespass upon the picture. The only satisfactory
explanation that can be offered to account for the
crowding and overlapping of animal designs in
this particular corner of the cave is that given by
Dr. Marett in his delightful article In a Prehistoric
Sanctuary ^ that there was more mystic virtue,
more mana, attaching to one spot than to another.
Thus, for instance, the projecting ridge on the wall
which was to represent a bison would at once
suggest sacredness to the primeval mind, by reason
of its natural similarity to the animal's body.

Again, a little farther on to the left, sheltered
by an overhanging ledge, two trout are traced on
the sand, similar to those now living in Ariege ;
and near by, likewise sheltered by a ledge, the
imprint of the naked foot of a man — perhaps left
by the Aurignacian artist himself — is plainly visible
on the stalagmited floor.

Now why should Palaeolithic man draw outlines
of animals and fish in the dark recesses of a moun-
tain if it were not that this particular cave was
a " prehistoric sanctuary " ? Surely, if he were
merely gratifying his aesthetic tastes he would
have chosen a place open to the light of day, where
he and his companions might enjoy the fruits of
their labours. It seems much more reasonable
to follow Dr. Marett in regarding the cave at Niaux

1 Hibbert Journal, Jan. 1910, and The Threshold of Religion,
pp. 203-220.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 163

as a sacred spot wherein primeval mysteries were
duly celebrated, and which had to be approached
with solemn and esoteric rites. This conclusion
is supported by the evidence from the Aurignacian
rock-shelter at Gargas, near Aventignon, in the
valley of the Neste.

Here we are amongst the pioneers of Aurignacian
art, and therefore we must not expect to find such
finished workmanship. A side-face outline of a
bison, for instance, is given two horns, and horses
are represented as devoid of legs, etc. Such
pictures undoubtedly admirably meet the require-
ments of magic or rudimentary religion, but they
are hardly satisfactory from the artistic standpoint.
A further examination of the walls of this cave
reveal a truly shocking spectacle. In 1906 M.
Regnault noticed designs of hands stencilled in
red or black in dark recesses near the entrance.
These observations were confirmed by MM. Car-
tailhac and Breuil in the following year. About
L50 of these designs have now been discovered,
in some instances very well preserved owing to
their being covered with a thin layer of stalagmite.
In some cases all the fingers, including the thumbs,
have lost their first two joints, in a manner that
presents a striking similarity to ceremonial mutila-
tions practised to-day by the Bushmen, Australians,
and the American Indians of Arizona and Nicaragua.
Professor Sollas has shown that the appearance

164 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

of amputation can be obtained without proceeding
to that extreme.1 The coloured powder may have
been thrown in such a manner as to stencil out
the joints in question, in which case it must be
assumed that the Aurignacians had already passed
through the stage in which their cult demanded
the sacrifice of the actual finger, and had arrived
at the notion of symbolic representation. A more
plausible explanation of this deformity is that
these fingers represent hands which have been
mutilated by cutting ofi the terminal joints, as is
customary among such savage tribes as the Mafulu
of New Guinea. In any case, the hands at Gargas
show that the practice of ceremonial mutilation
was in existence in Aurignacian times, and, judging
from the analogy of modern primitive people, the
custom was of magico-religious, and possibly of
sacrificial significance.

In concluding this brief survey of the " prehis-
toric sanctuary " at Gargas, it may be well to call
attention to Dr. Marett's suggestion that the
curious interfacings and arabesques made by the
fingers or some pointed instrument in the gluey
clay of the walls and roof of the cave, are imita-
tions of the scratches left by the claws of the
cave-bear — the totem of these particular Aurig-
nacians.2 In support of this view may be

1 Ancient Hunters, pp. 354-358.

2 Cf. L'Anthropologie, xxi. pp. 139, 142.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 165

mentioned the numerous deep striae on the walls of
the cave of Font-de-Gaume. On the floor of this
latter cavern a great many bones of the cave-bear
have been found, as well as striae corresponding
to the rows of claws on the bear's foot, and the
red outline drawing of the animal at the end of
the gallery. Of course this is slender evidence
upon which to base the assumption that Palaeo-
lithic man practised totemism, but taken in con-
junction with the cave-paintings representing
animals and designs similar to the totemic decora-
tions on Churinga, etc., it seems highly probable
that these primeval inhabitants of Europe were
acquainted with this primitive mode of social and
religious organization. The ornamentation of the
so-called " Batons de Commandement " made out
of the antlers of the reindeer or stag suggests totemic
significance, and the painted pebbles found by
M. Piette at Mas d'Azil bear an almost unmistak-
able likeness to the totemic designs on the Churinga
of the Arunta.1

In many parts of Australia the natives have
engraved on rocks and painted in caves figures of
men and animals, stencilled designs of hands in a
white and red ground, and ornamented their
implements and weapons with engraved and
coloured lines bearing a striking resemblance to

1 Cf. the author's article " Staff " in Hastings' Encydop. Religion
and Ethics.

166 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

those discovered in Palaeolithic caves. The un-
suitability for habitation of the inner recesses of
these caverns is obvious. The conclusion is there-
fore inevitable that the paintings relegated to the
dimmest parts of the caves, at the end of long
corridors, were executed for religious rather than
for artistic reasons. If the caves in question are
not prehistoric sanctuaries, how can the fact be
explained that in the grotto of Les Eyzies — a site
near Font-de-Gaume known to have been inhabited
at the end of the Palaeolithic — there is an entire
absence of such designs ? The only inference that
can be drawn from these facts is that artists lived
at Les Eyzies, and took their implements and
materials to Font-de-Gaume for the purpose of
decorating the walls. Each group of animals
when completed was apparently connected with
some special totemic ceremonies for the perform-
ance of which the members of the tribe resorted
to the sanctuary.1

What was the nature of the rites practised by
the cave-dwellers of the Reindeer Age ? We have
already shown that there is reason to suppose that
primeval man performed ceremonies corresponding
to the Intichiuma rites of the Australians to increase
his food supply. The same artistic concept found
among the men of the later Palaeolithic epoch is
set forth in the Australian caves and on rocks in

1 Cf. E. A. Parkyn, Prehistoric Art, pp. 118 ff.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 167

connexion with totemic ritual.1 In Australia, in
a great many instances, the designs are traced on
walls of rock in places that are tabu to women and
the uninitiated. Likewise in the Palaeolithic caves
the paintings are relegated to the innermost re-
cesses— presumably holy ground upon which the
profane are forbidden to tread. There is, there-
fore, a close analogy between these Australian
rites and the ritual deducible from the cave paint-
ings of the Aurignacian and Magdalenian periods.
Consequently the cave-men, like the Arunta, used
the designs as objects of a cult in which not only
the food supply was increased, but also a sacra-
mental relationship was established with the whole
totemic species. A brief description of the Aus-
tralian totemic rites, as noted by Messrs. Spencer
and Gillen, may therefore be given as a probable
account of the kind of ceremonies performed in
prehistoric sanctuaries. Of course it is not sug-
gested that the totemic cult of modern aborigines
is in any way identical with that of primeval man ;
but, judging from the numerous similarities be-
tween the two cultures, the Arunta rites appear
to represent the nearest approach to the totemic
mysteries celebrated by Palaeolithic man at Gargas,
etc.

We have already described the Intichiuma
ceremonies held in the spring at the foot of a rock

1 Native Tribes, pp. 614 ff.

168 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

on which great pictures of the witchetty grub are
painted. We will now turn to the rites performed
after Intichiuma (i.e. at the period analogous to
harvest time among agricultural people) when
the totems are plentiful, and when the need for
productive ceremonies no longer exists. Then it
is that, in the witchetty grub totem, large supplies
of the tabu grub are gathered and brought into
the camp, where they are cooked and stored away
in pitchis. In due course they are taken to the
men's camp, where all the men assemble. The
leader grinds up the contents of the pitchi between
two stones. Then he and the other men of the
totem eat a little, and distribute that which re-
mains to those who do not belong to the totem.
He repeats the operation with a pitchi from his
own store. The witchetty grub totem may then
eat sparingly of the grub.1

Similar ceremonies take place in other totems
in Central Australia, as, for example, the Undiara
Kangaroo. In this group, when an Intichiuma
ceremony is to be performed, the men proceed to
the foot of a hill, on the slope of which two blocks
of stone project one above the other. One of these
stones is supposed to represent a male kangaroo,
the other a female kangaroo. The head man of
the totem clan with a man who is in the relation
of mother's uncle to him climbs up a rocky ledge,

1 Native Tribes, p. 203.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 169

supposed to be haunted by the spirits of ancestral
kangaroos, and paints it with, strips of red and white
to indicate the red fur and white bones of the
kangaroo. When this is done a certain number
of the young men sit on the top of the ledge, while
the men below sing of the increase of the kangaroos.
Blood letting follows. " The men open veins in
their arms and allow the blood to stream out on
to and over the ledge of the sacred ceremonial
stone which represents the spot where a celebrated
kangaroo of the Alcheringa went down into the
earth, its spirit part remaining in the stone which
arose to mark the place."1 According to Spencer
and Gillen, the purpose of the ceremonies is to
drive out in all directions the spirits of the kan-
garoos, and so to increase the numbers of the
animals.2 Strehlow, however, maintains that the
rite makes real kangaroos, with living bodies,
appear.3

After the rite has been duly performed, the
young men go and hunt the kangaroo, bringing
their spoils back to the camp. Here the old men,
with the alatunja in their midst, eat a little of the
flesh of the animal and anoint the bodies of those
who took part in the Intichiuma with its fat,
after which the meat is divided among all the men
assembled. The men then decorate themselves
with totemic designs, and the night is spent in

1 Native Tribes, p. 462. 2 Op. cit. p. 206. 3 III. p. 7.

170 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

singing songs relating to the exploits of the Alcher-
inga men. When this has been done, the animal
may be eaten sparingly.1

When the men of the Emu totem desire to per-
form Intichiuma ceremonies, several of the men
open veins in their arms and allow the blood to
stream on the ground till it is saturated. When
the serum has coagulated they trace designs on
it in white, red, yellow and black, representing
the different parts of the body of an emu. Several
men of the totem then dress themselves to re-
semble emus, and imitate the manners and customs
of the bird. They fasten Churinga on their heads
to represent the neck of the emu, and chant a
song to the emu constructed in the blood. They
think that this act has the effect of preventing the
totem from disappearing by quickening the embryos
of the new generation.2

In the Unjiamba or Hakea flower totem an
Intichiuma ceremony is performed at a shallow,
oval-shaped pit, by the side of which grows an
ancient Hakea tree. In the centre of the depres-
sion is a small projecting and much- worn block
of stone, which is supposed to represent a mass of
Hakea flowers. After the pit has been swept and
songs inviting the tree to flower much and the
blossoms to be full of honey have been sung, a
young man is told to open a vein in his arm and

1 Native Tribes, p. 204. 2 Native Tribes, p. 181.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 171

allow the blood to sprinkle on a stone till it is
covered. This done, the ceremony is complete. The
stone is regarded as a Churinga, and the spot is for-
bidden to the women, children, and the uninitiated.1
In other words, the ceremony has established a
blood bond between the totem and the totemites,
and the place of the rite is rendered sacred, and
therefore tabu.

Similar rites take place in other totems in Central
Australia, differing, of course, in detail, but every-
where made up of the same essential elements.2 If
the chief of the clan did not solemnly eat of the
totem, or if too much were eaten, the Intichiuma
would fail, and, in consequence, according to
Australian philosophy, the food supply would be
affected, and some harm come to the group.

On the religious side, the chief interest of the
rites just described lies in the fact that in them we
find most of the essential principles of the later
institution of sacrifice. After the totemic animal
has been killed, the alatunja and the old men
solemnly eat it, and thus assimilate the sacredness
of the " theanthropic " animal. The chief differ-
ence between this and the later forms of sacrifice
lies in the animal, in this case, being naturally
sacred while ordinarily it acquires this character

1 Op. cit. pp. 184 f.

2 Op. cit. pp. 295 ff. ; Northern Tribes, pp. 294, 296. Cf. Woods,
p. 187.

172 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

during the rite. But the mystic sacramental union
between the totem and the totemite is none the
less maintained by the ceremony that terminates
the Intichiuma. A man of the witchetty grub or
emu totem believes himself to be a witchetty grub
or an emu. In order to keep this quality he
assimilates the flesh of the creature that he may
dwell in the grub and the grub in him. The solemn
preparations show with what reverential awe these
sacramental meals are regarded by the natives.
The fasts, the Churinga, the totemic decorations,
the sacred rocks and designs, all testify to the
sacred atmosphere surrounding the mysteries.1

In the blood ceremonies we see exemplified the
means whereby a blood covenant is made with
the totem to prevent the totems from vanishing
from the land. By opening a vein in his arm
upon the kangaroo rocks, or eating the flesh of
the sacred animal, or having its fat — a substance
which, to the Australian, ranks equally with the
blood as regards potency — rubbed on his body,
a union of a sacramental nature is established
with the totem. The mana concentrated in the
victim (especially in the blood and its sacred flesh)
goes out and gives strength to the communicant,
neutralising his infirmities by drawing them into
itself. In this way a sacramental union is
established between the totem and the totemite

1 Durkheim, Les formes dle'mentaires de la vie religieuse, p. 484.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 173

through the communication of the mana resident
in the supernatural ally. Consequently, we con-
tend that, in what Dr. Marett calls the " pre-
animistic " type of religion,1 the earliest attempts
at sacrifice were means whereby the " worshippers "
were placed in physical contact, after a sacramental
manner, with their totem.2

Now, if we are correct in assuming that Intichi-
uma ceremonies represent the most primitive and
elementary form of sacrifice, does it not necessarily
follow, from our previous argument, that the rite
formed part of primeval cult ? If the Aurignacians
and Magdalenians who "worshipped" in the prehis-
toric sanctuaries described above performed cere-
monies analogous to the Intichiuma rites of Australia
they must have had an elementary conception of
sacrifice. On this hypothesis, the arrows and the
collection of pictographs found on the walls and floor
at Niaux correspond to the designs and picture-
representation of the emu in the Australian rites.
The remarkable discovery by Count Begouen in one
of the innermost recesses of the Aurignacian cavern
of the Tuc d'Audoubert (Ariege) of two bisons
modelled in clay, appears to be a further develop-
ment of the drawings on the floor of Niaux.3 This

1 The Threshold of Religion, p. xxi.

2 Cf. the author's article on " Sacrifice " in the Encyclopaedia
of Religion and Ethics.

3 UAnthropologie, 1912, xxiii. pp. 657-665.

174 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

conclusion is justified by the fact that two other
bisons are deeply incised in the layer of clay which
covers the floor, apparently representing the first
stages of the modelling. It would therefore seem
that Tuc d'Audoubert was also a prehistoric sanc-
tuary in which men renewed their mystical bond
with the sacred animal from which they derived
their very existence, and to which they would be
gathered when the days of their pilgrimage were
ended.

If Palaeolithic man did perform Intichiuma
ceremonies and believe in a life after death, it is
difficult to follow Frazer in his theory of a primeval
age of magic. To describe Intichiuma rites as
magical operations with no religious character
at all, is clearly contrary to all the evidence from
Australia. It is absurd to eliminate from religion
a rite that represents the first step in the greatest
institution in the history of religion.

The theory of Durkheim that both the essential
forms of sacrifice — the act of oblation and the
act of communion — are found in germinal form
in the Intichiuma rites 1 rests on the evidence of
Strehlow, that the hymn which is sung at the
Kangaroo rite describes the " offering " of a morsel
of kangaroo fat to make the fat of the animals
increase.2 With the exception of this instance,
and of offerings to the dead consisting of stone

1 Op. cit. p. 484. 2 Zeitschrift f. Ethnol p. 12, verse 7.

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 175

hatchets, clubs, and water,1 there is no evidence of
gift-sacrifice in Australia. The All-Fathers are
regarded as remote anthropomorphic beings in
need of nothing that man can give, and therefore,
they are not the recipients of sacrificial gifts.
Likewise in primeval cult, there is no evidence
that the act of oblation formed part of the magico-
religious rites performed in prehistoric sanctuaries.
Offerings may have been made to the dead in
Palaeolithic times, but gifts to supernatural beings
must be regarded as of later development.

It will be seen from the foregoing pages that
the origin of sacrifice must be sought in a natural
human custom, rather than in an institution of
Divine appointment. The latter view rests on
Genesis iv. 3-5, and Heb. xii. 4, wherein it appears
that Divine sanction permitted Abel's offering,
and considered it, by faith, more acceptable than
that of Cain. That Yahweh should show prefer-
ence for blood offerings is in accordance with
Hebrew ritual, in which the oblation in blood is
considered to be the more efficacious, but it is
contrary to the generally accepted view that the
bloodless sacrifice was the loftier conception. In
fact the airvpa tepd— " offerings without fire "
—were regarded by Greek philosophers of the fifth
century, such as Porphyry, who had a vegetation
theory to maintain, as the older form of sacrifice,

1 Howitt, p. 463.

176 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

coming down from the time of man's innocency . If,
however, we are correct in believing that sacrifice
originated in rites and beliefs connected with
Intichiuma, then neither can claim precedence
in point of time.

The story of Cain and Abel, it is argued, suggests
a Divine origin for the rite, because faith neces-
sarily implies that there must have been a previous
revelation touching the ordinance. Without such
it would be superstition rather than faith. Further-
more, it has been pointed out by Protestant
commentators that St. Paul condemns will- worship
(eOeXoOprjarKa, Col. ii. 23), and therefore it would
have been unlawful for sacrifice to be offered unless
directly ordained by God. But as this theory
was directed against the claim of the Catholic
Church to decree rites and ceremonies not expressly
ordained in Scripture, it is hardly worth considering
as a serious argument in favour of the Divine
institution of sacrifice.

As a matter of actual fact the J narrative treats
sacrifice as a natural institution ; an instinctive
mode of worship ; while the P creation document
ignores the existence of the rite altogether. Some
have tried to read into the clothing of Adam and
Eve with " coats of skins," after their banishment
from the garden, the authorisation by Yahweh of
sin offerings. But this reasoning is precarious.
The circumstances of the case are all against such

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 177

an interpretation. While Adam and Eve were
in the garden communion with God is represented
as uninterrupted, and therefore sacrifice would be
unnecessary. It is far more reasonable to regard
Genesis iii. 21 as a fanciful explanation of the
origin of clothing than as the beginning of sacrifice.

In conclusion, it may be said that the Divine
origin of the institution stands or falls with the
theory of a primitive revelation, and since there
are few, if any, theologians who have not aban-
doned the view that a revelation was vouchsafed
to the Jews alone, the grounds for seeking the
Divine origin of sacrifice are very uncertain. Now
that a healthier and juster view is being taken of
the revelation of God to man, the Divine origin
of religious institutions is sought not in books but
in the minds of men — it is in the " fleshy tables of
the heart " that the Most Highest is pleased to
dwell, speaking in the worthier manifestations of
the " nature " that He has made, till in the fullness
of time, when man's mind was ready, He substi-
tuted a final for a progressive revelation, in the
Incarnate Logos.

From very crude and rudimentary conceptions
of a mysterious impersonal power (mana) attaching
itself to objects and circumstances in any way
inexplicable to the primeval mind, to the idea of
a localized supernatural power, and a controller
of the universe whose abode was in the sky, God,

J.A. M

178 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

in His infinite wisdom, has led the race onwards
in a knowledge of Himself, to a doctrine that the
Incarnate Son could claim as His own, and re-
enforce with Divine authority. From grossly
material conceptions of a life beyond the grave
man has been led on till, on the first Easter Day,
the great Christian doctrine of Resurrection and
Life was proclaimed and set forth before the won-
dering eyes of the original followers of the Nazarene.
From curious totemic ceremonies performed in
prehistoric sanctuaries, the central rite in the
history of religion has been evolved. Through
sacrifice in some form or other, men everywhere
have sought to establish, renew and maintain
communion with the sacred world. It is indeed
a far cry from primitive Intichiuma ceremonies
to the highest conception of sacrifice centring
round the presentation before the great All-Father,
at an altar on high, of a " Lamb as It had been
slain." But when the dim and shadowy rites and
beliefs of primeval cult are understood to be the
first steps in the education of the world for the
reception of a Divine revelation in Christ, they
are raised by the reverent and intelligent en-
quirer from the depths of magic and superstition
to the Divine order of things. When the idea of
Christianity as God's reply to the yearnings of
the human heart in all ages — the completion of the
religious education of the race — is grasped, it is

RELIGION OF PRIMEVAL MAN 179

realised that to see religion in its true perspective,
it is necessary to get behind the " religion of the
Semites " as set forth in the Old Testament. In
the words of Robertson Smith : " To understand
the ways of God with man, and the whole meaning
of His plan of salvation, it is necessary to go back
and see His work in its beginnings, examining the
rudimentary stages of the process of revelation."1

1 The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 192.

CHAPTER V,

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION.

IN its literal and etymological sense civilization
(civilis, " pertaining to a citizen ") implies a
social condition existing under the forms and
governments of an organized State. In practice
" civilization " is usually interpreted in a nar-
rower sense, as applying to the more recently
evolved system of culture of the most developed
modern races of mankind. But the anthropologist
cannot countenance such a restricted use of the
term. To him " civilization " comprehends all
the principles underlying social development in
all stages of culture, although at the same time
he recognises that civilization, in its more restricted
and literal sense, is concerned mainly with man's
relationship to the State, and the forces which
have held together the larger associations of men
and made social efficiency in its highest sense.
The object of our present enquiry is to set forth
some of the causes which tended to bring about
the development of civilization and the evolution

180

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 181

of man "the tiller of the ground," to man " the
builder of cities."

The investigation of the beginnings of civilization
carries us far back into those early ages when Drift
Man lived the life of a hunter, catching and eating
wild animals, gathering berries and roots, having
neither flocks nor herds, and ignorant of the sim-
plest conceptions of agriculture. The very earliest
inhabitants of the world were, as we have seen,
in an extremely primitive state of culture . Towards
the end of the Palaeolithic, and particularly in the
Neolithic period, great advances were made which
had far-reaching effects on the social conditions
of the human race. Hitherto man had possessed
no utensils that could withstand the action of
fire. Water was boiled by dropping hot stones
into any receptacle that could be obtained. The
civilizing influence of the discovery of the art of
pottery -making must have been considerable,
since it extended the dietary of Neolithic man to
an almost unlimited degree. Meats, vegetables,
bones, etc., were not only rendered more palatable
but also more nutritious, and in numerous other
directions boundless possibilities, not only in the
culinary art, opened before his gradually increasing
vista. The art of spinning, basketry and weaving
were yet other discoveries presumably made in
Neolithic times, but of all these developments in
civilization perhaps the greatest was the momentous

182 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

occasions on which man learnt the secret of domesti-
cating animals and cultivating crops. This great
progressive movement constitutes the real transition
of the wild hunter, fisher, and fruit-gatherer to
that of the settled tiller of the soil. It is to this
change of custom that the expansion of industrial
arts and evolution of the higher social and political
institutions are mainly due. The dog was appar-
ently the first animal to be domesticated ; but the
sheep, the ox, and the horse undoubtedly followed
in rapid succession.

It is at this point in the evolution of civilization
that the authors of Genesis begin their narrative.
Of the earlier hunting stage they apparently know
nothing, since dominion over the animals is por-
trayed as a divinely appointed privilege of human
nature. Thus the lower creation is suffered to
pass before man that he may learn from the Creator
the names of the various creatures. Adam is
evidently assumed to have a knowledge of agri-
culture, since he is no sooner driven from Eden
than he begins to till the soil. Of his two sons one
is a shepherd, the other a herdsman. It is not
till later that Nimrod the hunter is brought upon
the scene. The compilers of the sacred narrative
are therefore obviously ignorant of the existence
of a Palaeolithic and Neolithic culture as described
in the foregoing pages. They do not even hint
at a prehistoric era in which man lived from hand

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 183

to mouth on the wild products of nature, ignorant
of the simplest arts, save to make a flint implement,
till he gradually advanced in civilization, leaving
behind first the old and then the new Stone Age,
and passing through the various ages of metal-
Copper, Bronze, and Iron. The Old Testament,
therefore, begins with the time when man became
a herdsman, no longer dependent on the chase
for his existence. But inasmuch as later cultures
can only be rightly understood when viewed in the
light of that which has produced them, civilization
being a product of evolution, the theologian as well
as the scientist should commence his investigations
with a survey of prehistoric man.

To resume our main thesis, we find that when
man became independent of the chase for the
necessaries of life he was prone to cultivate what
Aristotle has described as a " migratory farm."
He and his family, consisting of wife, children and
herds, were compelled to wander from pasture to
pasture over wide tracts of country in the trail of
the flocks. Such a mode of life necessitated the
reduction of goods and chattels to a minimum.
The tents and clothes would be of the simplest
textiles, the weapons need not consist of more
than a lasso and a sling, while a knife and a few
scrapers would constitute all the tools required
for the immediate needs of a pastoral people. In
patriarchal society industry cannot be developed

184 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

beyond the mere replacement of things lost or
destroyed, and therefore little progress is manifested
in this direction. Likewise social organization is
confined to the " patriarchal family," consisting
of father, mother, children and the herds, all
working for common good of the other. A childless
man under pastoral conditions would indeed be
in a sad plight, since he would have no one to look
after the flocks, consequently it not infrequently
happens that if the offspring is not as numerous
as necessity demands the deficit is procured from
unwary neighbours !

Such, then, is the mode of life of pastoral people,
the best example of which perhaps is the graphic
picture displayed in the Book of Genesis. Unlike
hunting, this highly specialized manner of main-
taining life was not by any means universally
adopted by primitive man. It only occurs under
conditions which are themselves exceptional just
because they are so exceedingly simple. In short,
patriarchal society is merely the result of a suc-
cessful correspondence to a peculiar environment,
but nevertheless it plays its part in the development
of civilization, since the patriarchal condition, in
which the unit is the family under the despotic rule
of its head, passes into the system in which indi-
viduals make up a society whose government is
centralized in a chief or king.

Again, pastoral man traversing wide areas,

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 185

impassable till the horse and camel had been
domesticated, thus comes in contact with distant
peoples. In this way commerce has come to form
an important part in the dissemination of commodi-
ties and ideas, and with the development of various
trades, made possible by this interchange of
culture, large communities have sprung up in
process of time in certain places.

Professor Myres, in his excellent little book,
The Dawn of History, traces four principal phases
through which human history and civilization has
passed.1 The first stage is one in which the centres
of advancement are provided and defined, by
great river valleys, with alluvial irrigable soil. Thus,
for example, among the agricultural civilizations of
the Ancient East, intercourse took place between
the Euphrates and the Nile, along one narrow line
of communication, half river-bank, the upper
course of the Euphrates itself, half a narrow strip
of hill country bordered on one side by the Medi-
terranean Sea, and on the other by the Arabian
desert, into which it fades gradually away. To
and fro along this ridge went commodities and
individuals and ideas between Babylonia and
Egypt ; along it too went armies, when either of
these powers was strong enough to attempt an
advance against the other. Such, then, is the
first stage of human history, the development,

1 Pp. 29 ff.

186 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

within the limits of rivers and valleys, of self-
centred and almost self-sufficient worlds, each
with its own special type of civilization adopted
to local conditions.

The second phase began when islanders com-
menced an interchange of commodities with the
mainland or other islands, communicating with each
other over the " wet ways." Thus grew up the great
civilizations in the Mediterranean lands, the
empires of Minos, of Athens, and of Rome ; each
successive attempts to realise a civilized Orbis
Terr arum.

The third phase opens when the genius of Caesar,
after crossing the Rhone, foresaw the possi-
bilities of a New World with the Atlantic as its
shore. Thus came into being the great northern
sea-powers which were destined to overrun Rome,
Athens and Constantinople, and even to demon-
strate that the Atlantic, like the old Aegean, is but
an inter-continental gulf between " United States "
and disunited.

The fourth phase brings us to recent times, with
the occupation of Australia and the westward
coasts of America, and the awakening of the eastern
lands — China, Japan and India — to the benefits of
western culture. What awaits the future develop-
ment of civilization it is impossible to say, but one
thing is certain that the tremendous struggle in
which the civilized world has been engaged will

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 187

have far-reaching effects on the evolution of
culture.

Having briefly reviewed the chief successive
scenes in the drama of history as set forth by Prof.
Myres, we must return to our main topic — the
beginnings of civilization. As soon as it became
possible for large numbers of people to form local-
ized communities the elaboration of political
institutions took place, proceeding along lines
suggested by the experience of earlier epochs. All
this tended to emphasize the idea of nationality
based primarily on blood-relationship, to which,
in early society, a religious significance is attributed.
As the family expanded into a larger group like
the Latin gens, and this again into the clan, the
family life and the tie of supposed blood-relation-
ship continued to act as a basis of social unity.
Thus, for example, the family relationship is
among the most powerful features in the Chinese
civilization of the present day. In the West, as
civilization became more complex, the tribe in-
cluded several groups of blood relations, although
its organization still followed that of the family, till,
in process of time, it became merged in the more
highly organized condition of the political State.
In fact the tribal constitution survived " as a bridge
between the family and the State, and fell away
as soon as the State was assured."1

1 Bluntschli, The Tliwry of the State, 2nd Ed. p. 196.

188 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Another result of this development was the
conception of property. In the most primitive
state of culture no one said that ought of the things
which he possessed was his own, since all things
were common. But as the theory of blood relation-
ship developed into that of the State, the practice
grew up of the individual ownership of valuable or
desirable commodities which had been acquired
by labour or heredity. The development of the
principle of private property, and especially of
private property in land, did much to shape the
social order of society, constituting as it does the
fundamental class distinction between rich and
poor. Even the Indian caste-system comes back
to private property, since the most honourable
occupations coincide more or less with financial
status. Murder became recognised as an offence
against property, and therefore could be atoned
for, as among such people as the Iroquois to-day,
by certain presents to the injured kin. Theft is
likewise considered among the Australians as a
violation of property-rights, and is dealt with
accordingly.

We have yet to mention, however, the discovery
which, after the domestication of animals and the
cultivation of crops, had the greatest effect on the
development of civilization in primitive culture.
The revolution in practical life of the human race
that followed the transition from the use of stone

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 189

to that of metal probably exceeded in its far-reaching
effects the metamorphosis effected at any previous
point in the early history of mankind ; and is
only comparable, as a turning point in the progress
of civilization, to the discovery of steam and
electricity at the end of the eighteenth century.

When and where it was discovered that by
mixing tin with copper the harder compound
bronze could be produced still remains a mystery.
A knowledge of bronze implies a previous acquaint-
ance with its component elements. The use of
copper in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean
can be traced back to the Fourth Dynasty, while in
Europe, in North Italy, Hungary, Spain, and
Ireland, simple forms of copper celts have been
found, made by hammering the metal into
shapes on the plan adopted by workers in stone.
Similar evidence is forthcoming from North America,
and in Babylonia copper was known as early as
4500 B.C. The earliest evidence of working copper
appears to come from Egypt, and so far supports
the theory that it was the seat of the original
discovery of the metal. It may be assumed that
copper preceded bronze in those parts of the world
where the ore was accidentally discovered, and
found to be more convenient than flint for making
implements. But at present there is not suffi-
cient evidence to warrant the conclusion that a
Copper Age everywhere preceded a Bronze Age.

190 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Bronze was probably first made accidentally. The
prehistoric inhabitants of the Old World seem to
have often melted their copper before they shaped
it, since nearly all the copper implements have been
produced by casting in open moulds, and thus,
in districts where oxidised copper ores occur in
admixture with tin ore (cassiterite), bronze would
be accidentally formed in the crucible. It would
soon be seen that this substance, unlike the pure
metal, could be cast in enclosed moulds, and so
more elaborate forms could be made. Here is a
distinct advance in culture, involving new methods
and a certain power of observation, of which the
primitive mind is by no means incapable. Former
designs speedily became elaborated. The ham-
mered flanges of the early copper " age " were
deliberately cast and much exaggerated on bronze
instruments. In course of time these flanges
developed into a double socket into which the handle
of the celt was made to fit. In the same way the
ridge across the celt that acts as a stop to the haft
developed into a purely decorative feature. In
the later forms of celt the double socket separated
by a tang develops into the single large socketed
celt by the elimination of the tang. No socketed
celts are found in early bronze types, and therefore
the evolution must have been from the flat to the
socketed celt.

Thus it seems evident that in the Bronze Age

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 191

we are not dealing with a brand new civilization,
but a development of the Stone Age culture. Flint
implements and weapons were simply modelled
in accordance with the properties of metals, and
the commercial and social aspects of life modified
accordingly. The social organization already
founded by the Neolithic inhabitants of Europe
were simply continued and carried out with greater
efficiency in consequence of the substitution of
bronze implements for the less effective materials
formerly used. Again, the question of the origin
of bronze is forced upon us. It has been alleged
that the advent of bronze into Europe was not due
to the peaceful advance of civilization, but rather
to the appearance of an Aryan race from the south-
east migrating in a north-westerly direction. In
support of this theory it is argued that weapons,
utensils, and implements of the Bronze Age have a
uniformity in type, which, in the case of the arms,
bears a certain resemblance to oriental forms.
But, in the first place, the conclusions of certain
philologists that the Aryan civilization originated
in the East has been disproved by Dr. K. G. Latham,
who has shown that the majority of the Aryan
peoples is found in Europe and not in Asia.
Furthermore, it has been pointed out by certain
philologists that the philological evidence suggests
a European origin for the Aryan language, if not
for an Aryan race. A study of their vocabulary

192 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

indicates a knowledge of the dog, the ox, sheep,
goat and pig as domestic animals, and rudimentary
methods of agriculture. The distribution of the
name for the beech tree has been used as an argu-
ment in favour of the home of the Aryans being
west of a line drawn from Konigsberg to the Crimea,
which is the habitat of the beech. But the Greek
equivalent of the word is fayw (Lat. fagus), an
oak, which extends the line to the Malian Gulf,
where the oak flourishes. Although the arguments
for any given area are not conclusive, the balance
is on the side of an European origin for the Aryan
language. But even if this were not the case the
Oriental origin of bronze would not be proved,
since the Aryan civilization belongs to the " chalco-
lithic " period, when stone was still in use, and no
metals except possibly copper were knoivn. In fact,
as Dr. Schrader has pointed out, the Aryan stage
of culture is best illustrated by the earliest remains
found in the lake-dwellings of Switzerland.1

Exactly when and where the discovery of bronze
was made cannot be ascertained in the present
state of our knowledge. The Aryan origin is
clearly ruled out of the question. Egypt has been
named as a probable home of the compound, but
tin does not exist in either Egypt or Mesopotamia,
although, as it has been shown, the use of copper

1 Trans, by Dr. F. B. Jevons, Prehistoric Antiquities of Aryan

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 193

in the country can be traced to the Fourth Dynasty
when King Senefern captured the copper and tur-
quoise mines of the Sinaitic peninsula. The late Dr.
Gladstone, in a paper entitled " The transition from
pure copper to the bronze made with tin," which he
read before the British Association, maintained that
" attempts were made to render this copper harder
and stronger in three ways. First, the admixture of
a large quantity of suboxide of copper or its forma-
tion in the process of smelting, as seen in adzes
from Egypt and Palestine, and perhaps Naqada.
Second, the presence of a little arsenic or antimony,
as shown in many tools from Kahun dating from
the Twelfth Dynasty, and from the Sinaitic mines,
as shown in a communication to the French
Academy by Berthelot. Third, the admixture
of a little tin, as at Kahun, the Sinaitic mines
and Cyprus, perhaps not exceeding one per cent.
When, however, the superiority of tin, as the
hardening material, came to be acknowledged it
was added in large quantities and formed the alloy
known as bronze."1 In this case the tin, which
is not native in Egypt, must have been imported
from a foreign country— whence it is impossible to
say. In later times no doubt Spain, Britain and
China were sources of the tin supply for Europe
and the Mediterranean, but since bronze appears
to have been known in Egypt in very early times,

1 Liverpool Meeting, Brit. Ass. 1896.
J.A. x

194 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

the original source of tin can hardly be looked for
in the mines of Western Europe. Neither in the
East is there evidence of the working of the stan-
niferous deposits in the Caucasus, Southern China
and Khorassan. The absence of a bronze culture
in the region of the Caucasus makes it an unlikely
source.1 China was probably in the Bronze Age as
early as 3000 B.C., in fact, nine bronze caldrons from
the country are dated about 2205 B.C. The tin of
Khorassan was apparently worked at an early date,
and may have found its way to the valley of the
Euphrates in prehistoric times, and thence to the
Nile.

Wherever bronze may have originated, it is
highly improbable that the industry was evolved in
any one place at a given time, and spread by
culture contact over the civilized world. At the
same time it should be remembered that in the
Bronze Age recognised trade routes were in existence,
and therefore there was an ebb and flow of different
peoples along these routes. Consequently an inter-
change of material and ideas took place, which
accounts for the variation and complexity of celts
and other bronze objects. Germany was traversed
by the two main trade routes, which owed their
existence to the wealth of amber on the west coast
of Denmark and the south Baltic. The first ran
from the Adriatic, in the neighbourhood of Venice,

1 E. Chantre, Recherches Anthrop. dans la Caucase, p. 77,

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 195

up the valley of the Adige, through the Brenner Pass
and down the Inn to Passau, where it joined the
Danube. Thence it passed through the Bohemian
Forest to the North Sea by way of the Elbe.
The second route started from the Gulf of Trieste,
going in a north-easterly direction to Laibach,
thence to Gratz, and down the Leitha to the Danube
at Pressburg. The route then crossed Moravia
and passed through Silesia along the Oder, across
Posen to Dantzic. In connexion with the trade
routes it should be mentioned that, during the
developed period of the Bronze Age, the spiral, so
prevalent in the Aegean and Egyptian art, hardly
occurs on the continent west of the Elbe route just
described ; but, as is clearly seen on the carved
stones of the New Grange barrow in County Meath,
and on the chalk drums found in a barrow erected
over a central cairn on Folkton Wold in the East
Riding of Yorkshire, it probably reached the
North- West in earlier times by a different route.1
Granting that the erection of the dolmens are the
work of one race, a route from North Africa to
Gibraltar and Spain, proceeding thence through
Santander and Western France to Brittany, Havre,
Dieppe, the Channel Islands and England was
probably in existence by the beginning of the
Bronze Age.

The prehistoric trader no doubt travelled from

1 Guide to Antiq. of Bronze Age (Brit. Museum), pp. 95, 96.

196 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

village to village carrying with him ornaments,
pottery and weapons, and bought back in exchange
for his commodities slaves, amber, jet, salt, etc.
Thus, in countries situated in or near these main
lines of commercial intercourse, the more complex
forms of the metal industry with ornamentation
of more elaborate designs were never developed,
since, before the manufacture of bronze weapons
and implements had time to reach the zenith of
artistic development, they had been discarded in
favour of iron.

Although iron was known in Egypt about 1500
B.C., it was not used apparently to any extent for
industrial purposes in Europe till about the ninth
century B.C., by which time the Greeks, Etruscans,
Illyrians, Italians, and Phoenicians were settling
down in the Mediterranean area. Since iron is a
simpler substance than bronze it has been suggested
that the Iron Age preceded the Bronze Age, but this
conclusion is not supported by the bulk of archaeo-
logists. True, its ores are more abundant and more
easily reduced than any others, and, in its meteoric
form, it requires no reduction at all — a fact dis-
covered by the Eskimos, who make iron implements
by flaking fragments of meteorites like flint.
Furthermore, it is argued, iron was known in
Egypt as early as bronze ; that is to say, in the
Fourth Dynasty. A piece of the metal was found
in the south gallery of the Gizehjpyramid which

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 197

possibly belongs to this period. At Abydos Prof.
Flinders Petrie came upon a lump of iron wrapped
up in a fabric with a mirror and tools of copper,
belonging to the Sixth Dynasty l (3300-3100 B.C.),
and iron beads have recently been discovered in
pre-dynastic graves at El Gezeh.2 But although
it thus appears that in Egypt iron was known as
early as bronze or copper, the absence of the metal
from the sixth to the eighteenth Dynasties, and
the fact that no trace of blue (the colour by which
iron is depicted) is found on the wall paintings
prior to the nineteenth Dynasty, shows that it was
not in common use till about 1300 B.C. Iron ore
is abundant in the Nile valley, and it is therefore
difficult to believe that the ancient Egyptians
would have continued to almost exclusively use
bronze so long had they been acquainted with the
harder and more serviceable metal. It is highly
improbable that it would have fallen into disuse
in places where its ores could be obtained, and that
in the early Iron Age bronze would have been
employed for ceremonial purposes. To account
for the entire absence of iron in graves and early
sites by the theory that they have disappeared
through oxidation is to offer a most inadequate
explanation of the facts, since it is incredible that
no trace of discoloration, or of an iron tool, would
have been preserved had the metal really existed.

1 Abydos ii. (1903), p. 33. 2 Man (1911), p. 109.

198 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

To this negative evidence must be added the
positive fact that there is a definite evolution of
type from stone to bronze implements, while the
early iron forms show a remarkable resemblance
to bronze instruments. Moreover, the negative
evidence gets no support from the well-known
early Iron Age site at Hallstatt, where, after being
buried nearly 3000 years, the weapons, though
oxidised, still retained their form as completely as
those in bronze.1

As a matter of fact the threefold division of
early civilization into Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages
has no chronological value, as there has been no
universal synchronous sequence of the three epochs
in all parts of the world. In Africa, south of the
Sahara, for instance, there has been no Bronze Age,
the use of iron succeeding immediately the use of
stone. The same applies to parts of North and
South America, and the Pacific. In Europe the
Iron Age occupies the closing years of the prehis-
toric and the beginning of the historic periods.
No iron objects occur among the relics from the
prehistoric cities of Troy, Tiryns and Mycenae.
Homer represents Greece as beginning her Iron Age
12,000 B.C., but during the Homeric period iron
was regarded in Greece as a rare substance. In
the Iliad, for instance, weapons both of iron and
bronze are represented as in use, but iron appears

1 Cf. Montelius, U Anthropologie, i. 27 ; Man (1905), 7.

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 199

to have been comparatively rare, since it is only
mentioned 23 times, while bronze occurs 360 times.
In the Odyssey the numbers are 25 and 90 respec-
tively.1 It was not until the time of Hesiod that
iron came into anything like general use.

Slowly the knowledge of the new metal spread
through Etruria (1400 B.C.) and Gaul (800) B.C. to
Ireland and Denmark (100 A.D.). In the north of
Russia its introduction was as late as 800 A.D. Two
localities in particular have been discovered which
have yielded sufficient iron objects to be used as
generic expressions for the civilizations they respec-
tively represent, and as standards of comparison.
These are the large cemetery at Hallstatt, in
Upper Austria, and the Oppidum La Tene, in
Switzerland. The cultures represented by these
stations cover a wide area of distribution extending
from North Italy to the British Isles, and therefore
enable archaeologists to form a fairly accurate
idea of the Iron Age in Europe.

The Hallstatt Civilization, which takes its name
from the cemetery discovered by Bergmeister G.
Ramsauer in the Nordic Alps, about forty miles
from Noricum, represents the earliest transitional
stage in which the Bronze Age types, such as the
flanged and tanged celt and leaf-shaped and sock-
eted spear heads survive . In the Hallstatt cemetery

1 J. D. Seymour, Life in the Homeric Age, and A. Lang, Homer
and his Age, pp. 176-208.

200 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

there was no less than 993 burials, revealing evidence
of the transition from the use of bronze to that of
iron. Three distinct phases of culture are repre-
sented at this site. In the first period cremation
was the mode of disposal of the bodies of the dead
in Central Europe, the ashes being deposited in
an oval clay saucer. The characteristic weapon
of this period was the sword, with a notch to protect
the hand. Later in Period I. the end of the blade
became blunt, and, if it was made of bronze, the
handle was composed of iron inlaid with amber.
The bronze sword disappeared in Period II., and
its place was taken by the iron sword of " Hallstatt "
pattern. The purely geometrical form of orna-
mentation of bronze vessels was replaced by an
oriental style in which were depicted processions,
including a stag cropping a plant, a sphinx, and
a goat holding a branch in its mouth. The Phoe-
nicians may have influenced the spread of oriental
art by their commercial activity. We know, for
instance, that Hiram, King of Tyre, supplied
materials to Solomon for the erection of the Temple
at Jerusalem in the middle of the tenth century
B.C., but after the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar
in the sixth century, the Phoenician commercial
supremacy passed to Carthage. Furthermore, the
Phoenicians developed no art of their own, and
therefore it was from Egypt that the influence
really came, the Phoenicians being merely the

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 201

intermediaries. Period III. is represented by a
short sword with horned handles which were often
ornamented, and correspond to the early La Tene
type. But these later graves, in which burials
have largely taken the place of cremations, are not
so rich as those of the earliest phase of Hallstatt
culture.

This civilization spread through Austria, Illyria,
and Syria, to the Danube, another wave passing
northwards to Cilicia and Posen, but it did not
penetrate to North Germany. In France it was
confined to Burgundy and the district south of the
Marne and the Rhine. It is probable that the
trade followed the valley of the Po through Switzer-
land, and thus it reached the Rhine valley. This
explains the evidence of contact with Italy from
objects belonging to the Hallstatt civilization,
such as is set forth by the magnificent Etrusco-
Greek vases surmounted with handles representing
figures of Greek goddesses found in this area.

The La Tene Civilization is not a continuation
but a parallel growth of the Hallstatt culture.
It is usually connected with the founding of Mar-
seilles in the seventh century B.C., and is charac-
terised by the disappearance of Bronze Age forms.
Classical influence is still apparent in the sepulchral
pottery, a good example of which is a remarkable
flagon with cylindrical spout found at Waldalges-
heim. The semi-classical era of Central Europe

202 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

is represented by the Somme-Bionne (Marne)
chariot-burial, which contained a body laid between
the two wheels of a chariot (the latter standing
in two trenches cut below the level of the grave).
About the warrior lay bridle-bits and trappings
of two horses, red-figured pottery, a jug with a
lengthened spout, and a sword with the scabbard
end simply curved. The horse trappings show
beautiful open curvilinear bronze work exem-
plifying the art of this period, while the dish with
red figures on a black ground being referable to
the fifth or fourth century B.C., afford evidence of
the date of the burial.1 Coral was largely used
in this period for decorative purposes on ear-rings,
bracelets, etc., and as amulets, though it is common
only in certain districts (Southern Russia, Northern
Italy, Central Europe, Gaul, and Britain). Its
source was probably the Mediterranean region,
whence it passed up the Rhone valley to Gaul and
Britain. The early La Tene pottery is character-
ised by the pedestalled urn with cordons or bands
in relief above the shoulder and round the foot,
which had the effect of strengthening the
vase.

In the second La Tene period (300-125 B.C.),
which falls between the Greek and Roman influence,
chariots and harness disappear, swords become
larger, burials are poorer, and even pottery and

1 L. Morel, La Champagne Souterraine (1875).

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 203

metal vessels are rare. Burials continue as the
proper rite, although cremation apparently is still
occasionally practised. The foundation of the
Roman province of Narbonensis (B.C. 121) in
southern Gaul, marks the beginning of a new era
for the Celtic population. At the same time
tribal movements in Southern Germany constituted
a grave danger to the Republic, which was destined
to end in the conquest of Rome by barbarians
500 years later. The last period of La Tene culture
corresponds to the closing century of the Roman
Republic, and is marked by striking changes,
archaic survivals being surpassed by complete
innovations. These late La Tene antiquities are
the forerunners of Roman provincial art which
had far reaching effects on the civilization of
northern Europe. The characteristic sword of this
period is long and double-edged, with a rounded
end ; spear-heads are larger than before, and
shield-bases are more oval and less massive. Har-
ness and chariots reappear, and spurs first make
their appearance. Pottery, painted with red and
yellow geometrical designs, is found in Northern
and Central France, North Switzerland, in the
Rhine valley, and in Bosnia. Little is known as
to the date and origin of coins, but it is not till
towards the end of the La Tene civilization that
they become plentiful. Cremation reappears in
North France and on the Rhine. This was possibly

204 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

due to the conquest of Gaul and Italy, the invaders
bringing the custom with them.

The closing century of La Tene is also marked
by the replacement of coral by enamel, coloured in
imitation of and attached to bronze or other metal.
The origin of the art is obscure. Virchow dis-
covered an enamelled plate in an early Iron Age
grave at Koban in the Caucasus,1 and in the Greek
and Scythian tombs on the northern shore of the
Black Sea, belonging to the fourth and third century
B.C., enamelled jewellery has been found. The
industry is therefore of considerable antiquity,
although it does not appear to have been known
to the ancient Egyptians, or, prior to Scythian
influence, to the Greeks. Apart from the instances
mentioned above, the use of enamel to decorate
metal belongs essentially to the latter part of the
La Tene period in Central and Western Europe.
The decay of the coral industry was apparently
due to the cessation of trade between the Mediter-
ranean and India owing to the conquests of Alex-
ander the Great, and thus the process of enamelling
arose to take its place. Since the methods adopted
at Koban resemble those of the La Tene period,
the ground being hollowed out to receive the
enamel, it is possible that the process was brought
from the Caucasus. Be this as it may, it was the
Celts of Great Britain who were the past masters of

1 Das Graberfeld von Koban, p. 71.

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 205

the art. Up to a certain point enamelling seems
to have developed on parallel lines in this country
and on the Continent. Red was the only colour
employed in early days, but gradually the British
workman made great strides and succeeded in
covering large surfaces in the most effective and
artistic manner, thus earning a reputation as a
craftsman of great skill. In fact some authorities
have actually described the process as a British art.1
The La Tene stage of the Iron Age culture in
Switzerland roughly corresponds to what in England
is known as the Late Celtic Period. The Bronze
Age inhabitants of this country appear to have
been closely connected with the short, dark,
brachycephalic Celts— the Gallica Celtica of Caesar
—who inhabited Auvergne, Dauphiny, Savoy, the
Grisons and the Maritime Alps. This race is
often confused with the tall, fair, and moderately
brachycephalic people of the Eound Barrows,
represented in Britain by the Gaels and Brythons
(Welsh), since they spoke the Celtic language. But
the Celts of history and ethnology, and the Celts
of philology are distinct races, and therefore it is a
misnomer to apply the term Celt to the tall fair
Scot and Irishman, and the short, dark Welshman
(by whom Celtic is still spoken). In the early
Iron Age the half-Teutonic Brythons — probably
the Belgae of Caesar — conquered north-east France

1 J. Anderson, Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. xix. p. 45.

206 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

and south Britain. They have therefore been
credited with introducing the civilization known
as Late Celtic. The Iron Age antiquities may
well be Celtic on the ground that they originated
with a people who were a branch of the Galli or
later Celts, although the relics at Aylesford are
presumably of Belgic origin. " We have here,"
says Sir Arthur Evans, " for the first time a native
example of an ' urn-field ' belonging to the period
that preceded the Roman invasion, the immediate
antecedents, of which are to be sought in the Belgic
parts of Gaul, but which may be ultimately traced
to an extensive Illyro-Italian province, and to a
south branch of the urn-field group characterizing
the early Iron Age of East Central Europe."1
No article of purely Roman origin was found at
Aylesford, but a fibula of La Tene III. type. The
burials suggest the beginning of the first century
B.C. The pottery was apparently manufactured
in Gaul, which points to a Gaulish invasion followed
by a settlement in the south-east of Britain in the
second century B.C. Sir A. Evans seeks the ultimate
origin of the pottery beyond the Alps in North
Italy or Illyria, a contention supported by the
classical designs on the jug and wooden bucket
discovered at Aylesford. Be this as it may, there
can be little doubt that the interment reveals
Gaulish influence in Britain at this time, and in

1 Archaeologia, lii. p. 37.

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 207

consequence of this discovery of Belgic remains
in England, some archaeologists have been led to
prefer the expression La Tene rather than Late
Celtic, to avoid the confusion of the Celts and
Belgae in describing British art. However, the
latter term is sufficiently well established to justify
its use here.

In the peculiar class of antiquities represented
by this stage in the Iron Age the British Isles
stand unrivalled in Europe. It is possible that the
art of Mycenae influenced to some extent the
Late Celtic design, as, for example, the S and C
spiral-curves occasionally found on objects belonging
to the period. The pottery likewise shows unmis-
takable signs of having been derived from proto-
types of metal.1 Nevertheless, the Late Celtic
art shows such a remarkable advance on that of
the Bronze Age in Britain that it is usually re-
garded as a separate and indigenous culture.
Artistic designs, generally consisting of scroll
patterns skilfully executed, ornamental shields,
swords, daggers, horse-trappings, fibulae, pottery,
mirrors, etc. Sometimes the metal is decorated
with enamel in a manner calculated to call forth
the admiration of the modern artist. Coral was
also employed for purposes of ornamentation of
sword-sheaths, etc.,2 but amber and glass, though

1 Iron Age Guide, Brit. Mus. p. 24 f.

2 Proc. Soc. Antiq., 2nd Series, xx. p. 214.

208 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

frequently found on the Continent, have rarely
been discovered in British sites. The Late Celtic
culture reached its zenith before the Roman con-
quest, though many of the ornaments appear to
belong to the Roman period.1

The bronze shield, elaborately decorated with
successive circles of repousse work and bosses,
found in the Thames near Battersea, may be
regarded as the highest point of Late Celtic art.
The embossed portions are enriched by symmetrical
and linear engraving, and discs of red enamel. It
is the raised curvilinear patterns on the circular
plates riveted on the surface which give the shield
its unique artistic character. This ornamentation
shows a mastery of design, a firmness and sureness
of execution which is unsurpassed by similar work
in any place or age.

Articles of foreign manufacture found among
the remains of Late Celtic art testify to the in-
creased commercial activity that followed the
Belgic invasion. The Aylesford cemetery, for
instance, has yielded a bronze-mounted bucket,
a bronze flagon, a skillet of frying-pan shape and
three fibulae, which afford strong evidence of
intercourse with the Continent. The flagon is of
Italo-Greek manufacture, and the skillet and one
of the broaches have counterparts in the San
Bernado cemetery near Lake Maggiore. The other

1 Rice Holmes, Ancient Britain, p. 241.

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 209

two broaches are of the type common in La Tene III.
A remarkable bucket was found containing burnt
bones near Marlborough, Wilts, which belongs to
the same class and period as the similar specimen
from the Aylesford urn-field. It is adorned with
figures of sea-horses which are common on Gallic
coins of the district about Rennes, and which
therefore support the conclusion that it was
imported from north-western Gaul.1

It therefore seems that the Late Celtic civilization
was to some extent influenced by the contemporary
phases of Central European civilization, although,
at the same time, the art was sufficiently differ-
entiated as to produce within the British Isles a
new culture. Thus the term Late Celtic, as applied
to some of the noblest creations of the~Iron Age,
seems to be justified.

The Olastonbury Lake-Village gives a vivid picture
of British civilization before the arts of Rome
penetrated to the west of England. In a field
situated about a mile from Glastonbury, a number
of mounds were ' observed by Dr. Arthur Bulleid,
which mounds upon excavation were found to be
the site of a prehistoric village ; each mound re-
presenting a dwelling. The huts were circular,
18 to 25 feet in diameter, with walls built on poles
6 feet high, and about a foot apart, with wattle
and daub between them. A central-post carried a

1 Archaeologia, Hi. (1890), p. 373.
J.A, o

210 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

thatched roof. Oak planks were placed upon
brushwood to raise the floor of the huts above the
marsh. This platform was kept in position by
being pinned by means of poles penetrating the peat
below to a considerable depth. A circular hearth-
stone was found, usually in or near the centre.
The absence of bronze implements and Roman
culture, and the presence of fibulae of La Tene
II. and III. types, show that the settlement
belongs to the Early Iron Age. True, numerous
articles of bronze have been found, but these
consist of fibulae, a mirror, and an ornamented
bowl, and therefore they can hardly be assigned
to other than the Iron Age. Other finds were a
jet ring, amber and glass beads, several weaving
and pottery-making instruments, and a number
of querns, whetstones, crucibles, etc. It is thus
clear that the inhabitants of the lake-village at
Glastonbury had made considerable progress in
the higher arts, though, judging from the absence
of coins, Samian ware, etc., they lived in a time
prior to the Roman settlement in England (i.e.
300 B.C.).

Here, then, is a picture of the progress of civil-
ization in Britain at the end of the prehistoric
period. The animal remains found at Glastonbury
show that sheep, horse, pig, goat and bos longifrons
were the domesticated companions of man before
the Roman invasion, while the seeds of the oak,

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION 211

alder, and birch, together with barley, suggest
the vegetation of the period. The implements
and querns show that these lake -dwellers not
only cultivated the land but also ground their
corn. It is evident, judging from the bones,
shuttles and combs, that they wove their own
clothing. They made pottery both by wheel and
by hand, and decorated it with the characteristic
Late Celtic curvilinear designs. They were ex-
perienced carpenters and wood carvers, as is shown
by the work and tools which have been unearthed.
The absence of coins (with a single exception) is
easily explained by the presence of iron " currency-
bars " of specific weights, used for purposes of
trade during the Late Celtic period.1 Another
lake-village has been discovered by Dr. Bulleid
three miles from Glastonbury at Meare. This
also belongs to the Late Celtic, and reveals many
objects similar to those found at Glastonbury.

When once man had conceived the idea of smelt-
ing iron he became capable of developing all the
latent powers within him. Wood and stone could
now be fashioned as never before. Houses could
be erected and cities walled with ease and efficiency,
and instruments constructed. Many new arts
and industries hitherto undreamt of now came
within the reach of developing races. In the
social sphere a complex political organization had

1 Glastonbury Lake-Village, A. Bulleid and H. St. G. Gray (1911).

212 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

been evolved based on a sound social basis. The
last barrier to unmitigated progress was broken
down when man devised a method of recording
by graphic signs his past achievements. Thus a
system of writing was developed (about 600 B.C.
in Europe) which made the keeping of a permanent
historical record possible, and ushered in that which
is usually known as the Historic Period — the final
stage of civilization proper.

CHAPTER VI.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF KACES.

HAVING briefly traced the early history of mankind
through the various stages of hunting and fishing,
pastoral life, agriculture, stone, and metal industry,
and having glanced at the accompanying social,
economic and religious organization, we now turn
to an ethnological investigation of the distribution
over the earth of the races formed by man's develop-
ment through the family and tribal stages into
national life.

The tenth chapter of Genesis has been called the
oldest ethnological record extant. But the state-
ment is not strictly accurate, since, on the one hand,
the evidence of archaeological inscriptions shows
older classifications of races ; and, on the other
hand, Genesis x., as Pr.ofessor Sayce points out,1
is ethnographical rather than ethnological. It
merely describes from the geographical standpoint
such races as came within the horizon of the writer.
Thus, the Egyptian and Canaanite are classed

1 Races of the Old Testament, chap. iii.
213

214 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

together, while the Semitic Assyrian and non-
Semitic Elamite are both represented as the
children of jShem. In fact the narrative does not
profess to throw any light upon modern ethno-
logical investigation any more than Chapters i.-ix.
are of anthropological value. Therefore little help
can be derived from this source in our present
enquiry.

Ethnology (e'Ovos, race ; and Ao'yo?, science)
is usually regarded as that section of anthropo-
logy which deals systematically with the various
branches of mankind in detail. The questions,
therefore, upon which it is called to throw some
light are those of the origin, primeval home, early
migrations, and racial classification of mankind,
and the effects of contact of the different members
of the human family.

In considering the origin and antiquity of man
we came to the conclusion that man evolved
from a common precursor early in the Pliocene
epoch contemporary with pre-Chellean implements.
From this common ancestor two stocks were pro-
duced in Europe — the Neanderthal and the Eoan-
thropus-Galley Hill- Cro-Magnon species of the
human organism. Towards the end of the Glacial
period the Neanderthal type became extinct, while
the Piltdown- Galley Hill race survived as Aurig-
nacian and Cro-Magnon man. On this hypothesis,
the remains found at Grimaldi may represent a

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 215

fusion between the types in Europe at the latter
part of the Pleistocene epoch.

This theory may seem to conflict with the
generally accepted view among anthropologists
that Pleistocene man was specifically one. Thus
Broca argues that the complete and permanent
fertility of unions between all races inter se proves
their common descent from one stock. If distinct
human species originated in Pliocene or early
Pleistocene times kakogenesis (racial unfertility)
rather than eugenesis would result. Again, Tylor
has maintained that " all tribes of men, from
the blackest to the whitest, the most savage to the
most cultured, have such general likeness, in the
structure of their bodies and the working of their
minds, as is easiest and best accounted for by their
being descended from a common ancestor, however
distant."1 On the other hand, Abel Hovelacque
says that languages differ to such an extent that
this fact alone is " sufficient proof of the original
plurality of the races that have been developed
with them." This latter argument is open to the
objection that race and speech are not convertible
terms, that there is no arguing from one to the
other, therefore the theory is based on a fallacy.

But, it has been shown, the " osseous remains " of
Palaeolithic man show a divergence of type that
makes the hitherto simple theory of a gradual

1 Anthropology, p. 5.

216 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

continuous development upwards from Pithecan-
thropus and Homo Heidelbergensis to Homo
Recens untenable. Had Tylor been acquainted
with the Piltdown and Galley Hill remains he
would probably have modified his remarks. The
discovery of a human form, wherein the features
of modern man are represented, at the close of the
Pliocene or the beginning of the Pleistocene is an
almost insurmountable difficulty to any theory
of a continuous evolution from a single stock. If
the Piltdown-Galley Hill-Cro-Magnon type really
goes back to the early Drift period, then we
must believe that from the earliest times there
co-existed in Europe at least two stocks, and these
so distinct that they point to the existence of a man
sufficiently high to serve as a common ancestor of
both. Pithecanthropus does not, in our opinion,
represent either a precursor or an early phase of
Neanderthal man, but a development on lines of its
own.

Now at some particular moment the two dis-
tinctively human powers — tool-making and the
erect attitude — must have reached the required
point of development to bring into being Homo
primigenius, with the potentiality of a complete
human being, composed of body, mind and spirit.
Did this momentous event take place in several
places more or less about the same time ? It is
improbable that all the necessary conditions would

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 217

be fulfilled at a given moment in more than one
spot, since a steady growth and specialization of
brain development is implied in the evolution of
the human organism, which could hardly have
coincided simultaneously in several ancestors. In
this sense, therefore, the human race appears to
be derived from a single ancestor. But as soon
as the first step had been taken, man would become
fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, so
that by the beginning of the Pleistocene at least
two forms of man were in existence in Europe,
specifically one, perhaps, but nevertheless differing
widely in physical features and mental development.
On this hypothesis the specific unity of mankind
is sufficiently maintained to avoid kakogenesis
resulting from the union of the races evolved from
the two stocks. We, therefore, are ready to admit
that " God has made of one blood all the nations
of the earth," but at the same time maintaining
that the " osseous remains " of Palaeolithic man
suggests the co-existence in Europe of at least
two stocks from the earliest times, of which one
(the Neanderthal race) became extinct, the other
surviving as Aurignacian and Cro-Magnon man.

The second problem that faces us is the racial
affinities of Neolithic man. Some anthropologists
have tried to prove that the Neanderthal-Spy
race survived the Palaeolithic Age as th,e dolicho-
cephalic Europeans, while Professor Keith makes

218 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

the inhabitants of Europe the descendants of the
Galley Hill-Combe Capelle type. That there was
no hiatus between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic
periods is proved by the discoveries at the cavern
of Mas-d'Azil, which represent an intermediate
stage between the old and new Stone Age. Here
there is evidence of Palaeolithic hunters living side
by side with existing types of animals, but un-
acquainted with the use of pottery, though possibly
they were in the earliest stages of agriculture. We
have, therefore, no reason for supposing that the
transition from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic
period was marked by the appearance of a new
and higher type of man, although some archaeo-
logists have suggested that the changes in the mode
of life during Neolithic times can only be accounted
for by assuming the immigration of the new races
into Europe at the close of the Pleistocene epoch.
This assumption is not supported by an examina-
tion of the physical type of Neolithic man. Prof.
Keith has shown that the Neolithic men of Britain
were of short stature, with rather large heads in
which the width was about seventy-five per cent,
of the length. It was, in fact, characteristic of
the " river bed type."1 Furthermore, he shows
that the same long-headed form is not confined to
Neolithic England. Similar types have been found
in Malta and Egypt ; and therefore he concludes

1 Antiquity of Man, pp. 1-45.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 219

that " Sergi's Mediterranean race had heads which
in size and form were of the c river bed ' type.5'1
De Quatrefages identifies the Cro-Magnon with
the tall, dolichocephalic, fair-skinned and blue-eyed
Berbers (Hamites) who still survive in various parts
of Mauretania. To these Neolithic Afro-Euro-
peans are also credited the erection of the mega-
lithic monuments, barrows, etc., strewn over
Europe and North Africa.

Although there is such a variation in type in
Palaeolithic man, yet one feature remains almost
constant throughout the Pleistocene period. The
human skull, whether it be of Eoanthropus or a
Neanderthaler, or of one of the skeletons in Grottes-
des-enfants, is always dolichocephalic. The only
exception to this universal rule is in the case of the
brachycephalic skulls of Furfooz, Grenelle and La
Trouchere. It is, of course, possible that a round-
headed race existed in Europe in the Solutrean
epoch, but until more convincing evidence is pro-
duced in favour of this view these three finds must
be regarded as the exceptions that prove the rule.
The evolution of the forms of the head seems to have
proceeded on definite lines from the long, wide, flat
anthropoid skull, through the long, moderately
wide and flattened form in early Pleistocene times,
and the long, narrow, and high skull of later
primeval man, to the short, wide, and high form

1 Op. cit. p. 15.

220 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

which characterises the higher races of mankind.
Therefore, as far as physical features are concerned,
the long-headed type is more primeval and anthro-
poid than the round form of head. Bearing this
fact in mind, we can proceed to investigate the
Neolithic people of Europe from the standpoint of
physical anthropology.

A number of skulls found in Neolithic barrows,
megaliths, etc., exhibit an intermixture of brachy-
cephals and dolichocephals. On the hypothesis
that the long type of head is the older form, we
should separate the dolichocephals as the ancestors
of the primitive inhabitants of Europe. But
who are the brachycephals who appear to have
intermingled with the dolichocephals in the plains
of the north-east and in the Alpine region, and
thus modified the primitive type ? The labours of
Sergi, Ripley, Deniker and others have shed con-
siderable light on the complex problem of the
origin and distribution of races in Europe, and the
reader who wishes to investigate the evidence is
advised to consult the works of these authorities.
We cannot here attempt to give more than the
briefest outline of the results of their researches as
generally accepted by ethnologists to-day.

Before the close of the Neolithic age numerous
round-headed people, known as the Mediterraneans,
came into the continent from the south and domi-
nated the Mediterranean region. These intermingled

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 221

with the earlier long-headed type, becoming
more and more numerous, till at last they became
the predominant type on the southern coast. In
the Bronze Age another stream of brunette brachy-
cephals poured into Europe from the East along
the mountainous area.1 These were the Alpines
who settled on the high lands in the centre and in
a northerly direction. The Mediterraneans appear
to have penetrated the west coast of Europe as far
as Britain in Neolithic times, and eastwards to the
Ehine and Upper Danube. The Pygmy dolicho-
cephals, whose remains have been found in Neo-
lithic sites in Switzerland, may possibly be repre-
sentatives of a race that has disappeared. During
the Neolithic period the forerunners of the Alpine
race extended westwards along the central moun-
tainous forest-region and up the valley of the
Danube, settling in Central France. The Northern
or Nordic race of blond dolichocephalic giants,
whose place of origin and purest survivals still are
around the shores of the Baltic and in Southern
Scandinavia, did not penetrate the mountain barrier
till later. These people represent the forefathers
of the fair-haired Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians,
and Teutons — Homo Europaeus of Linnaeus, the
" greasy seven-foot giants " of Eoman times. It
has been suggested by Schliz that the skulls of

1 It is possible that these people were descendants of the Palaeo-
lithic brachycephals. Cf. p. 48.

222 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Alamanni and Frisians bear a striking resemblance
to that of Brunn,1 while the Swedish head-form is
not unlike that of Cro-Magnon man. This similarity
has led some anthropologists to suppose that the
Nordics were the direct descendants of the Cro-
Magnons and Azilians who survived in Northern
and Western Europe chiefly in the forest country,
by the rivers and on the sea shore, till their territory
was encroached upon by invading brachycephals.2
Be this as it may, it is certain that in late Neo-
lithic and Bronze Age times waves of Brachy-
cephalous Asiatics spread across Western Germany
to Denmark and the south-west of Norway, where
they came into contact with the tall, fair, dolicho-
cephals of the Nordic race. Thus in north-central
Europe a tall, brachycephalic people arose who,
though acquainted with the use of bronze, still
practised a Neolithic manner of life. These people
are usually supposed to be responsible for the
introduction of round barrows into Britain. In
this way arose Dr. Thurnam's aphorism, " long
barrows, long skulls ; round barrows, short skulls."
This statement is not strictly accurate,3 although
it undoubtedly conveys an important ethnological
fact, which is thus stated by Prof. Holiest on :
" In no skull from any long barrow, that is to say,
in no skull undoubtedly of the Stone Age examined

*Arch. f. Anthrop. 1908-09. 2 Scott Elliot, Prehistoric Man, p. 230.
3 An interesting though not altogether convincing criticism of
his statement appears in Man, xix. 8, Aug. 1919.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 223

by us has the breadth been found to bear so high
a relation as that of 80 : 100 of the length."1

The earlier Neolithic inhabitants of Britain, like
those of the rest of Europe, were characterised by
uniformly long narrow skulls, such as are repre-
sented by the human remains found at Tilbury,
Dartford, and Walton-on-the-Naze.2 These " river
bed " people, according to Keith, were the de-
scendants of the Palaeolithic races who continued
to inhabit Britain after it became separated from
Europe till the Neolithic immigrants poured into
the country from the continent. First came the
dolichocephals, who, being in a Neolithic stage of
culture, brought with them the knowledge of the
art of pottery-making, agriculture, and the domes-
tication of animals. They disposed of their dead
in megalithic tombs or long barrows, and thus
apparently migrated westwards from Kent through
Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Somersetshire, pro-
ceeding to the North of Britain and to Ireland by
way of the west coast.

In the Bronze Age a tall, brachycephalic people,
compared by Prof. Rolleston to the modern Dane,
appeared on the scene, from North- Central Europe,
and brought the fashion of erecting circular and
more or less conical barrows into Britain. Accord-
ing to Rice Holmes bronze was introduced into the

1 W. Greenwell, British Barrows, p. 637.

2 Ancient Types of Man, pp. 1-27.

224 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

country by more typical members of the Alpine
race, somewhere about 1800 B.C.1 The Hon.
John Abercromby thinks these brachycephalic
invaders came from the Rhine district and intro-
duced the type of sepulchral ceramic known as the
Beaker, which is frequently found beside the corpse
in Bronze Age burials.2 About 800 B.C. the inva-
sions of the Celtic-speaking peoples probably began,
introducing the Late Celtic civilization. The last
of the racial elements which entered into the ethnic
composition of the inhabitants of Britain were the
tall, blond, dolichocephals of the Nordic race.

Meanwhile in Europe the lake-dwellers descended
on the Danube side of the Alps and formed a civil-
ization, influenced slightly by Minoan culture,3
that developed to such an extent in the Bronze
Age that it was able to give a lead to the settlers
in the Po valley. During the Neolithic period
Alpine tribes had occupied the lake-dwellings of
Switzerland, and were, according to M. Hamy,
the first Gauls. They were replaced in their
original home by a dolichocephalic people of
Northern type till, in the process of time, a brachy-
cephalic race again inhabited the region, and still

1 Ancient Britain, i. pp. 424-454.

2 A Study of Bronze Age Pottery, vol. ii. pp. 98 ff.

3 The civilization which began in Crete in the fourth millennium
B.C. and eventually dominated the Aegean and a large part of the
Mediterranean basin, has been termed " Minoan " by Sir A. Evans
from the legendary king and law-giver of Crete.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 225

survives in the population of to-day. The Umbrians
passed south into Italy during the Bronze
Age, but were checked and driven up into the
Apennines by the rise of the Etruscan power.
The Achaeans — a mixed people of Nordic and
Alpine descent — overcame the bronze-using in-
habitants of Greece about 1450 B.C. Later the
Cimmerians wandered into Thrace and crossed
over Asia Minor, while others, when hard pressed
by the Scythians, passed round the east side of the
Black Sea to Asia Minor. Celtic-speaking peoples
began to cross the Rhine into France, where they
were firmly established by the seventh century
B.C. Then apparently they proceeded to Spain
and Italy, and finally broke up the Etruscan
empire and took Rome (390 B.C.).1 At a later
period the half-Teutonic Brythons, or Belgae of
Caesar, conquered North-East France and Southern
Britain. Thenceforward the complicated move-
ments in historic Europe were chiefly concerned
with Teutonic races, and, therefore, hardly come
within the scope of this chapter.

The researches of anthropologists and archae-
ologists in North Africa and Mesopotamia have now
established the fact that man of " European
features " is distributed over a wide area, and not
confined to this continent. In Egypt Prof. Petrie
discovered in 1897 the portrait statue of Prince

1 Of. A. C. Haddon, The Wanderings of Peoples, pp. 41 ff.
J.A. p

226 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Nenkhetftha of the Fifth Dynasty (3700 B.C.),
whose features were those of the highest human
type. This evidence is supported by the older
portrait of Enshagsagna, who reigned over the
Babylonian Akkad about 4500 B.C., whose features
recall those of a Semite or a European. This
wide distribution of the white division of man—
Europaeus albus — led Blumenbach to suggest the
generic name of Caucasic for all peoples having
these common features. Huxley further split up
the division into (a) Xanthochroi or " fair whites,"
and (b) Melanochroi or " dark whites."1 The
first represented the tall, fair-skinned, blue-eyed,
yellow-haired inhabitants of Northern Europe,
North Africa, and parts of India. On the south
and west it mixes with that of the Melanochroi,
and on the north and east with that of the Mongo-
loids. The " dark whites " differ from the " fair
whites " in the darkening of the complexion to
an olive shade and of the eyes and hair to black.
The former are also shorter and of lighter build
than the latter. Many of the Celt-speaking peoples,
Mediterraneans, Arabs, and a part of the population
of India, belong to the Melanochroids. But inas-
much as the Caucasic division of mankind includes
the brown Polynesian races of the Eastern Pacific,
Hawaiians, Maoris, Samoans, etc., the proto-
Malays or Indonesians, the Todas and the Ainus,

1 Man's Place in Nature, pp. 230-232.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 227

for purposes of ethnological research this division
is too wide to be of much practical value,
although it has been adopted by so eminent an
ethnologist as Dr. A. H. Keane.

In Palaeolithic or in early Neolithic times Africa
was connected with Europe by several land- bridges,
the Mediterranean Sea being an inland lake.
Primeval man could, therefore, easily wander
from one continent to the other, which doubtless
explains the presence of man of " European fea-
tures " in North Africa in prehistoric ages. There
is good reason to suppose that the human race
did not originate in Africa, but that the main
types in that continent reached their destination
from Europe or Southern Asia. In the north of
the continent and in Palestine implements have
been found which cannot be distinguished in
workmanship from, those of the Chellean and
Acheulean phases of the Palaeolithic culture in
Europe. The quartz implements of Nubia and
Rhodesia may be cited as examples. Similar forms
have been discovered in Somaliland and South
Africa and the researches of Mr. Henry Balfour
in the Zambesi valley have brought to light arte-
facts showing a correspondence in type to those
of the European river drift.1 Since the geological

1 Implements of the Northfleet type (mid Palaeolithic) have
recently been found in the neighbourhood of Victoria West (Cape
of Good Hope) and Somaliland, and Solutrean blades in the Siwa
oasis (Sahara) ; cf. Man, July, 1919, pp. 104 f.

228 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

conditions are not as conclusive as in Europe and
Madras, the African implements cannot definitely
be said to be of the same age as their European
counterparts, though their form and patination
suggest an absolutely identical antiquity. It is,
therefore, probable that they belong to an early
Pleistocene culture. The distribution of these
implements suggests that early man passed south-
wards, having come from the north and north-east,
although the finds are too far removed from one
another to enable us to be certain that they belong
to one and the same primeval industry over the
whole continent.

It has been suggested by a certain school of
anthropologists that the pygmies represent the
original human race, and that Africa is their
cradle-land. Some even go so far as to believe
that a dwarf negroid race at one time inhabited
Northern Europe, and gave rise to the folk tales
of elves, gnomes, fairies and. goblins, but the
evidence in support of this hypothesis is still to be
produced. Those who regard the Indo- African
continent, submerged by the Indian Ocean in
comparatively recent geological times, as the
original home of man, incline to the supposition
that the pygmy races represent the most primitive
type of modern man, and account for the present
distribution of this people as due to migrations
westward into the centre of Africa, and eastward

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 229

to the Malay Peninsula by way of the Eastern
Archipelago, consequent upon the submergence
of the Indo-African Continent. Dr. Keane, who
considers the extinct Kalang pygmies as the
aborigines of Java, makes this island the first
region reached by primeval man and his Miocene
precursor during the eastward migration from the
subsiding Indo-African continent. In support of
this theory he puts forth the case of Pithecan-
thropus as evidence of the actual existence of a
Javanese prototype of the human race ; but, as
has been shown elsewhere, the Trinil remains have
yet to be proved to be those of a human precursor.
Although the evidence in favour of the theory
that pygmies constitute the most primitive type
of modern man is insufficient, yet it must be
admitted that the pigmy, both in physique and in
habitat, does resemble primeval man in many
particulars. The African group have dolicho-
cephalic skulls, small brains, broad cheek-bones
and noses, prognathic jaws, retreating chins, the
curvature of the spine but slightly developed, and
feet adapted to climbing. The Asiatic pygmies
differ from those of Africa, by being brachycephalic,
and, in one instance (the Veddah-pygmies), having
wavy instead of woolly or '' peppercorn " hair.
The way of life of these latter people is very
primitive, consisting merely of a simple hunting
existence in the jungle, although they are apparently

230 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

acquainted with rudimentary musical instruments,
such as the flute, and with the use of the bow
and arrow, the latter being often poisoned.

In the present state of our knowledge all that
can be said with any degree of certainty regarding
the primeval inhabitants of Africa is that the
primitive substratum of the population is formed
of tall and black negroes in the north ; of very
short, brown skinned Negrilloes in the centre ; and
of the short, yellow, steatopygous Bushmen in the
south. The Bushmen and Negrilloes are probably
specialized varieties of the more primitive pygmy
people, while the tall negro may represent another
variety of one ancient Negroid stock.

The origin of the negro is an exceeding difficult
matter to discover. Was the Chellean, who left
his implements lying about all over the continent,
the first negro, or was he simply undifferentiated
Homo primigenius ? We cannot say, but it seems
that the basis of the native population in Africa
is negro, though the present-day representatives
show divergent characteristics as the result of a
different manner of life. This, however, does
not imply any difference in race or descent.

The cradle of the negro seems to have been the
Sudan, or somewhere in the neighbourhood of the
great lakes, whence he passed in a southerly
direction, mixing with Negrilloes in the forest
area, and the more northerly representatives of

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 231

the Bushmen in the high lands to the east. Here
also he came into contact with the Hamitic people
of European or Asiatic origin, migrating from
Arabia, and thus a new type of negro was brought
into being — the Bantu. The Hamites forced the
negro stock into the marshes of the Nile Valley,
and to the country north of the forest to the west
coast where the primitive type of negro still survives.
A new wave of migration followed that of the
Hamites. These were the southern Semites or
Hamarites, who crossed from the other side of the
Red Sea. Probably as far back as the Neolithic
period in Egypt they modified the Berbers, Ethi-
opians, and Negroes of the north-east of Africa,
and some ethnologists think that the pre-Dynastic
Egyptians belonged to the parent stock of both
Hamite and Semite. The blond, tall, dolichoce-
phalic Berbers who have inhabited North Africa
from very early times may be descendants either of
invaders belonging to the Nordic race, having come
thither via France and Spain, and the Straits of
Gibraltar or via Asia Minor or Greece. On the
other hand, they may be descended from the
Vandals who left Spain for Africa in A.D. 429.1
A third theory regards them as remnants of an
ancient race allied to the Aurignacians, a product
of the Atlas Mountains.2

The original Egyptians appear to us to have been

1 Mehlis, Arch. f. Anthrop. 1908. » Sergi, IS Uomo.

232 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

a peaceful Libyan race, resembling the modern
Algerian in manners and customs.1 The Dynastic
Egyptians are the result of an invading race —
probably the Amorites fusing with the Libyans
already in the country. In process of time a section
of this new race proceeded along the coast west-
wards. Does this represent the migration that
was responsible for the erection of the dolmens
and stone monuments so prolific in this part of
the continent ? An Hamitic wave passed in a
south-easterly direction and mingled with the
Bushmen, and to a small degree with negroes,
forming the Hottentots. Gradually the Bushmen
were driven into the desert by the expanding
Bantu tribes. By a similar process of tribal
pressure the forest area was in due course peopled,
from the north and north-east, and the Zambesi
Valley.

Dr. Haddon thinks that man evolved somewhere
in Southern Asia during the Pliocene or Miocene,
possessed of a tendency to variability. The advent
of the Glacial period started migrations which were

1 J.A.I, xxxi. pp. 252 f. (Petrie). The aboriginal population
of Egypt apparently is represented by the steatopygous figures
found in the earliest graves (cf. Petrie, Arts and Crafts of Ancient
Egypt, p. 29. Naqada, vi.). In all probability these ancient
people originated in Europe in Aurignacian times (cf. steato-
pygous designs in Aurignacian caves), and gradually penetrated
southwards, traversing the whole length of Africa before arriving
at the Cape, where they still survive in the Bushmen.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 233

ultimately relaxed and accentuated during the
genial episodes, and the return of the ice.1 Just
as there was more than one race in Europe in
Palaeolithic times, so there were probably several
varieties of man in Asia, which by Neolithic times
may have become differentiated into distinct races.
A mixture of dolichocephals and brachycephals
would account for the rise of those obscure West
Asiatic peoples whose affinities it is so difficult to
explain. Thus he describes the tall, fair, dolicho-
cephals of North Europe, and the dark, brachy-
cephalic Mediterraneans as varieties of a common
stock, the former (proto-Nordics) having their
area of characterisation in the Steppes and migrating
eastwards and westwards after the last glacial
phase. Another branch of this stock passed into
Southern Siberia and Russia as the Chudes, who
erected the Kurgans or tumuli. The Mongol
type was developed on the central plateaus and
streamed into the surrounding lowlands in times
of stress, while the western plateaus produced the
Alpine race which migrated westwards on the
highlands from the Hindu Kush to Brittany. The
brachycephalic Turki and Ugrians are either de-
scendants of a cross between the proto-Nordics
and Alpines or of an intermediate variety. South
of the plateaus brunette dolichocephals wandered
to south-east China, India, and the adjacent

1 The Wanderings of Peoples, pp. 15 ff.

234 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

islands, producing, at least in part, the Man-tse,
Dravidians, Veddas, Sakai, Andamanese, and
Semang.

The pre-Dravidians, survivors of whom may be
found among these jungle tribes — the Veddas and
Sakai — apparently occupied Ceylon, Malacca, the
Philippines, the Celebes, and other islands before
they had been separated from the Asiatic mainland.
They may, therefore, be regarded as representing
a lower race of great antiquity.

In Neolithic times successive waves of migration
passed over Eastern Asia, the immigrants, for the
most part, belonging to a stock bearing certain
similarities to Homo Europaeus — wavy hair, white
skin, hair on the face, etc. — of whom the Ghonds
in India and the Ainus of Japan may be cited as
examples. These were probably succeeded by the
" Dolmen Race," a people allied in physical type to
the Mediterraneans. Megalithic monuments are
common in parts of India, China, Japan, and the
Pacific, and, as we have hitherto suggested,1 it
seems highly probable that they are the work of a
single race in a series of migrations.

The wanderings of peoples in " Oceania " —a
comprehensive term for all the insular lands dotted
about the Pacific and Indian Oceans — have been
the subject of much discussion by ethnologists
in recent years. The ethnic affinities of the

iSee. 115.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 235

Australians, for instance, are by no means clearly
defined. Numerous theories have from time to
time been put forth to explain their origin. Thus,
Fr. Schmidt thinks that the myths associated with
some of the evil spirits in the south-eastern tribes
are the result of racial conflicts. Where the Crow
race was victorious, Bunjil (Eaglehawk) was de-
feated ; elsewhere Mudgegong (Eaglehawk) was also
defeated, but not by Crow.1 He assumes the
existence of a primary dark race (speaking a hypo-
thetical " Austronesian " language) represented
by the Crow, from which the Eaglehawk and Emu
have sprung. Daramulun and Baiame, he thinks,
were originally tribal heroes of the invaders from
Indonesia. But the general theory is that they
are a low branch of the Dravidians of India, a con-
clusion supported by their physical features which
suggest a racial connexion with the Dravidians
of the Deccan, and such technological evidence
as the similarity of the canoes and the boomerangs
among the two peoples. In the north-east the
presence of the outrigger shows that the culture has
been affected by influence from New Guinea and
the Torres Straits. It seems therefore highly
probable that at some remote period a Dravidian
or, more likely, a pre-Dravidian migration into the
continent took place and exterminated or amalga-
mated with the earlier negroid stock, intermediate

1 Anthropos, iii.

236 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

between the Papuans and Negritoes. When Bass'
Strait was formed those who were thus separated
from the mainland may have become the ancestors
of the now extinct Tasmanians, who, owing to their
isolated habitat, never advanced beyond an early
Palaeolithic phase of culture. The Tasmanians »
however, resemble the Melanesians in culture and
physical features rather than the Australian ; but
differs from them by possessing, like the Australian,
an agglutinative language. Sergi's view that man
originated in South America and migrated into
Australia and Tasmania does not appear to be
very probable.1

The rest of the inhabitants of Oceania may be
divided into two main groups : (1) Papuasians,
which include the tall, very dark, frizzy-haired
Papuans, and the shorter and less negroid Melan-
esians ; and (2) Polynesians, who are easily dis-
tinguished by their wavy or straight hair, fair
complexion, straight nose and projecting cheek-
bones. The Micronesians are a subdivision of the
Polynesians who exhibit traces of a Mongolian
element. The Papuans occupy New Guinea and
the islands of the Torres Straits. The Melanesians
are found in the south-east of New Guinea and the
neighbouring islands, including the archipelago
from the Admiralties to Fiji and New Caledonia.
The Polynesians inhabit the islands from Tonga to

1 Of. Arch.f. Anthrop. xi. 1912.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 237

Easter Island and the Hawaiian group to New
Zealand. The Micronesians occupy the islands
to the north-west of Polynesia.

Dr. Rivers has recently put forth a theory of the
culture migrations in Polynesia and Melanesia,
based on a comparison of sociological with linguistic
facts, and developed by a study of secret societies
and modes of disposal of the dead.1 He assumes
the existence of an aboriginal element, which he
terms pre-dual. Of this culture we hear little.
The racial type he supposes to be negroid or pygmy.
This black, woolly-haired race was subsequently
modified by three streams of cultural influence
coming in successively from Indonesia (Malay
Archipelago). The first immigration combined
with the aboriginal element to form a dual organ-
ization of society with matrilineal descent. These
he calls the " Dual People." Other characteristics
of this second stratum are the introduction of such
practices as interment in a sitting posture, circum-
cision, communism, and gerontocracy (government
by the old men). These immigrants, he believes,
constituted the second stratum in Melanesia, and
passed on to Polynesia, becoming the first stratum
there.

In process of time a second wave of culture passed
over the area. This Dr. Rivers describes by the
expression " Kava People," whom he identifies

1 The History of Melanesian Society, vol. ii. pp. 573 ff.

238 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

with, the introduction of secret societies, individual
marriage, patrilineal descent, the men's house, a
more developed form of chieftainship, totemism,
megaliths, money, the bow, the dog and the fowl.
These form the third stratum in Melanesia, and the
second and completing stratum in Polynesia. This
very important immigration occupies Rivers' chief
attention. It turns out to be very complex, in-
cluding several subordinate waves which, for
example, introduced several varieties of totemism,
and the two successive types of megalithic culture.

A fourth and last immigration was that of the
" Betel People " —an influence that stopped short
at North Melanesia (south of Santa Cruz, and north
of the New Hebrides). This migration is supposed
to have introduced head hunting, skull shrines,
and pile dwellings.

This theory of culture migrations roughly corre-
sponds to Grevner's " Bogen-kultur," except
that Rivers makes the bow the characteristic
weapon of the Kava people. That Oceania was
inhabited by migrations on the lines suggested by
Dr. Rivers is supported by the distribution of the
fishing kite, the shark rattle, the float and gorge,
the fish trap, and the process of fire-making with
a flexible cane. Unfortunately, however, he takes
no account of influence from three important
regions : (1) New Guinea, (2) Micronesia, (3)
America.

THE DISTRIBUTION OP RACES 239

According to Dr. Haddon, the ethnology of the
East Indian Archipelago appears, to be as follows : x
The original inhabitants were a negroid race, of
which aboriginal substratum the Andamanese
(pygmies), the Aeta of the Philippines, the Semang
of the Malay Peninsula, the pygmies of New Guinea,
the Tasmanians, the Papuans, and the proto-Melan-
esian stock show traces. The second migration
was that of a pre-Dravidian stock, to which the
Sakai of the Malay Peninsula and the Australians
belong. After a considerable time an Indonesian
wave of migration, coming from the Ganges Valley,
brought a dolichocephalic population into the area,
which was followed by a stream of Mongoloid
brachycephals termed Proto-Malays, who overran
the islands and dominated and intermixed with
the Indonesians. This intermixture, called Proto-
Polynesians, drifted into the West Pacific and gave
to the black, woolly-haired natives their language
and some elements of higher culture, the resultant
mixed peoples being the Melanesians.

In the present state of our knowledge it is im-
possible to speak with any degree of definiteness
on this complex problem. It seems reasonable
to suppose that the aboriginal element was negroid,
and that the Polynesians were originally an island
people living in the neighbourhood of the Ganges
Valley, whence they migrated by way of Java to

1 The Wanderings of Peoples, pp. 33 ff.

240 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa. This appears to have
been the centre from which the Eastern Pacific
was peopled. Frequent intercourse seems to have
taken place between the islands, and from time to
time no doubt the coast of America was visited
for purposes of barter. The Micronesians seem
to be derived from a branch of the Polynesians,
who separated from the rest and peopled Micro-
nesia from west to east.

A further study of the migrations of early culture
on the lines adopted by Dr. Rivers, Prof. Elliot
Smith and others may throw light on the former
existence of a widely spread Neolithic people in
Eastern Asia and the Pacific allied to the Medi-
terranean race. There is a continuous chain of
megalithic monuments from India to Japan, ex-
tending even to Easter Island, the most remote
spot in Eastern Polynesia. Moreover, in this
connexion, it is not without significance that the
Polynesian presents certain resemblances in his
physical features to Homo Europaeus, and that
the Neolithic pottery of New Guinea and Japan
is closely allied in design and workmanship.1 We
must, however, await further developments before
pronouncing judgment on this attempt to unravel
the complex problem of culture migrations in the
Pacific.

To being a possible cradle-land of the human race

1 Joyce, J.A.I. Dec. 1912, pp. 545 f.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 241

America can put forth no claim, since there is no
evidence of anthropoids or a common precursor
ever having existed in the New World, therefore
Homo Americanus must have reached his present
home by immigration. Whence and when did he
come ? These are questions which have exercised
the minds of anthropologists for some considerable
time, and still the last word has not been uttered.
Towards the end of the Tertiary period there was
a land-bridge connecting North- West Europe with
Greenland, which some geologists think lasted until
post-glacial times, but this is improbable. Over
this tricklings of men are supposed by Dr. Brinton
to have passed into the Continent from Europe in
the Pleistocene Age. Another theory is that man
entered America (Alaska) from Siberia, the Aleutian
Islands forming a bridge across the Pacific. But
as these islands are 235 miles apart they can hardly
be considered " stepping stones." Furthermore,
it has been asserted that " the far North- West did
not rise from the waves of the Pacific Ocean until
after the Glacial period, and therefore the first
inhabitants of America certainly did not get there
in this way." But there is no evidence of pre-
glacial man in the continent. The skull found by
Whitney at Calaveras (California) which was said
to belong to the Pliocene, is now regarded by all
the most competent archaeologists to be of recent
date. All things considered, there is little ground

J.A.

242 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

for believing that the American aborigines (some-
times called Amerinds) were, in the Pliocene epoch,
" cut off on this hemisphere from intercourse with
the remainder of the world, and held in isolation
by a change in land and distribution and by the
continued glaciation of the northern portion of the
continent," and thus " welded into an ethnic unity,
which was unimpressed by outside influences until
modern times." l

There is no doubt that at one time the northern
part of the continent was covered by a sheet of ice,
which extended to the Ohio river, and therefore
rendered immigrations into the country a difficult
matter, except possibly from North East Asia along
the southern part of the Pacific bridge. As there
is no reason to suppose that a primordial species,
Homo Americanus, arose like a deus ex machina on
the spot, the primeval people who made the Palaeo-
lithic implements of the Chellean and Mousterian
type found in Mexico, in the graves of the Delaware,
near Trenton (New Jersey), and elsewhere in the
United States, must have reached the New World
by way of land-bridges from Asia or Europe far
back in the Pleistocene period. Since the Poly-
nesians did not reach their present habitat till recent
times the theory of cultural affinities with Polynesia
cannot solve the problem of Drift Man in America.

The actual remains of the primeval race are

1 F. S. Dellenbaugh, N. Americans of Yesterday, p. 458,

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 243

lamentably few, and those that exist are of very
doubtful authenticity. It has already been remarked
that the Calaveras skull is of little anthropological
value, since the deposit has apparently been dis-
turbed and the skull much damaged. What re-
mains of the bones bears so striking a resemblance to
modern skulls, that the two might easily belong
to the same tribe. There is, therefore, no proof
that the deposit and its contents are primitive.
The skeleton found by Roth at Pontinel also
inspires little confidence in many authorities. It
is, however, on the remains of Lagoa Santa that
De Quatrefages based his theory of a special
American race.1 In these Brazilian caves the
skulls found in association with a number of animals,
both extinct and living, are dolichocephalic, pheno-
zygous, with prominent brow ridges, strong, slightly
prognathous jaws, and, in one instance, there is
the presence of a third trochanter. Although
there is no geological evidence that the skulls are
Palaeolithic, yet they are at least very ancient in
type, and set forth a definite race. This Lagoa -
Santa type undoubtedly represents the primeval
element of the population, at least in South America,
since descendants of the race are to be found in
Eastern Brazil, in the south of Patagonia, Tierra
del Fuego in Chile, and in California.2 In Nebraska

1 Izviestia Soc. of Friends of Nat. Sci. xxxv. 1879.

2 Cf. Hrdlicka, Bur. Amer. Ethn. 33, 1907, and 52, 1912.

244 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

skulls have been discovered in what is thought to
be loess, which are not of Indian type. Some of
these are decidedly Neanderthaloid, although much
more brachycephalic than the European examples
of this race. It is, therefore, possible to say they
may be the remains of a primeval race modified
by later brachycephalic migrations. Again, in
the kitchen middens near San Francisco skulls of
early type have been discovered, having prominent
brow ridges, and fairly long heads.

There is, therefore, evidence of at least two racial
elements in America : dolichocephals, allied to
glacial man in the Old World, overlaid by a brach-
cephalic migration.1 Keane thinks that the dolicho-
cephals, like the Eskimos, are descendants of the
long-headed Palaeolithic races of Europe, while
the brachycephals of Mexico are the result of a
later Asiatic migration. The Europeans, he sup-
poses, reached the continent by the Faroe-Iceland-
Greenland route available in the Pleistocene age,
and settled in the eastern side of the country,
from the Eskimo domain to the extreme south,
where they are still represented by the Botocudos
and Fuegians. Mortillet adopts much the same
view by imagining that Palaeolithic man followed
the reindeer from Gaul northwards, and thus
passed into America as the ancestor of the Eskimos,
while Topinard, on anatomical grounds, anticipated

1 A. H. Keane, Man Past and Present, p. 353.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 245

this conclusion. On this hypothesis the Asiatic
brachycephals and the European dolichocephals
mingled in the south in the Palaeolithic Age, the
Asiatics entering the continent by the Bering route.
Though they represent a later migration they be-
came the predominant type, which, as we shall see,
was further modified by influence from Asia in later
times.

The primeval inhabitants of the continent
selected the best hunting-grounds, and probably
first occupied the region between Mexico and Peru,
leaving behind, perhaps, traces of their existence in
the caves at Lagoa-Santa.1 In process of time the
ancestors of the American Indian arrived. That
this was an Asiatic migration is suggested by the
Mongoloid appearance so plainly visible in the
modern American race. Since these new arrivals
were but in the hunting stage of culture the work
of " colonization " could hardly have begun with
them. It is quite impossible to suppose that the
great civilizations of Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru are
the direct outcome of the work of the aborigines.
It seems to us that the only reasonable explanation
of the similarity of these cultures with those of
ancient Asia is to regard them as the result of
another Asiatic migration, that of the " Dolmen

1 It is probable that the actual Lagoa-Santa remains are those
of the aboriginal inhabitants slightly crossed with the later Red
Indian.

246 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

People " of Eastern Asia. That a people allied to
the Mediterranean race in manners, customs,
and perhaps in features, reached the coasts of South
America by way of Easter Island, bringing with
them a higher and specialized culture, which gradu-
ally spread and developed from Peru to Mexico
and elsewhere, is the only supposition that ade-
quately accounts for the marked similarity of the
civilizations of the Old and New Worlds. There
is, in fact, a legend that tells of a fleet of boats from
the north landing at Lambayeque, near Tumbez,
on the Peruvian coast,1 which, taken in conjunction
with the similarity in culture and religion in the
two areas, suggests the probability of this later
Asiatic migration, bringing with it a knowledge of
the domestication of animals, agriculture, the
erection of megalithic monuments and, perhaps,
a rudimentary conception of the manufacture and
use of bronze.

No attempt has been made in this chapter to
enter into a detailed classification of races, the
object in view being merely to outline the manner
in which the peopling of the earth was brought
about by migration. We have been careful to
refrain from describing the situation of the original
cradle-land whence our Pleistocene ancestors set
forth on their wanderings, since, in the present
state of our knowledge, it is impossible to correctly

1 Joyce, Man, 44, 1912.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 247

estimate the actual spot. We incline to the view
that " God has made of one blood all the nations
of the earth," but that each division of mankind
has had its Palaeolithic ancestors, who became
differentiated into ethnic groups and races by the
influence of their respective environments, etc.
The movements of peoples have been due to many
and various causes, amongst which the climatic
changes that took place in the Palaeolithic age are
by no means the least important.

Primeval man in the early Stone Age had prob-
ably not acquired any more definite knowledge of
the art of navigation than that understood by the
now extinct Tasmanians. But such knowledge
was not needed to pass from one country to another
as long as land-bridges existed. The most serious
obstacle with which he would have to contend would
be inland seas and broad estuaries, and these would
not necessarily impede his movements if he possessed
the rude rafts such as those used until recently
by the aborigines in Tasmania. At the time of
the first migrations the Indo-African continent, the
existence of which has been established by the
Indian Geological Survey, still presented almost
continuous land between the Deccan, Madagascar,
and South Africa. The inland seas (now nowhere
exceeding fifty fathoms) had not yet separated
Borneo, Java, and Sumatra from the mainland.
Australia was connected with New Guinea by a

248 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

land-bridge at Torres Strait, Africa was joined to
Europe in at leasl three places (Gibraltar, Tunis-
Malta-Sicily-Italy, across the Aegean waters).
Britain was part of the mainland, and continuous
land existed in a north-westerly direction through
the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and North
America. The New World was also connected
with the Asiatic mainland by the " Miocene Bridge."
This system of land communication made it possible
for primeval man to move in all directions according
to the exigencies of climatic and other conditions
of his immediate environment. The food quest,
the craving for riches, freedom from social, political
or religious bondages act as the driving force to
the movements of peoples, while geographical
conditions, such as rivers, mountains, deserts, tend
to control the migrations. Thus man, unlike any
other animal, spread to every corner of the habitable
globe, replenishing the earth and subduing it,
having dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth.

Before concluding our investigation of the early
history of mankind a word should be said on the
origin of languages, a subject intimately associated
with ethnological problems regarding the origin
and distribution of races.

Since man from the beginning was a social being

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 249

living in family groups, it is inconceivable that
even in his most undeveloped state he was without
the means of communicating with those about him.
It is difficult to believe that there ever was a time
when speaking was an art not yet acquired by the
human organism unless the existence of a primeval
solitary man is presupposed, since language orig-
inates in the impulse to communicate with one
another. At the same time it must be remembered
that man does not merely speak because he thinks,
but because his mouth and larynx act in conjunction
with a certain convolution of the brain. That <f man
tried to make a speech as soon as he had learned
to stand up on his hind legs " is a conclusion sup-
ported by evidence from the remains of Palaeo-
lithic man. In order to secure easy, articulate
speech it is a great advantage to have the floor of
the mouth opened out. In anthropoids the lower
border of the mandible encroaches on, and dimin-
ishes the area of, the floor of the mouth. In the
most highly developed types of mankind the lower
border of the mandible is widened, while in Neander-
thal man the expansion of the mandible is less
complete, yet sufficiently wide to allow of the
possibility of speech. Therefore, Prof. Keith
seems justified in concluding that " we cannot
withhold such a faculty from Neanderthal man,
such as the one found at La Chapelle-aux-Saints,
who had a brain above that possessed by the

250 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

modern man. ... If we allow full speech to the
Mousterian man, we must, at least, assume the
beginnings of such a faculty for Heidelberg man."1
Prof. Elliot Smith 2 thinks that speech was in full
process of evolution before the mandible, tongue
and other parts connected with human utterance
had become finally and fully adapted to their new
functions. In support of this suggestion it may
be said that the large teeth and jaw of the Heidel-
berg and Piltdown mandibles have a counterpart
in the features of Neanderthal man, but associated
with a brain capable of subserving the faculty of
speech. We therefore incline to the view that
when Homo sapiens, already a rational animal,
defied glacial conditions by the use of fire, and the
cave-bear with flint implements, he had language
of an articulate kind by means of which he com-
municated with his fellow-men, and expressed in
crude form the inmost feelings of his primeval
soul.

But what of Homo primigenius ? How far had
he acquired the power of making his wants known
to his fellow-men at the end of the Pliocene and
the beginning of the Pleistocene ? Elaboration of
language depends on the mental state of those
using it. Few wants and few ideas imply few
words and little speech. Since the lower animals

1 Antiquity of Man, p. 244.

2 Report Brit. Ass. (Section H.), Dundee, 1912.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 251

—birds, monkeys, apes. etc. — are not without
the means of communication to the other members
of their order, it is impossible to deny the same
power to man in his earliest stages of evolution.
His wants may have been few and primitive, yet,
as we have shown, his mind and mouth were
sufficiently developed to enable him to make those
desires known, not by mere chatter or gesture but
by articulate sounds. It, therefore, seems almost
certain that Homo primigenius possessed at least
the beginnings of the faculty of articulate speech,
even in the earliest stages of his evolution.

Formerly it was supposed by philologists that
language originated in imitative sounds representing
the cries of animals, and the noises of inanimate
objects, gestures playing the chief part in the most
elementary forms of oral expression. But the
modern anthropologist has not been able to discover
sufficient evidence from people now living in a
Palaeolithic stage of culture to justify this assump-
tion. The Tasmanians, for example, who were
almost an eolithic race in many respects, spoke a
fairly developed language, just as to-day the
Australians speak a tongue containing a compli-
cated system of parts of speech, three numbers
(a dual as well as a plural), but no genders. True,
their vocabulary is deficient in abstract expres-
sions, and in certain general terms. Species
of fish, for instance, have individual names, but

252 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

taken collectively they are known as " food-in-
water." There was, however, the promise of
a healthy development in the primitive agglu-
tinative languages spoken by the natives of
Australia, had the race been better preserved,
and freed from the evil influences of the white
trader.

The other philological speculation of the last
century that has been abandoned by anthropo-
logists as futile, was the attempt to solve the
problem of the distribution of races by constructing
several main types of speech and tracing them
back to a linguistic parting of the ways. In the
first place, the farther languages are followed to
their original source the more complicated they
become, showing a regular " confusion of tongues "
instead of the hoped-for primordial types. In
Australia there are many languages, differing
widely from one another both in structure and
vocabulary, while among the Eskimos, although
possessed of a remarkable uniformity in physical
characters, mode of life, implements, etc., nearly
fifty dialects have been distinguished in their
language, the latter being absolutely unlike any
other known tongue. In North America alone
some fifty races have to be distinguished if diversity
of speech be taken to indicate racial differences.
Therefore, as Prof. Sayce rightly remarks, " phil-
ology and ethnology are not convertible terms."

THE DISTRIBUTION OP RACES 253

" Identity of relationship of language can prove
nothing more than social contact. The fact that
the Kelts of Cornwall now speak English shows
plainly under what social influence they have been
brought. The Jews of Austria would never have
put Spanish in the place of Hebrew had they not
once have lived in close contact with the natives
of Castile. Language is an aid to the historian,
not to the ethnologist. So far as ethnology is
concerned, identity or relationship of language
can do no more than raise a presumption in favour
of a common racial origin. When all else — physical
characteristics, habits and customs, religious beliefs
and practices — indicate that two populations belong
to the same race, similarity of language will furnish
additional and subsidiary evidence, but not other-
wise. If ethnology demonstrates kinship of race,
kinship of speech may be used to support the
argument ; but we cannot reverse the process,
and argue from language to race. To do so is to
repeat the error of the third-hand writers on
language, who claim the black-skinned Hindu as
a brother, on the ground of linguistic relationship,
or identify the white race with the speakers of the
Aryan tongues. All mankind may be descended
from a single pair of ancestors, and yet the language
they speak be derived from different centres ;
while, on the other hand, we may trace the lan-
guages of the globe back to a common source, and

254 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

yet believe that the several races of the world have
had a diversity of origin." 1

We are in absolute agreement with this view
that language is not one of the characteristics of
race, not one of those fixed and permanent features
which distinguish the different ethnological types
of man, although, on grounds hitherto explained,
we take exception to the further statement that
" language was not created until the several types
of race had been fully fixed and determined. The
Xanthocroid and the Melanocroid, the white Albino
and the American copperskin existed with their
features already fixed and enduring before the
first community evolved the infantile language of
mankind." 2 It is contrary to reason as well as to
anatomical fact to suppose that groups of speechless
Hominidae could have fashioned the " laurel-leaf"
flint blades of the Solutre'an period, designed the
wall-paintings in the Magdalenian caves or erected
the megalithic monuments in the Neolithic age,
leave alone become highly specialized ethnic
groups.

Language is a function of the social life, and
since man was a " social animal " from the begin-
ning, he therefore from the first spoke a language
of an articulate kind. But it by no means follows
that speech and race are convertible terms. It is
quite possible there has been a time when " the

1 Science of Language, ii. pp. 317 f. 2 Op. cit. p. 318.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 255

whole earth was of one language and of one speech,"
not that this common tongue was Hebrew or any
of the existing Semitic languages, but a simple
undeveloped form of speech suitable to the mental
capacity and needs of primeval man. In process
of time this language would become enriched and
specialized as man's outline enlarged, and his
manner of life assumed definite and distinct lines
of development. The speech of the agriculturalist,
for instance, would naturally differ from that of
the ancient hunter, or dweller in cities. But
beyond this it is impossible to indicate lines of
linguistic evolution, as all traces of the development
are lost in the diversity of tongues among modern
primitive people. Therefore the philologist is not
calculated to be able to throw much light on the
complex ethnological problems briefly discussed
in this chapter. His province, if he is to help the
anthropologist, is to confine his attention to an
analytic survey of existing primitive languages,
and strive to find the historical setting for each
group he thus studies.

INDEX

Acheulean, 72.
Agriculture, 83, 182.
Alcheringa, 111.
Alices couvertes, 149, 153.
Alpines, 64, 221, 233.
Altamira, 79.
Amber, 196, 207.
America, early man in, 241.
American aborigines, 242 f.

Indians, 245 f .
Animalism, 138 f.
Animism, 135 ff.
Anthropology, Definition of, 1,
25 f.

History of, 5 ff.
Antiquity of man, 23 ff., 214 f.
Aristotle, 4.
Aryan culture, 191 f.
Aurignacian race, 50.

period, 74.

Australians, 103 ff., 235, 251 f.
Aylesford bucket, 206, 208.
Azilian period, 80.

Balfour, Henry, 101, 227.
Bantu, 231 f.
Barrows, 145 f., 222.
Berbers, 231.
Blood rites, 169 ff., 175 f.
Bone industry, 76.
Boucher de Perthes, 13.
Breuil, L'Abbe, 50, 64, 163.

Bronze Age, 146, 148, 189 ff.,

199, 223.
Bushmen, 230 f., 232.

interments, 144.

paintings, 163.

Cairns, 145.

Celts, 205.

Cephalic index, 50.

Ceremonial license, 121.

Chariot-burials, 202.

Chellean, 72.

Churinga, 165, 170, 172.

Cissbury, 8£?.

Civilization, beginning of, 180 ff.

evolution of, 185 f.
Classificatory system, 119.
Clothing, 98.
Coins, 203.
Combe capelle, 51.
Copper Age, 189.
Coral, 202.

Creator, 18 f., 19 f., 22, 182.
Cremation, 1451, 200, 203.
Cro-Magnon, 50 f., 217.
Cuvier, p. 10.

Darwin, 3, 16 f., 19.
Dolmen race, 154 ff., 234, 245.
Dolmens, 149, 152.
Domestication of animals, 83,
182.

256

INDEX

257

Dual organization, 116, 237.
Dubois, Prof., 17.

Egypt, 193 f., 196 f., 200.
Egyptians, 231 f.
Embryology, 10, 11 f.
Enamel, 204.
Engravings, 77 f.
Eoanthropus, 38 ff., 55 f., 59.
Eoliths, 39, 68 f., 101.
Eskimos, 244, 252.
Ethnology, 214.
Evans, Sir A., 206.
Evolution, 3 ff.
Exogamy, 206.

Fire, 98 f., 145.

Flint industry, 67 f., 75, 84.

Font de Gauine, 165.

Frazer, Sir J., 119,132.

Frere, J., 84.

Funeral rites, 142 ff.

Galley Hill remains, 52, 59.
Gargas, 113, 163.
Gibraltar skull, 47 f.
Glacial period, 17 f., 32.
Glastonbury Lake- village, 209 f.
Grimaldi remains, 55.
Grimes Graves, 85.
Grottes des Enfants, 54.

Haddon, Dr. A. C., 232, 239.
Hallstatt cemetery, 199 ff.
Hamites, 231.
Hands, designs of, 163.
High Gods, 133, 134.
Homo Heidelbergensis, 43.

Neanderthalensis, 49, 54, 60.

Primigenius, 55, 58 ff.

Recens, 56, 58 ff.

Hotting breccia, 30.
Hunting in Australia, 105 f.

magic, 108 f.
Huxley, 226.

Inapertwa creatures, 112 f.

Interments, 142 ff.

Intichiuma ceremonies, llOf.,

166 ff.

Ipswich skeleton, 54.
Iron Age, 196 ff.

Keane, Dr. A. H., 227, 229, 244.
Keith, Prof. A., 37, 52, 57, 218 f.,

249.

Kent's cavern, 15.
Kitchen middens, 89, 144.
Klaatsch, Dr. H.> 20, 52, 56,

143.
Krapina, 63 f.

La Chapelle aux Saints, 142.
La Tene civilization, 201 ff.
Lamarck, 9.
Land-bridges, 242.
Language, origin of, 248 ff.
Late Celtic civilization, 205 ff.
Le Moustier, 143*
Life after death, 160 f.
Linnaeus, 8.
Lyell, Chas., 11, 17.

Magdalenian period, 76 f.

man, 63.

Magic, age of, 132 f.
Magician, 134.
Mafflian period, 52.
Malinowski, Dr. B., 122 f.
Man, origin and antiquity of,

55 ff.
Mana, 136 ff., 177.

258

INDEX

Marett, Dr. R. R., 113, 115, 134,

138, 162, 164, 173.
Marlborough bucket, 209.
Marriage, definition of, 122, 126.
in primitive society, 119ff.,

125.

Matrimonial classes, 114.
Mediterranean race, 220 f., 233.
Megalithic culture, 145, 147 ff.
Melanesians, 236 f.
Menhirs, 148.
Mentone, 143 f.
Metal Age, >1 89 ff.
Moir, J. Reid, 54, 40.
Mongols, 233.
Monogamy, 126 f.
Mother-right, 116.
Mousterian period, 73.

Naulette mandible, 47.

Neanderthal man, 45 f., 217.

Negrilloes, 230.

Negroes, 230.

Neolithic man, 62, 217 f., 220 ff.

period, 66, 82 f.
Niaux, 79, 161, 173.
Nordic race, 221, 233.

Ofnet, 144.

Paintings in caves, 78 ff., 108,

161 ff.

Palaeolithic period, 28.
Palaeopithecus, 60.
Papuans, 236.
Pastoral civilization, 183.
Pebbles, painted, 81, 113.
Petrie, Prof. F., 197, 225 f.
Phratries, 114, 116f.
Pile dwellings, 90 ff.
Piltdown race, 59 ff., 217.

Piltdown skeleton, 38.
(See Eoanthropus.)
Pirrauru relationship, 120.
Pit dwellings, 90 ff.
Pithecanthropus, 17, 55, 59, 229.
Platycephalism, 58.
Pleistocene period, 17, 27, 28.
Pliocene period, 27.
Polygamy, 127.
Polynesians, 236 f.
Pottery- making, 83, 88, 181.
Private property, 188.
Promiscuity, 118 f., 128.
Propliopithecus, 60.
Pygmies, 228 f .
Pygmy flints, 81.

Races, distribution of, 220 ff.
Religion, origin of, 132.
Revelation, 21.
Ritual, 140.

defloration, 121.
River-bed race, 218 ff.
Rivers, Dr. W. H. R., 237.
Rostro-carinates, 70.
Rutot, 52.

Sacramental union, 172, 178.
Sacrifice, 171 ff., 178.
Semites, 231.
Sera, Dr., 57 f. .
Smith, Prof. G. Elliot, 154 ff.,
2-10.

Reginald, 86 ff.

Worthington, 93 f., 96.
Social organization, 99 ff., 112 ff.
Socketed celt, evolution of, 190.
Sollas, Prof., 27 f., 30, 65, 101,

163 f.
Solutrean age, 75.

man, 64.

INDEX 259

Special creation, 8 f., 18. Tualcha-Mura, 124.

Speech, origin of, 249 8. Tuc d'Audoubert, 173 f.

Spencer and Gillen, 167 ff. Tylor, 137, 215.
Stonehenge, 150 ff.

Strepyan period, 71. Unity of mankind, 215 ff., 247.

Supplementary unions, 120. Urn burials, 146.

Tabu, 134. Von Baer, 10.

Tasmanians, 101, 236, 251.

Tippa malku relationship, 120. Wallace, A. R., 96 f.

Totemism, 113 f., 164 f. Weismann, 18.

Trade routes, 196 f., 201. Woodward, Dr. Smith, 42 f.

GLASGOW : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT HACLEHO3E AND CO. LTD.

JAMES, E.G. '3N

733

An infcr eduction to «J3
anttbopology.