ex LIBRIS
BERTRAM C A WINDLC K* . K S.G. FR& P.S.A
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
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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
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,* 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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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 !
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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(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.
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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.
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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
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(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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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,
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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.
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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.
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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
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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