Man, Past and Present by Agustus Henry Keane, A. Hingston Quiggin, Alfred Court Haddon (free reads .TXT) 📕

neolithic man must be assigned in Scotland. After showing that there is undoubted evidence of the presence of man in North Britain during the formation of the Carse clays, this careful observer explains that the Carse cliffs, now in places 45 to 50 feet above the present sea-level, formed the bed of an estuary or arm of the sea, which in post-glacial times extended almost, if not quite across the land from east to west, thus separating the region south of the Forth from North Britain. He even suggests, after the separation of Britain from the Continent in earlier times, another land connection, a "Neolithic land-bridge" by which the men of the New Stone Age may have reached Scotland when the upheaved 100-foot terrace was still clothed with the great forest growths that have since disappeared[58].

One begins to ask, Are even 100,000 years sufficient for such oscillations of the surface, upheaval of marine beds, appearance of great estuaries, renewed connection of Britain with the Continent by a "Neolithic land-bridge"? In the Falkirk district neolithic kitchen-middens occur on, or at the base of, the bluffs which overlook the Carse lands, that is, the old sea-coast. In the Carse of Gowrie also a dug-out canoe was found at the very base of the deposits, and immediately above the buried forest-bed of the Tay Valley[59].

That the neolithic period was also of long duration even in Scandinavia has been made evident by Carl Wibling, who calculates that the geological changes on the south-east coast of Sweden (Province of Bleking), since its first occupation by the men of the New Stone Age, must have required a period of "at least 10,000 years[60]."

Still more startling are the results of the protracted researches carried on by J. Nueesch at the now famous station of Schweizersbild, near Schaffhausen in Switzerland[61]. This station was apparently in the continuous occupation of man during both Stone Ages, and here have been collected as many as 14,000 objects belonging to the first, and over 6000 referred to the second period. Although the early settlement was only post-glacial, a point about which there is no room for doubt, L. Laloy[62] has estimated "the absolute duration of both epochs together at from 24,000 to 29,000 years." We may, therefore, ask, If a comparatively recent post-glacial station in Switzerland is about 29,000 years old, how old may a pre- or inter-glacial station be in Gaul or Britain?

From all this we see how fully justified is J. W. Powell's remark that the natural history of early man becomes more and more a geological, and not merely an ethnological problem[63]. We also begin to understand how it is that, after an existence of some five score millenniums, the first specialised human varieties have diverged greatly from the original types, which have thus become almost "ideal quantities," the subjects rather of palaeontological than of strictly anthropological studies.

And here another consideration of great moment presents itself. During these long ages some of the groups--most African negroes south of the equator, most Oceanic negroes (Negritoes and Papuans), and Australian and American aborigines--have remained in their original habitats ever since what may be called the first settlement of the earth by man. Others again, the more restless or enterprising peoples, such as the Mongols, Manchus, Turks, Ugro-Finns, Arabs, and most Europeans, have no doubt moved about somewhat freely; but these later migrations, whether hostile or peaceable, have for the most part been confined to regions presenting the same or like physical and climatic conditions. Wherever different climatic zones have been invaded, the intruders have failed to secure a permanent footing, either perishing outright, or disappearing by absorption or more or less complete assimilation to the aboriginal elements. Such are some "black Arabs" in Egyptian Sudan, other Semites and Hamites in Abyssinia and West Sudan (Himyarites, Fulahs and others), Finns and Turks in Hungary and the Balkan Peninsula (Magyars, Bulgars, Osmanli), Portuguese and Netherlanders in Malaysia, English in tropical or sub-tropical lands, such as India, where Eurasian half-breeds alone are capable of founding family groups.

The human varieties are thus seen to be, like all other zoological species, the outcome of their several environments. They are what climate, soil, diet, pursuits and inherited characters have made them, so that all sudden transitions are usually followed by disastrous results[64]. "To urge the emigration of women and children, or of any save those of the most robust health, to the tropics, may not be to murder in the first degree, but it should be classed, to put it mildly, as incitement to it[65]." Acclimatisation may not be impossible but in all extreme cases it can be effected only at great sacrifice of life, and by slow processes, the most effective of which is perhaps Natural Selection. By this means we may indeed suppose the world to have been first peopled.

At the same time it should be remembered that we know little of the climatic conditions at the time of the first migrations, though it has been assumed that it was everywhere much milder than at present. Consequently the different zones of temperature were less marked, and the passage from one region to another more easily effected than in later times. In a word the pleistocene precursors had far less difficulty in adapting themselves to their new surroundings than modern peoples have when they emigrate, for instance, from Southern Europe to Brazil and Paraguay, or from the British Isles to Rhodesia and Nyassaland.

What is true of man must be no less true of his works; from which it follows that racial and cultural zones correspond in the main with zones of temperature, except so far as the latter may be modified by altitude, marine influences, or other local conditions. A glance at past and existing relations the world over will show that such harmonies have at all times prevailed. No doubt the overflow of the leading European peoples during the last 400 years has brought about divers dislocations, blurrings, and in places even total effacements of the old landmarks.

But, putting aside these disturbances, it will be found that in the Eastern hemisphere the inter-tropical regions, hot, moist and more favourable to vegetable than to animal vitality, are usually occupied by savage, cultureless populations. Within the same sphere are also comprised most of the extra-tropical southern lands, all tapering towards the antarctic waters, isolated, and otherwise unsuitable for areas of higher specialisation.

Similarly the sub-tropical Asiatic peninsulas, the bleak Tibetan tableland, the Pamir, and arid Mongolian steppes are found mainly in possession of somewhat stationary communities, which present every stage between sheer savagery and civilisation.

In the same way the higher races and cultures are confined to the more favoured north temperate zone, so that between the parallels of 24 deg. and 50 deg. (but owing to local conditions falling in the far East to 40 deg. and under, and in the extreme West rising to 55 deg.) are situated nearly all the great centres, past and present, of human activities--the Egyptian, Babylonian, Minoan (Aegean), Hellenic, Etruscan, Roman, and modern European. Almost the only exceptions are the early civilisations (Himyaritic) of Yemen (Arabia Felix) and Abyssinia, where the low latitude is neutralised by altitude and a copious rainfall.

Thanks also to altitude, to marine influences, and the contraction of the equatorial lands, the relations are almost completely reversed in the New World. Here all the higher developments took place, not in the temperate but in the tropical zone, within which lay the seats of the Peruvian, Chimu, Chibcha and Maya-Quiche cultures; the Aztec sphere alone ranged northwards a little beyond the Tropic of Cancer.

Thus in both hemispheres the iso-cultural bands follow the isothermal lines in all their deflections, and the human varieties everywhere faithfully reflect the conditions of their several environments.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Ethnology, Chaps. V. and VII.

[2] See A. H. Keane, Ethnology, 1909, Chap. VII.

[3] H. Klaatsch, "Die Aurignac-Rasse und ihre Stellung im Stammbaum des Menschen," Ztschr. f. Eth. LII. 1910. See also Praehistorische Zeitschrift, Vol. I. 1909.

[4] Cf. A. Keith's criticisms in Nature, Vol. LXXXV. 1911, p. 508.

[5] W. L. H. Duckworth, Prehistoric Man, 1912, p. 146.

[6] W. Ridgeway, "The Influence of Environment on Man," Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst., Vol. XL. 1910, p. 10.

[7] E. Dubois, "Pithecanthropus erectus, transitional form between Man and the Apes," Sci. Trans. R. Dublin Soc. 1898.

[8] O. Schoetensack, Der Unterkiefer des Homo Heidelbergensis, etc., 1908.

[9] C. Dawson and A. Smith Woodward, "On the Discovery of a Palaeolithic Skull and Mandible," etc., Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1913.

[10] This was the view of A. Smith Woodward when the skull was first exhibited (loc. cit.), but in his paper, "Missing Links among Extinct Animals," Brit. Ass. Birmingham, 1913, he is inclined to regard "Piltdown man, or some close relative" as "on the direct line of descent with ourselves." For A. Keith's criticism see The Antiquity of Man, 1915, p. 503.

[11] W. L. H. Duckworth, Prehistoric Man, 1912, p. 8.

[12] For the relation between chin formation and power of speech, see E. Walkhoff, "Der Unterkiefer der Anthropomorphen und des Menschen in seiner funktionellen Entwicklung und Gestalt," E. Selenka, Menschenaffen, 1902; H. Obermaier, Der Mensch der Vorzeit, 1912, p. 362; and W. Wright, "The Mandible of Man from the Morphological and Anthropological points of view," Essays and Studies presented to W. Ridgeway, 1913.

[13] Cf. W. L. H. Duckworth, Prehistoric Man, 1912, p. 10, and A. Keith, The Antiquity of Man, 1915, p. 237.

[14] A. Smith Woodward, 1070 c.c.; A. Keith, 1400 c.c.

[15] G. G. MacCurdy, following G. S. Miller, Smithsonian Misc. Colls. Vol. 65, No. 12 (1915), is convinced that "in place of Eoanthropus dawsoni we have two individuals belonging to different genera," a human cranium and the jaw of a chimpanzee. Science, N.S. Vol. XLIII. 1916, p. 231. See also Appendix A.

[16] For a full description see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. March, 1913. Also A. Keith, The Antiquity of Man, 1915, p. 320, and pp. 430-452.

[17] C. Dawson and A. Smith Woodward, "Supplementary Note on the Discovery of a Palaeolithic Human Skull and Mandible at Piltdown (Sussex)," Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. April, 1914.

[18] The Antiquity of Man, 1915, p. 209.

[19] Thus Lucretius:

"Arma antiqua manus, ungues, dentesque fuerunt, Et lapides, et item silvarum fragmina rami."

[20] Jour. Anthrop. Inst. 1896, p. 133.

[21] Inaugural Address, Brit. Ass. Meeting, Toronto, 1897.

[22] M. Boule, "L'homme fossile de la Chapelle-aux-Saints," Annales de Paleontologie, 1911 (1913). Cf. also H. Obermaier, Der Mensch der Vorzeit, 1912, p. 364.

[23] Prehistoric Man, 1912, p. 60.

[24] Der Mensch der Vorzeit, 1912, p. 365.

[25] This is not generally accepted. See A. Keith's diagram, p. 5 and pp. 9-10.

[26] W. J. Sollas, "On the Cranial and Facial Characters of the Neandertal Race," Phil. Trans. 1907, CXCIV.

[27] J. Fraipont and M. Lohest, "Recherches Ethnographiques sur les Ossements Humains," etc., Arch. de Biologie, 1887.

[28] Gorjanovi[vc]-Kramberger, Der diluviale Mensch von Krapina in Kroatia, 1906.

[29] M. Boule, "L'homme fossile de la Chapelle-aux-Saints," L'Anthr. XIX. 1908, and Annales de Paleontologie, 1911 (1913).

[30] H. Klaatsch, Praehistorische Zeitschrift, Vol. I. 1909.

[31] Peyrony and Capitan, Rev. de l'Ecole d'Anthrop. 1909; Bull. Soc. d'Anthr. de Paris, 1910.

[32] G. Schwalbe, "Der Schaedel von Bruex," Zeitschr. f. Morph. u. Anthr. 1906.

[33] Makowsky, "Der diluviale Mensch in Loess von Bruenn," Mitt. Anthrop. Gesell. in Wien, 1892.

[34] See A. Keith, The Antiquity of Man, 1915, Chap. X.

[35] H. Klaatsch, "Die Aurignac-Rasse," etc., Zeitschr. f. Ethn. LII. 1910.

[36] L. Lartet, "Une sepulture des troglodytes du Perigord," and Broca, "Sur les cranes et ossements des Eyzies," Bull. Soc. d'Anthr. de Paris, 1868.

[37] R. Verneau, Les Grottes de Grimaldi, 1906-11.

[38] For a complete list with bibliographical references, see H. Obermaier, "Les restes humains Quaternaires dans l'Europe centrale," Anthr. 1905, p. 385, 1906, p. 55.

[39] A. Keith, The Antiquity of Man, 1915, p. 158. See also W. J. Sollas, Ancient Hunters, 1915, p. 186 ff.

[40] H. Klaatsch, "Die Aurignac-Rasse," Zeitschr. f. Eth. 1910, LII. p. 513.

[41] The Mesvinian implements are now accepted as artefacts and placed by H. Obermaier immediately below the Chellean, though M. Commont interprets them as Acheulean or even later. See W. J. Sollas, Ancient Hunters,