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

index of 82.5. The face is very broad, the nose concave or straight, seldom convex, with slight elevation. Among the southern tribes, notably the Kwakiutl, the stature averages 1.645 m. (5 ft. 4-3/4 in.), the cephalic index is 84.5, the face very broad but also of great length, the nose very high, rather narrow and frequently convex.

The social relations of these peoples vary from tribe to tribe, but on the whole they fall into a sequence from north to south. In the northern portion descent is matrilineal, but patrilineal in the south. J. G. Frazer does not accept the view of Boas "that the Northern Kwakiutl have borrowed both the rule of maternal descent and the division into totemic clans from their more northerly neighbours of alien stocks; in other words, that totemism and mother-kin have spread southward among a people who had father-kin and no totemic system[819]." He inclines "to the other view, formerly favoured by Boas himself, namely, that the Kwakiutl are in a stage of transition from mother-kin to father-kin[820]."

Each village is autonomous and originally may have been restricted to a single totem clan. The population is divided into three ranks, nobles, common people and a low caste consisting of poor people and serfs who cannot participate in the secret societies. In addition there is a totemic grouping. There may be several totemic clans in one village and the same totem may not only occur in every village, but may extend from one tribe to another. This suggests that there were originally two, or in some cases more than two, totemic clans which in process of time became subdivided into sub-clans; these, while retaining the crest of the original clan, acquired fresh ones, and the families contained in each sub-clan may have their special crest or crests in addition. New crests and names are constantly being introduced. Marriage is forbidden between people of the same crest, irrespective of the tribe. The natives according to Boas do not consider themselves descendants from their totem. A wife brings her father's position, crest and privileges as a dower to her husband, who is not allowed to use them himself, but acquires them for the use of his son, in other words this inheritance is in the female line.

The widely spread American custom of a youth acquiring a guardian spirit is far more prevalent among the southern section than the northern, but among the Kwakiutl he can only obtain as his patron, one or more of a limited number of spirits which are hereditary in his clan. In the northern tribes the secret societies are coextensive with the totemic clans; among the Kwakiutl they are connected with guardian spirits and it is significant that during the summer, when the people are scattered, society is based on the old clan system, but when the people live together in villages in the winter, society is reorganised on the basis of the secret societies. There is a highly developed system of barter of which the blanket is now the unit of value, formerly the units were elk-skins, canoes or slaves. Certain symbolic objects have attained fanciful values. A vast credit system has grown up based on the custom of loaning property at high interest, at the great festivals called "potlatch" and by it the giver gains great honour. The religion is closely related to the totemic beliefs; supernatural aid is given by the spirits to those who win their favour. The raven is the chief figure in the mythology; he regulates the phenomena of nature, procures fire, daylight, and fresh water, and teaches men the arts.

To the south, and extending inland to the divide, forming a much less characteristic group are the Salish or Flat-heads who are allied to the Athapascans. The coastal Salish assimilate the culture just described, but the plateau Salish are more democratic, less settled and more individualistic in religious matters[821]. The Chinooks or Flat-heads of the lower reaches of the Columbia river are nearly extinct. They deformed the heads of infants. These tribes and the Shahapts or Nez Perces are differentiated by garments of raw hides, cranial deformation, absence of tattooing and plain bows, but they still have communal houses though without totem posts. They cook by means of heated stones and have zoomorphic masks[822].

Plateau Area. The Plateau area lies between the North Pacific Coast area and the Plains. It is far less uniform than either in its topography, the south being a veritable desert while the north is moist and fertile. The traits may be summarised as: extensive use of salmon, deer, roots (especially camas) and berries; the use of a handled digging stick, cooking with hot stones in holes and baskets; the pulverisation of dried salmon and roots for storage; winter houses, semi-subterranean, a circular pit with a conical roof and smoke hole entrance; summer houses, movable or transient, mat or rush-covered tents and the lean-to, double and single; the dog sometimes used as a pack animal; water transportation weakly developed, crude dug-outs and bark canoes being used; pottery not known; basketry highly developed, coil, rectangular shapes, imbricated technique; twine weaving in flexible bags and mats; some simple weaving of bark fibre for clothing; clothing for the entire body usually of deerskins; skin caps for the men, and in some cases basket caps for women; blankets of woven rabbit-skin; the sinew-backed bow prevailed; clubs, lances, and knives, and rod and slat armour were used in war, also heavy leather shirts; fish spears, hooks, traps and bag nets were used; dressing of deerskins highly developed; upright stretching frames and straight long handled scrapers; wood work more advanced than among Plains tribes, but insignificant compared to North Pacific Coast area; stone work confined to the making of tools and points, battering and flaking; work in bone, metal, and feathers very weak[823].

Of the tribes of this area, the interior Salish, the Thompson, Shushwap and Lillooet, appear to be the most typical of those concerning which any information is available. The Shahapts or Nez Perces, and the Shoshoni show some marked Plains traits. "The interior Salish are landsmen and hunters, and from time immemorial have been accustomed to follow their game over mountainous country. This mode of life has engendered among them an active, slender, athletic type of men; they are considerably taller and possess a much finer physique than their congeners of the coastal region, who are fishermen, passing the larger portion of their time on the water squatting in their canoes, never walking to any place if they can possibly reach it by water. The typical coast Salish are a squat thick-set people, with disproportionate legs and bodies, slow and heavy in their movements, and as unlike their brothers of the interior as it is possible for them to be[824]."

The Thompsons represented the Salish at their highest and best, both morally and physically, and their ethical precepts and teaching set a very high standard of virtue before the advent of the Europeans. Hill-Tout says that receptiveness and a wholesale adoption of foreign fashions and customs are their striking qualities, and "if they have fallen away from these high standards, as we fear they have, the fault is not theirs but ours.... We assumed a grave responsibility when we undertook to civilise these races[825]."

The simplest form of social organisation is found among the interior hunting tribes, where a state of pure anarchy may be said to have formerly prevailed, each family being a law unto itself and acknowledging no authority save that of its own elderman. Each local community was composed of a greater or less number of these self-ruling families. There was a kind of headship or nominal authority given to the oldest and wisest of the eldermen in some of the larger communities, where occasion called for it or where circumstances arose in which it became necessary to have a central representative. This led in some centres to the regular appointing of local chiefs or heads whose business it was to look after the material interest of the commune over which they presided; but the office was always strictly elective and hedged with manifold limitations as to authority and privilege. For example, the local chief was not necessarily the head of all undertakings. He would not lead in war or the chase unless he happened to be the best hunter or the bravest and most skilful warrior among them; and he was subject to deposition at a moment's notice if his conduct did not meet with the approval of the elders of the commune. His office or leadership was therefore purely a nominal one. All hunting, fishing, root, and berry grounds were common property and shared in by all alike.... In one particular tribe even the food was held and meals were taken in common, the presiding elder or headman calling upon a certain family each day to provide and prepare the meals for all the rest, every one, more or less, taking it in turn to discharge this social duty[826].

Californian Area. Of the four sub-culture areas noted by Kroeber[827] the central group is the most extensive and typical. Its main characteristics are: acorns as the chief vegetable food, supplemented by wild seeds, while roots and berries are scarcely used; the acorns are made into bread by a roundabout process; hunting is mostly of small game, fishing wherever possible; the houses are of many forms, all simple shelters of brush or tule, or more substantial conical lean-to structures of poles; the dog was not used for packing and there were no canoes, but rafts of tule were used for ferrying; no pottery but high development of basketry both coil and twine; bags and mats scanty; cloth or other weaving of simple elements not known; clothing simple and scanty; feet usually bare; the bow the only weapon, usually sinew-backed; work in skins, wood, bone etc., weak, in metals absent, in stone work not advanced. In the south modifications enter with large groups of Yuman and Shoshonian tribes where pottery, sandals and wooden war clubs are intrusive. The extinct Santa Barbara were excellent workers in stone, bone and shell, and made plank canoes.

Topographical variation produces consequent changes in mode of life as the well watered and wooded country of Oregon and Northern California gradually merges into the warm dry climate of South California with decreasing moisture towards the tropics. As Kroeber says[828], "From the time of the first settlement of California, its Indians have been described as both more primitive and more peaceful than the majority of the natives of North America.... The practical arts of life, the social institutions and the ceremonies of the Californian Indians are unusually simple and undeveloped. There was no war for its own sake, no confederation of powerful tribes, no communal stone pueblos, no totems, or potlatches. The picturesqueness and the dignity of the Indians are lacking. In general rudeness of culture the Californian Indians are scarcely above the Eskimo.... If the degree of civilisation attained by people depends in any large measure on their habitat, as does not seem likely, it might be concluded from the case of the Californian Indians that natural advantages were an impediment rather than an incentive to progress.... It is possible to speak of typical Californian Indians and to recognise a typical Californian culture area. A feature that should not be lost sight of is the great stability of population.... The social organisation was both simple and loose.... Beyond the family the only bases of organisation were the village and the language." In so simple a condition of society difference of rank naturally found but little scope. The influence of chiefs was comparatively small, and distinct classes, as of nobility or slaves, were unknown. Individual property rights were developed and what organisation of society there was, was largely on the basis of property. The ceremonies are characterised by a very slight development of the extreme ritualism that is so characteristic of the American Indians, and by an