HUMAN CULTURE. 337 



The three kingdoms of nature — animal, vegetal and mineral — were 

 the arena upon which men and women acted the drama of progress. 



The animal kingdom. 



The animal kingdom was, on the whole, in relation to human prog- 

 ress, the lowest of the three, inasmuch as less exalting artificiality has 

 grown out of it for women as well as men, but more exalting for men 

 than for women. The ever-increasing wariness and remoteness of the 

 animal called for increase of cunning, skill and united effort in man. 

 The apparatus had to be more ingenious and effective, the individual 

 hunter more resourceful, and men had to be mobilized in larger num- 

 bers, for longer times and for greater distances. 



When the hunter state gradually passed into the pastoral state, the 

 same pedagogy went on, for the hunter now came to be the aggressor 

 and defender in the care of his flocks, killing rapacious beasts and men ; 

 and the annual hunt, a marvel of temporary concerted action and in- 

 telligence, coming to be the permanent military organization. 



Face to face with the animal kingdom, the zootechnic activities of 

 women were of quite another sort. It was they who skinned and packed 

 the game, cured the fish and converted the soft parts of animals into 

 products for human comfort. In the slow processes by which the feral 

 states of animals became domestication, women collected the young, 

 often nursed them, attracted the adult. In those areas where she could 

 best do this was her vantage ground. 



In the pastoral state the muscular energies of beasts became the 

 servants of men, lifting many burdens also from the backs of women. 

 Herein came the saddle beast, the pack beast, the traction beast, the 

 permanent supply for art and for sacrifice. As to woman, it brought 

 to her door milk, flesh and wool. 



The vegetal kingdom. 



In contact with the vegetal kingdom men were the inventors of wood- 

 craft and bark-craft. Women were primitive gardeners, gleaners, 

 basket- and mat-makers, and spinners. Edge tools, therefore, were 

 man's — ax, adz, chisel, whittling knife, all for wood- working ; but 

 carrying-baskets and spindles were women's. Sedentary village life is 

 the product of the vegetal kingdom. In its earliest form it is woman^s 

 sphere. To plant the seed, to till the ground and to gather the crop 

 were hers. What men did all this time was to guard the women and 

 the crops and to develop a military, regulative government. The mound 

 region of the Mississippi Valley is an eminent example of this, where 

 the remains of ancient corn rows survive in the midst of forts and cere- 

 monial earthworks. 



VOL. LX. — 22. 



