180 



ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



of the cultivated Indian-corn occurred. With it the food-supply of the 

 people became more stable, and the population increased at a much more 

 rapid rate than before. Other plants, like the bean, were taken into cul- 

 tivation ; and the more certain the food-supply, the more rapid became 

 the increase in population. The process that began in the Old World 

 with the cultivation of millet and other grains was paralleled here; and 

 step by step the new art spread over new territories, until it had reached 

 the area now occupied by the Argentine Eepublic in the south, and the 

 Great Lakes in the north. Only the extreme south of South America and 

 the extreme north and northwest of this continent remained outside of 

 this zone, partly clue to climatic reasons, partly due to their remote geo- 

 graphical position. 



The cultivation of plants and the concurrent increase in population 

 revolutionized the ethnological conditions of the continent ; for, owing to 

 their large numbers, the agricultural people also gained the ascendancy 

 over others who did not conform to their habits and remained fewer in 

 numbers. 



About this time, perhaps even before the perfected cultivation of 

 plants, a marvelous industrial development set in. Basketry, pottery 

 and weaving were some of the important industries that originated in 

 this period. It is not likely that their origin can be traced in the same 

 way to one restricted area, as in the case of the cultivation of Indian 

 corn, but the many beginnings were more or less moulded in one form, 

 and cultural stimuli probably flowed in many different directions, giving 

 rise to technical forms that, notwithstanding their great diversity, bear 

 the impress of one continental development. Nothing shows this process 

 of assimilation more impressively than the decorative art of the conti- 

 nent. Forms exuberantly developed in Mexico or western South America 

 recur in simpler form in the United States and in the Argentine Repub- 

 lic — not identical, to be sure, but still betraying their family resem- 

 blance. The marginal people of the continent alone have learned nothing 

 of these arts. Pottery readied neither the Pacific Northwest nor the 

 extreme south of South America, and the art forms of the North Pacific 

 coast and of the Arctic coast show no affiliation with those of the middle 

 portions of the continent. These districts remained almost excluded 

 from the general flow of American culture, as it developed in the agri- 

 cultural areas of the middle parts of the two Americas. Here we may 

 perhaps still find something similar to what existed in our continent 

 before the period of rapid cultural advance set in. 



The religious life of the race grew with its other cultural achieve- 

 ments. A strong ceremonialism pervaded the whole life and attained its 



