BOAS, THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN RACE 181 



culminating point in the most complex and populous communities. The 

 fundamental ideas were disseminated from tribe to tribe and found an 

 echo wherever they reached. Thus from many distinct beginnings grew 

 up a peculiar type of ritualism that preserves a similar character almost 

 wherever it exists at all. The thinkers among all these tribes were moved 

 by one fundamental set of ideas, and hence all developed on somewhat 

 similar lines ; but the harder the conditions of life, the less is the number 

 of independent thinkers, and the diversity and individuality of tribal 

 ritualism decrease, therefore, as the agricultural resources of the tribes 

 dwindle. In the extreme Northwest and South, only weak traces of the 

 modern middle American ceremonialism are to be found. 



Thus presents itself to our minds the picture of American civilization 

 developing in the favored middle parts of the continents and spreading 

 by a continuous flowing to and fro of ideas and inventions which stimu- 

 lated continued growth. In contrast to these, the marginal areas of the 

 extreme South and of the Xorth and Northwest remained in a more 

 stable condition. 



Neither history nor archaeology uor ethnology allows us at present to 

 follow this complex development in any detail. On the contrary, there 

 seem to be yawning gaps between the various centers that sometimes 

 seem as though they could not be bridged ; and still the conviction grows 

 stronger and stronger that this whole culture represents as much an 

 inner unity as that of the Old World. 



Somewhat aside from the general current stands eastern South Amer- 

 ira, which, although not uninfluenced by the stream of Western culture, 

 followed in a halting way only, and in many respects went its own way. 

 The isolation of the dense forests, the smallness of the tribes and their 

 position aside from the great current of events that had their seat in the 

 plateaus of the West may have contributed to this condition of affairs. 

 Sufficient vigor, however, existed here to allow an energetic expansion 

 northward, which built a cultural bridge between the Atlantic slopes' 

 of North and South America that brought about a certain degree of 

 individualization of the East as compared to the West. 



I will not follow the higher civilizations that were built up on the 

 basis of the Western culture in Mexico, Yucatan and on the western 

 plateaus of South America. When these civilizations arose, their founda- 

 tions were probably those that I described before as pertaining to a large 

 portion of middle America, extending from some parts of the United 

 States well south into South America. On this basis, however, they built 

 up a promising structure: they laid the foundation of the sciences, devel- 

 oped the art of writing, learned how to work precious metals and copper 



