ANTHROPOLOGY IN WESTERN HEMISPHERE AND PACIFIC ISLANDS. 49 



In South America fossil remains have been found which have created 

 even greater interest and discussion than those of North America. Remains 

 found in Argentine were adduced as evidence not only of the existence of 

 early man but of the existence of prehuman ancestors. South America was 

 regarded as the original home of mankind, and several European anthro- 

 pologists have accepted, wholly or in large part, the conclusions of the Argen- 

 tine advocates of this theory. But there are those in the United States, 

 speaking with authoritj'^, who say "the evidence thus far furnished fails to 

 establish the claim." 



Artifacts have also been found in both North and South America which 

 have been regarded as from the hands of Quaternary man. Especially 

 famous are the finds in the Trenton gravel in New Jersey. These artifacts, 

 like the skeletal remains, have been convincing proof to manj^ American and 

 European students. On similar grounds, as in the case of the skeletal remains, 

 probably the majority of anthropologists are unconvinced of the great age of 

 any artifacts so far discovered in the Western Hemisphere. 



Indirect or circumstantial evidence has been adduced for and against 

 the probability of man's existence in the Americas in geologic antiquity. 

 The greater part of this evidence favors the probability of his early existence. 

 Among the facts cited in favor of belief in the expiration of a great extent of 

 time since the occupation of America by the aborigines are the following: 



(1) The unit race extending from Alaska to Tierra-del Fuego. 



(2) The numerous distinct cultural groups. 



(3) The remarkable and unparalleled hnguistic diversity. 



(4) The evident northward trend of migrations over areas once glaciated. 

 This condition is best explained by the presence of some formidable barrier, 

 upon the removal of which the tribes released sprang northward. 



(5) The relative fewness of linguistic stocks in the north and east as 

 compared with the Pacific and Southwest areas, where so many small stocks 

 have remained penned up. 



(6) The radical differences between the Indian and the Eskimo, over 

 whose extensive area of distribution the people physically, linguistically and 

 otherwise culturally are very similar. Has not the Eskimo survived as 

 glacial man in his area of snow and ice? 



Against the probability of a very early occupancy of America may be 

 cited the following circumstantial evidence : 



(1) Man probably originated in the tropics, where the anthropoid apes 

 are found to-day, and his food was largely vegetable. Such a man would 

 not willingly migrate into inhospitable lands where his mode of life would 

 be greatly changed. Man did not migrate until compelled by pressure of 

 numbers on the food supply. 



(2) Under the most generally accepted theory of migration, by way of 

 northeast Siberia, a degree of culture was necessary, implying skill as hunters 



