swanton; international misunderstandings 407 



particular branch of civilized humanity were accustomed. Tat- 

 tooing, head-flattening, labret-wearing, scarification, marriage 

 by capture, "totemism," apparently meaningless taboos, san- 

 guinary rites — if such could be found — although these did not 

 occur in one and the same tribe and frequently not in those 

 most primitive, were dragged from their natural connections and 

 mercilessly heaped upon a theoretical "primitive man" who never 

 had any objective existence. The origin of each of these peculiar 

 customs was then made the subject of voluminous studies and 

 accounted for in ways no less peculiar, all tending to mystify 

 the already over-stimulated public in a very much greater degree. 



That all of these things may be accounted for by referring them 

 to common human instincts acting under diverse conditions 

 is more and more clearly apparent the farther ethnological studies 

 are pursued. We have only the same mind expressing itself 

 diversely, the divergencies being added to and acquiring the 

 sanctity of custom and law, generation after generation, until 

 they present themselves to other races as bizarre and unnatural. 



While all such collective beliefs and customs are not of equal 

 value and some are of no value at all, it must be remembered 

 that this applies to peoples alike. Civilized man, having had 

 the benefit of a greater accumulation of experience, longer in 

 time and drawn from a wider area, naturally has more well- 

 grounded ideas and better tested customs, or perhaps one ought 

 to say fewer ill-grounded ideas and badly established customs, 

 than his savage brother, but he must remember that his advan- 

 tage is only one of degree. He and his do not constitute a norm 

 from which all other races and peoples are to be judged. Just 

 as the Copemican and evolutionary theories disillusioned him 

 regarding his physical immutabilit}^ so he must disillusion him- 

 self regarding his psychical immutability. There is no more 

 singularity in having a black skin and frizzly hair or a yellow 

 skin and straight black hair than in having a fair skin and wavy 

 hair. It is no more odd to pierce the nose and deform the head 

 than to pierce the ears and deform the waist. To acquire one's 

 name from one's mother's family is even less unnatural than to 

 take it from the father's kin. Paint as a personal adornment 



