THE SOUTH AMERICAN INDIAN IN HIS RELATION 

 TO GEOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT. 



By WILLIAM CURTIS FARABEE. 

 (Read April 14, 19 17.) 



Man, of whatever race, as we know him to-day is to such an 

 extent a product of his environment that we can have very Httle 

 idea of what he was in his primitive state. We sometimes speak of 

 primitive men but we mean men in a low stage of culture without 

 any reference whatever to time or age. There are no primitive 

 men, neither is there primitive culture. Both have been so modified 

 by their environment that they give us very little idea of w^hat the 

 first men and their culture were like. From the beginning both have 

 developed in complete agreement with their environment. 



It is said that man differs from the other animals in that he is 

 able to overcome his natural environment. Man has been able to 

 profit by his knowledge of nature's laws, but he has not overcome 

 them. He must depend upon natural products for sustenance and 

 hence is limited in migration and habitat. In the cold climates 

 of high altitudes and high latitudes he is limited by his food supply 

 to the line fixed by nature for the growth of plants and animals. 

 In the hot, moist climate of the tropics he is deprived of energy 

 and ambition and degenerates. He has not yet overcome nature 

 but he has succeeded better than his fellows in adapting himself to 

 nature's requirements. His individual handicap at the beginning 

 of life makes for the greater development of his race. His pro- 

 longed period of growth allows the persistent forces of environ- 

 ment to act upon his developing body and fit it for its habitat. If 

 his migrations do not take place too rapidly or do not extend over 

 too wide a range of geographic conditions these body changes 

 become habitual and the race survives. The new characters 

 developed are retained. There is some question as to whether or 

 not the characters acquired by the ancestors are inherited, but it is 



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