106 BULLETIN 15 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



of the Arawak of the Greater Antilles. An analogous culture unit 

 of a somewhat different type might be seen in the rough, flat shell 

 beads, shell gouges, and shell dishes of the key population of south- 

 ern Florida and of the coast fishermen of Santo Domingo and Cuba, 

 while the ornamented discoidal pendant of carved shell occurs alike 

 in Monte Cristi and far off Tennessee and Missouri. 



Enough travel and intercourse, principalh' through trade, however, 

 did develop between the Florida Peninsula and the near-by islands 

 of the Bahamas to acquaint the tribes of the Southeastern States 

 with the culture of the West Indies. It is impossible, however, at 

 this time to state whether the cultivation of Indian corn, which was 

 common to both areas, developed first in the Southeastern States 

 and was then transferred to the West Indies, or whether it was first 

 developed in the West Indies, to be later transferred to the South- 

 eastern States. The same may be said for the culture of the sweet 

 potato, for the making of earthenware, which is remarkably similar, 

 as stated before, in the two areas, and for many other culture traits 

 that might be mentioned. A study of this has recently been made 

 by Charlotte D. Gower, who finds, however, that the greater culture 

 afliliation of the West Indies is with northeastern South America 

 rather than with the southeastern United States. In general the 

 origin of the West Indian pottery is South American rather than 

 Mexican. It is distinct from the painted and more or less modern 

 wares of Venezuela, Guiana, and Brazil. 



The pottery subareas in eastern United States have been defined 

 by W. H. Holmes in the Twentieth Annual Keport of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology. A general description of the ceramic wares 

 from the Gulf coast, how^ever, is not a satisfactory description for 

 the different wares that so vividly contrast the eastern and western 

 Floridian types. A most satisfactory comparison of eastern Ameri- 

 can ceramic wares can therefore be made only in a tabular summary 

 of elements of paste, tempering, form, decorative design, and appli- 

 cation of paints. The several tabulations of this character included 

 in this discussion of pottery from Santo Domingo are not at all 

 intended to be comprehensive but afford interesting data for purposes 

 of comparison. They do not, however, afford conclusions, as any 

 evidence deduced pointing toward diffusion of design appears to 

 be offset by a counterset of evidence showing nonrelationship. No 

 matter from what angle the problem is approached, the question of 

 northern and southern affiliations of West Indian ceramics simmers 

 down to a discussion of archaic and postarchaic. Somewhere in the 

 American Continent there arose the art of pottery making along with 

 agriculture and the domestication of typically American animal forms. 

 Supposedly this place of origin is in the valley of Mexico and we 



