CONTRIBUTIONS OF AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY TO HUMAN HISTORY, 558 



the slender beginnings of the savage stage up to its greatest expan- 

 sion at the present day. The same figure may stand with equal pro- 

 priety for the career of a single j^eople or nation that has reached 

 the highest limit of culture. In the diagram, the beginnings of 

 cultural development are represented at the base of the figure by a 

 few slender threads of activity. In savagery these threads multiply 

 slowly into a considerable mnnber and, with ever accelerated rapidity, 

 divide and subdivide in barbarism and civilization, expanding with 

 marvelous rapidity in the horizon of enlightenment. While this 

 expanding figure may b(> regarded as expressing the growth of human 

 culture, it may also symbolize the development of the race in popula- 

 tion and in physical perfecticm. 



The figure indicated by B may stand for the career of peojiles of the 

 lowest existing order of culture, such as the Fuegians or Andama- 

 nese — peoples which can contribute to general history only within a 

 very limited range, since their career traverses only the lower half 

 of the field of savagery. It is to l)e noted, however, that these lowly 

 peoples can contribute much more fully to the history of this ])artic- 

 ular stage of progress than can any of the nations that have pas^ed 

 this stage and have risen to higher levels. 



The field covered by the American race is outlined in C. Uncer- 

 tain and indefinite in the Ijeginning stages, the traces being hardly 

 legible on account of the absence of written records and the insuffi- 

 ciency of archeological research, it develops upward, stopping just 

 short of tlic level of civilization. Many strands of culture had ;'.p- 

 ]x>ared and had grown strong, but writing had not been fully achieved 

 and other arts ])eculiar to civilization had not made their appearance. 

 It is within this field that Americanists pursue their studies and make 

 their contributions to the history of the race and of developing civili- 

 zation. Above this stage the}' find nothing and below it only meager 

 and uncertain traces of the beginning stages of liuman culture. The 

 archeologist finds within this limited American field, however, exten- 

 sive phenomena relating to the various branches of barbarian activity, 

 especially to such as leave their ti'aces in material form. Prominent 

 among these branches are agriculture, hunting, fishing, ([uairying, and 

 nuning. The shaping of implements and utensils, the building arts, 

 metallurgy, sculpture, ceramics, the textile arts, the graphic arts and 

 writing, war, games, culinary arts, religious arts, personal adornment, 

 the decorative arts, etc. These groups of jihenomena, as exhibited in 

 America, have been the subject of earnest study by a large number of 

 scholars and already a great body of data relating to them has been 

 collected and an extensive literature is in existence. A few of the 

 more instructive of these groups may be briefly reviewed. 



Quarrying and mining. — Much of the history of the activities con- 

 cerned in the acquisition of the raw materials of subsistence and the 



