ANCIENT SEATING FUIINITURE IN THE COLLECTIONS 

 OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



By Walter Ilouon 



[With 21 I'lates] 



The fii-st appearance of detached seating^ furinturo is seen in stools. 

 These are accordinn^ to the art ideas of the peoples constructinfj; them 

 of varyinfj forms shaped from blocks of wood or stone and havin*; 

 usually four leps. The seats are circular, oval, oblonp, and curved, 

 or hollowed out, showing the earliest attempts at adapting the area 

 to the conformation of the body; one might t«rm it a primitive effort 

 at practical anthropometrics. In its simplest form the stool is a 

 circular block of wood such as was used by Peruvian tribes and the 

 Hupa of California (pi. 1, fig, 1), and perhaps the rounded stone 

 blocks of some ancient Pueblos in Arizona. 



Specimens from Costa Rica (pi. 1, figs. 2, 3), West Indies, and Ta- 

 hiti have a projecting handle from one end and many American 

 specimens have a pierced lug with cord for hanging up, showing that 

 this piece of furniture was not commonl}' used but only on occasion. 

 This phase will be discussed later. 



Simple stools were often elaborately carved. Wiener ^ figures a 

 Peruvian stool of which the seat rests on two excellently carved 

 jaguars. British Guiana specimens in the United States National 

 Museum and specimens from that region figured by W. E. Roth - and 

 by Koch-Griinberg ^ from the Taulipang and other tribes of North 

 Brazil and Venezuela are carved stools in the form of tutelary 

 animals. These, although evidently used as seats in the house, are 

 cult objects. (PI. 2, figs. 1, 2, and 3.) 



The simple stool has a rather wide distribution in Central America, 

 the West Indies, and northern South America. The limits of its 

 distribution have not been worked out, and it is to be regretted that 

 Baron Erland Nordenskijold did not include the stool in his excellent 

 work on comparative ethnographical studies.* The stool also extends 



» rerou et Bollvle, p. S22. Paris, 1880. 



' Arts, crafts, and customs of thf British Guiana Indians. Tliirty-eighth Ann. Rop., 

 Bur. Amer. Ethnol. 



' Vom Roraimn Zum Orinoco, pis. 19, 49. StuttKart, 1923. 



*An Ethno (CPoRraphical analysis of tiio material culture of two Indian tribes of the 

 Gran Chaco. GotcborK. 1919. 



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