520 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 



spiral. The same individuality of style may be seen in the peculiar 

 body tattoo marks of the Marquesan Islanders, or in the metal 

 crafts of Nigerian tribes, in woven textiles of the Haussa, or in 

 pottery of the Ashanti of the Ivory and Gold coasts of West Africa. 



There seems to be a key design peculiar to each distinctive art area 

 that unlocks the secret of the origin of other designs from the same 

 area. Frequently this key is merely a conventionalized form applied 

 to any of the arts as textiles, wood carvings, pottery, or metal crafts. 

 Examples are the cat or dog designs stamped on Peruvian textiles; 

 the molded zoomorphic figurine heads on West Indian pottery; the 

 engraved dog, leech, and leaf designs in Malaysia; the frigate bird 

 design in Polynesia; or the double spiral and crocodile pattern of 

 Melanesia. African metal work is distinctive; its various elements 

 of form and design can not be mistaken for Malay metal work, each 

 having its distinctive origin and development; for example, the 

 modern brass and bronze casting of Benin in west central Africa 

 was introduced by the Portuguese in the eighteenth century, and has 

 a European flavor. In a similar way bronze castings and objects of 

 iron from the Bronze and Iron Ages of prehistoric Europe are 

 distinct from modern African metal work, while Malay metallurgy 

 has Asiatic affiliations. 



Application to the demands of the practical arts generally oc- 

 cupies civilized man to a far greater degree than it does the un- 

 civilized. Somehow it seems that with the increased comfort and 

 security characteristic of modern western civilization go augmented 

 duties impinging on that portion of the universal culture complex 

 that among all peoples passes under the name of artistry. 



RealisTn of Magdalenian art. — The primitive artist works with the 

 media with which he is most familiar. This may be seen in the 

 cave art of the Magdalenian, whose serious occupation never exceeded 

 that of the hunter. This artist, therefore, permitted free range to 

 his artistic impulses to draw and to model animal life as he knew it. 

 Game animals are most frequently represented. The horse and the 

 red deer, also the lion and the hyena are depicted. The artists of the 

 Old Stone Age produced realistic representations of bison, horse, and 

 mammoth with a true appreciation of form. In plastic as in the 

 graphic arts they modeled or depicted both animal and human forms. 

 Sculpture in bone and in ivory display their ability to catch a pose. 

 Life attitudes are perpetuated in their incised drawings. Even in 

 the use of color there is a fine appreciation of values, particularly 

 with regard to blends and shades. 



Culture change and decay of design. — In the history of primitive 

 decorative design there have been periods of progress and of retro- 

 gression. Ketrogression in art forms appears to have followed 



