552 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



cloeely confined to the extreme western portions of the Japanese 

 Archipelago for many centuries. It was simply and solely the 

 stubborn geographical fact that the Mongoloids always had free 

 access to the civilizing influences emanating from the continent, while 

 the Ainu had not, that inevitably swayed the balance in favor of the 

 former, and in the long run sealed the fate of the aborigines as a 

 distinct ethnic entity. 



EARLY MONGOLOID INVASIONS 



We know from various sources that southeastern Asia prior to 

 the rise of the Chinese civilization was occupied by a race of Mon- 

 goloid stock, akin to the existing peoples of Indo- China and In- 

 donesia, whose original culture, of a generalized Neolithic type, 

 had taken on a distinctly southern and maritime aspect. That it 

 was in contact, however, with more northern regions is shown by 

 the occurrence both in Shangtung and in Japan of the grooved 

 stone ax, a type of implement found likewise in the North Pacific 

 area.^ The discovery again both in China and in Japan of the 

 peculiarly shaped objects known in the latter country as seki-ho, or 

 " stone clubs," also indicates a former widespread community of 

 culture, extending in this instance even to the Aiini. 



Sociall}'', this southeastern Asiatic culture seems to have been 

 characterized by descent in the female line, by seasonal mating fes- 

 tivals, and, at least in the ruling families, by brother-and-sister 

 marriage.^" The economic life, based primarily upon fishing, with 

 doubtless some hunting, had been enriched before the close of the 

 Neolithic period by the acquisition of various food plants, culti- 

 vated with the aid of the hoe alone. Among methods of bodily 

 ornamentation were blackening of the teeth and tattooing. But 

 little clothing was worn, save in cold weather; and the habit of 

 promiscuous bathing, with a total indifference to bodily exposure, 

 was general. No domestic animals other than the dog and the fowl 

 appear to have been known. In the absence of metals, great use 

 was made of bamboo, although stone and bone were also utilized 

 in various waj's. There is some reason to believe that the spear 

 rather than the bow was the weapon most commonh^ in use. As 

 befitted a culture essentially amphibious in type, large canoes were 

 made, each usually ornamented at the bow with the carved head 



* Ou this question of tlie grooved ax, see Bcrthold Laufer : Jade : A Study in Chinese 

 Ai-chaoology and Religion, Field Museum of Nat. Hist. Publ. 154 (Anthropol. Ser., vol, 

 10), Chicago, 1912, pp. 50 ct seq. 



" For its former existence among the Japanese, see B. H. Chamberlain : Ko-Ji-ki, Intro., 

 pp. x.xxyiii and slv ; W. G. Aston: Shinto (The Way of the Gods), London, 1905, p. 91. 



