414 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 34 



lem is the isolation of the forest tribes. While the Andean peoples 

 occuijied a very narrow strip with open valleys extending north and 

 south along the coast, all in an arid or semiarid region, the many 

 tribes of the tropical forest area lived in scattered settlements sepa- 

 rated frequently by impenetrable forests and waterways. We may, 

 therefore, look to local development of culture and to the develop- 

 ment of many local inventions entirely distinct from those of the up- 

 land Andean peoples. 



To be sure, the use of metals never penetrated the South American 

 tropical lowlands. Not only was there no ore or deposits of free 

 metal in this huge area, but the inhabitants had not had sufficient 

 contact with the metal-using and producing upland tribes to become 

 accustomed to the superior things that metal-work could produce, such 

 as weapons, implements, ornaments, and ceremonial objects. The 

 hardwood club, the macana, so widespread among the Arawak and 

 Carib of the Orinoco Basin, was not used by the upland Andean 

 peoples. The symmetry and beauty of this weapon was such that 

 had an adequate supply of similar wood been available, the Andean 

 peoples undoubtedly would have initiated its use. 



The polished stone club head known as the celt, the polished mealing 

 stone, and the general use of polished stone throughout tropical 

 South America and the West Indies is perhaps one indication that 

 there was a cultural contact with the Andean peoples and a cultural 

 infection or borrowing of those things environmentally suited. There 

 is also a stream of cultural borrowing, so to speak, within the area 

 strongly related to southern Middle America. This is manifested 

 for the most part in stone carving, in the use of polished stone objects 

 generally, and also in the ornamental pottery appendages such as 

 handle lugs of earthenware vessels in prehistoric Chiriqui and in the 

 prehistoric Arawak of the West Indies, the Guianas, Venezuela, and 

 the Amazon Valley. 



A cultural description of the tribes of the more inaccessible parts 

 of Amazonia would show these people as still unaffected through 

 contacts with Europeans. Absolute nakedness is practically never 

 encountered, although clothing is for the most part merely orna- 

 mental. The hair is usually unshorn, worn long at the back but cut 

 in a fringe across the forehead. Headbands or headdresses of gaudy 

 description emanating from a woven or plaited base are worn, how- 

 ever, mostly on ceremonial occasions. Necklaces of highly colored 

 beetle elj^tra, of seeds, of monkeys' and jaguars' teeth, and beads of 

 various descriptions are common. Nose rings are worn, that is, the 

 septum of the nose is pierced and a nose ring or pin may be inserted. 

 Ear labrets are worn. Either the lobe or the outer fold of the ear 

 is perforated for the insertion of disks, feathers, or other ornaments. 



