418 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1934 



general basic American Indian trait complex, which is based on a 

 temperate or nontropically humid environment, would do so in a 

 tropical rain forest climate such as Amazonia regardless of whether 

 the tribe entered South America by way of the Panaman Isthmus 

 or the Antilles. 



In tropical eastern South America appear sporadically among the 

 Botocudo, Maku, Guayaqui, and others such typical North Ameri- 

 can traits as pemmican, twined and coiled basketry, pit ovens, water- 

 tight baskets, the platform bed, sandals, feathered and stone-tipped 

 arrows. However, throughout the greater portion of Amazonia 

 these traits are replaced by inventions more applicable to the en- 

 vironment, such as bone or wood arrowheads instead of those of 

 chipped stone, and the hammock instead of the platform bed, clay 

 containers instead of the water-tight baskets, the cigar or snuffing 

 tube instead of the tubular pipe. Even the tempering of pottery 

 with bits of coral or sponge spicules speaks of a ready adjustment 

 to a new environment. 



Today one of the most startling resemblances of South American 

 culture to that of North America lies in the chipped arrow or 

 spearhead and skin scrapers in those areas in temperate South 

 America where stone suitable for chipping is plentiful and where 

 its use in the preparation of skin robes remains desirable. These 

 culture traits, appearing sporadically in tropical eastern South 

 America are of common occurrence in southern and temperate 

 portions of the continent. 



It is impossible to determine whether the several linguistic stocks 

 present in South America indicate separate immigrations from the 

 North American continent. The Choco language penetrates south- 

 eastern Panama, and the Cuna, another Colombian linguistic stock, 

 extends somewhat farther into the Isthmus. Neither of the Carib 

 and Arawak stock languages of the Guiana, Venezuelan, and West 

 Indian area extend beyond the Caribbean except as Arawak words 

 were carried into Florida by sporadic Arawak visitors. Whence 

 then the number of unrelated language stocks in South America? 

 Words do change in the course of time, but differences in grammar 

 involved in the several existing linguistic stocks of South America 

 must have a significance as yet not fully realized. This is especiallj 

 the case in that there appears to be not the remotest connection with 

 any of the equally distinct North American linguistic stocks or with 

 those of Oceania. 



An interesting observation lies in the fact that in Amazonia are 

 tribes sharing similar environment but possessing varying degrees of 

 enlightenment. The long-headed peoples (dolichocephalic) of east- 

 ern South America are in a manner less progressive than their 



