ARORKWXAL AMERICAN HARPOONS: 

 A STUDY ON ETHNIC DISTRIBUTION AND INVENTION. 



By Otis Tuftox ^Iasox, 

 Curator, Division of Ethnology. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The aborigines of the We>stern Hemisphei-e were intimate!}' asso- 

 ciated with the animal world. Their methods of taking- animals for 

 their activities were as follows: 



1. Gathering without devices. 



2. Gathering with devices. 



3. Striking, stunning, Ijruising. 

 -i. Slashing with edged weapons. 



5. Piercing, by stabbing, b}' thrusting, by hurling, oi by shooting. 



6. Taking in traps or blinds. 



7. Hunting by means of other animals. 



8. Capturing with light, fire, and smoke. 



9. Overcoming by asphyxiation, poisons, and drugs. 



In piercing devices the ends proposed are two. nameh*. to reach 

 some vital part, and hence to kill instantly, or to insert a barb or tog- 

 gle under the skin and thereby retrieve the animal. These piercing 

 devices may be divided into three subclasses, namely: Those with a 

 smooth blade, called lances, for stabl)ing: those whose blades or work- 

 ing part have barlis on the sides for retrieving as well as piercing, and 

 the harpoon subclass with movable head. A harpoon is a piercing and 

 retrieving device with a moval)le head. Few other inventions of sav- 

 agery show better the progress of thought in devising means for over- 

 coming difficulties than the harpoon. In order to difl'erentiate this 

 implement from others of the piercing type, let it be understood that 

 the head is alwa^^s set loosely on the end of a shaft, to which it is 

 attached by means of a line. Even when shot from a bow, missiles 

 having this structure are called harpoon arrows. Every part of the 

 harpoon, by its dimensions and form, by its pi-esence or al)senc(', or 

 by its material and attachment, lends itself to classification in the 

 studies of progress concerning the apparatus itself and its g(^ogi-aphic 

 distribution. 



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