CONTRIBUTIONS OF AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY TO HUMAN IlISToKV. 5^7 



has as yet little to add to what may he leai-iicd IVoiii siudics of iIk', 

 livin<>: |KH)|)les. So far as ohscrvi'd, (he variations in type of fossil 

 forms do not extend decidedly beyond the ran«:!;e of variation ohs(>ived 

 among the living. It has been sought to establish a paleo-American 

 type in South America, but Ave are not certain that a siilliciont 

 comparative study of the osseous remains of the present peoples of 

 the worhl has been made to warrant a satisfactory determination. 

 Conservatism is especially desirable in any attem])t to establish new 

 racial types or special orders of culture. 



Regarding race origin it may be said that there is still room for 

 speculation. Opinion seems, however, to be settling down to the view 

 that the American race, as it stands to-day, is not autochthonous, but 

 is an offshoot of Asiatic peoples, originally more or less diverse in 

 character and arriving in America, mainly at least, by the Bering 

 J^trait route, not abru])tly, but in the normal course of race distribu- 

 tion from a natal habitat, the migration continuing for untold cen- 

 turies. Americanists have here a difficult, a perplexing, but a most 

 fascinating, field of research. 



To-day, one of the most absorbing questions encountered by tli(^ stu- 

 dent of American archeology is that of the origin of the aboriginal 

 cultures. Some regard these cultures as autochthonous; others have 

 looked for their source in many different parts of the world. Al- 

 though no final conclusion can yet be announced, we may assume that, 

 along with the incoming peoples, all or most of whom must have 

 been extremely primitive dwellers of the far north, there came the 

 simplest forms of the arts of hunting, fishing, sheher-building. and 

 the preparation of food; that from these elements, under the iuHuence 

 of more southerly environments, there arose in time diversified cul- 

 ture groups, such as are now under investigation in various parts of 

 the continent. We can not but admit, hoAvever, the plausibility of 

 the theory that seafaring wanderers from other lands have now and 

 then reached American shores, bringing Avith them the germs of dis- 

 tinct cultures, and, further, that the characteristic art phenomena 

 of certain centers of progress are such as to give countenance to this 

 idea. This is a most interesting and important branch of archeolog- 

 ical research, and one Avith Avhich archeologists must at this stage par- 

 ticularly concern themselves. 



Archeology furnishes a vast amount of interesting data regarding 

 the states of culture of the American race, but Ave note that in all the 

 researches so far conducted no traces of culture phenomena have been 

 found Avhich extend below, on the one hand, or aboA^e, on the other, 

 the range obserAed among the living or historic tribes. There is 

 nothing so unique that it might not belong to known tribes or their 

 immediate ancestors. It has been sought to diflferentiate a paleolithic 

 culture and period in America, but without tangible result. So far 



