ANTHROPOLOGICAL MUSEUM. "277 



(c) Series label, to be placed at the beginning of each scries. The 

 following- example pertains to series II of the sculpture exhibit. 

 (Fig. 8.) 



Series 2. — Aboriginal American Sculpture. 



The American tribes displayed a strong predilection for sculpture. They 

 shaped their stone implements with great skill, and delighted in represent- 

 ing animal forms. Religious motives inspired most of the more elaborate 

 work, although esthetic appreciation was not wanting. 



The series of objects here presented covers nearly the full range of native 

 achievement, although the best examples shown fall short of the highest 

 types of Aztec and Maya work. The simpler forms are placed at the left, 

 and a series of progressive steps lead up to the higher forms at the right. 

 It is believed by some that germs of culture have occasionally reached 

 America from other lands and that sculpture on this continent is not wholly 

 of native growth. 



The practice of the art in its higher forms has, for the most part, been 

 abandoned by the native tribes, but stone implements and utensil.- are 

 still made in some remote districts. 



(d) Specimen label, briefly describing the specimen, and placed 

 with it in each instance. The following examples belong to specimens 

 13 and 11 of the American series (II, fig. 8), as installed in the National 

 Museum. 



{d.) 



No. 13.— Human and animal figures combined in a miniature totem pole; 

 sculptured in partial relief. Material, black slate; shaped with metal 

 tools. Northwest Coast Indians. Period recent. 178064. 



No. 14.— Human figure, fully relieved, but falling short of the best Central 

 American work. Material, gray, porous lava; probably shaped with 

 stone tools. Pre-Columbian period. 61814. 



The ends to be subserved by the exhibits of a general anthropolog- 

 ical museum are mainly those of education, and the aim of the classifi- 

 cation and arrangement here proposed is to so present the collections 

 that the student, as well as the ordinary museum visitor, may secure 

 the maximum benefit from them. As has been indicated at length in 

 the preceding pages, the three great ideas capable of satisfactory pre- 

 sentation are: (1) The biology of the race the origin, evolution, and 



