FORESTS AND HUMAN PROGRESS 

 Comment by H. N. Whitford 



A recent article by Zon ^ concerning the relations of man to the 

 forest is deserving of more notice than is possible in a brief review. 

 In a very admirable way he has brought together much of the evidence 

 that deals directly or indirectly with the subject. Altogether there are 

 some seventy-three citations to literature. 



The study is primarily a consideration of the relations of mankind 

 to the forests from an evolutionary standpoint. Beginning with the 

 first stage, civilisation dominated by the forests, homologous to the 

 stone age, the developmental process passes through the period of 

 cizfilisation overcoming the forests, resembling the bronze age, a period 

 in which mankind uses the forest thoughtlessly to aid his progress in 

 the arts and sciences. Then the final stage, civilisation dominating the 

 forests, compared to the iron age, is discussed. In this stage nations 

 realize that if they are going to have any forests to dominate, and sup- 

 ply them with useful products to further their progress, they must 

 introduce cultural methods. In different parts of the world there are 

 today all three of these stages. 



In the first stage attention is called to the fact that the cradle of 

 civilization was not in a primeval forest, for the earliest recorded 

 civilizations originated in more or less arid regions. Next primeval 

 forests as an obstacle to human migration is treated, including a very 

 interesting discussion of the effect that the ancient European forests 

 had on conquest and colonization. In the lower stages of civilization 

 the population of the forest is shown to be sparse and the forests were 

 used as natural boundaries. Instances are cited where the forests 

 afford refuge for man, when he wishes to escape his more pov/erful 

 enemies, or to carry on illegitimate businesses like brigandage or illicit 

 manufacture of liquor. The tribes dwelling in the forest are found to 

 be primitive in their living habits, often weak physically, and in spite 

 of ethnological differences they have uniform characteristics, as regards 

 their domestic, political, and social life. The author produces evidence 

 to show that people like the eskimos who live beyond the limits of the 



^Zon, Raphael. Forests and Human Progress. The Geographical Review, 

 IX: 139-166; 1920. 

 58 



