Hrdlicka: The Peopling of America 



91 



relatively small parties, overflows of the 

 far eastern populations of that time, 

 and to the peopling of America by the 

 local multipHcation of man thus intro- 

 duced, to comings repeated probably 

 nearly to the beginning of the historic 

 period. 



As to Polynesian migrations within 

 the Pacific, such were, so far as can be 

 determined, all relatively recent, having 

 taken place when America doubtless 

 had already a large population and had 

 developed several native cultures. It 

 is, however, probable that after spread- 

 ing over the islands, smah parties of 

 Polynesians have accidentally reached 

 America. If so, they may have modi- 

 fied in some respects the native culture ; 

 but physically, being radically like the 

 people who received them (barring their 

 probably more recent negro mixture), 

 they would readily blend with the 

 Indian and their progeny could not be 

 distinguished. In a similar way small 

 parties of whites may have probably 

 reached the continent in the east. 

 They, too, may have introduced some 

 cultural modifications, but they would 

 necessarily consist of men only and of 

 parties small in number, which would 

 in the course of time blend thoroughly 

 with the Indian. 



The conclusions, therefore, are: the 

 American natives represent in the main 

 a single stem or strain of people, one 

 homotype; this stem is identical with 



that of the yellow-brown races of Asia 

 and Polynesia; and the main immi- 

 gration of the Americans has taken 

 place, in the main, at least', gradually 

 and by the northwestern route in the 

 earlier part of the recent period, after 

 man had reached a relatively high stage 

 of physical development and multiple 

 secondary differentiations. The immi- 

 gration, in all probability, was a drib- 

 bling and prolonged overflow, likely due 

 to pressure from behind, or want, and a 

 search for better hunting and fishing 

 groundc in the direction where no resist- 

 ance of man as yet existed. This was 

 followed by multiplication, spread, and 

 numerous minor differentiations of the 

 people on the new, vast, and environ- 

 mentally highly varied continent, by 

 rapid differentiation of language due 

 to isolation and other natural condi- 

 tions, and by the development, on the 

 basis of what was transported, of more 

 or less localized American cultures. It 

 is also probable that the western coast of 

 America, within the last 2,000 years, 

 was on more than one occasion reached 

 by small parties of Polynesians, and 

 that the eastern coast was similarly 

 reached by small groups of whites, and 

 that such parties may have locally 

 influenced the culture of the Americans ; 

 but such accretions have nowhere, as 

 far as we know today, modified the 

 native population. 



Genetics and Government 



The great danger of democracy is that, more even than other forms of govern- 

 ment, it may consider reforms too exclusively from the point of view of the imme- 

 diate comfort of the individual, and may ignore the slow but irrevocable effect on 

 the inborn character of future generations. All the more necessary is it that those 

 who venture to assume the heavy responsibility of attempting to legislate for 

 democracy should understand the nature of the fundamental problems of race 

 on which the future welfare of the nation depends. The time may come when a 

 genealogical survey of the families of a nation will be recognized to be of greater 

 value than a geological survey of the country they occupy. — W. C. D. and C. D. 

 Whetham: Heredity and vSociety. 



Breeding for Energy 



In any scheme of eugenics, energy is the most important quality to favor; it 

 is, as we have seen, the basis of living action, and it is eminently transmissible 

 by descent. — Francis Galton: Inquiries into Human Faculty (1907). 



