THE CAVE DWELLINGS OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLDS. 



[With 11 plates.] 



By J. Walter Fewkes. 



In considering many subjects suitable for a presidential address 

 that of " The Cave DAvellings of the Old and New Worlds " ^ has 

 seemed to me timely as illustrating certain aspects of culture history 

 that are only vaguely comprehended by those unfamiliar with our 

 science, and often overlooked by professional anthropologists. The 

 subject enables me to call attention to the intimate connection existing 

 between history and geography, and to lay before you data bearing 

 on the theory that culture similarities in distant lands are due not so 

 much to derivation as to a mental unity on account of which human 

 thoughts are similarly affected by a like environment. This subject 

 also brings into relief significant limitations of the theory that cul- 

 ture development is due wholly to external conditions, while the data 

 here presented show the existence of diversities in culture which have 

 apparently no relation to those conditions. 



There is nothing produced by the human mind and hand that 

 reflects individual and racial characters more accurately than man's 

 habitations. It is a far-reaching ethnological law that the house is 

 the most truthful expression of the mind of the inhabitant; natural 

 man in constructing his dwellings must avail himself of the material 

 which is nearest at hand for that purpose. 



It is convenient for purposes of study to consider human habita- 

 tions as arranged in two series which are not necessarily local lines of 

 evolution — houses of wood including those of sticks, bark, grass, 

 hides, and those of stone embracing earth, clay, and the like. Our 

 subject is especially concerned with the origin and development of 

 the latter. The simplest kind of durable house or shelter is the cave, 

 the choice of which for habitation generally leads ultimately into 



1 Presidential address delivered before the Anthropological Society of Washington, 

 April 12, 1910. This address was accompanied by stereoptieon views illustrating many 

 of the points presented, which can not be reproduced as illustrations. 



Reprinted by permission from American Anthropologist, vol. 12, No. 3, July-Sept., 

 1910. 



618 



