614 ANNUAL REPOKT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



permanent structures. The cave as an element in the history of 

 human habitation is conditioned in its influence by its geographical 

 extension. 



You may have noticed that I have spoken of the intimate connec- 

 tion of history and geography, and it may be added that in using 

 the former term I include in it both ethnology and archaeology. It 

 seems to me that the time is coming when the science of history will 

 no longer be made up solely of descriptions of past events, even when 

 including within its ken economics and institutions, but will embrace 

 a study of cultural life in its broadest significance. The time is not 

 far distant when the discoveries of the ethnographer will enlarge the 

 scope of history, so that this science will embrace all forms of culture, 

 among all men, both low and high in development. Ethnology is 

 destined to infuse into history a meaning more comprehensive than 

 it has 3^et had and to bring into sharper relief the relation of cultural 

 life and geographical surroundings. 



Human thought, as expressed by material culture, language, and 

 beliefs, is modified to a certain extent by survivals of past environ- 

 ments. In early conditions this modification was strong, but later, 

 when man had obtained greater control over his surroundings, ex- 

 ternal conditions lost some of their power. The character of primi- 

 tive habitations is perhaps more influenced by environment than any 

 other product of man's intelligence, but even in them we find surviv- 

 ing traces of former conditions.^ The effect which the adoption of 

 caves as habitations has had on the construction of buildings within 

 them illustrates this statement. Originally caves were sought out 

 for protection from elements, but in the course of time, possibly from 

 conservatism, man continued to construct buildings in caves and to 

 live in caverns long after necessity for them had ceased. The fact 

 that nothing of man's manufacture is more profoundly modified by 

 environment than his habitation gives to caves or cave dwellings a 

 great importance in the study of the interrelations of history and 

 geography. 



The reason that led man originally to seek caves for habitation 

 was a desire for shelter from the elements, but not so much protec- 

 tion for himself as for others — for his offspring. Caves were early 

 used for the hiding away of food and secretion of other property, 

 as sacred images and ceremonial paraphernalia, for burial places, 

 and as chambers for the performance of sacred rites. Their use for 

 habitation was secondary, the primary motive being mainly altruistic, 

 the same as that which leads the insect, bird, and mammal to make 

 their nests. 



^ The effect of migration and retention of cultural survivals of former environments 

 should not be overlooked, although as time passes it becomes more and more obscure. 



