480 A PROBLEM IN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Since Mortoivs time we have had large eoUection.s of crania for study, 

 and the crania have been correlated with other parts of the skeleton 

 and with the arts and institutions of the various peoples. 



Although these relations have been differently interpreted by many 

 anthropologists who have treated the subject, yet to me they seem to 

 indicate that the American continent has been peopled at different times 

 and from various sources; that in the great lapse of time since the 

 different immigrants reached the continent there has been in many 

 places an admixture of the several stocks and a modification of the 

 arts and customs of all; while natural environment has had a great 

 influence upon the ethnic development of each group. Furthermore, 

 contact of one group with another has done much to unify certiiin 

 customs; while "survivals'' have played an active part in the adop- 

 tion and perpetuation of arts and customs not native to the people by 

 whom they are preserved. 



The Inca civilization, a forcible one coming from the north, en- 

 croached upon that of the earlier people of the vicinity of Lake Titi- 

 caca, whose arts and customs were, to a considerable extent, adopted 

 by the invaders. It is of interest here to note the resemblance of the 

 older Andean art with that of the early Mediterranean, to which it 

 seemingly has a closer resemblance than to any art on the American 

 continent. Can it be that we have here an {i?sthetic survival among 

 this early people, and could they have conie across the Atlantic from 

 that Eurafric region which has been the birthplace of many nations? 

 Or is this simply one of those psychical coincidences, as some writers 

 ^ould have us believe l! The customs and beliefs of the Incas point to 

 a northern origin and have so many reseml)lances to those of the 

 ancient Mexicans as hardly to admit of a doubt that in early times 

 there was a close relation between these two widely separated centers 

 of ancient American culture. But how did that pre-Inca people reach 

 the lake region i Is it not probable that some phase of this ancient 

 culture may have reached the Andes from northern Africa? Let us 

 consider this question in relation to the islands of the Atlantic. The 

 Canary Islands, as well as the West Indies, had long been peopled 

 when first known to history; the Caribs were on the northern coast of 

 South America, as well as on the islands; and in the time of Colunil>us 

 native trading boats came from Yucatan to Cuba. We thus have evi- 

 dence of the earh' navigation of both sides of the Atlantic, and cer- 

 tainly the ocean between could easily have been crossed. 



One of the most interesting as well as most puzzling of the many 

 phases of American arch^eolog}^ is the remarkable development of the 

 art of the brachj^-ephalic peoples, extending from northern Mexico 

 northeastward to the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, then disappearing 

 gradually as we approach the Alleghenies and. farther south, the At- 

 lantic coast, also spreading southward from Mexico to Honduras, 



