478 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 5 



he has accomplished, or stated more broadly, on the great variety of 

 cultural and somatic phenomena presented by the continent. Some 

 of these expressions, to be sure, were prompted by suggestive paleon- 

 tological discoveries, like those at Vero and Melbourne in Florida, 

 since 1915 ; but none, so far as known, have covered the various aspects 

 of the subject sufficiently to warrant citation. Selecting, therefore, 

 from scattered written sources, as well as from current ideas, and 

 adding such personal views as seem justifiable, the ethnological argu- 

 ment may be presented in bare outline under the recognized anthro- 

 pological categories of bodily physique, language, social organization, 

 and material culture. 



Under the caption of " material culture " it should be pointed out 

 that the New World, with the exception of Iceland and possibly 

 Greenland, when first discovered, was found populated from one end 

 to the other; the inhabitants were acclimatized from the Arctic and 

 near- Antarctic to the Tropics, from sea level to the highest habitable 

 altitudes; they had been in residence long enough to have arrived 

 at notions of tribal boundaries and to have acquired extensive 

 knowledge of their distinctive habitats as to flora, fauna, and 

 mineral resources; indeed, so complete was the adjustment between 

 the aborigines and their widely differing types of environment — 

 littoral, jungle, woodland, plain, desert, elevated plateau, and 

 mountain fastness — that it had produced no less than 23 distinguish- 

 able archeological culture centers, some of them of such com- 

 plexity and strength that they are still functioning. In the in- 

 terval, also, various arts and industries were developed, some of 

 them — as for example irrigation, metallurgy, architecture, sculpture, 

 ceramics, and textiles — to very high degrees of excellence; numerous 

 wild plants were brought under cultivation and practically all the 

 suitable native animals domesticated; and as proof of all these 

 labors there were produced and left behind impressive ruins, 

 earthworks, and accumulations of refuse, as well as minor artifact 

 remains of stone, bone, shell, and metal, in number and quantity 

 beyond present estimation. Not least important in this connection 

 are the indications that most of this remarkable development was 

 independent of Old World influences. 



Concerning the aspect of social organization as developed in 

 America, whether political or religious, the writer hesitates to offer 

 characterizations, being insufficiently familiar with the real nature 

 of the facts called for. The number and variety of phenomena are 

 obvious enough, however. Ethnologists have distinguished in the 

 New World no less than 368 major tribal groups with countless 

 subdivisions; but just what relation, if any, these entities bear to 



