RACES AND PEOPLES 227 



The problem of the origin of the aboriginal American 

 peoples is as difficult to solve as any racial problem. 

 Professor Keane believes that the early inhabitants of 

 America came by two distinct routes- from Asia ; by way 

 of Bering Strait, and in late Tertiary times, from western 

 Europe to Greenland and Labrador. 18 Probably the route 

 from Europe first was followed by primitive long- 

 headed tribes, and later the route from Asia by 

 round-headed Mongolic peoples. Both of these peo- 

 ples arrived during the stone ages because we find side 

 by side fossil remains of the two types in southern Brazil 

 and Argentina. ' ' From the undoubted remains of paleo- 

 lithic man discovered in the same southern regions it 

 would also appear that the long-headed preceded the 

 short-headed race, for no clear traces of a round-headed 

 paleolithic people have yet been anywhere brought to 

 light." 19 



The civilization of the races of Europe has spread with 

 wonderful rapidity until it has set the standards of living 

 in the remotest islands of the Pacific as it has determined 

 the culture of great commercial empires. Civilized man 

 has succeeded in subduing many of the forces of nature 

 and in converting natural energy into forms serviceable 

 to himself. He has grown to believe that all peoples 

 who have not gained a similar control of natural forces 

 are to be pitied, that they represent a lower order of in- 

 tellect and that their culture is a lower order of achieve- 

 ment. This assumption that the European White race 

 is superior to all other races is based upon the remarkable 

 achievements of the White race. 20 We conclude that since 

 the civilization is higher, it took a higher grade of mind 



is Keane, op. cit., pp. 362-364. 



i Ibid. 20 Boas, op. cit., p. 2. 



