392 Philip Ainsworth Means, 



America it must be expected to be the earliest there also. I£ 

 one is to believe that the "archaic type" was a very early type 

 which spread all over the northern half of Latin America, must 

 not one also assume that the various later cultures were devel- 

 oped from it in the several regions involved? Such a develop- 

 ment would occur after religion and ceremony had gained 

 considerably in strength, as Dr. Spinden says. On the other 

 hand, if the "archaic type" is looked upon as a cultural land- 

 mark rather than as a culture in itself, the finding of it in the 

 wide area mentioned does not prove much. In other words, if 

 we are to believe that all art at some time or other passes through 

 a stage wherein it shows "archaic type" characters, the mere 

 fact that art with archaic characters is found in both Middle 

 America and South America does not mean much. The writer, 

 however, finds that the former interpretation is the better. There 

 can be but little doubt as to the absolute priority in point of time 

 of the archaic culture of the Peruvian shell-heaps. The work of 

 Uhle has shown that in Peru, as in Middle America, the earliest 

 culture of all was the archaic type, and we now know that this 

 type was uniform throughout Middle America and on the Peru- 

 vian coast. It is the foundation whereon all other cultures were 

 built. 



