32 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 94 



When all the many instances are sifted and critically weighed, there remains a 

 very small residue of, perhaps, two or three which render the acceptance of 

 trans-Pacific contact not only just, but apparently inescapable, although the 

 modus operandi is still very difficult to understand. Such contacts as did occur 

 were, however, limited I believe to Polynesia ; I know as yet of no valid evidence 

 for any with Melanesia or beyond. But although Polynesians did thus very 

 rarely, and probably at long intervals, make such contacts with the people of 

 South America, the net result was negligible so far as America as a whole 

 or South America in particular was concerned ; and the claims of the diffusion- 

 ists for the far-reaching influences of trans-Pacific cultural diffusion must, I 

 believe, be disallowed. (P. 253.) 



The latest ( 1934) discussion of the subject dealt with in this treatise 

 is contained in Von Eikstedt's " Rassenkunde ". Regarding the Mela- 

 nesians, this author is skeptical so far as the Lagoa Santa and other 

 South American groups are concerned ; the cranial resemblances mean 

 merely a partial convergence ; but, basing his belief on some mentions 

 of " blacks " in the early writers," he accepts readily the presence of 

 true " Melanesoids " in Darien and Lower California." 



On page 750 of the same publication Von Eikstedt is even more 

 explicit. Speaking of the cranial resemblances of the Australians and 

 Melanesians with some of the South American Indians, he says : 



It is understood that there can be no question of direct race relation. This 

 is excluded not only by the spatial conditions, but also by the physical charac- 

 teristics of the living. We have here not related races but similar phylogenetic 

 phases. The so-called Australimorphous hominid stage is found in old Europe 

 as the Aurignacian race, in South Africa as the Cape-flats race, in Australia 

 as the Australians, and finally also in the coast type of Brazil."^ 



"'Martyr, Petrus, 1533; De Gamboa, Sarmiento (?) ; Vizcaino, 1602. 



" " Der bewiesene melanesid-lagide Parallelismus stellt ausschliesslich einen 

 kraniologischen Parallelismus dar. Die heutigen Ges und Tunebo sind alles 

 andere als dunkelhjiutig und kraushaarig. Wir haben in diesen Fallen also eine 

 partielle Konvergenz vor uns, die wohl ein abstammungsgeschichtliches Interesse 

 haben kann, aber keine taxonomische Bedeutung besitzt. Altperuanische Be- 

 richte sind zu vage, um iiberhaupt gewertet zu werden. Was aber die offenbar in 

 Darien und Kalifornien vertretenen richtigen Melanesoiden angeht, so ist ihr 

 Auftreten nicht iiberraschend." (P. 871.) 



^* " Selbstverstandlich kann es sich nicht um direkte Rassenverwandtschaft 

 handeln. Das schliessen nicht nur die raumlichen Verhaltnisse, sondern schliesst 

 auch die Somatologie der Lebenden aus. Es liegen mithin nich verwandte Rassen, 

 sondern ahnliche phylogenetische Schichten vor. Die sog. australimorphe Schicht 

 der Hominiden findet sich als Aurignac-Rasse im alten Europa, als Cape-flats- 

 Rasse in Siidafrika, als Australier in Australien, und schliesslich bietet der alte 

 Kiistentypus Brasiliens die gleiche Schicht auch im letzten Raum der zirkum- 

 asiatischen Landmassen, in Amerika." (P. 750.) 



