EARLY MAN IN SOUTH AMERICA 



By Ales Hrdlicka. 



In collaboration with 

 W. H. Holmes, Bailey Willis, Fred. Eugene Wright, and Clarence N. Fenner 



I. GENEKAL CONSIDERATIONS 



By Ales HrdliCka 



In dealing on a large scale with a subject of so great importance as 

 man's antiquity, it seems appropriate to consider briefly at least, 

 before taking up the details of research, the essential conditions on 

 which judgments regarding the various problems involved must 

 depend. These conditions, or criteria, are of prime consequence, yet 

 are often so simple as to be self-evident. But notwithstanding this, 

 they are not infrequently lost sight of by the very students who need 

 most to keep them clearly in view. 



The antiquity of any human remains, skeletal or cultural, antedat- 

 ing the historic period, can be judged of only from the association of 

 such remains with geologic deposits the age of which is well-deter- 

 mined, and with the remains of other organic forms, the place of 

 which in time and in the evolutionary series is known. In the case of 

 osseous specimens great weight attaches also to the morphologic 

 characteristics and to the organic and inorganic alterations of the 

 bones. 



From the geologic standpoint, consideration of the antiquity of 

 human remains involves not merely unquestionable stratigraphic 

 identification, but, preeminently, the question, unnecessary in general 

 in dealing with bones of animals, of possible introduction subsequent 

 to the formation of the matrix which enclosed them. 



On the morphologic side, in turn, we encounter the important and 

 often very difficult task of distinguishing between characteristics nor- 

 mal to a definite stage of evolution and those due to reversion or other 

 causes affecting only individuals. And in regard to the post-mortem 

 21535°— Bull. 52—12 1 



