" ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT XXXIX 
appears to illumine the previously obscure origin of surgery, 
and at the same time to throw much light on the origin and 
development of medical treatment in general. 
In earlier paragraphs summarizing the results of researches 
concerning the origin and development of the arts, incidental 
allusion is made to the intimate relation between the esthetic 
and the industrial. The relation is double—indeed, manifold— 
and reciprocal. In the first place, the industrial device is usually 
a medium for esthetic devices, graved or carved or painted 
upon it, usually as symbolic invocations to mystical powers 
whereby the efficiency of the implement or utensil may be 
augmented; while, in the second place, the execution of the 
esthetic devices constitutes an important and, in some lands, 
apparently a preponderant part, of the occupation of primitive 
people. Accordingly, the researches in esthetology, carried 
forward during the year by various collaborators, including 
Messrs Cushing, Fewkes, and Nelson, and Mrs Stevenson, 
have thrown light on the motives and other causes underlying 
industrial development. ; 
Work IN SocloLocy 
In continuing the examination and digestion of material col- 
lected during the eighteen years of the existence of the Bureau, 
the Director has given special attention to the principles under- 
lying the social organization of the American aborigines. A 
portion of the results are summarized in a chapter on Regimen- 
tation incorporated in a preceding report. The researches are 
still in progress. 
Mr W J McGee has continued the comparative study of 
social organization with special reference to the Seri and 
Papago Indians. In the former tribe the social organization 
appears to rest wholly on kinship traced through the female 
line; and one of the consequences of this organization and of 
the peculiar isolation of the people is found in a singular mar- 
riage custom, which has been noted in previous reports. ‘The 
Papago Indians, on the other hand, have an organization 
based primarily on kinship traced in the male line, but dis- 
playing also certain indications of transition into some such 
