54 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



Africa and of southwestern North America are not by any means the 

 same. The prairie tribes of North America, although hving in 

 nearly the same climate, over a considerable area, show remarkable 

 differences in the phonetics of their languages; and, on the other 

 hand, the tribes belonging to the Salish family who live east of the 

 Rocky mountains, in the interior of British Columbia, speak a lan- 

 guage that is not less harsh than that of their congeners on the north- 

 ern coast of the state of Washington. In an}' attempt at arranging 

 phonetics in accordance with climate, the discrepancies would be so 

 numerous, that an attempt to carry out the theory would lead to the 

 necessity of explaining exceptions rather than examples corroborat- 

 ing its correctness. 



What is true in regard to phonetics is no less true in regard to mor- 

 phology and vocabulary. I do not think that it has ever been 

 claimed that similar words must necessarily originate under the stress 

 of the same conditions, although, if we admit the correctness of the 

 principle, there is no reason for making an exception in regard to the 

 vocabulary. 



I think this theory can be sustained even less in the field of lin- 

 guistics than in the field of ethnology. It is certainly true that each 

 people accommodates itself to a certain extent to its surroundings, 

 and that it even may make the best possible use of its surroundings 

 in accordance with the fundamental traits of its culture, but I do not 

 believe that in any single case it will be possible to explain the culture 

 of a people as due to the influence of its surroundings. It is self-evi- 

 dent that the Eskimo of northern arctic America do not make 

 extended use of wood, a substance which is very rare in those parts 

 of the world, and that the Indians of the woodlands of Brazil are not 

 familiar with the uses to which snow may be put. We may even go 

 further, and acknowledge that, after the usefulness of certain sub- 

 stances, plants, and animals — like bamboo in the tropics, or the cedar 

 on the North Pacific coast of America, or ivory in the arctic regions, or 

 the buffalo on the plains of North America — has once been recognized, 

 they will find the most extended use, and that numerous inventions 

 will be made to expand their usefulness. We may also recognize that 

 the distribution of the produce of a country, the difficulties and ease 

 of travel, the necessity of reaching certain points, may deeply influ- 

 ence the habits of the people. But with all this, to geographical 

 conditions cannot be ascribed more than a modifying influence upon 



