XVI PREFACE 



nology, and esthetics, embracing in each department the problems 

 of evohition, chronology, geography, and general history. 



The ultimate purpose of the archeologist working within his special 

 field is not merely to classify and describe the antiqui- 



eearcr^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^' ^^^^ *^ ^^^ "^ acquiring and making available 

 such full and intimate knowledge of all the phe- 

 nomena of aboriginal culture as to render possible their accurate 

 application to the elucidation of the American race and thus to the 

 history of the human race as a whole. 



In the researches of the Bureau of American Ethnology the south- 

 ern limit of these activities has usually coincided 

 Northern America with the northern boundary of Mexico, although it 

 is probable that a more natural line of demarcation 

 between Xorthern and Middle America could be drawn across north- 

 ern IVIexico, for it is here that there ap]:)ears to be a somewhat decided 

 break in the continuity of peoples and cultures.^ The peculiar cul- 

 ture of the mound-building tribes practically ends with the lower 

 valley of the Eio Grande, but the culture characterizing the arid re- 

 gion extends in slightly variant forms well into Mexico. It was not 

 in the original plan to extend the present work to Middle and 

 South America, for the reason that until recent years 

 Middle and Soutb j.^ggj^i-ei-^g^ jj^ these rcffious had not been carried far 



America '^ 



enough to make a reasonably well rounded presenta- 

 tion of southern antiquities possible, and even now the task 

 of covering this vast ground meets with much embarrassment 

 from lack of reliable knowledge. In these countries the early 

 explorers have given their chief attention to the architectural and 

 other strikhig and showy remains, leaving the minor relics in a large 

 measure unobserved; however, more recently much good work, 

 though not often fully intensive work and covering limited areas 

 only, has been done by Middk' and South American students as well 

 as by those of Northern America and Europe. 



It is well understood that the culture as well as the peoples of 



the West Indian Islands have kinship with the cul- 

 west Indies ture and peoples of South America rather than of 



North America, but recent researches, especially 

 those of Fewkes under the auspices of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology in cooperation with the staff of the Museum of the Amer- 

 ican Indian, have made the antiquities of the Antilles so well known 

 that they can be presented with reasonable fullness. 



1 It has been found convenient in presenting the materials of antiquity to refer to the 

 continent as comprisins three grand divisions, Northern, Middle, and South America, the 

 first including North America down to middle northern Mexico and the second from this 

 boundary to the Gulf of Darien. 



