XI. ACQUIREMEXT AND I'TILIZATIOX OF MATERIALS 



THE materials employed in the arts are derived from the 

 three king-doms of nature: Mineral, animal, and vegetal, 

 and the antiquities of the continent may be considered for 

 the greater part under the three groups thus indicated, and in the 

 order named. Their acciuirement and utilization gave rise to many 

 important activities, which differed -with the nature of the material 

 and the purposes to which the product was devoted. These activities 

 will not be made, however, the subjects of separate treatment as a 

 whole but will receive appropriate attention in connection with the 

 discussion of the materials with which they are particularly concerned. 

 The resources of the mineral kingdom are located by exploration, 

 gathered, mined, quarried, transported, and shajied 

 Mineral Substances by diversified methods and utilized in a multitude of 

 ways according to the requirements of the par- 

 ticular people. 



The acquirement of the diversified resources of the animal king- 

 dom gives rise to activities — hunting, fishing, trap- 

 Animai Substances puig, ctc. — wliich are Icss distinctive and important 

 than those connected with minerals, for the reason 

 that in a large measure they are by-l)roducts of the food-accjuiring 

 arts. The activities connected with the preparation and use of these 

 materials and their employment in the arts are imperfectly illus- 

 trated in the remains of antiquity, but their character and scope may 

 be determined in large measure thi'ough observation of the corre- 

 sponding activities among living peoples. 



The vegetal world supplies a vast body of material for the arts 

 of primitive peoples, but limited evidences of the 

 Vegetal Suhstancps activities connectcd with acquirement are preserved 

 from the distant past. As with the animal sub- 

 stances, the utilization of vegetal materials gave rise to numerous 

 industries — to carving and building, to the preparation of bark, 

 roots, and fibers, and their utilization in basketry and textiles 

 generally. 



Transportation of the materials of the arts follows their acquire- 

 ment and also follows manufacture, continuing indefinitely through 

 the whole period of utilization. The activities thus arising are of 

 great importance in the history of all peoples, and much may be 

 learned of their nature and extent among the aborigines by a study 

 of the antiquities themselves as well as of the w^ork of historic tribes. 

 Transportation was conducted by water and by land, and man himself 



153 



