ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT XVII 



reproduced in slightly reduced facsimile. The work is 

 deemed au important eoutribution to knowledge of the 

 aborigines in several respects. It illustrates the motives 

 and conventions of aboriginal art in both form and color ; 

 it reveals the role of symbolism in primitive art with re- 

 markable clearness; it illustrates with satisfactory com- 

 pleteness the nature and structure of a typical barbaric 

 pantheon ; and since the symbols and conventions (and, 

 indeed, the personages represented) are of great constancy 

 in primitive thought, it affords a series of types available 

 for use in identification and comparison of a wide range 

 of symbolic representations among the Pueblo and other 

 tribes, not only in ceremonies and sacred paraphernalia, 

 but in the decoration of fictile ware, basketry, woven 

 fabrics, etc. 



Later in the year Dr Fewkes was occupied with a sys- 

 tematic study of the collections made by him in Arizona 

 and New Mexico during 1896 and 1897, the study being 

 carried forward with special reference to the symbolic 

 decoration of the fictile ware. All systematic investi- 

 gators of the decorative devices used by primitive peoples 

 have been impressed by their constancy, that is, by 

 the exceeding slowness of modification. They have also 

 been impressed with the dependence of the modification 

 on external forces and conditions rather than on the 

 spontaneous internal factor so prominent in the art of 

 advanced culture. Recognizing these characteristics of 

 primitive art, Dr Fewkes undertook to define the symbolic 

 (or esthetic) types prevailing among the peoples of Walpi, 

 much as a naturalist might define types of animal and 

 vegetal life for the establishment of species and genera 

 and orders, and for tracing the lines of vital development 

 in a distinctive environment. His symbolic types were 

 based on specimens observed among the tribesmen or 

 obtained from sites occupied by their ancestors during the 

 historical period ; and he soon found that the types served 

 to indicate what may be termed a symbolic province, that 

 is, a region throughout which the symbolic devices were 



