XX BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



■fictile ware, iuolnding the adnptation of mvtliolog-ie, animal, bird 

 and feather, insect, and reptilian figures. Many of these are so 

 highly conveutionized that they would have been practically 

 uninterpre table without the knowledge of Tusayan ih\ tliologic 

 and sociologic concepts which Dr Fewkes fortunately pos- 

 sesses, and by means of which he has been enabled to make 

 substantial contributions to knowledge of the development of 

 artistic concepts. The results of his work are incorporated in 

 two memoirs for publication, respectively, in the seventeenth 

 and twentieth annual reports. 



In connection with other researches, and with administrative 

 duties in the office as Ethnologist in Charge, Mr W J McGee 

 has made inquiries from delegations of Indians visiting Wash- 

 ington concerning the sjanbolic use of feathers, especially in 

 connection with headdresses. It is well known to students that 

 the use of feathers, which at first sight woiild seem to be deco- 

 rative merely, is essentially symbolic; but the meanings of the 

 symbols have not iDeen ascertained hitherto, save casually and 

 among a few tribes. During the year the feather symbolism of 

 the Pouka and Ojibwa tribes has been discovered and recorded 

 with tolerable completeness. 



Work in Technology 



Arts and industries are correlative factors in human progress, 

 and the lines of conceptual development traced tlu'ough the 

 study of art motives elucidate the growth of industrial devices. 

 Accordingly, the work of the collaborators in connection with 

 art motives has contributed both directly and indirectly to 

 aboriginal technology. During the year special attention was 

 given to lines of technical development, as indicated in previ- 

 ous reports, and to the acquisition of material for study and 

 preservation in the Museum. Especially valuable is the 

 Steiner collection, from the mounds of Etowah valley, Geor- 

 gia. It comprises 3,215 specimens of stone implements, earth- 

 enware, and symbolic and decorative objects of copper, shell, 

 and stone. The Indians of this district, builders of the great 

 Etowah mound and other nioiiiunents, were peculiarly fertile 

 in artistic and industrial devices. In this region the progres- 

 sive tribes of the Siouan stock, the vigorous Cherokee, one or 



