10 PREHISTORIC TEXTILE ART. (eth.ann.13 



careful investigations of receut times, to the utilization of new lines of 

 arclieologic researcli, and to the better knowledge of the character and 

 scoj)e of historic and modern native art. A comparison of the textiles 

 obtained from ancient mounds and graves with the work of living tribes 

 has demonstrated their practical identity in materials, in processes of 

 manufacture, and in articles produced. Thus another important link 

 is added to the chain that binds together the ancient and the modern 

 tribes. 



DEFINITION OF THE ART. 



The textile art dates back to the very inception of culture, and its 

 practice is next to universal among living peoples. In very early stages 

 of culture progress it embraced the stems of numerous branches of 

 industry afterward differentiated through the utilization of other 

 materials or through the employment of distinct systems of construction. 

 At al] jjeriods of cultural development it has been a most indispensable 

 art, and with some peoples it has reached a marvelous perfection, both 

 technically and esthetically. 



Woven fabrics include all those jiroducts of art in which the elements 

 or parts employed in construction are more or less lilamental, and are 

 combined by methods conditioned chiefly by their flexibility. The 

 processes employed are known by such terms as wattling, interlacing, 

 plaiting, netting, weaving, sewing, and embroidering. 



MATERIALS AND PROCESSES. 



Viewing the entire textile field, we find that the range of products 

 is extremely wide. On the one hand there is the rude interlacing of 

 branches, vines, roots, and canes in coustructing houses, weirs, cages, 

 rafts, bridges, and the like, and on the other, the spinuing of threads 

 of almost microscopic fineness and the weaving of textures of mar- 

 velous delicacy and beauty. 



The more cultured peoples of Central America and South America 

 had accomplished wonders in the use of the loom and the embroidery 

 frame, but the work of the natives of the United States was on a 

 decidedly lower plane. In basketry and certain classes of garment- 

 making, the inhabitants of the Mississippi valley were well advanced 

 at the period of European conquest, and there is ample evidence to 

 show that the mound building peoples were not behind historic tribes 

 in this matter. In many sections of our country tlie art is still prac- 

 ticed, and with a technical perfection and an artistic refinement of 

 high order, as the splendid collections in our museums amply show. 



The degree of success in the textile art is not necessarily a reliable 

 index of the culture status of the peoples concerned, as progress in a 

 particular art depends much upon the encouragement given to it by 

 local features of environment. The tribe that had good clay used 



