ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT LI 



completed at the end of the fiscal year, and is appended to this 

 report. 



As during past years, much attention has been given to pho- 

 tographing- Indians and Indian subjects, and a small photo- 

 gi-aphic laboratory has been maintained. During the winter 

 advantage was taken of the presence of representative Indians 

 in the national capital, and a number of jjortrait photographs 

 were obtained, together with considerable genealogic infoi-nia- 

 tion concerning various chiefs and leading men among several 

 tribes. 



SOCIOLOGY 



Except while occupied in administrative work, Mr W J 

 McGee, ethnologist in charge of the Bureau, has been carrying 

 forward researches relating to the social organization of the 

 Indian tribes. His work is based on the voluminous records 

 in the archives of the Bureau and on observations especiallv 

 among the Pajiago and Seri Indians. It has been the aim to 

 render this work fundamental, and to this end the primary 

 characteristics of mankind as distinguished from lower organ- 

 isms have been considered with especial care. The studies of 

 the Seri Indians have been particularly fruitful. Among the 

 results of the researches there may be mentioned (1) an analy- 

 sis of the beginning of agriculture, (2) the recognition of the 

 beginning of zooculture, (3) a study of the growth of altruistic 

 motive, and (4) an examination of early stages in the develop- 

 ment of marriage. These results are incorporated partly in a 

 preliminary memoir on the "Siouan Indians" printed in the 

 fifteenth annual report, partly in several administrative reports, 

 partly in an address published in the Smitlisonian annual report 

 for 181:)5, but mainl}' in a memoir appended to this report. 



It may be noted summarily that the researches concerning 

 the beginning of agriculture indicate tliat this important art 

 originated independently in different desert regions, and was at 

 first merely an expression of a solidarity into which men and 

 lower organisms were forced by reason of the environmental 

 conditions characteristic of the desert. Later the art was raised 

 to a higher ]>lane tlu'ough the gradual development of irriga- 

 tion, and still later it was extended into areas in which in-iijation 



