162* THE SERI INDIANS [eth.ann.it 



bound tribe and their alieu ueighbors. Yet tlie general application of 

 the law leads only to a more specific application ; for, just as the career 

 of the stirp is made up of a succession of vital maxima and minima, so 

 the lifetime of the individual, even in the median stage, is made up of 

 a series of vital climaxes separated by relatively inert intervals; and, 

 as recognized by every naturalist and romancist, every philosopher 

 and poet, in every stage of culture, it is during the ])eriods of conative 

 domination by the master passion that the career of the individual is 

 shai)ed and that the stirp sentiment (or susceptibility to kind) culmi- 

 nates in intensity. It follows that the progeny of successive genera- 

 tions represent not merely the optimum median stage of life in which 

 vitality and virility and muliebrity are at flood, but the very climaxes 

 of this stage in which manhood and womanhood attain their ideals, 

 and in which the ideals react on the physical system with uneqnaled 

 intensity; it follows in turn that each generation must (iu so far as 

 intellectual tension can control long series of metabolic interactions 

 after the manner iu whic^h short series are controlled by direct volitional 

 exercise) incarnate the ideals of the preceding generation ; whence it 

 follows still further that in general isolated race types tend constantly 

 and cumulatively to increase in deflniteness — at least until the somatic 

 factors are counterbalanced by demotic relationships arising with con- 

 siderable increase in population. It is true that the extent to which 

 the incarnation of ideals is effective or even possible has not been 

 Ineasnred; it is also true that the naturalists of the higher culture- 

 stages commonly neglect the process; yet the occasional recognition of 

 its positive aspect, as in Goethe's "elective afl(inities"and in Jacob's 

 getting of "ringstraked, speckled, and spotted" stock (Genesis xxx, 

 37-41 ), and the practically universal recognition — more especially 

 among piimitive peoples — of its negative aspect in adverse prenatal 

 intiueiices, clearly indicates its importance; the fact that the ancient 

 Greeks at onceidealized in unparalleled degree, and i)roduced unexcelled 

 perfection in, the human form beingof no small significance. Even if the 

 measure of the incarnation of ideals be retlnced to the lowest minimum 

 consistent with common knowledge, it remains true that the progeny 

 of successive generations are not the oti'-pring of average parents, but 

 of pairs at the perfection and conjugal culmination of their virile and 

 muliebrile excellencies; so that the generations must run in courses of 

 cumulatively increasing racial (or human) i)erfectiou, under a general 

 /(( ir of conjugal conation! 



In extending the general law of conjugal conation to the Seri, it 

 is found peculiarly applicable, iu view of their distinctive marriage 

 custom, the effect of which is to intensify conjugal sentiments, with the 

 attendant magnification, and j)otential if not actual incarnation, of 

 ideals." Accordingly there would appear to be a harmony between 



• The law of cou.jugal conation was indeed suggested by observations on tlie peculiar marriage cus- 

 tont aud peculiarly at'velopcd race-sense of the Seri tribi', and it has already beeu applied in certain 

 of its aspects as an exjilauation of the initial liuniani/,ati(»?i of nianliind (The Trend of Human Prog- 

 ress, American Autliri)i>ologist, new series, vol. 1, 18!j9, pp. 415—118). 



