MOQEE] GENESIS OF IMPLEMENTS 251* 



ments of uiaterial in devices of zoomimlc motive; hut tliis series may 

 be regarded as <;()ustitutiiig a subclass, or as a conuectiug link between 

 classes rather than a major class of devices. Yet the subclass is of 

 great significance as a mile-mark of progress in nature-conquest, and 

 as the germ of that industrial revolution consummated as tribesmen 

 grew into reliance on their own acumen and strength and skill rather 

 than on the capricious favor of beast-gods. 



The next major class of devices comprises shells .and cobbles and 

 bowlders picked up at random to meet emergency needs, wielded in 

 ways determined by emergency adjustment of means to ends, and some- 

 times retained and reused under the budding instinct of fitness, though 

 never shaped by design. The devi(;es of this class are best exemplified 

 by the tool-shells and by the bupfs and ahsts of the Seri matrons, partly 

 because of the practical absence of higher artifacts from their territory; 

 yet the class is by no means confined to this notably primitive folk : 

 the greater part of the implements used by the California Indians and a 

 large part of those used by every other known Amerind tribe in aborigi- 

 nal condition consist of shore cobbles, river pebbles, talus bowlders, or 

 other natural stones of form and size convenient for emergency use; 

 and (despite the fact that such objects are often ignored by observers, 

 for the prosaic reason that they represent no familiar or trenchant 

 class), there is no lack of evidence that they are or have been in habit- 

 ual use among all primitive peoples. Although zootheistic or sortilegic 

 motives doubtless play an undetermined role in the selection of the 

 objects, and although wonted zoomimic movements doubtless affect the 

 initial processes, the essential distinction from zoomimic artifacts 

 resides in the selection and use of natural objects through a mechanical 

 chance tending to inspire volitional exercise rather than through a 

 fiducial rule tending to paralyze volitional ettbrt; while the class is no 

 less trenchantly separable from those of higher grade by the absence 

 of preconceived models or technical designs. The class of devices and 

 the culture-stage which they represent have already been outlined and 

 defined as 2^>'ofolithic.' 



A transitional series of devices allied to the Seri hupf on the one 

 hand and to the chipped artifact on the other hand is frequently found 

 among the aborigines of California and other native tribes ; it is typified 

 by a cobble or other natural piece of stone cleft (first by accident of use 

 and later by design) in such wise as to afibrd an edged tool. This subclass 

 of artifacts is religiously eschewed by the Seri ; but it is of much inter- 

 est as an illustration of the way in which artificialization proceeds, and 

 of the exceeding slowness of primitive progress. 



The third great class of devices defined by technologic development 

 comprises stones chipped, flaked, battered, ground, or otherwise 

 wrought iu accordance with preconceived designs, together with cold- 

 forged native metal, horn, bone, wood, and other substances wrought 



'Americau Authropologist, vol. ix, 1896, pp. 317-318. 



