252* 



THE SERI INDIANS 



[ETH. ANN. 17 



in accordance with preconceived models and direct motives. Among 

 the Seri this class of devices is represented only by the rare arrowpointa 

 of chipped stone, which seem to be accultural and largely fetishistic; 

 but the class is abundantly represented by the artifacts of most of the 

 Amerind tribes. The class and the cultural stage have already been 

 outlined under the term technolithic? 



A transitional series of devices intervenes between stone artifacts 

 and artifacts of smelted metal; it is represented by malleable native 

 metals (chiefly copper, silver, meteoric iron, and gold), originally 

 ■wrought cold, after the manner of stone, though heating under the 

 hammer in such wise as to prepare the way for forging, fusing, and 

 founding. These devices and the processes with which they are cor- 

 related are not represented among the Seri ; indeed, the crude use of 

 iron by the tribe would seem to lie on a lower plane in industrial 

 development than even the arrowpoint-chipping, in that the artifacts, 

 though of foreign material, are wrought largely in accordance with 

 zoomimic motives. 



The fourth major class of devices, comprising the multifarious artifacts 

 of smelted and alloyed metal, was barely represented in aboriginal 

 America; only a few of the more advanced tribes had attained the 

 threshold of metallurgy, and even among these the crude metal work- 

 ing remained hieratic or esthetic, and did not displace the prevalent 

 stone craft. 



Briefly, the several stages in the development of tools and imple- 

 ments may be seriated as follows : 



• Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1898. pp. 42-43. The long extant and well-known 

 clas.sification of stone artifacts as "paleolithic" and "neolithic" may not he overlooked. This lUassi- 

 fication was based origiually on prehistoric relics of Europe, and it served excellent purpose in dis- 

 tinjjuishing finely finished stone implements from those of rudely chipped stone: but both clanses of 

 artifacts were shaped in accordance with preconceived design, and hence both belong to the techno- 

 lithic class as herein defined. It maybe added that the classitication was made with little if any 

 reference to primitive thought, was not based on observation among primitive peoples, and lias not 

 been found to apply usefully to the aborigines and aborifj;iniil artifacts of America, where the repre- 

 sentative tribe or prehistoric village site is characterized by implements of both "paleolithic" and 

 "neolithic" types which intergnule in such manner as to prove contemporaneous manufacture and 

 interchangeable use; while the preponderance of polished -stone implements is generally indicative of 

 simpler rather than of more advanced culture. 



