266* THE SERI INDIANS [eth.axn.17 



and groups; the linguistic activities serve to extend social relations iu 

 space and time, and the sophic activities to integrate and perpetuate 

 all relations; but it is through the industrial activities that human 

 intelligence interacts with physical nature and makes conquest of the 

 material world. Accordingly, industries act as a steady and never- 

 ceasing stimulus to intelligence; accordingly, too, the industrial activi- 

 ties att'ord the simplest and surest n)easure of intellectual advancement. 

 Under this view of the place of industrial activities in human phy- 

 logeuy, certain phases of Seri technology acquire importance and espe- 

 cial significance. 



1. One of the most conspicuous features of Seri craft is its local 

 character. The foodstutts, the materials for aitpareling and habita- 

 tions, and the substances utilized iu the several lines of simple handi- 

 craft are essentially local; moreover, the characteristic methods and 

 devices evidently reflect local environmental conditions. There are, 

 indeed,- a few phenomena suggesting, and a still less number demon- 

 strating, extraneous origin; the balsa and the kilt are sufdciently 

 similar to devices of other districts to suggest, though not to prove, 

 genetic identity (indeed, the sum of indications of local origin is much 

 weiglitier than the several suggestions of extraneous derivation); the 

 iron harpoou-points and arrow-tips are mainly of local tiotsam, and are 

 essentially pi-ovincial in modes of employment; the chipped stone 

 arrow-tips, though local in material, are foreign in motive; but on sum- 

 marizing the industrial phenomena, it would appear that by far the 

 greater share are essentially local, while the few of exceptional (aud 

 extraneous) character can be pretty definitely traced to importation 

 through the social interactions of recent centuries, 



2. An equally conspicuous feature of tlie industrial craft of the Seri 

 is the dominance of chance in both processes and devices. The tradi- 

 tional " fisherman's luck " is made exceptionally uncertain by the sudden 

 gales and shifting currents of Seriland shores, while the absolute nec- 

 essaries of life on land are still more capricious than those alongshore; 

 this uncertainty of resources has profoundly alfected the somatic fea- 

 tures of the tribesman, as indicated elsewhere (ante, p. 159); and 

 that the mental attributes of the folk are even more pi-ofoundly atiected 

 is attested by the role played by chance in the selection aud shapemeut 

 of the prevailing tools of stone and shell. The large role of chance 

 in Seri life is also revealed, though less directly, in the overweening 

 mysticism of zootheistic faith, with its material reflection in zoomimic 

 craft. 



3. When the local and fortuitous features of the Seri industries are 

 juxtaposed they are found to express a notably inchoate or primitive 

 stage of industrial develoi)ment. In both the local and the fortuitous 

 or accidental aspects, the activities are so closely adjusted to the imme- 

 diate environment as to approach the instinctive agencies and move- 

 ments of bestial life, aud correspondingly to diverge from the composite 



