woeb:! genesis of industries 267* 



and cosmopolite characters of higher luiinanity; the dearth of extrane- 

 ous devices denotes absence or intolerance of that accultnral inter- 

 change accomitauying and marking the progress of peoples; and the 

 dearth of inventions denotes feebleness of creative facidty and absence 

 of that self coutidence which accompanies and measures progress in 

 nature-conquest. 



4. When the local and fortuitous features of the Seri craft are viewed 

 in their serial or se(iuential relations, they are found to retlect and 

 attest autochthonal development. Excepting the few accuitural pro- 

 cesses and devices whose acquisition may confidently be trac'ed to cer- 

 tain social interactions of the historic period, the Seri technic is too 

 closely tied to local environment to warrant any sui)position of impor- 

 tation from other districts. The question of the birthplace of the peo- 

 lile may be left open in this case as in every other; but the birthi)lace 

 of practically all those activities and activital products which define 

 the folk as human was manifestly Seriland itself — so that the tribe, 

 considered as a human folk rather thau as a zoic variety, must be 

 classed as autochthonous. 



Summarily, then, the Seri industries are significant as (1) local, (2) 

 fortuitous, (3) primitive, and (4) autochthonous; and these features 

 combine to illumine a noteworthy stage in ])rimitive thought. 



5. On juxtaposing these significant features of Seri technic, they are 

 found to reflect the tribal mind with noteworthy fidelity, and hence to 

 indicate the sources of Seri mentations, and of the local culture in 

 which these mentations are integrated. The local foodstuffs — espe- 

 cially that vital standard of values in arid regions, water — are periodic 

 sources of the strongest aspirations and inspirations of industrial life, 

 and the methods and devices for food-getting are but the legitimate 

 oifspring of the inevitable relation between effort and environment; the 

 .conspicuous role of chance is but the composite of the hard and capri- 

 cious environment on the one hand, and of the lowly thought reflecting 

 that environment on the other hand; the zoic faith into which the 

 magma of recurrent chance has semicrystallized finds carnate symbols 

 either iu local beasts or in fantastic monsters suggested by those 

 beasts; even the mating instinct, second only to thirst among the 

 impelling action-fa(!tors of the folk, is so profoundly and bitterly pro- 

 vincial as to exclude foreign ideals to a degree unparalleled among 

 known peoples. The industrial materials are local — but not more local 

 than the thoughts in which they are reflected; the technical methods 

 are unmistakably the offspring of the environment — but they are equally 

 the offspring of minds reflecting that environment and no other; the 

 few and simple devices stand for integrations of experiences, instinctive 

 rather than ratiocinative, the germ of inventiou rather than even its 

 opening bud — but the experiences bear the marks of that environment 

 and no other. Accordingly, the mental side of Seri industry, and, in- 

 deed, of all Seri life, appears to be the counterpart of the physical 



