XII BUREAU Oi' AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



OFFICE RESEARCH 

 Work in Esthetology 



Tliroug-liout much of the year the Director continued giving 

 attention to the synthesis of data in the Bureau archives and 

 in pubhshed form, with the view of organizing anthropic 

 science, including ethnology in its several aspects. Among 

 the subjects considered in detail was that of the more spon- 

 taneous luinian activities, normally pleasurable in character, 

 wliich form the object-matter of esthetology. The researches 

 among the aborigines have thrown much light on this subject, 

 since tlie symbolic devices, sports, games, and ceremonies of 

 the tribesmen are relatively simple and little differentiated, and 

 hence are readily perceived and svnthesized — indeed the syn- 

 thesis of the esthetic and other activities rests primarily on the 

 observations among the American natives, corroborated by 

 critical observations on other primitive peoples, ami finally 

 attested by the facts manifested among advanced peoples. It 

 is convenient to denote the primary activities com])rised in the 

 domain of esthetology as jileasures, since they are largely 

 physiologic in character, though, like other activities, chiefly 

 demotic (or collective) in tlieir manifestations; and tlie activi- 

 ties may be classed as ambrosial pleasures, decoration, athletic 

 pleasures or sports, games, and fine arts. The definitions and 

 the classification of esthetology were formulated and printed 

 in such manner as to facilitate examination and further discus- 

 sion on the ])art of the collaborators of the Bureau and other 

 students, and were finally inc(irj)orated in the last report. 



In continuing his researches concerning the collections 

 made in the Florida muckbeds, Mr Frank Hamilton Gushing 

 was led to comparative study of a wide range of those products 

 of primitive handicraft expressing symbolic ideas in form, func- 

 tion, and decoration; and certain of his generalizations are of 

 nuich importance in that they afford a satisfactory basis for 

 the classification and interpretation of many of tlie protean 

 artifacts of primitive origin. His researches indicate tliat the 

 primitive implement-maker is actuated by a few dominant 



