22 ABORIGINAL POTTERY OF EASTERN UNITED STATES [eth.ann.20 



study the iincieut ware by itself, ami afterwiird proceed in .such special 

 case as may otter eni'Duragement in that direction to connect the art 

 M'ith the peoples, adding- such evidence as may be thus secured to our 

 knowledge of the historj' of families and tribes. 



V\> to the present time there has been a very imperfect understand- 

 ing of the character and sc(jpe of the fictile products of the whole 

 region east of the Kocky mountains. Some writers have regarded 

 everything indiscriminately as simple, rude, and of little importance; 

 others, going to the opposite extreme, have found mai'ked variations 

 with impassil)le gulfs lietween the higher and lower forms — gulfs cor- 

 responding to the wide distinctions supposed by some early writers to 

 exist between the cultures of the so-called mound-builder and the com- 

 mon Indian. 



Notwithstanding the fact that the ware of eastern North America is 

 easily separable into groups, some of which ditt'er widely from others, 

 when we assume a liroader jjoint of view ail varieties are seen to be 

 members of one great family, the points of correspondence being so 

 marked and numerous that the ditt'erences by means of which we dis- 

 tinguish the groups siidv into comparative insigniticance. A wide 

 range of accomplishment is apparent, and strong evidences of indi- 

 viduality are discovered in the ditterent groups, but these ditt'erences 

 are probably far in excess of the differences existing in the culture 

 status of the peoples concerned in their production. This fact is 

 apparent when we observe the relative condition of progress among 

 the tribes of to-day. It is seen that the arts are not s^-mmetrically and 

 equally developed; the inferior ware of one locality does not indicate 

 that the people of that locality were inferior in culture, for the reverse 

 ma}' be the case. l)ut it may signifj' that the conditions of life were 

 such that the potter's art was uncalled for, or imperfectly practiced, 

 while other arts took the lead and were highly perfected. The cul- 

 ture status of a given people nuist be determined by a consideration 

 of the sum of the planes of all the arts and not by the plane of any 

 one art. 



It has often been remarked that the pottery of the North is rude as 

 compared with that of the South, but in Florida and on the Gulf coast 

 pottery is now and then found which is quite as low in the scale as any- 

 thing a1)out the borders of the (treat lakes, and occasional specimens 

 from New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin fairly rival in all 

 essential features the best products of the southern states. Condi- 

 tions governing the practice of the art were, however, on the whole, 

 decidedly more favorable in the South, and here it has been practiced 

 more fully and more constantly than in the North. 



Climatic conditions, degree of sedentation, nature of food supply, 

 and availability of material have each a marked influence on the con- 

 dition of the arts. The art that flourishes on the Gulf coast with a 



