TKANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 803 



Large quantities of food and property of various kinds are destroyed by the 

 mourners, excessive grief being proved by excessive destruction ; and all who 

 come to a funeral are rewarded by a present of shell-money and food. I'emale 

 mourners are always present, and are well paid for weeping. 



In some parts of New Ireland the dead are buried in the sea. 



SATURDAY, AUGUST 22. 

 This Section did not meet. 



3I0NDAY, AUGUST 24. 



The following Papers and Reports were read : — 



1. Barbaric Elements in Ancient Greece and Italy. 

 By Prof. Gr. Hartwell-Jones, M.A. 



The civilisation of Greece and Italy, which saved Europe from stagnation on both 

 "sides, is valuable for the study of the growth of institutions ; it was evolved slowly 

 from an original barbarism. But, as the classics are now read, their scientific value 

 is obscured. 



Their history occupies a peculiar position : («) geographically, they were 

 influenced by two streams of culture converging, the Aryan and Eastern; {b) 

 their growth was parallel ; (c) both were similarly, but indepen(^ently, afiected by 

 immediate neighbours. 



(i.) Whatever may be the truth about the seat of the Aryans, first they came 

 south by land ; secondly they brought with them a high capacity for development, 

 but were certainly not as advanced as Gobineau assumed. 



(ii.) They were both afiected by Asia Minor, Assyria, and Egypt, the North 

 Semitic races being their intermediaries. 



The materials for reconstructing prehistoric society must be sought in archaeo- 

 logy, and uomology, as much as the science of language, this was seen by Hehn. 



The purpose of this paper is to show by means of a few specimens the anthro- 

 pological value of the classics, aided by the excavations of Schliemann, Helbig, 

 Chierici, &c., and Sanskrit literatm'e, in the (i.) material and social, (ii.) mytho- 

 logical and religious aspects of Greek and Italian life. 



(I.) They passed through three stages : — (a) hunting, (b) pastoral, (c) agricul- 

 tural ; but the transition was gradual. The animals hunted were the stag, bison, and 

 probably the horse ; they used the fire-drill ; fishing was a recent invention ; religion 

 was marked by ferocity. The change to agriculture humanised them ; they fed on 

 milk, meat, salt, spice, mead, and roamed in search of fresh fields. The ox lefb a 

 deep impression upon language, custom, and myth ; it was the unit of wealth and 

 the medium of exchange ; the horse was first used for the war chariot ; the super- 

 vention of horse-breeding later is reflected in language. The word for harvest was 

 not known in the holoethnic period. Some tribes remained at the agricultural 

 stage throughout ; others, e.g. the Dorians, retained their old passion. The pile- 

 dwellings of the terra mare reveal cattle-rearing giving way to husbandry and vine- 

 culture ; no doubt Epeiros would exhibit the same progress. The Pelasgoi were 

 essentially agricultural ; the transition in Italy is reflected in legend. The first 

 plough was the branch of a tree. TUlage was practised before horticulture. 

 Agriculture left a deep impression upon language and life. 



The family was highly important in Greek and Italian life. Marriage clearly 

 passed through the (a) capture, (b) purchase stage, and once polygamy prevailed ; 

 80, too, levirate, the vendetta, the suttee, but not polyandria, as Bachofen main- 



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