422 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 
is found in each of these cultures, there is a different cultural emphasis. The 
governmental prerogatives of the aristocracy have been almost entirely absorbed 
into a democratic system in Samoa; in Hawaii, elaboration of the idea of rank 
resulted in rigid lines of demarcation through every phase of Hawaiian society, 
and has developed among the Maori a particularly coherent and integrated 
social system based upon the mutual dependence of more privileged and less 
privileged. 
25. Joint Discussion with Section J (q.v.) on Racial Mental 
Differences. (Page 439.) 
Tuesday, August 12, 
26. Dr. Lavaurin.—Some of the Racial Characteristics Emerging 
from America’s Study of her Immigrants. 
27. Mr. D. Jenness.—The Ancient Education of a Carrier Indian. 
28. Mr. T. F. McIuwrairy.—Some Aspects of the Potlatch in Bella 
Coola. 
In Bella Coola no ceremonial event, such as a marriage, a mourning ceremony, 
a bestowal of names, or a dance, is performed except in the presence of 
spectators. To the Indian it would be unthinkable for the host to allow such 
spectators to depart without giving to each a present, i.e. without a potlatch. 
Each recipient becomes a legal witness of the ceremony; thus the essence of the 
potlatch is a means of validation. 
It has also a social significance. The value of each present is carefully 
remembered, and it is incumbent on the recipient to return at least an equivalent 
at some future potlatch. A man’s personal prestige and social importance 
increases if he repay promptly with heavy interest, whereas, should he fail to 
do so, his influence is lessened. Thus a man’s status in the community virtually 
depends on the number and size of the potlatches which he has given, 
29. Dr. E. Saprr.—The Privilege Concept among the Nootka Indians. 
30. Prof. W. K. Grecory and Mr. M. Kettman.—The Dentition of 
Dryopithecus and the Origin of Man. 
Parts of three lower jaws of fossil anthropoids of the genus Dryopithecus 
have recently been discovered in the Siwaliks by Barnum Brown, of the 
American Museum of Natura! History, New York. The fossils include a 
nearly complete forepart of the jaw, and two left halves, with the cheek teeth 
beautifully preserved in both. They were found in three successive horizons 
of the Lower and Middle Siwaliks, and the series as a whole reveals a progressive 
modification of the premolars in the direction of the later anthropoids. The 
new specimens thus afford a welcome addition to knowledge of the Siwaliks 
anthropoids described some years ago by Pilgrim, of the Indian Survey. The 
‘Dryopithecus crown pattern’ of the lower molars is fully expressed in all the 
Siwaliks anthropoids, and has been traced, with detailed modifications, not only 
into the molar crown patterns of each of the existing anthropoids, but also into 
those of primitive human types. The anterior premolar of Dryopithecus is 
laterally compressed, but the homologous tooth in chimpanzees varies from a 
compressed form, recalling that of Dryopithecus, to an almost human bicuspid 
stage. 
These facts, in the light of cumulative anatomical evidence for the relatively 
close relationship of man with the existing anthropoids, not only afford strong 
support for Darwin’s view that man is an offshoot from the anthropoid stem, 
but tend to indicate that the distinctively human modifications of the dentition 
took place after the Middle Miocene. 
