H.— ANTHROPOLOGY. 153 



and many other one-piece implements, are defined by form alone. Stone 

 implements are, in fact, often judged by the technique of their workmanship 

 as well as by their general form, and the passion they inspire sometimes 

 leads to an excess of typological zeal which makes classification an end 

 rather than a means. But flint is wilful as well as hard, and the hand of 

 the flint worker was often forced. He knew the form he aimed at and the 

 flaking-angle he preferred, but he could not keep his material under 

 absolute control, and some so-called types are flint-made as much as 

 man-made. 



Most of our difficulties in the search for criteria of form, in relation to 

 independent evolution, arise out of the problems of separating the 

 functional from the incidental and conventional. A digging-stick must 

 have a point or a flattened end to penetrate the soil ; a paddle must have 

 a blade ; a sword must have a hilt which can be grasped. But a digging- 

 stick need not have a foot-rest ; a paddle need not have a crutch-handle ; 

 a sword need not have a hand-guard. We can say that, speaking 

 generally, a foot-rest on a digging-stick has a greater functional value than 

 a crutch-handle on a paddle, but it is impossible to determine whether 

 one of these is more likely than the other to give us instances of independent 

 evolution. The questions as to how and why such features first appeared 

 cannot be answered with any certainty. But if we consider features that 

 are functionally meaningless, or unimportant, we are more often justified 

 in the assumption that they are probably due to variation, and are less 

 likely to be duplicated independently. As a matter of well-known fact, 

 there are innumerable simple characters of form which are so typical of 

 certain regions that they are diagnostic of the place of origin. Knobbed 

 clubs, for example, are not uncommon, but the knob flattened distally 

 and proximally is found only on African clubs, and in these ' knobkerries ' 

 the knob is also situated laterally to the axis of the weapon. The form of 

 the knob itself is sufficient for determination, and this is true of the knobs, 

 or heads, of many wooden clubs from the Pacific ; whilst if we consider 

 the whole form of a club from any part of the world, it is rarely indeed 

 that there is any doubt as to provenance. There has been independent 

 evolution, not always variational, but it has led to divergence and not to 

 similarity. It is largely upon this result of independent evolution in 

 producing characteristic features of form, that we are able to assign a 

 place of origin to a wooden club, or other one-piece artefact, that lacks 

 credentials. 



On the other hand, there are certain types of clubs from Fiji, Tonga, 

 and Samoa, that approach each other so closely as to present some 

 difficulty except to the expert ; but this is due to the recent intercourse 

 that has taken place between the groups. Such facts as these are in direct 

 opposition to the view that similarity of form is not to be trusted as evidence 

 of diffusion. That similarities may occur through coincidence is not to be 

 doubted, and perhaps this is the case, for example, with the broad 

 Andamanese bow and an East African type which approaches it rather 

 closely. It may be that the two forms had a common origin, but it is also 

 possible that they were derived independently from broad bamboo bow- 

 staves, the central narrowing for a grip, and the thinning out of the two 

 ends, being features that they have in common with other bow-staves. 

 In estimating the chances for and against independent origin in any 



