392 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 



Monday, September 14. 



Prof. C. Daryll Forde. — Social change in a West African village com- 

 munity (io.o). 



Despite the dominance of patrilineal territorial kin groups in the organisa- 

 tion of economic activities in the Yako villages, authority and legal decisions 

 within the villages have lain with a number of priest-chiefs whose prestige 

 and authority derive not from those kin groups but from co-existing matri- 

 lineal groups. 



This situation is, however, being seriously challenged. The establish- 

 ment under government authority of a native court, and the creation in 

 connection with it of warrant chiefs, proposed by aggregations of patrilineal 

 kin groups, together with the suppression or decay of the punitive action of 

 societies, have restricted the authority and the powers of the priests' council, 

 while the establishment of external authority has reduced its prestige. 



In connection with the proposal of the Government to create a native 

 authority intended to reflect and implement native law and custom, there is 

 a strong demand by a group of younger men that the council of the priests 

 of the matrilineal kin groups shall be entirely ignored. This vocal group 

 desires a council composed of spokesmen of patrilineal kin groups alone. 

 Motives behind this are many and confused. Loyalty, within the matri- 

 lineal groups is, however, very strong among the majority, and their rituals 

 have great prestige, so that a serious internal conflict has developed which 

 involves the fundamental social organisation of the community. 



Dr. D. Jenness. — The backwardness of the American Indians and its causes 



(iQ-35)- 



Why were the Indians backward ? — ' Pure ' races — Intelligence of races 

 and peoples — Temperaments of peoples — Influence of ' race-mixture ' — 

 Wave-like progress of civilization — Influence of climate on civilization — ■ 

 Culture contacts and their effects on civilization — Backwardness of Indians 

 partly due to isolation — Later dawn of civilization in America — Similarities 

 and differences in the growth and spread of New and Old World civiliza- 

 tions — Influence of physiographic conditions in the Old and New Worlds — 

 Rise and decline of nations in America — Conclusion. 



Dr E. J. Lindgren. — Russo-Tungus culture contact (ii.io). 



The Reindeer Tungus of north-western Manchuria and the Russian 

 Cossacks with whom they have been trading for at least seventy years pro- 

 vide an example of contact between an aboriginal and a European culture 

 which has several unusual features. Despite their long association, there is 

 no perceptible tendency for one culture to eliminate, or to fuse with, the 

 other ; cordial social relationships coexist with freedom in internal ad- 

 ministration, and differences in race and culture appear to cause no hostility. 



Among the factors which probably contribute to this state of cultural 

 equilibrium are the approximate numerical equality of the two communities 

 and their partial economic interdependence. The circumstance that cultural 

 borrowing has taken place in both directions is perhaps of still greater im- 

 portance. Thus Tungus summer dress is largely Russian in material and 

 style, while Cossacks hunting in the woods in winter wear leather garments 

 either of Tungus manufacture or tanned by a Tungus method. In the 

 sphere of religion there is a similar interchange : the Tungus follow most 



