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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII, No. 952 



bodied in the physical constitution of man which 

 when properly read tells the story of his develop- 

 ment from lower forms; (5) the record of intel- 

 lectual growth and powers to be sought and 

 studied in the constitution of the mind; (6) the 

 environments which reveal the story of the nur- 

 ture and building up of the race throughout the 

 past. 



It is from these diversified records of present 

 and past times that the story of the seven grand 

 divisions of the history of man must be drawn. 

 Archeology stands quite apart from this classifi- 

 cation of the science, traversing in its own way 

 the entire field of research. It claims for its own 

 more especially that which is old or ancient in this 

 vast body of data. It is even called upon to pick 

 up the lost strands of the earlier written records, 

 as with the shadowy beginnings of glyphic and 

 phonetic writing, and restore them to the his- 

 torian. It must recover the secrets of the com- 

 memorative monuments, the tombs and temples 

 intended to immortalize the now long-forgotten 

 great. It must follow back the obscure trails of 

 tradition and substantiate or discredit the lore of 

 the fathers. It must interpret the pictorial rec- 

 ords inscribed by the ancients on rock faces and 

 cavern walls which men meant should last forever. 

 All that archeology retrieves from this wide field 

 is restored to human knowledge and added to the 

 volume of written history. 



The services of archeologic science are equally 

 potent in the field of the fortuitous records of 

 humanity, for it reads that which was never in- 

 tended to be read. The products of human handi- 

 craft, present and past, which have recorded auto- 

 matically the doings of the ages are made to tell 

 the story of the struggles, the triumphs and the 

 defeats of humanity. The fortuitous records em- 

 bodied in the non -material products of man's 

 activities of to-day, although in themselves not 

 antiquities, are made to cast a strong light on the 

 history and significance of the material things of 

 the past. Even the body of knowledge gathered 

 from many sources and stored in the memory of 

 the living, though unreliable and transient as a 

 record, may be made to illumine the past; and 

 the physical and psychical characters of man are 

 in themselves records and may be made to tell the 

 story of their own becoming and to explain the 

 activities and the products of activity throughout 

 the ages. All that archeology gathers from this 

 wide field of research is added to the volume of 

 written history. 



In the great work of assembling the lost pages 

 and completing the volume of the history of man, 

 archeology may well claim first place among the 

 contributing sciences. 



This paper was discussed by Messrs. Casanowicz, 

 Carroll, Stetson, Babcock, Hewitt, Swanton and 

 Neumann. 



A SPECIAL meeting of the Anthropological So- 

 ciety of Washington was held March 6, 1913, at 

 4:30 P.M., in the auditorium of the new building 

 of the National Museum, the president, Mr. George 

 E. Stetson, in the chair. 



Dr. Walter Hough read a paper on "Savage 

 Mutilations for Decoration. ' ' 



The paper was a short excursion into the enor- 

 mous field of custom with regard to ethnic mutila- 

 tions, and Bufiicient examples were given to lay 

 the subject rather completely before the society. 

 In it were described the most striking forms of 

 head shaping by pressure in infancy; the various 

 forms of teeth mutilations; ear, nose, cheek and 

 lip modifications and ornaments; pressure and 

 mutilations in the arms, waist and limbs, and 

 modifications of the bones of the feet. With 

 mutilations also should be considered, perhaps, 

 extraordinary hair dressing and treatment of the 

 finger nails. 



Many slides were shown of tattooing, scarifica- 

 tion and decoration of the skin by means of dyes 

 and pigments, and some of their multifarious 

 meanings given. On the whole, it was concluded 

 that ethnic mutilations originated from many 

 concepts, the more important being a desire for 

 identification, in some cases individual, but in 

 most cases tribal; a desire for ornamentation, 

 mainly individual in its treatment, but following 

 environmental and tribal fashions; and also very 

 important mutilations growing out of superstitious 

 and religious ideas. 



Many ethnic mutilations also relate to sex, 

 puberty, social rank, honor for warlike feats and 

 the like. All these ideas, which at times have been 

 advanced as the explanation of the causes, show 

 that the matter is extremely complex. The bear- 

 ing of ethnic mutilations on primitive surgery was 

 also hinted at, as well as its effects on the devel- 

 opment of costume. 



Dr. Williams and Dr. Swanton made certain 

 inquiries and brief appurtenant remarks, which 

 Dr. Hough answered. 



Wm. H. Babcock, 



Secretary 



