Febeuaey 21, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



289 



shaped stone mortar is the eommonest 

 archeologieal find in California. The great 

 majority of the tribes met by the whites 

 did not use such mortars, but a flat slab, 

 or exposed bed-rock, with a mortar or hop- 

 per of basketry. Both the prehistoric and 

 the recent people, however, it is clear, lived 

 principally on vegetable food that needed 

 pounding, no doubt acorns above all; and 

 they used the same types of pestles. 



Such a close correspondence of the re- 

 sults obtained by the prehistoric archeolo- 

 gist and by the ethnologist investigating 

 present-day conditions, is not a new phe- 

 nomenon nor confined to California. It 

 recurs in the southwest, on the north 

 Pacific coast, on the plains, to a consider- 

 able extent in Mexico, in fact, broadly 

 speaking, over the whole of North America 

 except part of the region between the Mis- 

 sissippi and the Alleghanies. The wide- 

 spreadness of the correspondence, however, 

 makes it particularly interesting and im- 

 portant, as it seems to show either that all 

 American culture is comparatively recent, 

 or that its principal forms, differentiated 

 a long time ago, have been maintained by 

 a strong conservatism. 



The physical anthropology of California 

 is yet in its infancy, but whether it will 

 ever far outgTow this stage seems doubts 

 ful. Over great parts of the state pre- 

 historic material for investigation is want- 

 ing, owing to the prevalence of the custom 

 of cremation of the dead. In other parts 

 the recent people have become extinct with- 

 out being measured or photographed. In 

 some regions, such as the Salinas valley, 

 there is neither recent nor ancient material. 

 The map of California will, therefore, pre- 

 sumably always contain large blanks so far 

 as physical anthi-opology is concerned. At 

 present studies are further restricted 

 through the comparative scarcity of in- 

 formation in most of the surrounding parts. 

 No general correspondences of racial types 



with cultural or linguistic divisions have 

 been established. In fact, the observed in- 

 stances more frequently show a lack of 

 correlation. There does not appear to have 

 been any very considerable physical diver- 

 sification within the limits of the state. 

 Whether a few scattered areas showing 

 aberrant types, such as the long-headed 

 people of the upper waters of Eel River 

 and of the southern Santa Barbara islands, 

 are to be regarded as ethnic islands in 

 which an earlier continuous but now other- 

 wise submerged race has maintained itself 

 to the present in comparative purity; or 

 whether they represent migrations of dis- 

 tinct types from a more remote habitat ; or 

 whether they are local developments from 

 a single widely spread and originally uni- 

 form type, must yet be considered uncer- 

 tain. 



It may be asked what are the specific 

 problems of the anthropology of California. 

 The most important questions have been 

 outlined in the summary of results that has 

 been given. While something has been 

 done, and some problems have been solved 

 or brought nearer solution, they have only 

 served, as is always the case, to open wider 

 problems. If it has been determined that 

 dialects do not form gradual transitions, 

 but present abrupt changes, a point is 

 gained. But the question at once arises 

 what the conditions are that have brought 

 about and maintained this state. While 

 the structure of some languages is fairly 

 well known, generally through the study of 

 one selected dialect, there are more of 

 which we have only the most superficial 

 conception. If these less-known languages 

 show resemblances among each other, or to 

 the better-known languages, either in con- 

 tent or in form, we need more information 

 than exists in order to follow out the 

 promising comparisons. If half a dozen 

 shell-mounds on San Francisco Bay show 

 varying subsidences below sea level, there 



