November 4, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



023 



and awnings, was provided. Lectures and 

 field excursions, under direction of some of the 

 staff, were held at stated hours; these were 

 regularly attended by many visitors, includ- 

 ing tourists and travelers from various parts 

 of the country, and prominent officials and 

 citizens of Santa Fe. Many of these came out 

 of curiosity, but availed themselves of the 

 facilities afforded by the lectures and excur- 

 sions, which were free to all who were inter- 

 ested. The locality is about thirty-five miles 

 by road from Santa Fe, reached by carriage in 

 a day's drive. 



The line of research followed embraced the 

 usual archeological work, having for its aim 

 the study of the native races of America, lim- 

 ited at present to those of fixed habitations. 

 For this there are two sources of knowledge: 

 (1) The original, from the prehistoric ruins, 

 representing the isolated Indian culture un- 

 modified by contact with other races; and (2) 

 secondary, from the existing Indians of con- 

 tiguous or related territory, who must be 

 studied for the light they throw on the an- 

 cient cultures. Under the plan developed in 

 the school, these problems are attacked with 

 aids derived from several branches of science, 

 some of which at first thought may not be 

 considered germane to the subject; but a sug- 

 gestion of the reasons for employing them will 

 show their relevancy. Under the general head 

 of ethnology we may have: 



1. Linguistics. — The languages of the living 

 Indians of the region furnish trails leading to 

 knowledge of many things we need to know 

 concerning the ancient peoples — their loiowl- 

 edge of places, geographical limits, the ele- 

 ments, constellations; their ideas on myths, 

 legends, religion ; their views of life and the 

 hereafter ; their social organization and ma- 

 terial culture; the whole range of what they 

 make and do, and why. 



2. The Natural History of the Region. — (a) 

 Geology. — The settlement of the whole great 

 southwest region of 1,000 by 800 miles was 

 directly controlled by the geological structure 

 of the country. It determined the location of 

 the habitations; the building material and 

 character of the houses, from the caves worn 



by the winds out of soft tufaceous deposits, 

 enlarged by scratching with stone tools, to 

 additions and enlargements with shaped 

 blocks upon the talus, leading later to the de- 

 tached houses as population increased, and 

 finally to the Pueblo houses of to-day. These 

 are ethno-geological facts closely related to 

 the questions in hand. 



(6) Vegetation. — Plant life powerfully in- 

 fluenced the culture of the Indian. He made 

 use of a large number of them, for their food 

 value, their medicinal properties real and sup- 

 posed, and for superstitious reasons. He was 

 in this region necessarily an agriculturist, de- 

 pending upon vegetation for his subsistence 

 far more than the plains Indians, who had 

 animal food in abundance. To understand 

 this properly, exact knowledge of the plant life 

 of the region is necessary, together with the 

 probable effect upon it of great cycles of cli- 

 matic change. Scientific knowledge of the 

 present day must be connected with what the 

 Indians knew of the plants. To know exactly 

 what plant was used by them, for a certain 

 purpose, is an ethno-botanical fact that is 

 pertinent. 



(c) Animal Life. — An accurate knowledge 

 of this, both past and present, is important 

 for its bearing upon the food-supply, and the 

 beliefs of the Indians concerning the animals ; 

 these were endowed by them with a great va- 

 riety of attributes, some of them human, be- 

 lief in which greatly affected the life and 

 superstitions of the people. Therefore the 

 animal life of the region must be studied 

 scientifically in order to know it accurately 

 ourselves, and we study it ethnologically to 

 learn the beliefs of the Indians connected with 

 it; we correlate the two in search of ethno- 

 zoological data. 



Coordinated with these, in such a way as to 

 form definite and manageable units, the ac- 

 cumulation of which is expected to furnish a 

 solid basis for future generalizations, there 

 is provided — 



.3. -'1-/1 Archeological Survey of a Definite 

 Region. — This embraces the study of the dis- 

 tribution of the ruins, relating to the social 

 organization and life of the people; the plan 



