276 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIH. No. 842 



Associate Editors — John Hendley Bamhart, 

 Jean Broadhurst, Ernest Dunbar Clark, Alexander 

 William Evans, Tracy Elliot Hazen, Marshall 

 Avery Hovpe, Herbert Maule Richards and Nor- 

 man Taylor. 



The following committees were appointed by 

 the president for the year 1911: 



Finance Committee — John I. Kane and H. M. 

 Richards. 



Program Committee — Elizabeth G. Britten, 

 Fred J. Seaver, Tracy E. Hazen and Jean Broad- 

 hurst. 



Field Committee — E. B. Southwick, Norman 

 Taylor and William Mansfield. 



Committee on Local Flora — ^N. L. Britton, 

 chairman. Phanerogams: N. L. Britton, C. C. 

 Curtis, E. P. Bicknell, K. K. Mackenzie, E. S. 

 Burgess and E. L. Morris. Cryptogams: Wm. A. 

 Murrill, E. G. Britton, Tracy E. Hazen, M. A. 

 Howe and Philip Dowell. 



Budget Committee — H. H. Rusby, E. S. Bur- 

 gess, J. H. Barnhart, B. O. Dodge, Philip Dowell 

 and N. L. Britton. 



Pebct Wjxbon, 



Secretary 



THE ANTHEOPOLOGICAI, SOCIETT OF WASHINQTON 



The 450th regular meeting of the society was 

 held in the hall of the Public Library, December 

 20, 1910, 8 P.M., with the president, Dr. J. Walter 

 Pewkes, in the chair. 



The paper of the evening was on " The Winne- 

 bago Winter Feast," by Mr. Paul Radin. The 

 speaker gave a description of the ceremonies inci- 

 dent to this feast and dwelt on the religious and 

 social elements connected with the celebration. 



In the discussion, which followed the reading 

 of the paper. Dr. Swanton stated that among the 

 Indians of the Pacific coast the ceremony is ob- 

 served on the death of an uncle and to strengthen 

 a chief, but in either case the social element pre- 

 dominates over the religious. Mr. La Flesche 

 pointed out that among the old tribes the feasts 

 are held about spring time, when life is awakened, 

 heralded by the arrival of thunder. Mr. Hewitt 

 and Dr. Fewkes gave parallels from the Iroquois 

 and the Hopi Indians, respectively. 



The 451st regular meeting of the society was 

 held in the hall of the Public Library, January 

 17, 1911, with the president. Dr. J. Walter 

 Fewkes, in the chair. 



The first paper of the evening was on "The 

 Totemic Complex," by Dr. A. A. Goldenweiser. 



The speaker first gave a brief survey of the study 

 of totemism from the sixteenth century to the 

 present as represented by Frazer, Morgan, Lang, 

 etc., in England, and by Boas and Swanton in 

 America. He then pointed out the diflterence of 

 conception and method between the British anl 

 American investigators and subjected the English 

 point of view to a thoroughgoing criticism. This 

 point of view is evolutionary and comparative. 

 It assumes totemism as a necessary stage in the 

 evolution of religion and hence wherever it could 

 trace the existence of one of the supposed elements 

 of totemism, such as exogamy, tabu or totemic 

 names, it established there the existence of the 

 totemic system. In this way totemism was at- 

 tributed to the ancient Egyptians, the Romans, 

 the Semites (by Robertson Smith). Dr. Golden- 

 weiser pointed out that the various features of 

 totemism, such as exogamy, tabu and descent 

 from an animal are nowhere found united, but 

 exist separately and independently from one an- 

 other and are hence not correlated to one another. 

 Totemism can, therefore, not be studied as an 

 organic whole, but in its various elements. The 

 element of descent is the main feature which gives 

 a social coherence and stability to a social group. 

 Next to this in importance is the bond of union 

 formed by common ceremonies. 



The second paper was on " The Medicine Ar- 

 rows of the Cheyenne," by Dr. Truman Michelson. 

 The ceremony, which was attended by the speaker 

 in 1908, consists of a long ritual, songs and 

 prayers, and lasts through seven days. Of these 

 the first three days are preliminary. The per- 

 sons taking part in the ceremony are the chief 

 priest, the candidate or candidates who are to be 

 initiated, each accompanied by a friend who acts 

 the "old man." The participants live during the 

 seven days in lodges or tents within a closed pre- 

 cinct. The speaker recited parts of the songs and 

 prayers addressed to sky and earth. These are 

 accompanied by processions, moving from lodge 

 to lodge, burning of pieces of sweet grass, etc. 

 The center of the ceremony, which gives it its 

 name, consists in laying arrows on the ground, 

 with heads to north, surrounded by twelve buffalo 

 heads. The ofiiciating priest goes through various 

 motions, while the candidate breathes four times 

 on the arrows. No woman may witness the 

 ceremony. 



Both papers were discussed by Messrs. Swan- 

 ton, Hewitt, Hough, Fewkes and Casanowicz. 



I. M. Casanowicz, 



Becretwry 



