March 31, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



501 



were presented. On the morning of December 29 

 there was a joint meeting of the association and 

 the Arehseological Institute of America in Union 

 Auditorium, at which Miss Alice G. Fletcher 

 presided. 



ADDBESSES AND 'PAPEES 



In the absence of President Henry M. Belden, 

 of the American Folk-Lore Society, his address 

 was read by Dr. Charles Peabody. Some of the 

 most important papers read at tlie joint meeting 

 are represented in this report by abstracts. These 

 are: 



Recent Progress in the Study of South American 

 Indian Languages: Professor AI.EXANDEB F. 

 Chamberlain. 



The author pointed out the regions of the 

 South American continent to which, during the 

 last five years, scientific research had been par- 

 ticularly active: the Colombia-Venezuela border- 

 land, northwestern Brazil, Ecuador-Peru-Bolivia, 

 southern Brazil, etc. Noteworthy are the investi- 

 gations of Tavera-Acosta, Koch-Griinberg, Rivet 

 and Beuchat, Farabee, E. Nordenskiold, von 

 Ihering, et al. To Tavera-Acosta we owe rather 

 extensive vocabularies of the Guahiban, Piaroan, 

 Puinavian, Salivan and Yaruran stoclvs, all of 

 which hitherto have been rather scantily repre- 

 sented by linguistic material. Koch-Griinberg, as 

 a result of his sojourns in northwestern Brazil, 

 has shown the Makuan to be an independent 

 stock, and added much to the linguistic material 

 in print and in manuscripts concerning the Ara- 

 wakan, Cariban, Betoyan, Miranhan and Uitotan 

 stocks. Rivet and Beuchat, studying the extensive 

 linguistic material obtained by the former of these 

 authors (they are now working jointly), have 

 thrown much light on the ethnologic problems of 

 the Ecuador-Peruvian border-land, delimiting the 

 areas of the Jivaran (Rivet has shown Brinton's 

 " Jivaro " to be really Jebero and, therefore, 

 Laman, or as he terms this stock, Cahuapana), 

 Zaparan, Laman (Cahuapana), etc. Rivet be- 

 lieves that tlie Jivaran has marked Arawakan 

 affinities, and his later studies claim to attach 

 some of the minor stocks of southern Colombia to 

 the Chibehan. Dr. Farabee's investigations have 

 resulted in the accumulation of much lexical and 

 grammatical material concerning the Arawakan 

 peoples of Peru; also vocabularies, etc., from 

 tribes of Panoan, Uitotan, Jivaran and other 

 stocks. The thorough study of this valuable ma- 

 terial will add not a little to our knowledge of 

 the linguistics of the Peruvian area. E. Nordens- 



kiold has devoted some attention to the little- 

 known tribes of eastern Bolivia, and we may ex- 

 pect other data of value from him in the near 

 future. To von Ihering belongs the credit of 

 having first established beyond a doubt the inde- 

 pendent character of the Chavantean stock. Here 

 should be mentioned also the researches of Bar- 

 rett recently initiated into the language of the 

 Cayapa, etc., of the Barbacoan stock. Of works 

 of a more or less bibliographical character the 

 most important are Lenz's monograph on the 

 Indian elements in Chilean Spanish, SchuUer's 

 contributions to Araucanian bibliography, etc., 

 and Mitre's " Catalogo," with its introduction by 

 Torres. 



Recent Literature on the South American " Ama- 

 zons": Professor Alexander F. Chamberlain. 

 The author resumed and discussed the mono- 

 graphs of Lasch, Friederici and Rothery, all 

 published during the year 1910. Of these the 

 study of Friederici seems the most satisfactory; 

 the book of Rothery, however, the most ambitious, 

 treating the ancient and modern Amazons all over 

 the globe. Dr. Friederici rejects the view of 

 Ehrenreich and Lasch of a unitary origin of the 

 Amazon legends among the northern Caribs, with 

 extension thence over all northern South America. 

 Both in content and origin the Amazon legends 

 differ notably from each other in several cases, 

 and they are of multiple provenance. In some 

 there is evidence of modification and contamina- 

 tion through European sources. Among the 

 causes of the origins of South American " Ama- 

 zon" legends he enumerates the following: 



1. The notably war-like character of women in 

 many primitive American communities. 



2. The peculiar power or influential position of 

 women (due to economic, religious, hereditary or 

 other social reasons) in a few tribes, which made 

 a great impression upon the mass of the sur- 

 rounding communities. 



3. Rumors of the barbaric splendors of the 

 empire of the Incas, which had penetrated the 

 wilderness to the east. 



4. Reports of certain unusual sexual relations 

 of Indian women, etc. 



5. Tales of " Amazons " due to native reports 

 misunderstood by the Spaniards, or from such 

 tales intentionally spread by the latter. 



Amazon legends are reported from the West 

 Indies (Ramon Pane records a characteristic one), 

 from Yucatan and from Mexico. The Mexican 

 legends. Dr. Friederici thinks, are " the least 

 founded of all, ethnologically or mythologically " 



