June 16, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



865 



The names of both these tribes having been made 

 authoritative by the Eev. Thomas Bridges, ' the 

 nomenclature of these regions indicates much of 

 its history. 



The Puegian tribes were probably pushed south 

 by stronger northern tribes, the canoe people down 

 the Patagonian channels, the foot people of north- 

 ern Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia down the 

 Pampas of the latter territory. The Andes and 

 the Strait of Magellan prevented communication 

 between the various tribes and may have been re- 

 sponsible, in part or in whole, for the difference 

 in their languages. 



The Yahgan language (Yatigan) was found by 

 the Rev. Thomas Bridges, who wrote a remarkable 

 Anglo- Yatigan dictionary and grammar to consist 

 of at least 40,000 words. This will stand as the 

 greatest piece of linguistic work ever done in con- 

 nection with these people. 



Of the Alaculufs little is known. No white man, 

 as far as is known, has ever spoken their language. 

 They formerly seemed the most numerous of the 

 Puegian tribes. Now they are fast disappearing. 

 The Yahgans are the southernmost people in 

 the world. Their environment made them canoe 

 people and forced them to a nitrogenous diet 

 through limited food supply; it also made them 

 nomadic, in consequence preventing them from es- 

 tablishing large or permanent communities and 

 from developing a tribal authority or any form of 

 tribal government. Consequently they are social- 

 istic. This lack of gregariousness has probably 

 affected their religion, which is more or less ani- 

 mistic and without any form of worship. They 

 are without chiefs or gods. 



Many kitchen middens composed mostly of 

 heaps of debris show their village sites. In one 

 of these I found the world's most southern "per- 

 forated stone ' ' with knobby projections. It is now 

 in the American Museum of Natural History. 

 The exhuming and study of these should be under- 

 taken systematically. 



The Yahgan 's stunted stature may be ac- 

 counted for by his squatting in canoes. Young 

 Yahgan men of the present generation who have 

 lived on land, herding sheep for a missionary 

 rancher, are well proportioned. 



The gap between primitive and civilized man I 

 believe to be very narrow. The white man's eon- 

 tact with the Alaculufs and Yahgans has been 

 their undoing, particularly through the forcing of 

 clothes upon them, cutting their hair, and the in- 

 troduction of syphilis and various venereal dis- 



eases; measles, whooping cough and smallpox 

 have swept them off like a plague. 



The Yahgans have decreased in 46 years from 

 about 2,500 to about 100. There stUl remains im- 

 portant scientific work to be done among these 

 people, but whatever is done must be done soon. 

 The Tribes of the Fuegian Archipelago: Charles 



Wellington Puklong. 



The Fuegian Archipelago — its nomenclature — its 

 autochthonous inhabitants, and their linguistic di- 

 visions. The four tribes — the Alaculuf, Yahgan, 

 Haush and Ona. Geographical distribution of 

 these tribes. Origin of their tribal names. Brief 

 consideration of their languages. Proto-history 

 and history. Their environment, its eifect on their 

 distribution, physique, language and social or- 

 ganization. The effect of food on their social or- 

 ganization. The number of present and past abo- 

 riginal populations of the Fuegian archipelago. 

 The effect of white civilization on the Fuegians, 

 showing causes and effects. 

 Fuegian and Chonoan Tribal Eelations: John M. 



Cooper. 



The Fuegian archipelago is inhabited by three 

 distinct tribes — the Onas of Tierra del Fuego, the 

 Yahgans of Beagle Channel and the southern is- 

 lands, and the Alaealufs of the remaining terri- 

 tory. The three tribes speak languages that are 

 lexically at least quite distinct, while from the 

 physical and cultural standpoints the Yahgans 

 and Alaealufs agree much more closely with each 

 other than with the Onas. 



The Onas show Tehuelehean aflinities. They are 

 divided into two subtribes, the Shilk'nam and the 

 nearly extinct Manekeukn, who, though culturally 

 and physically uniform, speak quite different dia- 

 lects. 



A comparison of fifteen available vocabularies 

 and some additional stray words shows with fair 

 clearness that the Alacalufan tongue is spoken by 

 all the non- Yahgan canoe-using Indians of the 

 channels and inlets north and south of the Strait 

 of Magellan, and up the west Patagonian coast as 

 far as Port Grappler or Messier Channel. 



The Chonos, now perhaps extinct, spoke a non- 

 Araucanian and non- Tehuelehean language, but 

 whether it was a distinct stock or an Alacalufan 

 dialect is uncertain. Somatologieally and cul- 

 turally the Chonos were closely akin to the modern 

 Alaealufs. Certain cultural elements, including 

 apparently the plank boat, filtrated down the 

 ChUean coast south of Chilog from Araueanian 

 sources. 



