February 1, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



127 



miles in Icngtli by 3oO in breadth, one vast 

 forest and mai-sb. in tlie northern portion 

 of the Argentine Republic. Mueh of it is 

 unexplored and almost inaeeessible. Its 

 sjKii-se human inhal)itants are siivage and 

 wandering tribes, still in the stone age, shy 

 and treacherous. Theu' linguistic classifi- 

 cati(m presents extraordinary difHculties. 

 Kxplorei-s have extended the same name to 

 diflorent stocks ; and applied divei-se names 

 to the si\me stock. 



An excellent monograph puldished in the 

 Atti Delia Societa Romana di Antropolo- 

 gia by Guido Boggiani is lielpful as far as 

 it goes. It is entitled ' I Ciamacoco.' This 

 is another form of Zamuco. the name of a 

 tribe converted in the h\st century by the 

 missionaries. But the modern is not a de- 

 scendant of the ancient clan, scarcely any 

 linguistic relative. The author presents an 

 accurate vocabulary of about 250 words, 

 and gives a full description of the primitive 

 arts of the tribe, with 62 beautifully pre- 

 IKired illustrations. They still use the stone 

 axe, the bow and arrow, feather and shell 

 decorations, and other appurtenances of the 

 l)ristine condition of culture. 



Another band, the Chunupies, of the 

 southern Chaco, is the subject of an article 

 by J. B. Ambrosetti, in the Anales de la 

 Sociedad Scientitica Argentina for 189-4. 

 He gives a short vocabulary- and an ethno- 

 graphic description. 



Such work cannot be accomplished too 

 soon, as these Chaco tribes are dying out 

 with fearful rapidity, and probably half a 

 century more will complete their extermi- 

 nation. 



AKrH.F.OI.OGV AS A DEDVCTIVE SCIENCE. 



WiTHix the last two yeara an interesting 

 issue has arisen between two schools of 

 archseologists, the one which knoivK just 

 what man's early activities yielded, the 

 other which prefers to learn about them by 

 studying what relics can be found, and con- 



fining conclusions to their obvious teach- 

 ings. 



In America the fonner school is aljly re- 

 presented by Mr. W. H. Holmes and ^Ir. J. 

 D. ^IcGuire, of Washington. Mr. Holmes' 

 lines of thought are fullj- set forth in the 

 Proceedings of the Chicago Congress of An- 

 thropologj', in an article entitled Natural 

 HiMorii of Flaked Stone Implements, He 

 maintains that an implement is to be stud- 

 ied • as the biologist studies the living crea- 

 tui-e;' and he therefore classifies such re- 

 mains into '.species' and 'genera,' speaks 

 of theii- ' lines of evolution,' and even of 

 their ' ancestral forms,' and adds diagrams 

 showing their genealogies. 



Mr. McGuire, who has published sevei-al 

 interesting articles on the methods of chip- 

 ping and rubbing stone, in the American An- 

 thropologixf, has become so thoroughly mas- 

 ter of the situation in that connection that 

 he more than intimates that European 

 arclueologists have blundered in drawing a 

 distinction between the ' rough stone age ' 

 and the ' polished stone age;" a position with 

 which Mr, Holmes seems to .sympathize. 

 That neither of these learned writers has 

 ever examined a European site, seems to 

 them of light weight, as the ' natural his- 

 tory method ■ is sufficient. 



Those of a dift'erent way of thinking have 

 not been silent. In this countiy such stu- 

 dents as Prof. Henry W. Haynes. of Boston, 

 Mr. H, C, Mercer, of Philadelphia, and Mr. 

 Thomas Wilson, of "Washingtim, all of 

 whom are pei-sonally familiar with the old- 

 est ' stiitions ' on both continents, have con- 

 demned as narrow and inapplicable the 

 views of Messi-s. Holmes and ^IcGuire ; 

 and in the American Xaturall-it, for De- 

 cember, Mr. Charles S. Read, of the Britisli 

 Museum, in an exhaustive article, sets 

 forth the uncertainties which must attend 

 conclusions based cm studies limited to one 

 field of research. In the same tone are 

 several articles in recent issues of Z/' An- 



