SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 24, 1893. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.— NO. XXXV. 



[Edited bij D. G. Brinton, M. D.. LL.D., D. Sc.) 



Census Bulletins Upon the Indian Tribes. 



In these Notes, under date July 15, 1892, I called the 

 attention of readers to the excellent work which was being 

 done by the Eleventh Census in examining and reporting 

 iipon the present condition of the Indian tribes of the 

 United States. The scope of the investigations was most 

 properly extended beyond merely counting them, and 

 embraced an inquiry into their modes of life, their physi- 

 cal condition, their progress in civilization and education, 

 and generally into all those traits which make them a 

 peculiar class in our nation, governed by separate laws, 

 and treated by our government on princiijles adopted 

 toward none other of the inhabitants of the land (Thank 

 Heaven!). 



This comprehensive investigation was placed under the 

 charge of EsiJert Special Agent Thomas Donaldson, and 

 ample evidence of the thorough and comprehensive man- 

 ner in which he has completed his task is offered by two 

 more Bulletins recently issued. One of these is on the 

 "Eastern Band of Cherokees of North Carolina"; the other 

 on the "Moqui Pufiblo Indians of Arizona and the Pueblo 

 Indians of New Mexico." They are both in large quarto, 

 abundantly illustrated with photographs, maps, and draw- 

 ings hj excellent artists. The text contains a really sur- 

 prising amount of newly-gleaned, accurate, uncolored 

 information, covering the individual and ethnic life of 

 these peoples, not too specialized, and yet not superficial. 

 These Bulletins must always remain a first-hand authority 

 for students of the aboriginal race of the United States. 



Early Central-European Art. 



In the year 1891 two interesting objects were found at 

 remote points in central Europe, both of them dating 

 from about the first century of the Christian era, and both 

 illustrating in an attractive manner the art, and inci- 

 dentally the life, of that little-known epoch. 



One was a large vase of silver, dug ujj in a peat bog at 

 Gundestrup, in Jutland, Denmark; the other, a bucket 

 (situla), unearthed on the banks of the Danube, above 

 Vienna, also of silver. The former has been made the 

 subject of a handsome publication by the Royal Society of 

 Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen; and the other has been 

 lately described in full by M. Salomon Reinach, in 

 L' Anthropologie. 



The Gundestrup vase is elaborately ornamented with 

 numerous figures of gods and goddesses, men and women, 

 horses, dogs and other animals, ia repousse, retouched on 

 the outer surfaces. The eyes of some of the larger heads 

 are of colored glass, fixed on pieces of metal. The scenes 

 portrayed are of hunting, war and sacred rites. There is 



evidently a Gallic inspiration, as also one from classic art- 

 but the archaeologists of the Society reach the conclusion 

 that this is a specimen of Danish skill in the first century. 



The situla from the Danube is also adorned with figures 

 in relief, representing a civic or sacred procession, com- 

 bining a pugilistic exhibition, horse and chariot races, 

 musicians, etc. It also presents certain traces of Gallic 

 art, along with others which must be attributed to Etruscan 

 influences, which we know at one time extended far north 

 in Europe. 



These two beautiful specimens have justly claimed the 

 attention of the artists and archaeologists of Europe. 



The Nude in Science. 



We have, from time to time, plenty of talk about the 

 nude in art; its importance in science, anthropologic 

 science, is just being discovered. For a recent and sug- 

 gestive communication on this subject we have to thank 

 M. Gabriel de Mortillet, the distinguished archasologist 

 and ex-President of the Anthropological Society of Paris. 



In a late communication to that Society he points out 

 how many features are concealed by the clothing, and 

 urges the value of photographs from the nude. He recom- 

 mends that these should be taken in three positions full 



face, in profile, and full back. It is essential that the same 

 posture should always be maintained, and the best one is 

 the subject standing erect, the legs together, the hands 

 dropped by the side of the body. He also recommends 

 that a man and a woman of the same family or locality be 

 photographed standing side by side, so as to preserve and 

 exhibit the distinctions of sex — though he does not over- 

 look the difficulties in the way of accomi^lishing this, 

 fortunately overcome, however, in a number of photo- 

 gravures which accompany his report. 



The physical anthropologist will at once see how much 

 information can thus be added about a race or stock. We 

 learn the hairiness of the body; the inclination of the 

 shoulders; the relations of hip and chest dimensions in 

 the two sexes; the development of the breasts in both 

 sexes; the prominence of the chest; the projection of the 

 gluteal region; the proportion of trunk to extremities, and 

 a number of other physical peculiarities. It is to be hoped 

 that this valuable suggestion can and will be carried out 

 on a large scale. 



The Criminal In Anthropoloqy. 

 To the historian, to the philosophic student of man, 



morality and criminality become terms extremely relative 



often convertible. What a people at one time regards as 

 a i-evolting crime, the same people a little later, or another 

 people at the same date, regards as innocent, or even 

 praiseworthy. One has but to turn the leaves of such 

 works as Dr. Post's '-Grundriss der Ethnologischen Juris- 

 prudenz," or Dr. Steinmetz's '-Ethnologische Studien zur 

 ersten Entwicklung der Strafe" — treatises combining 



solid erudition, sound judgment and enlightened views 



to find examples by the hundred. Men and women with 

 unusually high moral natures have generally been re- 

 garded as unusually depraved criminals by their con- 

 temporaries, and treated as such; for instance, Socrates, 



