SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 825 



several regions seem to have been due rather to the human cultural 

 contribution than natural advantages, although the relative size of 

 the areas and environing conditions played a limited part. Thus the 

 China area, in conjunction with the monsoon region south of it, sup- 

 ported the largest population on the globe both relatively and actu- 

 ally. The corresponding parts of Australia were the most populous 

 portions of that continent from purely natural causes. The same was 

 probably true in Africa but this was owing to the concentration of 

 population in the monsoon region rather than in the relatively insig- 

 nificant warm temperate area. In the New World the contrary con- 

 dition is found. The heaviest population absolutely and relatively 

 was on the Pacific side of the continent in both North and South 

 America. But it is also true that the secondary concentrations of 

 population were on the eastern coasts of America and that they also 

 covered the same two climatic zones, reckoning the West Indies with 

 the Gulf region and the Brazilian coast with the XJruguay-E-io Grande 

 do Sul territory. Although it is without particular geographical sig- 

 nificance, it is interesting to note that in every continent of both the 

 Old and the New World the largest population is on the main moun- 

 tain axis or between that and the nearest ocean : on the Pacific coast of 

 Australia, the coasts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans in Asia, on 

 the coast of the Indian Ocean and the axis itself in Africa, and on the 

 axis and the Pacific coast in America. 



Similarity in climatic conditions has not, therefore, brought about 

 similarity in culture. This being the case, it might seem at first sight 

 as if the differences might be due to inequality in racial endowment 

 on the part of the inhabitants of the several regions, and the idea 

 derives some color from the fact that the area showing the highest cul- 

 ture is occupied by representatives of the Mongolian race, and the area 

 showing the lowest by people generally placed low in the mental 

 scale. The status of the inhabitants of the other three does not, how- 

 ever, bear this out, because the Zulus of southeast Africa are superior 

 if anything to the Indians of southern Brazil, Uruguay, and Para- 

 guay, and if we place our Gulf Indians above them, on the ground 

 of their former culture as exemplified in the mounds, we shall be 

 forced into the illogical position of placing the Bantu in between two 

 groups of American Indians. 



We shall arrive at a much more satisfactory solution of the cultural 

 question if we take into consideration historical and broader environ- 

 mental factors. Roughly, for our present purposes, we may trace 

 the higher cultures of the world to two central regions, one in the 

 Old World extending from Egypt to northwestern China, taking in 

 the skirts of the Plateau of Iran and northwestern India ; the other a 

 long, narrow territory in the New World from southern Mexico to 



