Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ix. (1916), No. 0. 



VI. The Geographical Distribution of Terraced 

 Cultivation and Irrigation. 



By W. J. Perry, B.A. 



( Commwiicated by Professor G. Elliot Smith, M.A., M.D., 



F.R.S.). 



(Received and read February 8th, igi6.) 



The series of communications which are being made 

 by Prof. Elliot Smith to the Manchester Literary and 

 Philosophical Society is designed to demonstrate the 

 magnitude and far-reaching nature of the cultural influ- 

 ence associated with the practice of building megalithic 

 structures. In this communication I propose to put for- 

 ward the results of a survey of the practice of cultivating 

 by means of artificially built-up and irrigated terraces. 

 During the course of an investigation into the extent and 

 nature of the influence of an immigration of builders of 

 megalithic structures upon the cultures of the indigenous 

 peoples of the East Indian Archipelago and the Burma- 

 Assam region, the evidence, derived from native traditions 

 as well as from the distribution of various kinds of stone- 

 work, the cult of the sun, sacred chiefs, phallic ornamen- 

 tation, and so forth, agreed in ascribing the practice of 

 terraced irrigation to these stone-using immigrants. A 

 wider survey was instituted into the distribution of this 

 strange mode of cultivation in other parts of the world, 

 and the results of this survey will now be put before you. 

 These results are not yet complete, but they represent in 

 broad outline the area of distribution of the practice. 

 Details are yet lacking with regard to many places, but 



April 15th, 1976, 



