THE GEOGRAPHIC BASIS OF HUMAN CHARACTER 109 



worst combination which results in adding the viciousness of the 

 inferior or debased white to the stupidity of the highland Indian. 

 It is here that the effects of geography are most apparent. If the 

 white is tempted in large numbers because of exceptional position 

 or resources, as at La Paz, the rule of altitude may have an excep- 

 tion. And other exceptions there are not due to physical causes, 

 for character is practically never a question of geography alone. 

 There is the spiritual factor that may illumine a strong character 

 and through his agency turn a weak community into a powerful 

 one, or hold a weakened group steadfast against the forces of dis- 

 integration. Exceptions arise from this and other causes and yet 

 with them all in mind the geographic factor seems predominant in 

 the types illustrated herewith. 2 



2 During his travels Raimondi collected many instances of the isolation and con- 

 servatism of the plateau Indian: thus there is the village of Pampacolca near Coro- 

 puna, whose inhabitants until recently carried their idols of clay to the slopes of the 

 great white mountain and worshiped them there with the ritual of Inca days (El Peru, 

 Lima, 1874, Vol. 1). 



