THE ORIGIN OF AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 647 



they passed for money so late as the time of the first European arrivals ; 

 on the upper Ituri, Stuhlmann found them used as jewelry, and we are 

 familiar with similar ropes in Loango and on the Kongo. So we have 

 the remains of island civilization on the mainland. But the island and 

 fisherman's civilization of Oceania has bequeathed many another 

 legacy to the Africans. One of them is pile dwellings, whose degen- 

 eration on the continent we have referred to. The present discussion 

 enables us to understand their slow disappearance. Finally, the cul- 

 ture of a fishing community is on all sides characterized by mesh work. 

 The well-known nets carried by the men of New Guinea recur iu the 

 culture of West Africa In New Guinea the net is used as clothing, 

 and in the whole of West Africa we hear of the netted jerseys of the 

 disguised. 



If, on the other hand, we devote attention to the nature, the physio- 

 logic structure of the culture forms adjacent to the West African 

 culture area, we shall recognize the significance of the continental 

 civilization. In the first place, the breeding of cattle exercises deep 

 influence upon the compass and intent of culture. The remarkable 

 migratory life of the Africans is explained by the half-nomadic occu- 

 pation of cattle herding. Their food consists mainly of flesh. On the 

 other hand, it is a fact generally overlooked that the West Africans 

 on the whole are vegetarians. Furthermore, the institutions of the 

 family and of the state among the real Indo-Africans or Indo-Negritoes 

 point to the patriarchate, a phenomenon concomitant with cattle- 

 breeding, which is opposed to excessive crossing. In the West African 

 circle, again, the matriarchate, the family grouping that obtains among 

 island races, hence among the Oceanians, is possibly to be classed 

 among Malayo-Negrito characteristics, iu particular when accompanied 

 by exogamy. 



The very views of life entertained by the two groups show similar 

 opposition in their physiologic essentials. Bestless nomads are seldom 

 reminded of their past; hence the tendency toward the worship of 

 manes and of ancestors is slight among them. On the other hand, 

 turn in what direction they will, island races encounter traces of their 

 former life. The natives of Oceania know some tale to tell of every 

 locality; likewise, the mythology connected with manes flourishes in 

 West Africa. 



Thus the features of division and of union stand out from the gray 

 background. For Africa is a continent like unto itself alone, and it 

 exercises leveling power like none other. At a casual glance, then, 

 African forms of culture may seem to differ but slightly from one 

 another. But our study of the manifestations of life proves that cycles 

 of thousands, yea, of hundreds of thousands of years — for thus only 

 can we properly express our ignorance of how time must be computed 

 in such cases — have not succeeded in obliterating the identity of origi- 

 nal forms and traits. 



