RELATION OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES TO ENVIRONMENT, 

 ILLUSTRATED BY AMERICAN EXAMPLES. 1 



By J. W. Powell. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: I shall endeavor to explain to you the 

 effect of environment on man. I shall try to demonstrate that prima- 

 rily the environment has little effect on the physical man — that the 

 principal effect, though not the whole of it, is on his mind. I wish to 

 demonstrate to you that human evolution is intellectual evolution, in 

 which it greatly differs from animal evolution. The neglect of this 

 characteristic has come to us from the too exclusive study of the lower 

 animals, so that the terms of evolution have been misapplied to man. 

 I shall attempt to explain to you that human evolution is the evolution 

 not of kinds of men, but of grades of men. The oak is a different 

 kind of tree from the beech ; the acorn, the plantlet, and the old oak 

 are grades of the same thing. Now, clearly understand me when I 

 speak of kinds and grades. Human evolution is serial evolution; it is 

 evolution producing grades; animal evolution is primarily differential 

 evolution producing kinds, while secondarily it produces grades. The 

 laws of evolution do not produce kinds of men, but grades of men ; and 

 human evolution is intellectual, not physical. There are some slight 

 exceptions to this, and in the early history of mankind some important 

 exceptions; but gradually, as society advances, evolution into kinds is 

 replaced by evolution into grades. Now, the effect of environment is 

 only one of the factors of evolution, there being three : One is heredity, 

 another is self-activity, and the last is environment; and we are to 



'Saturday lecture in Assembly Hall of the United States National Museum. April 25, 1896. 

 The Saturday lectures, complimentary to the citizens of Washington, were con. 

 tinued during the season of 1896, under the auspices of the Joint Commission of the 

 Scientific' Societies of Washington, with the special cooperation of the Biological 

 and Anthropological Societies. 



The addresses were delivered in the lecture hall of the National Museum, 4.20 to 

 5.30 p.m., on the dates specified; several were illustrated by maps and diagrams, 

 specimens, etc. The citizens of Washington and their friends were cordially invited 

 to attend, and the attendance was good, the hall being always filled and sometimes 

 crowded. 



The series of lectures for 1896 was arranged with the view of illustrating the rela- 

 tions of life to environment, especially on the American Continent. Two courses 



625 

 SM 95 40 



