PRIMITIVE MAN 



43 



When considering the different divisions of mankind in greater 

 detail, it will be noted that they spread from their original homes 

 in various directions and at various times, until the whole world 

 was populated. 



The first dispersal of man over the globe must have resembled 

 the migrations of animals in that it must have been performed 

 unconsciously under the influence of the factors just mentioned, 

 though it is possible that the food factor was the most potent, 

 because, as Seligmann has pointed out, the hunting man of to-day 

 requires a relatively large area in v/hich to obtain his food, and it 

 is equally possible that primeval man soon found that a given 

 district was unable to feed his rapidly increasing family or tribe. 

 Under these circumstances the family or tribe in question would 

 move into a more suitable region. When man became more evolved 

 migrations would still take place under compulsion as described 

 above, but might also have taken place under the influences of 

 attraction or expulsion, by which one means that a powerful tribe 

 might be attracted to an area held by a weaker tribe, which latter 

 would be compelled to submit to the conquerors or to migrate to 

 some other area. If the weaker tribe remained with the stronger, 

 there would possibly be a race fusion, as has so often taken place 

 all over the world, and a new mixed race would appear, or the two 

 races might live together with little fusion. During these early 

 times must have appeared many of the diseases, especially the in- 

 fectious diseases, which to-day afflict mankind, but what part the 

 disease factor played in these migrations we do not know. What 

 part epidemic parasitic diseases have played in evolution cannot 

 be stated, but that they must have played some part in the ex- 

 tinction of animals seems possible; and it appears also, possible 

 that parasites transferred from animals to man at this period by 

 the agency of blood-sucking insects, etc., may have formed the 

 basis of certain of the diseases of man to-day. 



These migrations must have been delayed or stopped by meeting 

 with natural barriers, such as deserts, dense forests, or broad 

 expanses of water ; and probably at these places settlements would 

 be made, from which reflux migrations into parts originally occupied, 

 or passed through, might arise, due again to the influence of the 

 factors above mentioned. 



In this way tribes, now modified by selection, environment, etc., 

 re-entered the districts through which they had originally passed, 

 and, finding them more or less occupied by differently evolved 

 peoples, brought about fusion of the early divisions and subdivisions 

 of mankind. And thus at an early period arose the first of these 

 race fusions which are ethnologically so confusing to-day. One 

 factor in these early refluxes must be mentioned, and this is the 

 changed meteorological conditions brought about at the Glacial 

 period or periods, for during these mxan must have been driven 

 towards the Equator, while in the intervals he could wander polewards. 



These early migrations and refluxes must have acted as potent 



