No. 1616. A STUDY OF ALASKAN NEEDLECASES—BOAS. 337 
an old conventional style, which is ever present in the mind of the 
Eskimo artist who sets about to carve a needlecase. The various parts 
of the flanged needlecase excite the imagination of the artist; and a 
geometrical element here or there is developed by him, in accordance 
with the general tendencies of Eskimo art, into the representation 
of whole animals or of parts of animals. In this manner small knobs 
or the flanges are developed into heads or animals. After this modifi- 
cation has once set in, the animal figures may be repeated in other 
parts of the implement. Besides this, associations between animal 
forms and the form of the whole needlecase seem to have taken place, 
which have to a certain extent modified the manner of representing 
animals which were adapted to use as needlecases; so that the old 
form and style of the needlecase determined the treatment of the 
animal form. 
If we were to apply to the present series the theory of the origin 
of conventional form from realistic motives, it would be exceed- 
ingly difficult to account for the general uniformity of fundamental 
type. It seems to me that, on the basis of this theory, we could not 
account for the diversity of realistic forms and the uniformity of 
general type. Neither does it seem possible to account for the series 
of types by assumption of any influence of technic; and my impres- 
sion 1s that the only satisfactory explanation les in the assumption 
that the multifarious forms are due to the play of the imagination 
with a fixed old conventional form, the origin of which remains 
entirely obscure. This I freely acknowledge. If, however, we 
are to form an acceptable theory of the origin of decorative 
designs, it seems a safer method to form our judgment based on ex- 
amples the history of which can be traced with a fair degree of cer- 
tainty, rather than on speculations in regard to the origin of remote 
forms for the development of which no data are available. 
I believe a considerable amount of other evidence can be brought 
forward sustaining the point of view that I have tried to develop, 
namely, that decorative forms may be largely explained as results 
of the play of the imagination under the restricting influence of a 
fixed conventional style. Looking at this matter from a purely theo- 
retical point of view, it 1s quite obvious that in any series in which 
we have at one end a realistic figure and at the other end a conven- 
tional figure, the arrangement is due entirely to our judgment regard- 
ing similarities. If, without further proof, we interpret such a series 
as a genetic series, we simply substitute for the classificatory prin- 
ciple which has guided us in the arrangement of the series a new 
principle which has nothing to do with the principle of our classifi- 
cation. No proof whatever can be given that the series selected ac- 
cording to similarities really represents an historical sequence. It 1s 
just as conceivable that the same series may begin at the conventional 
end and that realistic forms have been read into it, and we might 
Proc. N. M. vol. xxxiv—08 22 
