A Pre-Pajaritan Culture in the Rio Grande Drainage: Dr EDGAR L. HEWETT On the high bench lands bordering the Chama River on the south, Dr Hewett recorded in the summer of 1905 a large number of ruins of a different character from any of the well known ancient Pueblo ruins of Pajarito plateau. During the past summer, many more of the same character were noted and surveyed in the Ojo Caliente Valley. These ruins consist of foundations of cobble stone inclosing rectangular rooms. Some of the ruin groups are of great extent. A typical group consists of a central circular structure of stone, probably in part subterranean, an open plaza surrounding it, then the foundation walls extending out in all directions. The entire settlement is divided into two parts by a narrow irregular street. That these ruins antedate the great community houses of the Pajaritan culture is shown by the facts that the walls are reduced to the grass level and that these ruins in some cases partly underlie the structures of the latter period. Abstracts were furnished by some authors who were not able to be present and read their papers. These abstracts are also given: A Note on the Persistence of Some Mediterranean Types: Miss GEORGIANA G. KING "In Italy and Spain one meets the local frescoes and portraits at times in the streets. I am told that Leonardos and Luinis abound in the Milanese, and a friend of mine has seen a mother and three daughters, conspicuously Etruscan, in Massa Marittima. For myself I have seen the following and can show photographs for the elder part (I have no modern photographs): In Siena, children like Matteo di Giovanni's. In Viterbo, a woman like the "Roman School." In the Emilia, women like Mantegna's and the local school. In Venice, ecclesiastics like Gentile Bellini's; women like In Spain, women like the Lady of Elche. "These last are alike in the matter of figure and carriage and expression, as well as feature." The Double Curve Motive in Eastern Algonkian Art: Dr FRANK G. SPECK This paper presents a brief preliminary report of investigations in decorative art being carried on among the tribes of the northeastern Algonkian group, including the Abenaki, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Malisit, Micmac, Montagnais, and Naskapi. The predominant design unit is a figure described for convenience as the "double curve," two opposing incurves. Variations of this elementary figure occur, throughout the region discussed, so universally that the double curve motive is really characteristic. While it is also seen occasionally in Iroquois and Ojibway art, it is none the less distinctive of the northeastern Algonkians. Formerly the designs were produced in the moose hair and porcupine quill techniques, and by painting, Nowadays most of the examples are seen in beadwork, except among the Naskapi where painted decorations still occur. In wood carving and etching on birch bark the more southerly tribes still preserve the old type of decoration. The main body of material discussed in the paper is based upon collections made among the Penobscot, who are being made the subject of an independent monograph by the writer. Some forty typical forms of the double curve design, showing different degrees of elaboration, are used. The simplest is the bare double curve, the modifications ranging up through highly complex examples with a score or so of compounded ornaments filling up the interior. In the more modified examples the original double curve unit is sometimes hardly distinguishable on account of the numerous embellishments. Aside from simple ornament not any particular symbolism has so far been found that would apply to the whole region. Investigations in the field of symbolism have produced satisfactory results only among the Penobscot, where the designs seem to have originally been floral representations with a magical medicinal value through the association of the design with the herbal remedies which play so important a part in the life of these Indians. Judging however from the lack of such an interpretation among the Malisit, so far as has been discovered, it would seem, at present, as though the matter would have to be investigated along independent lines in each particular tribal area. Materia Medica of the Algonkian Indians of Virginia: Mr J. OGLE WAR FIELD This paper treats first of the subject as recorded by the early authorities. This is far from being full and concise and yet is of value even for the little information it contains. Second, the remnants of these tribes now remaining, having been so closely kept in contact with the English settlers and their descendants for the past three hundred years, have lost all ceremonial functions and ideas connected therewith; and have even lost the limiting of such practice to any particular person or coterie of such persons. That which they use is chiefly in the form of decoctions or "teas" made of barks and roots, which are gathered and made by the mother or grandmother of the family; outward applications are also used. Quite a number of such remedies were obtained. They are not simply recollections of the past but are used and believed in firmly. In the absence of Professor Hiram Bingham, his paper on "The Ruins of Choqquequirau" was read by Mr George P. Winship. It has been published in the American Anthropologist,1 as has that of Prof. Chamberlain 2 on "The Uran: A New South American Linguistic Stock." Dr Edward Sapir's two papers, "The Linguistic Relationship of Kwakiutl and Nootka" and "The Nootka Wolf Ritual," are printed in full on pages 15-28 of the present issue, and a paper by Mr Stansbury Hagar (read by title) on "The Four Seasons of the Mexican Ritual of Infancy" will appear in a later number. The papers read of which the Secretary was unable to obtain abstracts were: Measurements in 1910 in the Spiral Stairway of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. By Professor Wм. H. GOODYEAR. Philistine and Hebrew in Palestine. By DR ELIHU GRANT. The Survivals of Germanic Heathendom in Pennsylvania German Superstitions. By Professor E. M. FOGEL. Fire and Fairies with Reference to Chrétien's Yvain, vv. 4385-4575. By Professor ARTHUR C. L. BROWN. A Garland of Ballads. By Mr PHILLIPS BARRY. 1 Vol. 12, no. 4, Oct.-Dec., 1910, pp. 505-525. 2 Ibid., no. 3, pp. 417-424. The following papers were read by title: The Place of the Esthetic in Human Welfare. By Professor WILLIAM H. HOLMES. Tewa Ethnozoology. By Professor JUNIUS HENDERSON. Tewa Ethnobotany. By Mr W. W. ROBBINS. Notes on Tewa Medical Practice. By Miss BARBARA FREire-Marreco. The Mesquite and its Uses. By Mr JOHN P. HARRINGTON. The Dog in Pueblo, Mexican, and Peruvian Mortuary Customs. By Dr WALTER HOUGH. The Cradle-board in Ancient Mexico. By Miss H. NEWell Wardle. At one o'clock on Wednesday the 28th, the Corporation of Brown University gave a luncheon in the Administration Building President Faunce receiving. The afternoon of. the same day was devoted to sight-seeing; visits were made to the John Hay Memorial Library, the John Carter Brown Library, the Annmary Brown Memorial, and the Rhode Island School of Design, followed by a reception at the Providence Art Club. YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CONN. BOOK REVIEWS Les Fonctions Mentales dans les Sociétés Inférieures. By L. Lévy-BRUHL. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1910. 8°, pp. 455. In the introduction, the author takes issue with writers of the English school, Tylor, Frazer, Lang, who postulate a psychic unity of mankind, and are thus led to elevate the doctrine of animism to the rank of a general principle of interpretation of primitive beliefs. The account these authors give of the origin of savage beliefs, argues Bruhl, is too individualistic and rational. They abstract the savage from his social environment and make him ask questions such as why? or how? which he then answers in conformity with his undeveloped psychology which, however, is governed by laws essentially similar to those of our own psychology. The emotional and volitional elements of the processes involved are unduly neglected. Moreover, the complexity of the mental make-up of the primitive man is distinctly underrated. What in Bruhl's opinion is the fundamental question these writers do not ask at all, viz.: Are the mental processes of the savage strictly comparable to our own? This question Bruhl does not hesitate to answer in the negative. Human mentality is in the main a social, a collective product. The social environment of the savage differs from that of the civilized man, hence, his mentality must be different. The author proposes to investigate some types of primitive collective mentality in order to ascertain its dominant characteristics. The first part of the work deals with the collective "representations" in the perceptions of primitive peoples, and their mystic character. The psychic processes of the primitive are relatively undifferentiated; hence the complexity of these processes, for motor and emotional elements form an integral part of them. An object used in a religious ceremony, e. g., becomes saturated with religious or magical associations, and they henceforth become part of the essence of that object no matter in what context it may appear. This holds true of all living beings, objects, natural phenomena, which enter into primitive collective "representations." Hence, the entire material world throws a peculiar picture on the psychic screen of the primitive man, a picture which The author uses the term "representations" in the sense of Vorstellungen. "Concepts" would not cover the meaning, nor would "perceptions." Hence I prefer to use Bruhl's term "representations." |