VII. THE EVOLUTIONARY VIEWPOINT
I havepointed out before that some of the older authors, like Gobineau, Klemm, Carus, Nott and Gliddon, assume characteristic mental differences between the races of man; and these have been revived by the growth of modern nationalism, with its exaggerated self-admiration of the Teutonic race, its Pan-slavism, and similar symptoms developing in other parts of the world; but these views are not supported by the results of unbiassed research.
There remains, however, one point of view to be considered, which might furnish a basis for investigation. The variety of forms in which the fundamental ideas occur were early correlated with general impressions regarding the degrees of civilization, and attention was directed to the recurrence of similar forms the world over, which appear to present an increasing degree of complexity of culture. This led anthropologists to the conclusion that the types of human culture represent an evolutionary series; that the primitive tribes of our timesrepresent an older stage of cultural development, through which the more advanced types passed in earlier periods. If this is true, and if, furthermore, it could be shown that the single tribes develop independently, we might well say that those races must be less favorably developed in which earlier types of culture are found with great frequency, later developments rarely. I have referred to this possibility at another place (p.125). For this reason the theory of a uniform development of human civilization must be considered in our investigation of the relation between racial types and cultural progress. The investigations of Tylor and Bachofen, Morgan and Spencer, fixed the attention upon the data of anthropology as illustrating the gradual development and rise of civilization. The development of this side of anthropology was stimulated by the work of Darwin and his successors, and its fundamental ideas can be understood only as an application of the theory of biological evolution to mental phenomena. The conception that the manifestations of ethnic life represent a series, which from simple beginnings has progressed to the complex type of modern civilization, has been the underlying thought of this aspect of anthropological science.
The arguments in support of the theory that thedevelopment of civilization has followed a similar course everywhere, and that among primitive tribes we may still recognize the stages through which our own civilization has passed, are largely based on the similarities of types of culture found in distinct races the world over, but also on the occurrence of peculiar customs in our own civilization, which can be understood only as survivals (Tylor) of older customs, that had a deeper significance at an earlier time, and which are still found in full vigor among primitive people.
It is necessary to point out at least a few of the aspects of this general problem, in order to make clear the significance of the evolutionary theory of human civilization.
The social organization of primitive tribes shows similar traits in many different parts of the world. Instead of counting descent in the way we do, many tribes consider the child as a member only of its mother’s family, and count blood-relationship only in the maternal line, so that cousins on the mother’s side are considered as near relatives, while cousins on the father’s side are considered as only distantly related; other tribes have a strict paternal organization, so that the child belongs only to the father’s family, not to the mother’s; while still others follow the same principles as we adhere to, reckoning relationshipin both directions. Connected with these customs is the selection of the domicile of the newly married couple, who sometimes reside with the wife’s tribe or family, sometimes with the man’s tribe or family. When the couple take up their residence with the social group to which the wife belongs, it is often found that the man is treated as a stranger until his first child is born. These phenomena have been made the subject of thorough studies, and the observation has been made that apparently the customs of residence and of descent are closely associated (Tylor). As a result of these inquiries, the conclusion has been drawn that everywhere maternal institutions precede paternal institutions, and that the social organization of mankind was such that originally perhaps no distinct family organization existed; that later on maternal institutions developed, which in turn were followed by paternal institutions, and again by the system of counting blood-relationship equally in maternal and paternal lines.
Similar results were obtained by the study of human inventions. It has been noted before that apes and monkeys sometimes use stones for defence, and in a way the artificial shelters of animals indicate the beginnings of invention. In this sense we may seek for the origin of implements and utensils among animals. In the earliesttimes when human remains appear on the surface of the earth, we find man using simple stone implements which are formed by rough chipping, but the multiplicity of forms of implements increases gradually. Since many implements may have been made of perishable materials, we are not able to tell whether at a very early time the implements and utensils used were really confined to the few stone objects that may now be recovered; but certainly the implements were few, and, comparatively speaking, simple. From this time on, the uses of fire, and of tools for cutting and striking, for scraping and perforating, have increased in number and complexity, and a gradual development may be traced from the simple tools of primitive man to the complex machinery of our times. The inventive genius of all races and of unnumbered individuals has contributed to the state of industrial perfection in which we find ourselves. On the whole, inventions once made have been kept with great tenacity, and, owing to incessant additions, the available resources of mankind have constantly been increased and multiplied.
An excellent example of the general theory of evolution of civilization is found in the theory of evolution of agriculture and of the domestication of animals as outlinedby Otis T. Mason, W J McGee, and Hahn. They point out how, in the earliest beginnings of social life, animals, plants, and man lived together in a definite surrounding, and how, owing to the conditions of life, certain plants multiplied to the exclusion of others, and how certain animals were suffered in the neighborhood of the human camp. Through this condition of mutual sufferance and promotion of mutual interests, if I may use this term, a closer association between plants, animals, and man developed, which ultimately led to the beginnings of agriculture and to the actual domestication of animals.
Researches on art have led to similar results. Investigators have endeavored to show, that, since the cave-dwellers of France drew the outlines of the reindeer and mammoth on bone and antler, man has tried to reproduce in pictographic design the animals of the region in which he lived. In the artistic productions of many people, designs have been found which are readily associated with pictographic presentations, which, however, have lost their realism of form, and have become more and more conventional; so that in many cases a purely decorative motive has been interpreted as developed from a realistic pictograph gradually breaking up under the stress of æsthetic motives. The islands of the Pacific Ocean,New Guinea, South America, Central America, prehistoric Europe, have furnished examples for this line of development (see March, Haddon, Von den Steinen, Holmes), which therefore was recognized as one of the important tendencies of the evolution of human decorative art, which was described as beginning with realism, and as leading through symbolic conventionalism to purely æsthetic motives.
Religion has furnished another example of typical evolution in human thought. At an early time man began to think and ponder about the phenomena of nature. Everything appeared to him in an anthropomorphic form of thought; and thus the first primitive concepts regarding the world came into being, in which the stone, the mountain, the heavenly orbs, were viewed as animate anthropomorphic beings endowed with will-power, and willing to help man or threatening to endanger him. The observation of the activities of man’s own body and of his mind led to the formulation of the idea of a soul independent of the body; and with increasing knowledge and with increasing philosophic thought, religion and science grew out of these simple beginnings.
The sameness of all these phenomena in different parts of the world has been considered as proof not only of thefundamental unity of the mind of all the races of man, but also of the truth of the theory of evolution of civilization; and thus a grand structure has been reared, in which we see our present civilization as the necessary outcome of the activities of all the races of man that have risen in one grand procession, from the simplest beginnings of culture, through periods of barbarism, to the stage of civilization that they now occupy. The march has not been equally rapid; for some are still lagging behind, while others have forged forward, and occupy the first places in the general advance.
It seems desirable to understand more clearly what this theory of parallelism of cultural development implies. It seems to mean that different groups of mankind started at a very early time from a general condition of lack of culture; and, owing to the unity of the human mind and the consequent similar response to outer and inner stimuli, they have developed everywhere approximately along the same lines, making similar inventions and developing similar customs and beliefs. It also seems to involve a certain correlation between industrial development and social development, and therefore a definite sequence of inventions as well as of forms of organization and of belief.
In the absence of historical data in regard to the earliest history of primitive man the world over, we have only three sources of historical proof of this assumption,—the evidence contained in the earliest history of the civilized people of the Old World, survivals in modern civilization, and archæology. The last-named is the only method by means of which we can approach the problem in regard to people that have no history.
While it is certainly true that analogues can be found between the types of culture represented by primitive people and those conditions which prevailed among the ancestors of the present civilized peoples at the dawn of history, and that these analogues are supported by the evidence furnished by survivals, the evidence of archæology does not support the complete generalization. The theory of parallel development, if it is to have any significance, would require that among all branches of mankind the steps of invention should have followed, at least approximately, in the same order, and that no important gaps should be found. The facts, so far as known at the present time, are entirely contrary to this view. We find, for instance, large areas of the world inhabited by people well advanced in the arts of life, but who have never made the discovery of pottery, one of the essential stepsin the advance of civilization. Pottery is not found in the extreme southern parts of Africa, in Australia, in northeastern Siberia,[6]in the whole northwestern part of North America, and in the extreme south of South America. According to what has been said before (p.169), it would seem as if Old-World pottery covers about the same territory as the other characteristic traits referred to before, while in America its centre lies in the area of more advanced culture in the middle part of the continent. Thus it happens that the well-advanced tribes of Northwest America have no pottery, and its presence or absence seems to be due more to geographical location than to general cultural causes.
The same may be said in regard to the use of metals. The invention of metallurgy, which marks so important an advance of European civilization, does not appear associated with analogous levels of development in other parts of the world. Similar remarks may be made in regard to the development of agriculture and of the domestication of animals. People whom in a general way we ought to class as on the same level of culture may some possess the art of agriculture, others may havedomesticated animals, while still others may rely upon the bounty of the sea or upon the natural vegetable products of their home.[7]As soon as we begin to investigate the industrial achievements of different types belonging to different races, parallelism of industrial development does not seem to exist in any degree of detail. Only one general trait of industrial development remains; namely, the constant addition of new elements to the older stock of knowledge and an increasing refinement of methods and of results, setting aside periods of temporary regression.
Thus it does not seem to be certain that every people in an advanced stage of civilization must have passed through all the stages of development, which we may gather by an investigation of all the types of culture which occur all over the world.
A still more serious objection is based on another observation. The validity of the general sameness of the evolution of mankind is based on the assumption that the same cultural features must always have developed from the same causes, and that all variations are only minor details of the grand uniform type of evolution. In other words, its logical basis is the assumption that the sameethnical phenomena are always due to the same causes. Thus the inference in regard to the sequence of maternal and paternal institutions, to which I referred before, is based on the generalization that because in a few cases paternal families have developed from maternal ones, therefore all paternal families have developed in the same way. If we do not make the assumption that the same phenomena have everywhere developed in the same way, then we may just as well conclude that paternal families have in some cases arisen from maternal institutions, in other cases in other ways.
In the same way it is inferred that because many conceptions of the future life have evidently developed from dreams and hallucinations, all notions of this character have had the same origin. This is true only if it can be shown that no other causes could possibly lead to the same ideas.
To give another example. It has been claimed that among the Indians of Arizona, pottery developed from basketry, and it has been inferred that all pottery must therefore be later in the cultural development of mankind than basketry. Evidently this conclusion cannot be defended, for pottery may develop in other ways.
As a matter of fact, quite a number of cases can be givenin which convergent evolution, beginning from distinct beginnings, has led to the same results. I have referred before to the instance of primitive art, and have mentioned the theory that geometrical form develops from realistic representations, which lead through symbolic conventionalism to purely æsthetic motives. We may remark here that a great diversity of objects might in this way have given rise to the same decorative motives, so that the survival of the same decorative motive would not lead back to the same realistic origin; but more important than this, we may point out that geometrical motives of the same type have developed from the tendency of the artist to play with his technique as the virtuoso plays on his instrument; that the expert basket-weaver, by varying the arrangement of her weave, was led to the development of geometrical designs of the same form as those that were developed in other places from realistic representations. We may even go a step farther, and recognize that geometrical forms developed from the technique suggested animal forms, which later on were modified so as to assume realistic forms; so that in the case of decorative art the same forms may just as well stand at the beginning of a series of development as at the end (Von den Steinen).
Another example may not be amiss. The use of masks is found among a great number of peoples. The origin of the custom is by no means clear in all cases, but a few typical forms of their use may easily be distinguished. They are intended to deceive spirits as to the identity of the wearer, and may thus protect him against attack; or the mask may represent a spirit which is personified by the wearer, who in this way frightens away supernatural enemies. Still other masks are commemorative, the wearer personifying a deceased friend. Masks are also used in theatrical performances illustrating mythological incidents (Andree). While it is not at all necessary to assume that these explanations given by the wearer of masks represent the actual historical development of the custom, the explanations themselves suggest the improbability of a single origin of the custom.
I will give another example. Primitive tribes are very often divided into a definite number of subdivisions. There is little doubt that this form of social organization has arisen independently over and over again. The conclusion is justified that the psychical conditions of man favor the existence of such an organization of society, but it does not follow that it has developed everywhere in the same manner. Dr. Washington Matthewshas shown that the groups of the Navaho have arisen by the association of independent elements. Captain Bourke has pointed out that similar occurrences have given rise to the Apache groups, and Dr. Fewkes has reached the same conclusion in regard to some of the Pueblo tribes. On the other hand, we have proof that such groups may originate by division. Such events have taken place among the Indians of the North Pacific coast (Boas). Other divisions of tribes seem to have had an entirely different origin; as, for instance, the frequent twofold exogamic division of tribes, which may, perhaps, be adequately explained by the application of the laws of exogamy in a small community. Thus it would seem that a variety of causes has led to results which appear identical to all intents and purposes.
The principal obstacle in the way of progress on these lines seems to my mind to be founded on the lack of comparability of the data with which we are dealing. Attention has been directed essentially to the similarity of ethnic phenomena, while the individual variations were disregarded. As soon as we turn our attention in this direction, we notice that the sameness of ethnic phenomena is more superficial than complete, more apparent than real. The unexpected similarities have attractedour attention to such an extent that we have disregarded differences; while in the study of the physical traits of distinct social groups, the reverse mental attitude manifests itself. The similarity of the main features of the human form being self-evident, our attention is directed to the minute differences of structure.
Instances of such lack of comparability can easily be given. When we speak of the idea of life after death as one of the ideas which develop in human society as a psychological necessity, we are dealing with a most complex group of data. One people believes that the soul continues to exist in the form that the person had at the time of death, without any possibility of change; another one believes that the soul will be reborn in a child of the same family; a third one believes that the souls will enter the bodies of animals; and still others believe that the shadows continue our human pursuits, waiting to be led back to our world in a distant future. The emotional and rationalistic elements which enter into these various concepts are entirely distinct; and we can readily perceive how the various forms of the idea of a future life may have come into existence by psychological processes that are not at all comparable. If I may be allowed to speculate on this question, I might imagine that in onecase the similarities between children and their deceased relatives, in other cases the memory of the deceased as he lived during the last days of his life, in still other cases the longing for the beloved child or parent, and again the fear of death,—may all have contributed to the development of the idea of life after death, the one here, the other there.
Another instance will corroborate this point of view. One of the striking forms of social organization which occurs in many regions wide apart is what we call “totemism,”—a form of society in which certain social groups consider themselves as related in a supernatural way to a certain species of animals or to a certain class of objects. I believe this is the generally accepted definition of “totemism;” but I am convinced that in this form the phenomenon is not a single psychological problem, but embraces the most diverse psychological elements. In some cases the people believe themselves to be descendants of the animal whose protection they enjoy. In other cases an animal or some other object may have appeared to an ancestor of the social group, and may have promised to become his protector, and the friendship between the animal and the ancestor was then transmitted to his descendants. In still other cases a certain social group in atribe may have the power of securing by magical means and with great ease a certain kind of animal or of increasing its numbers, and the supernatural relation may be established in this way. It will be recognized that here again the anthropological phenomena which are in outward appearances alike are, psychologically speaking, entirely distinct, and that consequently psychological laws covering all of them cannot be deduced from them (Goldenweiser).
Another example may not be amiss. In a general review of moral standards we observe that with increasing civilization a gradual change in the valuation of actions takes place. Among primitive man, human life has little value, and is sacrificed on the slightest provocation. The social group among whose members any altruistic obligations are binding is exceedingly small; and outside of the group any action that may result in personal gain is not only permitted, but even approved; and from this starting-point we find an ever-increasing valuation of human life and an extension of the size of the group among whose members altruistic obligations are binding. The modern relations of nations show that this evolution has not yet reached its final stage. It might seem, therefore, that a study of the social conscience inrelation to crimes like murder might be of psychological value, and lead to important results, clearing up the origin of ethical values; but I think here the same objections may be raised as before; namely, the lack of comparable motives. The person who slays an enemy in revenge for wrongs done, a youth who kills his father before he gets decrepit in order to enable him to continue a vigorous life in the world to come, a father who kills his child as a sacrifice for the welfare of his people, act from such entirely different motives, that psychologically a comparison of their activities does not seem permissible. It would seem much more proper to compare the murder of an enemy in revenge with destruction of his property for the same purpose, or to compare the sacrifice of a child on behalf of the tribe with any other action performed on account of strong altruistic motives, than to base our comparison on the common concept of murder (Westermarck).
These few data may suffice to show that the same ethnic phenomenon may develop from different sources; and we may infer that the simpler the observed fact, the more likely it is that it may have developed from one source here, from another there.
When we base our study on these observations, it appears that serious objections may be made against the assumptionof the occurrence of a general sequence of cultural stages among all the races of man; that rather we recognize a peculiar tendency of diverse customs and beliefs to converge towards similar forms. In order to interpret correctly these similarities in form, it is necessary to investigate their historical development; and only when the historical development in different areas is the same, will it be admissible to consider the phenomena in question as equivalent. From this point of view the facts of cultural contact assume a new importance (see p.166).
An important theoretical consideration has also shaken our faith in the correctness of the evolutionary theory as a whole. It is one of the essential traits of this theory that, in general, civilization has developed from simple forms to complex forms, and that extended fields of human culture have developed under more or less rationalistic impulses. Of late years we are beginning to recognize that human culture does not always develop from the simple to the complex, but that in many aspects two tendencies intercross,—one from the complex to the simple, the other from the simple to the complex. It is obvious that the history of industrial development is almost throughout that of increasing complexity. On the otherhand, human activities that do not depend upon reasoning do not show a similar type of evolution.
It is perhaps easiest to make this clear by the example of language, which in many respects is one of the most important evidences of the history of human development. Primitive languages are, on the whole, complex. Minute differences in point of view are given expression by means of grammatical forms; and the grammatical categories of Latin, and still more so those of modern English, seem crude when compared to the complexity of psychological or logical forms which primitive languages recognize, but which in our speech are disregarded entirely. On the whole, the development of languages seems to be such, that the nicer distinctions are eliminated, and that it begins with complex and ends with simpler forms, although it must be acknowledged that opposite tendencies are not by any means absent (Boas).
Similar observations may be made on the art of primitive man. In music as well as in decorative design we find a complexity of rhythmic structure which is unequalled in the popular art of our day. In music, particularly, this complexity is so great, that the art of a skilled virtuoso is taxed in the attempt to imitate it (Stumpf). If once it is recognized that simplicity is not always aproof of antiquity, it will readily be seen that the theory of the evolution of civilization rests to a certain extent on a logical error. The classification of the data of anthropology in accordance with their simplicity has been reinterpreted as an historical sequence, without an adequate attempt to prove that the simpler antedates the more complex.
We are thus led to the conclusion that the assumption of a uniform development of culture among all the different races of man and among all tribal units is true in a limited sense only. We may recognize a certain modification of mental activities with modifications of form of culture; but the assumption that the same forms must necessarily develop in every independent social unit can hardly be maintained. Thus the question with which we began our consideration—namely, whether the representatives of different races can be proved to have developed each independently, in such a way that the representatives of some races stand on low levels of culture, while others stand on high levels of culture—may be answered in the negative. If we should make the attempt to arrange the different types of man in accordance with their industrial advancement, we should find representatives of the most diverse races—such as the Bushman ofSouth Africa, the Veddah of Ceylon, the Australian, and the Indian of Terra del Fuego—on the same lowest level. We should also find representatives of different races on more advanced levels, like the negroes of Central Africa, the Indians of the Southwestern pueblos, and the Polynesians; and in our present period we may find representatives of the most diverse races taking part in the highest types of civilization. Thus it will be seen that there is no close relation between race and culture.
6.In a few localities in this district pottery is found, perhaps due to a late local introduction.
6.In a few localities in this district pottery is found, perhaps due to a late local introduction.
7.The cultural conditions of Melanesia Northwest America, and of some of the nomadic tribes of Africa, might thus be compared.
7.The cultural conditions of Melanesia Northwest America, and of some of the nomadic tribes of Africa, might thus be compared.