loid-Red stream of humanity. We have already outlined the reasons for assuming the pristine home of this group to be in Asia, but when it comes to locating the precise cradle land of this parent group, we must proceed with caution. This is, however, not of prime importance, for if we start with the known facts, the present distribution of the Mongoloid-Red stem, we note that it concentrates in the colder northern halves of both hemispheres where the cultures of its units are primitive, but that in each case its southern outposts developed complex cultures. The New World branch can claim originality for its high center and while it is clear that the ancient Chinese center was stimulated by non-Mongoloid centers, the pioneer students of Chinese origins have already presented a strong brief for their priority in many Old World inventions.[1] Thus, the future may lead to the opinion that inherent in this Mongoloid stem was a germ of originality which blossomed forth wherever the environment permitted, and we may be able by contrasting these two independent cultures—the ancient Chinese and the Maya—with those of southern Asia and Europe, to arrive at last at the knowledge of elements peculiar to both. What these may be, we can but guess, but there seems to be a similarity between the Indians and the Asiatics in the weakness for loosely coordinated social groups, failure to develop nationalism, and relatively greater regard for tradition. Returning to our subject, we may note that the geographical position of these two centers of higher cultures on the frontiers of the extended swarming ground of the Mongoloid-Red stem, one of which could not have been borrowed from the other, necessitates the assumption of a northern cradle land and an expansion into more favorable environments. It also presupposes a main horde of the Mongoloid-Red peoples with a culture not materially different from that of the great mass of wilder North Asiatic and American tribes known to history. Like a great crescent this horde stretched from Cape Horn, through Alaska, across Asia and beyond to the shores of the Baltic and the Mediterranean. It appears, in the main, as a virile horde of hunting and fisher-folk most at home in cold, elevated, or semi-arid lands. Among other traits, we find
- ↑ Laufer, 1914. I.
