limits upon the decorations, the fact that the Plains area is in direct contact with basketry-making peoples and the weavers of the Southwest reveals the possibility of diffusion. While this, like most other problems, is one for the future, there are several good reasons for believing that the art of the bison, or Plains area, is in the main an independent development. In the first place, its center is in the very heart of the area, while it is weakest on the margins. In its great western Shoshoni fringe we find a condition not unlike that of the Apache in that beadwork and basketry exist side by side but with different design systems.
There is, however, a more direct approach to the problem by the analytic comparison of designs. Kroeber[1] has carefully analyzed the designs of California baskets and Plains beadwork in search of the prevalent design units. When these are found, they prove to be, in the main, very simple geometric forms and though many can be very closely matched for the two areas, their very simplicity, taken with the principle of textile limitation, lessens the probability of their common origin. On the other hand, if we take more complex design wholes we find very little correspondence between the two areas, for each has a number of highly unique designs not found in any other part of the world. Hence, even this method tends to assert independence of origin.
To the north and east of the Plains area we have another art area in which neither ceramics nor true textiles play an important part. This region comprises the greater part of the caribou area and the northern half of the eastern maize area, a region in which, although the decorations are again by beads and quills, there is yet a distinct type of design. Here we have exactly the opposite of the preceding, for instead of textile-like designs we find curved figures and more or less realistic, plant-like forms. The cause for this very extraordinary contrast is an important problem.
When we try to locate the geographic center of this art, it proves somewhat elusive, but closer inspection reveals two sub-centers, one in eastern Canada, the other near Lake Superior. The eastern sub-type has been brought to notice
- ↑ Kroeber, 1905. I.
