The American Indian

by Clark Wissler

Ruin known as the "House of the Magician." Uxmal, Yucalan
Spinden, 1913. I

The American Indian

An Introduction to the Anthropology

of the New World

CLARK WISSLER

Curator of Anthropology in the American Museum

of Natural History⁠New York City

New York

Douglas C. McMurtrie

1917

Copyright, 1917, by Douglas C. McMurtrie

PREFACE

This book is offered as a general summary of anthropological research in the New World. It is in the main a by-product of the author's activities as a museum curator in which capacity he has sought to objectify and systematize the essential facts relating to aboriginal America. Thus, he is first of all indebted to the American Museum of Natural History for the opportunities and resources necessary to the development of the subject and for permission to use the experience so gained in the composition of these pages.

Of personal obligations there are many. All of my associates in the Museum have been most helpful: particularly, acknowledgment should be made to Doctor Robert H. Lowie who read the manuscript and offered many suggestions as to the scope and form of the work. In addition, recognition should be given Professor A. L. Kroeber, University of California, for valuable criticisms; to Mr. Leslie Spier for data on the archæology of eastern North America; and to Mr. Andrew T. Wylie, Teachers College, for suggestions as to the form of presentation. Finally, it is a pleasure to acknowledge my obligation to Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, President of the American Museum of Natural History, for inspiration and encouragement in the earlier stages of the work.

The technical preparation of these pages was undertaken by my secretary, Miss Bella Weitzner, who compiled the tables of linguistic stocks, the bibliography, and the index, and whose long experience, coupled with extensive anthropological knowledge, greatly facilitated all phases of the work. The specimens illustrated are from the Museum collections. The maps, diagrams, and many of the drawings were executed by Mr. S. Ichikawa who also rendered indispensable assistance in the selection and arrangement of the illustrations.

Clark Wissler

June, 1917

CONTENTS

	Page
Introduction	1
CHAPTER I
The Food Areas of the New World	7
⁠Hunting Areas	9
⁠The Salmon Area	14
⁠The Area of Wild Seeds	16
⁠The Agricultural Areas	17
⁠General Discussion	23
⁠Distribution of Narcotics	28
CHAPTER II
Domestication of Animals and Methods of Transportation	32
⁠Canoes and Navigation	41
CHAPTER III
The Textile Arts	45
⁠Spinning	46
⁠Netting	49
⁠Basketry	50
⁠Cloth	55
⁠Feather-work	61
⁠Clothing	61
CHAPTER IV
The Ceramic Arts	67
⁠Processes of Manufacture	69
⁠Pottery Forms	72
⁠Pottery Decoration	75
CHAPTER V
Decorative Designs	76
⁠Textile Designs	76
⁠Distribution of Designs	79
⁠Symbolism	95
CHAPTER VI
Architecture	100
CHAPTER VII
Work in Stone and Metals	115
⁠Types of Artifacts	118
⁠Mines and Quarries	123
⁠Metal Work	124
CHAPTER VIII
Special Inventions	127
CHAPTER IX
The Fine Arts	134
⁠Literature	137
⁠Music	145
CHAPTER X
Social Grouping	149
⁠The Local Group	153
⁠Clans and Gentes	154
⁠Dual Divisions	158
⁠Relationship Systems	159
⁠Taboos and Social Privileges	161
⁠Age Grades and Societies	162
⁠Totemic Features	163
CHAPTER XI
Social Regulation	166
⁠Conceptions of Property and Inheritance	173
⁠Marriage Regulations	175
⁠Education and General Discipline	177
CHAPTER XII
Ritualistic Observances	180
⁠Supernatural Guardians and Totemism	185
⁠Shamanism	187
⁠The Personal Relation in Ritualism	191
CHAPTER XIII
Mythology	194
⁠Mythology and Religious Conceptions	198
⁠Unity of New World Culture	202
CHAPTER XIV
The Classification of Social Groups according to their Cultures	204
⁠The Historic Tribes	206
⁠North American Culture Areas	206
⁠ 1. The Plains Area	206
⁠ 2. Plateau Area	209
⁠ 3. California Area	212
⁠ 4. North Pacific Coast Area	213
⁠ 5. Eskimo Area	215
⁠ 6. Mackenzie Area	217
⁠ 7. Eastern Woodland Area	219
⁠ 8. Southeastern Area	222
⁠ 9. Southwestern Area	224
⁠10. The Nahua Area	227
⁠South American Culture Areas	229
⁠11. The Chibcha Area	229
⁠12. The Inca Area	231
⁠13. The Guanaco Area	232
⁠14. Amazon Area	236
⁠15. The Antilles	242
⁠Culture Centers	242
CHAPTER XV
Archæological Classification	245
⁠North America	245
⁠ 1. The North Atlantic Area	245
⁠ 2. South Atlantic Area	249
⁠ 3. The Iroquoian Area	250
⁠ 4. The Mississippi-Ohio Area	252
⁠ 5. The Great Lake Area	253
⁠ 6. The Plains	254
⁠ 7. The Pueblo Area	256
⁠ 8. California	258
⁠ 9. The Columbia Basin	259
⁠10. North Pacific Coast Area	260
⁠11. The Arctic Area	260
⁠12. The Canadian Area	260
⁠13. Northern Mexico	260
⁠14. Central Mexico	261
⁠15. State of Oaxaca	261
⁠16. Yucatan	261
⁠17. Panama	261
⁠18. The Antilles	263
⁠South America	264
⁠19. Colombia	264
⁠20. Ecuador	265
⁠21. Peru	265
⁠22. Chile	266
⁠23. The Atlantic Highlands	267
⁠24. Patagonia	268
CHAPTER XVI
Chronology of Cultures	270
⁠Chronologies determined by Stratification	273
⁠Inapplicability of Old World Chronology	275
⁠Inferential Chronologies	276
CHAPTER XVII
Linguistic Classification	280
⁠Comparative Phonetics	286
⁠Comparative Morphology	289
⁠Distribution of Stocks	294
CHAPTER XVIII
Somatic Classification	298
⁠Breadth of Face	299
⁠Flattening of the Femur	300
⁠Head Form	301
⁠Orbits and Nasal Skeleton	307
⁠Bodily Proportions	309
⁠Summary of Somatic Characters	309
⁠Relations to Mankind in General	310
⁠Grouping by Somatic Characters	320
⁠Chronological Types	323
CHAPTER XIX
Correlation of Classifications	327
⁠Linguistics and Culture	331
⁠Somatic Correlations	333
⁠General Relations of Culture, Linguistics, and Somatology	334
⁠The Migration Factor	334
⁠The Influence of Environment	337
CHAPTER XX
Theories of Culture Origins	342
⁠Culture Trait Association	350
⁠The Historical Conception of Culture	352
CHAPTER XXI
New World Origins	355
APPENDIX
Linguistic Tables and Bibliography	367
⁠Linguistic Stocks of the United States and Canada	369
⁠Linguistic Stocks of Mexico and Central America	378
⁠Linguistic Stocks of South America	381
⁠Bibliography	387
Index	413

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Ruin known as the 'House of the Magician'	Frontispiece
1. Food Areas of the New World	8
2. Cree Indians Driving Bison	11
3. Patagonians Hunting the Guanaco	13
4. Iroquois Woman Pounding Maize into Meal	19
5. The Distribution of Maize and Manioc	24
6. Pueblo Indian Planting Maize	26
7. Cultivating Maize and Squashes	26
8. Distribution of Coca and Tobacco	29
9. Distribution of Animal Transport	33
10. Eskimo Dog Sledge	36
11. Indians of the Bison Area on the March	36
12. Various Methods of Using the Tumpline	40
13. Types of Canoes	42
14. Ancient Mexican and Egyptian Spinners	48
15. Navajo Woman Spinning	48
16. Basketry Weaves	51
17. Distribution of Types of Basketry	53
18. Ojibway Weaving Frame	56
19. A Navajo Weaver	56
20. Distribution of Weaving	57
21. Cape of Sagebrush Bark	59
22. Peruvian Feather Poncho	61
23. Types of Costume and their Distribution	62
24. Forms of Footwear	64
25. A Pueblo Indian Potter	67
26. Distribution of Pottery	68
27. Lower Mississippi Pottery	70
28. South Atlantic Pottery	70
29. North Atlantic Pottery	71
30. Pottery from Southwestern United States	72
31. Mexican Pottery	72
32. Central American Pottery	73
33. Peruvian Pottery	74
34. Pottery from Eastern South America	74
35. Types of Textile Design	78
36. Types of Prehistoric Peruvian Textile Designs	79
37. Decorative Design Areas	80
38. Types of North American Basketry	81
39. Beaded and Painted Designs	82
40. The Decorative Art of the Plains Indians	85
41. Design Elements	85
42. Decorations on Birchbark	86
43. Art of the North Pacific Coast Indians	89
44. Prehistoric Textile Designs, Maya	90
45. Mexican Textile Designs	91
46. A Series of Peruvian Designs	92
47. A Peruvian Poncho	94
48. A Series of Designs and their Names	96
49. True Symbols	98
50. Cross-Section of the Temple of the Cross	100
51. Groundplan of the House of the Nuns	102
52. Elevations and Groundplans, Yucatan	103
53. Section of the Hall of the Six Columns, Mexico	105
54. Reconstruction of Pueblo Bonito	106
55. Pebbles Showing the Process of Abrading	116
56. Pieces of Worked Nephrite	117
57. Common Types of Arrow-Head	119
58. Knives of Copper from the Eskimo and Inca	121
59. Methods of Drilling	128
60. Wooden Slat Armor	132
61. Two Figures from Palenque	135
62. Statues of the Chacmool Type	136
63. A Sculptured Turtle at Quirigua	136
64. Life Size Pottery Figure	137
65. Distribution of Sculpture	138
66. Distribution of Clans and Gentes	156
67. Culture Areas	205
68. The Plains Indian Culture Area	207
69. Plains Indian Life	208
70. The Chilkat Indians	214
71. Pueblo Indian Life	226
72. A Patagonian Shelter Tent	233
73. Scenes from Fuegian Life	234
74. Distribution of Forests in South America	238
75. A Caraja Village in Central Brazil	241
76. Archæological Areas	246
77. Types of Stone Implements, North Atlantic Area	247
78. Section of Rock-Shelter	248
79. Finch's Rock-Shelter	248
80. Iroquois Archæological Types	251
81. Problematic Forms	252
82. Archæological Types of the Mississippi-Ohio Area	252
83. The Fluted Ax and the Spud	255
84. Ancient Maya Cities	262
85. Linguistic Stocks in the United States and Canada	282
86. Linguistic Stocks in Mexico and Central America	284
87. Linguistic Stocks in South America	288
88. Consolidation of California Stocks	293
89. North American Types	298
90. Brazilian Types	299
91. Patagonian Types	299
92. The Cephalic Index	302
93. Skulls from North and South America	304
94. Types from Central Brazil	309
95. Diagrammatic Representation of Average Bodily Forms	310
96. Bodily Forms from Various Races	311
97. Lines of Dispersal for the Primates	315
98. Living and Extinct Groups of Primates	315
99. Dispersal of Mankind	318
100. Somatic Areas	324
101. Superposition of Culture Areas	330
102. Distribution of Men's Societies among the Plains Indians	349
103. North American Indian Tribes	435
104. South American Indian Tribes	435