# The American Indian

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
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 |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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