The morning call., 1895-03-03
WOMAN'S SHARE IN
PRIMITIVE CULTURE.

IdClS dSdlIlSG Vic USeiubi1hI DeShSiCNtAiA -.
theory and speculation which the ex-
ploiters of Woman with capital W have
painted in for us.
1t is something to be assured by our
latter-day prophets that the entrance OF
woman into the political arena will insure
good government for the country; that
her advent into the journalistic field Will
elevate public opinion and purify the
press; even that, in the poetic parlance OF
nearly every orator upon the subject, the
hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that
moves the world, but what we have here
tofore missed among these glltterlng gen
eralities have been definite summarized
statements of the part woman has actually
played in the industrial and artistic prog
resS of the world.
Such a collection of facts has just been
given the world by Professor Otis L. Mason,
curator of the department of ethnology in
the United States National Museum.
DR.. Mason is above all things a scientist,
and the book which he has just put out
under the title. of 'Woman's Share in
Primitive Culture goes into the details of
his subject with scientific accuracy. His
researches comprehend the entire range Of
primitive peoples, and he traces the in
dustrial progress of woman from the first
burden-beare of a savage people down to
IHe present. age, Nucll, dCCOfNlllS 10 IIlt IT
port of the United States Labor Commits
sion, there are S36 occupations now fol-
lowed by women.
Needless to say the book is exceedingly
interesting. There are two classes of
people, however, who will be greatly, if
not painfully, surprised at certain newt
able conclusions to be drawn from its pages.
These are, for instance, the people who
have been wont to hold that man is the
superior being, and that woman has ever
occupied a subordinate position, because
divine viii and human destiny were thus
best fulfilled and wrought out.
The other class to be surprised are those
who, through many years of argument and
oratory have eXacerbated tyrant man for
having, by virtue of superior brute
strength, subjected woman and made her
his slave or his plaything, according to his
nature and training.
In the first place the assertion of mans
superior brute force is contradicted. Primi-
tive woman was, we are told, quite the
physical equal of primitive man. She
hunted and fought and toiled side by side
with him, and in such an event as u per-
sonal conflict between the average woman
and the average man, the woman would
have been as likely as the man TO be the
victor.
Such conflicts, however, did not often
occur between membe of the same tribes
toward woman. That, DR.. Mason declares,
is sin that belongs to standardization.
ait is not reasonable he says, ''to sup
pose that any species or variety of animals
would survive in which the helpless ma
ternal half is subjected to outrageous
cruelty as a rule. According to the law of
the survival of the fittest a tribe or stock of
the human species III which brutality of
this sort has place simply chooses the
downward road and disappears"
The road woman has travelled to her
present subordinate position is traced by
Professor Mason in q series of interesting
ch apters He shows her as the primitive
farmer, the primitive weaver, skindresser,
potter and beast of burden. He shows her,
too as the inventor and maker of the
various tools used by her in these
handicrafts. She it was who invented the
knife and used it first in dressing and
scraping the skins of beasts killed by man.
The plow and the loom were also her in
vention, the one to prepare the earth,
which in her Office as food-bringer she
cultivated, the other as a necessity in
weaving the cloaks and garments which
in the division of labor it was her lot to
provide for the race.
For woman's housekeeping and So
called subordinate position came about
not through the inherent tyranny of man,
but through what is to-day recognized as
highly elaborated principle in economics
namely, the division Of labor.
The division OF labor, we are shown,
began with the discovery of fire and the
invention of fire. making. 1t was a di-
vision based upon sex. Some one must
stay by the fire and keep it alive. Some
one must go forth to hunt and do battle
with the enemies of the tribe.
For obvious reasons the maternal crea-
ture was by nature least fitted to go forth
at all times. So it came about that the
woman stayed by the fire to keep it alive,
while the man went to the forest to hunt
for game.
Just here the separation between the
sexes began. It was not inherent. 1t be-
came a matter of convenience-as much
the convenience of the woman as of the
man. The change in the nature of the two
beings was as inevitable as it became great.
Man became the militant factor in the
race. He grew cunning in all the murder
Gus arts. He waxed mighty as hunter,
valiant as warrior and by virtue of his
wider contact with life he became the nat
ural leader as between the two.
The woman at the fireside became the
burden-b bearer, the basket-maker, the
weaver, potter, agricuiturist, the domestic
ator of animals. the inventor of all peace
full arts. She tanned the wild cattle for the
sake of their milk, she tanned and herded
the sheep and the goats for their fleece.
Long before the days of the Pharaohs she
had coaxed the wild atinto her home and
domesticated it, for the protection of her
granaries from predacious creatures. The
story of her industrial genius reads like
fairy tale. She was virtual Jack-at-all-
trades.
She was the primitive artist. Before
even the implements of war, of the men,
were subjected to rude decoration, the
earliest discovered attempts at orna-
mentation--the first vague strivngs after
artistic form and decoration, are the crude
bowls and utensils made by primitive
woman for use In her work.
They were the earliest linguists, making
the language of the race. Professor Mason
quotes the Mexican proverb, "a woman is
the best dictionary" as being an un-
conscious tribute to the origin of most of
our words. Primitive man, hunting and
fighting, was not much of talker. The
women at home, over their work, with
their children, and among the attributes of
an industrial life, had greater need of ex-
preston. They invented the words that
indicate all the uses of everyday life-the
names of animals and food stuffs.
"a casual glance" he says, eat any list
of old-time verbs in the English and other
111 rod Ion. cvoiy,