Evening star., 1942-07-11
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
Nations have no common pattern of
evolution.
Hence nature has established no un-
crossable barriers to federation Of
men.
This Is the conclusion Of DR.. John r.
Swanton, veteran anthropologist Of the
Bureau of American Ethnology, In a
handbook issued for free distribution by
the Smithsonian Institution.
Race, language, religion and geogra-
ply all play their parts. DR.. Swanton
concludes, after delving deeply into the
basic structures of human society. But
there Is no factor or complex of fac
tors to be discerned by anthropologists
in the development of all nations.
There is general impression, he
points out, that such terms as British"
French" Russian" etc, indicate some
sort of biological entity-roughly like
Bear" Lion" THE idea of g mystical
German race which should be gathered
into one entity was much stressed by
Hitler before the war. The same idea
always has been emphasized by the
japanese
DR.. Swanton starts with some of the
simpler forms of national organiza-
ton, as exemplifed by the American
Indians before the white settlements.
The tribes ranged all the way from
powerful autocratic and theocratic
empires to the loosest forms of democ-
racies. He sought pattern of evolu-
ton from one to the other or vice versa
1t is a fallacy to think of the Ameri-
can Indians as Of common race. All
belonged to the great Mongoloid branch
OF the human species but they differed
among themselves certainly as much as
do the white peoples of Europe. There
were long heads and broad heads, small
statured and large-statured, broad
nosed and narrow-nosed.
They spoke a babel of languages, be-
tween manv of which no common pat
tern can be discerned. They varied
widely in their religious beliefs and In
their ways of life.
One of the most powerful and Gull
turally advanced of North American
peoples were the Iroquos. Physically
they were of essentially the same type
as the New England Indians, but
differed strikingly In language and cu-
ture. There was no tendency for these
people of the same physical pattern,
indicating the same basic race" to
come together-at least until very late
when more potent political factors came
into play. Nor was there tendency to
crystalline in the form of a state among
peoples who spoke essentially the same
tongue but varied in physical type
such as the Winnebago and the Omaha.
There are, on the other hand. cases
where groups of different physical struc-
ture and different languages we're
amalgamated in one tribe.
In short" says DR.. SWanton. there
Is no one universally valid principle
identifying body of people as a tribe,
and tribes or tribal groups varied so
enormously as TO dispose effectuallv of
the idea that there was an immutability
about them, either in their origin or
later development. Sanctions of super
natural character were claimed in the
more developed tribes such as the
Natchez, Aztecs and Incas, but these
were plainly afterthoughts intended to
stabilize condition brought about by
less occult means"
DR.. Swanton finds much the same con-
ditions in the evolution of the empires
OF the Old World Ancient Egypt, for
example, was not populated in all
periods by a common physical type.
AS many AS six physical types have
been distinguished among the soldiers
and enemies of the Pharaoh Menes,
who first brought all Egypt under one
rule
The other great civilization of this
period was that OF Mesopotamia. Even
more than Egypt it was built on an
almost inextricable complex of physical
types, languages, religions and ways of
life.
In both Egypt and Mesopotamia, he
points out, geography played a maio
part in the evolution of empires. but
this cannot be accepted as a general
principle. For example, it has not
resulted IN a single empire on the
Iberian peninsula, cut off from the rest
of Europe by high mountains This
is in spite of the fact that Spanish
and Portuguese are racially related peo-
pie speaking quite similar languages and
having common religion.
Greece, highly cultured, inhabited by
people racially closely related and speak
ing very similar languages, never did
develop into an empire or, until COM
paratively recently, into a closely CO.
ordinated state.
Few larger nations in history, DR..
Swanton points out, have fewer basic
claims to mystical national unity than
Germany, where the most vehement
claims have been made.
From this study, extending over the
whole sweep of human civilization DR.,
SWanton concludes that there is no
justification of political entity rather
than the impirical benefits to the peo-
pie governed. Geography, race lam
guage, culture, religion enter into the
complex of nations and are factors
which must be reckoned with But ma
ture has placed her stamp of approval
on no one of these, nor any combina-
ton of them, as an essential factor
in the evolution of state
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Repeats Arguments