DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIZATION OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES SHOWN BY PEABODY MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

The Peabody Museum of Harvard University is one of the few museums in America devoted wholly to collections illustrating the development of the culture of primitive peoples. Physical characteristics of these people are shown by skeletal material from all parts of the world. The earliest known implements of man are represented by the very complete groups from the river gravels of France and England, from the caves of France, and from the arid regions of northern Africa. Later developments of man in Europe are illustrated by important early collections of artifacts of the pile dwelling tribes of the Swiss Lakes and the dolman building people of northern and eastern Europe. The prehistoric cultures of America are especially well shown by remains from cemeteries, burial mounds, village sites, and the ruins of the wonderful cities of Mexico and Central America.

Coming down to later times, nearly all of the more important groups of primitive people are represented, including the Eskimo, the American Indian, and the people of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Malay Archipelago, Asia, and Africa.

In these days of the printing press, electrical appliances, and the automobile, it is difficult to realize that not very long ago the general culture of our own Anglo-Saxon ancestors had not reached a much higher level than that of some of the more cultured tribes of America.

Exhibits Used Extensively

The collections brought together in the Peabody Museum are used extensively by anthropological specialists in general, and by students in the Division of Anthropology of the University. They are also made use of by students in other departments of the University, by those of various colleges and schools in eastern Massachusetts, and by the general public. In addition to its primary use in the study of the origin, development, and distribution of man, the Museum is being used increasingly by students of design, sculpture, architecture, and many of the mechanical arts.

In the latter-connection, it may be of interest to give a few illustrations of the old adage, "There is nothing new under the sun," For instance, how many people know that many years before the discovery of America, the Indians inhabiting the area now known as New England had brought that nearly universal tool, the adze, to its highest degree of development in form and variety. The blades were made of a fine-grained stone capable of being worked to a good cutting edge. No where else in the world had this implement so many specialized shapes, each form being carefully adapted to a certain type of work. It is probable that long ago, New England was the home of a group of Indians who were master workers in wood. They probably equaled if they did not surpass in this respect the wood-working tribes of the Northwest Coast.

Rope Making Early Developed

The native people of nearly all sections of the world were expert makers of cordage. The New England colonists could not produce better cordage than they found among the Indians with whom they first came in contact. In Peru, a great variety of cloth was made. Examples in various anthropological museums show that most of the types of weaving in use today were known to the Peruvian Indians in prehistoric times. Not long ago, there was litigation between certain twine manufactures over a "newly invented" method of winding twine into cylindrical packages. The controversy attracted the attention of an ethnologist, who showed that the method had been known and practiced for unknown generations in the Fiji Islands and Polynesia, in preparing packages of sennit, used in house building and for other domestic purposes.

The prehistoric Indians of the central Mississippi Valley had forestalled the modern chemist in making and using evaporating pans and precipitating jars which they employed in the manufacture of salt. These utensils were of pottery. The shallow pans were two to four feet in diameter. The precipitating jars were about two feet high and four inches across at the top, tapering to a point; at the bottom. These jars were furnished with covers, to protect the contents. The brine was collected from saline springs, placed in the jars, and allowed to stand until sediment had formed. The clear brine was then poured into great pans and evaporated over a fire. The forms of both types of vessel were perfectly adapted to the use to which they were put.

Yale Lock Invented in Africa

A nearly perfect minor invention, and one in almost universal use today, is the Yale lock. This lock appears to have been used by the natives of eastern Africa long before it was known to civilization. The Makonde and Ambo tribes fasten the doors of their houses with these locks. They are large, and clumsily made of wood. The tumblers are about an inch in diameter, and when the door is unlocked, are raised to the proper height by means of a clumsy key with corresponding projections.

At the time of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, the Indian goldsmiths of Oaxaca were perhaps unsurpassed by any in the world. Many other tribes from Mexico to Chile were also expert workers. They were proficient in the arts of casting, hammering, and embossing gold, silver, and copper, and had perfected the art of plating the baser metal with pure gold.

Malay Tribes Used Fire Syringe

The flint and steel which were used by our ancestors until recently for fire-making are but a degree removed from the flint and from pyrites, their immediate predecessor, which were common among the northern peoples of America, and also in Europe in ancient times. The Malay tribes, however, long ago perfected several methods of fire-making, the most interesting of which is the fire syringe, which ignites tinder by simple air compression.

To a student of history, many of the specimens in the Museum are of great interest, especially those contemporary with the period of the discovery of America. There are also many which were obtained years ago by travelers and explorers of note, among whom may be mentioned, Captain Cook, Roderick McKenzie, Lewis and Clark, George Catlin, Captain Wilkes of the United States Exploring Expedition, Francis Parkman, and Paul DuChaillu.

Students of architecture will find much of interest in the great stone buildings of Mexico, Central America, and Peru, with their ornate facades and sculptured inner walls. Casts of some of these walls are shown in the Museum collections. Both interior and exterior of the stone buildings at Mitla, Mexico, are adorned with perhaps the most remarkable series of frets to be found in any section of the world.

The study of the development of different phases of decorative art is of great interest. Primitive people are instinctively artistic, and poor taste in the combination of lines and colors is rarely found. This is noticeably true of the American Indians, the Polynesians, certain African tribes, and the people of southern Asia. The Peabody Museum is a great store-house of primitive art, and its collections should be better known to students of the University in general as well as to the public.