Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/527

Rh authorities and sources, and with that of direct evidence, including authenticity, statement of place and time, material, technique, form, and style. He makes pertinent remarks on the criticism of records. Once the value of the evidence is established it has to be interpreted, and he points out the numerous pitfalls that beset the path of the unwary, here, as everywhere, illustrating his statements by exposing the delinquencies of former writers,—though in doing so he sometimes overstates his case, and thereby creates a wrong impression. Interpretation is at present the best-cultivated department of ethnology, but along with it goes combination, which establishes a causal connection between individual phenomena and so elucidates origins. The surest basis of combination is critically-examined tradition or history, especially when there is chronological order, but this is not always available, and in that case great care must be exercised in framing hypotheses as to relative primitiveness. Graebner instances Father-right and Mother-right, and states that there is no reason why they should not be two different trends, the transitions being secondary combinations due to the contact of the two systems. He discusses the theories of ethnological evolution, and refers to the doctrine of elemental ideas which is based on the present psychical similarity of the diverse branches of mankind when acted upon by similar natural environment, leading to parallelism or convergence. The problem is to find a criterion of the different possible relations of similar phenomena to each other, and to discover the characters by which one can detect whether several parallel phenomena are ethnologically related or of independent origin. Graebner discusses these two points of view, and indicates that two main criteria are available to prove ethnological connections:—that of form, i.e. correspondence of qualities not inherent to the nature of the object, and that of quantitative correspondence. To secure objective and unprejudiced criteria is only a part of the work; next comes the application of them. There are no definite rules to be followed, it being largely a matter of self-criticism and sensitiveness; it is best to build on the sure foundation of a single area, advancing cautiously step by step. The reconstruction is largely effected by a sort of process of subtraction. Determine and subtract the latest and next latest cultural movements and