Page:May Walden - Woman and Socialism (1909).pdf/6

 6 The earliest or lower status of savagery (egins with the infancy of the human race and may be said to have ended with a knowledge of the use of fire, and of fish for food. During this period the savages lived upon fruits and nuts principally, and did not travel far from their original habitat. The middle status of savagery begins with the use of fish for food and fire to cook it, and ends with the invention of the bow and arrow. Mankind followed the rivers in search of food and thus spread over the greater portion of the earth's surface. The Australians and Polynesians, when discovered, were in this period, they having no knowledge of the use of the bow and arrow.

The upper status of savagery commenced with the invention of the bow and arrow, and ended with the invention of the art of pottery. And most, if not all, of these inventions that have made possible the progress of the human race, are credited to woman's ingenuity.

Many of the tribes of the North and South American Indians were in this, the upper status of savagery, at the time of the discovery of America by Europeans. All of the tribes, then, on the face of the earth who never practiced the art of making pottery, are classed as savages. All of those who made pottery had crossed the line of progress into barbarism.

It is estimated that about three-fifths of the life of the race, or 60,000 years, were spent in the period of savagery. It is also conceded that in this period, and probably for 20,000