Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/865

* MAN. 771 fully weighed customs. In general terms it may be said that the coc'irdinative activities are pri- marily zoutheistic aud collective, that they arose practically in a toleration which between men and animals is mutual, that they mature slowly in zooculture and agriculture and in control on an economic basis, aud that in every stage the dominant force is growing meutalitj'. Reconstruction. The reconstructive industries may be said to begin with the habitual use of implements or tools as adjuncts to the natural organs. Neglecting the casual or mimetic use of missiles and weapons by simians and men. the lowest known implements are actual or symbolized organs, i.e. teeth, claws, beaks, talons, spurs, and shells such as form emblems in primitive ceremonies. Thus the Eskimo used walrus and narwhal tusks as harpoons, the Pacific islanders used saw-fish blades as sabres, and various tribes render their war-clubs actually as well as symbolically effective by inserting teeth of crocodiles, sharks, and other powerful creatures. The customs of the Seri tribe are especially instructive since they remain so near the threshold of implement-using as to lack knife sense and prefer taking large game in the hands, tearing and devouring deer and antelope and even horses and kine with teeth and nails aided only by edgeless cobblestones; among them the arrow-point or foreshaft, the slip-head of the harpoon, and the hardwood point of the masculine firestick .symbolize teeth, and are so called in their language; the awl, or perforator, is either a bird mandible or a bit of wood shaped in imitation of that oi'gan ; and the sole hand implement in haldtual use is merely a cobble- stone of convenient size, of which one form is designated a tooth. This is used chiefly by the matron, and if strong and of approved size becomes a permanent possession and in time is worn and polished by use. when it acquires a fetishistie character and is buried with the owner at death. The implement is edgeless : doubtless a practical reason for this is the superior safety in the fierce stress of chase and dismemberment of quarry, but in tribal custom the implement becomes tabu, and is discarded in terror and loathing when so broken accidentally as to form sharp edges ; the only edged stone is the arrow- point, made ceremonially in imitation of those of neighboring tribes by aged clan-mothers, and deemed so magical as not to be named save by seeresses. In a higher type noted by Powers in California the pebble is so cleft by natural agencies as to form a sharp edge; in still higher lypes it is purposely cleft and chipped ; and among more advanced tribes the arrow-maker is a medicineman or shaman, who is believed to infuse occult potency into the products of his craft. In parts of California arrow-heads and spear-points were flaked and chipped from ob- sidian, and when small were quite effective, though the highest skill of the makers was ex- pended on huge blades reaching twenty inches in length, which were useless in chase or warfare by reason of brittieness ; these were used by sha- mans in ceremonies and served as insignia of power until the death of the owner, when they were sacrificed with his body. In Mexico ob- sidian was quarried in blocks or 'cores.' from which thin flakes were struck for knives, lances, and razors, so commonly that the material be- came an important industrial factor; yet here. MAN. too, the finest products, including large blades and carved axes far Urn fragile for practical use, were votive forms to which magical powers were imputed. Even more significant was the pipestone, or catlinite, found in a single locality in Central Xorth America, to which such potency was imputed that bj' intertribal convention it was consecrated to ilanido (or Great Mystery) and perpetual peace, and was made free to all tribes and peoples; it was used chiefl}' for calu- mets or pipe-tomahawks symbolizing the alter- natives of peace and war, though it was so soft and fragile that the blade was totally unser- viceable, while, despite watchful protection, the bowl seldom lasted through the life-time of its owner. Granite and other hard and strong ma- terials were used for hammers, club-heads, celts, pestles, and hatchets or tomahawks characteristic of American aboriginal culture; but some of these were too delicately carved and polished for practical use. and were kept by shamans as types and tokens of skill to be displayed in ceremonies as 'Ancients' or progenitors of their kind; while the most elaborate hard stone carvings (such as the 'collars' and 'yokes' of Mexico and the Antilles) are symbolic in both form and finish, and were used solely in ceremonies. The Ameri- can examples throw light on stone cults in the Old World, including those of jade in the Orient and gems in Africa, and various vestiges indi- cate that their original motives were parallel to those of the Western Hemisphere. Other indus- tries reveal similar motives; among the Cali- fornia tribes the basket is a general vitensil (kettle, water-bucket, dipper, canteen, berry-pail, cap, etc.), and basket-making is highly developed, yet the finest products are sacramental forms, woven by matrons with their clan emblems in- wrought, to be used in a few important cere- monies during their lives and then burned or buried with their bodies. Among the Pueblo tribes pottery formed the general utensil, and here, too, the finest specimens, bearing elaborate painted or modeled symbols, were consecrated to ceremonies and mortuary sacrifice; and the same was true of blanketry and other fabrics. In parts of America primitive stone-working grew into a. crude metallurgy, in which native metals were wrought cold or at moderate heat. ^Meteoric iron (which is hot-short, and hence workable only at low temperature) was occasionally wrought into ceremonial forms, while copper was extensively used for arrow-heads or spear-points and celts, modeled after the stone types, and also in sheets from which symbolic devices were shaped; both were wrought with stone tools cold or hammer- heated, the blades being hanuner-temiiered (the inelastic .stones giving a peculiar hardness some- times increased by subsequent patination), and the thin sheets bent over stone or other mandrels and punctured or cut by indenting one side and grinding the other. In Mexico, Central America, and Peru native silver and gold were wrought into ceremonial objects by artificial heat up to the point of partial fusion; the motive attend- ing the critical step from 'cold hammering to hot forging surviving the notion of the Xavaho silversmith that the warming of metal under the hammer is an appeal in kind for fire-boat, and that its gratification is rewarded by diminished resistance to the efforts of the smith — i.e. the motive is typically primitive and analogous to that in which corn is thought to be hardened