If the social factor in man's thought and belief is duly emphasized, the fallaciousness of the attempts to find rational interpretations of primitive beliefs, customs, and activities, becomes apparent. The thought of the group, what the author calls "collective representations," is passed on from generation to generation as a social inheritance. The individual is no more responsible for what he believes than he is for what he does and thinks. The mentality of the group is forced upon him from early childhood; and if we want to understand him-if, indeed, we may-we must turn to the social body whence he derives his mental characteristics.

An analysis of primitive mentality leads the author to the conviction that it is relatively indifferent to the law of contradiction which lies at the root of our own logical processes. Instead, that mentality is dominated by the law of participation, according to which objects and beings, which from our objective point of view seem quite different, may yet be considered related in virtue of some characters, mostly mystic characters, common to them all. Thus primitive mentality is prelogical and mystical. In its representations objective reality counts for little, while mystic connections become all-important. As the primitive man does not rely on his individual experience of the world to form his beliefs and convictions, experiences which run counter to his established mode of feeling and thinking are powerless to upset them. What is true of the separate elements of primitive mentality must needs apply to the relations between these elements, as well as to the processes of generalization and abstraction to which they are subjected. The author takes pains in the larger part of his work to illustrate and substantiate his contentions by an analysis of primitive languages and systems of numeration, supplemented by a review of magical practices associated with the chase and hunt,

We may not absolutely indorse the author's conclusions. He seems to overemphasize the contrast between the mentality of the primitive man and that of the civilized. The importance of the social factor in our own mentality, as well as the rôle played by individual mental effort in primitive life, are unjustifiably neglected. It is this shortcoming that makes the author view the relations between savage and primitive psychology at a wrong angle. This notwithstanding, the author's work constitutes an important contribution to the theory of ethnology not only in so far as he emphasizes the social and emotional factors, but also in so far as he succeeds in demonstrating the close correlation between the social structure and the mentality of a group.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Hin

Edits Illustrierte Völkerkunde. Stuttgart, Strecker und Schröder. An important introductory text-book of ethnology, to which several authors contribute. Von Luschan's chapter on Africa deserves particular notice. EHRENREICH, Paul. Die allgemeine Mythologie und ihre ethnologischen Grundlagen. Leipzig. J. C. richs'sche Buchhandlung, 1910. The author gives a clear and authoritative exposition of the main problems of modern mythology, and criticises the theories of the leading writers on that subject. Ehrenreich tries to substantiate his main contentions, viz. that the common elements of all mythologies must be derived from nature; that the primitive man's attitude toward nature found expression in nature myths that nature myths lie at the root of all mythology, and that no other assumption would enable us to satisfactorily classify and interpret the mythologies of the various peoples of the world (cf. the author's "Die Mythen und Legenden der südamerikanischen Urvölker," 1905: his article, "Götter und Heilbringer," in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1906: and R. H. Lowie's "The Test Theme in North American Mythology." Journal of American Folklore, vol. xxi, 1908).

GENNEP, Arnold van.-Réligions, Mours

et Légendes, Deuxième Série, MerThis cure de France, Paris, 1909. second volume of van Gennep's essays (the first appeared in 1908) brings two treatises on totemism in which the author takes a negative attitude toward the existence of totemism among the ancient Romans and Egyptians. Another interesting essay deals with the value of folk-lore as historical evidence.

the

HADDON, A. C.-Races of Man and Their Distribution. London, Milner & Co., Ltd. In this little volume of the Twentieth Century Sciences Series the author gives a concise introducHe classifies tion to anthropology. races of man as ulotrichous (woolly-haired), cymotrichous (wavyhaired), leiotrichous (straightand haired). In these main divisions a subclassification is made according to head form and skin color, followed by a short description of the peoples of Oceania, Africa, Europe, Asia, and America in their physical and cultural characteristics.

Handbook of American Indian Languages (Bulletin 40), Part 1, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1910. With the appearance of these linguistic sketches begins the publication of an extended series of monographs on the languages of the North American Indians. The work, which will fill several volumes, is edited by Franz Boas. The introduction by the editor contains a discussion of language in its relation to culture and race, as well as a more special treatise on the various types of languages, and on the general characteristics of American languages. The monographs, so far published, are: Athapascan, by P. F. Goddard; Tlingit and Haida, by J. R. Swanton; Tsimshian, Kwakiutl, and Chinook, by F. Boas. studies are in press.

Further

HARTLAND, E. S.-Primitive Paternity. London, David Nutt, 1909. The author's in purpose this two-volume work is to demonstrate that for gen erations and aeons the truth that a child is only born in consequence of an act of sexual union; that the birth of a child is the natural consequence of such an act performed in favoring circumstances, and that every child must be the result of such an act and of no other cause was not realized by mankind; that down to the present day it is imperfectly realized by some peoples, and that there are still others among whom it is unknown." With that end in view, the author makes use

of a rich store of custom. and folklore, to discuss magic practices to obtain children, transformation, and metempsychosis, mother- and fatherright, marital jealousy, and the physiological ignorance on the subject of conception.

66

MEINHOF, Carl.-In an article on the Ergebnisse der afrikanischen Sprachforschung" (Archiv für Anthropologie, 1910) the author passes in rapid review the progress of linguistic research in Africa. The phonetic harvest is plentiful. In Suaheli, e. g., the author records and "light" "heavy" vowels, such as i and u, of which the first has practically no influence on the preceding consonant, while the second mostly transforms it into for v. Clicks and glottal stops are common features. Sudanese phonetics seem to indicate that isolating languages are peculiarly apt to have musical intonation as an element of their phonetic systems. Grammatical analysis furnishes much of high theoretical interest. The Ful language, e. g., possesses a set of suffixes by which nouns are differentiated into categories, such as men, animals, trees, etc. By means of prefixes, on the other hand, a distinction is made between a person and a thing, and large and small things.

SCHMIDT, P. W.-Die Stellung der Pygmäenvölker in der Entwicklungsgeschichte des Menchen. Stuttgart, Strecker und Schröder, 1910. As pure pygmies the author regards in Asia, the Negritoes, Andaman Islanders, and Semang; in Africa, the pygmy tribes of Central Africa and the Bushmen. These various pygmy tribes, the author maintains, constitute one race, and their distribution in former times must have been much wider. They bear all the marks of extreme primitiveness, and must be regarded as the original human race from which the tall races have gradually evolved. Thus the author indorses Kollmann's theory enunciated as early as 1894, that the tall races have descended from pygmies; he differs from Kollmann, however, in so far as the latter assumed a distinct pygmy race for each of the tall races, while Schmidt defends the racial unity of the pygmies (cf. the reviews of Schmidt's work by Kohlbrugge, and Anthropos, 1910, Schwalbe, Globus, 1910; as well as J. H. F. Kohlbrugge, Die Morphologische Abstammung des Menschen, Stuttgart, Strecker und Schröder, 1908, and G. Schwalbe, Die Vorgeschichte des Menschen, Braunschweig, F. Vieweg & Sohn, 1904).

Special Works

BELCK, W.-In an article on "Die Erfinder der Eisentechnik" (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1910) the author comes to the conclusion that the mural paintings of ancient Egypt do not furnish sufficient evidence of the antiquity of iron manufacture by the African Negroes (cf. von Luschan, "Eisentechnik in Africa," Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1909).

BOAS, Franz.-The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1909. This sumptuously illustrated work, which forms Part II of the fifth volume of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition publications, gives a complete description of the material culture of the Kwakiutl.

BROWN, A. R. His article on "The Religion of the Andaman Islanders " (Folk-lore, 1909) precipitates a discussion between Brown, W. Schmidt, and A. Lang (Man, 1910), about Puluga, the supreme being of the Andamanese. The writers fail to agree to the precise character of that

as

deity. JUNOD, Henri A." Les conceptions physiologiques des Bantu sud-Africains et Leurs Tabous" (Revue d'Ethnographie et de Sociologie, 1910). An interesting discussion of the beliefs and practices of the Ba-Thonga and BaPedi of the Transvaal, with especial reference to infancy, sexual life, disease, and death.

KIZIBA, Rehse H.-Land und Leute. Stuttgart, Strecker und Schröder, 1910. A good nontechnical account of the peoples living on the western shore of Lake Victoria-Nyanza. The description of the method of construction of houses is noteworthy. KOCH-GRÜNBERG, Theodore.-Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern. Berlin, Ernst Wasmuth, 1910. This volume completes the account of the author's researches among the Indians of northwestern Brazil, conducted during the years 1903-05.

Here he deals with

dances, fishing, agriculture, weaving, spinning, pottery, the decoration of houses, etc. The first volume of the work, which contained a more general description of these tribes, appeared in 1909.

MATTHEW, John.-Two Representative Tribes of Queensland. London, Unwin, 1910. The Kabi and Wakka are each divided into two phratries and four classes. As a rule, one class of one phratry may marry only one of the classes of the other phratry. Some animals, plants, and objects are closely associated with one or the other phratry. A theory as to the origin

of Australians is propounded by the author.

MORICE, Father A. G.-The author continues his studies on "The Great Déné Race" (Anthropos, 1910). He discusses occupations, travel, transportation, commerce, currency, hunting, and fishing.

ROUTLEDGE, W. S., and ROUTLEDGE, K.

-With a Prehistoric People. London, 1910. The authors deal with the Akikuyu of British East Africa. These people are divided into thirteen exogamous clans. Other marriage restrictions are mentioned. The material culture is treated with particular

care.

SCHMIDT, Emil.-The posthumous "Beiträge zur Anthropologie Süd-Indiens (Archiv für Anthropologie, 1910) is an important technical contribution to the somatology of those peoples. SELIGMANN, C. G.-The Malanesians of British New Guinea. Cambridge, University Press, 1910. Interesting is the account of the totemic system of the Mekeo. Male descent prevails, and there is a marked tendency toward the localization of totem groups. Considerable space is devoted to a discussion of "linked " totems, a subject on which the author has already contributed a number of articles. STERNJA, Knut." Les Groupes de Civilization en Scandinavie à l'Epoque des Sépultures à Gallerie" (Anthropologie, 1910). The author maintains that during the above period, three peoples of distinct civilizations occupied three different parts of Scandinavia. STREHLOW, C.-Die Aranda und LoritjaStämme in Zentral-Australien, III Teil. Frankfurt-am-Main, Joseph Baer & Co., 1910. This is the third part of a work of which parts I and II appeared in 1907 and 1908 respectively, and which is published by the

ethnological museum of Frankfurt

am-Main, under the editorial guidance of von Leonhardi. The author, missionary Strehlow, is well versed in the languages of the Aranda and Loritja, which fact lends to his researches an authoritativeness above that of Spencer and Gillen's works on the same tribes. Some of those authors' facts and conclusions are substantiated by Strehlow's researches, others are superseded. Part III brings us, together with an important Introduction by von Leonhardi, the description of fifty-nine totemic cults of the Aranda. Numerous songs relating to ceremonies are rendered in text with interlinear and free translations.

THURSTON, Edgar, and RANGACHARI, K. -Castes and Tribes of Southern In