Proof of Man's Cultural EvolutionAuthor(s): George Grant MacCurdySource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Aug., 1925), pp. 138-140Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/7500 .

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138 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

as a spirit, something as a piano is played upon by a pianist, but that the living organism's mode of responding to certain influences from the external world are the emotions.

With some modification later research has strengthened and ex- tended this theory. All our sentiments, emotions, passions, the noblest and the basest alike, are the working together in response to stimulation of sense organs, nerves, muscles, blood vessels, vis- cera, glands. Finally, only yesterday and to-day come the discov- eries of internal secretions and vitamins which are essentially spe- cial agencies for exciting the various body parts to their appro- priate actions. Consequently, so much to the front have the activi- ties of animal organisms been brought by the new discoveries and theories that reflex actions, tropisms, instincts, appetites, emotions, passions, have become the central interests of the day not only in the science of mind but in art, in literature and in nearly all prac- tical life.

And through these activities, subject as they surely are to the laws of physiology and heredity, man's identification with the whole of living nature is made direct and inevitable. There is not an item in the list of structures and activities mentioned that is not common to men and some, if not the whole, of the animal world.

If all this does not mean filiation by descent with animate nature generally, what does it mean? We have reached a point in the study of man where it becomes clear that whatever theory of his origin shall finally prevail must be accordant with the major facts of his daily life. And any one who would contend that these facts do not necessitate belief in some form of evolution or natural transformation is compelled by the fact that he himself possesses the power of reason to produce a rational theory of his origin that accords better with the facts of his own nature and the nature of all living beings than does any transformational theory.

PROOF OF MAN'S CULTURAL EVOLUTION

By Dr. GEORGE GRANT MacCURDY

CURATOR, ANTHROPOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS, YALE UNIVERSITY

THE evolution of human culture is well exemplified by a study of the artifacts of the Old Stone Age in Europe. This age covered a period of several hundred thousand years. It is commonly di- vided into two periods-the Eolithic and the Paleolithic; the latter is subdivided into Lower, Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Cultural evolution has its parallel in organic evolution and, like the latter, its pathway is strewn with extinct forms. Of the two, cultural evo-

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EVIDENCES FOR EVOLUTION 139

lution is subject to more rapid changes, its chief basis being human inventiveness. One invention leads to others by a system of bud- ding and branching; so that a single invention may give rise to a whole cluster of related activities forming what might be called a culture-complex unit. The oldest clusters of human activities of which we have definite knowledge are the lithic and fire complexes; the lithic complex was superseded in part and supplemented by the use of such organic materials as bone, ivory and reindeer horn, which characterized the game-animal complex.

In a comparative study of the industrial remains of these vari- ous periods, there are certain broad distinctions to be drawn. Eolithic industry consisted largely of improvisations-of primary tools or implements such as the hammer-stone and the flint chip with utilizable edge or point. Secondary tools were few and sim- ple, consisting largely of artificial chips; during the Lower Paleo- lithic period, the number of secondary tools was increased by the addition of the cleaver, a pointed implement chipped on both faces. A primary tool is one ready to hand-furnished by nature; a secondary tool is one which requires the use of a tool in its man- ufacture; tertiary tools are those which in their shaping require the use of primary and secondary tools and whose ultimate purpose is not the shaping of implements.

The Neandertalians of the Middle Paleolithic Period made no great advances over their predecessors. They possessed an im- proved technique, which is seen in the character of their nuclei and well-formed scrapers and points with carefully retouched margins; but so far as can be ascertained they did not go beyond the mak- ing of secondary tools-that is to say, their secondary tools served directly an ultimate purpose, were not used for the manufacture of tertiary tools. The technical processes from Pliocene times to the close of the Middle Paleolithic Period (well along toward the close of the Pleistocene) remained relatively simple.

It was reserved for the Upper Paleolithic Cro-Magnon races to inaugurate a new era. This was made possible through improve- ment in the preparation of nuclei from which long slender blades could be struck. The next step was important additions to their stock of secondary tools (various forms of the graver, microliths, small knives and awls) which enabled them to make extended use of bone, ivory and reindeer horn, leading to two capital results- the invention of a set of tertiary tools and the dawn of the fine arts.

Upper Paleolithic or Cro-Magnon culture was very early trans- formed through the addition of the secondary shaping tools pro- duced from bladelike flint flakes, without which it would not have been possible to make an array of tertiary tools such as the bone needle, the javelin point of bone, ivory or reindeer horn, the javelin

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140 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

shaft, the dart or javelin thrower and the harpoon of reindeer horn; nor would the Cro-Magnons have been able to embellish their dart throwers and satisfy a rapidly developing artistic sense by producing various objects of art and of personal adornment.

CONTEMPORARY EVOLUTION OF SOUTH SEA ISLAND SNAILS

By Dr. HENRY E. CRAMPTON

PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

To the majority of people evolution means a long line of suc- cessive generations, and the production of a new kind of living thing differing from its earlier ancestors to such an extent that it can justly be called a new species. This is evolution, it is true, but the special student knows that the larger differences which come about in long time are the accumulated smaller variations such as all creatures display when they are compared with their immediate parents. No one has yet found a single animal or plant that is exactly like either of its progenitors or like another of its own fam- ily. Hence every one knows that "individual differences" come about naturally. When such differences are summed up in time to be more obvious contrasts, we speak of "varieties," or "sub-spe- cies"; and when two kinds of descendants from common ancestry come to be even more separate they are called species.

During nineteen years, the present writer has been investigating the processes of change displayed by some of the land-snails that live in the forests and jungles of many islands of the South Seas. At first sight, the animals do not seem interesting, but nevertheless their study has revealed abundant evidences that new "kinds" have actually come into existence within that short period of time. Some of these "kinds" are only slightly different from their parent stock, but others are more distinct, and, as real varieties, they are well on their way to the status of new species.

The evidences in question have been secured through a fortunate combination of circumstances. An American naturalist named Gar- rett worked among the islands of the great Pacific Ocean during many decades of the nineteenth century, and he left full descrip- tions of the species of snails belonging to a genus called Partula, as they were distributed in his time. He showed how each group of islands possesses its own species not found elsewhere, and how each island of a single group is the home of unique kinds which are closely related to the species of nearby places but which have come to be distinct in correlation with the separation of the islands where

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