BOOK REVIEWS 63 1

tings. Unlike Tylor, Mr. Briffault accepts whatever is grist for his mill; uses good, bad, and indifferent sources as though equally valid; and notwithstanding very wide browsing in ethnographical literature has probably not read thoroughly half a dozen standard monographs. Whenever he chooses, he ignores regional differences and makes absolute statements about the North American Indians or the Austra- lians as if they were undifferentiated groups inhabiting tiny hamlets. His method sometimes yields quaint results. On page 50 the North American squaws are said to be remarkable for their care and attachment to the men, continually watching over them with utmost solicitude and anxiety.

With some surprise, accordingly, the reader notes on page 153 that: In all North American tribes there was scarcely any social intercourse between the men

and the women; the sexes lived their lives sepsrately.

Australian women are in one place described as “perfectly capable of taking care of themselves’’ and as exceeding the men in ferocity (p. 163) when Mr. Briffault wants to prove the physical prowess of savage femininity. When he has other irons in the fire, these viragos are being raped a t every opportunity (p. 89), starved, beat- en, and murdered (p. 206) by the males.

Science gains little by fostering a guild spirit, and in anthropology intelligent outsiders have sometimes given us descriptive monographs which the specialist views with admiration and envy. But so far as anthropological theory goes, worth- while contributions can come only from those who have kept abreast of the method- ological progress achieved during the last twenty years.

ROBERT H. LOWIE

AMERICA

The American Iizdian Frontier. WILLIAM CHRISTIE MACLEOD (New York: A. Knopf, 1928. The History of Civilization Series, no. 40. 598 pp.) This is a n account of the frontier contacts between the Indians and the whites,

particularly in North America. By way of introduction, chapters are devoted to, re- spectively, the origin of the Indian, the economic and social life, the effects of al- cohol, the effects of introduced diseases. The Plains area is treated a t greater length than any other area. The volume is heavily documented. The theme will probably attract the historians rather than the Americanists, for the approach is fundamen- tally regional and historical rather than ethnological. The anthropologist does not care who destroyed the Indian or how the job was done.

WILSON D. WALLIS

Rock-Paintings o j NorlhwesC Cordoba. G . A. GARDNER with the collaboration of S. E. GARDNER (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931. xvr+l47 pp., 44 pls., 172 text figs.) The province of Cordoba, one of the twenty-four political divisions, is situated

near the center of the Argentine republic. The region is one of limited rainfall. There

632 .4diElUC..I N .,I NTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 33, 1931

is but scanty information regarding the peoples who inhabited this province a t the time of the Spanish Conquest. At that time the greater par t of the native tribes were called Comechingons. They hunted and fished, but were essentially an agricultural people.

The book embodies the results of over six years’ investigation and study of the rock-paintings of the province in question. The rock-drawings of the .4rgentine re- public in general may lie divided into two classes: one consisting of figures, generally in outline only, produced by rubbing or Iiy percussion; the other of figures painted on the rock surface. Those of the first class sometimes, though rarely, have the out- lines filled in with paint. The incised figures usually occur on comparatively small isolated boulders, over which they are scattered aimlessly; while the painted figures are found on much larger surfaces: perpendicular faces of large rocks, rock-walls, and walls and roofs of natural shelters, where they often form connected groups.

The rock-drawings described in this volume are all of the painted class, with one exception. The author would apply the term petroglyph to all cut or pecked figures including those with outlines later traced with paint, restricting the term picto- graph to those that are painted only. For etymological reasons, however, he does not care to apply the word pictograph to the paintings described by him (they are not picture writings), and prefers to call them simply rock-paintings.

As regards the significance of the rock-paintings, their age and authorship, the author shows commendable caution in drawing conclusions. He is sure of one thing: they were not done merely to pass the time away. Some of them are high up out of reach from the ground, or in positions very diflicult of access. h4any of the painted rock-shelters were used as dwelling places, and this might be advanced in the favor of the theory of home decoration. But the same argument which eliminates the pas- time theory also militates against the home decoration theory.

There remains to be considered the possibility that some, a t least, of the paint- ings may have had a religious or magical significance. Inaccessibility, obscurity of situation, superposition of figures, all would seem to favor the theory of religious or magical signilicance. That most of the animals depicted are useful ones gives added credibility to the idea that they were painted with the object of favorably influenc- ing the fortunes of the chase. The author, however, hesitates to press too closely the analogies between the cave-paintings of Europe and the rock-paintings of South America.

The age of the paintings offers a problem dificult to solve. Those with represen- tations of the horse can be assigned with considerable probability to the latter half of the sixteenth century. Hut figures of the horse are limited in numbers and to cer- tain restricted areas. All the other paintings are obviously pre-Hispanic. How long the Indians had lieen painting in the rock shelters before the arrival of the Span- iards is a question to which no definite answer can be given. That the period was a comparatively long one is obvious from the degree of weathering and from the super- position of the figures.

I n one shelter there is a mass of faded and almost obliterated figures with others

BOOK REVIEWS 633

notably fresh painted over them. An added bit of evidence is afforded by a piece of rock which has fallen, carrying with it a portion of one of the more recent paintings. On the new surface thus laid bare, yet other figures have been painted, one of them the representation of a horse. We have here no less than three series of figures, the last one bringing us down to the time of the Spanish Conquest.

One of the attractive features of the volume is an Appendix containing a long list of references to material used for purposes of comparison and a list of authors consulted.

GEORGE GRANT MACCURDY

The History of the Maya. THOMAS GANN and ERIC THOMPSON. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1931.264 pp., 26 pls., 1 map. $2.50.)

For a long time there has been a crying need for a readable, condensed, semi- popular account of the Maya Indians. This has, a t last, been supplied by Messrs. Gann and Thompson.

Mr. Gann confined himself to the following four chapters: Origin of the Maya; History of the Old Empire; Art and Architecture; and the Modern Maya.

Mr. Thompson is to he credited with five chapters, viz.: History of Yucatan; Religion; Religious Ceremonies and Traditions; Daily Life, Warfare, Food and Clothing; and The Calendar.

The portions written by Mr. Gann are well-supplied with details, but lack zest and interest. The chapter on the Old Empire and the one on Art and Architecture are good and present some new facts. Some parts, however, are carelessly written; e.g., the antecedent of the pronoun their, top of page 26, is not apparent.

Mr. Thompson, on the other hand, injects into his lines all the affection for and deep interest in the Maya that he feels. The chapter concerned with the Maya calen- dar is one of the best I have ever seen; for as everyone knqws, the calendric system of the Maya is extremely complex and diflicult to explain to the layman. I t is to be regretted, however, that Mr. Thompson forgot his dignity and saw fit to make a “wisecrack” (p. 95) about the American habit of gum-chewing. The thread of in- terest is broken by a quite unnecessary remark and the reader’s sensibilities are jarred.

There are only a few typographical errors, although the running title of part of chapter 6 is transposed to the recto page. Each chapter is preceded by a brief sum- mary of the contents to follow. The format of the book is attractive, for it is small, and easily slips into one’s pocket; the type is clear, the paper good, the plates fair, and the order of the contents well arranged.

-411 in all, The History of the Maya is worth several readings, may be used for a quick reference, and may be safely recommended to the public, whose interest in things Maya is growing apace

PAUL S. MARTIN