American Geographical Society

The Steppes of the near East and Early CivilizationsDie Steppen des Morgenlandes in ihrer Bedeutung fur die Geschichte der menschlichenGesittung by Robert GradmannReview by: Raoul BlanchardGeographical Review, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Jan., 1936), pp. 167-168Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/209479 .

Accessed: 08/05/2014 22:21

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toGeographical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 22:21:47 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEWS GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEWS

stage should be assigned to the period around 2000 B.C. As the author states, the question of dating can be settled only after further research.

Dr. Andersson dismisses the idea (p. 172) that the pits found on Yang Shao sites can have been dwellings, because he feels that the "inhabitants had a much too rich and comprehensive furniture to have lived in such confined cabins." But this, as later investigations have shown, is precisely what they did do. Moreover, such pit dwellings continued to be the habitations of the masses far on in the subsequent Chinese Bronze Age, and the unconquered aborigines of northern China were still living in them many centuries later.

The term "Bronze Age" as applied (pp. 259, 260, and elsewhere) to the Chal- colithic period in China, when metal of any kind was barely beginning to be known, is a misnomer; it should be restricted to the brilliant though archaic civilization of early historical times. Confirmation is lacking for the author's implication (p. I56) that the domestication of cattle took place independently in the Far East; rather. it seems increasingly probable that cattle breeding was introduced there as a culture loan from the Occident. Dr. Andersson's suggestion (p. 182 and elsewhere) that the socketed metal celts used in China were evolved on the spot from forms in stone will probably not stand, for no intermediate forms have been found; whereas socketed bronze celts occur over a wide but definite region of the Eurasiatic conti- nent, with the center of diffusion apparently in Central Europe.

The "genuine Neolithic age" of northern China can no longer be described as "dark and unknown" (p. 336), for its remains occur throughout the entire area. The Yang Shao painted pottery, on the other hand, has so far appeared only in localities adjacent to the great transcontinental migration route, from Chinese Turkestan on the west to southern Manchuria on the east.

The book is well supplied with plates and line drawings inserted exactly where they belong in relation to the text, and there is a useful map. The diagrams and tables are helpful, and the documentation is full. There is a brief but carefully prepared index. The translation from Swedish into English has been admirably done by Dr. E. Classen.

"Children of the Yellow Earth" could have been written by no one but Dr. Andersson, with his extraordinary range of interest and experience and achievement. As informative as it is delightfully written, it forms a contribution of outstanding importance to our knowledge of China's past. The author fittingly inscribes the book to the memory of the late Dr. Davidson Black, whose untimely death early in 1934 was an irreparable loss to science. C. W. BISHOP

THE STEPPES OF THE NEAR EAST AND EARLY CIVILIZATIONS

ROBERT GRADMANN. Die Steppen des Morgenlandes in ihrer Bedeutung fur die Geschichte der menschlichen Gesittung. 66 pp.; maps, ills., index. Geogr. Abhandl., Ser. 3, No. 6. J. Engelhorns Nachf., Stuttgart, 1934. 9 x 6 inches.

The Orient (in this connection southwestern Asia and Egypt) is one of the oldest centers of civilization. This is largely because the region is one of steppes, a fact on which not enough emphasis has been laid in the past. The steppes gave cereals to mankind-for the cultivation of grains long remained impracticable in wooded regions. The margins of the steppes provided fruit trees-the fig, olive, etc.-as well as the vine. In the steppes irrigation was developed at an early period, and states were organized for the defense of productive resources against the nomads; out of this sprang the earliest urban communities of ancient times. Offering easy natural lines of communication, the steppes saw the beginnings of trade, even of international trade. Hence, according to Professor Gradmann, the steppes have a just claim to being regarded as the cradle of civilization.

But are there steppes in the Orient? This is what the author wished to verify for

stage should be assigned to the period around 2000 B.C. As the author states, the question of dating can be settled only after further research.

Dr. Andersson dismisses the idea (p. 172) that the pits found on Yang Shao sites can have been dwellings, because he feels that the "inhabitants had a much too rich and comprehensive furniture to have lived in such confined cabins." But this, as later investigations have shown, is precisely what they did do. Moreover, such pit dwellings continued to be the habitations of the masses far on in the subsequent Chinese Bronze Age, and the unconquered aborigines of northern China were still living in them many centuries later.

The term "Bronze Age" as applied (pp. 259, 260, and elsewhere) to the Chal- colithic period in China, when metal of any kind was barely beginning to be known, is a misnomer; it should be restricted to the brilliant though archaic civilization of early historical times. Confirmation is lacking for the author's implication (p. I56) that the domestication of cattle took place independently in the Far East; rather. it seems increasingly probable that cattle breeding was introduced there as a culture loan from the Occident. Dr. Andersson's suggestion (p. 182 and elsewhere) that the socketed metal celts used in China were evolved on the spot from forms in stone will probably not stand, for no intermediate forms have been found; whereas socketed bronze celts occur over a wide but definite region of the Eurasiatic conti- nent, with the center of diffusion apparently in Central Europe.

The "genuine Neolithic age" of northern China can no longer be described as "dark and unknown" (p. 336), for its remains occur throughout the entire area. The Yang Shao painted pottery, on the other hand, has so far appeared only in localities adjacent to the great transcontinental migration route, from Chinese Turkestan on the west to southern Manchuria on the east.

The book is well supplied with plates and line drawings inserted exactly where they belong in relation to the text, and there is a useful map. The diagrams and tables are helpful, and the documentation is full. There is a brief but carefully prepared index. The translation from Swedish into English has been admirably done by Dr. E. Classen.

"Children of the Yellow Earth" could have been written by no one but Dr. Andersson, with his extraordinary range of interest and experience and achievement. As informative as it is delightfully written, it forms a contribution of outstanding importance to our knowledge of China's past. The author fittingly inscribes the book to the memory of the late Dr. Davidson Black, whose untimely death early in 1934 was an irreparable loss to science. C. W. BISHOP

THE STEPPES OF THE NEAR EAST AND EARLY CIVILIZATIONS

ROBERT GRADMANN. Die Steppen des Morgenlandes in ihrer Bedeutung fur die Geschichte der menschlichen Gesittung. 66 pp.; maps, ills., index. Geogr. Abhandl., Ser. 3, No. 6. J. Engelhorns Nachf., Stuttgart, 1934. 9 x 6 inches.

The Orient (in this connection southwestern Asia and Egypt) is one of the oldest centers of civilization. This is largely because the region is one of steppes, a fact on which not enough emphasis has been laid in the past. The steppes gave cereals to mankind-for the cultivation of grains long remained impracticable in wooded regions. The margins of the steppes provided fruit trees-the fig, olive, etc.-as well as the vine. In the steppes irrigation was developed at an early period, and states were organized for the defense of productive resources against the nomads; out of this sprang the earliest urban communities of ancient times. Offering easy natural lines of communication, the steppes saw the beginnings of trade, even of international trade. Hence, according to Professor Gradmann, the steppes have a just claim to being regarded as the cradle of civilization.

But are there steppes in the Orient? This is what the author wished to verify for

I67 I67

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 22:21:47 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

himself in 1933 in the course of a two months' journey through Palestine, Trans- Jordan, and the neighboring regions as far as Damascus on the north and Suez on the south. He first describes the characteristics of steppe, desert, and wooded coun- try in terms of vegetation cover and rainfall. On sketch maps he shows the areas where these different types of vegetation prevail. Woodlands are found along the Mediterranean and in a narrow western fringe of Trans-Jordan; the desert extends northward to the middle Euphrates and also sends a tongue well to the north into El Ghor beyond the Dead Sea. Between woodlands and desert a band of steppes intervenes. This widens toward the northeast into the broad tract including most of Palmyrena and upper Mesopotamia, where the earliest civilizations of the steppes were born.

An objection to this theory might be raised on the ground that the vegetation of these areas has been modified by the hand of man or by a change in climate. The presence of plants in their ancient habitats, however, is demonstrated in the case of

indigenous varieties, such as Triticum dicoccoides, always found in steppes. Professor Gradmann does full justice to an alleged change in climate in a manner that, to the reviewer, seems altogether irrefutable, The steppes may well be regarded as having existed since the dawn of civilization, a circumstance that goes far toward explaining not only the antiquity of the Orient's development but also its stagnation at the

present time. RAOUL BLANCHARD

BLACK AFRICA

JACQUES WEULERSSE. L'Afrique noire, precedee d'une vue d'ensemble sur le continent africain. 484 pp.; maps, diagrs., bibliogr., index. (Geographie pour tous.) A. Fayard & Cie., Paris, 1934. 25 fr. 9 x 5, inches.

There must be a large number of the French people who are interested in Africa, and it is perhaps surprising that they have had to wait so long for a French geographer to give them a general work on the continent that will appeal to them. It was thus a well justified project to produce in the series " Geographie pour tous" such a work in two volumes, the division based on the fact that racially and culturally there are two Africas. The northern region, that of the "whites," is left to be dealt with by E. F. Gautier. M. Weulersse, therefore, has given us a detailed study of the Africa of the black folk, but he has prefaced this with a general geographical account of the entire continent, which is in many ways a model.

Although the book is doubtless intended primarily for French readers, it is certain that many others will welcome it as the work of a skillful author. M. Weulersse has the gift of easy writing, yet he never allows his apt metaphors to carry him away. He provides a large measure of matter culled from the most modern scientific works as well as from historical, economic, and political sources; yet the result is far from heavy, since he knows how to make a geographical synthesis. His vivid descriptions seem to emanate from his own personal experience; if not, they are exceedingly well chosen from that of others. Examples that help his descriptions of climate are a vivid account of a West African tornado (p. io8) and his characterization of Nigerian contrasts: "At Lagos Christmas is celebrated in the hum of fans vainly beating the equatorial night air, while at Jos on the Bauchi plateau other celebrators are drinking steaming punch by the fire" (p. I9I). Such realistic weather notes have their analogues in word pictures of vegetation, land forms, native village life, and so on. But they do not detract from the systematic character of the work, which deals in turn with West, Central, South, and "Indian" Africa. Each of these is again sub- divided politically-a method with defects of which the author is aware. But the advantages are clear in view of the differing methods of colonization. Moreover, two of the subsections-the Belgian Congo and British East Africa-are largely from the pen of a collaborator, M. Pierre Daye, who has included some political information

himself in 1933 in the course of a two months' journey through Palestine, Trans- Jordan, and the neighboring regions as far as Damascus on the north and Suez on the south. He first describes the characteristics of steppe, desert, and wooded coun- try in terms of vegetation cover and rainfall. On sketch maps he shows the areas where these different types of vegetation prevail. Woodlands are found along the Mediterranean and in a narrow western fringe of Trans-Jordan; the desert extends northward to the middle Euphrates and also sends a tongue well to the north into El Ghor beyond the Dead Sea. Between woodlands and desert a band of steppes intervenes. This widens toward the northeast into the broad tract including most of Palmyrena and upper Mesopotamia, where the earliest civilizations of the steppes were born.

An objection to this theory might be raised on the ground that the vegetation of these areas has been modified by the hand of man or by a change in climate. The presence of plants in their ancient habitats, however, is demonstrated in the case of

indigenous varieties, such as Triticum dicoccoides, always found in steppes. Professor Gradmann does full justice to an alleged change in climate in a manner that, to the reviewer, seems altogether irrefutable, The steppes may well be regarded as having existed since the dawn of civilization, a circumstance that goes far toward explaining not only the antiquity of the Orient's development but also its stagnation at the

present time. RAOUL BLANCHARD

BLACK AFRICA

JACQUES WEULERSSE. L'Afrique noire, precedee d'une vue d'ensemble sur le continent africain. 484 pp.; maps, diagrs., bibliogr., index. (Geographie pour tous.) A. Fayard & Cie., Paris, 1934. 25 fr. 9 x 5, inches.

There must be a large number of the French people who are interested in Africa, and it is perhaps surprising that they have had to wait so long for a French geographer to give them a general work on the continent that will appeal to them. It was thus a well justified project to produce in the series " Geographie pour tous" such a work in two volumes, the division based on the fact that racially and culturally there are two Africas. The northern region, that of the "whites," is left to be dealt with by E. F. Gautier. M. Weulersse, therefore, has given us a detailed study of the Africa of the black folk, but he has prefaced this with a general geographical account of the entire continent, which is in many ways a model.

Although the book is doubtless intended primarily for French readers, it is certain that many others will welcome it as the work of a skillful author. M. Weulersse has the gift of easy writing, yet he never allows his apt metaphors to carry him away. He provides a large measure of matter culled from the most modern scientific works as well as from historical, economic, and political sources; yet the result is far from heavy, since he knows how to make a geographical synthesis. His vivid descriptions seem to emanate from his own personal experience; if not, they are exceedingly well chosen from that of others. Examples that help his descriptions of climate are a vivid account of a West African tornado (p. io8) and his characterization of Nigerian contrasts: "At Lagos Christmas is celebrated in the hum of fans vainly beating the equatorial night air, while at Jos on the Bauchi plateau other celebrators are drinking steaming punch by the fire" (p. I9I). Such realistic weather notes have their analogues in word pictures of vegetation, land forms, native village life, and so on. But they do not detract from the systematic character of the work, which deals in turn with West, Central, South, and "Indian" Africa. Each of these is again sub- divided politically-a method with defects of which the author is aware. But the advantages are clear in view of the differing methods of colonization. Moreover, two of the subsections-the Belgian Congo and British East Africa-are largely from the pen of a collaborator, M. Pierre Daye, who has included some political information

I68 I68

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 22:21:47 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions