40

Another concept, more closely related to the issues raised by evolutionists, is that of convergence. First made popular among German ethnologists by Ehrenreich,38 the concept of convergence was introduced to American ethnologists by Boas,39 Lowie, and the writer." It was pointed out by these students that cultural similarities which cannot be explained by diffusion may yet have come about without passing through stages of parallel development. Whether owing to the operation of the principle of limited possibilities in cultural growth or for other reasons, cultural features at first dissimilar may in time develop striking resemblances.1

42

43

Another series of studies was devoted to the analysis of specific historico-psychological complexes. Of these, three may be mentioned: Radin's study of the Midewiwin, Mrs. Benedict's discussion of the guardian-spirit idea and associated concepts and practices among the North American Indians," and the writer's analysis of totemism. What these researches purport to show is the coming together of cultural features of diverse historical provenience, which subsequently become psychologically assimilated into a well-knit and apparently integral cultural complex.

The way was paved for these and other similar studies by in

3 "Zur Frage der Beurteilung and Bewertung ethnographischer Analogien," Korrespondenz-Blatt der deutschen Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte (1903), pp. 176–80.

40 "On the Principle of Convergence in Ethnology," Journal of American Folklore, XXV (1912), 24–42.

41

"The Principle of Limited Possibilities, etc.," ibid., Vol. XXVI (1913). Cf. also the writer's "Totemism, an Analytical Study," ibid., Vol. XXIII (1910), in which the concept of convergence is implied even though not discussed.

"If a personal opinion may be ventured at this place, I want to suggest that the concept of convergence-so far but little understood or used-is fated to save the tenet of the independent development of cultural similarities, a tenet which was doomed had it continued to lean upon the concept of parallelism.

43 "The Ritual and Significance of the Winnebago Medicine Dance," Journal of American Folklore, XXIV (1911), 149–208.

44

"The Concept of the Guardian Spirit in North America," American Anthropological Association, Memoir 29.

45

"Totemism, an Analytical Study," Journal of American Folklore, XXIII (1910), 178-293.

tensive surveys of restricted geographico-historical districts and the application of certain methodological procedures.

The Northwest Coast is a case in point. In this area the early investigations of Russian travelers and missionaries and such works as Krause's The Tlingit (in German) were superseded by the studies of Swan, Dawson, and Niblack; these were followed by Boas' early researches under the auspices of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; then came the Jesup Expedition with Boas, Farrand, Smith, Swanton, George Hunt, and Teit, and, on the Asiatic side, Bogoras, Jochelson, and Sternberg. Recent years brought further monographs by Boas on the Tsimshian and Kwakiutl, while Sapir's work on the Nootka and Barbeau's on the Tsimshian should not be long in the coming. Nor is the end in sight, for already a crop of young investigators are following in the footsteps of their elders.

48

46

47

This is as it should be, for the work is not done. Much remains to be learned about the Bella Coola, for example, and the Tlingit. But it will be acceded that few if any significant facts will remain unobserved after such repeated invasions by ethnological experts.

As to methods, the following may be noted: the linguistic, statistical, genealogical, the census, and what may be called the method of individual variation. By the linguistic method I do not here mean the study of Indian languages on the basis of texts and grammars built up with the help of texts and informants, although the work of American linguists such as Boas, Sapir, Goddard, Swanton, Kroeber, and Radin brought results of vast significance not for comparative philology alone but also for psychology and, perhaps, for philosophy. What I do mean is the utilization of the linguistic approach as a tool in ethnological research. Examples of this are Boas' study of Tsimshian social organization (based on the texts), Radin's of Winnebago ceremonialism,50 Sapir's analysis "See Publication of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition.

47 66

49

"Comparative Study of Tsimshian Mythology," Thirty-first Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1909-10.

48

"Ethnology of the Kwakiutl," ibid., 1913–14.

"Thirty-first Report, Bureau of American Ethnology.

50 "The Winnebago Tribe," Thirty-seventh Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1915-16.

of the Nootka topati concept, and Theresa Mayer's investigation of Northwest relationship terms (soon to be published). The linguistic approach also makes possible the application of the method of individual variation-in collecting myths, for instance—and the recording of information with a pronounced subjective coloring, of which the outstanding example is Radin's "The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian.”51

The statistical method was introduced by Boas in the study of myths52 with striking results, as it thus became possible to reconstruct the place of origin and the path of dispersion of mythological complexes.

The genealogical method, valuable for its objectivity and as a check on the informant, has been widely used by American students, while the census method, consisting as far as possible in a house-to-house canvas, has been applied most rigorously by Barbeau in his Tsimshian work, with results still pending.

In conclusion I want to refer to the concept of culture areas which has exercised the deepest influence on American ethnology.

The concept of culture area is neither new nor American in origin. Many years ago, Adolph Bastian, one of the founders of anthropological science, anticipated it in his geographical provinces. In Bastian's view, it was in these geographical districts that the elemental ideas (Elementargedanken) of mankind were transformed into folk-ideas (Völkergedanken) under the influence of physical environmental factors and external historical conditions. But anthropology was young then, and Bastian's ideas were fated to remain somewhat hazy and formal. They proved of little practical use in the early growth of the science of man, and in due time were forgotten.

When Franz Boas, as curator of anthropology in a museum, became interested in the classification and arrangement of specimens, he gave little thought to Bastian, but was solely concerned with the seemingly hopeless task of bringing order out of the chaos of primitive technology. He succeeded. For the specimens seemed University of California Publications of American Archaeology and Ethnology, XVI, 381-473.

52

51

Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas, Berlin, 1895.

to range themselves into groups which corresponded with geographical areas. With so much as a beginning, the new principle of classification made rapid headway. Others picked it up. Other aspects of culture, social organization, ceremonialism, art, mythology, were drawn into the fold. The culture area concept became a fact. It is not a simple concept, and a few words of explanation will therefore not be amiss.

First of all, it must be remembered that culture areas are not based on the distribution of single cultural features, for these, in their travels, show scant attention to area boundaries. Neither agriculture nor pottery, neither clan organization nor dual divisions, neither medicinal societies nor totemism, are restricted in their distribution to single cultural areas. Other features again are characteristic of areas without necessarily occurring in all tribes comprised in an area; for example, the Camp Circle and Sun Dance in the Plains, or adobe architecture in the Southwest, or the characteristic art of the Northwest, or the snowhouse of the Eskimo. If, however, instead of taking a single trait or trait complex, one enumerates a whole series of traits from different domains of culture, then an objective characterization of a culture area becomes possible. Wissler, for example, has attempted this in his American Indian.

But an objective enumeration of traits goes only halfway toward a complete characterization of an area. Remains the functional aspect or the interpenetration of traits. The different aspects of culture form associations with one another which differ in content and in degree of adhesion in the different areas. Thus, in the Northwest, the art is symbolically associated with all but a few of the other aspects of culture; in the Plains the art symbolism refers either to war exploits, calendric ideas, features of nature, or abstract notions; whereas among the Iroquois symbolism is either political (referring to peace treaties), or abstract, or it is altogether absent. The social units-clans or gentes-have in the Northwest numerous ceremonial, artistic, mythological associations; in the Plains, ceremonial and political ones; among the Iroquois, political and economic ones. And so on, all along the line.

A beautiful example of this has been given by Wissler in his

"The Influence of the Horse in the Development of Plains Culture, ,"53 where he points out that the advent of the horse meant much more to Plains culture than just the acquisition of one additional culture feature, for the horse precipitated the intertribal relations in the Plains, thus leading to greater uniformity and to greater cohesion of different cultural features, in addition to being indirectly responsible for the abandonment of agriculture.

In conjunction with the culture-area concept two subsidiary concepts must be noted, marginal areas and culture centers. It was observed that tribes lying at the periphery of an area combined features of that area with those of a neighboring one. Thus, the Athabascan and Salish tribes of the interior of British Columbia mingle certain features of the Northwest with a Plateau core, the Ute are intermediary between Plains and Southwest, the Winnebago between Woodland and Plains. In one case an entire area, the Plateau, was conceived by some as marginal to the Plains, on the one hand, and the Northwest, on the other.

It is important to remember that the concept of marginal area must be given an objective, not a psychological connotation. For on the psychological side, marginal areas have as much right to cultural autonomy as the culture areas themselves, whereas objectively they do, indeed, function as intermediaries, in so far as they combine traits of two areas.

The concept of a culture center is, in a sense, the obverse of that of marginal area. Just as the marginal tribes on the periphery of an area are no longer truly representative of it, so other tribes, situated near the center of an area, often combine most or even all of its traits. This is the culture center. As one moves from the center to the periphery, the tribes become less and less fully representative of the culture area.

While attractive by its logical simplicity, the concept of a culture center does not, in this drastic form, tally with reality. It does not belong to the level of the culture-area concept but rather to that of marginal areas. In other words, it is objective, not psycho

* American Anthropologist, N.S., XVI (1914), 1–25.

"See Wissler's Man and Culture: "The Culture Center," pp. 61 ff. The entire Section IV should be read in this connection.