The Evolution of Culture, and Other Essays

In the earliest ages of mankind, when all men were warriors, and before the division of labour, consequent on civilization, had separated the arts of peace and war into distinct...

But the point in which I venture more particularly to differ from the conclusions of the learned author of the _Science of Language_ is the line which he has drawn between langu...

Taking a lesson then from this flint-worker’s shop of the later neolithic age, we see how the earlier palaeolithic forms originated. They were not designed outright, as the nine...

This argument, however, is defective when taken to determine the question of the origin of bronze in favour of independent discovery, for we have already seen, in speaking of th...

The Australian float, as represented by a model in the British Museum, consisted of a bundle of bark and rushes, pointed and elevated at the ends, and bound round with girdles o...

_Jointed Plates._ In speaking of the jointed plates, so common to all the crustacea, it is sufficient to notice that this class of defence in the animal kingdom, may be regarded...

Leaving now the Australians, and turning to other existing races in a higher, though still in a low, stage of civilization, such as, for example, the Fijians, who at the time of...

Although the comparison of weapons from various parts of the globe can have no other object than to trace out an original connexion, I did not venture to build upon the coincide...

This being the system adopted, one of the first points to which I desire to invite your attention is the question, to what extent the modern savage truly represents primaeval ma...

The law which consigns to destruction all savage races when brought in contact with a civilization much higher than their own, is now operating with unrelenting fury in every pa...

Turning to Africa (Plate XV, diagram 7), we find the boomerang well represented in many parts of that continent. Figure 108 is an ancient Egyptian boomerang of wood, in the Brit...

Hernandez gives an account of the construction of the Mexican ‘maquahuilt’ or Aztec war-club, which was armed on both sides with a row of obsidian flakes, stuck into holes, and...

In Africa, Duarte Barbosa, in 1514, saw the Moors at Zuama make use of boats, _almadias_, hollowed out of a single trunk, to bring clothes and other merchandise from Angos. Livi...

[199] Wilson, _Prehistoric Man_, vol. i. pp. 231-79; Squier and Davis in _Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge_, vol. i. pp. 196-203, figs. 81, 82, 84, 87.4, 87.1, from which...

All these antique shields have one other feature in common with the shields of existing aborigines, viz. that they are held by a handle in the centre. It was only in a more adva...

CLASS B.--Copper and bronze celts from various localities, having flat concave sides, and a rectangular cross section, showing a gradual enlargement of the cutting edge.--Figs....

In the Assyrian sculptures there are numerous illustrations representing men floating upon skins of this kind, which they clasp with the left hand, like the tree trunks, already...

There are huge gaps in our knowledge of the history of the human race, and it has been the pleasure of mankind in all ages to people these gaps with jugglers and bogies; but sur...

It follows, as a corollary, that he who would trace out the phylogenetic history of any product of human industry will speedily discover that, if he aims at doing so _in detail_...

These Essays, or rather Lectures, contain the first-fruits of the earliest systematic attempt to apply the theory of Evolution to the products of human handiwork. In their origi...

De Guignes, in 1796, mentions a contrivance of this sort in the Philippines, but from the account, it is not quite clear whether he refers to a double weather platform, or a ves...

The method of hafting these implements, employed by savages, shows that they were used for a variety of purposes; in some, the edge is fastened at right angles to the handle, to...

43. _a._ Chinese Suit of Armour, of cotton, having iron scales attached to the inside, _b._ Iron Helmet of the same suit (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.; presented by Capt. Sir E. Belcher....

Whether we afterwards become barbarous or civilized, whether we follow a hunting, nomadic, or agricultural life, whether we embrace this religion or that, or attain proficiency...

But, as a general rule, races engaged exclusively in hunting, who rarely turn their attention to the ground except to examine a trail or to search for water, would have little o...

The almond-shape celt form, as I have already demonstrated, is one so universally distributed and of such very early origin, that we may naturally expect to find many of the mor...

P. 218. Bartolomew Ruiz. See Benzoni, _Historia del Mondo Nuovo_ (Venice, 1572), p. 165 (figure): reproduced in Benzoni (ed. Smyth: Hakluyt Soc., 1857), p. 243: cf. Winsor, _Nar...