Part I: Technology: the Contribution of Non-Indo-Europeans
The Achievements of Primitive Cultures
To return to
the New World again, J. Grahame Clark, speaking of the contributions
made by the Indians of North and South America to the Old World,
has this to say:14
Baron Nordenskiold, unlike
some European theorizers, who found it difficult to credit the
aborigines with the ability to raise their own civilization independently
of the Old World inspiration, had spent many long and arduous
years in the field of South American archaeology, and his conclusions
carried with them outstanding authority. In addition to many
technical inventions he attributed to the American Indian the
achievement of domesticating the animal and plant life of his
habitat so effectively that during the four centuries since the
Discovery the White Man had failed to make a single contribution
of importance. The native fauna gave poor scope, but from it
he domesticated the llama, alpaca, guinea-pig, and turkey. Of
plants he domesticated hundreds. . . .
Chief of the American Bureau of Ethnology at the time of this
writing, speaks of this contribution thus:15
Among the plants developed
by these ancient botanists are maize, beans (kidney and lima),
potatoes, and sweet potatoes, now four of the leading foods of
the world. Manioc, extensively cultivated by the natives of tropical
America is now the staff of life for millions of people living
in the equatorial belt. Other important items, such as peanuts,
squash, chocolate, peppers, tomatoes, pineapples and avocados
might be added.
In addition the Indian was the
discoverer of quinine, cocaine, tobacco, and rubber, useful commodities
of modern times. Maize or Indian corn was one of the most important
contributions of the American Indian to mankind. Over a considerable
portion of the Americas, it was the staff of life.
adds to this list, the custard apple, strawberry, vanilla bean,
chickle, and cascara, besides a number of others less familiar.
His whole list of important plants made up by the Indian's agriculture
is impressive, as he says, for it contains 50 items, not
one of which is an Old World species! 16
Every one of them can be cultivated
with a hoe, requiring no draft animals whatever. He also mentions
one other accomplishment which is very difficult to account for.
The Indian devised a method of extracting a deadly poison (cyanide)
14. Clark, J. Grahame, "New World Origins,"
Antiquity, vol.14, no.54, June, 1940, p.118.
15. Stirling, Matthew, "Americas First Settlers, the Indians,"
National Geographic Magazine, Nov., 1937, p.592.
16. Macgowan, Kenneth, Early Man in the New World, Macmillan,
New York, 1950, p.199 and 202 (cyanide)
an otherwise useless
plant, manioc, without losing the valuable starch it contained.
Macgowan says that Henry J. Bruman called this "one of the
outstanding accomplishments of the American Indian." The
remarkable thing about it is that they should ever have thought
of making use of a plant which, as they found it, contained a
M.D.C. Crawford gives a list of
vegetables which were cultivated by the American Indians prior
to 1492, which in addition to the above are the following:17
fig (Prickly pear)
chili pepper star
cotton (gossypium barbadense Linn.)
J. L. Collins
wrote more recently:18
The pineapple shares the
distinction accorded to all major food plants of the civilized
world, of having been selected, developed, and domesticated by
people of prehistoric times, and passed on to us through one
or more earlier civilizations. The pineapple, like a number of
other contemporary agricultural crops . . . originated
in America and was unknown to the people of the Old World before
the Indians found the original plants which they improved upon
to produce modern pineapples, we do not now know. None of the
existing varieties compares with the domesticated product, and
as Collins observes, "none of these can be singled out now
as the form or forms which gave rise to the domesticated pineapples
of today, or even of those varieties in the possession of the
Indians at the time of the Discovery of America." This was
no accidental by-product then, but a deliberate and intelligent
breeding process which progressed so far before we knew anything
about it, that we cannot now retrace the steps by which it was
Melville Herskovits19 points out that the North
American Indians increased the fertility of their land artificially,
by putting a fish in each Maize hill, and practiced multi-planting
highly successfully. In each hill
17. Crawford, M.D.C., The Conquest of Culture,
Fairchild, New York, 1948, p.145, 146.
18. Collins, J.L., "Pineapples in Ancient America,"
Scientific Monthly, vol.66, no.11, Nov., 1948, p.372.
planted with Maize they
placed squash and bean seeds together, so that the bean plants
could climb the corn stalks and the squash vines run along the
ground. The same practice is apparently found in West Africa,
where gourds take the place of squashes. Their reasoning here,
as Herskovits points out, is different from ours: they hold that
a plant which grows erect, one that climbs, and one that hugs
the earth must each have a different nature and therefore extract
a different food from the earth.19 Thus they will not compete with each other.
Speaking of the Orient, Dr. F.
H. King who has made a most careful examination of the farming
methods practiced by the Chinese, the Koreans, and the Japanese,
drew special attention to their painstaking care in maintaining
or enhancing the fertility of their soils using all kinds of
fertilizers and other special means. 20
Ingenuity: in food gathering
Necessity is the Mother of invention
(although laziness helps!) and food is a necessity. Primitive
people have shown extraordinary ingenuity in obtaining food.
We have already mentioned one or two devices used by the Eskimo
. . . the spring bone for killing wolves, for example. In other
parts of the world there is the same remarkable ingenuity --
and not the least remarkable element is the variety.
For example, according to George
P. Murdock, the Ainu of Northern Japan use dogs to do their fishing
for them. There are shoals of fish in the shallow water along
some of their coasts, and to catch these they have trained their
dogs to swim straight out to sea in a line until a given signal.
The dogs then wheel around and come back in an arc towards the
shore, barking and making a big splash thus driving the fish
into even shallower water where each dog seizes one in his mouth,
runs ashore, and drops it at his master's feet receiving the
fishes' heads as a reward! 21
Ralph Linton speaks of one
device for catching wild fowl, which he feels should certainly
be awarded top prize for simple ingenuity.22 A flat stone of about 18 inches diameter is given
a small raised rim of mud or clay, and certain nuts are placed
in the enclosure. These nuts are a particular delight of the
local guinea fowl. But the natives of several parts of Africa
where these birds are found, take care to ensure that the nuts
are just too large for the fowl to pick up in their beaks.
Attracted to the food, the birds
try again and again to get a nut in their mouth, each time striking
the flat rock with their beak instead. They are persistent creatures
apparently, and so they keep it up until their beaks
19. Herskovits, Melville, Man and His Works,
Knopf, New York, 1950, p.250.
20. King, F.H., Farmers for 40 Centuries, Emmaus, PA,
Rodale Press, reviewed in Scientific Monthly, vol.66,
Dec., 1948, p.448, by W.M. Myers, under the title, "Those
21. Murdock, George P., Our Primitive Contemporaries, New
York, Macmillan, 1934. p.167.
22. Linton, Ralph, The Tree of Culture, New York, Knopf,
are quite swollen and
they have literally knocked themselves silly. Each day the owner
of the stone calls by and picks up the stupefied birds from the
Poultry farmers have found that
the same thing can happen to chickens fed on a concrete floor.
But there is no evidence that Indo-Europeans ever put this observation
to any practical use.
We may mention a further example
of native ingenuity in this connection which is found in certain
parts of Oceania, where there are cuttlefish which have long
sucker-tipped arms that are stretched out to catch fish. The
natives attach these cuttlefish to lines and use them to catch
food for themselves instead. 23
Lord Raglan tells how in some areas
of Oceania, the natives of Java, of the Banda Islands, and the
Dobuans, catch a particular species of fish that is difficult
to approach, by using fishing-kites.24 The kite is flown on a line of some length, and the
fish hook dangles from the tail of the kite, thus allowing the
fisherman to keep a considerable distance from the fish which
would otherwise evade him.
It is well known that the Japanese
have for years used Cormorants to do their fishing for them.25 The birds seem to be well
trained and to enjoy themselves immensely! The Samoans use a
native plant drug which, when poured on the water, makes the
fish dopey and easy to catch. 26 According to Carleton Coon, the Australian aborigines
poison the water holes with a mild drug that similarly makes
the animals who drink from them stupefied. By such means, for
example, they easily catch the swift-footed emu. 27 A paper published by the
Smithsonian Institution lists hundreds of such poisons used by
primitive people in all parts of the world to catch game. 28
The Terra del Fuegians have so
many different traps and other devices for catching ducks and
geese, etc., that it would be wearying to detail them. Coon refers
to them as being many, and ingenious, and varying according to
the nature of the locality. 29 They are moreover characterized by a remarkable degree
23. Cotton, Clare M., "Animals: Old Hands
at Angling," Science News Letter, Mar. 6, 1954, p.155
24. Raglan, Lord, How Came Civilization? London, Methuen,
25. Gudger, E.W. "Fishing with the Cormorant in Japan,"
Scientific Monthly, vol.29, July, 1929, p.5ff.
26. Murdock, George P., Our Primitive Contemporaries, New
York, Macmillan, 1934, p.51.
27. Coon, Carleton S., A Reader in General Anthropology,
New York, Henry Holt, 1948, p.220.
28. Heizer, Robert F., "Aboriginal Fish Poisons," Paper
No. 38, in Anthropological Papers, Bulletin 151, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, 1953, p.225, 283. Several hundred
poisons are listed.
29. Coon, C.S., A Reader in General Anthropology, New
York, Henry Holt, 1948, p. 220.
originality, so that
it becomes difficult to imagine any further alternatives. Yet
these same Terra del Fuegians were considered by Darwin, when
he visited them during his voyage with the Beagle, to
be the very lowest of all humans
-- hardly people at all.30 Sir John Lubbock shared this opinion.31 Yet their inventiveness
where it had to be exercised knew almost no limitations.
Inventions: simplicity the hallmark of
I should like to draw attention
to this point, here. Inventiveness was exercised where needs
arose, seldom otherwise. And this inventiveness did not (as ours
so often does) display itself by merely modifying the products
of others. The results were as diverse as they were original,
and they are almost always characterized by a grand simplicity
that is completely misleading to the Westerner whose products
are so terribly complicated. Yet simplicity is the essence of
Take as an illustration of this,
the bola. Here is a weapon that is effectiveness itself in bringing
down small rapidly moving game. The device is composed of a number
of stones (usually about 2 to 3 inches in diameter), around each
of which a cord is fastened in a groove with a free end about
12 to 18 inches long. From four to eight such stones form the
weapon, which is made by tying together the free ends of the
long cords. Holding these cords at their junction, the native
swings the stones around like a windmill and lets the whole affair
fly at a flock of birds, or rabbits, or other such small game.
The stones tend to part company in flight, but only of course
to the extent of the cords which tie them to one another. The
weapon is thus widely spread by the time it reaches the game,
and the chance of a hit is greatly increased. The same effect
is of course obtained with 'shot.' However, if any one of the
stones makes contact or if any of the cords do, the whole weapon
at once wraps itself around the victim and down it comes! What
could be simpler?
These bolas are found in many parts
of the world, and even in prehistoric sites -- a mute testimony
to the inventiveness even of prehistoric man,32 for it seems hard to believe that they were invented
only once and that all modern instances are derivatives.
Of all primitive
people, perhaps the Australian aborigines have aroused the most
interest, not merely because they are so well known and among
the last to retain to a large extent the greater part of their
ancient skills and traditions, but also because of the extraordinary
simplicity of their material culture. Virtually the whole of
a man's worldly wealth can normally be carried with him, often
in one hand! Of added interest, of course, is the fact they seem
to be negroid (because so very black) and yet have much body
hair and bushy beards -- which negroes never have: thus their
origin is somewhat of an intriguing mystery still.
30. Darwm, Charles, Journal of Researches,
New York, Ward, Lock and Co., preface dated 1845, p.206ff.
31. Lubbock, Sir John, Prehistoric Times, New York, New
Science Library, J.A. Hill, 6th edition, revised 1904, p.201.
32. Bolas: see Robert Braidwood, Prehistoric Man, Chicago,
Field Museum of Natural History, in Popular Series: Anthropology,
No.7, 1948, p.56.
their ingenuity is also undoubted in so far as they have cared to exercise
it. Probably the supreme example of this is the boomerang. These weapons
are also found in other parts of the world, and even in prehistoric sites.
33 As a weapon, it is remarkable: and it has quite justly been
called the first 'guided missile.' Of course, all thrown objects are 'guided'
in a sense; but the boomerang can be so controlled in the hands of an
expert that it will do extraordinary things in the air, and return to
the sender if it misses the target -- a great saving of effort, and a
real advantage in war!
George Farwell recently authored
an official Australian Government paper on this device, in which
the design of the weapon is carefully considered. It is a much more complex
affair than would appear to the casual observer. Its response
to controlled flight is outlined by the author who then explains
how this is possible. It is a technical achievement of no mean
order, and one wonders what was going on inside the native's
mind who perfected it. Even if its special construction features
were purely accidentally discovered at first, it is still true
that the inventor discovered his discovery. This is not merely
a play upon words. As we shall see subsequently, Indo-Europeans
are still making notable discoveries and not recognizing them
for what they are. Of the boomerang, Farwell writes:34
There are sound reasons
for its design features. The undersides of the arms are flat,
the upper have a slight camber, a factor which provides lift.
There is also a twist from the horizontal at the outer end of
each arm, one upward, the other down, perhaps not more than two
degrees in all. It may seem unreal to discuss a prehistoric weapon
in terms of aerodynamics, but therein lies the remarkable achievement
of the aborigine. His practical mind and acute observation anticipated
certain ideas of the 20th century aircraft designers.
Sir Thomas Mitchell, the
explorer, made the characteristic twist of the boomerang the
basis for a new type of ship's propeller, which he patented 100
years ago. Early in this century G. T. Walker of Cambridge University,
spent no less than ten years of research into the boomerang's
properties, evolving certain theories on gyroscopic flight.
33. Boomerangs: these have also been reported
from Egypt at Badari by Vere Gordon Childe, (New Light on
the Most Ancient East, London, Kegan Paul, 1935, p.65),
and in Europe by Herbert Wendt, (I Looked for Adam, London,
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1955, p.356).
34. Farwell, George, "The First Known Guided Missile,"
reprinted in the Globe and Mail, (Toronto, ON, Saturday,
Aug., 29, 1953, p.17), as a feature article, from the Australian
Government publication, South West Pacific.
Farwell then elaborates somewhat on the dynamics of its flight
and gives some examples of feats which the natives can achieve with very
little effort. He presumes that it was perhaps by observing the flight
of falling leaves with their curled up edges that the natives came to
the idea. This sounds rather weak to me. At any rate, they created a very
ingenious weapon, and we have found no way to improve it yet.
George Sarton uses this weapon
as an illustration of "the uncanny ingenuity of 'primitive'
people." To this he adds the elastic plaited cylinder of
jacitara palm bark, called a tipiti, which is used to extract
the poison cyanide from the Manioc to which reference has already
been made. As a third illustration he refers to the prehistoric
Chinese pottery vessels which took the form of a tripod, the
legs of which were hollow and formed the containers.35 It thus anticipated by thousands
of years the modern trisection aluminium wares! It is illustrated
roughly in Fig. 5. The legs straddled the fire. The shape, of
course, permitted cooking three separate dishes at one time
Ingenuity: in medical skills
In the Peruvian Andes, living at
an elevation of 14,000 feet approximately, are the Aymara --
believed to be the remnants of the creators of the Inca Empire.
They are a rather impatient and ill-tempered people according
to some observers, possibly by reason of the rarefied atmosphere
in which they live, and possibly on the same account they do
not care to exert themselves much to improve their condition
-- although obviously this was not true in the past. But they
have developed their medical skill quite extensively, and so
organized the Profession that there are specialists in the various
fields who refer patients to one another as seems necessary.36 Like most primitive people,
they mix magic with their medicine: but they evidently realize
that the magic has a psychological value as much as anything.
This is true of other such native people. A. P. Elkin has written
on this point at some length and is convinced that the Witch
Doctor is often a man, as he put it, of "High Degree"
by which he means relatively a Ph.D. in the context of his own
culture. 37 The
relationship between magic and medicine, and indeed Science in
general, is considered later. In the meantime it is becoming
increasingly apparent that the non-Indo-European far anticipated
us in their medical practice, as well as in the field of Psychology.
I think this is particularly true in certain areas, such as in
the problem of dealing with fear. Speaking of African medical
skill, Grantly Dick Read points out: 38
35. Sarton, George, A History of Science,
Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1952, p.5.
36. Tschopik, H., Jr., "The Aymara," in Handbook
of South American Indians, published by the Bureau of American
Ethnology, 1946, vol. 2, Bulletin 143, p.501-573.
37. Elkin Adolphus P., Aboriginal Men of High Degree, being
the 1944 Queensland University John Murtagh Macrossan Memorial
Lectures, published by Australasian Publications, 1946.
38. Read, Grantly Dick, "No Time for Fear," as
reviewed by W.A.Deacon in the Saturday Review of Books, Globe
and Mail, Toronto, ON, Aug., 11, 1956.
They had cures for
diseases which modern science still finds difficult to heal -- and sometimes
the knowledge of a good witch doctor could be of very good use to modern
of course, they did not reflect much upon the psychology they
used -- but it was always very practical in its application,
and it represented a kind of deep wisdom which modern physicians
There are often amusing and revealing illustrations of this.
In two areas in particular they explored widely -- in person-to-person
relationships, especially with near relatives, and in dealing
with the supernatural. For example, they insist as a rule that
a man go to live with his wife's people. There are a number of
very good reasons for this, not the least of which is the fact
that they recognized that most emotional tensions revolve around
the lady of the house. When a man goes to his wife's home, the
lady of the house 'gains' a son. If, however, the wife goes to
the husband's house to live, the lady of the house 'loses' a
son! This is a serious thing -- the root of much jealousy and
causes emotional tensions which they sought to avoid.
As an illustration of the
second area in which Psychology is applied, one can cite a case
that occurred in a Pueblo village after the last war. Many young
Hopi volunteered for service overseas. This often badly confused
their traditional cultural behaviour patterns. One anthropologist
noting this, suggested to a young Hopi veteran that he'd still
be afraid to sleep in one of their ancient cemeteries. He laughingly
denied this. So he, and an old villager, agreed to the test.
The old man selected a spot to sleep, performed several little
rites, sprinkling seed around his bed and urinating on the seed.
With a brief prayer, he then lay down and slept like a child.
The young man no longer believed in such things -- neither the
spirits (so he said) nor the 'magic.' He tossed and turned, quite
unable to sleep -- pretending to be unafraid and having no longer
any accepted means to offset the fears he denied. He finally
got up and returned to the village! A. P. Elkin gives many instances
of this kind of thing in Australia, and says that he often spoke
to the old men about their faith in the magic they used and was
surprised to find how clearly they understood its psychological
value. Some of the witch doctors were Ph.D.'s in Psychology,
rather than doctors with an M.D., according to Elkin.
But even in the use of drugs that
do actually work chemically the non-Indo-European has been far
ahead of us. Aldous Huxley speaks of the use of such drugs and
tranquilizers and other remedies for anxiety: 39
Certain chemical compounds produce certain changes of consciousness
and so permit a measure of self-transcendence and a temporary
relief of tension. Thus, the so-called "tranquilizing drugs"
are merely the latest addition to a long list
39. Huxley, Aldous, "History of Tension,"
Scientific Monthly, vol.87, July, 1957, p.4, 5.
of chemicals which have been used from time immemorial
for changing the quality of consciousness and so making possible some
degree of transcendence. Let us always remember that, while modern pharmacology
has given us a host of new synthetics, it has made no basic discoveries
in the field of the natural drugs; it has merely improved the methods
of extraction, purification, and combination. All the naturally occurring
sedatives, narcotics, euphorics, hallucinogens, and excitants were discovered
thousands of years ago before the dawn of civilization. This surely
is one of the strangest facts in that long catalogue of improbabilities
known as human history. Primitive man, it is evident, experimented with
every root, twig, leaf and flower, with every seed, nut and berry, and
fungus, in his environment. Pharmacology is older then agriculture.
There is good reason to believe that even in Palaeolithic times, while
he was still a hunter and food gatherer, man killed his animals and
human enemies with a poisoned arrow. By the Stone Age he was systematically
poisoning himself The preserved heads of poppy in the kitchen middens
of the Swiss Lake dwellers shows how early in his history man discovered
the techniques of self-transcendence through drugs. There were dope
addicts long before there were farmers.
As an example
of the extent to which such people go, it may be mentioned that
the Jagga even developed truth serum. 40
Claude Levi-Strauss underscores
another aspect of this psychomedical contribution: 41
The West, for all its mastery
of machines, exhibits evidence of only the most elementary understanding
of the use and potential resources of that super-machine, the
human body. In this sphere on the contrary, the East and Far
East are several thousand years ahead; they have produced the
great theoretical and practical summae represented by Yoga in
India, and Chinese 'breath techniques,"' or the visceral
control of the ancient Maoris. . . .
In all matters touching on the
organization of the family, and the achievement of harmonious
relations between the family group and the social group, the
Australian aborigines, though backward in the economic sphere,
are so far ahead of the rest of mankind that, to understand the
careful and deliberate system of rules they have elaborated,
we have to use all the refinements of modern mathematics. . .
The Australians with an admirable
grasp of the facts, have converted this machinery into terms
of theory, and listed the main methods by which it may be produced,
with the advantages and the drawbacks attaching to each. They
have gone further than empirical observation to discover the
laws governing the system, so that it is no exaggeration to say
that they are not merely the founders of modem sociology as a
whole, but are the real innovators of measurement in the social
40. Truth serum: referred to by Robert Lowie, Social Organization,
New York, Rinehart, 1948, p.168, 169.
41. Levi-Strauss, C., "Race and History" in the series
The Race Question in Modern Science, UNESCO, Paris, 1952,
all sociologists would agree with Levi-Strauss, of course, but there is
no doubt that the social aspect of human relationships have here been
subjected to unusual scrutiny. It seems almost a rule, in fact, that the
simpler the culture in its materials, the more elaborate its formalized
social structure is apt to be, including its rituals. And conversely,
the more complex the civilization, the less formal its social patterns
are likely to be. Ralph Linton speaks of one occasion in an Australian
tribe, where it happened that the regulations had become so involved that
a time came when it was found nobody could properly get married any more!
All the American Indians had an
extensive medical knowledge. Their surgical skill was remarkable,
and like non-Indo-Europeans in many other parts of the world,
ancient and modern, they practiced such delicate operations as
trepanation with remarkable success. 43
Such extremely delicate surgery
implies the use of some kind of anaesthetic. Robert Lowie reminds
us that we owe this very fundamental discovery to the South American
Indian. As he says, "What is absolutely certain is that
our local anaesthetics go back to the Peruvian Indian's coca
leaves, whence our cocaine."44
Another important invention from
the same source is the enema. Robert Heizer, in an issue of a
well-known publication which was devoted to the history of this
instrument, states that:45
The medical practices of the
Indians of North and South America prior to the shattering of
their cultures by Caucasian wars and exploitation, were truly
amazing in their magnitude and excellence. Our fractional knowledge
of these attainments derives from early historical records, ethno-botanical
works by botanists and pharmacologists, and from intensive study
of skeletal materials by trained observers. Included in the roster
of medical techniques was the administration of enemas and lavements
by means of a number of instruments -- bulb and piston type syringes
and clyster tubes.
42. Linton, Ralph, The Study of Man,
New York, Appleton Century, Student's Edition, 1936, p.90.
43. Popham, Robert, "Trepanation as a Rational Procedure
in Primitive Surgery," University of Toronto Medical
Journal, vol.31, no.5, Feb., 1954, p.204-211.
44. Lowie, Robert, An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology,
New York, Farrar and Rinehart, 2nd edition 1940, p.336.
45. Heizer, Robert, "The Use of the Enema by the Aboriginal
American Indians, Ciba Symposia, vol.5, Feb., 1944, p.1686,
| Nordenskiold, speaking of the American Indian as an
inventor, refers to such enema syringes, one of which he illustrates.46 The illustration, Fig. 6,
is taken from his work, and shows how little we have been able
to improve upon it! Even the decorative scheme is in excellent
taste, and the mode of manufacture was copied exactly when Indo-Europeans
first began to exploit the native development of rubber latex.
The same writer also mentions the
invention of tweezers for medical purposes for which he gives
the credit to the Araurcanians, another Peruvian tribe. The Jivaro
Indians use the pincers of living ants for the purpose of suturing
wounds -- a most extraordinary procedure that has been observed
in other parts of the world also. 47 The skin is drawn together, the small ant so applied
that it seizes the suture and holds it tightly closed in its
strong mandibles, and then the animal's body is quickly snipped
off! So the series of fine pincers along the wound hold the skin
lesions together till healing takes place. Erwin Ackernecht in
writing of this interesting technique, concludes that it is a
witness to "the great inventive power that the 'savage'
develops in all those fields that he deems worthy of interest."48
Ingenuity: its diversity
We have mentioned rubber enemas.
According to Nordenskiold, there appears to have been a secondary
development arising out of it: the making of hollow rubber balls
for games. 49 Such
balls were made by forming a core of clay or some such material
and then dipping this repeatedly in a solution of latex allowing
each coating to dry before applying the next one. When the skin
was thick enough, a small round hole was cut through the rubber
to the clay core and the latter was removed through the hole,
a small amount at a time. The hole was then plugged with another
wad of latex, in a semi-hard condition, and the whole redipped
once more in latex thus sealing the air inside the ball. Solid
balls were also made, which weighed as much as 25 pounds. These
were used in the well known games played by the Maya in such
open courts as have been found at Chichen Itza, Mexico, and elsewhere.
46. Nordenskiold, Erik, 'The American Indian
as an Inventor", Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute, vol.59, 1929, p.273ff.
47. Ants used for suturing: see E. A. Underwood, reviewing Lewis
Cotlow, Amazon Head Hunters (London,, Robert Gale, 1954)
in Nature, vol.175, Feb., 19, 1955, p.318.
48. Ackernecht, Erwin, in Ciba Symposia, vol.10, July-August,
1948, p.924, in a note under the title "An Ingenious Device
for Stitching Wounds." The same author has a paper entitled
"Primitive Surgery,"(American Anthropologist, New
Series vol.49, January-March, 1947), in which he gives a bibliography
on the subject of 204 references.
49. Rubber balls: this is the opinion of E. Nordenskiold, 'The
American Indian as an Inventor", Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, vol.59, 1929, p.298.
article in a rubber journal recently pointed out that these balls are
only one example of the use made by the American Indian of this plastic
material 50. He also made
watertight shoes, flasks, ponchos, and dolls. The same article states
The development and use of natural
rubber by the American Indian is impressive, for in 300 years
his "civilized" conquerors made little improvement
in the ancient method of rubber manufacture.
used a certain sap of a vine (Iponoea bona-nox) or from
a liana (Catonyction speciosum) to coagulate the latex.
Certain trees have the latex in a form which is rubber in suspension
in water. The water can be evaporated and the rubber remains,
without any need for a catalyst.
The story of Charles Goodyear's
efforts to take over the development of rubber from the natives
of Brazil and exploit it in America and elsewhere, is well known.
The problem was to treat it so that it would retain its structure
even in hot weather. Their own rubber served the Indians well
enough, especially since they had the secret of curing it by
using local products as catalysts. Goodyear, again and again,
brought himself, his family, and his backers to the point of
ruin and bankruptcy because he could not cure the stuff out of
which he was trying to make raincoats, mail bags, and overshoes.
As soon as warm weather came, his products turned into a sticky
useless mess! Of course he finally discovered how to cure by
vulcanizing, using sulfur as a catalyst. 51 But it seems probable that many of his heartbreaks
never would have occurred if he had gone back to the originators
of rubber articles and asked them to teach him what they knew
Moreover, it is very doubtful if
Goodyear or anyone else of his cultural background would have
seen, in the Brazilian forest, what the natives had seen, i.e.,
a natural product requiring only to be treated with another natural
product to supply a remarkably versatile and useful material.
In the matter of Textiles, we have
been borrowers in almost every detail. It is considered by G.
P. Murdock that the Central American Indian excelled here also:
In skill and technique in the
textile arts the ancient Peruvians have had no equal in human
history. They wove plain webs, double faced cloths, gauze and
voile, knitted and crocheted fabrics, feather work, tapestries,
fine cloths interwoven
50. Anonymous article in Rubber Age, November,
51. Charles Goodyear: see on this, H. Stafford Hatfield, The
Inventor and His World, Harmondsworth, UK, Penguin Books,
52. Murdock, G. P., Our Primitive Contemporaries, New
York, Macmillan, 1934, p. 428, 429
with gold and silver threads -- employing in
short, every technique save twilling known to the Old World, in addition
to some peculiar to themselves. . . . They employed methods identical
with those used in the famous Gobelin and Beauvais tapestries; they
nevertheless in harmony of colours, fastness of dyes, and perfection
of technique, far surpassed the finest products of Europe.
C. Langdon White
says that the best of their fabrics were from the wool of the
vicuna, softest of all animal fibres, with 270 threads to the
inch as compared with 140 threads otherwise considered to be
MD.C. Crawford writing in 1948
before certain very recent developments underscores this achievement
of the Indian. He made a particular study of this aspect of their
art and skill, and concludes: 54
As a matter of fact, Europe
has never produced a single original natural textile fibre or
any dye except perhaps wool. She has not contributed a single
fundamental or original idea to the basic mechanics of textiles,
nor a single original and fundamental process of finishing, dyeing,
or printing. . . .
In the broader world history of
textiles and cloth, the ingenious English inventions of the 18th
century (led by Kay's fly-shuttle) are but incidental mechanical
modifications and developments of older ideas which grew out
of the social conditions in England, and were directly due to
the importation of cotton and silk fabrics from the Far East
during the 16th and 17th centuries. No new basic principles either
in spinning, weaving, or fabric construction, nor new methods
of decoration, dyes, colours, or designs, are involved in the
English machines. The ancient principles of twisting and elongating
masses of fibre into yarn, the principle of interlacing one set
of filaments held in place between parallel bars of a second
set of filaments, remains undisturbed. No new raw materials are
involved: flax, hemp, wool, cotton, and silk, remain the principle
fibres. And for colour the dyes of antiquity were still employed.
As a matter of fact, all the dye raw materials of antiquity,
both from Asia and America, were still mentioned In English dyer's
manuals in the late part of the 19th century, and years after
Perkins' experiments with coal tar derivatives in 1856.
Silk of course
came to us from China, felt from Mongolia, 55 materials made from pulps were developed in Polynesia
(tapa cloth, etc.). These last are coming into their own in our
day, the capacity for greater production being about our only
claim for credit. And even here, the claim may be somewhat premature,
because considerable difficulty has been experienced thus far
in the manufacture of such materials on a large scale. The native
products are hand made of course. Moreover their methods of decoration,
by tie-dyeing, batique, and silk-screen, are simply not applicable
to mass production methods at present. We do not have time for
53.White, C. Langdon, 'Storm Clouds over the
Andes," Scientific Monthly, May, 1950, p.308.
54. Crawford, M.D.C., The Conquest of Culture, Fairchild,
New York, 1948, p.184, 185.
55. Felt: see Mabel C. Cole and Fay Cole, The Story of Man,
Chicago, Cuneo Press, 1940, p.374.
as we shall see when we come to consider the textile 'industries' of ancient
Sumeria, virtually the whole concept of mechanization, of large mills
and hundreds of specialized workers each doing a single kind of operation,
was well developed at least five thousand years ago in the Middle East.
Meanwhile the Egyptians succeeded
in weaving such fine fabrics that they are still equal to our
own best products woven by the very latest mechanical means.
Some of the garments associated with King Tutankhamen's tomb
have 220 threads to the inch as shown in Fig. 7. Common handkerchiefs
today, of linen, show only about 60 to 70 threads per inch and
good linen cloth for such purposes seldom has more than 100 threads
per inch, or less than the Egyptian prototype.
These samples of fabric were taken from Tutankhamen's
tomb. They are three different pieces of material, (a) being
a dark cream color with a light filmy texture, (b) a dark brown,
almost black, with two threads one way, and one the other way,
and (c) is a dark brown of a coarser weave.
These photographs were taken with a microscope, thus emphasizing
the size of thread and concealing the fine texture of the cloth.
Magnification was 15 x. Sample (a) reveals about 220 threads
to the inch.
pottery has always been a source of amazement, whether in the
New World or the Old. Chinese pottery has long been prized
for its beauty in form, colour and texture. Central American
pottery is remarkable for its complete freedom of form, and for
its ingenuity also. In an environment where evaporation rates
are high, it is desirable to cut down the size of the opening
at the top. But this makes pouring more difficult. The air rushing
in suddenly causes the water to flow out unevenly, and to spill
easily. But in many places water is too precious to be wasted
in this way. The Peruvians and the Maya overcame this by putting
two spouts on the pot so that one became both a handle and a
separate air inlet. The variations of this theme were both ingenious
and aesthetically pleasing. Not content with this, they even
went further and so designed the passages that when water was
poured out, the air rushing in caused a whistle to blow. In some
cases it is difficult to see why this was done, unless it was
to warn the adults when the children were robbing them of a rather
precious commodity! Other types seem clearly to have been whistling
'kettles' -- a further effort to conserve waste by warning the
lady of the house that the water was boiling away. 56
Many of their vessels are shaped
as heads, faces, animals, and even whole people. And these reproductions
were not approximations. They were so lifelike in many cases
that they must surely have been actual portraits. Their artistry
and skill seem to have known no limits.
The same is true of Middle East
pottery. In Minoan Crete the wares are of such delicacy that
it seems they must be copies of originals made in hammered metal.
Even the 'rivets' are indicated sometimes. They also reveal that
the metal prototypes were sometimes formed by a process akin
to deep drawing as we technically understand it now. Some of
the pottery from the earliest levels at Tell Halaf and Susa is
astonishing in its complete freedom of form and unbelievable
delicacy. We shall refer to this subsequently.
56. Whistling kettles: on this see, T. Athol
Joyce, "Marvels of the Potter's Art: In South America"
in The Wonders of the Past, edited by Sir John Hammerton,
London, Putnam's, 1924, vol. 2, p.464, 465.
Ingenuity of the Incas and Mayans
The fame of the Central American
Indians in the matter of road building has been well reported.
Cement pavements and other types of surfaced roads; suspension
bridges spanning up to 450 feet, anchored at each end by massive
stone pillars and capable of carrying cattle and pack animals,
were built in some of the most rugged country in the world. These
bridges were often 6 to 8 feet wide. The ropes by which they
supported these slender structures are known to have been up
to 12 inches in diameter. 57 One of the most famous builders was the Inca, Mayta
Capac, who is generally dated from 1195 to 1230 A.D.
Although they used
wheels on toys, for some reason they did not employ wheeled vehicles.
At least there are no remains of them, nor pictures, nor references
in their traditions or literature. Yet they did use road-rollers
weighing up to 5 tons! 58 One of these is illustrated in Fig. 8 In Fig. 9 is
shown a reconstruction of a suspension bridge. Moreover they
had extensive postal systems along these highways, and an excellent
quality of paper for writing letters and keeping records.
Figure 8. Figure
have discovered that the Maya were making true paper approximately
3000 years ago. 59
Before these artisans disappeared, the Aztecs had learned the
secret. This same process was handed down from generation to
generation and today is used by the Otomi Indians in Mexico.
The inner bark of the fig tree is soaked in running water until
the sap jells and can be scraped off. The fibrous residue is
then boiled in lime, washed once more, and laid on a flat wooden
surface like a bread board, where it is pounded to a pulp. The
pulp is left on the board and sun dried. The ancient Aztecs went
one step beyond the 20th century Otomis. Their process was identical
up to this point, but after the paper was dry they sized it,
then calendered it with hot stones to produce surfaces readily
adaptable for printing. They then printed on it with a crude
kind of moveable type!
Although many of these original
developments have long since been lost sight of, there still
remains sufficient on record to suggest that in Central America
a stage of technical excellence had been achieved and natural
resources exploited, mathematics developed (including the use
of zero and a place system for numbers) the development of a
literature (among the Maya at least), and a leisure class, that
the advance into Science should
57. Ropes: see Alexander Goldenweiser, Anthropology,
New York, Crofts, 1937, p.402, and Victor W. von Hagen, Realm
of the Incas, New York, New American Library, 1957, p.186,
187 for illustrations.
58. Road rollers: see Marshall H. Saville, "The Ancient
Maya Causeways of Yucatan," Antiquity, vol.9,
March, 1935, p.73.
59. Paper in South America: see Victor W. von Hagen, "The
First American Papermakers," The Paper Industry &
Paper World, December 1944, p.1133.
have been made. Gilbert Lewis says:
the most remarkable achievements of the American Indians, were
in the fields of arithmetic, astronomy, and the Calendar. Two
of the greatest inventions of arithmetic, the zero and the sign
of numerical position, were regularly employed in America long
before they are known to have occurred elsewhere. . . .
It may be noted that few apparently
unrelated items which I have discovered in the literature may,
when put together, suggest the possible use of astronomical instruments
in early America. Both in Mexico and in Peru concave mirrors
were found, articles that had not been seen in Europe at the
time of the Conquest. In Peru, these concave mirrors were employed
in a solar rite. Periodically all old fire was extinguished and
a new fire was started by the priests who, with these mirrors
focused the rays of the setting sun on a wisp of cotton. Among
the Aztecs new fire was produced at night by the fire drill.
However, that they had recollections of a practice akin to the
Peruvian is suggested by the name of one of their chief gods
Peruvian surgery, J. Alden Mason, quoting the well known paleopathologist
R. L. Moodie, says: 61
I believe it to be correct to
state that no primitive or ancient race of people anywhere in
the world had developed such a field of surgical knowledge as
had the pre-Columbian Peruvians. Their surgical attempts are
truly amazing and include amputations, excisions, trephining,
bandaging, bone transplants (?), cauterizations and other less
speaks of the use of anaesthetics and possibly hypnosis. He remarks
that some skulls show the result of operations on the frontal
sinus. Their 'operating rooms' were first cleared and purified
by the sprinkling and burning of maize corn-flour, first black
and finally white.
Mason considers that it is literally
impossible to exaggerate the technical achievements of these
Peruvian highlanders in the field of textiles. He holds that
it is not the view merely of enthusiastic archaeologists, but
of textile manufacturers themselves. Their skill he terms 'incredible.'
They even had invisible mending in place of patching. The Aymara
still do! In metallurgy they were not far behind.
Among their textiles, according
to Mason, have been found "twining, plain cloth, repp, twill,
gingham, warp-faced and weft-faced or bobbin pattern weave, brocade,
tapestry, embroidery, tubular weave, pile knot, double cloth,
gauze, lace, needle-knitting, painted and resist-dye decoration
and several other special processes peculiar to
60. Lewis, Gilbert, "The Beginnings of
Civilization in America," American Anthropologist, New
Series, vol.49, January-March, 1947, p.8 and footnote.
61. Mason, J. Alden, The Ancient Civilizations of Peru, Harmondsworth,
Penguin, 1957, p.222.
Peru and probably impossible to
produce by mechanical means." It is even possible that they may have
watered some crops with coloured liquids to produce naturally dyed fabrics
that were indeed sun-worthy!
Nor is this inventiveness
limited to Central America, although for climatic reasons this
may have been the best environment to encourage high civilizations.
The Iroquois had invented 'rifled' arrowheads long before they
found themselves face to face with or in possession of rifled
fire arms. 62 It
does not seem likely that the spiralling is sufficient to rotate
the arrow rapidly enough that the need for feathers is eliminated.
This at least has not proved to be the case with my own sample.
Evidently such was not the objective. What is clearly achieved
is a far more serious wound. Like the outlawed dum-dum bullets
of World War I, the form of the head is such that the arrow does
not pass right through (where it could easily be withdrawn) but
buries itself in the flesh and stops there. The energy of the
arrow is absorbed as the head 'corkscrews' into the body.
Aymara of Peru build sailing boats and use them on lakes two
and a half miles above sea level -- yet there is scarcely a tree
to be found at this elevation. These vessels are made entirely
of local bulrushes, and even the sails are mats woven from the
same materials. The masts are built up of small pieces of wood
spliced together. Provided these vessels are permitted to dry
out every little while, they will carry a considerable load.
Indians were master architects, building great monuments and
immense fortifications of stones set in to each other by being
laid and lapped together right on the spot. How they were erected
is still a mystery, for many of the stones are huge. But this
certainly is the only genuinely earthquake-proof architecture
in Middle America! For an illustration of one of the most famous
such fortifications (?) see Fig. 10.
One of the most surprising things about
the great Ball Court of Chichen Itza is its acoustical properties.
Recently the Editor of an American magazine visited this court
and reported on this unexpected feature.He wrote: 64
We climbed to the vantage
point of one of the stands for the thrones of the priests at
the southern end, while our guide went to the other. We were
five hundred feet apart. We talked in low tones no louder than
a couple would use sitting in the living room of an average
home. We could hear each other perfectly. We reduced our voices
to a mere murmur: we could still hear each other perfectly. .
62. Rifled arrowheads: I have one of these
in my possession. There are several references to them in the
literature and some examples in Museums in Canada and the United
States. There may have been a family, a kind of Iroquois Krupps,
which supplied friend and foe alike -- at a price! Edward
B. Tylor refers to them (Anthropology, New York, Hill,
1904, p.155), and even earlier, Sir William Dawson,( Fossil
Men and Their Modern Representatives, London, Hodder &
Stoughton, 1883, p.124). There seems to be no doubt about their
63. Aymara boats: see Stewart E. McMillin, "The Heart of
Aymara Land," National Geographic Magazine, February,
64. Barnhouse, Donald G., "The Editor Visits Mexico's Mayan
Ruins," Eternity Magazine, May, 1956, p.35.
The General Electric
Company, we were told, brought a large group of engineers to Chichen
Itza to carry on acoustical experiments in the big ball court. They
attempted to duplicate the court elsewhere but did not get the same
acoustical effect because they had not built with limestone.
The tools of the pre-Columbian builders were
no less remarkable than their buildings. It is believed now that
they may have used glass cutting edges for saws, etc., in place
of steel -- the glass being a natural volcanic residue. Recent
experiments demonstrate that such tools can be most effective.
The idea is suggested by the form of certain fighting weapons.
even developed a specialized form of dental repair, using a kind
of Portland Cement filling which has remained firm and intact
in tooth cavities for 1500 years! Of this discovery Sigvad Linne
The findings (of archaeologists)
have revealed to us some of the inventiveness and technical skill
possessed by the Indians. The practical aids of these unknown
technicians may have been primitive yet it could scarcely have
been "primitive peoples of nature" that with such simple
means achieved results before which their later born Swedish
colleagues sometimes stand in dumb amazement.
This is a digression,
but one might mention that a recent report from Washington states
that there is now evidence of the habitual use of some kind of
cleaning agents on the teeth of prehistoric skulls. 67 Since the Chinese had by
at least 1500 A.D. developed a tooth brush that looks remarkably
like its modern counterpart, there is surely nothing new under
the sun! 68 For
a picture of this toothbrush, see Fig. 11.
65. Glass saws: as reported in Science
News Letter, July 13, 1957, under the title "Glass-toothed
Saw Cuts Wood: An Ingenious Hand-made Tool May Provide a Solution
for an Ancient Scientific Puzzle." (Anonymous).
66. Tooth filling: see Sigvad Linne, "Technical Secrets
of American Indians," Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute, vol.87, Part II, July-December, 1957, pp.152,
67. Toothpaste: Science News Letter, Dec.23, 1956, p.390,
in a series of brief notes written anonymously under the heading
68. Toothbrush: see Curt Proskauer, "Oral Hygiene in the
Medieval Occident," Ciba Symposia, vol.8, Nov., 1946,
p.468. The illustration is from a woodcut in the Lei Shu Ts'ai
Hiu, a Chinese Encyclopedia.
adds to the credit of the America Indians the invention of the hammock
(New Guinea) 69, children's
go-carts (North-western Brazil), 70 cigar holders, 71 the chain 72 and an ingenious self-acting water-pump (Columbia) which the
Spaniards adopted and converted into a bilge pump. 73
It could become just an endless
catalogue if we were to go on listing isolated instances of native
ingenuity such as the use of the skin of the ray-fish by the
Polynesians as a 'sand paper'; 74 the use of giant fireflies called Cucuyo and
tied to the feet by the natives in the West Indies to light their
way along jungle paths at night,75 and so forth.
So much importance is attached
to inventors and their inventions, that they were held in great
veneration and quite often were ultimately deified. The only
encyclopaedias the Chinese had, originally, dealt with the heroic
figures who were famous because they had invented something.
76 Indeed in some
cultures, this kind of talent is so generally expected of the
males that the would-be son-in-law must win his bride by performing
some almost impossible task set by the family, which calls forth
nothing short of inventive genius! 77
Perhaps this is not such a remarkable
circumstance in a way, since we are tending to move in the same
direction and devote more and more space in encyclopaedias to
inventions. Yet scholars and generals, poets and artists, politicians
and sportsmen, still share the pages of our history books with
69. Hammocks: Nordenskiold, Erik, 'The American
Indian as an Inventor", Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute, vol.59, 1959, p.281.
70. Go-carts: Nordenskiold, E., ibid., from North Western
71. Cigar holders: Nordenskiold, B., ibid., p.302.
72. Chain: Nordenskiold, E., ibid., p.302, used by a small
tribe, the Hurari. in Matto Grasso, and found nowhere else in
73. Bilge pump: Nordenskiold, E., ibid., p. 300.
74. Sandpaper: see Leonard Adam, Primitive Art, Harmondsworth,
UK, Penguin, 1949, p.162.
75. Fireflies: see Donald C. Peattie, "The Miracle of the
Firefly," The Reader's Digest, October, 1949, p.102.
76. Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilization in China,
Cambridge, UK., Cambridge University Press, 1954, vol.1, p.54.
77. Professor T. F. McIlwraith, Head of the Department of Anthropology
in the University of Toronto, gave a lecture on the various means
adopted by different people to test aspiring husbands. The Arawak
of Central Africa adopt this method, as do other widely scattered
tribes. An early chapter of Genesis (4:17-21) gives prominence
to the first city-builder, the first agriculturalist, the first
tent-dweller, the first musician, and the first metal worker.
The latter is referred to as Tubal-Cain, which some authorities
feel may be the original form of the word Vulcan, who
was (like many Chinese inventors) subsequently deified.
any rate, we can see that such an aptitude for invention, and the ability
to exploit the natural resources of the environment, was encouraged only
so far as the overall economy allowed. There was no leisure, often little
security, not much accumulation of wealth, and frequently insufficient
'sophistication' to suggest to such people that they might go further.
To a man who can hardly keep food in the larder for his family, idle curiosity
is not likely to find much encouragement. These people searched, and found
the immediate solution: but they did not have the energy, the need, the
time, or the will to re-search and extend the answers they had found once
they proved effective enough. They have searched. We re-search.
Copyright © 1988 Evelyn White. All rights
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surely this was not true in China, or Sumeria, or Egypt or Crete,
or the Indus Valley, or in Anatolia? Why did not these much more
advanced and highly organized Cultures progress further? Why
did they not explore their own well-developed technology and
proceed to a Scientific Age? The climate was suitable, records
were extensive, and natural resources were abundant enough in
Let us examine their achievements
and (since we have the means to do so) explore their underlying
philosophy as revealed in their literature; for, unlike cultures
so far considered, they all developed writing very early in their
history, and their educated sons left many records of their thoughts,
as well as their business documents, and their royal chronicles
of inventions and of conquests.