The Seri Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 1-344*))McGee, W J
History
The Seri Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 1-344*))
McGee, W J
Seri Indians; Seri language; Yuman languages
The first feature of the artifact to attract attention is the
relative clumsiness of attachment and frequent absence of points. The
chipped-stone points are so rude as to be quite out of harmony with the
otherwise delicately wrought and graceful arrow, while the attachment
is strikingly rude; and it is still more noteworthy that the very name
for stone arrowpoint was little understood at Costa Rica, and was
obtained only after extended inquiry and repeated conferences among
the older informants. Even the attachment of the effective points made
from hoop-iron is bad constructionally; the sinew wrapping is carried
around the entire blade in such manner as to sheathe the sharply ground
edges and itself be cut on contact with firm tissue; and the fitting
and wrapping are so rude as to be incongruous with the rest of the
apparatus. On the whole the suggestion is strong that the arrowpoint
is accultural—and this suggestion is further strengthened by the
very existence of the practically functionless, and hence manifestly
vestigial, hard-wood foreshaft. Turning to the structural homologies,
the observer is at once struck with the parallelism running through
the three most conspicuous compound artifacts found among the Seri,
i. e., the harpoon, the fire-drill, and the arrow. All of these alike
consist of two essential parts, main shaft and foreshaft; all are akin
in function even in the superficial view of the Caucasian, and are
much more closely related in primitive thought—indeed the fire-drill
is but a featherless and nockless arrow, with the foreshaft charred at
its fire-giving tip; and all are closely linked in language and allied
with other terms in such wise as practically to establish identity
among them in the thinking of their lowly makers (though unfortunately
the incomplete vocabularies extant are insufficient for full study
of the linguistic homologies). Briefly the indications are that the
harpoon was the primary device, and that its foreshaft was a tooth of
an aquatic fish-eater like the seal, or perchance in some cases an os
penis; that its lineal successor was a loose-head lance for use on sea
and land, at first with the unaided hand and later with the atlatl, or
throwing-stick (the lance being now extinct, though recorded by early
visitors to Seriland); that the next artifact-generation in the direct
line was represented by the arrow, foreshafted with hard wood or tooth,
made light and graceful and loose-headed or not, according to needs,
and by the substitution of bow for atlatl; and that a somewhat aberrant
line was marked by the taming of fire, its reproduction by the modified
arrow, and the differentiation of fire-stick from arrow and either
atlatl or bow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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