DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILISATION.

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 157, 10 May 1873, Page 3

DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILISATION.

At the annual meeting of the British Association, amongst other interesting papers produceil in the department of Anthropology win one by Colonel Fox on certain points relating to the development ot civilisation. It may be fairly assumed (he s\ul) that when ravage races are now found employing implements corresponding with those of prehistoric nge, those existing races present us with fair pictures of general prehistoric culture. Among modem savages, the Australians are undoubtedly the best rcpre»entati\ es of a primitive people. The speaker called attention to the close resemblances between the different forms of weapons and implements usod by the Australians. From Colonel Fox's long and careful study of the weapons of primitive and savage warfare, ho is peculiarly fitted to speak \\ ith authority on such a subject. He has observed that tho Australian spear, the club, the malga, the boomerang, and the heiloman, or rudimentary shield, all pass ono into another, by transitional forms, serving as connecting links ; in short, all their forms arc derived, with slight modifications, from the forms of the stems of trees and other natural objects. The Austialian, like the palaeolithic man, has not advanced even to the conception of boring a hole through his stone axe for the insertion of a handle. If he sees a hole in an axe of i European manufacture, lie has no notion of its use, and has been known to stop it witli gum as useless, and then proceed to haft the axe according to the primitive traditional custom of his race. Yet this rudimentary state of culture is tar from being due exclusively to racial incapacity, for the Australian, when properly instructed, is by no means slow in receiving new ideas. It is interesting to learn that Colonel Fox has traced the Australian boomerang and the rudimentary parrj ing shield to the Dravidian races in Central India, and to tho ancient Egyptians — a f.ict which tends greatly to support tho views of Professor Huxley, who, from studying the physical characters of the Australians, the hill tribes, of India, and the old dwellers in the Nile Valley, has traced so close a connexion between these people, as to lead him to group them together under tho term of tho Atntralioid stock. Nor •hould it be forgotten that philologists have detected numerous resemblances between the Australian and Dravidiau languages. Colonel Fox pointed out tho geographical distribution of many other weapons, and showed that similar forms aro found in widely-separated localities ; thus, the throwingstick is now used only by the Australians, the Esquimaux, and the Purrus-Purrus Indians of South. America. Two theories have been brought forward to explain such coincidences m the culture of peoples at present dwelling in distant regions. Either the culture has descended from some original source, and the people now separated wero once connected, or the culture has originated independently in distant centres. On the latter hj pothesis, the customs and arts will be similar in consequence of tho smiilanty of conditions under which they arose. Like causes produce like effects ; hence, it is said different people placed under similar circumstances will have like wants, and consequently similar customs will be developed. Neither of these theories, however, should be exclusively applied to the interpretation of tho phenomena of civilization ; both theories may admit of application in certain cases. But as a staunch supporter of the doctrine of continuous development, Colonel J?ox guards against supposing that coincidences in culture among peoples living at present in widely-separated localities necessarily prove the independent origin of sucli culture m distinct centres. It is true there may be no evidence of connection known at present, but it may fairly be expected tlmt ns our knowledge increases we may eventually be able to trace connections unknown to-day, and perhaps unsuspected. As culture was continuously and slowly developed, it seems safe to conclude that wherever an art or an institution is now found in an advanced or in a conventionalised form i t lias been the result of gradual growth ; for it is difficult to imagine that it originated m an advanced state, though tho cvidenco of its primitive condition and gradual dc\elopment may bo lacking. On the other hand, where the arts are now in a low state it may be assumed that they are indigenous in that locality. In seeking to traco the history and sources of human culture, we may rely on ovidence derived from the btudy of the religions, m^ths, institutions, and language uf a people ; or wo may turn to the evidence afforded by the relics of its ancient material arts. Colonel Fox proceeded to discuss the rclativo value of these two classes of evidence, and, as might be supposed, decided in favour of the material ; maintaining that tho evidence derived from a study of ancient weapons, implements, and other relics, earned us much further back in time and possessed greater stability than that derived from any branoh of culture which depended for its transmission on memory and oral communication. As an illustration of the stability of the arts of a sax ago people compared wiHi the fluctuations in its l.inguage, Colonel Fox stated that in Australia tho simple weapons air the same throughout the continent, whilst tho names for these weapons are different in almost every tribo— the thing has (runumed, but its name has changed. An amusing illustration of the theory of variation and continuity , as applied to the implements of a savage people, was afforded bj the exhibition of a collection of ornamental paddles from New Ireland, one of the Papuan group, adjacent to the island which recently witnessed the murder of Bishop Patleson. These paddle aro ornamented with the figure of a man, painted in red and black, and carved on the iace of tho blade. For many generations the form of the paddles appears to have remained unchanged ; but the ornamentation varies m certain limits. Nevertheless, when a sufficiently largo number of specimens are placed side by side, the continuity between tho several forms of ornament may often be instructively traced. The iir6t specimen exhibited to the meeting presented the characteristic head of a Papuan ; but in passing along the series the form of the figure became gradully simplified and conventionalised unt ll finally nothing was left but a crescent, representing tic c'nn of tho original face. Without the intermediate forms, no one could have suspected the origin of the moon-like ornament. And if these intermediate forms had represented connecting links between myths, customs, religions, or languages, or indeed anything embodied in material lormsor committed to writing, it would have been impossible to establish this connection.