TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17. A Discussion on interference with the civilisation of other races was opened by the reading of the following Paper: — 1. Protest against the Unnecessary Uprooting of Ancient Civilization in Asia and Africa. By ROBERT N. Cust, LL.D. The tendency on the part of Europeans, and English and French especially, to denationalise the customs of populations which come under their influence, is to be deplored, so long as those customs are not contrary to the moral laws of the human race. It is not in any way evident that the customs of European nations are in themselves better than those of the Asiatic and North African; as regards the barbarous races of Africa south of the Sahara, Oceania, and North America the argument is not pressed, but is restricted to those regions where the inhabitants have an ancient civilization of their own, such as Persia, India, China, and Japan. Any forcible change of dress, language, social practice, and municipal law, is to be deplored: the progress of education, civilization, and contact with nations in a superior state of culture will do its own work insensibly without wounding the self-respect of ancient nations: the argument applies particularly to British India. Nothing can be more prudent and rational than the action of the British Government, but associations of irresponsible persons are found in Great Britain interfering with the prejudices of a great nation of nearly three hundred millions, which may eventuate in very serious consequences. The study of the gradual development of an Asiatic society by voluntary adoption of European influence will be most interesting to the student of anthropology. The following Papers were read : 2. The Light thrown on Primitive Warfare by the Languages and Usages of Historic Times. By Rev. G. HARTWELL JONES, M.A. The institution of war dates from the highest antiquity; nor was it an unmitigated evil. It deeply influenced civilisation. Early Greece and Italy may be taken as types of other Aryan' countries, and the evidence they afford can be supplemented by evidence from other quarters. The sources of evidence are (1) the dead languages, especially Greek and Latin; (2) survivals among civilised races and the customs of backward savages to-day; all of which point to the evolution of civilisation in Greece and Italy from a primitive barbarism. The influence of war was far-reaching. It left a deep impression upon (1) language, as is seen in the words common to different branches of the Aryan' stock; (2) society: for example, marriage and social distinctions; (3) religion. Religious feuds were often the occasion of war; the gods intervened in these struggles, as is seen from the prominent place occupied by war-gods in the mythologies of' Aryan' races. The history of primitive warfare exhibits three stages of growth. It is impossible to differentiate them clearly, but we may distinguish war (1) in the hunting stage. Here the methods would be of the crudest kind-stones, charred stakes, horns, and a rude bow and arrows were employed; battles were marked by cruelty and treachery. (2) The pastoral stage. Here the ox figured frequently; it was often the cause of hostilities, as witness some names for battle. (3) With the rise of agriculture war assumed a fiercer aspect, greater issues being at stake. An account of the discussion has been published at the office of the East Anglian Daily Times, Ipswich. Within the limits of one country there was sometimes a variety of usage, according to the different influences, mainly geographical and racial, to which its parts were subjected. Language reflects this diversity. Primitive warfare was religious in its character, war-gods interposing, each with champions and totems. The early Latin god Janus is a good instance of the survival of animism down to a late time. The causes of primitive warfare were diverse. At first it was carried on chiefly for (1) self-defence, for protection of food supplies, shelter, and wives. Animals and pastures were frequently grounds of contention. In this respect Sanskrit is very instructive. (2) Wars of aggression do not fall much within the scope of our inquiry. The earliest wars were characterised by cruelty. Those who were incapacitated from fighting by age were put to death, sometimes voluntarily. Even as late as the time of Homer physical force, rather than skill, distinguished the warrior and decided battles. Bodily strength, therefore, marked out men for leadership, and a nobility gradually grew up from the warrior class. Battles were preceded by sacrifices, and it is significant that these were performed by the chieftain, who combined in his person functions afterwards separated. The nature of the country dictated the tactics, according as the ground was swampy, rocky, or wild. At first only foot-soldiers were employed; chariotdriving followed; horse-soldiers were a more recent development. Although there are indications even in the Vedic hymns of riding being known, yet as late as Homer's time it was rather a special art than a common practice. Relationship was the basis of arrangement on the battle-field. The usages after the conclusion of hostilities are instructive. (1.) Reverence towards the gods. They were invited to desert, and their attendants were protected from violence. (2.) Males were ruthlessly put to the sword; women and children were treated barbarously. Indignities were heaped upon the conquered, and bodies were sometimes mutilated. It is impossible to resist the conclusion that human sacrifice was practised. An examination of the material on this subject establishes several interesting points the religious character of early civilisation, the divergence of the branches of the Aryan' family of races, and their development in different directions. 3. On a Paleolithic Skeleton from the Thames Valley. 4. On the Skulls of the New Race in Egypt. By Dr. J. G. GARSON. 5. On the Andamanese. By MAURICE PORTMAN. 6. On the Eskimo. By F. LINKLATER and J. A. FOWLER. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18. : The following Papers and Reports were read: 1. The Neolithic Station of Butmir. By Dr. R. MUNRO. The author, as member of the Congress of Archaeologists and Anthropologists held at Sarajevo in August of last year, had an opportunity of inspecting the remarkable Neolithic station of Butmir, which forms the subject of this communi 1895. 3 н cation. It is situated in the plain of Ilidze, some eight miles to the west of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. This plain, which extends for about seven miles in length and four or five in breadth, is composed of alluvial materials brought down from the surrounding mountains by rain and a number of streams which here meet, and it is therefore highly probable that in former times it was partially a lake-basin. In 1893, while workmen were engaged in excavating the foundations of a farm dairy in a cultivated field, it was observed that the soil turned up contained fragments of pottery, flint implements, stone axes, and other remains of a primitive people. These discoveries led to an investigation of the locality by the Government, under the supervision of the celebrated archæologist, Mr. Radimsky. A perpendicular section, 6 to 8 feet in depth, showed first a superficial layer of ordinary soil, 12 to 15 inches thick, then a series of thin beds, more or less stratified, of clay, charcoal, ashes, mould, &c., containing the above-named relics of human industry. This relic-bed, which attained a thickness of 4 or 5 feet, and a superficial area of about 5 acres, lay immediately above a bed of fine adhesive clay in situ—i.e. deposited by natural causes prior to the founding of the prehistoric settlement. By observing that on the surface of this clay there were, occasionally, irregularly shaped hollows of variable extent, Mr. Radimsky was led to formulate the opinion that they were the foundations of the huts of the first inhabitants-an opinion which gave rise to an animated controversy among the members of Congress. The deposits containing the relics formed a low mound, rising in the middle to about a couple of yards above the surrounding land. Near their surface, but below the superficial layer of soil, some burnt clay-castings of the timbers of which the huts were constructed were met with in several localities. The relics consisted, chiefly, of stone implements and fragments of pottery, all of which were interspersed uniformly throughout the débris. These remains were so abundant as to suggest the idea that the inhabitants of Butmir carried on special industries for their manufacture. Stone implements-knives, arrow-heads, scrapers, polished axes (with the exception of perforated ones), and tools were in all stages of manufacture. In regard to the perforated axeheads, it was curiously noted that, out of twenty-five collected, only two were whole, and not a single core had hitherto been found. The material out of which they were made was not found in the neighbourhood, and hence it was supposed that the perforated axes had been imported, thus indicating a knowledge of the division of labour among these early settlers. The pottery had been ornamented with a great variety of designs, among which a few specimens with a spiral ornamentation excited much interest among the members of Congress. A special feature of this discovery is the existence of a number of small clay images, or figurines, rudely representing the human form-among them being one, a head of terra-cotta, disclosing art of a superior kind. In conclusion he observed that those who had not the opportunity of studying the original report would find a notice of the settlement and of the controversies to which it has given rise in his forthcoming work, Rambles and Studies in Bosnia-Herzegovina.' 2. On Primitive European Idols' in the Light of New Discoveries. By ARTHUR J. EVANS, M.A., F.S.A. Schliemann's discoveries at Troy first called general attention to a class of primitive images of clay, marble, and other materials. Others, of which some new and remarkable examples were exhibited, had since been found in the Ægean Islands and the mainland of Greece. In their more developed forms they appeared as nude female figures, more rarely male. Lenormant and others had sought their prototype in a nude female figure seen on some Chaldæan cylinders which, as Nikolsky has now shown, represented the Underworld Goddess Sala, an equivalent of Istar. More recently M. Salomon Reinach has boldly attempted to turn the tables and derive the Eastern type from the European side. Mr. Evans combated both these theories. That the Istar type had influenced some of the later gean figures was probable. But the two classes were originally independent. The Greek and Trojan figures fitted on to a primitive European family, the evolution of which could be traced from the rudest beginnings. Thracian and Danubian examples carried this diffusion to the Carpathians. Beyond this, again, a curiously parallel group of amber, bone and stone-characterised a vast northern Neolithic province including the Polish caves and the Baltic amber coast and extending to the shores of Lake Ladoga. Attention was next called to certain recent and partly unpublished discoveries of primitive painted images in Sicily and the Ligurian caves, and after bringing them into relation with others from Bosnia and Carniola, the author showed that they had here the nearest prototypes to the Mycenaean. He exhibited a curiously rude squatting figure of Pentelic marble found near Athens-the earliest example of Attic art-and after adducing parallel examples from Thrace and the Peloponnese, claimed a cousinship for them in the so-called 'Cabiri' of what had been hitherto known as the 'Phoenician Temple' of Hagiar Kìm in Malta. This primitive building was really a West Mediterranean example of a class illustrated by the primitive architecture of Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, and even our own chambered barrows. Its Libyan affinities had been noticed by Fergusson, and the so-called Cabiri, with Ægean connections on the one hand, seemed to stand in a direct relationship with the rude squatting figures of Mr. Petrie's New Race.' Turning to Spain, Mr. Evans called attention to a class of stone figures singularly resembling the Trojan discovered in Neolithic and early Bronze Age deposits by the brothers Siret, and to which their most recent excava tions had added rich materials. Finally, as the north-westernmost example of this whole primitive class, he referred to the discovery of a whalebone 'idol' amongst Neolithic relics at Skara, in Orkney. The sepulchral relation in which these socalled 'idols' were usually discovered pointed to the conclusion that they had here an illustration of the widespread practice among primitive peoples of placing small figures in the grave as substitutes for human victims. 3. Interim Report on Prehistoric and Ancient Remains in Glamorganshire. 4. Report on the Lake Village at Glastonbury.-See Reports, p. 519. 5. The People of Southern Arabia. By J. THEODORE BENT. The two classes of natives discussed in this paper are resident in the Hadramut and Dhofar districts of South-eastern Arabia. First, those of the Hadramut are described. Their fanaticism and complex tribal system present great difficulties to the anthropologist. Descriptions are given of the three divisions of the inhabitants-namely, the Bedouins, the Arabs proper, and the Sayyids, or hierarchical nobility. But the Bedouins and their manners and customs, as being a distinctly aboriginal race, are described with greater minuteness. Their religion is discussed, and the secret manner in which they maintain their cult is suggested as a parallel to other secret cults in other parts of the Mohammedan world. Secondly, the district of Dhofar, the country from which the ancients obtained frankincense, is next described, and the Bedouins of the Gara tribe compared with those of the Hadramut: their manners and customs, and the general conditions under which they live, are described. SECTION K.-BOTANY. PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION.-W. T. THISELTON-DYER, M.A., F.R.S., C.M.G., C.I.E., Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. The PRESIDENT delivered the following Address: THE establishment of a new Section of the British Association, devoted to Botany, cannot but be regarded by the botanists of this country as an event of the greatest importance. For it is practically the first time that they have possessed an independent organisation of their own. It is true that for some years past we have generally been strong enough to form a separate department of the old Biological Section D, on the platform of which so many of us in the past have acted in some capacity or other, and on which indeed many of us may be said to have made our first appearance. We shall not start then on our new career without the remembrance of filial affection for our parent, and the earnest hope that our work may be worthy of its great traditions. The first meeting of the Section, or, as it was then called, Committee, at Oxford was held in 1832. And though there has been from time to time some difference in the grouping of the several biological sciences, the two great branches of biology have only now for the first time formally severed the partnership into which they entered on that occasion. That this severance, if inevitable from force of circumstances, is in some respects a matter of regret, I do not deny. Specialisation is inseparable from scientific progress; but it will defeat its own end in biology if the specialist does not constantly keep in touch with those fundamental principles which are common to all organic nature. We shall have to take care that we do not drift into a position of isolation. Section D undoubtedly afforded a convenient opportunity for discussing many questions on which it was of great advantage that workers in the two different fields should compare their results and views. But I hope that by means of occasional conferences we shall still, in some measure, be able to preserve this advantage. RETROSPECT. I confess I found it a great temptation to review, however imperfectly, the history and fortunes of our subject while it belonged to Section D. But to have done so would have been practically to have written the history of botany in this country since the first third of the century. Yet I cannot pass over some few striking events. I think that the earliest of these must undoubtedly be regarded as the most epoch-making. I mean the formal publication by the Linnean Society, in 1833, of the first description of the nucleus of the cell,' by Robert Brown. It seems 1 Misc. Bot. Works, i. 512. |