The Evolution of Culture: And Other EssaysClarendon Press, 1906 - 232 pages |
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America amongst ancient ancient Egypt animals antiquity appears armed armour arrows arts Australian Author's Coll bark blade boats boomerang British Museum bronze celt Central Africa civilization coast connexion constructed continuity copper culture Denmark derived described diagram ditto Duarte Barbosa earliest edge Egyptian employed especially Esquimaux Europe evidence existing fastened figure Fiji flanges flint handle Herodotus horn human ideas implements Indians inhabitants Ireland iron Islands Isles Keller language London mankind manner material Max Müller means metal Meyrick nature neolithic North origin ornament outrigger palstave peculiar planks Plate Polynesian prehistoric primitive progress purposes R. U. S. Inst races represented resemblance rhinoceros savages says scale armour seen sequence shields side similar Sir John Lubbock skin socket celt South America spear specimens stages stick stone age throwing tool trace tree tribes varieties vessel Voyage weapons whilst wood Zealand
Popular passages
Page 99 - So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found.
Page 99 - Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, "Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears." But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share and his coulter and his axe and his mattock.
Page 29 - ... the succession of ideas by which the minds of men in a primitive condition of culture have progressed from the simple to the complex, and from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous.
Page 105 - Frere's words are well-known and memorable: "....if not particularly objects of curiosity in themselves... must I think be considered in that light, from the situation in which they were found They are, I think, evidently weapons of war, fabricated and used by a people who had not the use of metals.
Page 48 - We see in our own times that the rate of progress in the arts and sciences proceeds in a geometrical ratio as knowledge increases, and so, when we carry back our retrospect into the past, we must be prepared to find the signs of retardation augmenting in a like geometrical ratio ; so that the progress of a thousand years at a remote period may correspond to that of a century in modern times...
Page v - ... the whole weapon, but also of every individual detail in its structure, was arrived at as a cumulative result of a succession of very slight modifications, each of which was but a trifling improvement upon the one immediately preceding it. Through noticing the unfailing regularity of this process of gradual evolution in the case of firearms, he was led to believe that the same principles must probably govern the development of the other arts, appliances, and ideas of mankind.
Page 25 - ... subject-matter of all the other physical sciences. There is something very plausible in this objection, but if we examine it more carefully, we shall find that it rests entirely on a confusion of terms. We must distinguish between historical change and natural growth. Art, science, philosophy, and religion all have a history; language, or any other production of nature, admits only of growth.
Page 191 - ... that the fire might not reach further up than they would have it, they fasten some rags to a pole, dip them in water, and keep continually washing the tree a little above the fire until the lower part is burnt nearly through ; it is then pulled down. When they intend to hollow a tree for a canoe, they lay dry branches along the stem of the tree as far as it must be hollowed out, set them on fire, and replace them by others. While these parts are burning, they keep pouring water on those parts...
Page 133 - ... with -the rapidity of an arrow from the bow of a practised archer. In tracking animals or men they show most wonderful sagacity ; and I heard of several of their remarks which manifested considerable acuteness. They will not, however, cultivate the ground, or build houses and remain stationary, or even take the trouble of tending a flock of sheep when given to them.
Page 200 - ... surprising success. After the edges are fitted together, holes of about threeeighths of an inch in diameter are bored a hand-breadth apart in them, having an oblique direction inwards, so as to have their outlet in the flange : the holes in the edge of the opposite board are made to answer these exactly. A white pitch from the bread-fruit tree, prepared with an extract from the cocoa-nut kernel, is spread uniformly on both edges, and over this a strip of fine masi is laid, which is burnt through...