TITLES AND ABSTRACTS OF DISSERTATIONS IN ANTHROPOLOGY

With thus issue the' Kroeber Anthropological Society Ppes begin
the publication of titles and abstracts of M. A. and Ph. D.' disserta-
tions in anthropology.  Our purpose is to make these sources of------

information known to research workers, thus aiding in the communication'
of data and in the avoidance of needless duplication'of research effort.
We -offer in` this issue abstracts of Ph. D. dissertations submitted at
the University of California at Berkeley during the years 1946-1949.

Subsequent issues will contain abstracts of more recent dissertations
from this institution, plus listings of the titles of M. A. and Ph. D.
theses from other institutions where these degrees are granted in

anthropology. The information is available to us through the coopera-
tion of institutions who have replied to our recent questionnaire; the

Papers will continue to publish such information as it becomes available
to us.

THE CULTURAL AFFILIATIONS OF THE GILL AND COLORADO

RIVER TUMANS

Kenneth M. Stewart

The River Yumans have long appeared rather unique culturally,

and divergent from other Californians and Southwesterners. The present
study was undertaken with the dual aim of illuminating the cultural

position of the River Yumans with reference to neighboring areas, and
of formulating conclusions or hypotheses relative to the course of
historical development of River Yuman culture.

The procedure was one of comparative analysis of the component

elements of River Yuman culture, with subsequent classification of the
traits as River Yuman specialties, as linking with one or more of the

adjacent areas, or as non-diagnostic.   A comparison of the totality of
River Yuman culture with representative tribes of adjacent areas was

also made, with the objective of arriving at a qualitative estimate of
the affiliations of River Yuman culture.

It was concluded that River Yuman culture represents an agglomer-
ation of.elements from diverse sources, which reached them at differ-
ent periods in their history.   These traits were incorporated and
integrated into River Yuman culture,' with some changes of form or-
function, and they were recipient of the distinctive aspect of the
River Yuman culture pattern.

The following may be tentatively suggested as the course of

River Yuman development. The ultimate provenience of the River Yumwna
is still uncertain, but it is clear that theyr share in a substratum

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of culture common to all parts of the delimited area.   Subsequent
cultural developments resulted in the overlay of another stratum,

shared by the River Yumans, Southern Californians, Basin Shoshoneans,
and Upland Arizona Yumans, with the Pimans as partial participants.

Mexican elements reached the River Yumans from Sonora, although
not at a single period in River Yuman history, nor as the result of

a ingle culture wave. Detached-elements of culture have reached the
River Yumans from all directions, but the time of addition to the
culture stock is indeterminate   Some traits are attributable to

Southern California, fewer to the Pimans and to the Basin, and a min-
imum to the Apaches, Pueblos, and southern Sierra Nevadans.   River

Yuman specialties have not diffused beyond the immediately neighbor-
ing tribes.

The'study indicates that the River Yumans, rather than being a

people of basically alien cultures are fundamentally just what their

geographical position would lead us to expect-a people participating
in a basic culture common to Southern California, the Basin, and the

Rancheria peoples.  The Mexican element in River Yuman-culture, while
important and well-integrated, is not of a basic nature, and has

every appearance of being an addition' to the River Yuman stock of

culture.  It is considered probable, then, that the River Yumans have
been in their present habitat for a considerable period.

JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN THE UNITED STATES, 1940-1946:

A Study in Acculturation

Robert F. Spencer

The continuous first-hand contact between the prevailing Anglo-
American culture of the United States and that brought to America by
various immigrant groups has made imperative the gradual adjustment
of the latter to the culture patterns of the majority. When an

immigrant group is relegated to the status of a dominated minority,'
as may occur when racial considerations deter complete assimilation,
there is a reluctance to abandon the mores of the mother culture.

The Japanese immigrant in America, barred from United States citizen-
ship, subject to mistrust and suspicion on the part of his neighbors,
has attempted to recreate in the new cultural environment the fam-

iliar ways of the homeland. But efforts in this direction have been
subject to modification. Anglo-American culture with its emphasis

on individual initiative has tended to disrupt the spirit of coopera-
tion'which is so marked a feature of native Japanese culture.   More-
over, as the descendants of immigrants attain their majority, they

tend to adjust more readily to the new cultural milieu and are prone
to view with some impatience the failure of the alien to dissociate
himself from his more familiar native ways. Among the Japanese-
Americans, as among any immigrant group, conflicts between the

immigrant generation and its descendants arise on the basis of the

respective adherence of each group to old and newr patterns of culture.

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An example of an established old world complex which has become
subject-to modification in a new cultural scene appears in Japanese
Buddhism, a faith to which about half of the Japanese-American

minority subseribes.  Before the recent war, the alien group had
retained Buddhism as. a sentimental link with the homeland.  The

American-born Japanese, lacking this motive, found in Buddhism a

social rather than an emotional outlet. The temple organization of

Japan gave way to a formalized "church," a congregational body'paral-
leling the forms of American Christianity. The priest became in.
effect a minister, Sunday Schools and Young Buddhist Associations
were established,-and a specific order of service formulated.   On

the informal side, the immigrant retained the native Buddhist prac-
tices of Japan: those concerned with death and the ancestral cult.

The process of acculturation in Japanese Buddhism in America

was accelerated as a result of the war. TheJapanese of the Pacific

Coast were evacuated from their homes and confined in special centers
administered by the federal government. As a result of enforced mass
migration and the war, the tie with Japan was severed. The Young
Buddhists began definite efforts to Americanize the church, to

institute English services, and to abolish the sectarian differences
which had existed before the war. In consequence, the Buddhist

church in the Japanese-American group of today, despite the continued
conflict between the generations, is being successfully divorced
from any connection with an alien culture.

HUPA EDUCATION:

A Study in Primitive Socialization and Personality Development

William J. Wallace

For many years students of culture and society ignored the

methods of child training used by primitive peoples. Early observers
of aboriginal life were unable to detect any system of guidance in
the tribes 'they visited; it seemed that so complete was the freedom

of juveniles that training was entirely lacking. Gradually, however,
it became evident that all societies, consciously or unconsciously,
prepare the young for adult life, and so childhood and education
among primitives became topics for serious investigation.

The methods used by the fupa Indians of northwestern California
to' introduce their boys and girls to the culture of the group are

examined here. The outstanding characteristics of this educational
system is the paucity of formalized instruction. Children learn

economic and industrial skills, tribal lore, social usages and multi-
tudinous other items with little or no tutoring.   By using ears and
eyes in observation of what goes on around them youngsters learn

what adults and other children do, how they behave and so on. They
imitate their actions in childhood games, and at an early age are

permitted to put knowledge to use by participating in adult activi-
ties.

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Instruction is given only when actually needed or if a particu-
lar'body'of kno'wledge is regarded as too' vital to be entrusted to

fortuitous' assimilation.  A feew crafts- are difficult to master merely
by observation, so a novice is given instruction. Etiquette and

moral principles are considered of such importance that training in
these is consciously fostered by verbal admonitions, moral tales and
myths.

In a sense, all members of the community act as instructors,

adults and other children serving-as models of observation and imita-
tion.  Because of their proximity, parents and older brothers and

sisters are seen and copied, more often so that most information and
attitudes are obtained from them.

Incentives for learning are few. Aside from supernatural or

ultimate compensation offered in tales, the only rewards are occasional
words of praise.  Sometimes pride or ambition is appealed to but

punishment is almost never employed to stimulate learning.   Actually,
few goads are needed because a child is eager to learn in order to
participate in group life.

There are numerous mechanisms which operate to fashion the per-
sonality structure, while at the same time fitting the individual

into his place in the community. A person brings into life certain
personality potentialities; training systematically narrows the

number of these by concentrating on a few, developing theme and sup-
pressing others.  In this way is erected a configuration of psychic
traits suitable for the peculiar conditions of Hupa life.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ESKIMO MYTHOLOGY

Frank J. Essene, Jr.

The Eskimo have long been cited as one of the few peoples whose
physical type, language, and culture are all basically unique.   Cul-
ture is much the broadest term of the three, including all artifacts
and the incorporeal things that exist only in man's mind. The

latter, usually called non-material culture, is less subject to the
limitations of physical environment.   It *as proposed to take one

phase of Eskimo non-material culture, mythology, and compare it with
the, mths of their neighbors. The degree to which Eskimo mythology
is distinctive would be indicative of the cultural uniqueness of the
Eskimo.

A more basic problem is the origin of Eskimo culture. Various
theories of Eskimo origins have been based on archeology or the

distributions of certain present-day culture traits. The archeolo-

gist is generally limited to a study of material culture; the culture
trait comparisons have covered only certain selected items. Eskimo
mythology, considered as a whole, should give some indication of the
p l ace whe re Es kimo cul ture ori ginate d.

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The mythology of the Indians of interior Canada, the Northwest

Coast`Indians, and the Northeast Asiatic tribes was compared with that
of the Eskimo.  The mythology of interior Canada was the most diver-
gent, indicating that Eskimo culture does not derive from this area.
The Northwest Coast Indians and the Northeast Asiatics shared a com-

mon foundation in mythology with all the Eskimo. Western Eskimo folk-
lore had many specific resemblances to Northwest Coast and Northeast
Asiatic mythology.

Regional differences must be recognized in general conclusions
about Eskimo mythology. The Central and Eastern Eskimo have a

sufficiently distinctive mythology to justify a separate culture area
for themselves. The Western Eskimo, however, would have to be

included in the Northwest Coast culture area if only their mythology
were considered. Recent diffusion of myths from the Northwest Coast
to the Western Eskimo best explains their many specific similarities.

The mythologic elements common to all the Eskimo, the Northwest
Coast, and Northeast Asia present a different picture. Resemblances

are in general non-specific, common elements usually appear in differ-
ent myths, and the accenting of motifs varies. Presumably, these

similarities derive from ancient times when these three peoples were
in somewhat intimate contact. The logical meeting ground would be
near the focal point of the three cultures, perhaps in Western

Alaska. The preponderance of widespread Old World motifs in the

myths common to the three cultures justifies the moving of this hypo-
thetical meeting ground westward into Northeast Asia.

Eskimo mythology has its primary affiliations in the Old World.
After the Eskimo migrated to the New World only the Western Eskimo

borrowed a significant amount of mythology from their neighbors. The
rest reworked old motifs into so many new combinations that a dis-
tinctive mythology was produced.

ABORIGINAL SKIN DRESSING IN WESTER NORTH AMERICA

Arden R. King

This dissertation is concerned with the distributional and

historical aspects of an important phase of American Indian material
culture: skin dressing. Because of the accessibility of a large

body of data for western North America in the Culture Element Distri-
bution' studies of the University of California the geographical scope
of the paper was confined to this area.

At the outset it must be recognized that the preparation of
skins in aboriginal America can- in no way be considered tanning,

since neither tannin nor mineral solutions were used. At best the
preparation of skins in this area can only be termed skin dressing
or skin curing.

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The general plan of the study followed these lines: a considera-
tion' of individual skin dressing traits and their distribution; the
determination of areal configurations of traits; a comparison of

western North America with other North American areas; and relation-
ship of ancient (archaeological) skin dressing to modern.

It was found that some traits had widespread, almost universal
distribution, while others were relatively restricted, due to local
specialization by geographical limitations or factors of diffusion.
A distributional review of traits revealed evidence of historical
stages.

In order to discover which of these were late and superimposed

upon those which were old, the age-area concept was employed. It was
assumed that traits widespread in western North America made up the
oldest skin dressing configuration; whereas restricted traits were
local specializations, or geographically determined, or additions

resulting from diffusion from other areas.   Through the use of archae-
ological inventories, certain skin dressing tools and techniques, such
as graining and smoking, were assigned historical position.

The use of the age-area concept was implemented by determining
the quantitative rank order of the skin-dressing areas in western

North America, in total traitso unimportant traits, and basic traits.
Unimportant traits were those which only a small uamber of the tribes
within a culture area possessed.   Basic traits were determined by

subtracting unimportant traits from total traits. The western areas
with the highest basic trait rank were those nearest the Northern
Plains and Interior Athapascan Area. These two areas had the most

complex skin dressing pattern in North America. They also possessed'
those traits which appear to have been late in western North America,
being, accordingly, additions to the basic pattern.

So far as there was evidence, archaeology corroborated the

assumption that widespread traits were the oldest.   Certain traits,
though appearing archaeologically in western North America, were
direct results of post-Columbian diffusion from the Plains.

As a result of the comparison of ethnographical and archaeologi-
cal traits and distributions, a sequence of three historical stages

was set up for skin dressing in western North America: Basic, (later)
Pre-Columbian, and Post-Columbian.

ABORIGINAL USE OF FISHERY RESOURCES IN

NORTHWESTERN NORTH AMERICA

Gordon W. Hewes

The use of fishery resources is examined to determine what

effects this long continued exploitation might have had upon the sub-
sequent commercial fishing industry of the same area. The subject is

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a case in which a natural biotic resource has been utilized through
a major cultural succession, whereby groups dependent on fishing for
subsistence were largely supplanted by a civilization with commercial
interests in the fisheries.

It has been generally held that the small native population of

this area could not have had much effect upon its enormous fish-stocks.
In this study we show that the aboriginal consumption of salmon, in

particular, was of considerable magnitude, and that it has had a sig-
nificant relation to the history of the commercial fishery.   For

centuries the natives utilized a substantial fraction of the annual

salmon runs. With the coming of white men in the late 18th and early
19th centuries, the native population declined drastically, and their
food demands decreased accordingly. Since salmon had been the staple
of most of the area, the stocks of salmon were able to recover some
of the abundance which had been lost as a result of centuries of

native fishing. A few decades of suspended fishing were sufficient

to account for part of the. phenomenal early growth of commercial sal-
mon fisheries after the introduction of canning in the 1860Js    On

almost every river in the area, the production curves climbed to great
peaks, only to decline despite increased expenditure of fishing labor.

Before dealing with these points, the subject of fishing is viewed
in relation to culture-history, ecology, geography   and wildlife

management.  The native fishing from California to the Mackenzie is

then described, in a series of integrated local or regional accounts.
A sketch of the development of the commercial fisheries follows.

The study concludes with tables of estimates of aboriginal

salmon consumption, with an estimated total for the area which amounts
to about 15 per cent of the present commercial catch.

Wider recognition of the effects of primitive subsistence activi-
ties on the abundance of wildlife in North America is advocated, to

combat a prevailing notion that this continent, prior to its settle-

ment by peoples of our dynamic civilization, was a primeval wilderness.

TEMPORAL AND AREAL RELATIONSHIPS IN CENTRAL

CALIFORNIA ACHOLOGY

Richard K. Beardsley

Systematic archeological excavations have been made in the

refuse heaps marking prehistoric Indian village sites in three areas
within a hundred mile radius of San Franciscos   along the shores of

San Francisco Bay, on the Marin County ocean coast to the north, and
in the lower Sacramento Valley to the east. Early studies of the

San Francisco Bay sites, undertaken before 1925, led to an estimate

of about four thousand years duration for the settlements which built
up these shell heaps, but failed to discern any significant evidence
of culture change during that period. But by 1939 the Sacramento

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Valley mounds were declared to represent three successive and distinct
periods of culture. To reconcile these conflicting interpretations,

this thesis presents evidence from Marin County coast sites, which are
analysed here for the first time, compares data from the Sacramento
Valley, and reexamines the archeological materials from the San

Francisco Bay area. This comparative analysis shows that all three
areas share the same succession of distinct culture horizons.

The Early Horizon, represented only by four sites partly covered
by Sacramento Valley silt, is best known from its burial type.

Burials were extended face down, accompanied by stone implements and
weapons, and specific types of shell ornament. The people depended
principally on hunting, supplementing this by fishing and gathering
plant foods.

The Middle Horizon is shared by all three areas. Its people
physically resemble those of Early Horizon and inherited certain

Early weapons and tool types. But they practised flexed burial and

introduced cremation in the Sacramento Valley; they possessed a greater
variety of bone implements and experienced more conflict than did their
predecessors. Their hunting and fishing equipment was much like Early,
yet they depended much more on seed and acorn gathering.

Late Horizon settlements are divisible into two phases. By the
beginning of the earlier phase, a change of population was completed
in the Sacramento Valley. The bow and small tipped arrow was intro-
duced along with other distinctive traits, especially elaboration of
shell ornament. Whereas Phase 1 is prehistoric, Phase 2 experienced
an early contact with Europeans in 1595 but continued with little

change into the nineteenth century. Flexed burial and cremation was
practised in all three areas during Late Horizon.

Secondary to the broadly uniform sequence of cultures are
regional variations, the most consistent of which is divergence

between coast and interior sites. Only one site, in the Sacramento
Valley, contains the full sequence of three horizons, but in most of

the San Francisco Bay and Marin County mounds, Middle Horizpn settle-
ments are capped by those of Late Horizon.   Present age estimates

are uncertain, but indicate that Early Horizon is likely to be several
thousand years old.

A CONPARISON OF THE FOLKLORE OF THE NORTHERN, SOUTHERN AND

PACIFIC ATIHBlSKANS: A STUDY IN STABILITY OF FOLKLORE

WITHIN A LINGUISTIC STOCK

Tamie Tsuchiyama

A comparative study of Athabaskan mythology was undertaken to

determine whether there was any folkloristic basis to the widespread
belief that the Athabaskan groups now located in the Southwest and in
Cal if ornia were once connected to the Athabaskan tribes in the

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Mackenzie Basin and that a migration occurred in a southerly
direction.

The atudy revealed eighteen similarities in folklore between

the northern and southern groups, seven between the southern and the
Pacific, and five between the northern and Pacific divisions. Of
these, only five or possibly seven tales among the Navaho and the

Apache could plausibly be utilized as indications of former contact

with their northern relatives.  These seven, moreover, had an extra-
Athabaskan distribution, so a more intensive investigation of the
folklore of the intervening tribes in the future might prove that

their presence in the Athabakan areas is due to importation from a
common source rather than to survival from an earlier period of
contact.

The study was of little assistance in indicating the direction

of migration of Athabaskan peoples. All of the southern Athabaskans,
with the exception of the Mescalero Apache, possessed elaborate

origin myths, but there was nothing in their mythology to suggest
migrations of a historical character. The Pacific Athabaskans

similarly expressed a firm belief in their ancestors' coming into
existence where they were residing at the time of White contact.

The degree of diversity in folklore between the three Athabaskan
groups was found to be considerably greater than that between them
and their non-Athabaskan neighbors. Two explanations were offered

for this marked instability of mythology within the Athabaskan stock:
(1) The original body of Athabaskan traditions was in all probability
an extremely meagre and colorless one. (2) A fairly rich mythology
was abandoned by the Athabaskans in the course of a general scramble
for whole-culture-types of higher prestige value.

The close uniformity of tales in the southern division as con-
trasted with the greater diversity in the Pacific and northern areas
indicated a more intimate contact of tribes in the south than in

the north and west.  This correlates with the recent linguistic dis-
covery that all southern Athabaskan dialects form a close-knit

dialectic unity in contrast to the more complex ramifications of the
Pacific and northern groups.

THE STRUCTURE OF TWANA CULTURE

William W. Elmendorf

Field data on the Twana Indians of western Washington, gathered
by the author in 1939 and 1940, are analysed to define features of

the culture of primary structural importance and to show interrela-
tions between these features in form and function. The analysis

defines and operates with elements, complexes, and temporal sequence
patterns of complexes. Attention is directed to elements shared byr
distinctd complexes, to substratum elements conceptually related to

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but not entering directly into certain complexes, and to the functior.
or cultural role of different complexes.

Topical categories are used for descriptive convenience, but the
analysis indicates that a linear arrangement of ethnographic topics

can not satisfactorily express the multiple relations among elements
and complexes. Degrees of resemblance between complexes in form and
function are therefore further indicated.

Certain structurally basic cultural features emerge from this

treatment. It is suggested that these features and their interrela-
tions not only reflect a sharply defined synchronic culture structure
but would permit a diachronic or historical interpretation if this

structure were compared with similar analyses of neighboring cultures.

Three kinds of social groups with special relations to geographic-
environment can be defined in territorial terms: the speech community,
the village community, and the community group. Other social group-
ings formed parts of all local communities; these included social
classes, kin groups, and occupation groups.

Three main expressions of hostility between social groups appear:
inter-community raiding, directed by warrior specialists; inter-

community malignant magic, directed by shamans; blood feuding, between
kin-group sections of different communities.

Principal features of religious culture were, in descending

order of pattern intricacy:  guardian spirit beliefs and practices,
including shamanism; souls; magic techniques; spiritual beings not
guardian spirits; and a series of poorly structured formulations
referring to cosmology, cosmography, luck, and omens.

Thirteen ceremonial complexes can be defined and classed by
criteria of sponsorship pattern, community setting, and function.

Eight distinct ceremonies fall under a basic sponsor-gift or "potlatch"
pattern.  One of these, a type of secret society initiation, shows

rked peculiarities of formal patterning and function suggesting its
historically recent incorporation into the culture.

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PREHISTORIC SKELETAL REMAINS

FROM THE LOWER SACRAMENTO VALLEY

Russell W. Newman

A collection of the skeletal remains of one hundred and forty

adult male individuals from the Central Valley of California was com-
pared and analyzed. The collection was divided into three series,

Early, Middle, and Late, corresponding to three sequential cultural

horizons established on archaeological evidence. Time estimates for
the combined duration of the three horizons range from approximately
twro thousand to over four thousand years. The series were analyzed

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statistically for significant metrical differences which were found

to begin a minority, approximately twenty per cent between the Early
and Middle horizons and between Middle and'Late, and thirty per cent
between Early and Late.  Observed changes in morphological observa-
tions largely paralleled the metrical differences.  Variability

showed no great contrast between the series. Post-cranial measure-
ments and observations were remarkably uniform. The crania were
segregated into six rough morphological types mainly on facial

characteristics.  These types were distributed in differing propor-
tions by horizon, and suggested tentative explanations for the

metrical and morphological changes between horizons. A brief and
coarse grouping of skeletal pathology indicated a slightly greater
incidence of pathological occurrences in the later periods.

Each of the three horizons was compared statistically with

certain other cranial series by means of the Reduced Coefficient of

Racial Likeness. The lowest coefficient to the Early Series was with
the Pre-Koniag crania from Kodiak Island. The Middle Series showed
the greatest number of low coefficients  resembling most closely

series from the San Joaquin Valley, San Francisco Bay, Fecos Pueblo,
and Pre-Koniag.  The Late Series was closest to those of the San
Joaquin Valley, Pecos Pueblo, and Pre-Koniag.

The metrical and morphological differences observed between the
horizon series indicate a partial replacement of population from
horizon to horizon. The evidence from the morphological typing

favors the hypothesis that each horizon may have seen a new group
enter the area and mix with the preceding people. This new group

remained a minority of the population in the next horizon. The most
comon group in the Early horizon was a large, broadfaced cranial
type whose predominance was succeeded in the Middle horizon by a

long and relatively narrow-faced type. This in turn was succeeded
by a broader-headed, less rugged, round-vaulted cranial type in the
Late horizon.

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