CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: III AREA AND CLIMAX BY A. L. KROEBER UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS IN AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY Volume 37, No. 3, pp. 101-116 2 tables, 4 maps UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 1936 UNIVERSITY o0 CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA CAMBRDGE UNIvERSITY PRESS LONDON, ENGLAND Issued September 25, 1936 Price, 25 cents PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OP AMERIOA CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: III AREA AND CLIMAX BY A.L.KROEBER THis PAPER is related to those of Klimek and Gifford which precede it in this volume in that it deals with minimal defiLnable elements of culture. It is dis- similar in that the distribution of these is not localized in minimal ethnic or tribal units. Although published later, it is a historical antecedent. In 1928 I was examining the correspondence of natural areas-climatic, ecological, life-zonal, and so forth-with areas of native culture in Califor- nia. The problems led me into the wider data of the cont'inent. As a result I completed a monograph on the Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America, which is still, and somewhat uncertainly, awaiting publication. (The more detaided investigation of California may or may not seem worth resum- ing in future.) As part of it I had compiled a list of eight hundred culture traits or elements occum'ng in native California, with their approximate geographical distribution in terms of culture areas. It was obvious that a distribution in terms of smaller units, "tribes" or ethnie groups, would be far more exact. But the data on this basis were far from complete at the time; the labor of assembling them from the literature was considerable; and their significance to the problem then be'lng inquired into was not certain. Accord- ingly the more detailed task was deferred, and the distributions noted for elements were expressed more roughly in terms of culture areas and the climax and subelimax or marginal parts of areas. When, some five years later, Klimek visited the University for the purpose of making a statistical study of the distribution of elements, this "rough" list of eight hiindred elements served as a point of departure in the preparation of his more accurate list with precise tribal distributions. In this preparation, the list shrank from its original volume, mainly' because for nearly haH of the elements the recorded precise localizations were too few for satisfaetory statistical treatment. Since then, Gifford and others have again expanded the list a-s a basis for new systematic field inquiry. One purpose and result of Klimek's work was the establishment of culture areas on an objective, inductive basis. Those determined by him agree fairly with those previously formulated by myself subjectively, on the basis of prolonged if unsystematic experience, and set forth in the Handbook of California Indians. However, the culture areas in terms of which I classified elements in 1928 differed somewhat from those in the Handbook. First, the boundaries were somewhat altered in detail, and a new Northeast California axea was carved out of the older Central California or stiR larger California-Great Basin area. [101] 102 University of California Publications in Am. Arch. and Ethn. Second, the culture foci or climaxes were now territorially expressed in terms of groups or tribes instead of points on the map. It is therefore necessary to define the areas as here dealt with, and their climaxes. Northwest, Climax: Yurok, Hupa, Karok. Subclimax and Margin: Tolowa, Wiyot, Shasta, Chimariko, Athabascans except Hupa and Kato. Northeast: Modoc, Achomawi, Atsugewi. Central, Climax I: Pomo of Clear lake and Russian river. Climax II: Patwin, Maidu, and Nisenan of Sacramento river. Remainder: Kato, Yuki, Coast Yuki, Coast Pomo, (Central) Wintun and (Northern) Wintu, Mountain and Foothill (NE and upper NW) Maidu, Foothill Nisenan, all Miwok (Sierra, Plains, Lake, Coast), all Yokuts, Western Mono, Tiibatulabal, Ka- waiisu, Kitanemuk Serrano, Salinan, Esselen, Costano. Related, but not included: Basin-and-Range peoples, namely, N. Paiute, Washo, E. Mono ("Owens Valley Paiute"), Koso-Panamint, Chemehuevi. South, Climax I: Coast and Island Chumash, Island Gabrielino. Climax II: Mainland Gabrielino, Juaneflo, Luiseflo. Subelimax: Interior Chumash, all Serrano except Kitanemuk, all Cahuilla, Cupenlo, Dieguefno (and Kamia). Lower Colorado River: Yuma, Mohave (and formerly Halchidhoma).1 The element list itself is not reproduced here. It would fill a signature of presswork. It is on file for reference; and it has been included in a card cata- logue of the growing list of elements on which field data are being obtained. From here on, the text is as written in 1928, except for some alterations and condensations, and the addition of sections on musical styles and general inferences. Tables 1 and 2 summarize the results of the compilation of distributions. The outstanding result is the preponderance of traits distributed conform- ably to culture areas. Distributions covering areas, partial areas, or combina- tions of areas constitute three-fourths of the total: 605 out of 806. If this seems too liberal a construal of conformable distributions, the distributions expressible in terms of two or more areas and those limited to nonfocal parts can be excluded and there will still remain a substantial majority for the con- formable ones. Trait distributions substantially coinciding with the recog- nized culture areas aggregate 230; those essentially limited to the recognized foci or climaxes of single areas number about the same, or 232; total, 462, as against 344 of all other kinds. Of particular significance is the disproportion between the two kinds of distributions limited to parts of areas: climactic, 225 (232, less 7 duplica- tions); subelimactic or marginal, 89. The culture centers thus seem to contain between two and three times as many peculiar traits as the noncentral parts of the same areas. In other words, traits are more often than not characteristic either of whole culture areas (or still larger territories) or of their focal parts alone. Another comparison can be made between distributions limited to areas or parts of areas and those exceeding areas: 230, 225, 89, total 544, as against 54, 143, 58, total 225. The latter figure is somewhat too high at that, because it 1 This classildcation is slightly altered in the unpublished monograph on North America. 190 ~~~~P. Wrzecionko Vernunft und Wahrheit im Denken der Sozinianer19 191 Vernunft und Wahrheit im Denken der Sozinianer mus, in einem ausgewogenen Ineinander. Metaphysik ist hier, u. zw. durchweg, Wissenschaft vom Sein, sofern es Sein in jedem einzelnen Seienden ist. Einerseits wird also - mit Aristoteles - die metaphysishie Aussage durdh die Sinne eingeleitet, andererseits erhebt sie sich aber auch - gegen Aristoteles und mit der Scholastik - kraft der Evidenz der so erschlossenen Prinzipien iiber jede Gewigheit der Erfahrung. Das meta- physische Denken hat also nicht nur eine nominale Potenz und Evidenz, es betrifft immer auch eine reale Wirklichkeit und hat an dieser teil. Darum mug diese Metaphysik, wenn es um die konkrete Spezifizierung der Begriffe geht, trotz des souveranen Denkens der das Sein selbst be- treffenden Zusammenhainge - z. B. beim Problem des unum, verum, bonum, standig auch auf die konkrete Vielfalt des Seienden - z. B. bei den Begriffen Substanz-Akzidenz - zuriickgreifen. Darum ist es auch nicht verwunderlich, daf3 das von Suarez noch postulierte, nur im Den- ken wirkliche Sein - ens rationis - von der altprotestantischen Schul- philosophie weitgehend abgelehnt wird. Diese Deutung des Verhaltnisses von Induktion und Deduktion gilt also fur die Schulphilosophie insgesamt. Die Unterschiede liegen nur in der Anordnung und in Akzenten. Martini z. B. geht vom )>formal ge- dachten und objektiven<< Sein selbst aus, um erst dann die Spezifika des Seienden auf Begriffe zu bringen. Scheibler wiederum befaL3t sich von vornherein mit den konkreten Gestalten des Seins in ihrem Werden - daher die Begriffe aktuell-potentiell, vollstindig-unvollstindig, essentia- existentia; und Buddaus, einer der letzten, differenziert die Begriffe nur nocli nach den einzelnen Disziplinen der Erkenntnistheorie, Anthropolo- gie, Physik, Kosmologie und Theologie. Beriucksichtigt man jetzt dieses an der Schulphilosophie erhellte Ver- haltnis zwischen der Induktion und Deduktion, wird schon deutlich, warum und inwiefern die Orthodoxie ihre eigenen Begriffssysteme hat, die von den Sachproblemen des Glaubens und der Theologie her er- schlossen werden und nur fur diese gelten. Bei den einen - besonders bei Gerhard, aber auch bei Konig, Baier und Buddaus - tritt der Unter- scllied bzw. Gegensatz zur philosophischen Begrifflichkeit starker hervor als bei den anderen - z. B. bei Calov; die Tendenz zur in der Sache der Theologie begriindeten begrifflichen Eigenst'andigkeit ist jedoch allen gemeinsam. Die Kontinuitat der intellektuellen Dimension wird dadurch naturlich grundsatzlich nicht aufgehoben; ihre Prinzipien und vor allem deren Zusammenhang werden aber dem Thema entsprechend jeweils anders bzw. immer neu bestimmt. Die ?ratio rectao - und das konnen wir auch auf die Theologie beziehen - ?enthaIlt< somit immer nur das, >>was innerhalb der Grenzen ihres Objekts<( liegt. Darum ist zwischen dem- jenigen, ?was zur klaren Offenbarung und dem reinen Glauben? gehort, und demjenigen, ?was die Objekte der scharfsinnigen ratioo betrifft, 193 unterscreiclen. intelleKtuelle i&ontinuitat unci prinzipielle zur Offenbarung gehort, ist durch die ratio nicht zu diskutie- 1es liegt ?jenseits des Logos<<, als auch der Satz: >>die ratio ihrer Sphaire widerspricht nidit der Schrift<<66. tiesem Ansatz aus ist es der Orthodoxie uiberzeugend gelungen, )nalisierung der Theologie zu entgehen, die im Rahmen der an as V S ihrer vertreter vorgetalSter ellektuelles Ausdrucksmittel rom Heiligen Geist in den id seine eigenen Prinzipien heologie fur die Orthodoxie ia ectypos, dile jed och unter Iiluber ihre >>habituell-kon- ni Heiligen Geist dem Men- ngten GewifLheit der kiaren ufgrund der geschichtlichen bui% *S 1_ oamatica Ko3ni Ind Zuordnunsg 1logie, oeaing j LLL? : jeaer i neoioge mun zunacnsr seine x-anae in aer fleiiKoniscfen yueiie losophie waschen, bevor er in das H-eiligtum der Theologie eintritt. :niszitat). Culture Elem. Di.strib. III. Kroeber:- Area and Climax10 area, comprising the Northern Paiute, Washo, "Eastern" Mono, Koso-Pana- mint, and perhaps Chemehuevi. Indicators of climax: cutlts.-The matter of weighting of culture material, especially its systematized organization, deserves attention with relation to climaxes. For instance, cult developments may weigh lightly in a statistical I ~~~Solid: Northwestern -~~~ Dashed: "Central"y Hatched: Southern Cross-hatched: "Yuman," ------- ~~~~S. intensification -3 -9 Z- ----9 z Map 4. Musical styles. consideration. One group may possess much of the ceremonial apparatus and many of the specific beliefs of another, plus certain of its own, and yet have left these elements unsystematized to a much greater degree. Such a differ- ence might show little in a purely quantitative computation of elements; yet the system which the one group possesses and the other lacks certainly has a significance also. In decorative art and music a definitel y developed style is more or less the counterpart of formal organization in religion; and the same holds of organization in the intellectual, social, and political fields. In all 109 200 ~~~Werner Wiesner 200 Culture lemn. Distrib. . Kroeber: Area and ClimaxC1su Within the Southern California region this "normal" form and the "Chun- gichnish" cult are distinguishable, the latter adding to the normal form the supreme or punishing god Chungichnish and certain rituals.10 According to the Indians themselves, the Chungichnish cult spread from the Gabrielino of Catalina island as far as the Luiseino and, within the historic period, to at least some of the Diegueiio. The deity concept suggests Christian influence; but since the source locality is indicated as a native culture focus on other grounds, including archaeological evidence, it is not unlikely that some germ of this cult form was in existence before the coming of the Spaniards. This gives, then, three stages of toloache cult: toloache-taking, toloache initiation, and Chungichnish-toloache initiation. The exact distribution of these three stages cannot yet be given; in fact, for some tribes the necessary information can probably never be obtained. On the m,ap, therefore, the substantially full Chungichnish cult has been denoted by solid shading, but hatching indicates known occurrences of abbreviated forms of this, as well as of non-Chungichnish toloache-drinking by groups of youths. Tribes in the white areas within the enclosing line actually or pre- sumably used toloache with religious significance, but data are insufficient for classification. The sporadic taking of toloache by individuals for their per- sonal benefit, as, for example, by the more interior Cahuilla, several Yuman tribes, and some of the Pueblos, has not been counted in for entry on the map.' The dream-myth singings in their fully specialized form prove to be re- stricted to the Yuman tribes on the Colorado river. Neighbors to the east and west, like Walapai, Yavapai, Chemehuevi, Serrano, Desert Cahuilla, and more westerly Cahu.illa have sometimes borrowed certain of these song series, usually without the peculiar mythological-shamanistic context. The Yuman river tribes simply reckon song cycles of their neighbors as equivalent to their own, although their context, function, and setting appear to be pretty thor- oughly different. It is true that there is evidence of historical connection be- tween the river Yuman and alien song cycles; but our concern here is with specialization definable enough for distinct classification. These corrections of the earlier data clarify the picture, for the following reasons: the four most organized or specialized cult systems of California are found to have no territorial overlap; they are probably in the main not even in territorial abutment; and usually they grade into stages of intensification which show climax and sometimes subclimax and marginal distribution. The cult climaxes coincide closely with those determined on the broader basis of wealth of elements in the total culture. The inference is that cult specializa- tion by itself is an excellent indicator of total degree of culture specialization or climax in native California-and perhaps elsewhere. The obverse of this situation is presented by the distribution of forms of the girls' puberty rite. This is universal in California and for long distances east and north. The usual form includes a dance or other public perform- 10 The Yunish matakish, for instance, perhaps also the Notush and Wanawut. Handbook, 668-677. "1The fullest of the recent data are by Strong, Aboriginal Society in Southern California, UO-PAAE 26:31, 116, 173, 258, 309, 1929. ill Wer ist Jesus Christus?20 201 Culture Elem. Distrib. III. Kroeber: Area and Climax versus Diegueiio 97 and 64; where the low-figure generalized tribes are as marginal, so far as reference is made to the political state boundary, as the high-figure specialized ones. This computation has the virtue of statistical objectivity almost to the point of being mechanical. It disregards what may be the fundamental patterns of a system, and regards only discrete, definable details. In spite of therefore almost certainly counting in a fair number of "accidentals," it ends, however, by defining climaxes of specialization almost exactly as they are defined by intuitive "subjective" consideration of basic pattern. Thus, one of the most highly characterized kinds of kinship in America is what Spier has called the "Yuman type"; and within the range of this, at any rate within California, the Yuma and Mohave show the type most clearly. The Southern California systems obviously adhere more or less to this "Yuman" type or pattern, but less markedly. In the Northwest, I have recently showpI that the Wiyot and Yurok systems are fundamentally of the highly specialized coastal "Salish type," although somewhat altered, and that they have imparted a smattering of traits expressive of this type to the neighboring systems which are mainly "non-Salish." In all Central California, the Patwin system stands out as pos- sessing the smallest number of terms, and therefore as automatieally making the greatest number of classificatory reductions or consolidations. In short, whether we make a discrete-element or point count, as Gifford did, or evaluate kinship systems according to the degree to which they show a coherent, characterizable pattern or "style," we come to approximately the same result. And this result tallies closely with the climaxes inferred from aggregate wealth of elements in the total culture of comparable tribes. More- over, where the climax is strong-Yurok-Karok, Yuma-Mohave, Chumash- Gabrielino-the kinship specialization is marked. Where the climax is but feebly elevated over its surroundings-Pomo, Patwin-the measure of kin- ship specialization is only moderate, though still evident. Music.-Such evidence as we have on song styles, sketchy as it is, points generally to special developments in some of the same climax areas. A "Yuman musical style" has been defined by Herzog.1' Closely allied variants of this style occur on the one hand among the Pima, on the other in Southern Califor- nia: the area of highest characterization seems to have been on the lower Colo- rado. North of Tehachapi, the structure of native songs is obviously simpler, and a relatively uniform style seems to prevail over most of California and probably Nevada. We have as yet no definition based on technical analyses. But in all the songs heard by ethnologists, and phonographically preserved, no one has yet noted any outstanding qualities distinctive of a tribe or area. We may therefore assume that, while regional stylistic differences undoubt- edly exist, they are minor; and that if there is a peak of specialization, whether among Pomo or Patwin or elsewhere, it is at best a moderate one. In the north- west, however, a different style is patent: the voice is often held whiningly plaintive, the volume swings back and forth between forte and piano instead of being kept relatively constant, and there are long descending pitch glides. 17JAFL 41:183-231, 1928. 113 The effect certainly is that of a deliberate endeavor to exrpress a mood or feel- ing tone; and there can be little doubt that anaLlysis will show a structure dif- ferent from that of the music of most of California. The indicated situation thus is: a simply characterized musical style with- out notable regional variation in the Central, Northeastern, and G#reat Basin areas; a more developed one in the Southern and ILower Colorado regions, with heaviest accentuation probably in the latter; and another but differently developed one in the Northwest among the nearer neighbors of the Yurok. At least two of our four foci of specialization are therefore agailn represented. Inferences.-The principles involved in the concept of sensitive indicators of degree of culture intensification can perhaps be clarified by aqn illtistration from our own civilization. The per capita wealth of Massachusetts is presum- ably greater than that of Mississippi. In the number of persons per million owning a hundred thousand dollars, the dispaxity between the two states is greater; for those worth a million, still greater; for twenty-five or a hundred millions, it may be complete, since Miss'iss'ippi probably possesses no such for- tunes. In education, literacy is again higher in Massachusetts, but the differ- ence is not very notable, the United States generally being essentially literate. The difference would be accentuated progressively as one considered respec- tively the proportionate number of high-school students, of bachelor's de- grees, of doctors of philosophy, of names included in American Men of Sci- ence, a.nd of scholars of international reputation. A similarly ascending scale of disparity would be evident if one compaxed, say, Paris and Auvergne for the proportions of population who had had drawing instruction, who pro- fessed to be artists, who had exrhibited, and who had won prizes. As for the fact of participation in the content or substance of a given civilization, the lower grades evidently give the most truthful result. When the problem is the degree of participation in the more intensive manifestations of a ci-viliza-- tion, the higher grades are the more useful criterion. It is evident that what we are here dealing with in native C:alifornia, on however lowly a scale, has a parallel in one or the other of two types of sit- uation familiar in culture history. One of these is the fairly persistent center of civilization as against its hinterland: India in relation to Tibet, Greece to Thrace, Western Europe to Russia. The other is the nearly contemporaneous flowering of several or many civilizational activities among one people, or in one area, within a brief period: Greece from 500 to 200 B.C., for instance, or the Italia:n Renaissance. We have no time data for the California Indians, so cannot be certain whether the Yurok, Pomo, Chumash, Yuma culture develop- ments were of the type of a fairly permanent precedence or of a transient florescence. What archaeology has contributed suggests the former. In any event, we are dealing with a climax- whether the distribution of this be ex- pressible chiefly in space or in terms of both space and time. Such a climax is likely to be defined by two characteristics: a larger content of culture; and a more developed or specialized organization of the content of the culture-in other words, more numerous elements, and more sharply exrpressed and interrelated patterns. These two properties are likely to go 114 University of California Publications in Am. Arch. and Ethn. Culture Elem. Di8trib. III. Kroeber: Area and Climax 115 hand in hand. A greater content calls for more definite organization; more organization makes possible the absorption of more content. Hence, to a certain degree, and within a given field, the recognition of above-average development in one respect should establish a presumption of above-average development in the other also. The purpose of the present essay is to show that a culture climax determined on a basis merely of generalized experience, relatively unsystematically acquired and necessarily more or less subjectively tinged, can be corroborated, with regard to relative wealth of content, by an element count; and that the localizations thus arrived at tend to coincide with localized concentrations of pattern development, whether the patterns be expressed in system organizations or in styles. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ABBREVIATIONS USED UC-PAAE University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology JAFL Journal of American Folk-Lore