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Show i3o BASIS OF AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1800 pascan family; indeed, the present state of California is characterized by a hodge- podge of linguistic stocks, which a glance at the linguistic map will make evident. v The physical type of California, if it be proper to spfeqk of such, seems to be something intermediate between the coarse coast features and the finer facial make- up of the southwest.\ The extreme southern part of the state is occupied by Shoshonean and Yuman tribes, the former belonging to the culture of the western plateau and the latter to the southwestern peoples in general. Recent researches1 show that the twenty- one linguistic families of California ( exclusive of Yuman) fall into three groups, on a basis 6f grammatical affinities, and that this classification is corroborated to a certain extent by differences of culture in the groups in question. The northwestern group of five small stocks differs from the others in the character of its art, the extensive use of canoes, the importance of salmon as an article of food, the development of ideas of property and their influence on social conditions, and the character of ceremonials, myths, and religious conceptions. N The central group is quite sharply marked off from the northwestern in point of culture; and the character and quest of the food supply must be regarded as the determinant factor/- The tribes of 1 Dixon and Kroeber, " The Native Languages of California" ( American Anthropologist, N. S„ V., 1 flf.). |