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Show LXII ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR types and that the latter produced the forms and ornamentation of earthenware. That the forms and ornaments were reproduced strictl)' through the effect of custom and association is shown by an amount and kind of concurrent evidence never before so well presented. It is equally remarkable and well established that the most aesthetically beautiful of the forms have been produced merely from the absolute requirements of manufacture, and also that many designs, apparently purely ornamental and symbolic, owe their origin to necessity and servile imitation. Mr. Cushing agrees with the other authors of the papers in this volume in his warning against the attribution of symbolism without special evidence. While it is shown by him that symbolism exists among the modern Zufti, it is also clear that they have applied symbolic as well as emblematic ideas to designs which at first had no significance. That ascertained fact alone should prevent an attempt at symbolic interpretation when not indicated in any other manner than by the figures themselves. Since no subjective principle has had an important influence upon form and ornament, their development being thoroughly objective, its history can be traced with far more certainty than was once supposed. The archaeologist can be guided by the indications which form and ornament afford with as much accuracy as by any particulars of material, construction, and function, with which they are closely connected and which they explain. From th e studies so far made in the ceramic art of the North American Indians, it seems possible to deduce general laws applicable to the study of pottery wherever found, and to discover what were the types of the pre- ceramic vessels, thereby deriving information as to the environment of their makers before the latter had acquired the potter's art, and therefore anterior to the period of any relics. Thus their lost history may, to a certain extent, be recovered. Such laws will assist the archaeologists of the Old World, where the relics yet found of a corresponding culture period have been less numerous and certainly afford a less continuous history and explanation. |
