| OCR Text |
Show Man and Nature In Early Utah Ralph V. Chamberlin University of Utah Among more advanced peoples the environment 'is only par tially determinative; here it provides opportunities which are used as desired or as special difficulties present themselves. With peoples lower in cultural development, however, the environment is more definitely restrictive and is at the root of the problem of the rise of each distinct culture or civilization. Thus, the climatic condi tions prevailing in the arctic region obviously prevent agriculture. As a result the inhabitants are forced to exist by fishing and hunt ing and to live in well separated communities of small size. Other , regions by supplying abundantly certain kinds of food have more less determined the life and culture of the inhabitants. In illus tration may be mentioned the case of the buffalo of the Great Plains; the salmon of the Northwest Coast; the wild rice of' the Great Lakes region, giving name to the Menominee Indians, who so thoroughly exploited this plant; the acorn in California; and the pine-nut in parts of the Great Basin; and maize, upon the cultivation of which the great civilizations of Peru, Central America and Mexico primarily rested. In addition to the principal plants grown by the more civi lized peoples, various other plants growing in their areas had been brought under cultivation and, over a long period of time gradu ally modified' from the wild forms. The extent of this modifica tion gives strong evidence that agriculture is a much more ancient art in America than in the eastern hemisphere. While in all parts of America agriculture, where practiced; was based upon the same plants and constituted a single system which was obviously de veloped in and transferred from one primary center of domestica tion, in every area the primary or basic plants were supplemented by products indigenous to that area. In the Great Basin the Indians practiced an agriculture, bor rowed from peoples to the south, but only to a very limited extent, although maize, beans and gourds were grown in some localities, as far north as the Deep Creek or Ibapah valley. Primarily they were dependent upon a great variety of wild seeds, roots and other plant products, the possibilities of which had been learned em pirically in a struggle for existence extending over many centuries, a struggle very severe because of the narrow margin of' subsistence provided in this region: These Indians lived largely in scattered and mostly small bands the members of whcih knew thoroughly or . ' 3 |
