German Anthropological Papers

Abstract

THE two volumes, xciii. and xciv., of Globus for 1908 are especially interesting for the numbers of papers dealing with South American ethnography. The more important of these are:—Dr. T. Koch-Griinberg's articles on fishing and hunting among the natives of north-west Brazil, in which the implements employed are fully and carefully illustrated; the arrow release is described, and details given of large communal fish-traps and private tackle, the blow-pipe, arrow-poison, and a variety of weapons in use on the Upper Amazon tributaries. G. von Koenigswald's series of papers on certain tribes of southern Brazil deal somewhat briefly with the Boto-cudos, and more exhaustively with the Cayuas, a nomadic hunting tribe of the Guarani family. Weapons, lip-ornaments, physical types, and other points are figured. Freiherr von Nordenskiöld contributes an account, with carefully executed figures, on tobacco-pipes of South America. He concludes that they occurred sporadically before the Discovery. The tubular pipe, the most primitive form, is discussed and compared with the North American Varieties. H. Beyer gives an account of the Mexican “dragon,” in which he states that the god Quetzalcoatl, who is identical with Xiuhcoatl, is represented not only as human, but as a feathered snake. He is the most important deity in Mexico. The feathered snake was probably a sign of the ecliptic or of the zodiac, and Quetzalcoatl would thus be not only the deity of time, but also, like Xiuhcoatl, the symbol of the year.