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Social Organization of the Northern Tungus with Introductory Chapters concerning

Geographical Distribution and History of These Groups by S. M. ShirokogoroffReview by: I. A. LopatinAmerican Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1931), pp. 637-639Published by: Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/661030 .

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BOOKREVIEWS 637Nesbitt's judgment that the Mimbres people came from the south is at variancewith Kidder's opinion that they were "a highly specialized off-shoot from the north-ern Pueblo stem." In this the reviewer is again in agreement with Kidder. The

corrugated ware and black-on-white technique are of northern provenience and donot belong to the south.An interesting correction of previous views of Mimbres culture is made by Nes-bitt's determination of the random clusters of houses without presence of courts andof the absence of houses of more than one story. No trade ware from the apparentlycontemporaneous neighboring red-on-buff country is reported. Metates are thinnerand smaller than with their western neighbors and the workmanship of the celtsappears decidedly inferior. The data presented in this monograph form a welcomeaddition to the literature on the southern periphery of Pueblo culture.CARLSAUER

ASIASocial Organizationof the Northern Tungus with IntroductoryChaptersConcerningGeographicalDistribution and History of These Groups. S. M. SHIROKOGOROFF.(Shanghai, China: The Commercial Press, Ltd., 1929. xIv+427 pp.; 7 maps; 5ills.; 14 tables. $10.00.)

In this paper Mr. Shirokogoroffhas brought together in systematic treatmentthe essence of all his numerous studies on the Tungus. He is a man of considerableerudition and an outstanding authority on Tungus anthropology. For five years hemade a first-hand study both of the physical type and the culture of the Tungus ofEastern Siberia and the Russian Far East. This field research work was undertakenunder the auspices of the Russian Committee for the Exploration of Middle andEastern Asia (three expeditions into Transbaikalia in the years 1912 and 1913), andthe Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg (travels in Mongoliaand Manchuria from 1915 to 1917).The parts of the work are: Introduction; Primary Milieu; Tungus Adaptation;Geographical Distribution and Classification of the Northern Tungus Group andtheir Relations with Neighbors; The Tungus Clans and Notes on the History of theTungus; Clan Organization and Functions; Marriage; Family Organization andFunctions; Property and Associations; Social Customs and General Characteristicsof the Tungus; Supplementary Notes; Glossary; List of Works mentioned in thisStudy; Indexes.The most interesting and at the same time the most debatable chapters of thisbook are those dealing with the classification of the Tungus groups and the historyof their formation and migrations. There are two hypotheses on the origin of theTungus. The first, represented by most authors, looks upon Manchuria as theircradle, while Drs. P.P. Schmidt and J.D. Talko-Hryncewicz, advocating the secondhypothesis, place this somewhere in Northwestern Mongolia. Dr. Schmidt's theoryis especially valuable because he points to the country south of the Altai as the orig-inal home of the Turko-Mongol-Tungus, who, according to him, sprang from a

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638 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N s., 33, 1931common ancestry. Mr. Shirokogoroff disagrees with both these hypotheses and sug-gests as the original Proto-Tungus home some more southerly regions, i.e., Nor-thern and Central China, on the middle and partly the lower courses of the Yellowand Yangtze rivers. Here they are said to have lived in Stone Age conditions untilthey were drawn away by the Chinese, who spread from northwestern China intothe valley of the Yellow river. This might have happened, Mr. Shirokogoroffthinks,during the third millennium B.C.,or perhaps even earlier. The wave of the Chineseimmigrants, it is assumed, divided the mass of the Proto-Tungus into two parts, oneof which was pushed northward and the other southward. The latter joined theresome local aborigines who lived in an independent state as late as the end of theChou dynasty.

.. It is interesting o note that, according o the Manchus, he NorthernTunguslivingin Manchuria nd the populationof southernChinahavesomething n common. n fact, Ihave been mpressed eryoftenby seeingstrikinglyTungusphysiognomiesmongthesouth-ernChinese ndAnnamites.

The southern origin of the Tungus, Mr. Shirokogoroff thinks, is indicated bymany features. Thus Tungus clothing is not properly adapted to the climate ofSiberia.Theadaptationof the Tungus o the Siberian nvironment as also resultedn theiradoptingor inventingeye protectors,whichareabsolutelynecessaryorpeoplenot accustomed o thespring unlightsointenselyreflectedby the snow that theeyesareaffectedbypeculiarnflam-mationwhichsometimes astslongafterthe season s over. Another nterestingndicationasto the southernoriginof the NorthernTungusmaybe seen in theirpsychic nstability,and apredispositionor nervousandpsychic roubles.

As a matter of fact, Tungus clothing is not suitable for the severe Siberian cli-mate and resembles that of the Chinese in some ways, such as the apron, an over-coat of peculiar cut, and short trousers with knee protectors. But this may indicatethe strong influence of the more civilized Chinese upon the primitive Tungus nomatter where their motherland was. If the Proto-Tungus originated in northwesternMongolia, as Dr. Schmidt asserts, or in Manchuria according to other orientalists,the Tungus inevitably passed Manchuria before they spread widely throughoutSiberia; and in Manchuria they might have met the Chinese and borrowed theircostume. Mr. Shirokogoroff'sstrongest argument is the similarity in physical fea-tures of the Tungus and southern Chinese. If this holds, the hypothesis offeredbyMr. Shirokogoroff becomes quite probable. As to psychic instability (Arctic hys-teria) and eye protectors, these arguments are very weak. The Arctic environmentis so inhospitable that all the natives are subject to this nervous and psychic trouble.As for eye protectors, because of the great isolation in clear air the reflection of thesun's rays from the snow is so intense that it affects the eyes of any people, no matterwhether they are natives or immigrants. No adaptation is possible. Therefore, notonly the Tungus, but all the other natives of northeastern Asia have the eye pro-tectors.

There is still one point against the hypothesis offeredby Mr. Shirokogoroff.The

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BOOKREVIEWS 639Turks, Mongol, and Tungus seem to have a common origin. Mr. Shirokogoroff'sseparation of the Turko-Mongol motherland from that of the Tungus contradictsmany indications of physical as well as of cultural anthropology. In any case thehypothesis that the Tungus originated in the country occupied by northern andcentral China of today is very interesting but rather doubtful in the present state ofanthropological knowledge.Part 4 of the same chapter sets forth the author's views on the migrations of thenorthern Tungus. According to Shirokogoroff, the northern Tungus, after havingspread through eastern Siberia, migrated backward into Manchuria and the Rus-sian Far East. He asserts that there were four waves of the immigrants. The schemeof the secondary migrations is based upon the present geographical distribution ofthe Tungus clans, traditions, and certain very scarce historical records (analysis ofthe historic successions of groups and clans). Here the author again comes into acollision with the accepted classification at the present time. He refers the Oroche tothe northern branch of the Tungus whereas they have been related to the southernone (Manchus).The other chapters of the book contain a detailed description and profound an-alysis of the social organization of the northern Tungus. Many important and valu-able generalizations are offeredregardingwhich anthropologists will find themselvesin agreement with Shirokogoroff's general position.The Tungus are one of the most interesting peoples, and played an outstandingr61e n the ethnical formation of northeastern, eastern, and even central Asia. If Mr.Shirokogoroffis right, they even greatly influenced the physical type of the popu-lation of southern China and Annam. Oneof the Tungusic peoples, namely the Man-chu, reached a high degree of civilization and gave the most cultured nation of theOrient its last dynasty. Any new information on Tungusic anthropology is, there-fore, desirable and valuable and Mr. Shirokogoroff'spaper forms a very substantialcontribution to it.

Shirokogoroff'sbook is important also from another point of view. The authoruses Russian ethnographic literature which is inaccessible for English-speaking an-thropologists. He also gives a list of numerous Russian works mentioned in his book.This way he familiarizes English-speaking anthropologists with most importantgeneralizations on Tungusic ethnography and their authors.Shirokogoroff'sbook is well done, and I am sure it will be appreciated by all an-thropologists interested in Asia, and especially in Siberia. I. A. LOPATIN

AFRICAAkan-Ashanti Folk-Tales. Collected and translated by CAPTAIN . S. RATTRAY,andillustrated by Africans of the Gold Coast Colony. (Oxford: ClarendonPress,1930. 275 xx+ pp. $7.50.)

Captain Rattray's present selection of seventy-five Ashanti folk-tales forms thelatest volume of his series on this advanced West African nation. He has translated