NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN TRADITIONS SUGGESTING A KNOWLEDGE OF THE MAMMOTH 1

Abstract

of the perennially fascinating problems of American ethnology concerns the possibility of Indian traditions preserving to modern times a memory of the mammoth. As in all hypotheses based on survivals, especially those enmeshed in the vague web of folklore , there has been much discussion but little unanimity of opinion on the matter. The wisest men have, like Tylor, presented the various possibilities pro and con and let it go at that. Of late years, aside from the alleged occurrence of carvings depicting the Asiatic elephant at such Maya sites as Copan and Palenque,2 the "elephant problem" north of Mexico, at least so far as concerns folklore , has been lulled to sleep. Palaeontologists and archaeologists on the other hand have been exceedingly active and with the definite establishment of the contemporaneity of man and extinct species of bison and the ground sloth, as well as less clear cases suggesting association with extinct proboscideans, the corresponding ethnological evidence with certain new additions seems worthy of consideration once again. Myths or traditions purporting to refer to extinct animals formerly numerous in certain areas usually fall into one of two classes.3 Tales of the first class suggest an easy mythical rationalization based on the observation of fossil bones, objects which would appear to have always excited human interest. Such may be termed "myths of observation" and, being based in part on actual phenomena, are often very puzzling as to the modicum of truth they do contain. The second class, which may be called "his-torical traditions," seem to embody a former knowledge of the living animals in question, perhaps grown hazy through long oral transmission. Obviously, the first class of myths, intrinsically interesting though they may be, cannot be taken as evidence that the people ever knew the living animals. The "historical traditions," however, if they are specific enough and numerous enough may have definite historical value. That conclusive 1 This paper forms an unavoidably delayed addition to a volume of original papers presented in typescript by his students to Dr. Robert H. Lowie on the occasion of his fiftieth anniversary. 2 Elliot Smith, 1924. Also Illus. London News: 86-87, Jan. 15, 1927. In regard to the latter see Fiske, I: 134, for contemporary opinions of the Waldeck drawings. 8 Tylor, 306-332, 1878, discusses this matter as well as the "elephant problem" in Amer-ica. 81