Owing to the great amount of careful archaeological investiga tion in Europe the cultural history of that region is becoming increasingly clear, but when data are available it will probably be found that the same general principles have obtained elsewhere. New techniques, ideas, and ideals are continually spreading, some times slowly, sometimes with considerable rapidity, but the recipients by no means adopt them wholesale, they accept what appeals to them and usually in so doing they modify them to their own particular needs or idiosyncrasies. We may regard this as being true for all times and all places.
With regard to customs and religious ideas and ceremonies there is probably always some personal influence, though the results may be disproportionate to the numbers of the culture bearers ; in these instances the racial drift may be inappreciable, or may not affect the physical characters of the local population in the least, while the cultural drift may be very conspicuous. A good illustration of this last is seen in the spread of European culture and religion by Christian missionaries, but it is by no means confined to these. The gradual spread of cults and customs has been proved by careful investigations among many peoples and it can be traced in action as well as by inference. Wirz has shown that in the last 5o years a secret cult has been adopted from communities on the coast, by three villages on Lake Sentani (in north New Guinea). These three villages have since drawn together and look down upon the neighbouring villages which have not adopted the cult. (Tijds. v. hid. Taal-Land-en V olkenkunde, lxiii., p. 53, 1923.) There is a tradition that the teaching of ceremonies, including the elaborate death ceremonial, was intro duced into the western islands of Torres straits by two culture heroes from New Guinea and there are other folk-tales of migra tory culture-heroes instructing the people in better ways of living. The great religious cult of Murray Island was brought by what can only be described as the missionary zeal of the western islanders, and most of the funeral ceremonies and many sacred songs admittedly came from the west. (Rep. Camb. Anth. Exped. to Torres Straits, v. 1905, vi., 1908.) An interesting parallel occurred also in Fiji. Two culture heroes are reported to have distinctly stated that they went to Fiji to teach the cult associated with large stone enclosures, Nanga (A. B. Joske, Internat. Arch.
I. Ethnogr. p. 258, 1889). In all these instances there is not the slightest trace in tradition or elsewhere of secular aggression. A. B. Deacon has traced the spread of the Kakihan Society from Ceram to New Guinea and Melanesia (Folklore, xxxvi., p. 332, 1925).
From 191I on, Sir G. Elliot Smith affirmed the diffusion of culture from Egypt to every part of the world ; his views were stated in his The Migrations of Early Culture (1915) and he gave an account of the development of "the new teaching" in the second edition of The Ancient Egyptians (1923), where he stated "There can no longer be any doubt that the essential elements of civilization did really originate in Egypt." He gives a number of arts, practices, and beliefs which he affirms were carried by Egyp tian seamen to various countries. These became centres of secon
dary diffusion, and ultimately this culture-complex reached America across the Pacific. In The Evolution of the Dragon (1919) he suggests that these culture-bearers were seeking for "givers of life," which W. J. Perry is "convinced" is "one of the most important generalizations ever made in the study of human society" (The Children of the Sun, 1923). In this book and in several others (The Megalithic Culture of Indonesia, 1918; The Growth of Civilization, 1924, etc.), Perry has elaborated the details of the spread of this so-called "Archaic Civilization." For criticisms of this theory and the methods of its promulgators cf.
The evidence for the migrations of unlettered peoples is to be sought mainly in the physical characters of peoples, their artifacts, customs, folk-tales and language. Each of these sources of infor mation has to be utilized with great caution as there are many dangers of erroneous interpretations of actual facts. As a rule every tribe or isolated community has definitely characteristic artifacts, but if these are found to be subject to modification it has to be determined whether there has been a local evolution or whether, as is most probable, influences have come in from else where, in which case the change may be due to a "racial drift" or to the imitation of objects obtained by trade or loot, that is, a cultural drift. The introduction and methods of utilization of domestic animals and plants is analogous to the foregoing. For instance, the introduction of the horse into America was due to a racial drift, but its employment by the Plains Indians and the Amerinds of the pampas of South America was a culture drift. A good example of a simple culture drift is the spread of the use of tobacco over Africa and New Guinea. Finally, language is a criterion for racial contact, but not necessarily for a migration on a large scale.
- - A new epoch in migration and in world history commenced with the great geographical discoveries, which opened up to Europe vast continents containing unlimited natural resources. The early movements from Europe were prompted by the spirit of adven ture and the search for gold. Trading centres were next established and population began to flow from the Old World to the New. Portugal and Spain established settlements in South America in the 16th century, and by 1570 it is estimated that there were white men in the overseas empire of Spain. The first English settlements overseas date from the early 17th century. French migration to Canada also began in the 17th century. In 1664 the population of French Canada was 2,500, and by 176o, the date of the British conquest, this had reached to 70,000.