The Mayan stock (Cakchiquels, Huastecs, Tzotzils, Kekchis, Quiche, Tzendals, Mayas, etc.), creators of the civilization destroyed by the Spaniards in Central America, left, besides graven monuments in large numbers, other evi dences of their having invented a system of °writing," which is the nearest approach by any of the aboriginal peoples of America to a pho netic method of record,— the solution of the Mayan hieroglyphics is perhaps the question of American archmology. Their calendar-system, nagualism in religion, and the important role of women in religious and social functions, de serve especial notice. The explorations of. the Peabody Museum (Cambridge) resulted in many new discoveries.
Central and South American Stocks.— The Chibchan stock, whose culture varied from that of the savage Aroacos of the mountains of Santa Marta to the civilization of the country about Bogota, represents a rise from barbarism independent of that to the south in Peru, etc. There is some reason to believe that the °gold culture" of the Chiriqui country and allied re mains in the same region to the borders of Nicaragua may be due to the Chibchan stock,— the Talamanca, Guaymi, and a few other dia lects of Costa Rica, etc., show affinities with Chibchan tongues. Their use and working of gold were of a high order, but neither in archi tecture nor in pictography could they compare with the Peruvians, the Mexicans and the Mayas. They had a characteristic hero-legend of Bochica, and a tale of the great flood. The shrine of Lake Guatavita was a famous re ligious resort. Some of the famous °El Dorados" were in their territory. The Que chuan stock, which is best known through the civilization of the Incas, superimposed upon an older, wide-spread culture, represents but one phase of higher human activity in the Peruvian area. The extension of Quechuan language es pecially von Tschudi and Brinton agree in at tributing not to the military achievements of this people, which antedated the coming of the Spaniards by only a few centuries, but to in tellectual and culture influences millenniums old. The marks of their language can be traced from near the equator on the north to the Pain pean tribes on the south. Common in the Peruvian area seem to have been a highly de veloped agriculture (stimulated, as in the south western United States, by the necessity for irri gation and artificial treatment of the soil),— maize, tobacco, potatoes, cotton, etc., the breed ing of the llama and the paco, the making of pottery (useful and artistic), metalworking of a fine and ingenious sort, stone architecture more massive and imposing than artistically beautiful, or of the highest order as regards decorative art. The Inca form of government
was never probably so far removed from the system common to most of the American stocks as some writers have believed. The Incasic conquest has caused the Peruvians to be styled the "Romans of America," but the analogy is misleading. Beyond the use of picture-writing and the employment of the quipu (knotted colored strings) for purposes of record, the Peruvians had not advanced, and the semi phonetic system, like that of the Mayas, was not developed by them. Ancestor-worship and sun-worship (state religion) were professed by the Peruvians, but the most far-sighted of their thinkers touched almost upon monotheism. The hero-god of the Peruvians was the sea born Viracocha, about whom centred a rich and imaginative mythology. The mixture of races in the production of ancient Peruvian culture is indicated by the diversity of cranial type among the skulls from the old burial grounds and mummy-caves. North of the Quechuas, on the coast about Trujillo, were the Yunca Chimus, etc., whose civilization is represented by the ruins of Gran Chimu and other remains in the valley of Trujillo, which preceded the period of Inca domination. Southeast of the Quechuan culture was that of the Aymaras on the Andean table-lands. To them are usually assigned the ruins of Tiahuanaco, near Lake Titicaca, which in their completeness were probably the most imposing structures raised by the hand of aboriginal man in America,— in architecture they differ in several notable ways from the buildings of Inca origin. Dr. Uhle has very recently sought to show the "succes sion of cultures* at Pachacamac, Trujillo, and their relations to that of Tiahuanaco. The Peruvian tongues have furnished modern Eng lish, etc., man words: guano, condor, alpaca, pampa, Paco, ma, coca, quinine, ferked (beef), vicuna etc.
In the northern part of the Argentine Re public (province of Jujuy, etc.) the architectural and archeological remains brought to light b recent investigators (Ambrosetti in partictilar indicate the presence of a 'civilization,* — vi lage life in a desert environment, offering strik ing analogies with the culture of the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico. This Cat chaqui culture is evidently much more than the mere reflex of Quechuan-Aymaran conquest which it was formerly considered to be. Its origin and growth, however, remain to be clearly demonstraed.