ART, PRIMITIVE. The motives which lead to the production of works of art and the capacity foras thetie enjoyment seem to be common to men at all levels of culture. We cannot speak, then, of the origin of art in an absolute sense, but only of the first stages of development both in artistic production and in resthetie appreciation. It is difficult to tell just what primitive peoples them selves regarded as beautiful. Even when we have laid before us articles which seem to in volve appreciation of the beautiful—as, for example, carved figures on weapons and cooking utensils--and even when we read of the war dance or the corroboree, or of the practices of tattooing or scarring, it is not easy to tell what emotions were aroused in the primitive mind by the contemplation of these things. A sym metrical spear was more useful than a crude asymmetrical one; a dance may have been in tended to appease some god or to bring luck in hunting, as the buffalo-dance of sonic Indian tribes; a series of figures on a bone knife may have been a kind of picture-writing; it may have been a mark of individual or tribal ownership; or the figures on a bit of pottery may have simply copied the woven pattern of a more primitive utensil. So that we must distinguish what was done from utilitarian, or religious, or social motives, or for communication. or from simple habit, from what was the result of :es thetic impulses. As a matter of fact, it is highly probable that for a lung time purely :esthetic impulses and purely :esthetic produc tions were rare—that a thing was. at once use ful and artistic, or religious and artistic, or social and artistic. It is, then, one of the chief problems which artistic origins furnish, to dis entangle the :esthetic from the nomoesthetic. For this two things are required. The investi gator must know the essential ingredients of the :esthetic consciousness, both on its productive and on its contemplative side, and lie must know where the most primitive conditions are to be found. The first requirement is psychological. It takes into consideration the elementary aesthetic feel ings (see _ESTHETICS. EXPERIMENTAL), other
feelings. emotions, and organic sensations, and t he general and special associative factors (brought from the experiences of the individual and of the social group to which he belongs) in the more complex judgments of taste. The second requirement is anthropological. It asks: "What is a 'primitive people'? What is `primitive culture' ?"—assuming flint the most primitive art is to be found on the lowest level of Perhaps the best, guide to the primitiveness of a tribe or race is to be found in its means of livelihood. Hunting and fishing evidently take lower rank than agriculture or ea ttle-raiking. They imply simpler social con ditions and a lower grade of mental develop ment. Fortunately, sonic of the hunting tribes are still in existence, and offer objeet-lessons in primitive eulture. Among, them there is almost no social organization, and life is reduced to extremely simple conditions. liven here, how ever, evidences of artistic appreciation are by no means rare.
The chief modes in which primitive man ex pressed his love for beauty are by ornament and in the dance. Painting, plastic art, literature, and mush. were not, however, entirely lacking. A passion for bodily adornment is eharacteristic of primitive man. Ile smeared his body with red, yellow, black, and white cosmetics, tattooed and scarred himself, loaded himself with nose, lip, and ear rings, necklaces of shell and bone. bracelets and anklets. and arranged his hair in the most fantastic fashions; clothing, even, was worn more for idoenmaent than as a covering to the body. As civilization advanced, ornament migrated from the body to the implements and utensils and to the clothes, displaying itself in rich and variegated garments such as are to he seen to-day in the royal attire of Oriental mon archs and in the holiday dress of peasants. From clothing it passed to the decoration of the home, to places of worship, and to 'fluidic buildings. This is a natural sequence of the widening of the interests in the development of a highly organized society.