DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42067#0172
148
Style
shaft and a flat striking head at the lower end1; those of northern
British Columbia a heavy hammerstone lashed to a large wooden handle.
In another way habits of movement or position find expression
in household furniture and dress. Tribes among which squatting
on the ground is habitual do not use stools or chairs. Those in
the habit of lying on their sides do not use neck rests which are
found among people with elaborate hair dress that lie on their backs.
The clothing of women is adapted to the manner in which they
carry their children. The hood of the Eskimo woman of Baffinland
accommodates the child that is carried on the back. The wide boot
of the women of Southampton Island and of the ancient styles of
Hudson Strait served to protect the child that was carried on the hip.
It is hardly likely that the habits of the people originated from
forms of the household goods they used. It is much more prob-
able that the inventions were determined by older habits. In later
times the relation may have been reversed, in so far as each genera-
tion stabilizes its habits in accordance with the objects to which it
is accustomed.
A similar permanence of form of utensils which are adjusted to
definite motor habits exists in modern times, as is illustrated by the
rigidity of form of many tradesmen’s tools or the permanence of
the keyboard of the piano.
The same conservatism, although based on the training of another
sense organ, is found in the stability of the forms of the letters of
our alphabet. In writing, both the firmly established motor habits
and the fixity of the associations between visual image and form,
help to stabilize old forms and to make difficult innovations.
The stability of language is another phenomenon of the same kind,
The fundamental phonetic characteristics of a language are based on
motor habits; the use of vocabulary and of grammatical forms partly
on auditory associations. In all these cases; in the use of tools, forms
and language the mind becomes so thoroughly adjusted to the use
1 Franz Boas, The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island, Publications of the Jesup
North Pacific-Expedition, Vol. 5, pp. 314 et seq.
Style
shaft and a flat striking head at the lower end1; those of northern
British Columbia a heavy hammerstone lashed to a large wooden handle.
In another way habits of movement or position find expression
in household furniture and dress. Tribes among which squatting
on the ground is habitual do not use stools or chairs. Those in
the habit of lying on their sides do not use neck rests which are
found among people with elaborate hair dress that lie on their backs.
The clothing of women is adapted to the manner in which they
carry their children. The hood of the Eskimo woman of Baffinland
accommodates the child that is carried on the back. The wide boot
of the women of Southampton Island and of the ancient styles of
Hudson Strait served to protect the child that was carried on the hip.
It is hardly likely that the habits of the people originated from
forms of the household goods they used. It is much more prob-
able that the inventions were determined by older habits. In later
times the relation may have been reversed, in so far as each genera-
tion stabilizes its habits in accordance with the objects to which it
is accustomed.
A similar permanence of form of utensils which are adjusted to
definite motor habits exists in modern times, as is illustrated by the
rigidity of form of many tradesmen’s tools or the permanence of
the keyboard of the piano.
The same conservatism, although based on the training of another
sense organ, is found in the stability of the forms of the letters of
our alphabet. In writing, both the firmly established motor habits
and the fixity of the associations between visual image and form,
help to stabilize old forms and to make difficult innovations.
The stability of language is another phenomenon of the same kind,
The fundamental phonetic characteristics of a language are based on
motor habits; the use of vocabulary and of grammatical forms partly
on auditory associations. In all these cases; in the use of tools, forms
and language the mind becomes so thoroughly adjusted to the use
1 Franz Boas, The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island, Publications of the Jesup
North Pacific-Expedition, Vol. 5, pp. 314 et seq.