B

Baalism. A type of nature religion with the chief emphasis on fertility. Baalism came out of the Near East, where it was highly developed by the Canaanites or Phoenicians. The chief deities were El, the father of the gods, Asherah, the mother-goddess, Baal, who controlled the weather, his consort Astarte, the goddess of fertility, and Mot or death. The arid climate of Syria and Palestine, with the cessation of the rains in March-April and the long dry season until October, gave rise to the symbolic legends which characterize Baalism. It was thought that the rains stopped because Baal had been killed by Mot and that in the fall, the Sun and Astarte brought Baal back to life. Finally, the earth was again fertile in the spring because of the copulation of Baal and Astarte. The ceremonies, rituals, and worship of Baalism were highly licentious, and it was this quality which gave rise to the controversy brought up by the prophet Elijah as to whether Yahweh or Baal was to be the true God of Israel.

babassú. A palm, Orbignya sp., of Tropical Forest South America. The leaves are used to make baskets and as thatching and the oily nuts are eaten by the aborigines.

babiche. A French-Canadian-Indian word referring to the narrow rawhide strips found in nets, fishing lines, and similar devices.

babracot. A platform supported by three or four legs lashed together at the top in the form of a pyramid. Fish and meat are roasted on it by placing the platform over an open fire. The babracot is widely used by the Indians of tropical South America.

baby, bush. The genus Galago of the lemur family, found in East Africa, Zanzibar, and Fernando Po.

baby, water. A mythological small person living in a body of water. American Indians usually fear water babies because they may be harmful if encountered.

Babylonian. See AKKADIAN.

bacchanalia. A dance performed by the Greek priests and priestesses of Bacchus. The dancers were costumed in fawn skins and each carried an ivy-entwined spear (the thyrsus). When the dance was first taken to Rome in the 2nd century B.C., only women took part. Men later performed, and the bacchanalia was then known for such licentiousness and immorality that it was outlawed by the senate in 186 B.C. Many participants were sentenced to death or imprisonment.

Bachofen, Johann Jakob (1815-1887). A Swiss lawyer by profession, he was also a philologist who extensively studied classical life. He is best known for his book Das Mutterrecht (1861), in which he held that the difficulties of determining paternity in an originally promiscuous society had led to the key role of the mother and to reckoning descent through her.

back, battered. A flint blade, often triangular, which has one battered edge. This characteristic is also termed à dos rabattu.

back, blunted. Referring to a blade with one edge purposely blunted by secondary flaking.

backstay. On a sailboat, a kind of rigging which is near the stern and keeps the mast from falling forward.

Bacsonian. A stone industry of Indo-China in which the most characteristic implement was a chipped stone ax with a ground cutting edge. This type of ax was very similar to that of the Australian aborigines.

Badarian. Referring to a kind of pottery made in Egypt ca. 5,000 B.C. and shaped like a tulip. The Badarian people migrated from southwest Asia. They were hunters and food gatherers, who lived in settled communities and had flint tools.

badimo. A Bechuana evil spirit.

badjara. A traveling houseboat, found in deltaic areas in which waterways are widely used methods of communication. The badjara is often propelled by oars. A corrupted spelling is budgerow.

baetyl. Stone, usually a meteorite, used as an altar for worshipping some divine being.

bag, moss. A cradle of leather or skin in the form of a bag and enclosing moss on which the naked baby is placed. It may be skin-lined in the winter. It is found in northwest Canada.

bagai. A Kazak race on horseback.

bagani. Those who have killed six persons among the Mandaya of the Philippine Islands.

bagpipe, Oriental. A musical instrument consisting of a skin bag with openings at its extremities. A pipe with a single reed and a tube to blow air into the skin were inserted in the openings. The pressure of the player’s arm forced air through the pipes.

Bahuma. The pastoral Negro-Hamitic higher class of East Africa.

Bahuvrihi. A syntactical distinction denoting a possessive compound of the type red-eyed. The term, meaning much-riced, derived from the grammar of Sanskrit.

baidarke. A Russian adaptation of the Kaniagmiut term for kayak (q.v.).

bairakter. A chief, e.g., in some parts of Albania.

bait, proper. Bait that consists of the food of the fish or animal which is being hunted.

bakhshish. See SYSTEM, BAKSHEESH.

baknang. A wealthy Tinguian family.

baksa. A central Asiatic shaman (q.v.).

baksheesh or bakshish. See SYSTEM, BAKSHEESH.

Balam, Chilam. A set of books in the Maya language that were transliterated into Spanish script and that contain some of the history and mythology of the Mayas.

balance, foliot, and verge escape. An early escapement (q.v.) device in which the verge rod was turned to and fro, so that it regulated the foliot balance, thus adjusting the escape movement.

balanophagy. The eating of acorns, one of the principal items in the diet of the Indians of California.

balaua. A Tinguian spirit house.

Balbi, Adriano (1782-1848). A Venetian geographer and statistician, who compiled (1826) the first reasonably complete ethnographic atlas of the world.

balché. In the Maya area, an intoxicating drink made from honey.

baldachin. A temporary or permanent canopy which can be either stationary or portable.

baldness. A lack of hair or natural covering on the head. It is probably a dominant and sex-linked Mendelian characteristic. Women are seldom bald. Baldness is usually found associated with substantial body hair and beards. It may be useful in differentiating racial groups. There is some evidence that baldness is an inherited Caucasoid mutation that is rarely found among Mongoloids and Negroids and that the extent of baldness among Caucasoids is increasing. See HAIR.

baleen. A bony substance in a whale’s mouth that serves to strain food out of the water. Baleen is widely used by the Eskimo for making implements.

balian. A Batak spirit medium.

ball, fire. A mixture of clay and coal, heated in a fire and then thrown at the enemy’s dwellings. Fire balls have been found in the Swiss lakes and are believed to have destroyed many lake cities. The Norrii used this method to set fire to Caesar’s camp.

ballad. A narrative folk song that deals with one incident. Ballads originated in Europe in the Middle Ages. A ballad is told in stanzas and is likely to have a refrain.

ballad, homiletic. A first-person song in which the narrator discusses his past sins as a warning to others.

ballista. A piece of ancient military equipment used to hurl large stones or spears.

balnooknook. A log drum or gong of the Australian aborigines. The name is said to derive from a dingo about whom there are many myths.

baloma. Spirits of the dead among the Trobrianders.

balsa. A cigar-shaped tied bundle of rushes used for water travel. The balsa floats by specific gravity and is either punted or propelled by paddle. It is found in Ecuador and Peru. The most seaworthy are made by the Amara Indians of Lake Titicaca. The balsa is sometimes called the pelota.

Baltic. A language group of the Indo-European family, including Lithuanian, Latvian, and Old Prussian.

Balto-Slavic. A subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages.

Balum cult. See CULT, BALUM.

bamboo. A reed plant found in southeast Asia and other warm climates. Bamboo may grow to be very high. It was widely used for artifacts because of its sharp edge. In southeast Asia it may have been used for spear heads and other artifacts for a long period until the introduction of finer stone working.

Bamiyan Buddha. An immense statue of Buddha carved into a solid breccia cliff in Afghanistan in the desert regions beyond the Khyber Pass by ancient tribes who fled persecution in India. The statue is 130 feet in height and displays excellent proportion and linear work.

banab. The temporary dwelling, made of leaves and sticks, among some Guiana groups. The word is sometimes spelled benab.

banana. A large herbaceous perennial or its fruit. The banana was brought to Brazil in the 16th century by European explorers.

banca. A Philippine dugout canoe.

band. The most primitive social group. The band is found among peoples whose techniques have not advanced much beyond hunting and gathering. An average band may have between 50 and 150 members. The internal structure is simple. Often a tribe will comprise several bands.

The band’s zone of exploitation is usually the area within which a man can go in a day and return to camp at night. A hunting band claims territory which it defends against trespassers. Permanent settlement is possible for agricultural bands if an area’s resources can be relied on. Each band has its own culture. Ridicule may be the most powerful weapon which the band uses against an offender. The band is likely to have a head man and to differentiate between bands in its tribe and those of another tribe. The band is held together as a result of living together rather than by kinship.

band, brow. A band around the brow and head, used as an article of adornment and to keep the hair down. In North America, brow bands are often made of beads.

band, composite. A band that has nonrelated families in it, and in which there is no exogamy (q.v.). It is believed that such bands are likely to have over 100, e.g., the Canadian Athabaskans and the An-damese.

band, head. A band worn around the head, and one of the most common elements in early headdress. Most hunting people wore head bands. The head band may consist of many materials, from leaf to iron. It keeps the hair out of the eyes and holds decorations and articles. It has evolved into the emblem of royalty.

band, hip. A ring worn around the hips. The hip band may be made of fabric, leaves, flowers, metal, or other materials. It is an early human costume. Some material may hang from the ring, and the ring may be worn with other garments. The hip band is found even in fairly advanced cultures, as in ancient Egypt.

band, patrilineal. A band that is politically autonomous and practices exogamy (q.v.) and communal land ownership, with land being handed down patrilineally. A patrilineal band consists of a lineage (q.v.) that has several households or bilateral families. It is perhaps the most common kind of band. It is found among the Bushmen and Central African Negritos, among other peoples.

band, pleated. See GUILLOCHE.

band, unilineal. A band in which all the members are kin. Most such bands are patrilocal (q.v.) and observe patrilinity (q.v.).

bandar. See BENDYR.

Bandkeramik. A type of Neolithic pottery in which the neck is decorated with bands of dots or lines, usually in spiral and meander pattern. The term band ceramics is also used.

banishment. Being ordered to depart from a society or face the death penalty, for which banishment was sometimes an alternative.

banki. A severed prepuce among the Aluridja.

banner. A large social grouping among the Mongols.

banquette. In architecture, a mass or ledge raised above the floor of a chamber. A banquette is sometimes called a bench.

Bantu. The family of African Negro languages spoken by approximately 50 million persons in South Africa. The area is south of the Su-dano-Guinean area, and the two language families are thought by many to have common origins. They are similar in their class groupings of nouns and the use of an identifying prefix with all words grammatically connected with the noun. The more important of the 80 to 100 Bantu languages are Swahili, Zulu, Congo, Luba-Lulua, Luganda, and Nyanja. Some scholars believe that the ancestors of the Bantu originally came from the area around the Bahr el Ghazal, from Kordofan on the north, or the Benne and Lake Chad basins in the west. They then went to the lacustrine area which became the region from which the Bantu later spread over Africa in a series of great migrations. Other scholars believe that the origin of Bantu culture can never really be traced.

banya. A small wooden kettle drum of India. The upper portion is covered by tight parchment braced with strips of skin at the sides.

bar, currency. A flat iron bar, used as a kind of coinage in the Iron Age. Many such bars resemble partly manufactured swords. They have been found in various sizes and weights, indicating that they may have been of certain standard values.

bara. A religious ceremony in Australia, as opposed to the corroboree (q.v.), which is nonreligious, secular, and fun-making.

Baraba. A language belonging to the Eastern Turkic group of the Ural-Altaic family of languages, spoken in western Asia.

baraka. A power of holiness, believed in by many Moslems. Some natural objects have baraka. Certain persons, like children or newly married couples, also have it, as do saints, sultans, rulers, and descendants of the Prophet. It may be passed from one individual to another. See MANA.

barbarism. A Neolithic or primitive economy, or any culture that has no written language but has domesticated animals and agriculture. The term is also V. Gordon Childe’s designation of the stage of animal and plant domestication that followed savagery (q.v.) and preceded civilization (q.v.). Barbarism is also a linguistic term used to describe any departure from the conventional grammatical or literary usage. Morgan gave the term wide currency in his suggested evolutionary development of society.

barbasco. The Spanish-American name for various plants, especially of the Compostas family, that are used to poison fish in the streams and ponds of tropical South America.

barbe. A pleated linen garment worn by mourning women in the Middle Ages. The lower estates wore it below the throat, while baronesses wore it above the chin.

barbotine. A slip (q.v.) or a clay paste used in decorating pottery in relief.

bark. The external surface of a woody perennial stem or root. Bark is easily worked and is extremely important to many peoples. It can be made into bark cloth, by soaking and pounding (see TAPA). Bark can be removed fairly easily in autumn or spring. It has been used for making roofs, flooring, shelters, the lining of fish store pits, torches, tapers, shoes, beehives, net floats, and many kinds of boxes. Its use probably stems from the Paleolithic Age. Birch was probably the most useful bark to early man, because it so dominated the first forests which covered the open spaces at the beginning of the post-glacial period.

barley. An adaptable and ancient annual cereal, known for some 5,000 years. Barley was probably domesticated in southwest Asia, although two centers from which it may have spread are Ethiopia and Nepal and Tibet. It is used as a human food, as malt, and as an animal food. It can be grown in colder places than any other grain and is probably more widely distributed than any other cereal. It may be the oldest major cereal and was widely used even in Neolithic times.

barramundi. The large tidal perch of North Australia, widely eaten by the natives.

barrio. A Spanish term meaning neighborhood which was applied in Hispanic America to a territorial division of a populous area. Barrios often corresponded to preconquest territorial and kinship units, such as the ayllu (q.v.) of Peru and the calpulli (q.v.) of the Aztecs.

barrow. A dolmen (q.v.) that is covered by earth. Barrows were usually near settlements or villages but at a sufficient distance so that the dead would not be too close to the living. A barrow was regarded as sacred ground and was often near the temple. Another term for barrow is tumulus.

barrow, long. A type of Neolithic barrow, mostly found in England, and possibly so named because the people buried under it are presumably long-headed, as well as the shape of the barrow.

barrow, round. A type of Bronze Age barrow found in England, and possibly so named because the people under it are presumably roundheaded, as well as the shape of the barrow.

barter. The direct exchange of one kind of goods for another, with no employment of money. It is the only mode of exchange in the simplest economic systems. Four kinds of barter often distinguished are gift economy, gift barter economy, pure barter, and money barter (q.v.).

barter, dumb. The exchange of goods without the traders having any direct contact. The first group leaves its goods in a given place, then leaves. The second group puts its proferred exchange goods alongside the original commodities, and leaves. When the first group comes back, it either takes the exchange goods if satisfied, or, if not satisfied, departs with the original goods. The second group then comes to take up its goods. The term silent trade is also used.

barter, money. A transaction in which goods or merchandise are used as standardized measures of value.

Bartholomae’s law. See LAW, BARTHOLOMAE’S.

bas-relief. A technique of sculpturing in which the figures appear almost flat against a background.

basalt. A form of volcanic rock, dark and compact, possessing a splintery fracture and widely used by the ancient Egyptians for their sculpture. Basalt was frequently used in the construction of obelisks and tombs. The name is also applied to a pottery of basaltic appearance made by Josiah Wedgewood.

base, culture. The totality of the culture traits that obtain in a given time and place, often used for the culture which gives rise to inventions.

Bashkir. A language belonging to the Western Turkic group of the Altaic subfamily of the Ural-Altaic family of languages.

basi. Sugarcane rum among the Tinguians.

basilica. A Roman public administration hall. A great number of these halls were later converted into Christian churches, and many of the early churches were constructed on the model of the basilica.

basilisk. A two-headed mythological animal of medieval times. The basilisk was believed to be so deadly that its breath was fatal to anyone it touched. It was frequently represented in the arts, especially in heraldic emblems on shields and escutcheons.

basion. The midpoint on the anterior margin of the occipital foramen.

basket. A semirigid or stiff container, built on its own frame, or with the foundation made together with the basket. Baskets carry liquids as well as solids.

basket, boiling. A basket in which food is cooked by means of hot stones, e.g., in southern Alaska.

basket, pannier. A round flat basket with low sides, common among American Indians in California and elsewhere. Such baskets are often used in loading burdens on mules.

Basket Makers. See MAKERS, BASKET.

basketry. The art of using two connected elements, the warp and the woof, to make an object. A basket differs from an object made by felting (q.v.) in having interlaced materials.

basketry, coiled. A form of basketry in which a foundation of grass or splits is stitched together, usually with a bone awl.

basketry, plaited. A form of basketry in which there is an interlacing of warp and woof. The term hand-woven basketry is also used.

basketry, twined. A form of basketry in which a rigid warp is held together by two or more intertwining weft elements.

Basque. The language of one million inhabitants of the northeastern corner of Spain and the southwestern corner of France. The language seems to have no common origins with any other, although it is thought by some to have developed from the Aquitanian dialect of the ancient pre-Roman language, Iberian. Basque has many stops, palatals, and spirants. Many words are formed by the addition of prefixes and suffixes. The verbs do not have an active voice.

bast. The tough woody fiber which comes from the phloem, pericycle, or cortex of certain plants, especially the Tiliacea, Malvacae, and Sterculiaceae families. Bast is commonly used to make cordage and ropes.

Bastaards, Rehobeth. In South Africa, the children of Hottentot wives and Boer men, who founded the semi-independent town of Rehobeth because of their ostracism by the Dutch in South Africa.

bastard. The offspring of a union between members of different races. Among those which have been studied by anthropologists are the Reheboth Bastaards (q.v.), Dutch-Indonesian offspring on Kisar, and Jamaicans with German and African Negro parents.

Bastian, Adolf P. W. (1826-1905). A German physician who has been called the founder of ethnography. He established an ethnographic museum and spent many years in traveling extensively. Bastian opposed Darwinism and adumbrated many concepts of modern anthropology, including “elemental ideas” and “folk ideas.” Bastian believed in the psychic unity of all men, and collected data on the resemblances of artifacts and of behavior. He held that the environment is largely responsible for the form which behavior and artifacts take and that migration and contact provide a mixture of ideas, some eventuating in civilizations.

bastinado. A punishment found among the Egyptians, Chinese, and Turks in which the soles of the offenders’s feet are beaten. The term also may mean a cudgel.

bastion. A projection built onto the walls of a fort for purposes of defense.

batab. The hereditary civil head of a Maya city-state.

Batak. A member of the Indonesian subfamily of the Malayo-Polynesian family of languages, spoken in Samoa. The number of speakers of Batak is more than one million.

batch. In ceramics, the last mixture of ingredients in glass-making, at which point they are converted into glass by fusion.

batey. In the Greater Antilles, a large plaza, sometimes surrounded by low earth walls, used as a ball court and for ceremonial purposes.

batik. A method of making colored designs in Indonesia. Wax is placed over parts of the fabric before it is dipped into the dye. The wax is then removed by boiling. The term batik also applies to the fabrics.

baton. A stick or staff carried to denote a hierarchical position or rank.

bâton-de-commandement. An Upper Paleolithic implement, made from reindeer horns cut from the stem at an antler’s root, where a hole is perforated. There is usually some engraving. Bâtons-de-commandement may have been used to straighten shafts (see STRAIGHTENER, ARROW). This may account for the frequency with which they are decorated with animal figures, since the arrow may have been expected to absorb some affinity with the animal intended for prey and thus hit its target more easily. It has also been suggested that these implements were used as symbols of authority, in basket manufacture, or as instruments of sorcery. The term perforated bone stave is also used.

batten. A device on a loom which is placed in the warp to beat the wefts in place.

battle-ax folk. See FOLK, BATTLE-AX.

baydar. A kind of canoe found in the Aleutian Islands. Baydars consist of a light wooden framework covered by one or more skins.

bayou. A slow moving stream or inland body of water. The lower Mississippi has many bayous.

beach, raised. A shelf of shore accumulation that is at a height above sea level not attainable by the highest modern tides. Its presence indicates that the sea once hit the level at which the raised beach exists now, so that the distance between it and the beach as it exists today has been obtained by emergence.

Beach-la-mar or Beche-la-mer. A trade jargon evolved in the contact between commercial colonials and native inhabitants of the Western Pacific, with a vocabulary largely English.

beak and keeL See ROSTROCARINATE.

beaker. A bellshaped vessel of pottery, found in pre-Bronze Age Europe. It characterized the culture of the so-called beakermen.

beaker, bell. A bellshaped beaker, characteristic of early Danubian culture, in which height and diameter are about the same. The bell beaker’s lines are flowing and graceful. There are often varying zones of design on the beaker, e.g., a zone of chevrons and a plain zone.

beaker, zoned. A beaker, characteristic of the Rhine valley, in which the height is normally greater than the diameter. Zoned beakers are angular and coarse, and their lines are not graceful. The term also refers to a beaker which has horizontal band ornaments as zones.

beam, carrying. A board or similar strong pole from which a suspended load can be carried by two or more men.

beam, yam. A device found on advanced looms, which is used instead of a bobbin to wind and unwind the threads of the warp as necessary.

bean, broad. A widely distributed flat brown bean, growing on gray-green plants. It has been grown from Paleolithic days, with centers of variation in Afghanistan and Ethiopia.

Bear, Kicking. A Teton Dakota shaman who became a leader of the Ghost Dance (q.v.) cult in 1890.

beating up. The weaving technique by which each warp thread is pushed into its appointed position.

beauty, illuminating. A theme of many folk tales dealing with a woman so beautiful that she shines even in darkness.

bec-de-flute. See GRAVER.

bec-de-perroquet. A flint graver with a curved point.

bêche-de-mer. A sea slug, which may be up to 18 inches long, in the Pacific area. It is gathered from the sea bed, boiled, dried, and smoked. It is eaten and also used as a soup stock by Australians and Chinese in Southeast Asia.

Beche-la-mer. See BEACH-LA-MER. bedacryl. A wetting agent used to strengthen archaeological finds so that they can be removed.

Beddoe, John (1826-1911). An English physician, who conducted a major anthropological survey of the residents of Great Britain and studied the relation between vocation and physical structure. He is the author of a major anthropological survey of Europe (1891) and is probably the first person who made detailed measurements of living peoples. As early as 1861, he did a study of eye and hair color of the Irish.

bedrock. The solid rock that underlies superficial formations.

beehive. One of the very oldest types of house, round and dome-shaped. It consists of two windbreaks (q.v.) in semicircular form, woven together. It is found in Australia, Africa, and North America.

beena. See MARRIAGE-BEENA.

beer. A stimulating drink, the first recipe for which dates from 2,800 B.C. in Babylonia. It is made from the germinated seeds of barley or malt. The malt is mashed and a sugary solution—wort—is extracted, to which yeast is added, after which some of the sugar is converted to alcohol. The resulting dilute alcoholic solution is flavored by hops and similar ingredients.

beer, banana. A beer made from bananas, drunk in Central America. It was probably made in areas that were under the influence of pirates, who raided cities where they believed silver and other valuables were. In Nicaragua, a common form of banana beer is called mishla.

beer, honey. A honey-based beverage drunk in East Africa.

begging. Soliciting aid from strangers, which developed with the rise of private property.

Beigaben. Companion offerings left in a grave to provide assistance for the dead in the world to come.

beijú. A round, flat cake made by baking manioc flour on a griddle. It is a staple dish among most of the Indians of Tropical South America.

Beil. See COUP-DE-POING.

Bela. A nomadic slave class among the Tuareg.

bell. A hollow sounding device, often metal, which has a clapper. The bell has been used for religious purposes in the Occident since the classical civilizations. Its use has often been linked with that of the gong (q.v.). One of the bell’s major purposes is to generate emotion through plangent or stirring sound. The bell is made of bell metal, a tin-copper alloy. A hammer or clapper may be suspended inside or outside the bell or kept separate from it.

bell, clapper. A musical instrument consisting of a hollow bell which has a striker suspended inside. The striker usually swings or strikes the sides if the bell is swung. The bell has an opening at the bottom.

bell, pellet. A hollow, globular object containing loose pellets that rattle if shaken. Pellet bells are usually made of metal and with a thin opening in the casing.

bellows. A device, used in metallurgy, consisting of an orifice that takes in air and expells it forcibly through a tube. The first bellows probably consisted of a compression and influx of air in a bag of animal hide. This kind of bellows is shown on an 18th dynasty Egyptian tomb, ca. 15th century B.C. The Bible mentions bellows, in association with the smelting of lead, and the smith in Hebrew is nappahu, or bellows user. There is philological evidence that the words for bellows date from the first Accadian stratum, or around the beginning of the second millenium B.C.

bellows, bag. See BELLOWS, SKIN.

bellows, concertina. A bellows between the piston and the dish bellows (q.v.), which developed in Eastern Asia. The concertina bellows is like a dish bellows, but it is larger, with a skin containing a number of rings that are separated by pistons and fall with the bellows’ raising and lowering.

bellows, dish or bellows, drum. A bellows consisting of a loose diaphragm that fits over a solid chamber, with air inhaled through a diaphragm slit or by a chamber flue. It is intermediate between the bag and piston bellows. It was developed in Central Asia and India and is widely used in Central and South Africa. Sticks, as in Africa, or strings, as in Malaya, may be used to move the bellows.

bellows, house. A leather bellows that has an accordion shape and is inflated and deflated between two wooden boards. The first mention of this form is in the fourth century A.D. by Ausonius.

bellows, piston or bellows, pump. A device to fan a fire, found in southeast Asia. It consists of a pipe or box from which air is pumped by a piston into the furnace or hearth pit. It probably developed in South or East Asia. The pipe or box in which the piston moves is of bamboo or wood. A horizontal piston was used in the Far East and became the Japanese or Chinese tatara or box bellows. A vertical piston was used in India, Indonesia, Madagascar, and Burma. Two cylinders are generally used simultaneously in order to keep up a continuous stream of air.

bellows, skin. A bellows made by sewing animal skins together, leaving a slit with two rims, probably wooden. It developed in Central Asia and the Near East. It was probably the first bellows and went from the Near East to Africa and Europe. Two pairs of bellows were generally used together. The term bag bellows is sometimes used.

beloid. Referring to a skull which when viewed from above is narrow in front and broad at the back.

belomancy. The use of arrows for divination (q.v.).

belt, chastity. A metal girdle with a lock which women in Medieval and Renaissance Europe were sometimes forced to wear in order to prevent them from having sexual relations with any man but their husband or lord.

Belzoni, Giovanni B. (1778-1823). An Italian circus strong man and salesman of irrigation equipment, who was among the most successful robbers of Egyptian tombs and materials. He has been praised for his recovery of many Egyptian art treasures.

benab. See BANAB.

bench. In the archaeology of the American Southwest, a mass of material elevated above the floor of a chamber or level, as in a kiva (q.v.). The bench is from one to three and a half feet above the floor and is usually at least a foot wide.

bendyr. A hand drum popular in the Algerian region of Africa. It has a barrellike frame covered at one or both ends with stretched animal skin. The name is sometimes spelled bandar.

Bene Diambe. A hemp-smoking society in the Congo.

Bengali. The Indic language of some 75 million inhabitants of Bengal.

benge. A strychnine-like poison, used among the Azande to predict the future. It is given to chickens, and whether they live or die determines what action the person will take.

Benninghof’s lines. See LINES, BENNINGHOF’S.

bennu. An Egyptian sacred bird, which was an emblem of the resurrection. It is heronlike, with two long feathers flowing from the back of its head.

Berber. A language group belonging to the Semito-Hamitic family. With the extinct Libyan it constitutes the Libyco-Berber branch of the Hamitic subfamily. The languages are Tuareg, Shluh, Kabyl, Zenaga, Zenete, and Gaunche (extinct).

berdache. One who behaves and dresses like a member of the opposite sex. Some of the berdaches were hermaphroditic. Early French explorers in North America first used the term to describe passive homosexuals. Angelino and Shedd have proposed that the term be used to designate persons of one sex who assume the role and status of the opposite sex, and who are so regarded by the community. Some berdaches cut themselves to simulate a menstrual flow and stuff their clothes to simulate a pregnancy. See HOMOSEXUAL; ALHYA; SHAMAN.

Bergmann’s rule. See RULE, BERGMANN’S.

Bering. Referring to the earliest period in Eskimo art from which artifacts have been discovered. Objects include kayaks, bone, ivory, and stone. This period centered ca. 500 A.D. Bering designs were abstract and often drawn around the eye of a fish or mammal.

berm. A short flat strip of ground, usually separating a vertical defensive rampart from a ditch.

berserker. In Norse tradition, a warrior overtaken by frenzy and rage in battle. The berserkers foamed at the mouth and howled and were presumed to be invulnerable.

Bertillon method. See METHOD, BERTILLON.

Beschlagwerk. Patterns originating in the technique of weaving and subsequently made into geometric arrangements which are then applied as decoration to other types of handcrafts, e.g., pottery or metalwork.

bestiary. A book with written descriptions or pictures of real and mythical animals.

betel. A part of the areca nut, which is chewed as a stimulant. Betel originated in India. It has a bitter taste and it darkens the teeth and gums. In Indonesia, it is chewed with lime. Betel is also consumed in East Africa.

betel box. See BOX, BETEL.

betrothal. An engagement between a man and a woman that they will marry in the future.

Beweddung. Among Teutonic peoples, the contract committing the suitor and the father, providing for the exchange of the bride for certain valuable objects. The Beweddung subsequently became a contract between the suitor and the girl, with provisions made for her support in the event of the husband’s death.

bezel. A sloping edge; also, the part of a ring which holds the stone.

bezoar. A very hard object which occurs in the digestive tract of some animals. It is used for medicine or magic.

Bhudas. An inbreeding community in Hyderabad, India, in which there is hereditary toothlessness among males. This trait is recessive and sex-linked and is accompanied by baldness and extreme sensitivity to heat.

bias, sex. The degree to which feminine or masculine potentials are developed at a given time.

bicentric. Referring to a species or a genus with two centers of evolutionary development.

Bicol. A member of the Indonesian subfamily of the Malayo-Polynesian family of languages, spoken in the Philippine Islands by about 700,000 persons.

bicuspids. The teeth which are behind the canine teeth. On each tooth, the crown has two small cusps, one each on the outer and inner side.

biddazze. A stone hut found near a nuraghe (q.v.).

bier. A stretcher-type device used to carry an uncoffined body or a coffin to a grave.

biface. A large pear-shaped piece of stone trimmed flat on both sides.

bifacial. Referring to an object the opposite surfaces of which are similar.

bifid. A cleft stem, looking like an open jaw, found on the fore end of the Alaskan kayak.

bifurcation. The difference between relatives of the same type when one is reckoned through the males and another through the females, e.g., a maternal and a paternal aunt. Bifurcation is the termonological reflection of the differences between the mother’s and father’s side of the family.

Big Head. See HEAD, BIG.

Bihari. The Indic language of some 37 million inhabitants of northeastern India. There are three dialects, Maithili, Magahi, and Bhojpuri.

bilabial. In linguistics, referring to the production of consonants by the coordinated convergence or contact of both lips, e.g., b.

bilabiodental. In linguistics, referring to the articulation of a sound produced by contact of the upper lip and upper teeth with the lower lip.

bilateral. Referring to the transmission of property rights or descent through both the female and the male, in a manner which is either equal or does not emphasize either line.

bilharziasis. A disease resembling hookworm which has been found in Egypt since early times. It is probably spread by refuse containing the Bilharzia blood fluke and contaminating the water and food supply.

bilinear. Referring to kinship groups that include both paternal and maternal relatives.

bilingual. A person who speaks two languages with a fair degree of facility and accuracy.

bilithon. A large horizontal stone slab supported by a vertical slab.

bill, brown. A bill-hooked weapon used from medieval times until the invention of firearms. The brown bill is so called because it was blood-stained, the warriors not being accustomed to keeping their weapons bright.

billabong. An Australian term for a lagoon, derived from a New South Wales aboriginal dialect in which billa is a river and bong is dead.

billikin. A carved ivory figurine made by the Eskimos of the Diomede Islands.

bilocal. Referring to a married couple living near or with either spouse’s parents. The comparative affluence or importance of the spouses’ families or personal pref-erance may be responsible for their matrilocal or patrilocal residence.

bilophodont. Referring to cross crested molars, usually associated with specialized teeth. The summits of the opposite cusps are linked by prominent cross crests on the slope of the four main cusps. The trait is found in tapirs and other ungulates and in Old World monkeys.

Bimana. See QUADRUMANOUS.

bimanual. Referring to movement or posture in which the hands are used to swing or hang on branches.

biogenesis. The doctrine that only living organisms can produce living organisms. Schwann enunciated this in 1837. Theologians were once strongly opposed to biogenesis, since it seemed to deny the possibility of a “special creation” by God.

biogenetic law. See LAW, BIOGENETIC.

biolinguistics. The scientific examination of language with particular emphasis on the neurophysiological and genetic factors.

biology, human. The study of human beings from a zoological point of view.

biometry. The statistical analysis of biological studies, especially as applied to such areas as disease, birth, growth, and death.

biomorph. The representation of a living organism.

bion. The physiological person, marked by independence and definiteness of function.

bionomics. The study of the relation between organism and environment.

biosphere. The air in which there are living organisms, including the atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere.

biota. The plant and animal life of an area.

biotope. The minimum area which has a unique environment.

bipedal. Referring to an upright posture and movement using the hind legs.

bipenne. A double ax.

bipolar. See TECHNIQUE, BIPOLAR. bird, fire. A bird which presumably brought fire to earth for man’s use. There are animal tales (q.v.) which attribute this to both the raven and the robin.

birth, virgin. Unusual, miraculous, or supernatural conceptions are widespread in the writings of ancient religions. In the less complicated cultures, conception sometimes occurred through contact with an amulet (q.v.), fetish (q.v.), or image. Many of the early rulers of the Mediterranean area were given prestige by stories of divine parentage. Legends of these unusual happenings are frequent in the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Zoroastrian, Hindu, and Buddhist religions. The Christian chronicle of the virgin birth of Jesus as it appears in the gospel according to St. Luke closely parallels the pattern of supernatural conception as set forth in earlier writings in the Old Testament. The later account in the gospel according to St. Matthew places more emphasis on the virginity of Mary. By the middle of the second century, the doctrine of the virgin birth through the impregnation of Mary by the Holy Ghost had attained universal acceptance since it was only by insistence upon it that the divine and human essences could be held to have united in Jesus to make him a sacrifice acceptable to God.

birthright. The right to inherit property or to have a particular social status as a result of one’s birth. The child’s legitimacy, birth order within the family, sex, and rank are relevant.

biru. A Babylonian linear measure which gives the distance between districts.

biscuit. Pottery which is unglazed.

bisque. Clay after the first firing. More generally, bisque denotes the hardened state of clay products before the glaze is applied.

bissixt. The intercalation (q.v.) day in the Julian calendar, added in February every fourth year. It came after the sixth day before the calends of March, and was thus considered a second sixth day.

bit. A jointed or solid metal rod which goes between the jaws of a horse to restrain and control the animal.

bite, edge-to-edge. A form of chewing in which the incisal edges of the anterior teeth meet when in centric relations. It is found in some primates but in very few humans, notably the Eskimo. In them the edge-to-edge bite is attributed to the wearing down of teeth from chewing hides to soften them.

Bithynian. An ancient extinct language, examples of which are to be found in writings and glosses set down by classical authors. Most linguistic authorities consider it a language of unknown origin in the Asianic class.

bitumen. See ASPHALTUM.

bivallate. Referring to a ditch with a bank on both sides.

black, bone. Carbon black pigment used in prehistoric times, made by burning animal bones in a closed container.

black drink. See DRINK, BLACK.

blackfellow. The name popularly given to the dark brown Australians, although they are not Negroes.

blackjack. A large drinking vessel, originally made of waxed leather and later of thin metal.

blacksmith. See SMITH.

blade. A parallel-sided narrow, long flint (q.v.) flake, fairly flat and thin, and often fairly large. The blade is also the front of the upper surface of the tongue.

blade, backed. A knife made from a flint blade, with one blunt edge, probably to protect the user’s fingers. The blunt back enables the user to place his finger alongside it and control the pressure and movements.

blade, notched. A blade with a notch in it, probably used to prepare a shaft or to point an arrow. It is also called a strangulated blade.

blade, strangled. A flint (q.v.) blade which has a lateral notch at the same level on each of its margins.

blade, strangulated. See BLADE, NOTCHED.

blank. A piece of stone that bears marks of having been worked with the intent of making an artifact but which is not finished.

blastogenic. Referring to characteristics that are hereditarily transmitted.

bleeding. The working-up of pigments from the undercoat of a painting into the succeeding coats, imparting to them a certain amount of the color of the underpainting or imprimatura.

Blemmyes. Legendary headless people. The mouth and eyes were situated in the upper part of the breast. Ancient Roman writers described them as an Ethiopian tribe inhabiting Nubia and Upper Egypt.

blend. See CONTAMINATION.

blessed, islands of the. The area to which the gods go when they die, in many religions. These islands are usually in the west, to symbolize the setting of the sun. The island of Atlantis is an extension of this idea, as is the Arthurian Isle of Avalon.

blessing. A helpful word which probably was believed to be effective because the utterer was in touch with a divinity. Priests, magicians, and those near death had special powers for blessing. A prayer may be used if a divinity is active in the blessing’s efficacy. The effectiveness of the blessing varied with the status of the person who uttered it. Blessing was usually a private matter but it was used as a public ritual in higher religions.

blockhouse. A fort which blocks or covers the access to a bridge, landing, or other military target. It is also a heavy log defense structure with holes for weapons to fire through or a house made of squared logs.

block-on-block. See TECHNIQUE, BLOCK-ON-BLOCK.

blondism. Partial loss of pigmentation.

blood. The blood is a combination of red corpuscles, white corpuscles, and plasma. It constitutes about 8 per cent of the body’s weight. It circulates in the vascular system and carries oxygen and nutriment to all parts of the body, while it brings away waste products to be excreted. Blood coagulates when it is removed from the body through the formation of threads of insoluble fibrin.

In nonliterate societies, blood is often equated with life. Some societies prohibit drinking blood, while others may require it as the symbolical absorbtion of another person’s qualities or of qualities attributed to certain animals. Blood may be linked with vengeance or used to confirm a bond. Blood is the symbol of relationships. It is often regarded as having great potency. It may give strength to the old, enable a victor to have a dead enemy’s courage, give the power to prophesy, sustain the dead, fructify marriages, alleviate disease and evil, and purify. Blood from menstruation and childbirth is often regarded as dangerous. Some peoples drained blood into a trench from a sacrificed animal or strangled the animal to avoid spilling its blood. Blood was widely used for purposes of purification. The blood baptism of various mysteries is an example of blood as purification. Outsiders were often admitted to a clan or other groups by exchanging blood with one of its members.

blood, blue. A hypothetical kind of blood possessed by certain elite and aristocratic groups. The expression came from some Spanish families of Castile, who were intermarrying. They were fair skinned, so that their veins were more noticeably blue than those of the prevailing dark-complexioned population. Veins, of course, are white and blood is dark red. The blue appearance is caused by the refractive qualities of the tissues through which veins are seen. “Blue blood” is a direct translation of the Spanish sangre azul.

blood, good. A hypothetical type of blood possessed by persons of good family background. This erroneous belief assumes that a person’s destiny is predetermined by his blood type.

blood, half. A person born to parents each of whom is of a different race. In general, such children have the status of the socially inferior partner to the mating. This term is colloquial, as the concept of mixtures of blood has long been invalidated. The term half-breed is also used.

bloodedness, warm. The organism’s ability to keep a constant body temperature, e.g., birds and mammals.

bloom. Iron in a spongy condition, resulting from charcoal absorbing oxygen from iron ore when the ore is fired with a bellows. The term loupe is also used.

blower, cloud. A straight tubular pipe used by the Pueblo Indians. It was from a few inches to a foot long.

blowgun. In tropical areas, a long tube from which darts are blown. It is used in hunting and warfare. The blowgun is found in Indonesia, the Malay Peninsula, and in parts of South America. Curare (q.v.) in South America and Ipoh sap in Asia are poisons used to tip blowgun darts. Inasmuch as blowguns are not found elsewhere in the world, it may be supposed that they were invented independently in Asia and in South America.

blowing, glass. The technique by which a mass of viscid glass mixture is placed at the end of a blowing tube and inflated by blowing through the tube. The earliest known descriptions of glass-blowing techniques were found portrayed on the bas-reliefs of Beni Hassan about 2,000 B.C., but the process is still used today in the production of the finest glass articles. The development of glass blowing, which was accelerated around the first century B.C., permitted the making of larger and more types of glass objects.

blue, Alexandria. The famous bright blue pigment used on wall paintings by the ancient Egyptians. It is composed of silicates of copper and lime.

blue, Egyptian. A stable pigment, made primarily of copper, found in ancient Egyptian wall paintings. Its hue is bright and rather pale and closely resembles the blue Egyptian pottery glaze. Some examples of paintings made with this color are over 3,000 years old and show virtually no deterioration. It was used from the Fourth Dynasty through 600 A.D., after which the method of manufacture seems to have been lost.

Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich (1752-1840). A German naturalist, one of the founders of physical anthropology. He established craniology and divided men into five races: Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American, and Malay, each in a different part of the globe. His criteria were hair, body structure, and skull form, with the last especially important. Blumenbach believed that races arise by degeneration and differentiate themselves by a vis formativa. His collection of craniological materials was world famous. He exposed the non-authenticity of Wild Peter, an alleged feral child found in 1724, and thus shook the prevalent belief in the existence of feral men.

blunderbuss. An early firearm having a large bore and a funnel-shaped muzzle. It was capable of holding a number of balls or slugs and was intended for use at close range.

board, memorial. See BOARD, MUMMY.

board, mould. The curved plate in a plow that turns over the earth. Plows with this equipment were first used ca. 100 B.C. in northwest Europe.

board, mummy. A large piece of wood exactly the same size and shape as the Egyptian mummy and used to conceal the mummy bandages and beautify the mummy. It was decorated with an image of the deceased and various gods were usually carved on it in relief. The reverse side of the board, which rested on the mummy, was painted violet.

board, osteometric. A wooden block, about two feet long and a foot wide, with a wooden upright and marked off in metric scales. It is used to measure bones.

board, scraper. A tool for designing pottery. The whole pot is painted and then is scraped in order to display the color underneath. Some examples of this method, in Greece, are about 5,000 years old.

board, throwing. See THROWER, SPEAR.

boat, bark. A craft made of several pieces of bark sewed together. The bark boat is almost as old as the dugout (q.v.).

boat, basket. A light craft made of narrow strips of split bamboo which are woven into stiff matting in an elongated oval form. Both ends are spoon-shaped. The basket boat is found in Indochina.

boat, bull. A simply constructed skin boat, formerly used by various North American Indians, notably on the Plains. The bull boat usually resembled a circular bowl, with vertical sides and a flat bottom. Its framework was usually of willow rods at right angles to each other and bound together by thongs. A buffalo hide was stretched over this framework. The bull boat was propelled by a short-handled, broad-bladed paddle. It was used by the Hidatsa and other tribes to cross the Missouri and was used by the Plains Indians to transport goods by water. These boats make no distinction between stern or bow.

boat, tub. A short tub used in China and Japan for water transport.

bob, plumb. See PLUMMET.

bobbin. A reel on which the free end of a thread is coiled in continuous weaving. The weight of the bobbin helps keep the thread extended.

Bochica. A Chibcha anthropomorphic white god.

bodkin. An implement with a sharp point used to make holes in fabric; also a blunted needle with a large eye.

body, preservation of the. The methods by which the body of the deceased can be preserved indefinitely include cold storage, injecting a germicidal and antispetic fluid into the blood vessels, and desiccating the body and keeping it dry. The last was used by Egyptians in mummification (q.v.).

bogadi. An African term for bride price.

Bogenkultur. A Kulturkreis (q.v.) found in New Guinea. Bogenkultur has the bow and a maternal organization with no exogamy. It is sometimes called bow culture.

bohío. A type of house with a rectangular floor plan and a gabled roof, built by the Taino of the Greater Antilles. See CANEY (1).

boiling, stone. Heating or boiling liquid by placing the liquid in a container and dropping in heated stones. Tylor first noted this mode of cooking and gave it a specific place in the history of cooking. The technique is also called hot-rock cooking.

boiler, pot. A piece of flint which has been crackled and whitened by fire and was presumably used to keep water heated.

boiler, rice. A double cooking vessel with the lower vessel containing hot water so that the food does not scorch.

bokung-elong. A secret society (q.v.) of the Pangwe, in the Southern Cameroons.

bolas or bola. A weapon consisting of stone balls tied by sinews in groups of two or three. The bolas is hurled at animals’ legs in order to entangle them. This hunting method is used by some South American Indians and some Eskimos even today. The term is sometimes spelled bolo.

Bole-Maru. A phase of the ghost dance (q.v.) cult, characterized by some features of clothing and the dances.

bolo. See BOLAS; KNIFE, BOLO.

boloi. The antisocial acts of a Bechuana witch doctor.

bolson. A land basin.

boma. A thombush fence or palisade built around villages in central Africa to ward off predatory animals.

Bomai and Malu cult. See CULT, BOMAI AND MALU.

bombylius. A moderately sized Greek vase used as a container for perfumes and for pouring water. It varied between the aryballus (q.v.) and the lecythus (q.v.) in general structure.

Bon. The religion of nomads e.g., the Kazak of North Central Asia.

bonder. A stone built into a wall to strengthen it. The bonder is long enough to go through the entire thickness of the wall.

Bondu. A female secret society (q.v.) in West Africa.

bone. In anatomy, the hard tissue that composes the adult skeleton of most vertebrates. Bone is a dense connective tissue, rigid and hard because of its inorganic material. It is covered with periosteum and it is porous internally, with different sized cavities. About 70 per cent of bone consists of mineral salts, with about 60 per cent of this calcium phosphate. Organic matter represents about 30 per cent of the bone (nerves, bone marrow, blood-forming elements, white blood-cell-forming organs, platelet-forming organs, lymph vessels). The only animal whose bones break longitudinally, in artificial splitting, is man.

In ethnology, among the Riffs, a group of families related through the male line and descended from a single ancestor. The Riffian bone is analagous to a clan.

bone, ice. An ice skate made of bone, mentioned in the Edda. The ice bone gave rise to iron-bladed wooden skates in Holland in the 13th century.

bone, Inca. See BONE, WORMIAN.

bone, parietal. One of the two bones which meet at the sagittal suture and form a substantial part of the top and sides of the cranium. This pair of bones forms various sutures with the frontal, temporal, occipital, sphenoid and other bones.

bone, sphenoid. One of the most complicated bones in the human skull. It is made up of greater wings, lesser wings, lateral and medial pterygoid plates, and the body. It contains the sphenoidal sinus. The sphenoid bone forms the floor of the middle cranial cavity and part of the nasal fossa. The sella turcica (Turkish saddle), which supports the pituitary gland, is largely composed of the two sphenoid bones.

bone, Wormian. A supernumerary bone that occasionally forms between cranial sutures, especially in the back of the skull between the occipital and the two parietal bones. As the occurrence of this bone is especially common in the skulls found in ancient Peruvian sites, it is also sometimes called the Inca bone.

bones. Four pieces of the ribs of horses or oxen used as a musical instrument. The bones are held in the hand and struck together for the purpose of marking time in accompaniment to a voice or to another instrument.

Bones, Black. An aristocratic class among some Asiatic nomadic herding peoples, e.g., the Kirghiz and Kazak.

bones, oracle. A technique of divination (q.v.) using the bones of some animals.

bones, utilized. Bones from the toes of bison or horses that were cut and used as anvils in Middle Paleolithic times.

Bones, White. A dependent class among some Asiatic nomadic herding peoples, e.g., the Kirghiz and Kazak.

Boni. The festival of the ancestral soul return in Japan.

Bontok. A member of the Indonesian subfamily of the Malayo-Polynesian family of languages, spoken in the Philippine Islands.

bonze. In Buddhism, a priest or religious functionary.

book, dream. A formalized statement about the meaning of dreams, used for thousands of years. One of the earliest such books was an Egyptian papyrus of the 12th Dynasty, ca. 2000-1790 B.C.

Book of the Dead. Any one of a group of ancient Egyptian inscriptions describing the magic, ritual, and myth of the period. The original texts have been found inscribed on tombs, monuments, and papyrus. Some of the earliest examples are on walls of the chambers of the pyramids of Unas, Pepi, Teta, and Merenra (ca. 3000-2200 B.C.). The original Book of the Dead was a collection of 200 chapters on customs for the beautification of the dead among the Egyptians. The deceased was to recite the various chapters so he could gain power and privileges in his new life.

Book of the World. The tremendous literary project started during the Ming Dynasty under the direction of Yung-lo, the third emperor. It was an encyclopedia of all knowledge which contained 22,877 full volumes and required two years and an enormous staff to complete it.

bookbinding. The design and production of covers for books. As early as 800 B.C., the Babylonians made two layered clay tablets, the inner layer of which was inscribed with cuneiforms, the outer with the title. It was necessary to break off the “title” before the cuneiform characters could be read. Egyptian papyrus books were surrounded by wooden cases. Later in the fifth century, parchment and vellum manuscript sheets were stitched together. Some bindings were made of intricately tooled leather and sometimes studded with precious gems or decorated with gold and silver.

boom. One of a number of poles used to attach the outrigger to a canoe. It is also any pole used to extend the foot of a sail.

boomerang. A wooden weapon, with a curved upper and flat lower surface, some models of which return to the thrower. The thrower gives the weapon as much rotation as possible, so that after some 50 yards of flight, it will turn over on its flat side, curve to the left, and rise. Each end of the boomerang is on a different plane, and it can use the physical principle of the screw. Boomerangs are flattish seen in section and curved seen in outline. In those boomerangs that return, the surfaces are likely to have a small spiral twist. Another term for boomerang is comeback club.

boot, Patagonian. A high riding boot found amond the Tehuelche Indians of the Patagonian pampas.

Bopal. An artificial language or modification of Volapuk, originated by St. de Max in 1887.

bord-droit. A kind of straight-bordered bronze ax.

boreal. Referring to the forests of the north, which cover 9 per cent of the earth’s surface. Most of the inhabitants were hunters. The term also refers to the northern and mountainous area north of the equator, including much of North and Central America.

boreal, pre-. Referring to a cold climate, becoming warmer, especially from ca. 7900-7000 B.C., when birch, pine, and willow were typical vegetation. During pre-boreal times the Ahrensburgian culture flourished.

boreal, sub-. Referring to a cool and dry climate. The term subboreal has particular reference to the beginning of the Neolithic period.

borer. A variety of coup-de-poing (q.v.) which is smaller than the normal and has its point drawn out in a narrow spike shape. Generically, a borer is cylindrical, has a sharp edge, and is used to make holes in materials. The term perçoir is also used.

borer, fire. A round stick which is rapidly turned in depressions in another stick. This turning continues until there is smoke in the sawdust, which is then gently blown on and breaks into flame.

borer, tap. A large and fairly coarse kind of awl, found in the Middle Aurignacian period.

Borreby. A hypothetical Cro-Magnon or northwest European Caucasoid element found in the present population of Germany.

borrowing. A taking-over by one culture of a feature of another culture, often through the influence of important persons.

borrowing, cultural. Linguistic borrowing which involves taking features from another language.

borrowing, dialect. Linguistic borrowing between dialects of the same language.

borrowing, intimate. Borrowing of speech forms which takes place when two languages are spoken in one community. There is a dominant or upper language spoken by the senior or more powerful group, as well as a lower language spoken by the less powerful group in the society, e.g., the immigrants in the United States. The lower language primarily borrows from the upper language.

borrowing, linguistic. Adopting language features which are not the same as those of the main tradition.

Bos primigenius. A wild ox. It may have given rise to the cattle of today.

bosing. A percussion method in which a hammer, lead-filled tin, or the central socketed part of a pick, held vertically, strikes the ground. It is an archaeological method for testing what is below the ground’s surface. It was first used by Pitt-Rivers. Undisturbed material beneath shallow topsoil gives a thud, while a filled-in area will give a different kind of sound.

botanomancy. Divination (q.v.) or fortune-telling by leaves. Messages were sometimes written on the leaves and they were left for the wind to blow. The answer was derived from the leaves that were left. Another method was to note the way the leaves crackled when scattered on a fire or crushed in the hand.

botoque. In tropical South America, a type of circular, disklike lip plug, usually of wood, which is inserted into an incision in the lower lip. In Africa, this type of lip plug is inserted into the upper lip as well and reaches six to eight inches in diameter. See TEMBETÁ.

bottiglia. A vase shaped like an Italian wine flask.

boucher. See BOUCHER DE PERTHES.

Boucher de Perthes (1783-1868). A French customs official who studied Paleolithic implements and their geological associations in both cave and river deposits. He claimed that man was contemporary with extinct animals. In 1838, he suggested the hypothesis that humans have developed over hundreds of thousands of years. He is considered the father of human paleontology and modern prehistoric archaeology. The term boucher, derived from his name, is sometimes used for a coup-de-poing or a flint.

boundary. The limit of a land holding, often very strictly observed by early peoples. Sometimes the boundaries had religious meanings and the boundary had marginal properties. Such early gods as Min and Hermes are concerned with protecting roads and boundaries.

boundary, language. A hypothetical line drawn around a particular speech community, usually enclosing a number of small circles indicating various speech islands.

boustrophedon. Writing which goes from left to right and right to left, with the alternate lines often inverted, so that it is necessary to turn the tablet around after each line.

bout, drinking. A ceremony in which alcoholic beverages are drunk usually until the participants collapse. It is especially common in the West Indies and among the Caribs of Central America. Among the Garif, after a drinking bout the participants fall drunk alongside a grave and return with reports of conversation which they presumably heard in the underworld.

bow. A weapon used to propel an arrow by placing the arrow notch in the bowstring and pulling the bowstring toward the operator, then letting the arrow go forward. A single bow consists of one stave with no additions to make it more elastic. The bow may have been invented in the Old World and was not found in the New World till fairly recently. In the Pacific area, it was used mainly for sport and the hunt.

bow, composite. A bow with a resilient shaft made of at least two different elements, e.g., wood joined to horn, sinew, whalebone, or another type of wood. A sinew backing may be corded or it may be found in layers.

bow, compound. A bow made by fastening several pieces of wood together, e.g., hickory and yew. It is more powerful than the simple bow. The compound bow was known before 2,000 B.C.

bow, compound musical. Two or more musical bows joined in order to play polychordal music. A compound musical bow may have a common resonator, with the plane of the line of strings parallel to the resonator surface.

bow, cotton-cleaning. A bow around the string of which tufts of raw unspun cotton are wrapped. When the string is twanged the dust is shaken off and the cotton is thus cleaned.

bow, knuckle. A finger guard or protector which is attached to a sword.

bow, musical. A bow used for playing music. A shooting bow may be used, with the string divided into two unequal parts by making a string loop around bow string and bow. The string may be plucked, struck, or friction-vibrated. The musician’s teeth usually hold part of the bow, magnifying the sound, if he plays for himself. If he plays for others, the sound may be magnified by resting the bow against an outsider resonator like a pot or gourd. The musical bow may consist of a bent stick with both ends connected by a fiber or string.

bow, pellet. A bow used to shoot pellets or bullets rather than arrows.

bow, self. A bow made of a single piece of wood.

bow, sinew-backed. A bow made of horn, driftwood, or some other fairly brittle material, with wrappings of sinew, found in northwest America. It is likely that this bow is a development of the Asian bow made of wood, horn, and sinew, with a thumb ring to release the bowstring.

bow, sinew-lined. An American Indian one-piece bow the back of which is strengthened by sinew glued on. The sinew-lined bow is found among the Navaho and others.

bow, trussed. A type of bow made of one or more pieces of inferior wood reinforced by adding longitudinal withes or sinews and wrapping many times with sinew or fiber to give added strength.

bowl, effigy. A bowl, usually of pottery, modeled in the form of an animal or plant or other object. Effigy bowls were a highly developed art form among certain South American Indians.

bowlegs. See LEGS, BOW.

bowlegs, postural. The appearance of bowlegs stemming from standing with the knees in hyperextension and internal rotation, although the leg bones are not truly bowed.

bow-wow. Referring to Herder’s theory that language arose by primitive man imitating animals, e.g., bleat sounds like a sheep’s bleat. It is also called the onama-topoeic theory.

bowsprit. On a sailboat, a spar attached to and projecting from the hull at the ship’s bows.

bowstring. The string used to hold the two ends of the bow together. The bowstring is usually made of animal material, like tendons or sinews, or vegetable material, like twined bast.

box, betel. A box which contains a slice of the areca nut, usually powdered with coral rag or lime and wrapped in a betel pepper leaf.

box, sounding. An apparatus found in the kiva (q.v.). The sounding box looks like a subfloor vault. It is thought that it was used as a type of drum when the top was covered.

boxadi. The lobolo (q.v.) among the Bakatti.

boy, salt water. A coastal native of Manus Island.

brace. The distance between the tips of the middle fingers of each hand with the arms outstretched. It is almost six feet.

bracer. An archer’s rectangular wrist guard, drilled for attachment at each end. The bracer was usually made of stone or bone.

braces, additional. Smaller tribes added to the Iroquois League.

brachiation. Movement by a combined use of hind and fore limbs. It was developed by arboreal apes and is helpful for tree life.

brachycephalic. Referring to a person with a comparatively broad head, characterized by a cephalic index (q.v.) of higher than 81 on the dry skull and higher than 82 on the living head. Primary brachycephaly is a sign of incomplete differentiation and is associated with evolutionary development and is positively correlated with increasing stature.

brachycephalization. The process of a population becoming more brachycephalic. Brachycephalization may result from an increase in brain size without stature increasing. The major factor in the brachycephalization of historic Europe probably was the continual appearance of Asiatic roundheads and their mixture with early European dolicho-cephals, with brachycephals resulting. Early man was long-headed and his mutations were in the direction of brachycephaly. These mutations were probably independent and repeated. Weidenreich has pointed out that the shorter jaw and wider braincase attendant on brachycephalization help achieve head balance in a bipedal organism like Homo sapiens. Vision improves as the eyes are farther apart, and the jaw functions more easily. Brachychephalization is also called globularization.

brachychouranic. Referring to a maxillo-alveolar index (q.v.) of more than 115.

brachycranial. Referring to an individual with a comparatively broad skull, characterized by a cranial index (q.v.) of between 80 and 84.9.

brachycolic. Referring to having a short colon, of up to 160 cm.

brachydont. Referring to a tooth with short roots and a broad crown used in crushing by carnivores.

brachylogy. A phrase or style of speaking which is grammatically incomplete or abbreviated in some manner.

brachyskelic. Referring to a stem-leg length index between 75 and 79.9.

brachystaphyline. Referring to a palatal index (q.v.) of more than 85.

brachyuranic. Referring to a skull with an alveolar arch the external breadth of which is at least 115 per cent of its length, so that the maxillo-alveolar index (q.v.) is more than 115.

bracteate. A pendant made of thin plaques of gold resembling coins. Bracteates were found in the Scandinavian countries. They were at first copies of Roman medallions and ca. fifth century A.D., animal motifs were found.

bradyesthesia. Blunted sensation.

Brahman. The most desired goal of the Upanishads and the Vedas. Brahman is the state in which the human and divine exist together in an absolute impersonal union. The Brahmans are also the highest caste among the Hindus, i.e., the priests. See ATMAN.

Brahmanas. Priestly writings of the Hindus, attached to the Vedas and probably dating from 800-600 B.C. They show a stage between Vedic religion and philosophical Hinduism. In repetitious detail, they give the ritual’s significance and directions for sacrifices.

braiding. Entwining several strands by passing each strand of material over the others so that each strand makes a sinuous path in the texture.

brain, full. Referring to primates which have a brain that is approximately the same size as modern man’s.

brain, half. Referring to primates that are extinct and had a brain of a size on a level below the hominine (q.v.) and who had a putative culture.

branch, green. A green branch has wide usage as a peace symbol, especially in Australia and Oceania. It is a specific sign of peace, especially in East Australia.

branding. Burning a symbol deep enough into the flesh to make a scar. Branding was used to mark slaves or criminals.

Brandwirtschaft. An early European type of fertilizing in which fire was used to clear patches of forest. The ashes from the fire provided a potash dressing for the soil, which was sown and cropped for a season or two, after which the farmer went to another tract. This technique probably survived longest among the Finno-Ugrian peoples and is still in use in part of Carelia.

brash. Small pieces of ice mixed in with the ice resulting from pressure between ice bodies.

brass. An alloy made of copper and zinc in different proportions. Brass was not made as a deliberate product in very early times, and references to it in Biblical translations are probably inaccurate. It occurred by accident in different places, but since brass is the deliberate mixing of copper and zinc, it could not have been made intentionally until metal zinc was localized toward the end of the medieval era. Brass of the contemporary period has 67 per cent copper and 33 per cent zinc. Probably the first brass objects are some bracelets in Kameiros, a Rhodes city which was wiped out in the sixth century B.C. In the fourth century B.C., a kind of brass was evidently made by the Mossynoeci, who lived on the south shore of the Black Sea.

brazier. A basin-shaped portable vessel used to burn charcoal with no draft. It develops heat to warm the extremities. Braziers are usually of metal but may be pottery. Braziers are widely distributed but are most often used in the southern temperate and tropical zone. The brazier contains a portable fire and may thus be among the first takings of fire from its base level on the hearth.

brazing. Joining two pieces of metal by heating their edges almost to the point of melting and then hammering the edges together.

bread, persimmon. A bread made by Indians in the eastern United States, especially Virginia, of sun-dried persimmons.

bread, Piki. A dry thin bread made from corn and used by the Hopi. It keeps well and resembles an extra-thin Mexican tortilla.

breadth, bi-acromial. With the subject standing normally, the distance between those margins of the acromion processes of the scapula which are most lateral.

breadth, bi-cristal. The iliocristale distance.

breadth, bi-orbital. The distance from the center of one lateral orbital border to the other.

breadth, bigonial. The distance between the gonia, the two points which are the most laterally located on the angle of the lower jaw.

breadth, bizygomatic. The distance between the most lateral points on the zygomatic arches.

breadth, chest. The average of measurements of the transverse distance between the most lateral points on the chest, made at inspiration and expiration during normal breathing.

breadth, head. The distance, measured by a spreading caliper, between the points on the side of the head above ear level that project laterally the farthest.

breadth, hip. The distance between trochanterion and trochanterion.

breadth, interorbital. The distance between the left and right dacryon points.

breadth, maxillo-alveolar. The greatest distance between the external lateral alveolar borders.

breadth, maximum bizygomatic. The maximum breadth separating the two zygomatic arches.

breadth, maximum cranial. The distance between euryon and euryon.

breadth, maximum facial. The distance between zygion and zygion. It is the most widely used measure of facial breadth.

breadth, maximum head. The maximum transverse diameter on the head. It is usually measured over each parietal bone.

breadth, maximum physiognomic nasal. The greatest transverse distance between the most lateral points on the wings of the nose.

breadth, minimum frontal. The minimal distance between the origins of the zygomatic processes of the frontal bones.

breadth, minimum frontal cranial. The minimal breadth between the temporal crests of the frontal bone.

breadth, nasal. The greatest distance between the lateral margins of the pyriform aperture.

breadth, orbital. The distance between the ectoconchion and maxillofrontale, or between the dacryon and ectoconchion.

breadth, physiognomic. The distance between the subaurale and the superaurale.

breadth, physiognomic ear. The distance between postaurale and preaurale.

breadth, shoulder. The distance separating the acromial points when the subject is standing normally.

breadth, thoracic. The breadth of the chest multiplied by 100 and divided by the anterior trunk length.

breathing, rough. Aspiration at the beginning of a word.

breccia. A rock composed of angular pebbles or fragments embedded in a matrix which may have the same origin. Breccia has long been used for ornamentation. Egyptian breccia vases are collector’s items.

breccia, osseous. Heaps of rock and fossil bones cemented together by calcareous or ferruginous mud.

breechclout. A garment consisting of a string around the waist to which is attached a cloth between the legs.

breed, half-. The child of parents who are of different racial groups, e.g., of a Caucasoid and an American Indian parent. See BLOOD, HALF. A silver and copper nugget, as found in Alaska, may also be called a half-breed.

breeding, selective. See SELECTION, ARTIFICIAL.

breeding out. A method of maintaining the standard of a given species by bringing in other specimens to breed. When some forms of Arabian horse, e.g., the barb, began to degenerate, out-breeder horses were used. The Japanese maintained the family of the Mikado by bringing in semiroyal out breeders. Some authorities have maintained that if there is no defect in the specimens, in-breeding is not harmful.

bregma. The point on the summit of a skull at which the two parietal bones meet the frontal bone.

breve. A curved symbol (˘) placed over the character for a vowel to indicate the correct sound. The breve frequently indicates that the vowel is short, e.g., finl.

bridge, land. A land connection, usually in the glacial period, between two areas now separated by water. Land bridges resulted because ice sheets absorbed such vast amounts of water that the ocean level dropped almost 200 yards. The Bering Strait, e.g., was a land bridge between Siberia and North America. The hypothesis of land bridges helps explain relationships between fauna and flora in the disconnected areas, as well as similarities in culture, e.g., between northeast Asia and the New World. See HYPOTHESIS, CONTINENTAL BRIDGE, and HYPOTHESIS, CONTINENTAL DRIFT.

bridge, liana. Interwoven bridge shaped like a basket and made of liana, a climbing plant. There are anchoring posts at the shore or in the water and a rail.

bridge, tow. A bridge spanning an abyss, fastened at both ends. The traveler may be in a seat or attached to a stick.

Brinton, Daniel G. (1837-1899). The leading American anthropologist of his generation, who did important work in religion and mythology. To Brinton, anthropology meant physical anthropology, ethnology was the social study of man, and ethnography collecting facts on peoples. His Races and Peoples (1890) contains a discussion of physical and psychological components of ethnography, races, and the effects of insular and littoral living.

Broca, Pierre (1824-1900). A French surgeon who was the founder of the formal study of physical anthropology. He started the first anthropological scientific society in 1859, the first anthropological journal in 1872, and the first school of anthropology in 1876. He studied the physical makeup of the French people. He discovered Broca’s area on the brain, which is linked with speech and its pathology. This area is usually on the right side of the brain of left-handed persons and vice versa. Many of Broca’s methods in craniometry and osteometry are still in use.

broch. A kind of small circular stone house in Scotland, probably developing from an aisled round house, and adapted for defense. The broch dates from the Iron Age, and some 500 are extant. The walls are about 20 feet high and 15 feet thick. There is often a circular court and a guard cell.

bronze. An alloy of tin and copper. Bronze probably occurred from noticing that copper ore with certain impurities was more useful than pure copper, and then isolating those impurities. About 10 per cent tin and 90 per cent copper is the optimum ratio, but early bronze may have from 2 to 16 per cent. Lead was sometimes added in early times. Bronze is superior to copper because the addition of tin increases hardness and strength, lowers the melting point, and increases liquidity, thus making casting operations easier. Copper is not a good metal for casting because it contracts on cooling and absorbs gases, thus becoming porous; the presence of tin helps check this absorption.

Although bronze is an alloy of tin and copper, some archaeologists have confused copper and bronze, and some have used bronze to refer to copper mixed with metals other than tin.

Ancient societies used bronze most successfully for making works of art, which is one reason that it plays an important part in the classical metal cultures.

Both the Old World and the New World show considerable variation in the tin-copper relation, indicating that the early metallurgist did not use tin precisely. There is no bronze period as such in North America, because the tin ores in this area are not bound with copper.

Bronze was first developed in Asia, with the earliest appearance at Ur, ca. 3,500 B.C. Bronze artifacts in Egypt are found in the 18th dynasty, ca. 1580-1350 B.C., although the use of bronze became established only ca. 663-609 B.C. The Danubian region saw the use of bronze ca. 2300 B.C., with European bronze use beginning ca. 2000 B.C.

bronze, Corinthian. A highly prized alloy made at Corinth. It was noted for its superb quality and the works of art which were made from it were of the highest order technically and artistically.

Bronze Age. See AGE. BRONZE.

brotherhood. A close association of affection and service that stems from kinship or membership in a common society. The members have the same standing and have equal shares in the group’s obligations and benefits. They may be organized for many different reasons. Various ritualistic observances may characterize initiation into a brotherhood, e.g., sucking one another’s blood, eating a ceremonial meal together.

brotherhood, blood. A symbolic exchange of blood between two men who are not brothers and who thus create strong kinship ties. Those entering such a covenant become loyal brothers. It is thus a close bond between two people who have mingled their blood, and it developed from the early view of kinship as a blood association.

brothers, war. Men who count war honors together among the Plains Indians of the United States.

Brünn. Referring to a hypothetical Aurignacian central European subdivision of the Caucasoids.

Brythonic. A Celtic language group which includes Breton, Welsh, and Cornish.

buccal. Referring to the interior wall of the mouth and the portion of the tooth and the bone supporting it that are adjacent to the cheek.

bucchero. Black polished pottery found in several parts of Italy in the so-called Etruscan period.

buccina. An ancient Roman horn used by the infantry, as distinguished from the kituus, which was used by the cavalry. The buccina had a cylindrical bore that expanded into a bell, and the tube was curved to nearly a circle, with the bell resting on the player’s shoulder. It was pitched at the second G above middle C.

buchu. An aromatic South African plant used for medicinal and cosmetic purposes.

Buckland, Dean (1784-1856). An English geologist, who used catastrophes as a method of reconciling the evidence of fossils and geology with the Biblical account of the creation.

buckler. A shield, especially one that is small and round.

bucranium. A decoration in Roman architecture, an ox skull. It is most frequently seen on altars and temple friezes.

budding, generation by. A process by which new groups are formed. A part of a group may leave in order to obtain more subsistence, although it still recalls the relatives and ancestor of the original group. Descent continues in both areas and ultimately the ancestor is not recalled, so that the lineage (q.v.) has been superceded by the clan (q.v.).

budgerew. See BADJARA.

Buffon, George Louis (1707-1788). A French naturalist who emphasized that human beings constitute a species that became broken down into several subgroups.

Buhl. A minor glacial advance following the fourth, or Würm (q.v.), glacial period, and occurring ca. 18,500 B.C.

builders, mound. Prehistoric peoples who were widely scattered over the eastern half of the United States. They are named for their practice of building burial mounds.

building ceremony. See CEREMONY, BUILDING.

Bukvitsa. A modified version of the Cyrillic (q.v.) alphabet, which displays influences of the Glagolitic (q.v.) alphabet. It was formerly used by Catholic Slavs in Bosnia and Dalmatia.

bula. A small vodun (q.v.) ceremonial drum, about 8 inches wide and 18 inches high.

bull, winged. A symbolic animal of ancient Assyria used as a representation of force and domination. It had a bull’s body, wings, and a human head. The winged bull appears frequently in sculptured form and is placed so as to guard the doors of a palace.

bulla. A locket or pendant worn around the neck by Roman children as an amulet (q.v.). Protection was believed to be effected by the precious material from which the bulla was made or by some substance enclosed within it.

bullock. A castrated bull; a young bull.

bumpkin. On a sailboat, a spar which attaches to and projects from the stern.

bun. A Congo term for soul.

bundle, ceremonial. A bundle containing paraphernalia supposed to have supernatural properties. Among certain of the American Indians, these bundles were considered to be links between the individual and the source of his spiritual power.

bundle, diplomatic. See STICK, DIPLOMATS’.

bundle, medicine. A package of objects, used by some North American Indian tribes and believed to have special magical or ritualistic properties. Medicine bundles were the property of either an individual or a group and were usually enclosed in a skin cover. The source of these bundles stems from supernatural persons. They may be kept in special places. Sometimes they were sold.

bundling. An early country practice in parts of Western Europe and New England. Bundling consisted of engaged couples, or others, lying dressed in the same bed in order to save fuel when on visits.

buni. Harplike Egyptian musical instrument made from a hollow sound box covered with parchment. The strings are stretched on a rod that goes through the center. Twisted cords with tassels on them increase the tension of the strings for tuning.

bunodont. Referring to a tooth with a rounded cusp, used mainly for grinding.

bunt. An arrowhead with a round or square rather than a flat end.

burdock. A plant widely used to cure fever, colic, and ringworm.

burén. A circular pottery griddle used by the Indians of the Caribbean area to bake manioc cakes.

burial. The ceremonial interment of a corpse, probably first occurring in Mousterian times.

burial, bundle. A bundle of defleshed and disarticulated bones tied or wrapped together for burial.

burial, chariot. Burying a warrior along with his chariot. It is found in the late Hallstatt (q.v.) epoch, north of the Alps. The chariots were mostly four-wheeled, light, and luxurious. The harness gear was not usually buried.

burial, collective. A burials in which two or more bodies were put in the same grave or tomb.

burial, contracted. See POSITION, CONTRACTED.

burial, crossroads. The practice of burying suicides or criminals at crossroads. Some early European groups offered human sacrifices at crossroads altars.

burial, extended. Burial in which the body rests on its back in an extended position.

burial, flexed. A form of burial in which the arms or legs or both are bent, making the corpse more compact and easier to inter.

burial, niche. A form of burial in which the body is placed in a niche lateral to the grave shaft. It is found in many parts of the world.

burial, olla. A method of interment wherein the body is placed in a large urn and set in a subterranean chamber, practiced by the Zapotec Indians. Excavations at the Tres Zapotes site in the early 1940s unearthed five complete ollas.

burial, platform. A method of disposing of the dead in which the body is placed on a platform above the ground and left to be defleshed by scavengers.

burial, secondary. A final burying of a person’s bones, after the first temporary burial during which the flesh has decomposed. Secondary burial has been found in many parts of the world. The bones are usually concentrated in packages or in a skin.

burial, tree. The practice of putting a corpse inside the hollow trunk of a tree or on a platform constructed among the branches. Tree burial was common among certain North American Indian tribes. The body was done away with by carnivorous birds and natural decay.

burial, urn. Placing corpses or their ashes in vessels. The urn was either sealed by a slab or stone or by an urn placed over it, mouth to mouth.

burial, water. A method of body disposal in which the deceased is either cast into an ocean or set adrift in a boat.

burin. A flake tool for sculpturing or engraving. Basically it consists of a blade with the sides sliced obliquely at one end so that they form a narrow chisel edge when they meet. There were over 20 major kinds of burin. They were especially associated with the Upper Paleolithic cultures. The burin is pointed by a facet being removed along an edge in such a manner that it can be repointed again merely by removing another facet. See TECHNIQUE, BURIN.

burin busque. A nosed flint graver (q.v.) found in Aurignacian times.

burin-ciseau. See CHISEL, ENGRAVER.

burin, ordinary or burin en-bec-de-flûte. A small, straight-edged chisel.

burití. Any of a number of palms of the genus Mauritia with fan-shaped leaves widely used by natives of the tropical forest of South America, especially for making cordage and for thatching roofs. These palms are also called mirití or iti.

burumbi. A circular dwelling of the East Congo made of banana leaves.

Burushaski. A language sometimes considered to be related to the Dravidian or Munda languages, but more currently held to be unrelated to any other language. It is spoken in northwestern India.

busby. A large bushy wig; or a high fur hat worn by English hussars, with a bag with the regimental facings hanging from the right.

Bushmen. Geographically, members of the Bushman-Hottentot pygmy population, speaking Bushman languages of the Khoisan stock. These are food-gathering groups in South Africa. Their physical traits include yellowish skin, steatopygy (q.v.), thin lips, short stature, slight prognathism (q.v.), broad nose, narrow head, slight body hair, and tufted hair. It has been suggested that the Bushmen and Asiatic pygmies may have left a hypothetical native country, with the Bushmen migrating south and the pgymies going east. Bushmen culture has received many foreign influences. In moving to South Africa, the Bushmen may have met with an earlier Caucasoid group, the Strandloopers. The Bushmen have been regarded as degenerate Negroids or as relics of a Eurafrican-steppe hunting culture. See PYGMY.

busk. A Creek celebration in which there is a pardon for previous injuries and crimes. It is an annual harvest observance in which there are rites for the purposes of new fire and purification (qq.v.). The busk is also called the green-corn dance.

busked. Referring to a shape like the nose of an animal (e.g., a horse) in profile; a kind of Upper Paleolithic graver.

buso. An evil spirit among the Bagobo.

Busycon. A large conch shell found in Florida and the area of the Gulf of Mexico and used by Indians to make trumpets, ladles, dishes, gorgets, and other implements.

butt, faceted. A flake the striking platform (q.v.) of which has been part of the steep end of a tortoise core (q.v.) and is crossed by portions of the preparatory flake scars.

butter. A food made by skimming and churning cream.

buttress. Outside support built against a wall designed to counteract the pressure exerted by an inside arch or vault.

buxea tibia. An ancient flutelike musical instrument made of boxwood and with three finger holes.

Buzu. The sedentary slave class among the Tuareg.

buzzer. A toy consisting of a disk with two perforations through which two cords are passed. When the cords are twisted and untwisted rapidly, a buzzing sound is produced. The buzzer was used by the Indians throughout the Americas aboriginally and occurs also among the Australian natives. See ROARER, BULL.

byssus. In ancient Egypt, winding sheets in which dead bodies were wrapped in the last stages of mummification; also mummy cloth (q.v.).