I
I fraction. The ratio between the time in which air is inhaled (I) and the duration of the entire respiratory circle (D). It is from .04 to .45 in ordinary breathing and about .16 in speech.
ibâda. In Islam, during the Middle Ages, the view that man’s task and goal was the service of God.
Ibn Khaldun (1322-1406). A Mohammedan scholar whose writings on North Africa and Arabia are valuable ethnographical sources.
IC. See CONSTITUENT, IMMEDIATE.
ice, drift. A floating ice pack.
ice, landfast. See ICE, SHORE.
ice, needle. Ice formed from fresh water that freezes and breaks up in the spring into crystals as long as the original ice was thick. The ends of the crystals are very sharp.
ice, old. Ice dating from the preceding year or years. It has angular hummocks and pressure ridges.
ice, paleocrystic. Ice that is a number of years old. Thaws and rains will have rounded its fracture angles.
ice, pressure. Ice broken by the pressure of currents or of wind. It may be in hummocks or ridges.
ice, shore or ice, landfast. Ice one end of which touches the beach, while the other meets the ice pack.
ice, young. Ice that has been formed recently and is too weak to support a man walking on it. It usually refers to ice made of salt water.
ich-kanava. The long migration myths of the Mohave Indians.
ichthyomancy. The art of divination (q.v.) from indications in the entrails of fishes.
ichthyosis. Having a scaly skin. It is a sex-linked condition, chiefly in males.
iconoclasm. A hostility to images, found, e.g., in Ikhnaton’s substituting the sun for other gods ca. 1375 B.C. and in the Old Testament prophets’ attacks on image worship.
iconogenetic. Referring to eyes that form images, so that they gather information about light as well as about the objects from which the light is reflected. Iconogenetic eyes are found in complex animals.
iconology. The branch of art history that attempts to analyze the subject matter portrayed by artists without taking into account the personalities of the creators.
ideas, elementary. Bastian’s concept of inherent unconscious psychic processes that are common to all mankind.
identic. Referring to a declensional case that shows likeness, sameness, or identity. It is found in certain non-Indo-European languages.
ideograph. A written symbol for a word that conveys the idea intended rather than the sound. Thus the Chinese character meaning “well” or “happy” combines elements representing a woman and a son, since, according to the traditional etymology, the mother-son relationship is the happiest state conceivable.
ideophone. A vocable in the languages of the Bantu group the purpose of which is to modify a term of the utterance.
idiographic. Referring to a study the purpose of which is to establish particular, specific, or factual propositions or statements. See NOMOTHETIC.
idiokinesis. A process of change in a person’s hereditary characteristics.
idiolect. The variety of a language that is peculiar to the individual.
idiom. Any distinctive utterance peculiar to a language that communicates a particular meaning, which is sometimes opposed to, and not necessarily explained by, the syntactical rules and is not equivalent to the additive meaning of the component parts, e.g., to wear a chip on one’s shoulder. An idiom is also the general character of a language.
idiophone. A musical instrument with which the player creates the vibration in the instrument itself, e.g., xylophone or gong.
idol. A three-dimensional representation of a man or an animal which is believed to be the seat or receptacle of a supernatural entity and before which appropriate acts of worship are performed. Early man, attributing special power to some specific objects, often expressed his anthropomorphism by cutting human features in a stone or tree, thus making it sacred. In Egypt, composite human-animal figures, like the sphinx, are also found. Having spirits within them, idols were often believed to show signs of being alive, e.g., by winking or turning the head. It has been suggested that the word idol should not be used because of derogatory associations.
idol, dolmen. A type of stone standing on one end and found from Morocco to Troy. A dolmen idol is shaped to resemble a human figure.
idolatry. The worship of idols. The practice may have had its origin in Aurignacian times, and have expanded into the eastern Mediterranean area.
igloo. An Eskimo snowhouse (q.v.), often dome-shaped. In Eskimo terminology an igloo is any shelter for humans or animals, and thus to the Eskimo a cathedral could be an igloo. Some travelers designate by igloo the type of Eskimo house they know best. Accordingly, Stefansson suggests that the word has almost lost its meaning and that more specific words be used wherever possible.
igname. The sweet potato in New Caledonia.
ignis fatuus. The pale flame seen over marshy grounds. It is often explained on the basis of disintegrating organic matter which causes spontaneous ignition of marsh gases.
ikat. A silk chine fabric of southeast Asia. See DYEING, IKAT.
ilium. The upper portion of the hip bone.
illa. Amulets and similar devices among the Incas and their descendants.
image. A representation of another object, often invested with special properties by early man. See MAGIC, SYMPATHETIC; IDOL.
image, divining. A carving, usually of wood, used in Africa and Central America for magic.
imagery, apotropaic. Any symbolic representation the purpose of which is to ward off demons or evil influences. Quite frequently it takes the form of staring eyes (related to hypnotism). Apotropaic imagery exists in most primitive cultures and is based on the assumption that any likeness has the power of what it represents.
Imam. The head of a mosque.
imbrication. Overlapping the edges, as in laying tiles; or any elaboration of structure.
immortality. Living indefinitely, or living after death in some place other than on earth. It is possible to infer that very early man believed in immortality, on the basis of burial customs, which preserve the body so that there may be a place for the soul.
impaction. A tooth’s being embedded in the alveolus so that eruption is prevented.
impaling. An ancient form of capital punishment. Either a stake was driven into the body below the breast bone, or the victim was thrown onto stakes or spears set in the ground.
impastation. Making a paste from the ingredients of a ceramic mixture.
impasto. The prepared clay used to make pottery.
implement. An object with which work can be accomplished.
implements, Yuma. Projectile points that are longer and narrower than the Folsom point (q.v.). Yuma implements are unfluted.
implosion. A temporary articulation of the speech organs in such a way that there is no exit for breath and the closure is effected. See STOP.
impossibilities. In folklore, tasks that are impossible or silly.
impregnation, magical. Conception through processes not usually associated with conception, like Danae’s being impregnated by Zeus in the form of a shower of gold.
impulse, decorative. A hypothetical drive for self-ornamentation, which, according to some theorists, is responsible for the origins of clothing.
in norma verticali. Viewing a skull from above, in order to classify it. The Italian anthropologist Sergi, particularly, has used this as a race criterion, instead of the cephalic index (q.v.).
inao. Among the Ainu, a whittled stick used for ceremonies.
inbreeding. The marriage and reproduction of close relatives. It is popularly believed to deteriorate a strain, but it may also effect an improvement. Recent studies have shown that inbred stocks, like the Hawaiian royal family, may be physically superior.
Inca. One of three archaeological periods in Andean cultural development, dated ca. 1400 A.D. The civilization was based on intensive agriculture, with foods preserved and stored. There were basketry, weaving, ceramics, metallurgy, stoneworking, building, water transportation, and good roads. The class division was rigid, with the Inca class on top. Its members were of the royal lineage and were considered descendants of the sun. Religion was in state hands, and the sun temple was the center of political and social controls. War was conducted for political conquest and the vanquished peoples were forced to pay tribute. The conquest empire reached from mid-Ecuador to mid-Chile. The Inca Empire was an example of a planned economy and welfare state. Defeated enemies who could not be absorbed into Inca society were exterminated. The Empire was destroyed by Francisco Pizarro and his comrades. See ROADS, CLASSIFICATION OF.
incantation. Saying or singing special phrases in order to get a special power to take effect, e.g., bewitching someone or exorcising a demon. The words in an incantation are believed to have a magical effect when recited.
incarnation. The process by which a deity takes over or inhabits temporarily, or for the full span of its life, a human or animal body. The authority for this exchange is received by direct contact with the gods in a number of different forms, e.g., vision, possession by the Holy Spirit, lineal descent from the deity, or endowment with divine illumination. The idea of incarnation is present in all religions. In ancient Persia, the kings were crowned with the “royal glory” or the “divine light” of the Moslem Imams. Egyp-tion Pharaohs were divine because the sun god Re inhabited their bodies in order to impregnate the queen. Greek religion and myth abound in stories of temporary incarnations of the gods, such as the frequent appearance of Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo in other forms.
In Hinduism, the beneficent god Vishnu is the most frequent hero of incarnation stories. His coming commonly accompanies the sinking of the world into decay, the rise of iniquity, and desperate need. He functions in those perilous times as a teacher and savior. An incarnation of Vishnu is spoken of as being his avatar.
In early Buddhist theology, the emphasis was upon salvation without the help of the gods, but later the Bodhisattva was defined as a human being who had acquired superhuman powers by his rigorous disciplines on the road toward Buddhahood. Whenever the world is covered with darkness, truth is obscured, and mankind is going downhill, one of these Bodhisattvas appears.
Jesus, the Christian savior, was recognized as a god in the early second century. Since one of the primary concepts of Christianity is monotheism, Christ was maintained to be an incarnation of the divine being. To preserve the monotheistic framework, he was defined as one of the three “persons” comprising the unitary God.
The purpose of these stories of divine incarnation seems to have been manifold—to elevate great men, to unify religions of diverse origins, to give the value of a god to a savior, or to bring the protection and assistance of the divine being closer to mankind by presenting it in human form.
incense. An aromatic substance given off by certain trees and used in worship. It was believed that the incense was desired by the god, and it has been suggested that its fragrance showed it had a supernatural quality that made it the god’s property. Its ability to dispel odors might have been regarded as a means of driving away demons.
incense cup. See CUP, INCENSE.
incest. Sexual or marital relations between two persons so related that their marrying is prohibited. Incest prohibitions exist in all human societies. In more than 200 studied by Murdock, not one allowed marriage between father and daughter, brother and sister, and mother and son. A few societies permitted a purely sexual relationship, as opposed to a marriage, outside the primary relationship.
The Inca, and Hawaiian nobility probably had brother-sister incest. Sometimes marriage is permitted between partly collateral relations: Marquesan society allowed men to marry their mothers-in-law; in parts of Sumatra a man can marry a half sister by the same father; in Haida society a man could marry his brother’s daughter.
Society decides on the delimitation of incest, which always extends beyond the nuclear family although the taboo is intensest there. There is a high positive correlation between incest taboos and kinship groupings. The incest taboos are emotional and intense and their sanctions are usually religious. They are often violated, especially in fairly modern times, but are enforced with some vigor in many early societies because of the power of affinal ties and because of the great role of kinship in societies with a weak political framework. The horror with which incest has long been regarded is seen in the extent to which duplicity is deemed necessary to entice another person into incest, in the Old Testament. Absalom raped his sister Tamar but only by pretending to be sick, so that she nursed him, and Lot’s two daughters cohabited with Lot only by getting him drunk first, after their husbands had been killed.
Although a great many theories to explain incest have been put forth, no one theory is universally accepted. Freud, writing of a hypothetical primitive society in which the father forced the sons to leave the home, suggested that the sons’ desire for the mother had to be suppressed so that the strength of their revulsion would make them seek outside women. Westermarck maintained that it is biologically bad to interbreed and that to this factor was added the condition of revulsion provoked by familiarity and contiguity, as in avoidance (q.v.).
Briffault’s theory is based on his concept of an early matriarchate (q.v.) in which the mother keeps her sons from women except those at home, with the sons breaking away from the jealous mother and marrying women from outside the home.
Economic determinists explain incest prohibitions as due to simple desire for gain, with early marriage serving the social purpose of realigning property concentrations. A sexual alliance within a family reduced the possibility of increasing the wealth of the family through profitable exogamy (q.v.) Proponents of this view cite the politically inspired marriages of European royalty as modern extensions of this ancient principle.
The Tylor-White theory of incest has it that one must “marry out or be killed off.” Marrying out of the group permits its extension to include outside groups so that enemies are eliminated and persons who marry out of their group last longer. Marriage occurs between groups rather than individuals in this theory.
The Wilson Wallis theory emphasizes that the consanguineal kin unit is the basic co-operative unit, and that there is no evidence dealing with the relationship between affinal groups. A numerical disparity led to looking outside the group for mates, and the simple unavailability of partners caused persons to marry outside the family in order to get a spouse. The Malinowski-Seligman theory is that an institutionalized incest taboo arises because of the necessity for eliminating intra-family sexual rivalry, as there are males and females who are mutually attractive and must be separated, lest spouses spend too much time watching one another. Brenda Seligman’s theory is that every member in a family has a vested interest in his own sexual prerogatives and excludes the children of his own sex from sexual access to the other spouse and to the siblings of opposite sex.
In general, the punishment for incest is related to the social disequilibrium caused rather than to the resultant intra-family difficulties. Except in advanced societies, the punishment is usually not penal but social in its nature.
incest, dynastic. In some royal families, the arrangement of marriages between close relatives whose marriage would otherwise be forbidden by the general incest prohibition. Dynastic incest existed among the Ptolemies, who inherited the empire of Alexander the Great from Ptolemy I, a general in Alexander’s army. The Ptolemies, who were Macedonians, frequently married their own full sisters.
In the ancient East and especially in Egypt, kings sometimes married their half-sisters. This was done because the surviving female member of a royal family, often the daughter of a main royal wife, might have a more legitimate claim to the throne than the surviving heir-apparent or king who might be the son of a second wife. In order to strengthen his claim to the throne, he thus married his half-sister for dynastic reasons. Cleopatra thus married her oldest brother, and after his death married her younger brother, with both brothers reigning by right of the marriage, just as Julius Caesar may have married the queen to be acknowledged as ruler.
incision. A mutilation (q.v.) performed on males. It consists of making a longitudinal slit in the dorsal part of the prepuce. It is often associated with initiation activities. See SUBINCISION.
incisors. One of two teeth with a cutting edge and a spatulate form in the front of the jaws on each side. They are used to bite off food, which is then moved to the back for the grinding teeth.
incisor, shovel-shape. An incisor that has a shovel shape because of a thickened rim around the lateral and lower borders on the inside. Hrdlicka suggested that only enamel participates in the formation of the ridge but more recent work has shown that the dentine also participates. The shovel-shape incisor is widely found among Mongoloids. It is also found in Sinanthropus pekinensis (q.v.), which is one reason why Sinanthropus is believed to be a Mongoloid precursor.
incorporation. Using noun-derived primary affixes to express the object of a verb, as in Nahuatl.
indemnity. An object of value which one individual or group gives to another so as to cancel out or eliminate rights of the recipient that have been infringed. Indemnities are obligatory in specific circumstances.
index. The relationship, mathematically expressed, between two anatomical measurements.
index, acrocranic. A cranial breadth-height index (q.v.) that is more than 98.
index, acromio-cristal. The bi-cristal breadth multiplied by 100 and divided by the bi-acromial breadth.
index, bodily fullness. The relation between height and weight. It is the result of the division of the weight by the stature’s cube and then multiplying the result by 100. Age and sex are linked with this index.
index, brachial. The length of the forearm multiplied by 100 and divided by the length of the upper arm.
index, cephalic. The relation between the maximum breadth and maximum length of the head, measured from the glabella (q.v.) to the farthest occipital (q.v.) and computed by multiplying the breadth by 100 and dividing by the length. If the cephalic index is 90, then the breadth of the skull is 90 per cent of its length. The index is two points higher on the living than the dry skull, because of the tissues on the side of the head. The cephalic index is inherited, but its genetics are not clear. The index is established around the time of birth and shows no consistent postnatal change, but it is subject to modification with certain limits. Thus, the increase in the height of the children of Europeans in the United States tends to lower the index because the length of the head is more positively correlated than is head breadth with stature. The index is also modifiable by artificial deformation of the head.
In central and east Europe, and perhaps Polynesia, round-headedness may be associated with some constitutional or other qualities that have survival value. See DOLICHOCEPHALIC; BRACHYCEPHALIC; MESOCEPHALIC.
index, cranial. The relation between the maximum breadth and maximum length of the skull, from the glabella (q.v.) to the most distant occipital (q.v.) point computed by multiplying the breadth by 100 and dividing by the length.
index, cranial breadth-height. The height from bregma (q.v.) to basion (q.v.) multiplied by 100 and divided by its maximum breadth.
index, cranial length-height. The height from bregma (q.v.) to basion (q.v.) multiplied by 100 and divided by its maximum length.
index, crural. The length of the shin multiplied by 100 and divided by the length of the thigh.
index, facial. The total height of the face multiplied by 100 and divided by its breadth, measured from nasion (q.v.) to gnathion (q.v.) and from zygion (q.v.) to zygion. The facial index is not so useful as the cranial index (q.v.) because it is more susceptible to change due to age, function, and sex. In general, prehistoric man probably had a longer and narrower face than more recent groups.
index, femero-humeral. The length of the upper arm multiplied by 100 and divided by the length of the thigh.
index, forearm-hand. The hand length multiplied by 100 and divided by the length of the forearm.
index, gnathic. The endobasion-prosthion distance divided by the endobasion-nasion distance and multiplied by 100.
index, hand. The hand breadth multiplied by 100 and divided by the length of the hand.
index, intermembral. The length of the entire arm multiplied by 100 and divided by the length of the whole leg.
index, ischium-pubis. The pubis length multiplied by 100 and divided by the length of the ischium.
index, length-breadth sacral. The anterior sacral breadth multiplied by 100 and divided by the anterior sacral length.
index, lower leg-foot. The length of the foot multiplied by 100 and divided by the length of the lower leg.
index, Manouvrier’s skelic. See INDEX, STEM-LEG LENGTH.
index, maxillo-alveolar. The bi-ectomolare breadth multiplied by 100 and divided by the maxillo-alveolar length.
index, morphological. Naccarati’s index of the relation of height to weight.
index, nasal. The relation between the length and width of the nose. This is determined by multiplying the greatest nasal breadth of the nasal aperture by 100 and dividing by the nasospinale-nasion height. The nasal index is based on so many factors that it is not widely used in genetic analysis. The nose form is affected by the temperature of the air which a person breathes habitually. The nasal index is related to sex as well as age. A woman’s nose is likely to be shorter and broader than a man’s. The nasal index grows smaller as the person grows older.
index, orbital. The greatest orbital breadth multiplied by 100 and divided by the greatest orbital length.
index, palatal. The greatest palatal breadth multiplied by 100 and divided by the maximum palatal length.
index, pelvic breadth-height. The greatest pelvic height multiplied by 100 and divided by the greatest pelvic breadth.
index, pelvic inlet. The sagittal diameter of the pelvic inlet multiplied by 100 and divided by the transverse diameter of the pelvic inlet.
index, pilastric. A cross-sectional index of the femur (q.v.) established at the middle of the shaft.
index, platycnemic. A cross-sectional index of the tibia (q.v.), established at the middle of the shaft.
index, platymeric. The anterior-posterior platymer diameter multiplied by 100 and divided by the medio-lateral diameter.
index, sicklemia. A measure of the extent of sicklemia (q.v.) in the blood, determined by using vaseline to seal a drop of blood between the cover slip and slide. If sodium hydrosulfite is used the process takes only about 15 minutes instead of several hours as with vaseline.
index, stem-leg length. The leg length multiplied by 100 and divided by the length of the stem, i.e., the sitting height or the height from the top of the head to the pubic symphysis. The stem-leg length index is also known as Manouvrier’s skelic index.
index, thoracic. The depth of the chest multiplied by 100 and divided by the breadth.
index, tibio-femoral. The length of the lower leg multiplied by 100 and divided by the length of the thigh.
index, tibio-radial. The length of the forearm multiplied by 100 and divided by the length of the lower leg.
index, total facial. The height from gnathion (q.v.) to nasion (q.v.) multiplied by 100 and divided by the bizygomatic breadth (q.v.).
index, trunk. The bi-acromial breadth (q.v.) multiplied by 100 and divided by the sitting suprasternal height (q.v.).
index, transverse fronto-parietal. The frontotemporale-frontotemporale distance, divided by the euryon-euryon distance and multiplied by 100.
index, upper facial. The height from prosthion (q.v.) to nasion (q.v.) and divided by the bizygomatic breadth (q.v.).
index, vertical lumbar. The sum of the dorsal vertical diameters of the centra, multiplied by 100 and divided by the sum of the ventral vertical diameters.
index, vital. The number of births in a population multiplied by 100 and divided by the number of deaths. If this ratio is over 100, then the population is growing and is biologically healthy. If this ratio is under 100, the population does not show natural biological growth.
Indian, American. 1 A Mongoloid racial stock of composite race, characterized by brown skin, broad face, straight hair, slight body hair, and some prognathism (q.v.). Eye color ranges from dark brown to black. The blood group (q.v.) is almost completely 0, with occasional high A and some B. Man probably arrived in the New World ca. 20,000 to 15,000 years ago. The name comes from a letter of Columbus in February, 1493, where he spoke of “Indios.” 2 The languages of the Western Hemisphere, many of which are now extinct. They are spoken by about 16 million persons, of whom approximately 250,000 live in the United States and Canada. They are structured differently, although many of them are synthesized from many sources so that the common origin is dubious. It is difficult to classify them precisely since little is known about many.
Indians, Blanket. Those American Indians who do not wish to wear modern clothes and prefer their ancestral costume.
Indians, canoe. A name applied to the Yahgan and the Alakaluf of Tierra del Fuego because of their reliance on canoes for fishing and travel.
Indians, Digger. A designation, derogatory in intent, which was applied by white settlers to tribes of the Basin area of the western United States, such as the Paiute, who subsisted largely by digging roots out of the ground.
Indians, White. A hypothetical group of white-skinned Indians in the interior of the United States.
Indic. A branch of the Indo-European family of languages which belongs to the Indo-Iranian group. It is spoken in India and Ceylon. The modern languages are Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Bihari, Marathi, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Gujarati, Oriya, Sindhi, Pahari, Bhili, Khandesi, Assamese, Sinhalese, Kashmiri, Nepali, and Gypsy (Romani). They have all developed from Indic. Classical Sanskrit and the medieval Prakrits are members of this group also.
Indio. A descendant of a preconquest group in Latin America who preserves pre-Conquest language and customs, e.g., a Tarascan of central Mexico.
individual cult. See CULT, INDIVIDUAL.
Indo-Chinese. A language family, which includes the languages of China, Burma, Tibet, and Siam.
Indo-European. A language family which includes the Germanic, Italic, Celtic, Baltic, Slavic, Albanian, Greek, and Indo-Iranian subfamilies. The comparative method was developed largely in the study of this family, and to this day comparative linguistics is often identified with Indo-European comparative studies. Indo-European includes the classical or inflected languages, in which ample use is made of affixes and in which roots are often subject to alteration depending on the affix. The source of the Indo-European languages has been variously identified as the Baltic coastline, Southern Russia, and elsewhere.
Indonesia. An island group of Oceania (q.v.), consisting of Sumatra, Java, the Celebes, the Philippines, and Indonesia. The degree to which its flora and fauna are coterminous with the Asiatic mainland probably indicates that some of the islands were only fairly recently separated from the mainland. The Indonesians are mostly Mongoloid, although there are some Negritos on the Philippines and the Andaman Islands.
Indonesian. 1 In physical anthropology, an attenuated Mongoloid type of man, showing some Caucasoid elements, followed by Malays, who are truer Mongoloids. The Indonesians are often called proto- or deutero-Malays. 2 In linguistics, the subfamily of the Malayo-Polynesian family of languages, which includes at least 200 languages and dialects, chief among which are Malay, Javanese, Balinese, Batak, Bicol, Bisaya, Bontok, Buginese, Dayak, Formosan, Ilocano, Macassar, Ma-duran, Malagasy, Sundanese, and Tagalog.
induration. The process of hardening.
industry. A collection of artifacts of the same age found at a given site constitute the site’s industry. If a site was inhabited successively, so that there are artifacts belonging to different ages, the one site represents different industries. inessive. In linguistics, referring to a case in languages such as Finno-Ugric that means the same as the English preposition in or within.
infanticide. The practice of killing infants at birth or soon after. It is still found in some societies and used to be fairly common, i.e., the Polynesians killed two thirds of their children for economic reasons. The West African Jagas formerly killed all children who might otherwise hinder their marches. Some peoples have practiced infanticide for motives of religion, cannibalism, or economy, including the destruction of infants with physical defects that would hinder their usefulness. Suffocation, choking, drowning, and exposure are the usual methods.
infantilization. The arrest of the development of the organism at an infantile stage.
infection. In linguistics, a vowel change due to the influence of a near-by vowel.
infibulation. Attaching a device to the female genitals to prevent sexual intercourse, or an operation on the female genitals, often in order to make sexual intercourse more difficult. Sometimes infibulation is accomplished by partially sewing the edges of the labia majora together.
infinite, idea of the. The view that the major phenomena of nature cause an idea of the infinite to arise in early man. According to Max Müller, such phenomena as sun, sky, and wind gave rise to this idea, which led to the beginning of religion. Müller’s views were based on his erroneous assumption that the Vedas were the productions of primitive men, so that he imputed to very early men powers of abstraction which they probably did not have.
infixation. The process of affixation within a word. An infix is a morpheme (q.v.) which is inserted within a root. Infixes are common in Semitic languages.
inflection. The syntactical term denoting the practice of adding particular endings to the root of a word in order to show grammatical relationships. This process is found primarily in the synthetic languages and almost never appears in the analytic languages. Inflection is a type of accidence.
inflection, base of. The prime or fundamental form of a word which is augmented with flectional terminae. It is either the root base or the stem base.
informant. A person who assists the anthropologist studying a group by answering questions, providing background information, and engaging in discussions. There is usually more than one informant in each group, in order to give the field worker the benefit of varied points of view. In linguistics, an informant is a native speaker of the language under study who demonstrates the sounds, indicates words, typical utterances, etc. He does not explain the grammar or structure of the language, but provides the linguist with the material necessary for a scientific description.
ingada. An Arunta chief.
Ingiet. A secret society of New Britain.
in-group. A group of persons as seen from the viewpoint of a member of the group, in contrast with other groups and persons who are not members of the group.
inheritance. The procedures that apply to the transmission of property, such as matrilineal or patrilineal, depending on whether the male or female line is followed. Although inheritance refers only to the succession of the living to the property of the dead, transfering property during life will affect it. The rules of inheritance show a person’s obligation to his relatives and his desire to indicate choice in disposing of his property. Rules of inheritance usually emphasize an obligation to one’s relatives. Most early societies do not have inheritance by will.
inheritance, avuncular. The transmission of property and privileges to a man from his mother’s brother upon the death of the latter.
inheritance, collateral. The practice of having siblings inherit property from each other rather than having the children of the sibling inherit it.
inheritance, Darwinian. Inheritance of physical characteristics in accordance with Darwin’s theory of natural selection. In Darwin’s view, the variations which arise by chance in a species’ form or function persist only if suited to the environment, so that the variations which best fit the organism to survive are perpetuated.
inheritance, lateral. The transmission of property to a collateral relative of the deceased, especially a person of the same generation, as from a man to his brother. See INHERITANCE, LINEAL.
inheritance, lineal. The transmission of property to a lineal descendent of the deceased, as from a man to his son. See INHERITANCE, LATERAL.
inhumation. Burial of the dead.
inhumist. Referring to a group or society that buries its dead.
ini. See SNOWHOUSE.
inion. The base of the occipital external protuberance of the skull, on the back of the skull. It is the point at which two ridges made by neck-muscle attachments meet.
initiation. The transition and attendant ceremonies, such as ordeals and rites, involved in passing from one state or status to another. An example is obtaining membership in a secret society (q.v.). The ordeal (q.v.) measures the initiate’s worthiness to enter his new status. Initiation may mean the cessation of contact with noninitiates. Many early societies had grade initiations. Their purpose was both to induct the young person into the full status of an adult and into the group’s religion. The elders usually arrange and handle the ceremonies. They are usually mandatory and not going through the rites may mean disgrace. Aliens are usually excluded, while almost all of a tribe attends. The ceremony of initiation is among the leading social institutions of early man. Seclusion, mutilation, symbolic representation of death and resurrection, the display of some sacred objects, special instruction, and restrictions on the young person are frequent characteristics of initiation ceremonies. See RITES DE PASSAGE.
innominate. An irregular large bone formed by the fusion of three of the pelvic bones.
inscription, house. A legend written on a dwelling or other building, often near its entrance, and often containing sacred inscriptions.
insectivores. A small mammalian insect-eating order. It has been suggested that primates (q.v.) may have arisen from such insectivores as the tree shrew.
inselberg. An isolated desert rocky hill.
insolation. The energy that the earth receives from the sun.
instinct. A key inherited drive in higher animals, the existence of which among humans is debatable. Several thousand presumed instincts have been listed, but the current tendency is to use the concept of a physiological drive rather than instinct in explaining apparently automatic and unlearned behavior.
institution. A fairly permanent cluster of social usages. It is a reasonably enduring, complex, integrated pattern of behavior by which social control is exerted and through which basic social desires or needs can be met.
instrument, percussion. A musical instrument, including objects of any shape or size, from which sound is elicited by striking either with the hand, a stick, or other beating device. Simpler examples of the percussion instrument, such as the drum, gong, and triangle, usually provide accompaniment for other instruments. However, the piano, which is the most complex of percussion instruments, is a solo instrument in its own right.
instrument, stringed. A musical instrument that has a resonator to amplify the sound made by plucking or picking with a bow. A calabash, or even the player’s chest, may serve this purpose. The musical bow, which consists of a string that is plucked while the other hand produces pitch changes by varying the length of the part allowed to vibrate, is the most elementary stringed instrument. Stringed instruments are less widely used by early man than wind and percussion instruments. String instruments are usually classified by the technique used to set the strings in vibration, i.e., plucked strings (plucked or strummed by fingers or plectrum, or hammer-struck), bowed strings, and struck strings (finger plays on a keyboard).
instrument, valve. A musical instrument played by a valve mechanism used to establish vibrations in the air column produced inside the instrument by blowing.
instrument, wind. An instrument in which the player blows into a device. Wind instruments are particularly useful to musicologists because they show the scales and intervals of the music of extinct peoples. Some wind instruments, like the trumpet, may be used for signalling.
intaglio. A gem with the design cut in, so that an impression made from the stone duplicates the design in relief. Intaglios were frequently used for seals.
intensification, rites of. Ceremonial activities that hinge on community-wide situations, e.g., preparing for the harvest.
intercalation. Adding additional days to the calendar in order to make it coincide with the solar year. An example is the day added to February every fourth year in the Julian calendar.
interdental. An articulation made by the tongue placed between the lower and the upper teeth, e.g., θ.
interdigitation. Interlocking, as two hands the fingers of which are joined.
interglacial. The period between major glaciations.
intergrade. A mixture of races that shows characteristics of two or more. Intergrades often arise from an admixture of contiguous populations. The existence of intergrades has emphasized the difficulty of race classification.
interjection. A word or phrase that mainly occurs as a minor sentence (q.v.) and is mainly used by parataxis (q.v.), e.g., aha.
interjectional. Referring to the theory that language originally arose as a response to emotional stress that elicited interjections that in turn gave rise to words. The term pooh-pooh is sometimes applied to this theory.
Interlingua. An international artificial language, based on modified Latin. Giuseppi Peano invented it in 1903.
interpretation, dream. Lincoln has suggested that nonliterates either interpret the explicit manifest content of a dream without looking for latent meanings, like the Huron, or go beyond the explicit manifest content and look for latent symbolic meaning, like the Ashanti. The concept that different groups have of dreams varies, but dreams do appear to be important in many cultures. Tylor (q.v.) first emphasized how early cultures often gave the dream a reality like that of the external world. See DREAMS, PRIMITIVE.
intersexuality. A blending of feminity and masculinity resulting from an incomplete distinction of secondary and primary sexual characters.
interstadial. The period between glacial phases, within a major glaciation. The three last glacial phases, which are phases of one glaciation, were separated by cool-temperate interstadials.
intervocalic. Referring to a consonant or group of consonants written or spoken between two vowels, e.g., in abacus the b.
intichiuma. A Central Australian ceremony the purpose of which is to supply food and other necessities through certain magical activities apportioned to the various totem groups. The ceremonies usually were directed at supplying more of the edible totem animals. The intichiuma is also called the talu.
intonation. In a sentence or thought unit, the melody or pitch accent used to modify meanings. In English, intonation makes the distinction between statement and question, e.g., He has gone is a statement if the final pitch falls, a question if it rises. In the so-called tonal languages, notably Chinese, the intonation (or tone) is an integral part of each word along with the other phonemes (q.v.).
introvert. A type of person, described by C. G. Jung, who is more concerned about his relationship to himself than with the outside world.
Inuit. The Eskimo name for themselves, literally meaning “men.”
inuksuk. An Eskimo likeness of a man, made by piling up several rocks a few feet high. It is set up to serve as a convenient guidepost for hunting, especially ambushing caribou. These guideposts are 50 to 150 yards apart. Real persons stand in line with the inusksiut (plural) approximately every half mile. When the caribou appear, the real persons begin moving, and evidently the caribou then thinks the inuksiut are humans.
invalidicide. The killing of invalids.
invention. A change or adjustment in objects or practices so that a new kind emerges. Every change in human activity which is deliberate and designed is an invention. The change, according to Dixon, is always new and basically better. Invention may apply to nonmaterial as well as to material culture. See DISCOVERY. Some theorists believe that the presence of similar or identical traits in different cultures may be explained by independent invention instead of by convergence (q.v.) or diffusion (q.v.).
invention, basic. The original and seminal invention of its kind.
invention, improving. An invention designed to add to or modify a basic invention.
invisibility. In folklore, the state of not being seen through the operation of some magical object, such as a cap, cloak, or ring.
invisibility, cap of. An object that permits its wearer to see while remaining invisible. Such objects are found in folklore from different parts of the world, e.g., Hades’ cap, or the northern European Tarnhut.
Io. A god of the Maori who is known only to the upper classes and includes everything in himself.
Ipiutak. An early northwest Eskimo culture from which many stone and carved bone artifacts of Neolithic type have been found near Point Hope, Alaska. This culture appears to have arisen from the earliest Eskimo culture and to have flourished during the first half of the first millennium A.D.
I.Q. See QUOTIENT, INTELLIGENCE.
Iranian. An Indo-European language family related to Sanskrit. Many of the Zoroastrian hymns were written in Iranian.
Iranian Plateau. A white Mediterranean subrace including peoples living in Mesopotamia, Iran, and northwest India. Important traits are prominent cheek bones, a high hooked nose, large skull, long narrow heads and faces, brown eyes, brown or black wavy hair, and considerable hirsuteness.
iron. Iron is harder than bronze, making it desirable for weapons and tools. It is probable that the first iron used was meteoric iron (q.v.), as iron in the native state is otherwise scarce. Its smelting probably began ca. 2000 B.C. south of the Black Sea. It was used industrially in Egypt ca. 13th century B.C. and began replacing bronze in the Aegean ca. 1200-1100 B.C. African Negroes used iron widely, often passing directly from stone to iron. Iron was first fused in Europe in the 15th century A.D. It has been widely used because it can be hammered, cast, or molded in different forms and because of its hardness, strength, and magnetic properties.
Iron is widely used as a charm and its use is often prohibited in religious ceremonies, e.g., the Hebrews did not use it in building altars. Some people regard iron as having come from heaven, e.g., the Egyptians and Babylonians.
It is not known how iron was first discovered. Suggestions are that a piece of ironstone may have been reduced in a campfire, copper rich in iron was smelted, or a metal believed to be tin or lead was smelted inadvertently.
iron, crimping. An iron bar embedded in two parts of a stone wall to hold them together.
iron, meteoric. Iron coming from meteors. This nickeliferous iron was widely used by early man, as most of it is very malleable. Moreover, the dark stones look like copper and might have been used because of this resemblance. Some of these meteor fragments were small and lent themselves to tool-making, e.g., the meteor of Canyon Diablo, Arizona, which is in thousands of small fragments. Attila and the Caliphs also had their “swords from heaven.” The words for iron in ancient languages show that most had a celestial source. In Babylonia, iron is indicated by two characters for “heaven” and “fire.” In Egyptian, iron is represented by “marvel from heaven.”
Iron, Teutonic. The time, ca. 500 B.C., of the merging of the Hal-statt and La Tène periods, primarily in northern Europe and Germany.
iron, wrought. Bloom (q.v.) which has had its slag removed and which has been reheated and beaten into solid pieces.
Iron Age. See AGE, IRON.
Iroquoian. A North American language family. It is found from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Lake Erie, and among some groups in North and South Carolina.
irregular. Referring to grammatical forms that are exceptions to a general statement and that must be presented in a separate list.
irreversibility, law of. The doctrine, based on orthogenesis (q.v.), that a biological group which has become extinct cannot return, that an organ which has lost its physiological usefulness cannot again become useful, and that a species which degenerates into inferior forms cannot become powerful again.
irrigation. Supplying water by artificial means for areas where there is insufficient rainfall.
irrigation, basic. Irrigation resulting from dependence on a river’s natural rise, as in Egypt’s Nile Valley before 1902, when the Aswan dam was built to regulate the river’s rising.
irrigation, perennial. Irrigation that can continue at all seasons because water can be conducted to the fields in irrigation canals and ditches.
ischium. The lower portion of the hip bone. The body weight rests on the ischium when seated.
Islam. The religion of the Moslems, the youngest of the great religions of the world. It arose in Arabia in the seventh century and is largely derived from heretical gnostic Christianity and Judaism. The major dogma of Islam is the absolute unity of Allah.
island, mythical. In folklore, an island where life is ideal and everything is delightful. The Islands of the Blessed, of Greek and Celtic folklore, are typical.
island, speech. A small circumscribed speech community within which all the people speak a different language from the inhabitants of the much larger surrounding area, e.g., the Pennsylvania Germans or the Dutch in New Holland, Michigan.
isobase. An imaginary or map line connecting points which had the same elevation in a given time period, e.g., since the last glacial era.
isocephaly. The systematic distortion of the natural proportions of the subjects of a visual composition so that they will all be of the same height for the purposes of design, e.g., in the classical Greek artistic style.
isogenous. Referring to stemming from the same origin.
isogloss. A line on a dialect map that separates areas with different dialects. Although linguistic differences have their own boundaries, these dialect boundaries are not usually very sharp.
isoglosses, bundle of. A group of isoglosses which runs in the same direction and is fairly contiguous geographically.
isograph. A line drawn on a linguistic map that denotes a likeness in the use of sounds, vocabulary, grammer, or inflection.
isohet. A line connecting all points in an area with the same annual rainfall.
isolation. The separation of one group from similar groups; an individual in a group being apart from, and not organically participating in, the group of which he is nominally a member.
isophenogamy. Mating between persons who resemble each other somatically to a greater degree than would be expected under random mating, e.g., short persons marrying one another.
isopoll. A line that connects points with equal pollen percentages during equal periods of time. The term is applied to fossil pollen.
isostasy. The process by which the earth’s crust gradually rises as glaciation melts.
isotropic. Referring to an object that has the same properties in all directions.
Israel, Lost 10 Tribes of. The unconfirmed belief that King Sargon of Assyria in 721 B.C. sent 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel to captivity. These tribes have been reported in different parts of the world and have been identified with the American Indians, Anglo-Saxons, and other groups.
ithyphallic. Referring to those objects of worship in phallic religions that contain exaggerated sexual organs; more specifically, the phallus carried during the festival of Dionysius. It also refers to a graphic representation of males with erect penes. Thus, Greek vases of the fifth century B.C. often show satyrs with erections in hot pursuit of reluctant nymphs.
Itzcouatl. The first ruler of the Aztec tribes.
ivy. A plant that has been widely used for medicine as well as symbolically. It was sacred in Egypt, crowned victorious athletes in Greece, represents the soul’s immortality in some religions, and also represents the female or fertility.