S

sabertooth. An animal often erroneously cited as an example of maladaptation in evolution. It is contended that its canine tooth became so long that it could not bite and was starved into extinction. Actually, sabertooths are found some 40 million years ago and did not become extinct until about 30,000 years ago. During this period the relative size of the canine tooth did not increase and the variations in size were fairly constant.

sac, amniotic. A membranous sac that encloses the embryo in fluid. It is characteristic of all mammals, including man. It is also called the amnionic sac or the amnion.

sacerdotal. Relating to priestly activities.

sacerdotalism. A religion that has a priesthood as its central force. The term is sometimes derogatorily used to describe a philosophy that permits the clergy and ceremonial activities to take precedence over the deeper moral values contained in the religion.

Sachem. The head or peace chief of a tribe or group of New England Indians; by extension, the head of any group of Indians in northeastern North America.

sacra. Sacred objects.

sacra privata. The ceremonials of family worship in ancient Rome. The father was priest and the children acolytes in observances for the Lares (spirits of ancestors), the Penates (blessers of the family store), and Vesta (goddess of the hearth).

sacra publica. Ceremonials in ancient Rome held on Liberalia (March 16), to mark the Roman youth’s assuming the toga virilis, or manhood. After a ceremony at the family altar and in the public forum, the boy was taken to the Capitol and sacrifices were made to the Roman national gods.

sacrament. A rite that gives a natural function a supernatural authority through sanction or positive blessing. A sacramental rite involves a change in the person present at the ritual or in the person for whom the rite is conducted. A sacrament is sometimes defined as the outward sign of a spiritual state of grace. In the majority of nonliterate societies, marriage is not a sacrament. The Catholic sacraments are baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, penance, marriage, holy orders, and extreme unction. Some Christian rites are not unlike nonliterate rites. Baptism is analogous to an infant’s being received by its group through lustration. Confirmation is analogous to initiation (q.v.) ceremonies. Penance is not unlike the public confession of groups like the Manus. Extreme unction has no immediate analogue but may be related to some rites in which a dead person is helped into an appropriate condition after death, rather than being given a spiritual easing out of life. In early societies, the rites de passage (q.v.) are the most significant sacramental rituals. They involve a permanent change in the person, while a sacramental rite like communion marks a temporary change.

sacrifice. The giving, sometimes including the destruction, of a symbolic offering for religious or sacred purposes. It may consist of food or drink tendered to the object of the sacrifice. Among the explanatory theories is that the sacrifice is a gift to the god for present or future favors. The substitutionary theory has it that sacrifice is a means of atoning for sin, with the sacrificed animal’s death symbolizing the death of the sacrificer. The sacramental theory sees sacrifice as a means of the sacrificer’s attaining a kind of sanctity through the device of the sacrifice. The communion theory suggests that sacrifice is a kind of symbolic eating of the god.

Sacrifice is a major part of early religion and is also found in advanced religions like Shintoism, Brahmanism, Taoism, Buddhism, and others. Food and drink, flowers, incense, and whole burnt animals are widely found offerings and such times as the solstices, the fall, and the new moon are commonly celebrated by sacrifice. Sacrifice is present in almost all ritual observances. The death of the victim may be accomplished in many ways, and the body is usually disposed of in a manner similar to the disposition of the dead in the culture.

sacrifice, arrow. The sacrifice of a flaming arrow by shooting it at the sun. It is found in the southern part of the United States and in Mexico.

sacrifice, building. In ancient times, slaying a person and placing the corpse as a sacrifice in the wall or at the foundation of a new building. This gave the building a protective spirit. The sacrifice was often an especially purchased child. The term foundation sacrifice is also used.

sacrifice, child. A public function involving the ritual killing of a child. The sacrifice usually was not arranged by the parents. Often the victim was the first born, who was destroyed so that additional progeny might be granted.

sacrifice, foundation. See SACRIFICE, BUILDING.

sacrifice, human. Human sacrifice is usually found in comparatively advanced cultures, e.g., the Peruvians. Generally the benefit of the whole community is intended, including such ends as saving crops, stopping epidemics, removing barrenness, and obtaining victory or good weather. A sacrifice may also be a scapegoat (q.v.), a messenger to the gods, or a guarantor of safe passage.

sacrifice, White Dog. The immolation by the Iroquois of a white dog at the New Year. This ceremony was in response to a dream of the god Teharonhiawagon, who personifies life.

sacrum. The fused part of the vertebral column, to which the pelvic girdle and ilia are attached.

sacs, laryngeal. Air sacs, occurring in most anthropoid apes, that communicate with the larynx’ ventricles. They can be inflated.

sadhu. A Hindu holy person or religious teacher. He has a bowl for begging, a staff, rosary, water pot, and brush. He usually wears a light colored robe and often coats his body with ashes. He sleeps outdoors and is buried in a sitting position when he dies, since he is believed to be in a trance.

saga. A historical or legendary story dealing with the early Norse kings. Included are stories of the first settlement of Iceland 930-1030 A.D., sagas of the legendary past, and translations of foreign romances into Scandinavian languages and saga form. Some Norse sagas were orally transmitted before they were recorded.

sagaic. See ASSEGAI.

sagamore. A leader among the Algonkians and other New England Indian groups.

Sagen. In German folklore, tales that deal with historical events.

sagger. A container used to protect fragile pottery during the firing process.

sagittal. Referring to the median antero-posterior plane of the body or a plane parallel thereto.

sago. A dry mealy material or granulated paste that comes from the pith of various palms, like the sago palm, especially in Indonesia.

saguaro. A giant columnar cactus found in Arizona, Mexico, and Central America. Some Indian groups, like the Pima, used it to make a syrup and an intoxicating beverage.

sagum. A hooded cloak of the La Tene period.

saiga. An antelope that resembles a sheep. It is found in steppe country.

sail. The foot of a sail is the lower margin, the luff the anterior margin, the leech the posterior margin, the throat the anterior top corner, the peak the posterior top corner, the tack the anterior bottom corner, and the clew the posterior bottom corner.

sail, lateen. A triangular sail that is extended by a long yard slung to the mast, which is likely to be low. It is found on the Mediterranean and among Arab seamen.

sailing, great circle. Navigation that follows circles with centers at the earth’s center, rather than what would appear to be the shortest course on a map.

St. Elmo’s fire. See FIRE, ST. ELMO’S.

saka. The Hindu year.

sakti. Among Hindus, supernatural power that averts the evil eye or the female component or energy in the gods. In art, it is a triangle that points downward, perhaps symbolizing the male and female forces in a state of harmony (see YIN; YANG). Often, especially in Tibetan art, the unity of the male and female elements is represented by a carnal embrace of the god and his sakti.

salenodont. A flat low unpointed cusp, found on omnivores and herbivores.

salt. Sodium chloride, used to preserve and season food. It is obtained from rock salt, or from certain plant ashes, by boiling salt spring water or brine, or by letting sea water evaporate in flat pans. Early men who lived on fish or meat did not need extra salt for their diet. As vegetables became used for food and there was a move from the sea, salt was more necessary. As a preservative, salt acquired a symbolic meaning of permanence and purity that led to its being used in religious offerings and to affirm important social arrangements.

saltation. In evolution, a new taxonomic group originating in a single step. There has not been any wide acceptance of this evolution by leaps since its promulgation by Schindewolf.

salting. A technique of preserving food by coating it liberally with salt.

salutation, weeping. In South America, greeting those who are coming back from a journey with overt signs of grief. It may represent feelings of commiseration, or the one arriving may be asked to mourn for members of the group who have died.

sambaqui. A prehistoric kitchen midden found on the Brazilian coast.

samisen. A lutelike Japanese musical instrument to accompany songs and dances. It has three strings played with a bone pick.

Samoa. Fourteen volcanic islands in the South Seas inhabited by Polynesians.

Samoyed. A language or dialect group spoken by some 10,000 persons in Asiatic Russia and made up of Yenisei-Samoyed, Ostyak Samoyed, and Sayan (or Southern Samoyed). It is a member of the Finno-Ugric subfamily of the Ural-Altaic family. The Samoyeds call the language Nenets; the Russian, meaning of Samoyed is “cannibal.”

sampan. An open skiff found in the Far East. It is shallow, wedge-shaped, and with a broad beam in the after end. The rail of the gunwale continues beyond the stern as a curved projection facing upward. The sampan is usually sculled with two long handled oars.

samurai. The Japanese lower nobility or military officials.

sanction. A society’s reaction to behavior, either approval (positive sanction) or disapproval (negative sanction). Negative sanctions are generally more definitely outlined than positive.

sanction, legal or sanction, organized. A penalty involving force that may be imposed for the violation of a particular norm.

sanctuary. A place that provides a haven for an accused person, especially against an avenger. It is usually a sacred building or a consecrated grove. The fear of profaning a sacred spot kept pursuers from violating a sanctuary. See REFUGE, CITY OF; ASYLUM.

sandal. A primitive kind of footgear consisting of leather covering the sole of the foot and held in place by thongs crossing the foot.

sandalwood. A compact and closely grained heartwood of an Indo-Malayan parasitic tree (Santalum album). Its wood is fragrant.

sandhi. Phonetic modification and modulation of a word when it is included with other forms. A sandhi-form is the form found when a word is included with others. See FORM, ABSOLUTE.

sandhi, compulsory. A sandhi the usage of which is mandatory, e.g., using an for a before a word beginning with a vowel.

sandhi, optional. A sandhi which is not mandatory because there is an unaltered variant of the form, usually with a more formal implication, e.g., can’t for cannot.

Sandia. Referring to a pre-Folsom culture. It includes some rough side scrapers, end scrapers, cutting tools, and projectile points which are thicker, larger, and heavier than the Folsom point (q.v.) and less finely chipped. Sandia implements are shouldered but not channeled.

sandr. Sheets of glacifluvial sand and gravel.

sandstone. A stone of quartz sand from the disintegration of older rocks cemented by clay, oxide of iron or silica, and calcium carbonate. It has been widely used for building.

sannup. A male member of an American Indian community who is married to a squaw.

sansa. A musical instrument consisting of several flexible tongues one end of which is attached to a resonant object or board. The tongues are attached to a bridge, so that their free ends vibrate easily when they are plucked. Notes can be produced by varying the length of the tongues.

Santa Marta urn. See URN, SANTA MARTA.

sapphire. A gem widely used for good luck, health, and to cure disease.

sarcophagus. The outer stone casing in which the mummy (q.v.), with its wooden coffins, was kept. Sarcophagi were made of the hardest and best stone available and exhibited excellent workmanship. The shape and decorations varied.

sari. A silk or cotton outer garment worn by Hindu women. It consists of a rectangular fabric wrapped around the person, usually as the chief garment.

sarnai. A raft consisting of a pole or bedstead spread over two or more inflated animal skins. It is found in parts of India.

sarong. A garment for both sexes, consisting of a long cloth strip, the ends of which are sewn together. It is worn like a petticoat, tucked around the waist. It is especially common in the Malay Archipelago and in parts of India.

satem. Those languages of the Indo-European family in which the gutteral (k) sound of the proto-Indo-European classification has evolved into the sibilant (s) found in Balto-Slavic, Albanian, Armenian, and Indo-Iranian.

sati. See SUTTEE.

satrap. A provincial governor of ancient Persia.

saturation, zone of. The portion of the earth’s surface that is saturated with water.

saturnalia. A period of considerable license. It may occur at times of crisis, or regularly as part of an emotionally important activity, like the harvest-home. The Ashanti Apo ceremony was an example of license in which, once a year, people speak out on whatever has been bothering them. In ancient Rome, the saturnalia (named for the creator of the universe and the deposed ruler over the vanished Golden Age) featured extreme sexual license and a reversal of the roles of master and servant or slave.

satyr. A spirit of male sexuality in Greek legend. The hindquarters were typically those of a goat and the ears were pointed. See NYMPH.

savage, noble. The concept, developed by Rousseau and 18th- and 19th-century romantics, that primitive man, being in a state of nature and unaffected by the corruptions of civilization, in his conduct demonstrates the virtue and honor inherent in man. Among the writers who have presented the noble savage with greatest art are James Fenimore Cooper and Rene de Chateaubriand.

savagery. A state of society characterized by a hypothetical cultural stage in which there are no crops or language. Modern anthropologists try to avoid this term, because of its vagueness and pejorative connotations. V. Gordon Childe has used it to describe the earliest human organization, in which gathering and hunting predominated. Gustav Klemm, in the mid-19th century, suggested that human beings have developed through the three stages of savagery, tameness, and freedom. In 1795, Condorcet had shown the development of primitives from savagery to animal husbandry, agriculture, the alphabet, and enlightenment.

savanna. In low latitudes, a wide zone with both grasslands and forests. The tree growth is usually scattered.

savin. A plant widely used by European witches and called the Devil’s herb. It was an agent to bring on abortions and sterility.

saw. A denticulated flake. It is sometimes called a scie.

saw, fire. A device for fire-making in Malaysia. A split bamboo is sawed, with the dust dropping and being ignited by the heat occasioned by the friction. It is concentrated in the East Indies, but is also found in Australia and the Asiatic mainland. It is related to the fire plow (q.v.).

saw, flint. A piece of flint, usually about two or three inches long, fixed in the groove of a wooden blade. Many such tools were found among the ruins of the Swiss lake dwellings.

sawak. Wet land rice fields.

Sbaïkian. A Middle Paleolithic industry discovered near Sbaïkia in North Africa and comprising a variety of chipped stone implements intermediate in type between Acheulian and Solutrean blades.

sbieco. A cutting edge formed by two planes with an inclination different from the implement’s plane of symmetry .

scale, weight beam. A scale used in somatometry, usually expressed in grams.

scalping. Among some North American Indians, cutting off part of the scalp, with hair, of an enemy. The victim did not necessarily die.

scapegoat. A creature that symbolically carries the sins of a society. The term was derived from the Hebrew practice on the Day of Atonement of having the high priest transfer to a goat selected at random the transgressions of the Jews during the past year, after which the goat was taken away or killed. During the Thargelia Festival, the Athenians beat and then dismissed two human scapegoats. The term scapegoat has come to be applied to the process of blaming a group’s or individual’s difficulties on another, as Hitler did with the Jews. Some Pacific Islanders use plants for scapegoating and discard them in running water.

scaphocephaly. A condition in which there is a keel-like projection from the front to the back of the skull.

scaphoid. Being in the shape of a boat.

scapulomancy. Predicting the future by the study of the bones of animals, often by interpreting the cracks developing in a shoulder blade (scapula) which has been heated in a fire.

scar, bulbar. A small flake facet on the bulb of percussion (q.v.), often produced naturally when the main flake flint is detached.

scar, flake. A rippled hollow on the parent lump of flint, which shows a negative bulb of percussion (q.v.).

scarab. In Egypt, an amulet (q.v.) in the shape of a beetle. Scarabs were made in almost all kinds of material known at the time. They were associated with the god Khepera, who moved the sun across the sky as the beetle rolled its ball. The sacred beetle was worshipped as a symbol of fertility and resurrection. A scarab was put in a corpse’s body to replace the heart, and later it was placed in the mummy bandages. The different positions represented different meanings. Most high-ranking individuals used scarabs as a seal.

scaraboid. An oblong stone that is flat on one side and convex on the other. It derives its name from similarity in shape to the scarab beetle.

scarification. Cutting the skin for beautification, bloodletting, ritual, or self-torture.

scamimento. The practice of cutting the flesh from a corpse before burial.

Schaber. See SCRAPER, SIDE.

Scheffer, John (1621-1679). 17th-century Swedish scholar, at the University of Uppsala. He wrote the first adequate ethnological discussion, A History of Lappland (1674).

schizophrenia. A psychosis characterized by a withdrawn personality that has lost contact with reality.

Schliemann, Heinrich (1822-1890). A German business man who retired when 46 to devote himself to the study of Greek archaeology. His excavations at Mycenae were followed with avid interest. In his excavations at Hissarlik, he aimed to prove that the Homeric account of the city of Troy was accurate. Although he incorrectly identified the second of seven superimposed cities at Hissarlik as Homeric Troy, he established the historical truth of Homer and, moreover, discovered the Eastern Mediterranean civilizations of the pre-Hellenic period. His work dramatized the potentials and methods of modern prehistoric archaeology. The romantic nature of his quest and his results served to humanize both archaeology and the ancient civilizations. He was the first to excavate a tell (q.v.) and to apply stratigraphic principles to excavating a mound.

Schnurkeramik. Cord - imprinted pottery of the Neolithic era in Europe. Twisted cords are pressed into the paste before it is fired. The terms corded pottery and string ceramics are also used.

school, bush. A puberty school in the Congo.

school, puberty. A school where young persons are trained in the puberty rites or in the nature of their post-pubertal status. The school is conducted usually before the puberty ceremony itself, as in Australia and Africa.

schotterfelder. Outwash (q.v.) deposits resulting from glacial action.

schumgha. A musical instrument of Africa consisting of a single back bow string. The string is attached to a bow shaft held horizontally between the hollow of the performer’s thumb and his teeth. The sound is produced by blowing on the back of the bow. The schumgha is thought by some to be the most primitive of African instruments.

Schurtz, Heinrich (1863-1903). A German student of Ratzel who summarized the associational activities other than blood-ties which previous writings had ignored. Although he underestimated the associational activities of women, he emphasized the influence of men’s organizations.

scie. See SAW.

science, hierarchy of. The orderly classification of the sciences in terms of the comparative complexity of their data, the degree of methodological precision, their interdependence, and the precision of their predictions. Physics is usually regarded as the highest science and the physical sciences generally are higher in this putative hierarchy than the social sciences. Anthropology is usually regarded in this hierarchy as one of the social sciences, although physical anthropology in particular is increasingly using the methods of the physical sciences.

science, mantic. Divination (q.v.) through the use of portents and signs.

scoop, ice. An Eskimo artifact used to remove chips from a hole chopped in the ice. It is usually a ladle made of baleen.

scopelism. Throwing charmed stones into a neighbor’s field. It is sometimes intended to warn persons thinking about cultivating the field that they may die through the arts of those who threw the stones. The term scopelism sometimes is used to describe casting stones on the grave of one who died a dishonorable or violent death.

scraper. 1 An implement of flint used to scrape leather and remove fat from the under side of a skin and to smooth wood. It is retouched usually on one face only. The term scraper is sometimes used for flint implements that cannot otherwise be classified. 2 A notched musical instrument which is scraped. It may possess magical properties and express fertility symbolism.

scraper, beaked. A fairly rare form of scraper, a curved flint flake with a point like a beak. Either the convex or the concave side of the beak may be used for scraping. This implement began appearing in the Mousterian period and lasted until the Campignian. The beaked scraper is also called the grattoir à bec.

scraper, carinate. A Middle Aurignacian thick scraper that looks like an inverted boat. It has a flat base and a raised back. The scraping edge is at the end. There are characteristic long channelled flaked trimmings.

scraper, concave. A rough stone flake on the side of which there is a curved notch. It was used mainly for finishing wooden and bone weapons.

scraper, convex. A rough stone flake with a convex working edge, mainly used for scraping animal skins.

scraper, core. A scraper that resembles a small cone, with a working edge made by the intersection of a flat plane surface with several irregular flutings. The core scraper is sometimes called a tea cosy.

scraper, disk. A circular disk shaped like the ordinary side scraper (q.v.) and with a scraping edge at one side and an untouched edge at the other side for grasping. This implement is unusual in that the secondary chipping forming the edge is on the smooth or inner side of the flake.

scraper, double. A side scraper both edges of which are trimmed.

scraper, end. A scraper with the working end at the ends of blades or flakes. There is sometimes much fluting (q.v.). One short side was sharpened and used for scraping. The end scraper is sometimes called the kratzer.

scraper, hide. See FLESHER, HIDE.

scraper, keel-shaped nose. A large heavy flat-bottomed core with one well-worked nose. It is often large enough to be grasped by hand and may have been used like a push plane.

scraper, keeled. A scraper with narrow regular flutings that rise fan-wise to a point on the keel of the core or flake. It is very attractive. It dates from the Middle Aurignacian era.

scraper, keeled round. A small rounded scraper, umbrella-shaped, with chips removed to a peak in its center. It has sharp outer edges and was probably used for general scraping.

scraper, Levallois. A tool made by striking a flake from the nodule with one blow so that the face of the inner side is smooth and shows the bulb of percussion (q.v.). The edges of the outer side are trimmed by chipping, probably so that the flake could be used to scrape the inner surfaces of hides. The Levallois scraper is especially associated with the Mousterian period in Northern France.

scraper, Mousterian side. A scraper made by trimming the edge of a large flake into a somewhat convex form by step flaking (q.v.). Its sharp convex edge made it highly suitable for scraping skins.

scraper, nose. A scraper on which there is a small nose-shaped protuebrance that forms the scraping edge.

scraper, notched. A scraper with a fairly semicircular notch in its edge. It is touched with secondary chipping all around. It appeared in the Middle Mousterian period and is adapted for the scraping of round surfaces. The notched scraper is also called the lame à encoche.

scraper, round. A small circular flake that is sharpened practically all around its circumference. It is also called the thumb scraper.

scraper, side. A flake-tool with a sharp cutting edge formed by the intersection of the main flake surface with some small flake scars. Its working edge is usually convex, and the tool may be trapezoidal, rectangular, or triangular. It was probably mainly used to scrape the interior of hides in the preparation of garments. The side scraper appears chiefly in the Middle Mousterian period. The side scraper is also called the Schaber.

scraper, thumb. See SCRAPER, ROUND.

scratcher, head. A bone, wood, or shell object used to scratch the head without disturbing the coiffure.

scree. A pile of debris at a cliff base. The term talus is also used.

screen, fire. In Southwest American archaeology, a structure of undetermined function. Some archaeologists have suggested that the fire screen was used to block air from blowing on the fire, while the ventilator conducted air into the chamber. It has also been suggested that the ventilator afforded ingress and egress to the spirits and the fire screen was actually an altar.

screw, water. A device, developed by Archimedes, for raising water from a stream by action of a wooden cylinder, with power coming from men on a treadmill.

script, round. The contemporary Burmese writing, which consists largely of soft curves and circles or parts of circles. This unusual shape is largely due to the Burmese writing material being palm leaves on which the stylus traces.

Scripture, Diamond. A Buddhist document which is the first (A.D. 868) whole book to be found. It was printed in China and found in Tunhuang, Kansu province.

scrying. Divination (q.v.) by examining crystals or water.

sculpture, footprint. The representation of human or animal footprints in rock by North American Indians. There may be several footprints together. The purpose of these representations is obscure.

scutiform. Referring to a shield-shaped object, found in early art.

scythe. An implement used to mow by hand. It comprises a long curved blade attached to a bent handle. Scythes are classified according to whether they have long or short handles.

seal. A device that makes an impression in a soft material. It consists of a surface in which a name or inscription is cut. Seals are either flat or cylindrical, permitting a stamped or rolled impression. They are found in Mesopotamia ca. 3000 B.C. and were used in Egypt, Greece, and Rome. After the decline of the Roman Empire, they were not used very widely until late in the eighth century. In the 11th century Edward the Confessor was responsible for the pendant seal, which was attached to the document with a strip of parchment; this was the beginning of the great seal.

seal, cylinder. A fairly small stone cylinder that is rolled across a soft surface to leave an impression. The cylinder is carved in intaglio so that the image produced is in relief. Seal cylinders of distinctive design were used before writing was invented, originally to mark personal property; a package was sealed with clay and the cylinder rolled over it. After the growth of writing, such seal impressions were used to legalize documents on clay tablets. Cylinder seals first appeared in the fourth millennium B.C. in Uruk, and represent Mesopotamia’s most important contribution to art. They were used for 3,000 years. Crude pictographs (q.v.) followed the introduction of the Uruk seal.

The Egyptians adapted the seal around 3100 B.C. and used a longer and slender shape with more decorative motifs and a more decorative type of writing, with hieroglyphics replacing cuneiform. Around 2300 B.C., the stamp seal appeared simultaneously in Egypt and western Asia. The stamp seal in Egypt gave rise to the button seal and the scarab seal. The use of seals in Egypt began declining around the time of the beginning of the New Kingdom, ca. 1500 B.C.

seal, Solomon’s. See DAVID, STAR OF.

seasonal ceremony. See CEREMONY, SEASONAL.

Sebilian. Referring to the Aurignacian (q.v.) culture in Egypt.

seccotine. A cement used in archaeological work in dry climates to repair objects temporarily.

Secondary. A period or rock system, known as the age of reptiles (see MESOZOIC). Also, material formed after some other material, especially ores or minerals which result from the effect of atmospheric agencies or downward moving water on ores or minerals of an early generation.

section. A bilinear kin group and marriage-regulating division of some Australian societies; formerly called a class.

section, golden. A proportion such that a given line is bissected to make the shorter part in the same relation to the longer part as the longer part is to the whole. This concept of harmonious proportion has been found repeatedly in the history of cultures. Its best known exposition is in the writings of various Greek philosophers.

sections, law of three. A basic tenet in Chinese landscape painting, calling for ground, trees, and mountains as the three levels of composition.

sedan chair. See CHAIR, SEDAN.

sedentes. Individuals who remain in one place, often used for non-migrants as compared to migrants.

seed. An annual plant with edible seeds, the plants most widely used for food, e.g., the cereals, legumes, and oil-seed plants.

segregation. See PURITY, GAMETIC.

seine. A large net used to catch a school of fish. It has floats on the upper edge and sinkers on its lower edges. It is thrown into the water to cover a large area and is then pulled to land.

seismology. The scientific study of earthquakes.

sekhem. The holy place in an Egyptian temple.

selection. The process of competition between a mutated and a nonmutated organism of a species.

selection, artificial. Permitting or restraining the reproduction of individual specimens so as to bring out certain traits and eliminate others. Artificial selection essentially is selective breeding.

selection, counter. Social forces of selection that operate in such a way as to give the biologically inferior an edge. War, with the toll it takes of the vigorous and healthy, has sometimes been regarded as making a counter selection of the weak and ill, who are exempt from military service.

selection, natural. The tendency of an adaptively valuable variation in an organism to become widespread because the individuals endowed with it have a better chance of surviving to reproductive maturity and passing the trait on to their offspring. In 1842, Darwin wrote that favorable variations facilitate survival while unfavorable may lead to extermination. Wallace developed a similar theory in 1858, when he and Darwin gave a joint paper. Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) developed the theory in detail. See EVOLUTION, BIOLOGICAL.

selection, sexual. The tendency of traits that make an individual attractive as a mate to become more widespread. It has been observed that certain traits that attract females, e.g., gaudy feathers in male birds, are deterrents to the survival of the species.

selection, social. The control of marriage and breeding by the application of artificial social barriers, so that mating takes place between persons who meet these social standards instead of at random. All human reproduction manifests social selection to some degree.

selenite. An ancient substitute for glass. It is crystallized gypsum which can be split into very thin sheets.

self-help. The process of avenging a wrong without any judicial assistance. Self-help is legally permissible in cases where it may be accomplished without violence or disorder. Thus, a landowner may demolish an encroaching wall, provided he does not use explosives or other dangerous means.

self-preservation. The attempt on the part of human beings to keep alive in the face of change. It is assumed that animals are motivated by such a drive, and some evidence exists to show that early man had a concept of something other than the body which was to be preserved.

selva. In the Amazon, a rain forest.

semantics. The systematic study of the meanings of words.

sememe. The meaning of a morpheme. Each sememe is presumed to have a specific unit of meaning.

semi-Mongoloid. A hypothetical Caucasoid-Mongoloid hybrid.

Semite. The name Semite—taken from Shem (or Sem), the son of Noah—was used for the first time in 1781 by A. L Schlözer. The Arabian peninsula was probably the homeland of the Semites. They probably left Arabia in waves: ca. 3000 B.C. (Amorites), 2500 B.C. (Akkadians), 2000 B.C. (Canaanite-Phoenicians), 1500 B.C. (Arameans and Hebrews), and 500 B.C. (Nabataeans). Although the languages of these groups are related closely, their anthropological characteristics and religions vary considerably.

The monotheistic salvation religions—Judaism, Christianity, Islam—developed from the religion of the early Semites. It has been claimed that the first Semitic religion was monotheism (Renan), totemism (Robertson Smith), ancestor worship (Spencer), or polydemonism (Wellhausen). The early Semites were probably polydemon-istic, regarding ritual objects and natural sites as the home of a separate spirit, usually called an il, although some were given personal names and were worshipped regularly. Some of these gods were attached to a domicile and others moved with the tribes. El became the proper name of a given god. At first there was no regular priesthood; the polytheism of the civilized Semitic kingdoms followed, and then the monotheistic religions. The nomadic Semites had a feeling of tribal solidarity, largely based on blood ties.

Semitic. A language group, part of the Semito-Hamitic family. Its two branches, East Semitic and West Semitic, are in turn divided into the extinct Akkadian language and Northern West Semitic and Southern West Semitic. The word roots of these languages are characterized by the inclusion of three consonants. Syntactically, they are characterized by a two-gender system. Current languages are Arabic, Ethiopian, Hebrew, and Maltese. Extinct languages include Phoenician, Moabite, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Canaanite.

Semitic-Hamitic. A family of languages with Cushite, Berber, Egyptian, and Semitic branches.

Semitism, anti-. See ANTI-SEMITISM.

semivowel. See VOWEL, SEMI-.

semn. Butter made of goat’s milk, found in the Middle East.

sepo. In the Congo, a wooden charm thought to bring strength, courage and good luck.

septum. The cartilaginous dividing wall between the halves of the nose.

sending. An object or person, usually associated with some worker of magic, dispatched to cause difficulty for a victim. The impoliteness of pointing derives from its early use as a kind of sending.

senilicide. Killing of the aged. It is also called geronticide.

sennit. A braided cordage made of spun yarn or rope yarn, of which three or more threads are plaited. It is usually flat but may be round or square. In Oceania, sennit usually refers to a widely used coconut fiber braid. The spelling sinnet is also found.

sentence. In a language, the largest unit which has an internal grammatical organization and is characterized by an over-all or terminal intonational contour.

sentence, minor. A sentence not conforming to one of the language’s favorite forms.

seppuku. See HARA KIRI.

sept. A group of persons associated through descent, usually measured through both the male and female lineage (q.v.) It is usually a local group which is part of a larger social group. In early Ireland, a tribal division with its own territory and village community.

Septuagint The Alexandrian Greek into which the Egyptian Jews translated their Old Testament.

Sequoya. A half-breed Cherokee who invented a writing system for Cherokee.

Serdab. An Arabic word meaning a hidden chamber.

serf. One living on land and hereditarily obligated to perform certain duties to the person holding title. The serf generally farms but may have some other trade. Serfdom usually involves a kind of half-free status along with peasant tenure. It occurs when there is a weak central government, little trade, and usually, animal power. The serf is mostly found in conjunction with feudalism and in economies of fairly low grade, where there is more concern about the supply of labor than of land. The serf is in a condition of servitude related to custom, while one in slavery (q.v.) is dependent on his owner’s whim.

Sergi, Giuseppe (1841-1936). An Italian anthropologist who viewed anthropology as the study of man, including the social elements of man’s life, with sociology and psychology subbranches. He held that craniometry would prove anything one wanted and that physical indices might mask many individual differences. Sergi emphasized the importance of drawings and photographs in the study of physical differences. He published a detailed study of the Mediterranean race, including their physical and cultural characteristics and started the first Italian anthropological society and journal.

seriation. Arranging artifacts in some sequence, especially arranging pottery artifacts in a chronological series. Seriation is used to study the development of a quantitative picture of the chronological sequence of artifact development by placing samples of cultural materials in sequence of the rise and fall of specific types.

seriation, typological. The study of the chronological development of a type of artifact or art form. It has been used most widely to trace the evolution of specific artifact categories. This kind of seriation was originally used, mainly in the Old World, for descriptive purposes, so that artifacts could be placed in classes which were roughly alike. In the 1920s, archaeologists working in the American Southwest began to establish types in order to determine chronology. This concept of types enabled them to deal with the changes that took place during a given period so that the stream of cultural evolution could be followed. This work was originally done on middens, and the analysis of their fragments helped make dear the development and evolution of key artifacts, such as water bottles.

series. In phonology, horizontally listing a row of phonemes (q.v.) with the criterion of their relevant feature, e.g., voiceless series (p, t, k), voiced series (b, d, g).

series, typological. See SERIATION, TYPOLOGICAL.

Serpent Mound. A structure in Adams County, Ohio, of the early mound builders, more than 1,000 feet long. It is shaped like a snake with a large mound 39 by 110 feet at the head. Most researchers agree that it was built for burial or ceremonial reasons.

service, bride or service, suitor. Winning a wife by working for the parents of the bride, usually before the marriage takes place. This service is often in place of paying a bride price (q.v.).

service, marriage by. Marriage in which the groom moves in with the wife’s family and works for them, e.g., among the Winnebago and Chuckchee.

service, suitor. See SERVICE, BRIDE.

set, age or class, age. A formally established group of persons of about the same age. The members may advance through age grades which have special ceremonies or military, ritual, or status activities at each level.

setekh. The mummification (q.v.) process in ancient Egypt.

seten hetep ta. The beginning of the formula found on Egyptian tombs, and a sort of prayer for benefits for the dead.

settings, heliacal. The times of the year at which some bright stars are last seen setting after sunset. See RISINGS, HELIACAL.

seven-color ware. See WARE, SEVEN-COLOR.

Sewall Wright effect. See DRIFT, GENETIC.

sex, heterogametic. That sex in which one pair of chromosomes is of unlike form.

sexagesimal. Referring to a system for counting in which 60 is a basic unit, e.g., the Babylonian.

sex-influenced. A characteristic, the expression of which hinges on sex, e.g., baldness.

sex-limited. A factor expressed in one sex but not the other. Its expression hinges on whether or not certain hormonal elements are present.

sex-linked. A trait present in the sex chromosomes.

sgraffito. In some early art, blackening a rock surface and then scratching around the outlines of the object drawn to achieve a relief effect. It is also a ceramic technique in which the design is made by scratching through an overglaze to reveal the different under-color. It was common in the Mediterranean area and also in Peru, where it was a parallelism (q.v.).

sha t’ai. The Chinese term for stoneware (q.v.).

shadoof. A pole on an upright post, or on a horizontal beam supported by two brick or mud columns, with a weight at one end serving to balance a bucket. It was used to dip water from the Nile.

shaft. 1 The section of a column between the capital and the base. 2 A vertical passage or excavation.

shaft, burial. A very deep grave. In Peru and Colombia, some burial shafts are 80 feet deep.

Shaker. A combination of Christian and Indian religions, originating with the Skokomish Indians of Washington in the late 19th century. Also, a Quaker group which displays strong emotionalism and some physical convulsions, whence the name.

shakti. See SAKTI.

shale. A fissile rock resulting from the combination of mud, silt, or clay. It has a finely stratified structure and is made up of minerals which have largely been unaltered since their original depositation.

shaman. Originally a Siberian medicine man; by extension, a medicine man in any primitive society. A shaman has supernatural power which stems from its original source, to which he has access. He has not only the power to cure but sometimes also the power to harm. Some societies had contests among the shamans.

Among the Siberian Chukchee, a shaman was a man who lived as a woman, taking the passive role in sodomy. The shamans and their “husbands” sometimes both had female mistresses. See HOMOSEXUAL.

shamanism. Religious practices based on the theory that a spirit outside the individual takes possession of him and that he thereafter operates only when motivated by the spirit. These practices were prevalent among the American Indians and in Siberia.

Shang. In China, a culture period extending ca. 1600 to ca. 1100 B.C. Writing, fairly advanced bronze artifacts, domestication of animals, and great underground tombs appeared. This culture in many ways was similar to the earlier Near East bronze civilizations.

shape, beaker. A cylindrical form flaring at both ends or at one end. It is frequently used as a general style for flower vases and is often found in old pewter.

shape, shovel. See INCISOR, SHOVEL-SHAPE.

shapeshifter. Something or someone that can change in appearance. The shapeshifters may be forces for good or for evil. They may change appearance under specific conditions or permanently. Humans may assume the appearance of animals and vice versa, and gods may become mortals. Ghosts may also change their appearance. Shapeshifting is a transformation (q.v.) that occurs either voluntarily or without help from outside sources.

shaping. The process of giving a shape to pottery, by coiling, placing sections together, or patting.

shard or potshard. A pottery fragment that may give valuable archaeological clues. Often, even though few or no entire examples of pots will be extant at a site, some shards may be found since they are nearly indestructible. The spellings sherd and potsherd are also found.

Shari’a. The law of Islam, which includes Allah’s rules for human conduct.

shears. An instrument that cuts by opposing two edges of metal.

sheath, penis. A protective covering for the male organ used among some peoples who otherwise wear no clothes. It may vary from a small cone which merely caps the penis, as among some Ge groups of eastern Brazil, to a long, hollow gourd covering the entire member, as among some Pygmies of Dutch New Guinea.

shed. The open space between lifted and nonlifted warps through which the weft passes.

shedding. In weaving, creating a shed, or an opening, among several warp threads. See HEDDLE.

shedding of the skin. See SKIN, CASTING OF THE.

sheer. On a boat, the longitudinal curve of the gunwale.

sheets. On a sailboat, ropes that keep the sails at the appropriate angle with the wind when they are tied to the boom or the clew of the sail.

sheikh esh-sheshad. A war sheikh, who leads his people in battle.

shekel. A lump of silver of a given weight, used by the Babylonians as money.

shelf, continental. An underwater land platform that extends almost horizontally from the shore of each continent and ends in a fairly steep slope. It may vary from a few miles to 1,000 miles wide.

shelf, simian. A bony shelf between the two sides of the lower jaw in modern large apes. It developed along with an enlargement of the incisors. The simian shelf is not present in man.

shelter, rock. An early habitation of some early men, consisting of shelter from the weather provided by rocks, often under overhanging cliffs. Some such shelters are inhabited today in parts of Spain and France.

sherd. See SHARD.

shield. A defensive device to protect the body, usually carried on the arm or held in the hand. There are many different shapes. It was derived from the parrying stick.

shield, parrying. A shield for diverting the weapons of an opponent.

shieling. In Scotland, a group of huts where people lived during their stay at the summer pastures.

shift, language. The change from the everyday language of a bilingual person to other language that he uses less frequently.

shift, Mainean. The movement from status to contract in the development of early law, postulated by Sir Henry Maine (q.v.). It is noticed especially clearly in the period after the growth of cities, as the kinship tie becomes less important. In nonliterate societies, this shift is from regulation of the social norms by the individual and his kin group to the representatives of the larger social group.

shift, semantic. A transfer of meaning, so that a word acquires additional meaning.

shift, sound. An alteration in a phoneme (q.v.) which is seen as regularly recurrent in the evolution of a language, e.g., the change from p to f in the Germanic word for father (compare Latin pater).

shifts, Germanic sound. The first and second Germanic sound shifts. The first took place before Christ and separated the Proto-Germanic languages from the remainder of the Indo-European family of languages. The second occurred over the period between the first century B.C. and the eighth century A.D. These two sound shifts divided the Germanic languages into a High German and a Low German dialect group.

shimbi. In the Congo, a fairy or genii.

shinny. A widely distributed women’s game among the American Indians. The participants propel a ball toward the opponents’ goal with a canelike stick; they are not permitted to touch the ball with their hands.

ship, death. A coffin shaped like a boat or a stone-lined boat-shaped grave, suggesting a belief in a voyage to another world after death. Death ships have been found in southern England and other parts of the world.

ship, magic. A ship that is exceptionally large or has other special qualities.

ship, plank. A ship made of a minimum of three planks, one on each side and one on the bottom.

shipapulima. See SIPAPU.

shiwanna. Among the Cochiti, a masked dancer .

shoes, dead. Shoes given the dead so that they may use them in their trip to the nether regions. This old custom has survived almost to the present. The German term Totenschuh is also used.

shoes, Kurdaitja. Feather “sandals” worn by Australian scouts to disguise their tracks.

shofar. A kind of musical instrument, used by the Hebrews, made of a ram’s horn which is put under great heat and straightened. It has a cup mouthpiece, and the few tones that can be produced are achieved only if the performer is highly skillful. It was used as a wind instrument, for religious ceremonies, and to rally the people.

shogun. A Japanese feudal military ruler.

shortening. The process by which an originally long vowel becomes abbreviated. It may occur with vowels before heavy combinations of consonants or when a syllable loses its stress.

shorthand. A script made for rapid writing and not based on the conventional alphabet. The first consistent system was developed by Timothy Bright in 1588.

Shoshonean. A subdivision of the Uto-Aztekan linguistic stock, in the western United States.

shott. On English farms during the Middle Ages, a strip of land parallel to or at right angles with other strips within an acre-strip.

shovel. A scooplike tool with a long handle, used to throw earth. It has been suggested that the first shovels came from the shoulder blades of oxen. This theory is supported by the fact that scapula, the Latin for shovel, means shoulder blade.

show, bride. The bride’s being exhibited, either to increase the bride price (q.v.) or to get a dowry.

shrew, tree. In some classifications, the lowliest primates, in others, a family of the Insectivora. They are widely found in southwest Asia. They look like squirrels. Some are arboreal and some are bush animals. The part of the brain concerned with vision is well developed.

shrine. A place where sacred objects are kept and offerings made. The shrine is sacred for, and dedicated to, a spirit who may be immanent in it. Temples, trees, animals, pots, cenotaphs, and other objects have been used as shrines. Some shrines are empty. Kitchen, garden, or household shrines exist for special purposes.

shrine, wayside. A heap of rocks to which passersby add, as in the Southwest and in Mexico.

shtetl. The small-town, pre-World War II Jewish community of Eastern Europe, and its culture.

shuttle. On a two-bar loom, a capsule containing a bobbin on which the weft thread is wound.

siamang. An anthropoid found in Sumatra. It weighs about 25 to 30 pounds.

siapo. Tapa (q.v.) cloth in Samoa.

sib. A pseudo-kinship or unilateral extended lineage group in a community. It may be quite large, e.g., among the Bantu of East Africa. It has a name and often has ceremonial equipage. Such functions as a religion (totemism), marriage, and inheritance are discharged by the sib. Members have a common descent in a maternal or paternal lineage, although they may not be able to follow the specific genealogical ties among themselves. The sib was the general term for both clan and gens (qq.v.).

sibilant. A sound made by the breath’s being passed along the furrowed tongue and directed against the edge of the upper front teeth, e.g., so. The term gingival spirant is used when the tongue is in contact with the alveolar ridge of the upper gum, as in English. A sibilant may also be called a hiss.

sibilant, abnormal. A sibilant made by drawing the tongue slightly out of its furrowed position, or slightly back, so that the breath eddies around slightly, rather than pushing against, the teeth and gums, e.g., sh in shin. An abnormal sibilant is also called a hush.

siblings. Children born of the same parents.

siblings, half. Children with one parent in common.

sibonga. A patrilineal clan among the Swazi.

sica. A short, thick curved knife with a handle used for fighting at close quarters in ancient times.

sickle. An agricultural implement consisting of a curved metal blade and handle fitted onto a tang. The blade used to be notched or toothed and the inside is sharpened. The sickle is really a hooked knife. Bronze sickles are found in the second epoch of the Bronze Age.

sickle, jaw-bone. A sickle made by placing serrated flint blades in the dental cavity of a domestic animal.

sickle motif. See MOTIF, SICKLE.

sicklemia. The tendency of the erythrocytes of some persons to show a sicklelike shape when in an oxygen-deficient medium. Sicklemia is fairly widespread and seems to be especially present in Negroid groups. It is a dominant characteristic.

Sicun. Among the Dakota, the essence of a deity, present at the birth of each human being.

sigmoid. Referring to being shaped like the Greek letter sigma, e.g., the sigmoid notch of the mandible.

sign, door. An object near or on a door in order to insure good luck and protect from evil. Such objects have been widely used for a long time.

sign, shift. A symbol used in phonetic writing to indicate any variations in the usual pronunciation of a vowel, e.g., a subscript under o denotes the open o sound in Italian.

signals. The methods used to communicate at a distance, including gesturing, waving objects, running in circles or at different paces, throwing dust in the air, and shouting. Smoke, mirrors, sparks, fire, marks on trees or hide, and music are pressed into use.

signals, attention. Signals, like fires, meant to attract attention to a visit, the return of a group, or the approach of an enemy party.

signary. See SYLLABARY.

signatures, doctrine of. A doctrine that plants were designed by God for the use of men, with the appearance showing the use. Thus, the walnut might treat brain disease because its appearance resembled the brain’s convolutions.

signes obscures. Mystical symbols found on the walls of early caves in France and Spain, often with representations of animals. The nature of these symbols is unknown but it is believed that they are outline drawings of animal traps, dating from 20,000 to 10,000 years ago. The term may be translated as “strange markings.”

significs. The scientific investigation or analysis of significance or meaning.

Sikyatki. An old Hopi village after which Sikyatki pottery is named. It was located on the first Mesa and was a center of the ceramic industry during the Pueblo IV period.

silence, tower of. In the Zoroastrian religion, a place where corpses are exposed to birds of prey. After the birds have laid bare the bones, they are placed in the dakhamah (q.v.) to become dust.

silk. The strong fiber made by some insect larvae, especially the silkworm. Some Koreans learned the mechanics of raising silkworms, ca. 200 B.C., and it was introduced in Byzantium by Justinian in the sixth century A.D. There is no primitive group that has been able to make silk.

silt. Loose sediment with component particles less than one-sixteenth of a millimeter in diameter. This sediment is often suspended in a body of water.

Silurian. A life period in the Paleozoic era, characterized by the development of dogfish with car-tilagenous skeletons. It lasted from perhaps 350 to 320 million years ago.

silver. A metallic, whitish element. It is highly malleable, sonorous, and ductile and has great thermal and electrical conductivity. Silver is found in both metallic and nonmetallic states. Native silver is not in great quantities and is usually crystalline. The commonest silver ores are silver sulphide and silver chloride. A good deal of silver is also found in zinc, lead, or copper ores. Silver is usually alloyed with copper to make it harder. Early objects made of silver are comparatively rare in Europe, except in those countries that border on the Mediterranean. Silver was used by 3000-2500 B.C., period of the lowest layers at Hissarlik, where pins, earrings, and wire were found. The second layer, 2500-2000 B.C., had a considerable collection of silver objects, such as jugs and ornaments.

simi. A long knife used by the Wandorobo.

Simian. A superfamily of Catarrhini consisting of monkeys having apelike characteristics.

Simiidae. The family within the primate order including manlike apes.

similarity, law of. Frazer’s name for the process, important in magic, by which similar things are presumed to be the same.

Simo. A secret society (q.v.) in French Guinea.

simoon. A hot dry wind of the Middle East generated by the great heat of the deserts and sandy plains. It has a suffocating effect on travelers.

simulacra. Pictures and figurines found in ancient Egyptian tombs representing slaves, subjects, animals, or other beings who were supposed to accompany their master into the other world in order to minister to his needs and make him comfortable. They were excellently rendered, and some examples show the subjects occupied in their normal labors, such as reaping and plowing. Before the development of simulacra, animals and men were killed to be buried with their masters.

sin. Incurring the displeasure of the gods or of God because of an attitude that expresses itself in divinely disapproved actions. The displeasure may be incurred in different ways. Violating the sacred, offending the dignity of the divine, and not paying heed to the principles of humanity are among the causes of sin. In the early development of man, offenses against ritual and ceremonials loom as being very important, and sin changes to morality as standards develop.

sin eater. See EATER, SIN.

Sinanthropus pekinensis. A type of fossil man, also called Pithecanthropus pekinensis, discovered by W. C. Pei, Davidson Black, and Franz Weidenreich in the 1920s and 1930s near Peking. Several brain cases, facial bones, and other bones and teeth of about 40 persons have established the existence of this early Far Eastern man, who probably flourished some 450,000 years ago. He was about five feet tall. The bones are heavy but quite human. The skull is more advanced than Java man’s. The brain capacity averaged 1,100-1,200 cc. There is no real chin. The features are definitely human. The teeth are transitional. The very few Sinanthropus bones found in their natural relation to each other and some chewed limb bones suggest cannibalism. Sinanthropus is probably early Middle Pleistocene, from the second glacial or early second interglacial. He used fire, judging from some blackened earth, and made simple Lower Paleolithic chipping tools and scrapers from sandstone, quartz, and chert. His tools indicate that he was probably right-handed, which is important in evolution, since hand dominance seems essential in order to do two things simultaneously. The Peking Man bones disappeared in World War II, and it was charged, without proof, that they were removed to the United States.

sin-eater. A person who is paid and fed to take over the sins of the recently deceased, as in Wales.

sing-song theory. See THEORY, SING-SONG.

sinistrality. Using and favoring the left hand over the right.

Sinitic or Sino-Tibetan. A linguistic stock that includes Tai, Chinese, and Tibeto-Burman, also called Tibeto-Chinese and Sino-Tibetan. It is the second largest family in number of speakers. The major word form is the monosyllable, which is not inflected but which indicates its syntactical role in the sentence positionally. Pitch is very important in these languages.

sinker, net. An object attached to a net to help it sink below the surface of the water. Ordinary stones or carved objects are among the net sinkers, which are distributed fairly widely throughout the world.

sinnet. See SENNIT.

sinognathism. An S-shaped facial profile resulting from a concave face and a short round brain case, as in the orangutan.

sinus. A space within a bone which is lined with epithelium.

sinus, frontal. An air chamber in the lower forehead which is lined with mucous membrane.

Siouan. A North American Indian linguistic stock, found in the western and mid-western part of the United States, mainly to the west of the Mississippi. It is also spoken by some groups in North and South Carolina and Virginia. The members of this stock are Assiniboin, Biloxi, Crow, Dakota, Iowas, Kansas, Katawba, Mandan, Missouri, Ogalala, Omaha, Osage, Oto, Ponka, Teton, Wahpeton, Winnebago, and Yankton.

sipapu. The name given by the Southwest American Indians to a pit in the floor of a ceremonial chamber. Although its origin is not fully known, the Indians seem to have believed that their ancestors came up into the world through this pit. Some tribes also believe that good deeds of the gods come through the opening. The word is sometimes spelled cibobe.

siri. A Malayan term for betel (q.v.) nut quid.

sirocco. An oppressive hot dry wind that blows over the Mediterranean from North Africa to Sicily and Italy.

sistrum. A rattle (q.v.) used in dancing, found in Egyptian fertility rites, in Aztec and other New World cultures, and elsewhere. It consists of a frame 8 to 18 inches long, with thin rods that shake strung in it. It was originally associated in Egypt with the goddess Hathor, whose head was usually the handle. The sistrum was carried to Rome, where it could be found even in the 11th century.

site, crop. An archaeological site characterized by crop differential growth and often discovered by aerial photography. It usually results from excessive or insufficient moisture in different parts of the site.

site, houte. A circular desert clearing, probably used as a temporary shelter in some parts of the American desert country, especially the lower Colorado River basin. Stones were often piled up to give low rims to the clearings.

site, shadow. An archaeological site with an irregular surface revealed by the shadow cast in the light of the setting or rising sun, especially as seen by aerial photography, although it is also visible to an observer on the ground.

site, soil. An archaeological site, often discovered by aerial photography, with a discolored or disturbed surface, usually found on once cultivated land not being used to bear a crop. Soil sites are especially visible in winter and the early part of spring.

site, type. An archaeological site considered to be typical of an archaeological unit, such as a focus, aspect, culture, etc., and often the source of the name of that unit, e.g., La Tene. The term type station is also used.

Sitting Bull (1834-1890). A Sioux warrior and tribal leader who conducted many raids and was an effective organizer. His “medicine-making” enabled him to predict that the battle at the Little Big Horn in 1876 would be Custer’s Last Stand and enhanced his prestige.

situala. A bronze bucket-shaped vessel with a bail, from the Bronze Age; also, a Graeco-Egyptian bucket-shaped vase with two small handles near the top.

Sivapithecus indicus. An erect, omniverous, ground-dwelling ape of the Upper Miocene era found in India, and a possible source from which man derives.

skerries. Small rocky islands.

skeuomorph. A design representing a vessel or an implement; also, an object in the likeness of an earlier object, but made of a new material.

Skhul. See CARMEL, MOUNT.

ski. A slender long strip of wood, one of a pair, with the foot held in the center, used to enable the wearer to glide over snow speedily. It was developed in the northern parts of Asia and Europe and is often used with ski poles. Telemark, in Norway, originated the use of the ski for sport rather than hunting.

skiagraphy. The study, or depicting, of shadows; also, the study of vertical sections, or geometrical profiles of the interior, of buildings.

skin, casting of the. The widely found legend about men shedding their skins, following the example of animals or gods. It is used to explain the origin and cause of death.

Skraeling. The name given the natives by the Norsemen who came to the Americas almost 500 years before Columbus. They probably saw the Algonkian Indians or Eskimo.

skull. The skeleton of the brain case, lower jaw, and face.

skull, clayed. A skull covered with clay and painted, used as a ceremonial object in the Pacific, e.g., in the Sepik river area of New Guinea.

skull, Cohuna. A skull excavated archaeologically in Australia. Its physical characteristics are those of a primitive Australoid type. The skull was once thought to be geologically ancient but is now interpreted as representing primitive characteristics of the modern aboriginal Australian type.

skull rack. See RACK, SKULL.

slab, grinding. A stone for the hand grinding of pigment, usually about 12 inches across. Grinding stones were ordinarily made of granite or porphyry. The paint was worked with a muller or smaller stone that fit into the palm. Tools of this type had been used in prehistoric times for grinding grain and were probably adapted for paint.

slash-and-burn. A technique for improving the quality of a soil and destroying weeds by burning branches on the ground and letting their ashes sink into the soil

slave, tomb. A slave slaughtered in Egypt to be buried with his master. Some chiefs before 3050 B.C. had hundreds of slaves around them in their tombs so that they would be accompanied into the outer world by a number sufficient to minister to their needs. Later kings replaced the practice of tomb killing with simulacra (q.v.), i.e., artistic representations of the slaves. See MURDER, FUNERAL.

slavery. One person’s legally owning and controlling another and denying him freedom of action or movement. Slavery may have originated because it was more rewarding to use captives as forced workers than to kill them. Men slaves could work the fields and women could perform a variety of indoor tasks. Slaves were often handicraft workers and even members of learned groups. The slave was protected by Hebrew law and had many special rights in other systems. Slavery seemed an irremovable part of the social fabric for a long time. Slavery is often confused with the subjugation of children, wives, members of a state, or tribes or classes. Early custom forbade members of a tribe from enslaving other members. Once extra-tribal slavery is established, it sometimes includes members of the kinship group, usually as a punishment.

Hobhouse has pointed out that slavery is not known by people in early stages of cultural development, like the lower hunting tribes. Slaves can only be effectively used if techniques have developed to a point at which a worker can make a surplus beyond what he needs; thus they are usually restricted to an advanced agricultural society.

Slavic. An Indo-European linguistic subdivision. It consists of Czech, Slovak, Polish, Russian, Bulgarian, Slovene, and Serbo-Croatian.

Slavonic, East. The Little Russian, Great Russian, and White Russian languages.

Slavonic, South. The Slovene, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian languages.

Slavonic, West. The Polish, Czech, and Slovak languages.

sled. A traction transportation device with two runners.

sled, summer. A sled pulled by animals on dry ground. It is often used in Scandinavia for timber transport.

sledge. A flat-bottomed vehicle for hauling heavy objects over ice and snow. It dates from Neolithic times. The original form may have been a flat piece of wood or several boards put together.

sleeve, hafting. A solid haft for a stone ax consisting frequently of a perforated antler into which the ax blade is inserted. It is found especially in the European Neolithic.

sling. An early weapon consisting of a narrow thong, a plaited cord of bark fiber wider in the middle than at the ends, or a stick with a hole. A stone was inserted in the middle of the thong or cord or in the hole, and the weapon was pulled toward the user, so that the stone was propelled by centrifugal force toward its target when the pressure toward the user was suddenly stopped.

sling, dart. See STICK, THROWING.

slip. A thin surface coat of very fine untempered clay applied to pottery to make it harder and easier to polish. The slip is clay finer than that used in the body. It renders the pot less permeable to liquids and makes a good ground for painting. It may also change the color of the pot to a more desired hue.

slug. A tool with a convex upper surface, with its under surface used as the blade. It has a glassy or waxy appearance because of its fine ripple marks.

slugi. A greyhound-like dog found in the Sahara.

smelting. Melting or fusing ore, usually involving separating or reducing metals. One of the major landmarks in human history was the initial smelting of metal from stone, ca. 4000 B.C. The Age of Metals originated with this discovery; before, metals had been hammer-shaped. Smelting perhaps began with a campfire in which stones with copper content enclosed a hearth, and the fire’s charcoal changed the mineral to metal. In a copper area, this might have occurred with sufficient frequency to enable early man to see a link between the concept of heat and fusibility. Early remnants of copper smelting seem to come from a hole one foot in diameter. A charcoal fire was started, a layer of ore placed over it, then sufficient layers of fuel and ore so that a cake about 8 to 10 inches in diameter and about 1½ inches thick emerged. The slag was taken out and the metal removed when it was solid and easily breakable, so that it could be made into tools after being shattered into small pieces. The introduction of the mold (q.v.) simplified this stage.

Early smelting of copper probably resulted in a spongy metal mass which was not completely fused. The extra pieces of cinder and ore were removed by hammering.

Smelting involves heat which causes a chemical reduction as a result of the relations between fuel, ore, and flux. A new product results through combining with the metals in the ore. Smelting is distinguished from melting, which is a purely physical change of a metal to a liquid. The smith can change a metal’s shape through melting.

smith or smithy. A metal worker. The major early types are those who smelted, the blacksmiths who fashioned metal objects, and metal workers who originated or repaired objects. V. Gordon Childe has called the smith the first expert, who had practically a full-time job. The smith’s coming was termed a social revolution by Forbes. The early smith is usually held in awe, although he may be despised. Early smiths were probably in closed groups like castes. The group’s religion usually determines the smith’s ritual. His tools and his metals are also believed to be powerful.

Smith, George (1840-1876). A British archaeologist who found a part of the Chaldean tablet giving an account of the Deluge while sorting some clay tablets from Ninevah in the British Museum. He led an expedition to find the rest of the tablet and located it in Kuyun-jik in 1873, on the fifth day of his digging. His books Assyrian Discoveries and Chaldean Account of Genesis were famous.

Smith, William Robertson (1846-1894). An English Near Eastern scholar and encyclopedist, who wrote books on family structure in Arabia and on Semitic religion. He showed that the religion of the Semites is based on totemism. Sigmund Freud was considerably influenced by Smith’s views.

smoking. A technique for drying and preserving food by the use of fire.

smudge. A small heater in which herbs or dry wood are burned to smoke away insects. Its use is near universal.

snake, house. A snake in a house, regarded as a sign of good luck, and hence well treated, being fed with milk.

snake, snow. A winter game played by the American Indians of the northern Plains and elsewhere. A stick was skidded along the snow to see who could send it farthest or come closest to a target. The stick was often carved like a snake.

snakeroot. A plant, the roots of which are used to cure or relieve the effects of snake bite.

snare. See TRAP, SNARE.

snook. See COCKSNOOK.

snow snake. See SNAKE, SNOW.

snowhouse. Among the Eskimo, a dwelling made of snow. It is the only type of dwelling in which scaffolding is not required to construct a dome. The blocks of snow originally stick together by the force of gravity, because each course is parallel to the ground and overhangs the preceding course only a little. Soon the courses are welded together by water that is applied and quickly turns to ice. Access to the snowhouse is gained by crawling through a long bent tunnel of snow that cuts off the wind. The interior of an occupied snowhouse is so warm that skins must be stretched to catch the dripping water. The dome snowhouse was probably invented by the Eskimo but was not their only type of dwelling. The Eskimo group in northern Siberia, e.g., do not use a snowhouse and are not familiar with it. At present, there are probably less than 10,000 Eskimos who inhabit domed snowhouses regularly. The Eskimo term ini is sometimes used, and the form igloo (q.v.) is also found.

snowshoe. A device that is attached to the feet to prevent the wearer from sinking into soft snow. The snowshoe originated in Asia, but the North American continent has become identified with it. Many snowshoes have moccasins (q.v.) in the center, held in place by leather lacings. The shoe is a network of loosely woven thongs held in a more or less ovoid frame.

snowshoe, frame. A wooden frame that surrounds a filling made of pliable strands, or other materials which function as a footrest. It is usually found in North America.

snowshoe, plank. A slender plank ski in the middle of which the wearer’s foot is attached. It is found mainly in the Old World.

Soan. A chopper (q.v.) culture of the Punjab in India, from the second interglacial period.

social structure. See STRUCTURE, SOCIAL.

socialization. The way in which a society integrates its members and the process by which individuals learn to adapt to their society.

society. A group of persons that lives as an entity and has its own culture; an organized aggregate of persons following a given way of life, persisting in time, and with a group consciousness. Linton has referred to a group of persons as a society when they have worked and lived together for a long enough period to become organized and to regard themselves as a social unit with clear limits.

society, caste. A group which has the same culture, with rigid hierarchical status groupings, each of which has a different role in the culture.

society, graded. A society which has a series of degrees or grades through which the members go. War societies, like those of North Dakota, were graded, and Central America and Mexico have many such societies.

society, Klallam. A secret society (q.v.) of the Northwest Coast.

society, leopard. A West African secret society whose members used an iron claw to kill human victims, so that it would look as if they had been clawed by leopards.

society, medicine. A secret initiation lodge of medicine men found among the Crow and Ojibwa Indians.

society, military. A society, the members of which are military men, e.g., among the Plains Indians.

society, secret. A special quasi-legislative group within a tribe, which may mete out justice as it sees fit; an association with secret membership and activities. A secret society may be concerned with war, religion, witchcraft, and similar pursuits. Members may join through inheritance, payment, social status, or as a gesture of civic responsibility. The societies are usually esoteric and formally organized. Membership is commonly limited to those of one sex, with male societies more numerous than female. There are likely to be several grades for initiates; it has been speculated that these are extensions of age sets (q.v.). A secret society probably has a lodge for its ceremonies; this is thought to be a development of the early men’s house (q.v.). The society may have as one of its major functions initiation (q.v.) to manhood. The activities, designed to confuse outsiders, include signals to warn them away (see ROARER, BULL).

society, soldier. See SOCIETY, MILITARY.

sodality. An association based on voluntary or involuntary membership. Sodalities are often religious societies limited to a single objective, e.g., the veneration of a saint’s relics.

soffit. The under surface of an arch.

sofki. A thin sour corn drink made by some American Indians of the Gulf area. Corn, water, and lye are the ingredients. The three kinds of sofki are plain, sour, and white.

soga. A sharpened bamboo spike used as a weapon in the Philippines.

soil, colluvial. Soil that collects at the foot of slopes.

soil, ectodynamorphic. A soil, the major features of which are attributable to external conditions like climate.

soil, endodynamorphic. A soil, the major features of which are attributable to its parent material. The soils of coastal areas are usually endodynamorphic.

soil, residual. Soil that has not been moved from its place of origin.

soil analysis. See ANALYSIS, SOIL.

soil mark. See MARK, CROP.

sojourn. The period between death and the ghost’s departure for the spirit world.

solar radiation. See HYPOTHESIS, SOLAR RADIATION.

sok. A Kazak phratry (q.v.).

soldier society. See SOCIETY, MILITARY.

solifluction. In a periglacial zone (q.v.), the process by which material reaccumulates on frozen subsoil and is carried away by the water-logged and thawed upper surface of the soil.

solmization. A collection of syllables used to represent the tones of a musical scale.

Solo. See HOMO SOLOENSIS.

solstice. The sun’s greatest north or south declination, when it appears to pause before it returns on its course. The dates are approximately June 21 and December 22. The solstices are the longest and shortest days of the year. The June solstice is the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, with the December solstice the winter solstice; the opposite names apply in the southern hemisphere.

Solutrean. The Old World Upper Paleolithic period that succeeded the Aurignacian (q.v.) culture, ca. 70,000 years ago, around the time of the second maximum of the last glaciation. The name derives from the site uncovered at Le Solutre. It was fairly brief and was marked by a growth in making flint implements by pressure flaking and possibly by the needle. Stylized symbolic representations are found in its art. The bone industry did not continue to develop. Shouldered points and laurel and willow leaf points were widespread. The flint implements made were small and sliverlike, with an all-over ripple retouch. Horse hunting was found. The Solutrean peoples remained in the plains. They probably did not go beyond the Pyrenees, except at the eastern end.

soma. A leafless shrub that grows in India. It yields a rather acidulous milky juice that is used at religious ceremonies as a symbol of renewed life.

somatogenic. Referring to characteristics that are acquired and not hereditarily transmitted.

somatology. See ANTHROPOLOGY, PHYSICAL.

somatometry. Measurement of both the cadaver and the living body.

somatonia. In Sheldon’s scheme of constitutional types (q.v.), an active and assertive personality, the counterpart of mesomorphy (q.v.).

somatotype. A classification of body builds by types. See TYPES, CONSTITUTIONAL.

sonant. A phoneme (q.v.) requiring synchronized vibration of the vocal cords. It can occur in syllabic (q.v.) as well as nonsyllabic positions.

song, cumulative. A song in which each refrain includes a recapitulation of all the elements mentioned in earlier parts of the song, e.g., Old Macdonald Had a Farm.

song, folk. A song with traditional subject matter, music, or words.

song, medicine. A song or a spell that functions at ceremonies among the American Indians.

song, mourning. A song to lament a recent or imminent death. Mourning songs may be simple or highly complex. They usually praise the dead person and express the sorrow of the survivors. There may be self-mutilation or other signs of distress.

song, swallow. A song of Greek children to signalize the return of the swallows and spring. The custom is several thousand years old.

sonograph, steno-. See STENO-SONOGRAPH.

sonority. The comparative force with which sounds strike the ear, e.g., a vowel is usually more sonorous than a consonant.

sonority, crest of. A phoneme (q.v.) which is more sonorous than the phoneme which it precedes or follows.

sonorous. Referring to sonority (q.v.).

soothsaying. Activities employed to gain insight into the future or into matters ordinarily beyond human perception. In Greece and Rome, the soothsayer was almost a public official. Natural events, movements of the body, the changing position of the planets, drawing lots, and many other techniques are employed. Many contemporary superstitions are variants of soothsaying. See DIVINATION.

sorghum. A variety of grasses, both African and Asiatic, of different degrees of wildness. Sorghum has been used as forage, fuel, grain and syrup, and has a long history. It is possible that agricultural contacts between Africa and India may have given rise to sorghum.

sorcery. A kind of witchcraft (q.v.) especially linked with causing and curing disease. It is often used as a general designation for the acts of either a male or female sorcerer.

sororate. A man’s marrying his wife’s sister, on either a mandatory or permissive basis, after the wife’s death.

sorting criteria. See CRITERIA, SORTING.

sortition or sortilege. Using a fortuitous choice to answer a question. It may be the oldest kind of divination (q.v.). Lots or dice are typical examples of sortition.

Sosom. The bull roarer (q.v.) god of the Kaya-Kaya in New Guinea.

Sothic. See CYCLE, SOTHIC.

soul. The essence or animating substance of individual life, especially human. North American Indians believe in the human soul, or souls, almost without exception, and some believe that animals have souls as well. Souls may be multiple and may be in the body, in shadow, or in reflections. An early notion saw the soul as a kind of human shadow that caused life, possessed an independent personal volition and consciousness, and could affect man’s existence and appear in his fantasies. Factors making for acceptance of the idea of the soul include dreams and visions, the contrast between living and dead bodies, and the power of will.

soul, external. The belief that the soul may live apart from the body, or that a soul lives outside the body of the animal, plant, or object with which it is connected.

soul, ghost. Tylor’s term for the totality of the parts of the general soul. Everyone has life, which leads to consciousness and is extinguished at death, as well as an image which appears in dreams. These can disconnect themselves from the body. Inasmuch as they both belong to the body, they belong to each other, and are part of the general or ghost soul.

soul-animal. An animal that exists simultaneously with and is the double of a person. The activities and lives of both animal and human coexist and are coordinate. See VISION, QUESTING.

soul catching. See CATCHING, SOUL.

soul substance. See SUBSTANCE, SOUL.

sound, bridge. A phonetic unit, commonly a vowel, which is put between the prefix and root of a word or between the root and suffix to make the pronunciation less difficult and more euphonious.

sound, double. A sound within which one stress syllable ends and the next begins, e.g., nn in anno.

sound, earthquake. A sound caused by an earthquake which can be heard by humans.

sound, friction. A sound between voicing and breathing, made by the vocal cords being separated and the glottis opened, e.g., h as in hunt.

sound, glottal. A sound primarily articulated by the vocal cords, e.g., the glottal stop h.

sound, musical. A sound such as the nasal, lateral, and vowel.

sound, noise. A sound such as the trill, spirant, and stop.

sound change, substratum theory of. A theory of sound change that postulates that a group taking over a new language will speak it with the mother tongue phonetics, thus incorrectly from the point of view of native speakers. An example is that of persons of German descent who dentalize English consonants that are normally produced on the alveolar ridge of the upper gum.

sounding box. See BOX, SOUNDING.

souterrain. An underground stone passage, probably from the Iron Age or later. It used to be interpreted as a place of refuge but is now considered as an early form of stone room. Animal, bird, and fish bones have been found in souterrains, in addition to carbonized grain and ash. The term fogous is sometimes used for souterrain.

Southern Death cult. See CULT, SOUTHERN DEATH.

spacer. A bead perforated with a number of holes, which are designed to maintain the proper distance among the several strings of a necklace.

spall. To break around or break into smaller pieces; a piece broken off in making a core tool; a fragment or chip.

span. Measured from the rear with both arms outstretched, the distance between the tips of the two middle fingers. It is often used to mean a distance of about six feet. The word span also means the distance separating the little finger and thumb with the fingers outstretched.

spanner, head. An instrument for measuring the height of the head.

spar. A support for sails.

spatula, lime. In chewing betel (q.v.) nut quid, a long spoon used to take the lime out of the container in which it is usually kept.

spear. A long pointed weapon, for throwing or thrusting, used in war and in hunting and fishing. It may be composite or solid. A composite spear usually consists of head, foreshaft, shaft, butt, counterpoise, and sheath. The head may consist of a point (plain or barbed), shank, and socket. The foreshaft connects the socket and main shaft. The butt is attached to the end of the shaft, unless it is replaced by a counterpoise. The sheath protects the point.

spear, bird. A spear used by the Eskimo with a spear thrower (q.v.).

spear, king. An ornate spear of the Solomons.

spear, throwing. A missile, either a javelin, harpoon, dart, or arrow.

spearhead. The point of a spear. It may be made of a variety of materials, such as obsidian and iron.

spear thrower. See THROWER, SPEAR.

specialization. An organism’s developing strongly in one direction. It usually evolves in a straight-line fashion until an extreme form is achieved. Specialization leaves little opportunity to evolve to a higher plane. See ANIMAL, GENERALIZED.

speciation. The process of the formation of species.

species. A taxonomic group that probably cannot produce fertile offspring except with its own members. Zoologists do not completely agree on the meaning of the term. Several species make a genus. Within a species there are subspecies or varieties.

species, evolutionary unity of. The theory that evolution is responsible for every kind of organism. See CREATION, SPECIAL.

spectacle. A device to assist vision, usually consisting of two lenses in a frame, resting on the nose and held in place by hooks over the ears. Spectacles were used in Europe by the 15th century.

spectrograph, sound. A machine, used in phonetics, which makes a permanent record of the sound frequencies in every instant of a sample of speech lasting for 2.4 seconds.

spectrographic analysis. See ANALYSIS, SPECTROGRAPHIC.

spectrum, pollen. A statement of the percentage of pollen grains of different species taken from a single sample.

speech, inverted. A statement which is the opposite of what the speaker really means.

speech, monogenesis of. The supposition that all languages had a single origin.

speech, parts of. The parts or designations into which the words of a particular language can be separated, according to syntactical functions, forms, modes of inflection, or other criteria.

speech, visible. A phonetic alphabet (q.v.) which consists of simplified and schematized representations of the vocal organs as they appear when ready to utter each phoneme (q.v.). It was most widely used by Henry Sweet (1845-1912). Visible speech is expensive to print and difficult to write.

speech apparatus. See APPARATUS, SPEECH.

speech area. See AREA, SPEECH.

speleology. The science of cave exploration. It is a branch of archaeology and geology.

spell. A series of recited or sung words believed capable of effecting a desired magical end. The effect of the spell is mandatory and if it is properly presented, the expected result naturally follows. An archaic terminology may be used in spells so that they become fairly unintelligible or abracadabra. Spells often place great reliance on the effect of a name.

spelling, heterographic. A method of spelling wherein the identical letter or group of letters is pronounced differently in different words. English spelling is heterographic.

spelling, homographic. A method of spelling wherein the identical letter or group of letters is pronounced the same in all words. No conventional spelling is wholly homegraphic, although that of certain languages with recently reformed spelling, e.g., Spanish, comes close. Homographic spelling is found in a phonetic alphabet (q.v.).

spelt. A kind of wheat with a husk that must be partly dried before it is threshed from the grain. Spelt has helped archaeologists in the identification of sites, because it is found in the form of carbonized grain. This ancient cultivated wheat is still grown in parts of central Europe.

sphenoid. Having a wedge shape.

spheres, music of the. See MUSIC, MUNDANE.

spherocytosis. A condition in which the erythrocytes (red blood corpuscles) are unusually thick.

Sphinx. One of the oldest monuments in Egypt that still stands. It represents a lion with the head of a man. It probably dates from the IVth dynasty. It is made of solid rock and is some 150 feet long and 70 feet high. In Egyptian archaeology, a sphinx is any large carved figure, usually with an animal body and an animal or human head. The androsphinx has a human head, the criosphinx a goat’s head, and the hieracosphinx a hawk’s head. The Greek sphinx was in the form of a winged lion with a woman’s head and breasts. It was believed to have posed a riddle to all passersby and to have killed everyone unable to solve it.

sphragistics. The study of the seals on coins and medals, including old metal and stone signets. The wax and lead impressions of heraldic seals that appeared after the 12th century sometimes yielded more accurate information to genealogists than did the emblazoned arms.

spikenard. An ointment made from a spikenard plant, which also yields a famous ancient perfume. It has had special meaning in India as well as among the Hebrews. It is traditionally identified as the major ingredient in Mary Magdalene’s ointment.

spinach. An annual which produces many basal leaves and may be the most widely used herbage vegetable for greens. It probably originated in Persia, and was brought in medieval times via Spain to Europe.

spindle. A rounded rod which tapers at both ends, with yarn twisted on one end. Its origin is closely tied in with the beginnings of agriculture. The spindle is perhaps the tool most widely used for spinning in cultures where the wheel is unknown. It usually has a weight to keep the stick whirling. Wood is the most widely used material for spindles.

spindle, drop. A simple spindle consisting of a rod with a whorl placed near the lower end. The drop spindle is allowed to whirl while suspended in the air or resting on the ground instead of being twisted continuously on the thigh or other surface.

spindle and spindle-whorl method. A fairly simple method of spinning, using a wooden spindle and a circular weight.

spinnaker. A large triangular sail on a light long pole, found on the side opposite the mainsail. It is used in running before the wind.

spinning. Making yarn out of fiber through lengthening and twisting it.

spirant. A sound made when the speech organs are so arranged that there is a very narrow passage for the outgoing breath, so that friction is produced, e.g., f or z.

spirant, bilabial. A spirant in which the two lips narrow the sound, e.g., phi or beta in Greek.

spirant, dental. A spirant in which the upper teeth are touched by the blade of the tongue, e.g., th in thin.

spirant, gingival. See SIBILANT.

spirant, glottal. A spirant in which the breath passing through the slightly opened glottis produces friction, e.g., h as in hot.

spirant, groove. A sound produced by an elongated front-to-back channel in the tongue, e.g., in Sanskrit. It is between a hissing and a hushing sound.

spirant, labiodental. A spirant made by forcing the breath stream between the lower lip and the upper teeth, e.g., f.

spirant, palatal. A spirant, found in German, in which there is contact between the highest part of the palate and the middle of the tongue, e.g., ch in ich.

spirant, rounded labial. A sound made by puckering the lips, e.g., w in witch.

spirant, slit. A sound articulated with a comparatively flat opening between the tongue and roof of the mouth, e.g., the rs in the Swedish word fors.

spirant, unrounded labial. A rubbing sound made by the breath’s coming from the lips when they are in slight contact, as in the Japanese h (usually transliterated f) coming before u; e.g., Hujiyama or Fujiyama.

spirit. An immaterial nondivine being of fairly independent existence. It may be associated with a particular natural feature. There may be many different kinds of spirits, even in one culture. Spirits cannot be perceived directly by the senses. The wind, the sun, a disease, may be regarded as having a spirit or being one. Spirits may be linked with fairies, gnomes, and similar figures. The concept of a soul (q.v.) that can be separated from the body is the model for the nonhuman spirit. The spirit helped the growth of advanced religion by facilitating dualistic conceptions of the material and the immaterial. Usually there are more spirits on the earth than human beings. Many spirits in nonliterate religions worked for man or against him, and their force could be seen in almost any unusual happening. The notion in some religions that each person enjoys the protection of a guardian angel and faces the snares set by a tempting demon may derive from the belief in spirits. Spirits are sometimes confused with ghosts (q.v.) who loiter around their homes.

spirit, corn. A spirit which typifies the living power of growing grain. Its existence is coterminous with that of the grain.

spirit, familiar. A personal protective spirit, often identified in a dream or vision, or an evil spirit which is controlled by a sorcerer. Among the American Indians of the Plains, the protective spirit is usually termed a tutelary guardian (see VISION, QUESTING). The form, usually that of a cat, assumed by a demon that served a witch was known as a familiar spirit or familiar. See SPIRIT, GUARDIAN.

Spirit, Great. A single all-powerful deity often assumed to be the god of the American Indians. This assumption is erroneous, as in fact they had many deities.

spirit, guardian. A personal protective spirit, often obtained from a visitation or dream. Possession of such a spirit had to remain secret, or it might be lost. The knowledge acquired from a spirit might not be used till a person reached middle age. It was possible to have more than one guardian spirit. The shaman (q.v.) might use a guardian spirit’s advice. The guardian spirit was sought throughout life. See VISION, QUESTING.

spirit, household. A supernatural person found in or near dwellings in Europe. They may be tricky or helpful, as well as unpleasant. The mischievous poltergeist may be a household spirit. Fairies often frequent barns and kitchens to milk the cows dry and sour the butter.

spirit, water. A god among the southern Bushmen of South Africa. He is an evil spirit who withholds rain.

spirochete. A spiral-shaped bacteria. The organism responsible for syphilis is a spirochete (Treponema pallidum).

spitting. Ejecting saliva through the mouth is often of considerable symbolic significance. As it is a sign of good luck to spit on something, spitting may be a means of counteracting bad luck.

spitzharfe. An ancient two-sided musical instrument, a double psaltery so constructed that duets could be played on it. One set of strings is bass and one treble. It is played by plucking.

split animal motif. See MOTIF, SPLIT ANIMAL.

split-line technique. See TECHNIQUE, SPLIT-LINE.

spokesman. See CHIEF, TALKING.

spokeshave. A concave scraper (q.v.) with a notch, usually used to scrape shafts.

Spondylus. A shell used for ornaments in Neolithic Europe.

sponsalia. The ceremony attendant on plighting a troth.

sport. An organism that shows a mutation or the mutation itself. Geneticists try to avoid using this word because of its connotation that the mutant is causeless or inexplicable rather than dictated by the gene structure. The term sport also suggests a throwback or atavism, which geneticists feel should not be associated with the concept of mutation.

sports. Activities, now largely recreational, which were at one time man’s preparation for keeping alive. Contests between animals and men were once to obtain food source and not a diversion. Activities like the chase were largely war preparations.

spot, Mongolian. A bluish-gray spot in the lumbar area, which usually disappears some time after birth. It is most common in East Asia.

spot, vulnerable. The folktale theme that a special person is only vulnerable in one spot, e.g., Achilles in the heel.

spout, bridge. A type of double spout on jars, the two vertical elements of which are connected by a horizontal strip. It is especially characteristic of southern Peruvian ceramics. The stirrup spout comprises two arched tubes which meet in a single cylindrical spout. This type was characteristic of much of the pottery of northern Peru.

Sprachgefühl. A native’s feeling toward his language, based on an intuitive grasp of its structure.

spring, balance. A small weighted regulatory bar on a watch, held to the center of a coiled spring. It replaced the pendulum.

Springtanz. See ESPRINGALE.

sprit. On a sailboat, a spar which runs from tack to peak of a sail. It keeps the sail expanded.

spunk. Wood that takes fire readily.

squama. A shell-shaped bone, e.g., the temporal bone.

squamous. Covered by or largely composed of scales.

square-field plot system. See SYSTEM, SQUARE-FIELD PLOT.

squaw. A woman of an American Indian tribe.

squaw, lazy. A kind of simple oversewn coil (q.v.) in which a long stitch passes over two coils simultaneously. The sewing goes in front of, up, and then over the new coil, around which it winds. Then it goes behind and under the previous coil, then right up over the new coil.

squeeze, dry. In archaeological research, a method of taking a graphic impression of an inscription on paper. It is used with fragile or colored stones, where squeeze paper (q.v.) is unsuitable. A thin sheet of paper is held over the stone against every edge of the cutting, so that there will be a corresponding bend in the surface. The bends are then drawn with pencil on a drawing board and checked against the stone. The drawing is started at the bottom right hand side of the paper, to keep the impression from being pressed out by the hand.

squeezer, cassava. See MATAPI.

sraddha. A Hindu ceremony which expresses respect for a family’s ancestors or gives a spirit an intermediate body. It involves offerings of different foods to various ancestors.

stab-and-drag. Pottery decorated by continuous lines made by repeatedly jabbing a point into the clay, drawing it back, and stabbing it in again.

stadia. A series of variations in climate, often the four major glaciations (q.v.), which led gradually to modern conditions. The Bühl, Gschnitz, and Daun stadia are usually distinguished. They date roughly from 22,000 to 9,000 years ago.

staff, cross or staff, Jacob’s. A device used by early astronomers to measure latitude and the angle between stars. Later it was used by sailors to measure altitudes while at sea and to gauge the sun’s height.

stages, economic. The three stages in the economic development of man. In the 19th century they were said to be fishing and hunting, pastoralism, and agriculture.

staining, alizarin. Using red alizarin to measure bone growth. It stains growing calcifying tissues red; bone which was produced before or after the dye was used remains white. It helps to determine the developmental stage at which particular bony tissue is laid down.

stalactite. A deposit of carbonate of lime found hanging from cave roofs. It is kept in solution by water trickling through the roof. The occurrence of stalactites is erratic, depending on minute fissures in the limestone and the subsequent percolation of water carrying carbonate of lime in solution. They may grow fairly rapidly under favorable conditions. Their presence is often used to set a maximum date for paintings or engravings which they may cover.

stalagmite. A limey, compact, hard material that may be formed in a damp period from limestone on the walls of rock shelters (q.v.) being redeposited on the floor. A stalagmite may be kept in solution by water trickling through the roof of the cave.

stamnos. An ancient Greek ceramic vase with a very high shoulder, a short neck, and two handles.

stamping, rocker. A pottery design made by a convex stamp being impressed in the wet clay and rocked back and forth.

stand, fruit. A pot, usually a shallow bowl, mounted on a high stand, as in the Alisar pottery of Neolithic times.

stane, Cat. A battle memorial of ancient Scotland. The word comes from the Celtic cath, “battle.”

star, morning. The planet Venus, which rises just before sunrise, of importance as a religious object, notably among North American Indians.

state. A political or governmental grouping, ranging in complexity from the autonomous village to the nation. It usually arises through several tribes voluntarily joining or through strong groups subjugating weak. War is probably the major means of producing a state. There are more conquest states than confederacies. Conquest states usually enjoy settled life and technological achievement that permit a population to produce a surplus. The state includes all the persons living in an area who recognize or are subject to the force which can be applied by those exercising control. Max Weber defined the state as the human association that successfully claimed the monopoly of legitimate physical force in a given sphere. The early study of social organization was the study of the state.

station. An early site with artifacts that typify a culture.

station, open. An exposed site for a settlement, usually near a body of water. Open stations are helpful in dating some developments in material culture, since the inhabitants merely threw aside tools or food remnants, which can be correlated with the geologist’s sequence.

station, trading. A place where trade was conducted on a semipermanent basis. Some trading stations became cities eventually, e.g., Byblos in Syria, which developed into a city to meet Egypt’s need to import timber from Lebanon. This development occurred particularly in the Near East, ca. fourth millenium B.C.

station, type. See SITE, TYPE.

statoreception. An organism’s ability to adjust to equilibrium and gravity.

stature. See HEIGHT, STANDING.

status. Comparative prestige rank in a community. It is a collection of both rights and duties. Ascribed status—the more common type—is that which individuals get without reference to their individual capacities by inheritance. Achieved status is that established by special qualities, through individual effort. See ROLE.

status group, endogamous. A bilateral kinship group within which the individual must marry, e.g., a caste (q.v.) in India.

stave, perforated bone. See BATON-DE-COMMANDEMENT.

steamer. A cooking vessel for steaming food. It is double, with the bottom of the upper portion perforated and placed over the lower vessel, which contains hot water. Rice especially lends itself to cooking by steaming.

steatite. A soapstone used to make stone bowls and pottery by the Indians of the eastern United States.

steatopygia or steatopygy. Unusually fatty buttocks, as in Hottentot and Bushmen women.

stecca. A small piece of wood or a stick.

Steinheim. A fossil skull from Steinheim, Germany, reported in 1933. It is from the second or third interglacial era, and may be 150,000 years old. The prominent brow ridges and strong upper jaw are primitive features, while the back part of the skull and the muscular ridges of the occipital bones are like modern man. This skull had a brain capacity of about 1,000 cc. and seems to be between that of Pithecanthropus and Homo sapiens, with many characteristics of the latter. The forehead is beginning to fill out and the skull has a generally rounded contour.

Steinmetz, Sebald Rudolph (1862-1940). A German ethnologist who studied the development of the concept of punishment and traced the idea of the psychology of vengeance. He examined the connection between vengeance and religion.

stele or stela. A small carved stone slab usually without capital or base. It is used as a monument, milestone, to indicate a site, or as a gravestone. The first sculptured stele is Sumerian; it dates ca. 2550 B.C. and shows the king leading his army. Buddhist and Mayan steles often have religious scenes. Many Athenian steles of the fifth and fourth century B.C., used as tombstones, are very beautiful. A typical scene is an episode from the life of the dead person. Demetrios of Phaleron’s decree against ostentation caused a decline in this type of sculpture, although it continued elsewhere.

Stele B. A stone pillar among the Maya ruins at Copan on which was carved a figure which has been interpreted variously as a mastodon, an elephant, and a mosquito.

stenomeric. Referring to a platymeric index (q.v.) of more than 100.

stenometopic. Referring to a transverse fronto-parietal index (q.v.) of less than 65.9.

steno-sonograph. An instrument developed by Dreyfus-Graff, which he claimed could transcribe spoken sounds into written symbols.

Stephens, John Lloyd (1805-1852). An American archaeologist who made two visits to the sites of the Maya civilization between 1839 and 1842. He went with the English artist Frederick Catherwood, who illustrated Stephens’ books and wrote a popular volume about the Maya cities.

steppe. Grassland with a cover of rapidly growing short grass. Steppes are very cold in winter and hot in summer and often have windstorms.

sternum. The breastbone, forming the ventral midline of the thoracic cage. It is made up of three parts. The first seven ribs of the human body articulate on the sternum.

stibium. A cosmetic used in Egypt to paint around the eyes and to treat some eye diseases.

stichband. A pottery design found in the Danubian I period. It consisted of a kind of arrow design with lines criss-crossing the shaft of the arrow.

stick, broiling. A stick placed on the ashes of the fireplace as a broiling spit, e.g., among the Ainu.

stick, counting. A stick with notches cut in it used for counting.

stick, digging or stock, digging. A wooden branch with a pointed end, sometimes forked and fire-hardened. Probably man’s oldest wooden tool, it was used to dig out roots. From it the spear may have developed.

stick, diplomats’. A bundle sent to the United States government by American Indians. It often contained a hollowed corn ear filled with tobacco, representing the pipe of peace, and was accompanied by an appropriate message about peace.

stick, joss. A thin cylinder or stick of wood powder and paste, burned for incense or to measure time at night. The odor has ceremonial significance and keeps away insects. Joss sticks are found in the Far East, especially China.

stick, kicked. A game of some Southwest Indian groups in which two small sticks are kicked along a ceremonial course. It is especially associated with the Zuni.

stick, message. A notched stick used to identify the messenger and to act as a mnemonic device for him. A typical stick may be four to eight inches long, with notches, curves, and lines. The receiver could read the markings. It was very common among the early Australians, on the Malayan Archipelago, and among the Bushmen of Africa and the North American Indians. Handing over the message stick may be accompanied by a ceremony, with the messenger representing the chief.

stick, notched. A stick with notches in it, used by some North American Indians as reminders or as tally systems. The meaning of each notch may vary with the purpose of the stick.

stick, parrying. A stick used for parrying, instead of a shield.

stick, prayer. A stick with feathers attached, which is painted and has special religious meanings, as among the Pueblos. Prayer is made over the sticks, after which they can be hidden or presented on an altar.

stick, rabbit. A boomeranglike flat curved stick used as a hunting weapon by the Indians of the Basin Plateau area in Nevada and Southern California. One of its surfaces was grooved. It was usually made of oak and was not self-retrieving.

stick, sounding. A stick suspended from a tree used to beat rhythm.

stick, scratching. A stick, often in the shape of a fork or a hand, used by many primitive peoples to scratch the skin, especially during certain ritual occasions when scratching with the bare hand is considered dangerous.

stick, swizzle. A stick, usually of wood, which is twirled between the palms, so as to provide a swirling motion to beat and soften various materials. In Central America, the swizzle stick is used to beat up chocolate and make a foaming drink.

stick, throwing. A part of a tree or shrub used as a weapon that was thrown or hurled at a target. Its shape varied considerably. The throwing stick is sometimes called the dart sling.

sticks, bundles of. Sticks tied together in a bundle, used as mnemonic devices by some North American Indians. The marks and appearance of the sticks can serve as summaries of ideas or documents.

sticks, termite. Two sticks of different kinds of wood, taken to a termite mound by the Azande, who pose a question to the termites. They are told to give one of two alternative answers by eating one stick or the other.

stigma. 1 A brand made on a person with a red hot iron, used to identify criminals or slaves. 2 A spot on the skin that bleeds during some mental states. The Roman Catholic Church says that in certain cases these stigmata have been impressed upon the body miraculously as a reminder of the wounds suffered by the crucified Christ. The Church recognizes, however, that some cases of stigmatization are hysterical.

stigmata. Physical abnormalities believed to be associated with abnormal behavior. Lombroso (q.v.) in 1876 expounded the theory that criminals can be identified by the stigmata of atavisms (q.v.).In 1905, the psychiatrist Rosanoff suggested the following as signs of arrested development: microcephaly, macrocephaly, scaphocephaly, and extreme brachycephaly and dolichocephaly. The theory of stigmata has largely been disproved, although some types of mental defect occasioned by glandular malfunctioning, e.g., cretinism, are marked by distinctive physical signs.

Stillbay. A Middle Stone Age industry of South Africa. Also, a type of leaf-shaped stone lance head characteristic of this industry and reminiscent of Solutrean leaf points.

stinkard. A man of the common people, as distinguished from a sun (an honored man or the chief) among the Natchez and Creek Indians. The term puant (French “stinker”) is also used. See SUN, GREAT.

stock. 1 A term often used to designate a collection of racial groups. Objections have been made to the use of this term because it implies an earlier parent group. 2 A linguistic family containing several closely related languages. 3 A large biological division, usually roughly equated, with RACE.

stock, digging. See STICK, DIGGING.

stock, linguistic. A group of interrelated languages that are not related to other such groups.

stodge. Steamed and mashed fruit.

Stolpe, Hjalmar (1841-1905). A Swedish ethnologist, once director of the ethnography department of the Stockholm Museum. He wrote on early art and showed the importance of religion in the development of art and ornamentation. Stolpe studied the social nexus of a work of art and its possible polygenesis.

stomion. With the lips closed, the midpoint of the oral fissure.

stone, apex. The uppermost stone in a gable end.

stone, Armenian. The ancient name for azurite, called after the place where it was found.

stone, baking. A flat stone found in Southern California, usually with a perforation at one end, about a foot long and one inch thick. It was used as a boiling stone, a dipper, and for baking bread by the Indians of the area.

stone, banner. An axlike implement of polished stone, often with two winglike projections and axial perforations. It was made in prehistoric North America. Its use has not been established.

stone, bird. A weight for a spearthrower shaped like a generalized bird, found among some American Indians of the Hopewell period and earlier. It is lashed on to the shaft of the spearthrower. It had a pair of projecting knobs to represent eyes and was usually made of banded slate, suggesting feathers. It was symmetrical and polished. Other uses have been suggested for the bird stone. See STONE, BUTTERFLY.

stone, birth. The belief that a special stone is sacred to each month and that it has a special virtue for people born in that month. Josephus and St. Jerome are largely responsible for this belief, although the practice of wearing such stones did not originate until the 18th century, in Poland.

stone, boat. A polished stone, usually in the shape of a canoe, made of slate and steatite. It is found in Canada and the United States among several Indian groups and is especially common in almost all the states east of the Mississippi. It may have been used as a charm or talisman. Perforated specimens suggest ornaments hung around the neck.

stone, bottle. The mineral chrysolite or any mineral that will melt and combine with glass without first being prepared in any way. Bottle stone is also a unique type of glass found in the form of clear, green pebbles in the Moldau Valley, Old Bohemia, whence the name Moldavite. Moldavite is thought to be prehistoric slag or glass.

stone, butterfly. A weight for a spear thrower lashed to its shaft, characteristic of the Mound Builders in the United States. Its name derives from the shape like a butterfly with outstretched wings. See STONE, BIRD.

stone, collar. A yoke made of stone and found in central Vera Cruz, Teotihuacan and southern Olenec. Most of the collar stones are found in Totonac sites like Tajin. They were probably used as belts. Most of the specimens are in the shape of open horseshoes but some are closed. They average 50 pounds in weight and often are decorated with tiger or snake motifs.

stone, Ethiopian. An Egyptian embalmer’s tool used for incising the side of the corpse to remove the vital organs. This was preparatory to mummification (q.v.).

stone, figure. A natural piece of flint which resembles some object, e.g., an animal, if held in a particular way. These pieces are sometimes erroneously attributed to human workmanship, which was believed to have been applied in order to enhance a fancied resemblance.

stone, grease. A smooth stone used to hold grains and fats.

stone, grinding. A stone used to wear down a surface or to shape a softer material. Grinding stones are difficult to detect archaeologically.

stone, hook. A heavy hook-shaped object, made of soapstone or a similar soft rock, often shaped like a Z and from one to five inches long. Its function is not established with any certainty. It is characteristic of the California area.

stone, Khenem. An Egyptian amulet (q.v.) which was placed on the dead body during the burial ceremony prior to the reading of inscriptions from the Book of the Dead just before the coffin was closed.

stone, long. See MENHIR.

stone, milling. See QUERN.

stone, nardoo. A slab metate among the Australians.

stone, notched. A stone with notches, used to polish and sharpen various implements. The edge of the tool to be polished was applied to the grooves, and a backward-forward motion produced friction to bring about the desired graining and polish.

stone, nut. A boulder with depressions used by American Indians to crack nuts. Such stones are especially common in the Tennessee area.

stone, pecked. A stone which is abraded rather than chipped.

stone, polishing. A stone, usually in the shape of an oblong polyhedron, used to polish tools and implements. One surface is usually furrowed in grooves that show the wear of small instruments like the chisel or gouge.

stone, precious. A mineral sought because of rareness, strength, color, or other unusual or attractive features. It is probable that early man collected precious stones as ornaments or for medicinal or magic purposes.

stone, religious. Stones often are found in religious contexts, involved with magic, as charms and amulets, as sacred boundary or phallic symbols, as gods or gods’ residences. Their shape sometimes helped make them objects of devotion. The Black Stone of Mecca is kissed by many Moslem pilgrims. The lingam (q.v.) in India is worshipped. Rocks with Gautama Buddha’s footprint were sacred. Almost every religion has had its sacred stones. In the Old Testament, Jacob gave the name “God’s house” to the stone on which he slept and anointed it.

Stone, Rosetta. A basalt stone, about three feet nine inches long, two feet four and one half inches wide, and eleven inches thick, on one side of which were three parallel columns, in Greek, demotic, and heiroglyphic writing. When deciphered by Champollion, it gave the meaning of the hieroglyphs. It was found near the Nile’s Rosetta mouth in 1789 by a French officer named Boussard. When Alexandria fell, the British government captured the stone and in 1802 put it in the British Museum. There are 32 lines of demotic, 14 of hieroglyphs, and 54 of Greek. The subject is a decree of the priests of Memphis awarding divine honors to Ptolemy V, Epiphanes (c. 203-181 B.C.), because he conferred various benefits. The Greek text proved easy to read, and Silvestre de Sacy of France and J. D. Akerblad of Sweden studied the demotic text and identified its names. The inscription afforded the first clue to the deciphering of hieroglyphics.

stone, sacred. See ALTAR.

stone, sarsen. A silicious sandstone block from a valley between Swinden and Salisbury in England.

stone, sedimentary. One of the three architectural and sculptural categories of stone. Gypsum, limestone, slate, shale, and sandstone belong to this classification.

stone, sling. An intentionally shaped stone, usually cylindrical with pointed ends, used as a missile to be hurled with a sling, especially in Polynesia and Peru.

stone, standing. See MENHIR.

stone, three-cornered. A triangular carved stone of unknown use, frequently zoomorphic, found in Taino archaeological sites in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.

stone, thunder. A polished stone, formerly believed to have fallen from the sky in a thunder storm.

Stone Age. See AGE, PALEOLITHIC. stone count. See COUNT, STONE.

Stone Platform. See PLATFORM, STONE.

stone table. See DOLMEN.

Stonehenge. The group of upright and horizontal stones located on Salisbury Plain, England and thought to be the ruins of an ancient temple of the druids. The transportation of the “bluestones” from a quarry in the Prescelly Mountains of Wales, 150 miles away, probably by sledges, has been called one of the most remarkable feats of prehistoric initiative in Europe. Thousands of men were probably working on the job for many years. The first Stonehenge earthwork dates from ca. 1800 B.C. The second monument was begun ca. 1650 B.C. and consisted of two stone concentric circles oriented toward the midsummer sunrise, with a two-mile-long processional avenue. The third period of Stonehenge construction took place ca. 1500 B.C., and consisted of a circle of 30 uprights, capped by a ring of stone lintels which surrounded a horseshoe of trilithons, each consisting of two uprights and a lintel. The chieftans of the Wessex aristocracy, who are buried in large numbers near Stonehenge, were probably responsible for this building. The graves of these chiefs have artifacts indicating that the basis for their power was trade with central Europe and the Mediterranean, primarily in the products of Irish gold and bronze smiths.

stoneware. A kind of earthenware made of clay fired at such a high temperature that it fuses into a very hard substance that is resistant to liquids and scratching. Cologne is usually credited with being the site of the first stoneware, in the early 15th century, although it was made in France in the early 13th century. Stoneware is often glazed with salt, and the clay used may have flint particles suspended in it.

stool, cucking. A chair used to punish shrews and dishonest merchants. It is shaped like a toilet seat. Sometimes the victims were ducked in a pond. It was used in England by the 13th century.

stop. A complete stopping of the breath passage by raised velum and lips and tongue, or by the closed glottis, e.g., in p, b, d. Some linguists consider the nasals m, n, and ng, which are made by oral and not nasal closure, to be stops also. The breath gathered behind the closure emerges with a slight pop when the closure is suddenly opened. Stops probably exist in every language. A stop cannot be prolonged. A stop is sometimes described as an occlusive sound or as a stop-plosive.

stop, alveolar. See STOP, DENTAL.

stop, bilabial. See STOP, LABIAL.

stop, dental, stop gingival, or stop, alveolar. A stop made by the tip of the tongue effecting a closure against the ridge (the alveolar ridge) on the rear of the upper gum (whence also the name gingival) or against the back of the teeth (dental), e.g., t.

stop, glottal or stop, laryngal. A slight cough made by the vocal cords being abruptly forced apart after lung pressure compresses the air behind the glottis. Such stops often occur in the Semitic languages, which treat them as consonants. The letter alpha in Greek and aleph in the Semitic languages represent the glottal stop. In English the glottal stop is generally deplored as a bad, albeit common, speech habit. It is recognized as correct in order to separate consecutive occurrences of the same consonant at the end of one word and the beginning of the next, e.g., Hit Tom.

stop, labial or stop, bilabial. A stop made by the two lips forming the closure, e.g., the b in but.

stop, laryngal. See STOP, GLOTTAL.

stop, sonant. A stop in which the vocal cords vibrate while it is being pronounced, e.g., the d in German.

stop, surd. A stop in which the vocal cords do not vibrate when it is pronounced, e.g., the t in Latin.

stop, velar. A stop made by the back of the tongue being pushed against the velum, e.g., the tt in guttural.

story, cumulative. A story in which plants and animals have human qualities. There is usually an extended accumulation of statements, which may be reversed in order to end the story properly.

story, edifying. A medieval story dealing with the lives of the saints or the Madonna.

story, origin. A folk story about how various natural phenomena began, particularly among North American Indians.

story, true. An American Indian description of certain stories or myths, as opposed to lies or jokes.

strabismus. The inward turning of the axes of the eyes, popularly called cross-eyes.

straightener, arrow. 1 A part of an antler with one or more oval or circular holes. It has been suggested that these objects may also have served as brooches, scepters, or devices to make pliable thongs or reins from reindeer hide. 2 A device for straightening bent arrows, by wetting the arrow, binding it tightly to the straightener, and then leaving it to dry and set. The modern Eskimo use such straighteners.

strain, culture. A condition of uneasiness resulting from the disequilibrium which is a product of acculturation (q.v.). It results from the conflict between wanting to accept and to reject a new culture. In India, thus, many copied the behavior of the British colonials at the same time that Ghandi was urging adherence to the peasantry’s traditional customs. The Kikuyu in Kenya probably represent the best known example of recent culture strain, with acculturation causing a collapse of marriage traditions, mores, and old modes of exchange, while confusion was worsened by overpopulation and the fact that the colonials did not observe the precepts of the Christian religion taught by the missionaries.

strainer, kava. A bundle of fiber used to strain out the solid parts from the juice of the pepper root from which kava is made.

strake. On a boat, planking going fore and aft.

strake, bilge. A strake situated where the side and bottom merge.

strake, wash. The top strake, or a plank placed on the gunwale to keep spray out.

strake, yarboard. On a boat, the strake next to the keel on both sides.

stranger. A person who comes into face-to-face contact with a group for the first time. Strangers often occupy a special place in early society. A stranger sometimes may not settle in a group without the chief’s permission, and may be excluded from religious rites, refused burial, and subjected to mendacity. The stranger may bring bad luck or disease or have a baleful supernatural influence.

On such data, some writers have suggested that in early society a stranger is an enemy. Westermarck and Briffault suppose that the stranger is a god in disguise, thus explaining sacred harlotry (q.v.), inasmuch as the man is often specifically described as a stranger. The idea that a god is entertained in honoring a stranger may have been quite widespread. The relation between a host and his stranger guest is often confirmed by a ritual or ceremony. See GUEST; HOSPITALITY.

strata cut. See CUT, STRATA.

stratification. The layers that can be seen in an archaeological site, as determined by the application of the geological law of superposition (q.v.).

stratigraphy. The picture of the changing culture content of an archaeological site, usually based on the content of its stratification.

stratum, contact. The topmost layer of an archaeological site.

Stratz den Haag, Carl (1858-1924). A German anthropologist who used a considerable number of characteristics to differentiate races, and integrated his races with geographic concepts. He suggested the possibility of human beings being divided into a progressive group and a static group.

stream, crown. A stream of hair which begins at the crown.

stream, glabellar. A stream of hair beginning at the root of the nose.

strength, dynamometric. A score obtained by averaging three squeezes of the dynamometer, a device for measuring muscular power.

stress. The comparative emphasis, intensity, or loudness given to speech sounds. The more stress a sound has, the higher the number of sound waves, the closer together the vocal chords are for voicing, and the more energetically the sound is produced. The term stress accent is preferred by some writers.

stress, fixed. When speaking of a word, the emphasis which is always placed on the same syllable, no matter what inflectional or other changes take place and regardless of grammatical function.

stress, syllabic. An increase in stress which makes a syllabic of a sonant. It may have the effect of a secondary phoneme.

stretcher, sound. A device that permits the playback of a speech sample at a rate differing from that at which it was uttered while retaining the original pitch.

striae. Tiny channels or grooves in flint, radiating out from the bulb of percussion (q.v.), toward which they converge. They can be used to help determine the location of the point of percussion on a flint artifact.

strike-a-light. An early technique for fire-making, in which flint was struck against a hard stone to produce sparks. Flint and pyrites probably represent the earliest kind of strike-a-light, although the decomposition of pyrites may make it difficult to trace this method accurately. Sparks from pyrites are dull and will ignite only quick tinder. Even true pyrite pieces, struck together, may give a spark. The use of flint is more precise and is less likely to break the flint. The flint method was used by the eastern and central Eskimo. Later strike-a-lights used steel rather than pyrites. One of the earliest steel strike-a-lights is found in the late Iron Age pile buildings of Ueberlinger See. The first literary mention of steel in fire-making is by Lucretius, 95-91 B.C. Steel for early strike-a-lights probably first came from India. This steel was made by the cementation process, in which iron was heated in a closed vessel along with animal matter like horn or skin. This formed a layer of steel on the iron by casehardening. Steel probably did not become widespread for fire-striking until the late Iron Age, because most of the steel was used for weapons. The subsequent use of flint and steel for fire-making was the result of trade.

strike-a-light, bamboo. A strike-a-light found in Malaysia, Cochin China, the Waigiou Islands, and West Africa. It consists of a piece of broken china which is struck on the side of a piece of bamboo. Bamboo with a hispid siliceous coating appears to be most useful for this purpose.

striker. A circular tool with a fairly flat lateral surface, made of a hard stone like granite or quartz, used for a hammer, a weight, and other purposes.

string, bowed. A musical instrument the tones of which are produced by drawing a bow across strings.

string, loop. A string which goes over a digit.

string, sympathetic. A strong thin string which is under the major strings on an instrument. Sympathetic strings are either tuned together or in some relation with the major strings. When the major strings vibrate, the sympathetic strings pick up the vibration. Their vibrations have a rich quality and take some time to die away, so that they provide resonant background. They are found widely in India.

string figure. See FIGURE, STRING.

structural theory. See THEORY, FUNCTIONAL AND STRUCTURAL.

structure, basic personality. The nuclear personality which is common to all members of a culture, developing from certain basic patterns of child rearing and institutional interaction. The term has been used in several studies by Abram Kardiner and his associates.

structure, social. The ordered relation which the parts of a society have to each other, seen from a reasonably long-range point of view. Anthropological viewpoints of social structure have ranged from seeing it as the web of all the interpersonal relations in a community to the relations among only the major groups. Social structure has also been defined as the ideals and expectations of a society.

studies, area. Studies of a given area’s human and natural resources. Such studies are usually cooperative.

stuff, soul. Extra-natural power, or that part of it relating to particular persons or objects.

Stukeley, William (1687-1755). A British field archaeologist, a pioneer in the “... account of places and things from inspection, not completed from others’ labors, or travels in one’s study.” He was greatly interested in Druid remains.

stupa. A mound of varying size, widely distributed in Asian countries. Stupes have been used for thousands of years. Large stupas are believed to contain relics of Buddha or of saints and are venerated. In India, they were used for the burial of early kings. The large stupas have platforms and a staff or dome on top. The proportions were carefully prescribed. Stupas have sometimes been classified according to whether they resemble the female breast or the phallus more closely.

stupefacient. A material that paralyzes or immobilizes. Many different stupefacients are used in fishing, especially in quiet waters.

Stupika. An immense sculpture carved directly out of a rock quarry. It is located in India at Ellura and is actually a gigantic stupa (q.v.). It is one of the best-known tombs in Indian art .

style, horizon. A spatial continuum which is found throughout the wide distribution of a given art style. The concept was developed in Andean archaeology by Max Uhle in 1913.

subarea, culture. An element of a larger culture area, characterized by its relative completeness and the relatively advanced degree of development of a particular trait.

subaurale. With the head held in the Frankfurt line (q.v.), the low point on the inferior border of the ear lobule.

sub-boreal. See BOREAL, SUB-.

subbrachyskelic. Referring to a stem-leg length index (q.v.) between 80 and 84.9.

subincision. A ritual operation on a male initiate, consisting of a posterior opening of the urethra for about one inch. It is especially found in Australia, where it is always associated with circumcision (q.v.). A stone may be placed in the subincised penis in order to keep the urethra open. Subincision may be an attempt to imitate the female genitals, an interpretation favored by the fact that some groups further incise the penis on anniversaries after the operation to make it bleed. The drawing of penile blood is probably the most important part of the operation; this may be used to anoint or paint the initiate or as a symbol of his new status. Hogbin believes that subincision is a cleansing operation against disease. Pitt-Rivers has noted its use in Fiji as a therapeutic blood letting. Little credence is now given to the view that subincision prevents normal ejaculation of semen and demands a special copulatory posture to effect impregnation.

submacroskelic. Referring to a stem-leg length index (q.v.) between 90 and 94.9.

subnasale. The point at which there is a merger of the nasal septum and the upper cutaneous lip in the midsagittal plane (q.v.).

subordination. An exocentric (q.v.) language combination in which a clause or phrase is subordinate to a subordinating expression, e.g., If Arbuthnot were sick; richer than Arbuthnot.

subplatyhieric. Referring to a length-breadth sacral index (q.v.) between 100 and 105.9.

subrace, primary. A subgroup within a primary race. It results from intensification, localization and continued operation of the factors which produced the primary race. These factors, along with mutation, inbreeding, selection, and adaptational changes, work on more restricted groups than the race.

subsection. Half of an Australian section.

subspecies. A subdivision of a species which is genetically and taxonomically different from other subdivisions. The major human races are probably less distinct than subspecies, while the same is perhaps not true of the major dog breeds.

substance, soul. A substance, found in the lore of Indonesia and Melanesia, which is believed to permeate humans, plants, and animals, as well as the bodily exuviae, like nail pairings. The body will suffer if the soul substance is not returned. Animals and plants give up their soul substance by being eaten. Much magic is based on soul substance.

substitute. A language form which may replace another form in specific circumstances.

substitute, anaphoric. A substitute which implies that the word replaced has recently been used.

substitution. Using a word which has been superseded to describe a new device or subject.

substratum, linguistic. A set of features of an extinct language that survives in the language which replaced it. The term is sometimes applied to the extinct language as such. In English, part of the linguistic substratum is composed of the few surviving Anglo-Saxon plurals, like children, sheep, and mice.

substratum theory of sound change. See SOUND CHANGE, SUBSTRATUM THEORY OF.

subtractive. See PROJECTIVE.

succession. The procedures for the handing down of rank, privileges, or authority in a social group, through kinship or other means.

succubus. A female demon who disturbs humans at night. Succubi typically tempt men to carnality.

Sudanese. A group of languages spoken south of the Sahara. They include Yoruba, Hausa, and Nuba.

Sudanese-Guinean. A family of African languages which includes the individual languages of some 50 million persons. Linguists have classified from 171 to 435 languages. The principal languages within this family are Ewe, Efik, Hausa, Mandingo, Mende, Masai, Nubian, Twi, and Yoruba.

sudatory. A sweat bath.

suffix. An affix which appears at the end of a word and subsequent to the underlying form, e.g., ness in coolness.

suicide. Taking one’s own life. Early men as a group did not have a definite view on suicide. It is not practiced or even known in some groups, while in others the incidence is fairly high. Societies in which there is little emphasis on status and competition are less likely to have much suicide. Some Brahman and Buddhist thought implies that the body can be abandoned whenever its owner wishes. Islam regards suicide as reprehensible. The Old and New Testament do not specifically prohibit suicide although both Judaism and Christianity condemn it as flouting God’s will and spurning the temple He provided for the soul. Under the old common law, the estate of a suicide escheated. At present in many jurisdictions it is criminal to attempt suicide.

suku. A New Guinea term for tobacco.

Sukwe. A graded society in the Banks and Torres Islands.

sukya. In Central America, a sorcerer who can cure disease.

sulcus. In anatomy, a groove.

sullung. In Kent, a hide (q.v.).

sumac. A plant used for dyeing, tanning, smoking, and perfume.

Sumerian. An ancient language, now extinct, which has no verifiable common origin with any known langauge. The geographical distribution was from Babylon to the Persian Gulf in Mesopotamia. It was spoken from 4000 B.C. till the third century B.C.

sumpitan. A Malay blowgun.

sun. See STINKARD.

Sun, Children of the. The belief in several parts of the world that ruling families have descended from the sun.

Sun, Great. The title of the Natchez chief, used to distinguish him from other members of the noble class, who were called suns. The French term was “Grand Soleil.” See STINKARD.

Sung. Referring to the Sung dynasty in China, A.D. 960-1279, in which many porcelain manufacturing centers developed. Stoneware with overglaze enamels was first made at Tz’u Chou.

sun-language theory. The belief that awe of the sun generated man’s first aweful or thoughtful sound, so that human speech is related to observing solar phenomena.

sunspot. A dark spot observed on the sun. Sunspots appear on an average of one in every 11.2-11.4 years, although they have appeared as close together as 5.6 years and as far apart as 11.9 years. Many cultures attribute special meaning to them.

sunwise. Referring to handing an object around or organizing processionals or movements in the same direction as the sun’s apparent diurnal movement.

superaurale. The top point on the superior border of the helix.

supercision. Making a longitudinal incision in the foreskin. It is a variant of circumcision (q.v.).

superlative, absolute. A superlative used to show the high position of a quality without implying comparison, e.g., supreme.

superorganic. Referring to the concept of culture as an entity over and beyond the human beings who live under its sway. Originally used by Herbert Spencer to describe the high point in evolution, the term was given anthropological currency by A. L Kroeber in 1917.

superposition. In the case of ag-gradating deposits, if there has not been any subsequent disturbance, lower geological levels are older than upper. The bottom layer is the oldest, the top the most recent, the level below the top is fresher than the one below it, etc. The law of superposition is a general statement of this rule.

superstition. A belief for which there is no real basis in either science or religion. Most superstitions are vestiges of decayed systems of belief.

superstratum. The language of a conquering or culturally and economically superior nation which has been superimposed on the language of the subjugated or dependent nation.

supination. A forearm position in which the ulna and radius are parallel and the palm is turned upward; also, a standing position in which the outer side of the foot bears the weight.

suppletion. The complete absence of phonetic relation between the members of a class, e.g., go, went.

supraorbital. Referring to being above the eye’s orbit, e.g., the supraorbital ridges.

suprasegmental feature. See FEATURE, SUPRASEGMENTAL.

surd. A sound made without the synchronized vibration of the vocal cords, e.g., t.

surface, measure of. The terminology generally used to express the size of a surface, such as the area of an animal’s hide, a day’s plowing on the part of a given animal unit, or a land that can be sown with a particular seed unit.

survey, archaeological. A network of grids over an archaeological site. It is used for measuring profiles, mapping features, and excavation. An archaeological survey is also the exploration of an area to obtain samples from each culture phase contained. Samples from several sites are collected, often by means of a strata cut for purposes of establishing the chronology.

survey, resistivity. A method for determining the extent of human habitation of different parts of an archaeological site by sending an alternating electric current through the ground. It is possible to detect those areas which have been disturbed and thus are more likely to have human remains by the differential degree of resistance to the current of the disturbed as compared with comparatively undisturbed ground. The method was successfully used by De Terra in his study of Tepexpan sites in Mexico.

survival. A holdover from previous times still present in contemporary culture. Tylor called attention to the importance of survivals in Primitive Culture (1871). W. J. Thoms in 1846 emphasized how folklore was based on survivals. Laurence Gomme’s Folklore As An Historical Science (1908) contained much information on survivals as folklore, and Otis Mason traced survivals in material culture in his studies of primitive women and invention (1895). The comparative anthropologists of the late 19th century studied survivals as clues to the development of early society. To some extent, modern ethnologists have tended to regard the survival of nonmaterial traits without change as unlikely and to insist upon the significance of the trait in the total cultural complex. survival of the fittest. See FITTEST, SURVIVAL OF THE.

susu. A kinship group consisting of the brother and children of a woman, as well as the woman. The emphasis is matrilineal and unilateral. The term is Dobuan and means “mother’s milk.”

suttee or sati. Among the Hindus, cremating a woman on her husband’s funeral pyre. It has been banned in India since 1829. It was voluntary on the part of the woman and regarded as a very honorable act. The word comes from sate “virtuous life.” Suttee began in the fourth century B.C. and was given religious approval in the sixth century A.D. The widow’s reward was complete cleansing of evil for her family and her husband’s family and sainthood for herself.

suture. A seam connecting the several bones that form the brain case. These sutures remain open while the brain is growing, and their obliteration commences when the growth stops. In man, this process of obliteration begins around age 18 but is not completed until late in life. At birth, the sutures are lines of dense membranes but turn to bone. There is a relation between the growth of the brain in a given area and the suture’s complexity. Thus the lamb-doidal suture will be the most complex if the rear part of the brain develops most rapidly, the usual condition in Negroes. In Caucasians, the coronal suture is often the most complex, and in Mongolians, the sagittal suture.

suture, coronal. A transverse suture running across the top of the head.

suture, metopic. A median suture in the cranium’s frontal bone. It generally disappears in childhood.

suture, nasofrontal. The line of union of the frontal and the two nasal bones.

suture, sagittal. The middle suture that lies between the parietal bones.

Swanscombe. A skull of a woman, probably about 20 to 25 years old, with a brain capacity of 1,325 or 1,350 cc. The skull is that of a primitive sapiens although the bones are thick. It indicates that a fairly high and narrow brain case appeared before the middle of the Pleistocene. These fossil remains were found in England in 1936 by A. T. Marston. They consisted of a parietal and occipital bone, in a very good condition of preservation. An endocranial cast has indicated that the folding of the gray matter was about as complicated as modern man’s. On the basis of these two bones, it would appear that Acheulian man did not differ greatly from modern man, thus making Homo sapiens older than was supposed.

swaraj. In the East Indian language, independence or self-rule.

swastika. The name given to the pramantha (q.v.) by the Brahmin priests. From the many swastika-like devices found by Schliemann in the ruins of Troy, he concluded that the Trojans were Aryans. The devotees of Vishnu make this sign on their forehead. Among American Indians, the swastika was used in the sun worship of the Kickapoos, the Pottawatomies, and other groups, who called it a symbol of good luck. The swastika represented the sun, with its hooks the solar movements, according to Max Müller. The good-luck swastika turns sunwise, to the right; the bad-luck turns to the left. The swastika is also called the fylfot.

sweep. In metal casting, a pattern used in making molds for symmetrical articles.

Swiderian. A culture found in Poland, with the tranchet ax a typical tool. Its remains, mostly kitchen middens, resemble the Campignian (q.v.) culture, which is found further south.

swinging, hook. A form of self-torture, often for religious reasons, by suspending the body by hooks inserted under the large muscles of the shoulder or back. Hook swinging was often part of the sun dance (q.v.) ritual of the Plains Indians.

sword. 1 In warfare, a weapon used for thrusting and slashing. The first sword was probably a tanged blade, with flanges bordering the flat tang and round shoulders. The center of balance is usually nearer the hilt than the point. Swords are either solid or composite, with each type further divisible into cutting swords, like the cutlass or broadsword, and thrusting swords, like the rapier. The sword consists of blade, guard, hilt, and sheath. The guard may be separate or attached. The hilt comprises the grip and the pommel, while the sheath protects the blade. 2 In weaving, a flat bar with a sharp edge, used to “beat up” a pick of the weft.

sword, antennae. An early Swiss sword in which the pommel is a heavy bronze ribbon bent into opposing spirals. Often the spirals are fashioned like tiny snakes.

sword, chastity. A sword placed between a couple sleeping together to insure that they remain chaste.

sword, Hallstatt. In the Early Iron Age of Central Europe, a bronze sword that lost the flanges around the hilt and developed a wide extension of the hilt that could accommodate a cone-shaped pommel.

sword, Ronzano or sword, Möri-gen. A sword with a pommel shaped like an oval saucer.

syllabary. A table of written characters each of which represents a syllable. Japanese uses two syl-labaries, both independently of or in association with Chinese characters. The term signary is also used.

syllabic. A phoneme which is a crest of sonority (q.v.), e.g., e in red; I in apple. A nonsyllabic is a phoneme which is not such a crest, e.g., r in red.

syllabic, non-. See SYLLABIC;

ASYLLABIC.

syllabication. The analysis of speech into its component syllables. A syllable is a segment of speech including a crest of sonority (q.v.) and extending from one trough of sonority to another. It can also be described as a group of phonemes (q.v.) made up of a vowel or a continuant and a consonant or consonants which form a complete articulation and constitute a unit of word-formation. An open syllable ends in a vowel while a closed syllable ends in a consonant.

syllable, common. A syllable that may be sounded either long or short, with or without accent, according to its position in the word.

symbiosis. The living together in close association of two dissimilar organisms.

symbol, arbitrary. A symbol the form of which does not have a natural or necessary link with its meaning. The characters of the alphabet are arbitrary, while pictograms and ideograms at least tend to be representative.

symmetry, bilateral. The similarity and likeness between right and left sides of an organism or entity.

Radial symmetry is the symmetry on a circular plan of such organisms as the starfish or of snowflakes.

sympathy, law of. Frazer’s hypothesis that most magic formulas hinge on association between two objects. Sympathy is the basis for imitative magic (q.v.) and contagious magic (q.v.), which function on the basis of like being drawn to like. The term principle of sympathy is sometimes found.

sympatric. Referring to groups that occur in contiguity or overlap geographically.

symphysis. Two bones joined by cartilage which may be replaced after childhood by a bony suture.

sympodial. Lester F. Ward’s term for the meandering nature of evolution. The term, derived from botany, indicates a main stem giving off a branch which is a new axis of growth, with the original stem becoming reduced to a twig. Ward confirmed this theory by paleobo-tanical researches and extended it to the evolution of peoples and cultures. If evolution is sympodial, a given genus and species may not stem from the specialized forms of preceding epochs but from more primitive generalized forms.

synapsis, somatic. The fusion of body-cell chromosome pairs.

synchronic. Referring to the functional approach to the study of culture, as of a given time. See DIACHRONIC.

synchronism. The practice of representing two or more events that took place at different times in the same picture or work of art.

syncretism. 1 In religion, a merger of two analogous elements in two different cultures. Each of the elements retains its being, e.g. the identification of African deities and Catholic saints among some African cult devotees in Haiti. 2 In language, the use of a particular grammatical form to perform the functions of another form or other forms in addition to its own.

syncretic. Referring to an act which gears in with the actions of other group members in performing a social function.

syndactylia. The growing together of two or more fingers or toes or web fingers or toes. It is a Mendelian (q.v.) trait.

syndiasmian. An impermanent man-woman association in which the participants do not cohabit exclusively with each other.

syngenism. The feeling of union resulting from being brought up together.

synostosis. The growing together of bones, like the sutures on the skull.

syntax. The branch of grammar dealing with the combination of words into larger constructions up to the sentence.

syringe, fire. A fire-making device, used by the Malays and Siamese, consisting of a cylinder with a closely fitting piston that holds tinder. When driven down, the piston kindles the tinder.

syrinx or syrinx, compound. See PIPES, PAN.

systadial. Referring to the same stage in the sequence of evolution.

system, baksheesh, bakshish or bakhshish. The system of paying rewards to workers on archaeological excavations for the finds they make. Experience has shown that where this system is used, it adds 5 to 10 per cent to the regular wages. The term baksheesh means essentially a tip or gratuity.

system, classificatory. The name given by Lewis H. Morgan (q.v.) to kinship systems in which the remoteness of a blood relationship does not lessen its importance. Under a classificatory system, it is more important to express kin-solidarity than exact genealogical relationships. Thus “mother” may not indicate the parent alone but her sisters as well. This system may have arisen, he believed, because of the necessity to unite fighting men for common protection, as well as because the sustained thought necessary to devise a descriptive (q.v.) system was lacking. Recent research suggests that Morgan’s distinction between classificatory and descriptive is too sweeping, and that these are terms which should not be applied to systems of terminology, since almost every known system of kinship uses classificatory terms widely. Morgan introduced this term to designate a pattern of nomenclature which classed together lineal with collateral (qq.v.) relatives.

system, eight-class. A characteristic of the kinship structure of some Australian tribes in which all the members are divided into eight classes. An individual is permitted to marry into only one of these classes, which must not be his natal class.

system, grid. A co-ordinate field of an archaeological site which is staked out by survey methods to control excavations and record information.

system, metronymic. Tracing kinship exclusively through the mother. In matrilocal societies, property rights also are transmitted through the female. The Pueblo Indians were an outstanding example of the application of this system.

system, particularizing. A kinship system where every term for a relationship applies only to one genealogical status.

system, square-field plot. Cultivation of crops on a group of squares and small fields about one half to two acres in area. It is found in many parts of Europe and first appeared in England ca. 1000 B.C.

system, three-field. A method of land cultivation which allows one or two out of three plots to lie fallow for a year.