The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940 Page: 551
576 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
Edgar L. Hewett on ancient life in America; the previously pub-
lished volumes are Ancient Lifer in the American Southwest and
Ancient Life in Mexico and Central America, all published by
the Bobbs-Merrill Company.
In the first place no one with a genuine human interest in any
of these regions of ancient life can afford to neglect these con-
tributions presented in the charming manner of a master teacher;
and those who for the sheer pleasure of knowing more of the
forgotten peoples who are our own contemporaries will find ex-
pressed in these volumes an understanding of the native peoples
of America that has seldom been equalled and perhaps not sur-
passed elsewhere. Even the open-minded specialist will find much
to ponder over, for these volumes are not just another series of
books dealing with man in the great highland and mesa lands
of the Cordilleran sections of the Americas.
From these books which can be read for sheer enjoyment one
gets a picture, perhaps dim in some places, or with gaps in others,
of the continuity of man's succeeding adjustments to these plateau
lands as he came to grips with living in them. Without doubt
Dr. Hewett himself can point out the discrepancies in these
volumes better than anyone else, for that is one mark of the
true scientist.
These volumes, together with the life work of Dr. Hewett and a
goodly number of other persons, are highly suggestive of the opera-
tion of one set of forces in American life. Like Major Powell
and so many other students of the Southwest before him, Dr.
Hewett came from the Middle West. It was Powell more than
any one other individual who not only provided the inspiration
but laid the basis for some of America's contributions to the world
of science. It was in the Southwest particularly and from his
field studies there that Powell laid the basis for the science of
physiography, aided by a coterie of brilliant minds the like of
which perhaps will not soon be brought together again. It was
apparently in the Southwest that Powell got the germ of the idea
that developed into the Bureau of American Ethnology-a natural
sequence of his studies of man and nature in the Southwest. In
this field Powell also gathered a group of brilliant minds whose
contributions to American anthropology and ethnology will long
serve as the high levels of achievements in their fields.551
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940, periodical, 1940; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101111/m1/587/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.