File:Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1895) (14765960632).jpg

Identifier: annualreportofbu117smit (find matches)
Title: Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology
Subjects: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology Ethnology Indians
Publisher: Washington : U. S. Govt. Print. Off.
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Kahle/Austin Foundation and Omidyar Network

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cess, thebest pose obtained (illustrated in plate xxviii) being manifestly unnat-ural and a mere reflection of the attitude in the mind of the Caucasianposer; while the results of inquiries served only to indicate that thenormal archeiy attitude was purposely avoided for reasons not ascei-tained. Fortunately another observer was more successful: in thecourse of the United States hydographic surveys in 1873, Commander(now Admiral) Dewey received several visits from Seri warriors onboard the Xarraf/ansett; and on the occasion of one of these visits, MrHector von Bayer, of the hydrographic party, caught a photograph ofan archer in the act of drawing his bow. The negative was accident- Tire-making iipparatus in the V. S. National Museum,- Smithsonian Report for 1888, pt ll, 1890,pp. 531-587, ami elsewhere. 2 Ordinarily the nether fire-stick i.s ol solt and porous wood, liotsam palm-wood and water-loggedpine being prefeiTed. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXVIII
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SERI ARCHER AT REST McuEEj MEANING OF ARCHEKY POSTURE 201* ally shattered, and no prints are known to have been made from it;but the fragments were carefally joined, and were kindly transferredto the Bureau by Mr Von Bayer in 1S97, and from them jilate xxixwas carefully drawn. The posture (partly concealed by the drapery) isextraordinary, being quite beyond the reach of the average human, andimpossible of maintenance for any considerable interval even by thewell-wonted Seri. The posture itself partly explains the difidculty ofinducing the warriors at Costa Rica to assume it, since it is essentially afleeting one, and indeed but a part of a continuous and stressful action—it is no less dilticult to assume, or to catch in the camera, than the typicalattitude of a baseball pitcher in action. The posture thus fortunatelycaught is quite in accord with the accounts of Seri archery from theesoteric side given by Mashem, and with the exoteric observations ofSenor Encinas, Don Andres, and ot

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