Year: 1917
Type: article
Abstract: Much has been written on the development of geometrical decoration among primitive people, and many design-sequences have been arranged; the latter, however, have almost always been based on preconceived theoretical ideas, and the material for them has usually been selected from specimens whose relative ages have not been known. Such sequences cannot, therefore, be regarded as indicating surely the tendencies of design growth, for the specimens regarded as early may in fact have been late, and the development may thus have taken place in the opposite direction to the one postulated; or, again, the specimens may all have been of one period and may represent either contemporary variants of a single design-phase, or entirely unrelated parts of other unsuspected sequences. It has accordingly been impossible in most cases to do more than guess as to whether any given change in design has been from the natural to the conventional or vice versa; whether toward simplification or toward elaboration.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.3.5.369
Author: A. V. Kidder
Institution: Phillips Academy
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2094881567