Early steps in human progress / by Harold J. Peake.

  • Harold John Edward Peake
Date:
1933
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Early steps in human progress / by Harold J. Peake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    FOREWORD Curiosity is an attribute of the human race. This is fortunate, since it has caused men to probe into the secrets of Nature, and to discover how to harness her forces to minister to their convenience and happiness. A like curiosity causes many to wonder how there arose the varied elements that go to make up our civilization. An attempt to satisfy this curiosity is the purpose of this volume. Much of the matter set out in the following pages cannot claim originality, for many papers and mono¬ graphs have appeared, dealing with the early history and development of a number of arts and crafts. Never¬ theless, even the specialist may find here some details not hitherto described, or some new ideas as to certain intermediate stages about which direct evidence is lacking. In many cases archaeology has furnished us with evidence for most of the stages in the evolution of a craft. In some we need to have recourse to the methods still employed by backward peoples, trusting that our fore¬ fathers passed through stages of civilization not very different; in such cases we sometimes gain a little help from tradition or folklore, or from some ceremonial practice that has enshrined a custom of earlier years. To complete the picture, however, we need nearly always to have recourse to hypothesis, and such hypotheses should receive only provisional acceptance. They may serve, however, as an inspiration towards the search for further facts that may prove or refute them.
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