_Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (1915), No. =10=._
X. On the Significance of the Geographical Distribution of the Practice of Mummification.—A Study of the Migrations of Peoples and the Spread of certain Customs and Beliefs.
By Professor G. ELLIOT SMITH, M.A., M.D., F.R.S.
(_Read February 23rd, 1915. Received for publication April 6th, 1915._)
In entering upon the discussion of the geographical distribution of the practice of mummification I am concerned not so much with the origin and technical procedures of this remarkable custom. This aspect of the problem I have already considered in a series of memoirs (=75= to =89=[1]). I have chosen mummification rather as the most peculiar, and therefore the most distinctive and obtrusive, element of a very intimately interwoven series of strange customs, which became fortuitously linked one with the other to form a definite culture-complex nearly thirty centuries ago, and spread along the coast-lines of a great part of the world, stirring into new and distinctive activity the sluggish uncultured peoples which in turn were subjected to this exotic leaven.
If one looks into the journals of anthropology and ethnology, there will be found amongst the vast collections of information relating to man’s activities a most suggestive series of facts concerning the migrations of past ages and the spread of peculiar customs and beliefs.
[Illustration: _Map 1._—A rough chart of the geographical distribution of certain customs, practices and traditions. [None of these areas of distribution is complete. The map shows merely the data referred to in this memoir or in the literature quoted in it.]]
If a map of the world is taken and one plots out (_Map I._) the geographical distribution of such remarkable customs as the building of megalithic monuments (see for example Lane Fox’s [Pitt Rivers’] map, =20=), the worship of the sun and the serpent (=51=; =103=), the custom of piercing the ears (see Park Harrison, =29=), tattooing (see Miss Buckland, =10=), the practice of circumcision, the curious custom known as couvade, the practice of massage, the complex story of the creation, the deluge, the petrifaction of human beings, the divine origin of kings and a chosen people sprung from an incestuous union (W. J. Perry), the use of the swastika-symbol (see Wilson’s map, =105=), the practice of cranial deformation, to mention only a few of the many that might be enumerated, it will be found that in most respects the areas in which this extraordinary assortment of bizarre customs and beliefs is found coincide one with the other. In some of the series gaps occur, which probably are more often due to lack of information on our part than to real absence of the practice; in other places one or other of the elements of this complex culture-mixture has overflowed the common channel and broken into new territory. But considered in conjunction these data enable us definitely and precisely to map out the route taken by this peculiarly distinctive group of eccentricities of the human mind. If each of them is considered alone there are many breaks in the chain and many uncertainties as to the precise course: but when taken together all of these gaps are bridged. Moreover, in most areas there are traditions of culture-heroes, who brought in some or all of these customs at one and the same time and also introduced a knowledge of agriculture and weaving.