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Fourth Edition
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Larsen, Clark Spencer.
Title: Our origins : discovering physical anthropology / Clark Spencer Larsen, The Ohio State University.
Description: Fourth edition. | New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016053370 | ISBN 9780393284904 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Physical anthropology.
Classification: LCC GN50.4 .L37 2017 | DDC 599.9—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016053370
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To Chris and Spencer, with my deepest thanks for their help, encouragement, and (unwavering) patience
In memory of Jack Repcheck (January 13, 1957–October 14, 2015) Editor, writing mentor, and friend
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CLARK SPENCER LARSEN is a native of Nebraska. He received his B.A. from Kansas State University and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Clark’s research is in bioarchaeology, skeletal biology, and paleoanthropology. He has worked in North America, Europe, and Asia. His current fieldwork is in Turkey, Italy, and the United States. He has taught at the University of Massachusetts, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University, and the University of North Carolina. Since 2001, he has been a member of the faculty at The Ohio State University, where he is Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences. He teaches introductory physical anthropology, osteology, bioarchaeology, and paleoanthropology. Clark has served as president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and as editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition to Our Origins, he has authored or edited 35 books and monographs, including Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton, Skeletons in Our Closet, Advances in Dental Anthropology, and A Companion to Biological Anthropology.
BASIC TABLE OF CONTENTS
To the Instructor xxii
To the Student xxx
CHAPTER 1 What Is Physical Anthropology? 3
PART I The Present: Foundation for the Past 23
CHAPTER 2 Evolution: Constructing a Fundamental Scientific Theory 25
CHAPTER 3 Genetics: Reproducing Life and Producing Variation 55
CHAPTER 4 Genes and Their Evolution: Population Genetics 89
CHAPTER 5 Biology in the Present: Living People 125
CHAPTER 6 Biology in the Present: The Other Living Primates 167
CHAPTER 7 Primate Sociality, Social Behavior, and Culture 207
PART II The Past: Evidence for the Present 231
CHAPTER 8 Fossils and Their Place in Time and Nature 233
CHAPTER 9 Primate Origins and Evolution: The First 50 Million Years 273
CHAPTER 10 Early Hominid Origins and Evolution: The Roots of Humanity 309
CHAPTER 11 The Origins and Evolution of Early Homo 353
CHAPTER 12 The Origins, Evolution, and Dispersal of Modern People 391
CHAPTER 13 The Past 10,000 Years: Agriculture, Population, Biology 445
PART
III The Future: The Shape of Things to Come 481
CHAPTER 14 Evolution: Today and Tomorrow 483
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication v
About the Author vi
Basic Table of Contents vii
Table of Contents ix
List of Two-Page Spreads xx To the Instructor xxii
Tools for Teaching and Learning xxv Who Helped xxvi To the Student xxx
CHAPTER 1 What Is Physical Anthropology? 3 BIG QUESTIONS 3
1.1 What Is Anthropology? 5
1.2 What Is Physical Anthropology? 6 What Do Physical Anthropologists Do? 7
HOW DO WE KNOW? Franz Boas Invents Anthropology, American Style 8
1.3 What Makes Humans So Different from Other Animals?: The Six Steps to Humanness 11
1.4 How We Know What We Know: The Scientific Method 16
ANTHROPOLOGY MATTERS The Forensic Anthropology of Decay 18
CHAPTER REVIEW 21
Answering the Big Questions 21
Key Terms 21
Study Quiz 21
Evolution Review: Physical Anthropology as Science 22
Additional Readings 22
PART I The Present: Foundation for the Past 23
CHAPTER 2 Evolution: Constructing a Fundamental Scientific Theory 25
BIG QUESTIONS 25
2.1 The Theory of Evolution: The Context for Darwin 28
Geology: Reconstructing Earth’s Dynamic History 29
Paleontology: Reconstructing the History of Life on Earth 29
Taxonomy and Systematics: Classifying Living Organisms and Identifying Their Biological Relationships 31
Demography: Influences on Population Size and Competition for Limited Resources 33
Evolutionary Biology: Explaining the Transformation of Earlier Life-Forms into Later Life-Forms 33
CONCEPT CHECK Darwin Borrows from Malthus 35
2.2 The Theory of Evolution: Darwin’s Contribution 35
HOW DO WE KNOW? Catastrophes in the Past: Their “Impact” on Evolution 36
CONCEPT CHECK Pre-Darwinian Theory and Ideas: Groundwork for Evolution 38
2.3 Since Darwin: Mechanisms of Inheritance, the Evolutionary Synthesis, and the Discovery of DNA 42 Mechanisms of Inheritance 42
The Evolutionary Synthesis, the Study of Populations, and the Causes of Evolution 43 DNA: Discovery of the Molecular Basis of Evolution 46
ANTHROPOLOGY MATTERS Ebola: The Evolution of a Crisis 50
CHAPTER REVIEW 52
Answering the Big Questions 52 Key Terms 52 Study Quiz 52
Evolution Review: Past, Present, and Future of a Fundamental Scientific Theory 53 Additional Readings 53
CHAPTER 3 Genetics: Reproducing Life and Producing Variation 55
BIG QUESTIONS 55
3.1 The Cell: Its Role in Reproducing Life and Producing Variation 56
3.2 The DNA Molecule: The Genetic Code 60
DNA: The Blueprint of Life 61
3.3 The DNA Molecule: Replicating the Code 62
Chromosome Types 63
ANTHROPOLOGY MATTERS Genomics and Human Evolution: Answers to Fundamental Questions 64
3.4 Mitosis: Production of Identical Somatic Cells 66
CONCEPT CHECK The Two Steps of DNA Replication 67
HOW DO WE KNOW? Paleogenetics: Ancient DNA Opens New Windows on the Past 68
3.5 Meiosis: Production of Gametes (Sex Cells) 70
3.6 Producing Proteins: The Other Function of DNA 72
CONCEPT CHECK The Two Steps of Protein Synthesis 77
3.7 Genes: Structural and Regulatory 78
3.8 Polymorphisms: Variations in Specific Genes 79 Genotypes and Phenotypes: Genes and Their Expression 82
3.9 The Complexity of Genetics 82
CHAPTER REVIEW 86
Answering the Big Questions 86
Key Terms 86
Study Quiz 86
Evolution Review: Insights from Genetics 87
Additional Readings 87
CHAPTER 4 Genes and Their Evolution: Population Genetics 89
BIG QUESTIONS 89
4.1 Demes, Reproductive Isolation, and Species 90
ANTHROPOLOGY MATTERS Got Milk? The LCT Phenotype: Lactose Tolerance and Lactase Persistence 94
4.2 Hardy–Weinberg Law: Testing the Conditions of Genetic Equilibrium 96
4.3 Mutation: The Only Source of New Alleles 97
4.4 Natural Selection: Advantageous Characteristics, Survival, and Reproduction 101 Patterns of Natural Selection 101
Natural Selection in Animals: The Case of the Peppered Moth and Industrial Melanism 101 HOW DO WE KNOW? Hardy–Weinberg Visits the Classroom: The Case of PTC Tasters versus PTC Nontasters 102
Natural Selection in Humans: Abnormal Hemoglobins and Resistance to Malaria 107
The Geography of Sickle-Cell Anemia and the Association with Malaria 108
The Biology of Sickle-Cell Anemia and Malarial Infection 109
The History of Sickle-Cell Anemia and Malaria 109 Other Hemoglobin and Enzyme Abnormalities 111
4.5 Genetic Drift: Genetic Change Due to Chance 113
Founder Effect: A Special Kind of Genetic Drift 115
4.6 Gene Flow: Spread of Genes across Population Boundaries 117
Agriculture and Origins of Modern Europeans 119 CONCEPT CHECK What Causes Evolution? 120
CHAPTER REVIEW 122
Answering the Big Questions 122
Key Terms 122
Study Quiz 122
Evolution Review: The Four Forces of Evolution 123
Additional Readings 123
CHAPTER 5 Biology In the Present: Living People 125
BIG QUESTIONS 125
5.1 Is Race a Valid, Biologically Meaningful Concept? 126
Brief History of the Race Concept 126 Debunking the Race Concept 127
So-Called Racial Traits Are Not Concordant 127
Human Variation: Geographic Clines, Not Racial Categories 128
5.2 Life History: Growth and Development 129
ANTHROPOLOGY MATTERS Is Race Real? 130
The Growth Cycle: Conception through Adulthood 132
Prenatal Stage: Sensitive to Environmental Stress, Predictive of Adult Health 132
Postnatal Stage: The Maturing Brain, Preparing for Adulthood 133
ANTHROPOLOGY MATTERS Coronary Heart Disease Starts Early: Prenatal Origins of a Common Killer 134
Adult Stage: Aging and Senescence 138
HOW DO WE KNOW? Life on the Margins: The Case of the East African Turkana Pastoralists 140
Evolution of Human Life History: Food, Sex, and Strategies for Survival and Reproduction 142
CONCEPT CHECK Life History Stages in Humans: Prenatal, Postnatal, and Adult 142
Prolonged Childhood: Fat-Bodied Moms and Their Big-Brained Babies 143
Grandmothering: Part of Human Adaptive Success 143
5.3 Adaptation: Meeting the Challenges of Living 143
Climate Adaptation: Living on the Margins 144
Heat Stress and Thermoregulation 144
Body Shape and Adaptation to Heat Stress 145
Cold Stress and Thermoregulation 146
Solar Radiation and Skin Color 147
Solar Radiation and Vitamin D Synthesis 148
Solar Radiation and Folate Protection 150
High Altitude and Access to Oxygen 150
Nutritional Adaptation: Energy, Nutrients, and Function 151
Macronutrients and Micronutrients 151
CONCEPT CHECK Adaptation: Heat, Cold, Solar Radiation, High Altitude 152
Human Nutrition Today 154
Overnutrition and the Consequences of Dietary Excess 154
ANTHROPOLOGY MATTERS Life in an Obesogenic World: Understanding the Obesity Pandemic in an Evolutionary Perspective 156
CONCEPT CHECK Nutritional Adaptation 160
Workload Adaptation: Skeletal Homeostasis and Function 160
Excessive Activity and Reproductive Ecology 161
CHAPTER REVIEW 164
Answering the Big Questions 164
Key Terms 164
Study Quiz 164
Evolution Review: Human Variation Today 165
Additional Readings 165 CHAPTER
BIG QUESTIONS 167
6.1 What Is a Primate? 168
Arboreal Adaptation—Primates Live in Trees and Are Good at It 169
Primates Have a Versatile Skeletal Structure 172
Primates Have an Enhanced Sense of Touch 174
Primates Have an Enhanced Sense of Vision 174
Primates Have a Reduced Reliance on Senses of Smell and Hearing 174
CONCEPT CHECK What Makes Primates Good at Living in Trees? 175
Dietary Plasticity—Primates Eat a Highly Varied Diet, and Their Teeth Reflect This Adaptive Versatility 176
Primates Have Retained Primitive Characteristics in Their Teeth 176
Primates Have a Reduced Number of Teeth 176
Primates Have Evolved Different Dental Specializations and Functional Emphases 177
Parental Investment—Primate Parents Provide Prolonged Care for Fewer but Smarter, More Socially Complex, and Longer-Lived Offspring 179
CONCEPT CHECK What Gives Primates Their Dietary Flexibility? 179
CONCEPT CHECK Primate Parenting 182
6.2 What Are the Kinds of Primates? 182
The Strepsirhines 187
HOW DO WE KNOW? How Adaptable Are Primates? The Lemurs of St. Catherines Island 188
CONCEPT CHECK Monkey or Ape? Differences Matter 193
The Haplorhines 193
ANTHROPOLOGY MATTERS Mitigating Endangerment 196
CONCEPT CHECK Strepsirhines and Haplorhines Differ in Their Anatomy and Senses 200
CHAPTER REVIEW 204
Answering the Big Questions 204
Key Terms 204
Study Quiz 204
Evolution Review: Our Closest Living Relatives 205
Additional Readings 205
CHAPTER 7 Primate Sociality, Social Behavior, and Culture 207
Hypersanitation, Health, and the Hygiene Hypothesis 498
14.2 Our Ongoing Evolution 500
14.3 Who Will We Be Tomorrow? 503
CHAPTER REVIEW 504
Answering the Big Questions 504
Key Terms 504
Study Quiz 504
Evolution Review: The Future of the Human Condition 505
Additional Readings 505
Study Quiz Answers 506
Appendix: The Skeleton A1
Glossary G11
Glossary of Place Names G18
Bibliography B20
Permissions Acknowledgments P46
Index I50
TWO-PAGE SPREADS
How Do We Know? Franz Boas Invents Anthropology, American Style 8–9
Figure 1.4 The Six Big Events of Human Evolution: Bipedalism, Nonhoning Chewing, Dependence on Material Culture, Speech, Hunting, and Domestication of Plants and Animals 12–13
Anthropology Matters The Forensic Anthropology of Decay: Body Decomposition at the Body Farm 18–19
How Do We Know? Catastrophes in the Past: Their “Impact” on Evolution 36–37
Figure 2.15 Timeline: Darwin’s Theory of Evolution 40–41
Anthropology Matters Ebola: The Evolution of a Crisis 50–51
Anthropology Matters Genomics and Human Evolution: Answers to Fundamental Questions 64–65
How Do We Know? Paleogenetics: Ancient DNA Opens New Windows on the Past 68–69
Figure 3.19 Protein Synthesis 74–75
Anthropology Matters Got Milk? The LCT Phenotype: Lactose Tolerance and Lactase Persistence 94–95
How Do We Know? Hardy–Weinberg Visits the Classroom: The Case of PTC Tasters versus PTC Nontasters 102–103
Anthropology Matters Is Race Real? 130–131
Anthropology Matters Coronary Heart Disease Starts Early: Prenatal Origins of a Common Killer 134–135
How Do We Know? Life on the Margins: The Case of the East African Turkana Pastoralists 140–141
Anthropology Matters Life in an Obesogenic World: Understanding the Obesity Pandemic in an Evolutionary Perspective 156–157
Figure 6.2 Primate Adaptation in Microcosm: The Taï Forest, Ivory Coast, West Africa 170–171
How Do We Know? How Adaptable Are Primates? The Lemurs of St. Catherines Island 188–189
How Do We Know? Chimpanzee Predators: A Model for Origins of Human Hunting 214–215
Figure 7.5 Primate Predation in the Taï Forest 218–219
IS RACE REAL?
Anthropology Matters Ethnoprimatology: Understanding Human-Nonhuman Primate CoAdaptation and Conservation in Indonesia 222–223
How Do We Know? The Fossil Record: The Timing and Tempo of Evolution 240–241
Figure 8.7 What Did They Look Like? Bringing Fossils to Life through Reconstruction 244–245
Anthropology Matters The Atomic Bomb: Radiocarbon Dating: The Development of the Atomic Bomb Produces Insights Into the Past 258–259
How Do We Know? The Fayum Depression: Heartland of Anthropoid Ancestors 282–283
Figure 9.20 Eocene–Oligocene–Miocene Habitats and Their Primates 294–295
Anthropology Matters Fine Motor Skills: Are They Uniquely Human? 302–303
How Do We Know? The Lesson of Piltdown: Science as a Way of Knowing 316–317
Figure 10.20 From Discovery to Understanding: Constructing a Fundamental Scientific Theory 328–329
Anthropology Matters Finders of the Ancestors 342–343
How Do We Know? Underground Astronauts: Finding Early Homo in South Africa 360–361
Figure 11.14 Homo erectus at 1 Million Years Ago: The Daka Landscape of the Middle Awash, Ethiopia 368–369
How Do We Know? Giving Birth to Big-Brained Babies: The Evolutionary Benefits of Rotational Birth 380–381
Anthropology Matters Tracking Human Evolution: Fossils Are the Record of Transition and Process 384–385
How Do We Know? Atapuerca, Spain: Fossil Hominin Bonanza 398–399
Anthropology Matters Injury, Occupation, and Behavior: Learning about the Past from the Living 418–419
Figure 12.34 The First Modern Humans: Biology and Behavior 420–421
How Do We Know?
Bioarchaeochemistry: Reconstructing Past Diets and Inferring Nutrition 454–455
Anthropology Matters First Warfare: The Massacre at Kilianstädten 460–461
How Do We Know? Bones and Behavior 466–467
Figure 13.26 Biological Consequences of the Agricultural Revolution 476–477
How Do We Know? Global Climates Are Rapidly Changing 486–487 Anthropology Matters Biodiversity Downturn: The Human Role 490–491
TO THE INSTRUCTOR
How This Book Can Help Your Students
Discover Physical Anthropology
It Is about Engagement
Teaching is about engagement—connecting the student with knowledge, making it real to the student, and having the student come away from the course with an understanding of core concepts. Our Origins: Discovering Physical Anthropology seeks to engage the student in the learning process. Engaging the student is perhaps more of a challenge in the study of physical anthropology than in the study of other sciences, mainly because the student has likely never heard of the subject. The average student has probably taken a precollege course in chemistry, physics, or biology. Physical anthropology, though, is rarely mentioned or taught in precollege settings. Commonly, the student first finds out about the subject when an academic advisor explains that physical anthropology is a popular course that fulfills the college’s natural science requirement.
Once taking the course, however, that same student usually connects quickly with the subject because so many of the topics are familiar—fossils, evolution, race, genetics, DNA, monkeys, forensic investigations, and origins of speech, to name a few. The student simply had not realized that these separately engaging topics come under the umbrella of one discipline, the subject of which is the study of human evolution and human variability.
Perhaps drawn to physical anthropology because it focuses on our past and our present as a species, the student quickly sees the fundamental importance of the discipline. In Discover magazine’s 100 top stories of 2009, 18 were from physical anthropology. Three topics from the field were in the top 10, including the remarkable new discovery of our earliest human ancestor, Ardipithecus. So important was this discovery that Science, the leading international
professional science journal, called it the “Breakthrough of the Year” for 2009. The discussions in this textbook of topics familiar and unfamiliar give the student stepping-stones to science and to the centrality of physical anthropology as a window into understanding our world. Whether the students find the material familiar or unfamiliar, they will see that the book relates the discipline to human life: real concerns about human bodies and human identity. They will see themselves from an entirely different point of view and gain new awareness.
In writing this book, I made no assumptions about what the reader knows, except to assume that the reader—the student attending your physical anthropology class—has very little or no background in physical anthropology. As I wrote the book, I constantly reflected on the core concepts of physical anthropology and how to make them understandable. I combined this quest for both accuracy and clarity with my philosophy of teaching; namely, engage the student to help the student learn. Simply, teaching is about engagement. While most students in an introductory physical anthropology class do not intend to become professional physical anthropologists, some of these students become interested enough to take more courses. So this book is written for students who will not continue their study of physical anthropology, those who get “hooked” by this fascinating subject (a common occurrence!), and those who now or eventually decide to become professionals in the field.
The book is unified by the subject of physical anthropology. But equally important is the central theme of science—what it is, how it is done, and how scientists (in our case, anthropologists) learn about the natural world. I wrote the book so as to create a picture of who humans are as organisms, how we got to where we are over the past millions of years of evolution, and where we are going in the future in light of current conditions. In regard to physical anthropology, the student should finish the book understanding human evolution and how it is studied, how the present helps us understand
the past, the diversity of organisms living and past, and the nature of biological change over time and across geography. Such knowledge should help the student answer questions about the world. For example, How did primates emerge as a unique group of mammals? Why do people look different from place to place around the world? Why is it important to gain exposure to sunlight yet unsafe to prolong that exposure? Why is it unhealthy to be excessively overweight? Throughout their history, what have humans eaten, and why is it important to know?
I have presented such topics so that the student can come to understand the central concepts and build from them a fuller understanding of physical anthropology. Throughout the book, I emphasize hypothesis testing, the core of the scientific method, and focus on that process and the excitement of discovery. The narrative style is personalized. Often I draw on my own experiences and those of scientists I know or am familiar with through their teaching and writing, to show the student how problems are addressed through fieldwork or through laboratory investigations.
Scientists do not just collect facts. Rather, they collect data and make observations that help them answer questions about the complex natural world we all inhabit. Reflecting this practice, Our Origins: Discovering Physical Anthropology is a collection not of facts for the student to learn but of answers to questions that help all of us understand who we are as living organisms and our place in the world. Science is a way of knowing, it is a learning process, and it connects our lives with our world. In these ways, it is liberating.
How the Book Is Organized
The book is divided into three parts. After an introductory overview of anthropology and physical anthropology, part I presents the key principles and concepts in biology, especially from an evolutionary perspective. This material draws largely on the study of living organisms, including humans and nonhuman primates. Because much of our understanding of the past is drawn from what we have learned from the present, this part lays the foundation for the presentation in part II—the past record of primate and human evolution. In putting the record of the living up front, this book departs from the style of most other introductory physical anthropology textbooks, which start out with the earliest record and end with the living. This book takes the position that most of what we learn about the past is based on theory and principles learned from the living record. Just as all of Charles Darwin’s ideas were first derived from seeing living plants and animals, much of our understanding of function and adaptation comes from living organisms as models. Therefore, this book views the living as the window onto what came before—the present contextualizes and informs our understanding of the past. It is no mistake, then, that Our Origins is the title of the book. The origins of who we are today do not just lie in the record of the past, but are very much embodied in the living. Our origins are expressed in our physical makeup (bones, teeth, and muscles), in our behavior, and in so many other ways that the student taking this course will learn about from this book and from you. You can teach individual chapters in any order, and that is partly because each
chapter reinforces the central point: we understand our past via what we see in the living.
Part II presents evidence of the past, covering more than 50 million years of primate and human evolution. Most textbooks of this kind end the record of human evolution at about 25,000 years ago, when modern Homo sapiens evolved worldwide. This textbook also provides the record since the appearance of modern humans, showing that important biological changes occurred in just the past 10,000 years, largely relating to the shift from hunting and gathering to the domestication of plants and animals. Food production was a revolutionary development in the human story, and part II presents this remarkable record, including changes in health and well-being that continue today. A new subdiscipline of physical anthropology, bioarchaeology, is contributing profound insights into the past 10,000 years, one of the most dynamic periods of human evolution. During this period, a fundamental change occurred in how humans obtained food. This change set the stage for our current environmental disruptions and modern living conditions.
Part III explores the record of continued evolution and discusses the impact of new developments, such as global warming, the alarming global increase in obesity, and the rise of health threats such as newly emerging infectious diseases, of which there is little understanding and for which scientists are far from finding cures. This part looks at the implications of these developments for evolution and for humans’ future on Earth.
Changes in the Fourth Edition
Reflecting the dynamic nature of physical anthropology, there are numerous revisions and updates throughout this new, fourth edition of Our Origins: Discovering Physical Anthropology. These updates serve to provide content on the new and cutting-edge developments in the discipline, to give new ways of looking at older findings, and to keep the book engaging and timely for both you and your students. Although the core principles of the book remain the same, namely the focus on evolution, the revisions throughout the book present new insights, new discoveries, and new perspectives. Other changes are intended to give added focus and clarity and to increase the visual appeal that supports the pedagogy of engagement and learning:
• New content on race and human variation. The new edition provides answers to fundamental questions about race in America. This fourth edition explains that while race is a social reality, there is no meaningful biological basis for categorizing human variation. Therefore, while governmental and other institutions use categories to describe “race,” the categories are not biologically informed.
• New content on the globalization of diet. The traditional low-fat, high-protein diet in many settings around the world is rapidly shifting to a high-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, resulting in an epidemic of obesity globally. This has important consequences for world health in the twenty-first century.
• New content on rapidly emerging infectious diseases. New infectious diseases—such as those caused by Ebola, bird flu, and, most recently, Zika—are emerging owing to the evolutionary
changes taking place in the viruses and in the human hosts. We are learning how that evolution occurs, and how understanding this evolution offers a very practical foundation for mitigating these life-threatening events.
• New content on epigenetics. The new edition explores the remarkable advances in our understanding of the human genome and the role of environment in modifying the way that DNA is regulated and expressed (but without modifying the DNA itself). Some of these modifications taking place well before birth can have long-term health consequences.
• New content on primate social behavior. Anthropologists are learning much more about social interactions between members of primate groups, and just how critical social behavior is for the well-being and functioning of social units.
• New content on the genomes of hominins. Analysis of ancient DNA of Neandertals reveals the presence of alleles for modern human disease. New analysis of ancient DNA from Kennewick Man and other Paleoamericans reveals a clear genetic link between the earliest humans in the Western Hemisphere with modern Native Americans.
• New content on fossil primate discoveries. A newly discovered fossil New World monkey pre-dates the earliest known fossil New World monkey by as much as 10 million years.
• New content on fossil hominin discoveries. New discoveries of Ardipithecus extend the lineage back to more than 6 million years ago, taking us closer to the divergence of the great apes and hominins. In South Africa, cavers exploring the Rising Star Cave system discovered hundreds of skulls, teeth, and bones, all representing at least 15 early hominins. Named Homo naledi, this species is represented by the largest assemblage of early hominins in a single site in Africa. Its study is full of surprises and is expanding the scope of our understanding of human origins and human evolution. Excavations on Flores Island, where the famous “Hobbit” (Homo floresiensis) fossils were found, landed a new surprise: a dwarf hominin that may be the ancestor of H. floresiensis. Re-dating of H. floresiensis takes it back in time to at least 60,000 yBP.
• Anthropology Matters and How Do We Know? boxes. New boxes highlight exciting and relevant new developments in physical anthropology, including work at the “Body Farm” for developing the field of forensic anthropology; the Ebola virus and how knowledge of its evolution helps us combat the disease; new findings from genomics and the origins and evolution of modern humans and their migrations; the meaning of race and what anthropology brings to the discussion of this controversial topic; new developments in primate conservation; the exciting discovery and study of Homo naledi; bone chemistry and its application to the study of diets in past human populations, both long extinct and recent; and the earliest evidence of warfare and what human skeletons tell us about violence and conflict.
• New content on dramatic changes in the world’s climate today. We are living at a time of rapidly changing climate, involving global warming. New content in this edition makes the case that we may be living in a wholly new epoch, what many scientists
are calling the “Anthropocene.” New content in the final chapter of Our Origins focuses on the effects of climate change happening in the world around us today.
• Revision of content to enhance clarity. There is a continued focus on understanding core concepts, with considerable attention given to cell biology, genetics, DNA, race and human variation, primate taxonomy, locomotion, and dating methods. Like previous editions, I paid careful attention to the clarity of figure captions. The figure captions do not simply repeat text but rather offer the student additional details relevant to the topic and occasional questions about concepts that the figures convey.
• Greatly enhanced art program. The new edition contains more than 100 new or revised figures, often using a new “photorealistic” style. The book adds several full-color two-page spreads developed by Mauricio Antón, a world-renowned artist with expertise in representing past life in wonderful visual presentations.
• InQuizitive. InQuizitive is a new online formative and adaptive learning tool that includes a variety of question types featuring the vibrant, detailed, and photorealistic art from the text, as well as the accompanying suite of animations. Answer-specific feedback for every question helps students work through their mistakes, and InQuizitive personalizes students’ quizzing experience to target the areas they need help with most.
• Updated Evolution Review sections. At the end of each chapter, an Evolution Review section summarizes material on evolution in each chapter and includes assignable questions about concepts and content. Suggested answers appear in the Instructor’s Manual and the Interactive Instructor’s Guide.
• New teaching and learning tools. Consistent with the highly visual nature of physical anthropology, the instructor media package has been greatly expanded. Please see the complete listing that starts on page xxv. The Update PowerPoint Service features a new minilecture that will be posted to the Norton Instructor’s site each semester on the latest discoveries in the discipline.
Aids to the Learning Process
Each chapter opens with a vignette telling the story of one person’s discovery that relates directly to the central theme of the chapter. This vignette is intended to draw your students into the excitement of the topic and to set the stage for the Big Questions that the chapter addresses.
Big Question learning objectives are introduced early in the chapter to help your students organize their reading and understand the topic.
Concept Checks are scattered throughout each chapter and immediately follow a major section. These aids are intended to help your students briefly revisit the key points they have been reading. Locator Maps are placed liberally throughout the book. College-level instructors tend to hope that students have a good sense of geography, but like a lot of people who do not look at places
around the world on a daily basis, students often need reminders about geography. In recognition of this, locator maps in the book’s margins show the names and locations of places that are likely not common knowledge.
Photorealistic Art You Can “Touch ”: Designed to give students an even better appreciation for the feel of the discipline, the art program has been substantially reworked. Now most illustrations of bones and skeletons have an almost photorealistic feel, and most primates were redrawn for a high degree of realism. This book helps your students visualize what they are reading about by including hundreds of images, many specially prepared for the book. These illustrations tell the story of physical anthropology, including key processes, central players, and important concepts. As much thought went into the pedagogy behind the illustration program as into the writing of the text.
Definitions are also presented in the text’s margins, giving your students ready access to what a term means in addition to its use in the associated text. For convenient reference, defined terms are signaled with boldface page numbers in the index.
A How Do We Know? box in each chapter discusses in more detail how a particular scientist went about the process of discovery.
An Anthropology Matters box in each chapter makes the important point that what we learn from this discipline has practical applications of broader significance in the “real” world. Students will come away from each box with a sense of how the material affects them.
At the end of each chapter, Answering the Big Questions presents a summary of the chapter’s central points organized along the lines of the Big Questions presented at the beginning of the chapter. In addition, I have added to the Chapter Review at the end of each chapter a new Study Quiz, asking a handful of key questions that I ask my own students.
The study of evolution is the central core concept of physical anthropology. The Evolution Review section at the end of each chapter discusses topics on evolution featured in the chapter and asks questions that will help the student develop a focused understanding of content and ideas.
InQuizitive is our new online assessment service featuring visual, conceptual, and reading assessments keyed to the Big Question learning objectives, several of which are highlighted for your convenience at the end of each chapter. InQuizitive helps you track and report on your students’ progress and make sure they are better prepared for class.
Join me now in engaging your students in the excitement of discovering physical anthropology.
Tools for Teaching and Learning
The Our Origins teaching and learning package provides instructors and students with all the tools they need to visualize anthropological concepts, learn key vocabulary, and test knowledge.
For Instructors
New InQuizitive New InQuizitive online assessment is available for use with Our Origins, Fourth Edition, featuring engaging assignments with focused feedback. InQuizitive includes drag-and-drop and other image-based questions designed to help students better understand the core objectives of each chapter. Further questions on the reading help you check if students have worked through the chapter material. Designed to be intuitive, accessible, and easy to use, InQuizitive makes it a snap to assign, assess, and report on student performance and help keep your class on track.
Student Access Codes for InQuizitive InQuizitive comes at no charge with all new books in any format (paperback, looseleaf, ebook, or custom). If students need to purchase a stand-alone access code for InQuizitive, they can do so at an affordable price at digital.wwnorton.com/ourorigins4.
New Interactive Instructor’s Guide Find all the resources you need to create a rich and engaging course experience in one place with the new Interactive Instructor’s Guide: iig.wwnorton/ourorigins4/full. Easily search by keyword, topic, or chapter to find and download videos, animations, in-class activity suggestions, PowerPoints, and more on this new site.
Coursepacks Available at no cost to professors or students, Norton Coursepacks for online or hybrid courses come in a variety of formats, including all versions of Blackboard. With just a simple download from wwnorton.com/instructors, instructors can bring high-quality Norton digital media into a new or existing online course. Content includes review and quiz questions designed for the distance or blended learning environment. Norton animations and videos are also made available to integrate in your classes, including the new Anthropology Matters videos. Additionally, if InQuizitive will be in use, contact the local Norton representative to learn about our easy integration options for a single sign-on and gradebook experience with your Coursepack.
New Animations Animations of key concepts from the text are available to instructors and students in several ways, including via the Coursepack, the Interactive Instructor’s Guide, and at wwnorton.com/instructors and digital.wwnorton.com/ourorigins4. These are brief, easy to use, and great for explaining concepts either in class or as a self-study tool.
New Anthropology Matters and How Do We Know? Videos New original videos accompany a selection of Anthropology Matters and How Do We Know? features from the text. An icon indicates when a video is available. Each two- to three-minute video further enhances the content while inspiring students to learn more and understand the significance of what they are studying. Instructors can obtain the videos through the Interactive Instructor’s Guide, wwnorton.com/instructors, or via the Coursepack. Students can view the videos via the Coursepack or digital.wwnorton.com/ourorigins4.
Update PowerPoint Service To help cover what is new in the discipline, each semester Norton will provide a new set of supplemental lectures, notes, and assessment material covering current and breaking research. Prepared by Laurie Reitsema (University of Georgia), this material will be available for download at wwnorton. com/instructors and in the Interactive Instructor’s Guide.
Lecture PowerPoint Slides and Art Slides Designed for instant classroom use, these slides prepared by Melissa Torpey (University of North Carolina Wilmington) using art from the text are a great resource for your lectures. All art from the book is also available in PowerPoint and JPEG formats. Download these resources from wwnorton.com/instructors or from the Interactive Instructor’s Guide.
Prepare for Class with the Our Origins Instructor’s Manual Prepared by Susan Kirkpatrick Smith (Kennesaw State University), this resource provides lecture ideas, discussion topics, suggested reading lists for instructors and students, and suggested answers to Evolution Review questions.
Quickly and Easily Create Tests with the Our Origins Test Bank Prepared by Greg Laden, this test bank contains multiple-choice and essay questions for each chapter. It is downloadable from Norton’s Instructor’s site and available in Word, PDF, and ExamView ® Assessment Suite formats. Visit wwnorton. com/instructors.
Ebook: Same Great Book, a Fraction of the Price! An affordable and convenient alternative, Norton ebooks retain the content and design of the print book and allow students to highlight and take notes with ease, print chapters as needed, read online or offline, and search the text. Instructors can even take notes in their ebooks that can be shared with their students.
Who Helped
I owe much to the many people who made this book possible, from the planning and writing of the first and second editions, and now this fourth edition. First and foremost, I thank my wife, Christine, and son, Spencer, who helped in innumerable ways. They were my captive audience: without protest, they listened to my ideas at the dinner table, on family trips, and in other places where we probably should have been talking about other things. Chris read many drafts of chapters and gave great advice on when and where to cut, add, or rethink. I thank my parents, the late Leon and Patricia Larsen, who introduced me to things old and sparked my interest in the human past.
Jack Repcheck first approached me about writing a textbook on introductory physical anthropology. His power of persuasion, combined with my own interest in the discipline and its presentation to college students, was instrumental in reeling me in and getting the project off the ground. Jack and others at W. W. Norton & Company made the process of writing the book a great experience in all ways, from writing to publication. On the first edition, I began work with editors John Byram and then Leo Wiegman. I am indebted to Pete Lesser, who took on the project after Leo. Pete gave direction on writing and production, provided very helpful feedback on presentation and pedagogy, and orchestrated the process of review, revision, and production—all without a hitch. Under Pete’s guidance, the first edition became the most widely used textbook in physical anthropology. Jack Repcheck continued the project in preparation for the second edition. The preparation of
the third edition was overseen by editor Eric Svendsen. His advice and guidance were central to seeing the book come to fruition. The current fourth edition has benefited from Eric’s continued review and input and was completed with the guidance and support of Jake Schindel. Tacy Quinn has spearheaded the development of new media for this edition including InQuizitive. Mary Williams and Sarah Rose Aquilina do an excellent job developing the core supplement package for each edition. Kurt Wildermuth edited the entire manuscript for the first three editions. Sunny Hwang has now taken Kurt’s place and has especially helped with revision in the endof-chapter material and the online supplements program. His skill as an editor and staying on top of content from beginning to end added enormously to the book’s presentation and readability. Caitlin Moran, Rachel Mayer, and Rachel Goodman were instrumental in producing these pages and directing a wide variety of editing issues. I welcome Katie Sweeney, who crafted an expert marketing and promotional campaign. Ben Reynolds guided the process of production from beginning to end. I am also grateful to Mauricio Antón for his wonderful illustrations of six “big events” of human evolution in chapter 1; the rendition of the Taï Forest primates as a microcosm of primate adaptation in chapter 6; the Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene primates and their habitats in chapter 9; and his reconstructions of Ardipithecus in chapter 10. Greg Laden’s timely and efficient revision of the Test Bank is much appreciated. Susan Kirkpatrick Smith provided quality work on the Instructor’s Manual and Interactive Instructor’s Guide. Laurie Reitsema produces our valuable Update PowerPoints each semester. Thanks to Melissa Torpey for her capable work on the Lecture PowerPoint Slides. With the input of instructors and focus group attendees who are included in the reviewer list, we have created an extensive new media and assessment suite for the fourth edition. However, my thanks for extensive work in developing InQuizitive and our new animations go to Tracy Betsinger of SUNY Oneonta, Ashley Hurst, Kristina Killgrove of University of West Florida, Greg Laden, Joanna Lambert of the University of Colorado, and Heather Worne of University of Kentucky, with further thanks to contributors Jaime Ullinger, Quinnipiac University, and Nancy Cordell, South Puget Sound Community College. And thanks to Sandra Wheeler of University of Central Florida, Ellen Miller of Wake Forest University, Bonnie Yoshida of Grossmont College, Jacqueline Eng of Western Michigan University, Jeremy DeSilva of Dartmouth College, K. Elizabeth Soluri of College of Marin, and again Nancy Cordell of South Puget Sound Community College for their important feedback and reviews of these resources.
There are a number of new boxes (Anthropology Matters and How Do We Know?) in this new edition of Our Origins. I especially thank the following anthropologists who helped with providing material and advice: Lee Berger, Tracy Betsinger, Doug Crews, Rachel Caspari, Agustín Fuentes, Scott McGraw, Hannah Morris, Erin Riley, and Karen Strier. In addition, the online interviews feature Rachel Caspari, Scott McGraw, Hannah Morris, Erin Riley, Karen Strier, Sarah Tishkoff, and Tiffiny Tung. For her leading role and considerable effort in seeing these amazing presentations completed, I am indebted to Tacy Quinn.
Thanks go to former and current graduate students and faculty
colleagues at Ohio State University who helped in so many ways. I offer a very special thanks to Tracy Betsinger, who assisted in a number of aspects of the book as well as the Coursepack. For the first edition, she read drafts of chapters at various stages and helped in figure selection, in glossary compilation, and as a sounding board in general for ideas that went into the book. For the second edition, she offered very helpful suggestions for revisions. Thanks to Jaime Ullinger, who provided the content and data for the box on PTC tasting. Tracy, Jaime, Jim Gosman, Dan Temple, Haagen Klaus, and Josh Sadvari read parts or all of the manuscript and offered great advice. For all four editions, I had many helpful discussions with Scott McGraw and Dawn Kitchen about primate behavior, evolution, and taxonomy. Scott also provided advice on the production of the two-page spreads on both primate diversity and eagle predation in the Taï Forest, Ivory Coast (chapters 6 and 7). John Fleagle provided valuable support reviewing details in most of the new primate illustrations, in particular the twopage spreads, and every new piece of art was reviewed by Arthur Durband, Andrew Kramer, and Sandra Wheeler. Doug Crews gave advice on the complexities of primate (including human) biology and life history. Haagen Klaus provided materials for and help with the two-page spread on the biological consequences of the agricultural revolution and many other helpful comments and suggestions for revision. Barbara Piperata advised me on key aspects of modern human biology and nutrition science, and Dawn Kitchen provided discussion and help on the fundamentals of primate communication and how best to present it. Josh Sadvari was indispensable in the creation of the Evolution Review sections at the end of each chapter. Ellen Mosley-Thompspn and John Brookeadvised me on climate change and its role in our rapidly changing world. Likewise, Mary Beth Cole developed terrific student review questions for each chapter.
Over the years, I have had helpful conversations with my teachers, colleagues, and students about areas of their expertise, and these people have influenced the development of the book in so many ways. I am grateful to Patricia J. O’Brien and Milford H. Wolpoff, my respective undergraduate and graduate advisors. Both were instrumental in developing my interest in science and the wonderful profession I work in. I thank Barry Bogin, Kristen Hawkes, Jim O’Connell, David Thomas, Bob Kelly, Jerry Milanich, Bruce Smith, Kris Gremillion, Bonnie McEwan, Matt Cartmill, Dale Hutchinson, Chris Ruff, Simon Hillson, Michael Schultz, Sam Stout, Doug Ubelaker, Dan Sellen, Clark Howell, Rick Steckel, Phil Walker, John Relethford, Mark Weiss, Margaret Schoeninger, Karen Rosenberg, Lynne Schepartz, Fred Smith, Brian Hemphill, Bruce Winterhalder, Meg Conkey, Desmond Clark, Erik Trinkaus, Katherine Russell, Vin Steponaitis, Mark Teaford, Richard Wrangham, Jerry Rose, Mark Cohen, William Bass, Loring Brace, Stanley Garn, Frank Livingstone, Phil Gingerich, T. Dale Stewart, Larry Angel, Mike Finnegan, Harriet Ottenheimer, Marty Ottenheimer, Roberto Frisancho, Randy Susman, Karen Strier, Joanna Lambert, Jim Hijiya, Cecil Brown, Bill Fash, Rich Blanton, Henry Wright, James Griffin, Bill Jungers, David Frayer, Bill Pollitzer, George Armelagos, Jane Buikstra, Elwyn Simons, Steve Churchill, Neil Tubbs, Bob Bettinger, Tim White, Dean Falk, Owen Lovejoy, Scott Simpson, David
Carlson, Alan Goodman, Bill Dancey, Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg, Clark Mallam, and Chris Peebles.
The book benefited from the expertise of many anthropologists and other experts. I especially acknowledge the following reviewers for their insights, advice, and suggestions for revision of the text and creation of the support package:
Sabrina Agarwal, University of California, Berkeley
Paul Aiello, Ventura College
Lon Alterman, North Carolina State University
Tara Devi Ashok, University of Massachusetts Boston
Diana Ayers-Darling, Mohawk Valley Community College
Gerald Bacon, Coconino Community College
Philip de Barros, Palomar College
Thad Bartlett, University of Texas, San Antonio
Cynthia Beall, Case Western Reserve University
Owen Beattie, University of Alberta
Daniel Benyshek, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Tracy Betsinger, College at Oneonta, State University of New York
Deborah Blom, University of Vermont
Amy Bogaard, Oxford University
Günter Bräuer, University of Hamburg
Margaret Bruchez, Blinn College
Emily Brunson, University of Washington
Victoria Buresch, Glendale Community College
Jessica Cade, University of California, Riverside
Maria Leonor Cadena, Fullerton College
Benjamin Campbell, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Isabelle Champlin, University of Pittsburgh, Bradford
Joyce Chan, California State University, Dominguez Hills
Chi-hua Chiu, Kent State University
David Clark, Catholic University of America
Raffaella Commitante, California State University, Fullerton
Nancy Cordell, South Puget Sound Community College
Robert Corruccini, Southern Illinois University
Herbert Covert, University of Colorado
Fabian Crespo, University of Louisville
Douglas Crews, Ohio State University
Alejandra Estrin Dashe, Northwestern Health Sciences University
Eric Delson, Lehman College, City University of New York
Jeremy DeSilva, Boston University
Katherine Dettwyler, University of Delaware
Joanne Devlin, University of Tennessee
William Duncan, East Tennessee State University
Arthur Durband, Texas Tech University
Marta Alfonso Durruty, Kansas State University
Phyllisa Eisentraut, Santa Barbara City College
Jacqueline Eng, Western Michigan University
Paul Erickson, St. Mary’s University
Becky Floyd, Cypress College
Susan Ford, Southern Illinois University
David Frayer, University of Kansas
Renee Garcia, Saddleback College
Daniel Gebo, Northern Illinois University
Victoria Giambrone, Oakton Community College
Rebecca Gibson, American University
Anne Grauer, Loyola University of Chicago
Mark Griffin, San Francisco State University
Michael Grimes, Western Washington University
Nanda B. Grow, Texas A&M University
Gregg Gunnell, Duke University
Lesley Harrington, University of Alberta
Cory Harris, Orange County Community College, State University of New York
Ryan P. Harrod, University of Alaska Anchorage
Lauren Hasten, Las Positas College
John Hawks, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Carrie Healy, University of Arkansas
Samantha Hens, California State University, Sacramento
James Hingham, New York University
Madeline Hinkes, San Diego Mesa College
Homes Hogue, Ball State University
Brigitte Holt, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Ashley Hurst
Nina Jablonski, Pennsylvania State University
Karin Enstam Jaffe, Sonoma State University
Gabriela Jakubowska, Ohio State University
Gail Kennedy, University of California, Los Angeles
Dawn Kitchen, Ohio State University
Haagen Klaus, George Mason University
Sam Kobari, San Diego State University
Andrew Kramer, University of Tennessee
Greg Laden
Joanna Lambert, University of Texas at San Antonio
Patricia Lambert, Utah State University
Cari Lange, Ventura College
Sang-Hee Lee, University of California, Riverside
Ginesse Listi, Louisiana State University
Michael Little, Binghamton University
Chris Loeffler, Irvine Valley College
Marilyn R. London, University of Maryland
Sara Lynch, Queens College, City University of New York
Lorena Madrigal, University of South Florida
Ann Magennis, Colorado State University
Stephen Marshak, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Debra Martin, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Thomas McDade, Northwestern University
William McFarlane, Johnson County Community College
Scott McGraw, Ohio State University
Matthew McIntyre, University of Central Florida
Rachel Messinger, Moorpark College
Ellen Miller, Wake Forest University
Leonor Monreal, Fullerton College
Ellen Mosley-Thompson, Ohio State University
Michael Muehlenbein, Indiana University
Jennifer Muller, Ithaca College
Dawn Neill, California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo
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rapidly vanishing into thin air All the time there came through the glass partition the tantalizing strains of the ’cello and violin playing Hungarian dances. I had hoped to see as well as hear these gipsy musicians. And so it happened. The door opened and in they came to give us a private performance.
Smiling, bowing, they drew near to the table, almost bending over it, playing softly, sweetly, merrily, the expression of their faces interpreting the song. They had never studied a note of music. They played solely by ear. Yet they had caught the magic spirit of music, the soul and the rhythm of it. Their bodies swayed in time with the song. Their intimate black eyes invited to the dance. Our feet tapped time to their swaying forms. It was utterly joyous, abandoned, divine! I hear it now:
“Nimm Zigeuner deine Geige, lass sehn was du kannst.”
Our host crowned the evening’s enjoyment with stories of the old café’s famous habitués. At the very table where we were seated Lenin in exile had discussed his political philosophy with admirers and doubters through a summer’s night. In the chair I occupied the volatile and relentless Trotsky had lounged and gossiped. The charming, exuberant Prince Windischgraetz and his beautiful wife had frequently supped there. Crownless kings and exiled grand dukes had played their less dangerous game at the bridge-table in the corner. Poets and philosophers, journalists of all nations, destroyers of old states and architects of new, propagandists of the old order and spies of the new, lovely women of scandalous reputation, virtuous and sober citizens of Berne, delegates to international conferences, travellers to Paris held up on the way, connoisseurs of good beer—all found their way to this famous house of good cheer and joyous fellowship, and have helped Herr Rinner and the Gipsy Primas to make of it to thousands a memory of rich delight or of the haunting sorrow which is akin to joy.
When shall I see the Wiener Café again? I ask myself. And I know that I shall never see it as it was in those days of the war and the peace. All the old friends are gone. Even the gipsy band has fled. Perhaps there remain a few political exiles in Berne who find their way to the café occasionally. It may be that Dr. Ludwig Bauer, that amiable giant who eats at a sitting enough for four ordinary men and washes it down with incredible quantities of beer, calls occasionally to play a game of cards with a fellow-journalist, or to write his daily article in the little back room reserved for honoured and familiar guests. I do not know All I know is that I have but to close my eyes and listen, and through the windows are wafted softly the strains from the gipsy band:
“Nimm Zigeuner deine Geige, lass sehn was du kannst, Schwarzer Teufel spiel und zeige wie dein Bogen tanzt.”
CHAPTER IV
THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS CONFERENCE (MARCH
1919)
I have written a great deal about the annoyance and discomfort to which the traveller abroad was put in the days immediately following the Armistice; I have said nothing about the performance which had to be gone through before the journey could actually be begun. Some day sanity will be restored to the government of these affairs; but as a matter of purely historic interest a record of this business will be very amusing.
The Executive Committee of the Union of Democratic Control (of Foreign Politics) was holding its weekly meeting, when a letter arrived from Dr. de Jong van Beek en Donk, the secretary of the Dutch Peace Society, inviting the Union to send delegates to the League of Nations Conference which it was proposed to hold in Berne early in March, 1919. It was strongly felt that no opportunity of forming international connexions should be missed. One member after another was pressed to go. Nobody but myself appeared to be free to do so. I had only just returned from Switzerland and the International. The journey home had been full of discouragement and fatigue. I was asked if I would very much mind the trouble and weariness of a second long journey soon. I said I had not the slightest objection to the journey, but that the thought of the passport business was rather daunting. It was agreed that someone in the office should do all that for me, and on that understanding I agreed to go.
But the condition was not fulfilled. It could not be. Passport formalities are personal matters and only in the rarest circumstances can they be gone through by proxy. I had immediately to set about the task myself, and a terrific task it was. The date was already
February 27. The Conference was timed to begin on March 3. Two days of that time I knew would be consumed in the journey itself. That left two for the business of preparation. I knew no human being at that time who had accomplished this in less than a week. Generally three weeks was looked upon as a fairly satisfactory minimum of time for this work.
The following was the routine for a would-be traveller to Switzerland in the early days of 1919.
To get a passport you filled in a long form requiring answers to all sorts of impertinent questions about yourself and your immediate ancestors, including offensive queries about your personal appearance! You had to attach to the form a photograph of a particular sort and size. This had to be endorsed, and your passport signed by a magistrate or some other worthy person who knew you, and who would guarantee your character and the truthfulness of your replies. Two other persons of recognized social position and personal rectitude had to permit the use of their names as guarantors. You handed the completed passport form to the clerk at the passport office, and were generally told to call again in three or four days. The urgency of my case inspired me to enclose a letter to the chief passport officer in the fond hope of considerate treatment; which to my surprise was granted to me. I remember that my appeal fell into the hands of an extremely considerate and courteous official.
If you were prepared to wait on the chance that your business would come soon, you were given a number which was called out in its turn. By sitting incredible hours without food, unless you were wise enough to bring sandwiches, it was just possible that your number might be called unexpectedly and your business gone through quickly. Most people grew impatient, or could spare only an hour or two and left. They had to take a new number and a similar chance next day; with probably similar ill-luck. It was of the first importance to “stick it out.” Then when the magic number you held was called, you paid your fee of five shillings and went your way.
After you received your passport you proceeded to the Swiss Legation for a visum. You had to fill in two forms here and attach a
photograph to each of them. You were required to sign a paper stating you were not a Bolshevik, and had no dealings with them. You were obliged to provide a letter from the organization on whose business you were travelling. On the occasion of my third application I had to bring a certificate of health and a banker’s letter stating that I was a person of substance not likely to become a charge on the Swiss Exchequer! Another five shillings and the visum became yours.
The next business was a British Military permit. This, I think, you had for nothing. But you filled in two more forms, attached two more photographs and waited long, weary hours for the calling of your number before you got it. I waited five hours on this occasion, and stood the whole of the time!
Lastly there was the Military Permit from the French to be obtained by suffering the same ghastly torments. For this eight shillings was the market price!
I regard it as one of the exploits of my life that I got through all this disgusting business in two days. I could not have done it but for the good fortune that threw me into the hands of considerate officials and for my own British pertinacity. As it was I came out of the French office in Bedford Square only five minutes before the office closed!
So I started by the usual early morning train to Folkestone, tired but triumphant, and feeling that the nuisances ahead of me, calculated to ruin more tempers and create more racial antagonisms than half a century of war, were light by comparison with that whirling rush from photographer to guarantor, from guarantor to passport office, from passport office to doctor, from doctor to banker, from banker to Legation, from Legation to Permit offices, with the endless filling of forms and the interminable aching hours of waiting which I had endured before the journey could begin.
It was a madwoman’s rush across sea and land. The Paris train was nearly two hours late. The Gare du Nord and the Gare de Lyon are on opposite sides of Paris. The wildest scrimmage for taxis took place. My lucky star being still in the ascendant, I secured one, hurled myself across Paris like a lunatic and, like a maniac, tossed
myself and my bag into the Belgarde portion of the Geneva express as the train was actually signalled to leave!
There was no empty seat in the whole of the train. I had a firstclass ticket, but I passed the night in the corridor sitting on the end of my suit-case. French trains are always super-heated. There had been no time for food in Paris. Hunger, thirst and sleeplessness made that night memorable to me. And as I have already shown, Geneva was not the end. There was the long wait in the city and the seven hours’ journey to Berne to follow the sleepless night from Paris to Belgarde. But it is marvellous what can be done and endured if one is only determined enough. I drove up to the Belle Vue Hotel at 11 o’clock on the evening of March 2; and the Conference was due to begin the following morning. My two fellow delegates of the Peace Council were still in London, although they began the passport business days before I knew that I was to be a delegate; but they yielded to the fatal temptation to leave after waiting for a short time, returning at intervals to the office, instead of seeing the thing through.
I had been in my room just long enough to turn the key in the lock when the telephone bell rang vigorously: “Hallo, Mrs. Snowden!” came the cheerful voice of a friend. “I have just seen your name in the hotel register. But this is wonderful! Come and have coffee at the Vienna Café.”
“Thank you, no,” I replied. “I’m almost dead with fatigue. If anybody tries to keep me out of bed for five minutes, I’ll denounce him to the police as a Bolshevik spy! I’ll see you in the morning. Good night.” Swiss beds are soft and white and very comfortable. In ten minutes I was snugly curled up in one of the best of them, for the first and only time in my life grateful for the Continental habit of unpunctuality. “That Conference is timed to begin at ten, but I am quite sure it will be eleven,” was the last muttered thought as I fell soundly asleep.
The sun was streaming in at the window when I awoke the next morning. I sprang out of bed and pulled back the curtain. Thick snow lay on the ground and reflected dazzlingly the light from the sun. The sky was a bright blue and without a cloud. Again the telephone bell rang. “There are two young ladies to see you, madam. Shall I ask them to wait?” asked the hotel clerk. “No, send them up—and the coffee,” I said, scrambling back into bed and wondering who on earth it could be. Two minutes later there followed the waiter into the room two pale girls about twenty years of age with soft, shy manners.
“We have come to give you a welcome to the Conference and to ask you if you will be good enough to speak at the opening session. Dear Mrs. Snowden, we know how tired you must be, but it is so wonderful that you are here. Do please come and say a few words of greeting to us. It will make us so happy and we are very miserable.” They were starved girls from Munich.
“Of course,” I said. “If you will leave me now, I will be with you in half an hour.” And they left looking very pleased.
This Conference was not so large as the International. There were several of the Socialists present; but, generally speaking, the Congress was different in its personnel and in the character of those present. It was more bourgeois in appearance. I do not say that with the intention of reflecting upon its quality in any offensive way. I have not the hatred of the bourgeois because he is a bourgeois, which animates some Socialists. I am not sure, indeed, what the word means precisely in the mouths of some people I know. As used by many it appears to mean a man who wears a clean collar and cuts his hair short; or a woman who speaks in a soft voice and wears a pretty dress. With such persons, educated manners, courtesy in debate, destroy a Socialist’s bona fides; whilst well-cut finger nails and a pair of white cuffs positively mark him down as a “social traitor.” I am not joking. I am stating a literal fact. With these solemn idiots the bourgeois is a man who keeps his family respectable and goes to church on Sunday. He is a man who retains some affection for the old-fashioned virtues of industry and thrift. There is, for them, a bourgeois morality, a bourgeois mentality, a bourgeois faith. Radek writes of the necessity of destroying the bourgeois institutions of
religion, the family and private property Lenin jeers at the bourgeois idea of liberty. To be middle-class is to be bourgeois, even if you have to work hard for a living. To take a pride in clean table-linen is bourgeois. To delight in a daily bath is bourgeois. And to be bourgeois is to be condemned by this class of “superior” person in Socialist circles. It is all so very silly—and so very young!
The delegates to the League of Nations Conference were in the main professional people, lawyers, professors, doctors, teachers, journalists. One or two were aristocratically connected—Count Max Montgelas, for instance—and there were two or three generals. But the same features marked this Conference as the other. The German and the Austrian delegates looked hungry and ill-nourished. All that I have said of the German Socialists—the dry grey skin stretched tightly over the bones, the bloodshot eyes, the pale lips, the thin nervous hands—was true of the men and women who confronted me as I spoke on that glorious March morning. It was a very pitiful sight and told eloquently of what the German people had had to endure up to the time their rulers fled before the indignant revolutionaries.
I was very happy to have arrived in time to give the greetings from the two organizations I represented, the National Peace Council and the Union of Democratic Control, and to be able to promise them the presence in a few days of my two colleagues, Miss Joan Fry and Mrs. Charles Roden Buxton.
Miss Joan Fry is one of the daughters of the late Sir Edward Fry. She is an active member of the Society of Friends. She came to the Conference to testify to her foreign friends of the same religious persuasion as herself the solidarity with themselves of the likeminded women and men of Great Britain. She made several speeches of deep spiritual power which were well received by the delegates.
Mrs. Charles Roden Buxton, the daughter of the late Professor Jebb, is also a Quaker. She has two very lovely children whom she adores, and the knowledge of Europe’s suffering children moved her to come to Berne, not only to attend the Conference, but to see what
might be done immediately to send aid to the little sufferers in Vienna. During the weeks we were in Switzerland, she and I (but chiefly she) did what we could to start an international organization for child relief. It was a difficult piece of work. The Swiss were apt to be afraid of doing anything which would seem to violate the principle of neutrality, although I am sure they never faltered in their desire to help. The Austrians were incapable, through suffering, of very energetic co-operation. The French were intransigeant at the time. Also, it was very difficult to avoid falling into the hands of the selfish and unscrupulous, never deterred from their habit of exploitation by the thought of the poor people they were robbing. We were warned of this man and that woman. This man was buying in a certain expensive market for reasons of his own; that woman was taking a fat commission for securing contracts for goods to be bought with our funds!
The Vienna children were dying for lack of fats. Mrs. Buxton determined to send them a truck load of cod-liver oil at once, preserved milk and milk chocolate to follow. She pledged the greater part of her private fortune in order that its going might be expedited. It is almost inconceivable how many difficulties were placed in the way of its going by the authorities, in spite of the generous act of Mrs. Buxton which satisfied the business interests. Endless delays for no obvious reason; endless calls on dilatory officials; endless pleadings with suspicious legations; endless regulations to be subscribed to, and finally the probability that it would never arrive at its destination. A military guard had to be provided to go with the train. Incredible though it may seem, at that time, and even now, not only goods travelling by train but whole trucks, down to the wheels and the buffers, have entirely vanished during transit, and not a rivet or a plank has been traced. How it is done is a matter of wild conjecture. But no valuable stores were ever sent by train in that part of Europe without a strong military guard.
Out of Mrs. Buxton’s noble efforts in Switzerland and those of her devoted sister in England, Miss Eglantyne Jebb, has evolved the Save the Children Fund, the British branch of which alone under the chairmanship of Lord Weardale has, since its inception, raised nearly
one million pounds of English money for the relief of child-life in the famine areas of Europe. The fund does not itself administer, but allots to Relief Organizations already in existence if satisfied with their work and their workers. Its great hope and desire is to continue in existence after the pressing needs created by the war have been met; to unite, not only in this country but all over the world, so as to prevent waste and overlapping and to get the maximum of efficiency out of the workers, the organizations of all kinds connected with the nurture and protection of children in all lands. I am neither a prophet nor the child of a prophet, but I venture to think that when the history of these times comes to be written, the work of the Save the Children Fund will be regarded as one of the redeeming features of a situation otherwise black and wellnigh hopeless.
The other bright gleam on the dark sky-line of European politics in these years will be the Society of Friends. The Quakers have done infinite things for the relief of distress in Europe. A gallant young soldier told me of the strength he received whenever he saw set up on a hut somewhere in France, “Société des Amis.” In every big city and in countless little villages of Europe their work has been quietly and persistently carried on, without noise and self-advertisement, with no looking for praise, and no expectation of reward. It began with the war. It has been carried on during the peace. Many workers have died of their labours, poisoned with typhus germs or collapsed from overwork. Hundreds of thousands of sufferers will live to bless them, who would have died but for their work. Countless little children have been saved alive or preserved from stunted manhood or womanhood through them. Their selfless devotion has softened the cruel impressions made by the war. Their presence amongst the defeated has saved from utter hate and despair many of those who pictured the foe to themselves as wholly given up to revenge. To the Friends must be given the credit for the preservation of such little faith and idealism as may still be left in Europe.
The purpose of this Conference as of the other was the creation of machinery which should aid in the preservation of international peace. It was met to give support in particular to the League of Nations idea. It sought to suggest such points for the Charter issued from Paris as would make of the League of Nations a real and vital thing. Without going into the discussions at great length it may be briefly stated that the Conference recommended the inclusion of all nations within the League, all-round disarmament consistent with the preservation of internal order, and a thoroughly democratic organization. The Peace had not yet been concluded, so that the delegates were not influenced in their conclusions by the astounding deviations from the Fourteen Points which that peace was so soon to reveal. They were in the mood of wishing to join all nations in an effort to put together the pieces of a broken and suffering Europe. And they believed in President Wilson.
One of the most interesting personalities at this Conference was Professor Brentano of Munich, the famous political economist. I was coming down the stairs leading from the conference hall to the street when a handsome old man with white hair and a keen face stopped and addressed me. He had a nervous and slightly deprecating manner, stooped a little, and showed pitiful signs of undernourishment in his pale face and rather tearful red eyes. He found it difficult to speak without emotion of the condition of things in Bavaria, and his voice trembled as he told of the nerve-strain under which the population lived, partly through anxiety about food and partly through fear of revolutionary disorders. His very obviously democratic sympathies did not reach quite so far as the Communist regime and the amiable but incompetent President Eisner. He told me that nobody who had food in the house, however small in amount or poor in quality, went to bed without feeling that his throat might be cut in the night by men mad with hunger, who knew about the little store. He showed me a scientific chart exhibiting in figures and curved lines the appalling tragedy of starving and dying children in his city, the city of soft church bells and beautiful pictures, of glorious music and fine dramatic art. It was a Munich girl of eighteen who told me her painful story of an elderly and unscrupulous admirer, who
endeavoured to buy her with food, a common experience in the stricken lands.
“I will give you two fresh eggs every day if you will be my ‘friend’,” he said (it was the first time I had heard the word “friend” used in such a sense). “I did not know that it was possible to be tempted to so dreadful a thing by anything in the world,” said this poor thing, her pale cheeks flushing as she spoke, “but we are all so hungry and my mother is a sick woman. The eggs would have been very good for her. And an egg costs many, many marks with us.” Her lip quivered and she played nervously with the edge of her shawl. “But my Socialist faith kept me pure. I could never have borne all the misery and hunger; I should have drowned myself but for my belief that Socialism would do away with war and bring a better day for us all.”
The young Socialist Toller, who spoke out bravely for the young people in the Movement at the International, talked to me with the same bright hope in his shining eyes. Two or three months later he was sentenced to four years’ detention in a fortress for leading the Red Guards in a revolt against the Whites. I had talked with him long about the need for peacemakers in our Movement, and then he was a sincere and unqualified pacifist. His Red Guard exploit puzzled me; but it was explained to me that he had hoped to restrain the Red troops from committing excesses if he went with them, and that he did not actively provoke a violent attack. His release should be imminent—if he is not already free.
One of the most distinguished of German pacifists who attended this Conference was Professor A. W Förster Dr Förster published a letter or manifesto during the war which made some of us wonder if he were the only Christian left in Europe, so brave and strong and unequivocal was it! He was for some years professor at the University of Munich; but during the war his pacifist attitude enraged the nationalist students and members of the Faculty. His lectures were continually interrupted by the demonstrations of these students, and the atmosphere of study made utterly impossible. He was
therefore induced to take a year’s holiday on full pay, and retired to Switzerland to continue his pacifist activities there. One cannot help contrasting this treatment of its distinguished pacifist citizen by Bavaria with the treatment accorded to the Hon. Bertrand Russell by the British Government. Six months in prison for one of the greatest intellects that ever a country possessed for a sentence in a magazine article which offended them! It was an act which invited and excited the derision of the whole world of letters.
After the Bavarian Revolution, Professor Förster was made Minister to Switzerland under Kurt Eisner. His relations with his chief were very peculiar. These two men were equally firm and uncompromising in their pacifism, but in their political policy they differed. Eisner, like most Germans, favoured the union of Austria with Germany provided the Austrians themselves desired it. Förster was opposed to such a union. In articles, interviews and speeches he fought against the idea, and the people of Switzerland enjoyed the peculiar spectacle of the Prime Minister of a German State and his Minister taking opposite sides on one of the most important issues of foreign policy then exciting the interest of nations! Any other Prime Minister would have recalled Professor Förster. Any other Minister would have resigned. In spite of many remonstrances received, Eisner declined to dismiss his Minister. His worship of free speech was so great that he forgot all about the common sense of politics, which requires that the representative in a foreign country of any state should either support the policy of his Government or be deposed. Malicious critics saw nothing but duplicity in the extraordinary situation. They loudly and cynically averred that the two men were marching along two different roads to the same end; that there was a good deal of pretence about the business intended to deceive the general public and conceal their real design; that they were secretly hand in glove with one another. But it was not so. It was sincere comedy sincerely played by players who did not mean to be funny. It was one more demonstration of the effect of the supersession of government by the debating society, and of action by talk. I have the evidence of my own eyes and ears of the enthralling power of Dr. Förster’s eloquence upon the young men of Berne and of the captivating charm of Kurt Eisner’s theorizing
oratory upon the delegates of a great Conference; but theories do not quell mutinies and dogmas do not deter the oppressor; and if ever there were a time when Bavaria (and Europe) stood in need of practical common-sense politics it was during the years succeeding the war and the revolutions.
I made one other friend from the city of Munich. There stepped into the lift in the Belle Vue Hotel one day, a tall, slender woman dressed in deep black who thanked me for something, I don’t know what, and began then and there a friendship I very deeply prize. Annette Kolb is said to have in her veins the blood of Bavarian kings. I know nothing about that. I only know there are few women of my acquaintance who have so much charm of personality as Miss Kolb. She is kind and tactful and of an extraordinary wit. In a dreary wilderness of men and women without humour she shot sparks of the divine fire and kept us from the deadly peril of unutterable boredom on many a weary occasion.
Annette is the child of a French mother and a German father. She is the perfect type of “one between the races.” To say that her soul is torn is no flippant use of serious language. It is written in her face. Her emotions ebb and flow. When France was down she was proFrench; now that Germany is out, she is probably pro-German. She wants a union in friendship of the two. She speaks continually of this. It is the great theme of her writings. She had rough treatment in Dresden when making a protest in public against the malignant lying of a certain section of the Press. Her book, “Briefe einer DeutschFranzösin” (Letters of a German-French), created a great stir in France and for a time was prohibited in Germany. She is a woman of most brilliant gifts. The intimate friend of Busoni, she is a first-rate musician herself. The friend also of the German poet Schickele she has a just appreciation of good verse, and writes well. She speaks several languages with the fluency of her native tongue, and her English is a model for many an Englishman.
There was one name on the list of delegates which attracted my special interest, Andreas Latzko, the author of the book which caused such a world-wide sensation, “Men in Battle.”
“What is Latzko like?” I asked a friend.
“Latzko is a pacifist monkey of Hungarian birth,” replied this complimentary individual. Latzko is small and dark and vain. He makes fiery speeches with nothing much in them except emotion. I should say his experiences in the trenches have seriously impaired his constitution and his nerve. He gives the impression of being neurotic and erratic. He is very self-absorbed. I must tell of a curious experience which befel, illustrative of Latzko’s temperament and character. A friend and I were supping at the hotel where he lodged. Presently came a message from Latzko’s son begging that we would call and see his father. He was seriously ill in bed. “Will you go?” asked my friend. “By all means when he is so ill. He must have something very serious to say,” was my reply. My companion smiled sardonically, but sent the boy with a message to say we would come up in half an hour. When we arrived we found the poor little man sitting up in bed, propped with pillows and making a great moan in a weak, strained voice. He thanked us effusively for coming, gasping as he spoke. I thought he must be dying. He spoke of his wife as of one who would soon be left to struggle with the wicked world alone. He showed us her photograph. She was away in Hungary. He was longing to see her. Then he came to the real business of the occasion. Would I call and see his publisher in England and find out why the royalties were not forthcoming. My companion grinned again.
“Why are you laughing?” I asked, rather puzzled, as we descended the stairs. “I am laughing at an amusing farce just played,” he said. “At supper you sat with your back to the hotel entry I saw Latzko enter during our meal, look in at the glass door furtively, recognize us, and rush upstairs to prepare for his part. The rest you know.”
“Then he is not ill,” I said disgustedly, thinking of the pillow I had smoothed, and the tenderness I had wasted.
“Oh yes, he is ill, very ill; but not in the way you think,” was the slow reply. “He is sick of self-love.”
One more interesting delegate at this Conference comes to my remembrance, Professor Nicolai, a slight, fair man with hair pushed back over a large forehead, and a thin, small chin. He presented rather a limp appearance, doubtless due in part to under-feeding, but a little also to the radical idealist’s too-frequent inattention to matters of the toilet. His collar had a greyish look and his cuffs were not there!
Dr Nicolai enjoys the distinction of being the first person to establish the war against war on a scientific basis. His “Biology of War” is an arresting and most valuable contribution to the literature of the movement. During the war he was constantly coming into collision with the German authorities for his pacifist utterances. He was several times tried for his offences, sentenced to prison, retried and tried again. The Government never actually imprisoned him. Such cases as his and Dr. Förster’s are worthy of note for two reasons. There are many people in England who believe that no voice was raised against the war and the war policy of the German Government by Germans in Germany during the war. This is demonstrated untrue. Then the comparatively mild treatment by the German authorities of their pacifist professors is interesting in view of the reputed intolerance of the German war-lords for those not of their own political breed. In 1918 Dr. Nicolai escaped to Denmark in an aeroplane, but is now back in his chair at the University of Berlin. There he is the centre of vicious attacks by reactionary professors, who pit against his new, their old, hoping the turn of the wheel will bring back the old order to the Fatherland.
The Conference and its several Commissions sat for three weeks. There were many occasions for social intercourse between the various sessions. The hotel was packed with interesting personalities. In view of his elevated position as Prime Minister of Hungary, I recall with interest my meeting with Count Teleki. He was
presented to me as a moderate Socialist. It all depends upon definition. At that time the Bolsheviks were in power in Hungary. By comparison with Bela Kun I imagine Count Teleki sincerely believed himself a moderate Socialist. Or perhaps I took seriously what was intended for a joke. Perhaps it was one of those insincerities of speech, uttered to please and without the slightest regard to the truth, I found so common in the nationals of Latin and Balkan countries. Count Teleki’s present behaviour suggests the aristocratic reactionary rather than the Socialist. He is said to have aided Kaiser Karl in his ill-timed escapade. But in the Hôtel Belle Vue at the brilliant dinner table he was the charming, cynical, cultivated friend of political saint and sinner alike; a scientist in exile; a professor without a chair; a patriot without a country; a good fellow and a jolly companion. He is a man of moderate height, with thin features and a clean-shaven face. He is not unlike Mr. Bertrand Russell in appearance, and is probably not more than forty years of age. From my conversation with him I cannot imagine for a moment that he is in sympathy with the action of the Hungarian extremists, who have instituted a “White Terror” worse than the Red since the fall of Bela Kun and his associates. And I think it only fair in this connexion to say that every Hungarian with whom I spoke in Berne agreed that Bela Kun himself was no sympathizer with the behaviour of his own extremists. He suffered the common fate of rulers tossed up by violent revolutions—the poisonous association of worse and stronger men than himself.
There was presented to me one day in the lobby of the hotel a tall thin man with laughing eyes and an engaging boyish manner, who had just challenged Fate by dashing at break-neck speed from Geneva to Berne in a powerful motor-car. His English was halting but perfectly intelligible, and he had a way of insinuating himself into the regard of a stranger which reminded one of the wiles of the “Whiteheaded Boy.” It was Prince Ludwig Windischgraetz, the Winston Churchill of Hungary; the gay, irresponsible hero of a thousand
romances, military, political and human. He is only thirty-eight years of age, but he has had a very full life, and has held positions of great responsibility in his country’s public life. At the time of the Conference in Budapest of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies he was one of the distinguished champions of votes for women. He was very much concerned that I should understand that he was a sincere democrat. I remember with some amusement at a lunch, where he and his wife, Mr. Rudolf Kommer and myself formed the party, taking his side most heartily in a hot discussion on the relative value of autocracy and democracy He, the kinsman of kings, was all for democracy. Who was against it must be inferred. But the Prince was very much in earnest.
His memoirs, which are to be published in English very soon, will be interesting reading if they are anything like complete, for the adventures of this temperamental romanticist, this gallant and not too discreet patriot, this reckless and warm-hearted young aristocrat have been many and varied. Recklessness in politics is a dangerous thing; but Prince Windischgraetz has the personality which reminds one how mean a thing discretion can be. I have not the slightest doubt in my own mind that Prince Ludwig Windischgraetz was the prime instigator and organizer of the Kaiser Karl exploit.
But the Prince’s greatest romance is surely his wife. Princess Maria Windischgraetz is one of the loveliest women I have ever seen. Her beauty is of the English type: fair skin, golden hair and blue eyes. She is one of the few women outside feminist and Socialist circles I met on the Continent whose gaze is frank, and who leaves the impression of a decent attitude towards men. I wearied of it almost before I understood the sex-game as it is played in the cosmopolitan cities of Europe (doubtless of this country also). The insolent, sidelong look, the provocative dress, the tasteless conversation and gross manners of the women habituées of fashionable cafés and big continental hotels are a weariness of the flesh to the self-respecting. A relief it was after the hectic atmosphere of the hotel reception-rooms to meet this sweet Hungarian mother of five beautiful children who looks like a girl, and hear her unaffected talk about her home and her country. She very
modestly claimed no understanding of politics; but had she had the power she knew enough and felt rightly enough to have saved her country from the pit into which politicians with more experience but less common sense had let it fall.
We met several times, each occasion happier than the last. From entirely different worlds, I think she would agree that we understood each other and held many ideas in common. I remember one meeting with peculiar tenderness. We were the guests of Mr. Rudolf Kommer on the Gurten-külm. After dinner we walked through the trees to see the moonlight on the Bernese Alps. I tried to comfort her with prophecies that all would be well with Hungary one day if Hungary did not lose faith in herself. “And when that day comes, do not, I beg of you, copy the methods you deplore in the Bolsheviks, establishing a White Terror instead of a Red. Someone has got to take a stand against the iniquities and cruelties of terrorism. Let those to whom more has been given do that, the educated, the rich, the aristocratic.”
I do not know what part, if any, Princess Maria has played in the recent politics of Hungary Her estates have been restored to her; her country is hers once more. Whether or not she approved of the insane policy which has treated simple Trade Unionists and Cooperators as Bolsheviks, and still strikes discriminating blows at the poor Jews, I am not able to say. Probably not. But she said to me when I begged her to take up the cause of women in Hungary: “I have five children to care for and a husband to look after. I have little time for politics.”
Princess Maritza von Liechtenstein is another beautiful blonde who was living in Berne at the time of the Conference. She is stronger looking than Princess Windischgraetz, and more vigorous and active. Her English is amazingly perfect. She is the daughter of Count Geza Andrassy, the Hungarian patriot, and the mother of five or six handsome boys. She bitterly blamed Count Karolyi for having let loose the flood of Bolshevism upon Hungary, especially criticizing his land policy and the break up of the big estates. She evinced considerable interest in English politics. So did her distinguished uncle. Both confessed to a real liking for England which I believe
was quite genuine. Count Andrassy appeared much broken by his country’s afflictions. In appearance he struck me as a refined edition of Thomas Carlyle in his later years. He has grey hair with touches of white, a square forehead, shaggy eyebrows, clear-cut features, a slightly stooping figure. A striking resemblance to my own father attracted me. He walked about the hotel full, as one could see, of grave preoccupation: not too occupied to save a woman from a mistake! I was taking tea with him and one other when the concierge brought to me a note from a man who claimed a mutual friendship with a highly respected friend of my own. This man in his wife’s name invited me to his home. I had never heard of the man. I read the name aloud. Count Andrassy suggested that I would be wise to decline the invitation, which I did. I afterwards discovered how right he was!
Prince Johann von Liechtenstein, the father of the six splendid boys, is a tall, grave, elegant man with blue eyes, black-fringed, and a reserved and earnest manner. Soft and slow of speech, without a trace of self-assertiveness, he made a friend of all with whom he came into contact.
Before leaving Berne I paid a visit of investigation to a camp for hungry Austrian children at Frutigen, on the invitation of Baroness von Einam, who ran the camp. This extraordinary woman collected incredible sums of money and organized this camp whilst other people were busy thinking about it. There in the Swiss mountains for seven weeks each, five or six hundred starving little Austrians lived. They were housed in the smaller hotels. Their teachers came with them. The villagers told us in answer to our questions that when the children first came nobody knew they were there, they crept about so languidly and quietly. The second week they began to sing and run about. The third week they tore the air with their happy yells. When we saw them they were about to go home. They looked rosy and brown and jolly. They had played in the fields all the morning. For us they were going to sing and dance. Their costumes were of paper,
