the hako pipe ritual of the Pawnee[1] has been traced through a number of tribes without losing its important features. But where the pattern has most force is within the tribe itself. For example, in the Plains area we usually find a very large number of rituals projected on similar lines, indicating that they are the accumulative creations of many individuals in imitation of the rituals already established. This is particularly noticeable in the bundle rituals of the Blackfoot, Menomini, and Pawnee. Yet, these tribal patterns have not prevented the occasional borrowing of rituals from their neighbors. It is, perhaps, too soon to pass judgment upon the general applicability of the pattern theory, for until we have detailed analyses of several contiguous tribal complexes we can not form a satisfactory conception of just what ideas may have been worked over to form rituals not originally conforming to the tribal pattern; but as it now stands the theory of pattern phenomena applies rather to the original products of a tribe than to borrowed traits, and can not be considered as expressing an important principle of culture diffusion.
Perhaps the most important contributions to this subject have been made by those who have exhaustively studied the diffusion of single traits. As a good example, we may cite Goldenweiser's study of totemism,[2] in which the distributions of the several elements appearing in specific examples of totemism are followed out to their limits, exposing the workings of pattern and other formative factors. Of equal value is Lowie's research in Plains societies[3] previously cited.
In the older literature, we find a number of studies of single traits, particularly in material culture, but as their investigators usually took their diffusion for granted, they gave their chief attention to the question of genetic relationships.[4] Yet what we need in this connection is analytic studies, like the above, that reveal the manner of diffusion over a considerable area. Some recent studies of material culture have made attempts of this kind. One of the most suggestive is the study of horse culture in both North and South America, first developed by Lewis, but carried out in some detail by the author.[5] Here it can be shown that the natives of the New
