INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1876. cxxix 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



By OTIS T. MASON, 

 Columbian Univbksity, Washington. 



Anthropology is either descriptive or deductive. Descriptive 

 anthropology gives an account of investigations concerning extinct 

 or extant tribes of men. The former study is also called Archaeol- 

 ogy, and may be either prehistoric or classical ; the latter is called 

 Ethnography. Deductive anthropology embraces all discussions re- 

 lating to mankind, including the study of his geological, zoological, 

 and geographical origin, his primitive and subsequent somatical and 

 psychical conditions and variations, the influence of environment, 

 and the progress of culture. A complete account of the subject 

 would also include a description of the various instrumentalities of 

 research, and apparatus for observation and measurement, an accurate 

 terminology, instructions to observers, a report of local and general 

 meetings and international conventions, and a catalogue of all 

 " transactions," private collections of merit, museums, periodicals, 

 and books devoted to anthropology. 



The following summary is arranged upon the order just mentioned ; 



but, to avoid repeating much that has occurred in former volumes of 



the Annual Recmxl^ and on account of the limited sjiace allotted to 



each summary, many of the headings will have to receive a brief 



consideration. 



I. ARCHEOLOGY. 



North America. Mr. William H. Dall read before the Washington 

 Philosophical Society, January 31st, a long and carefully prepared 

 paper upon " A Succession of Shell-heaps in Alaska." The author 

 found in the mounds three layers, which he named, respectively, the 

 echinus layer, the fish-bone layer, and the mammalian layer ; and 

 holds that these represent three grades of culture which have been 

 developed in this region. Adolphe Pinart recently announced to 

 the French Geographical Society his discovery of mounds upon the 

 southern portion of Vancouver Island different from the shell-heaps 

 of the coast. 



At the last meeting of the American Association,Mr. G.H.Perkins 

 read a paper upon " The Ancient Pottery of Vermont." At the 

 same meeting, Mr. Henry Gillman made three communications, en- 

 titled " Peculiarities of the Femora from Tumuli in Michigan," 

 " Some Observations on the Orbits of the Crania from the Mounds," 

 and " Investigation of the Burial Mound at Fort Wayne, on the De- 

 troit River, Michigan." 



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