January-February, 19i5 



CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN 



Pages 



ANTHROPOLOGY— WHAT IT IS, AND HOW IT FITS INTO THE PROBLEMS OF OUR DAILY LIFE 



By PAUL S. MARTIN 



CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY 



Most people regard anthropology as an 

 abstract subject which has little or no 

 connection with our daily life. It will 

 surprise many to learn that it has numerous 

 practical aspects. Much of the knowledge 

 acquired by research and field work can be 

 applied to the solving of social problems. 



In fact, it is the practical aspects of 

 anthropology — applied anthropology — that 

 make theoretical research in archaeology, 

 ethnology, linguistics, and physical anthro- 

 pology useful. As in physics and other 

 sciences, theory leads to understanding and 

 ultimately to practical applications. 



Anthropologists study man's behavior, 

 in.stitutions, customs, languages, history, 

 and racial divisions so that we may better 

 understand our own society and thus 

 perhaps avoid cultural disintegrations and 

 chaos which produce wars, strikes, depres- 

 sions, agricultural waste, and other frictions 

 among racial and religious groups. 



DEFINITION OF ANTHROPOLOGY 



Before explaining how Applied Anthro- 

 pology works, it seems necessary to define 

 anthropology. The following definition 

 is, in part, attributable to Dr. Eliot D. 

 Chappie of Harvard University: 



Anthropology is the science which deals 

 with mankind as a whole and is therefore 

 concerned with the study of human relations 

 among all peoples, including our own society, 

 regardless of time and area. Since the field 

 is broad, it is divided into five branches. 



1. Archaeology reconstructs human his- 

 tory from earliest times to the present. It 

 deals too with man's rise from earlier forms. 

 It utilizes the buried and fragmentary 

 remains of civilizations (houses, pottery, 

 tools, etc.) to formulate the histories of 

 peoples for whom no written records exist. 



2. Ethnology describes peoples of the 

 present day. An ethnologist is interested 

 in the relations of man and nature, in the 

 relations of old and young, in the relations 

 between members of a family or members 

 of one society with those of another; in the 

 ways man seeks food and builds his house, 

 makes articles needful for everyday life, and 

 in the way man uses or is influenced by his 

 environment. An ethnologist attempts to 

 obtain a total, well-rounded picture of the 

 culture of the group he has studied. 



3. Linguistics is concerned with the 

 description, classification, history and trends 

 of languages. A linguist may compare 

 present forms of speech of a given language 

 and thus reconstruct the history of words 

 and the ancient roots from which the modern 

 parts of speech have descended. This helps 

 reconstruct the past of a particular group 

 of people and shows possible linguistic and 

 historical relationships. For example, a 

 study of the Navaho language has proved 



that the Navaho Indians migrated from 

 their homeland in Canada and are related 

 to Athapascan Indians who still inhabit 

 portions of northern Canada. 



4. Physical Anthropology is the study of 

 the biological and physical aspects of human 

 races and the growth of individuals. It 

 investigates the earliest appearance of man 

 and his rise from apes, the racial history of 

 man, including fossil man, the description 

 and classification of races; and heredity, 

 evolution and physiological problems which 

 relate to man's behavior. 



APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY 



In this article, Dr. Martin 

 defines his science, and tells of 

 some of its applications, or its 

 applicability, in the solution of 

 domestic social problems, as well 

 as world peace. Of particular 

 interest to many will be his 

 description of a serious, thor- 

 oughly organized application of 

 anthropological methods to the 

 management-employee relations 

 of a large industrial plant, re- 

 cently carried out in Chicago. 



5. Applied Anthropology is the skilled 

 application of a vast body of knowledge to 

 the problems of our own society. This 

 knowledge is concerned with the study and 

 understanding of human relations, social 

 structure, laws of social change and the 

 relationships of personality and culture. 



TWO ASPECTS OUTLINED 



Applied Anthropology has two important 

 aspects, outlined herewith: 



(a) Biology and mechanisms of human 

 adjustments to human environment: Man is 

 an organism, and explanation of his be- 

 havior, therefore, must be based upon 

 physiological knowledge and laws. He has 

 determinable properties and is continually 

 adjusting to an environment made up of 

 other organisms (human beings) and other 

 natural phenomena. Man's behavior is 

 basically physiological. For example, in 

 speaking of "emotions," one must under- 

 stand the workings of the autonomic nervous 

 system (which controls involuntary re- 

 sponses) and associated organs (e.g., adrenal 

 glands) as they respond to stimulations 

 from environment. 



But, how does this affect human relations? 

 It is by means of a functional relationship 

 between the individual organism (man) and 

 other organisms (other people). By func- 

 tional relationship I mean that x varies as a 

 function of y. (Thus, the faster you move 

 about, the faster you breathe; or breathing 

 varies as a function of activity.) 



The same relationship holds for pur every- 



day life. An employer reprimands a fore- 

 man, who then "takes it out" on his men. 

 A father neglects his oldest child and pays 

 more attention to his youngest; the oldest 

 child then rebels against this partiality by 

 manifesting some delinquent behavior (ly- 

 ing, stealing, or misbehaving in general). 



STATES OF EQUILIBRIUM 



The adjustments of the internal organs 

 and of the organism in general to various 

 stimulations may be defined as maintaining 

 a state of equilibrium. When one runs, the 

 beating of the heart is speeded up; when one 

 stops and rests, the heart slows down and 

 returns shortly to its normal equilibrium. 



Likewise, the adjustments of one indi- 

 vidual to another or the adjustments of 

 one group to another group produce states 

 of equilibrium. If a father scolds his child 

 the equilibrium existing between these two 

 individuals is disturbed; but after compensa- 

 tory changes take place, an equilibrium is 

 again established. If war breaks out be- 

 tween groups A and B, the equilibrium is 

 upset; but after peace terms are agreed 

 upon, a new state of equilibrium (at a dif- 

 ferent level perhaps) will be set up. 



Without such adjustments and main- 

 tenance of equilibrium an individual or 

 groups of individuals cannot continue to 

 exist. If one does not cure an infection 

 which disturbs his equilibrium, he dies. If 

 an individual cannot adjust easily or at all 

 to other individuals and to society, he be- 

 comes unstable and is a neurotic or a 

 psychotic. If groups of people cannot 

 maintain a state of equilibrium, the civili- 

 zation of one or more groups perishes. 



ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 

 (b) Human adjustments to natural environ- 

 ment: The adjustments man, as an organism, 

 makes to other individuals are largely 

 influenced by habits and adaptation to 

 natural environment. By habits, I mean 

 man's methods of making things, his 

 dances, methods of hunting and farming, 

 marriage customs, his language, games, 

 warfare, birth and death rites, art, law, 

 magic, and the like 



The anthropologist studies everything 

 concerning man's behavior and his relations 

 to other persons and the way human beings 

 affect each other. Anthropology is inter- 

 ested in comparing human relations both 

 in time and space. That is, we study man 

 today, here or in the Andaman Islands; or we 

 investigate man as he lived 10,000 years ago 

 in Arizona. Such studies provide generali- 

 zations or "laws" which are used impartially 

 and carry no judgment as to whether one 

 civilization is higher or lower, better or 

 worse, than another. Each society is 

 evaluated objectively. 



By studying the customs and behavior of 

 other folk, we can better understand our- 

 selves and our own problems. Furthermore, 



