mitted to the Lament Geological Laboratory, Columbia University. 

 He continued to collaborate with Dr. A. L. Kroeber, Research Asso- 

 ciate in American Archaeology, in preparation of a definitive report 

 on the large collection of Nazca pottery from southern Peru exca- 

 vated by Dr. Kroeber for the Museum in 1926, a collection of excep- 

 tional importance because it is the largest series in existence of 

 documented Nazca pots from graves. 



Dr. Kenneth Starr, Curator of Asiatic Archaeology and Ethnol- 

 ogy, continued his research into the culture history of the Chinese 

 region during the pre-Han period. Emphasis was upon the areas 

 outside the traditional spheres of Chinese culture that center in what 

 now is the southern half of China. 



Roland W. Force, Curator of Oceanic Archaeology and Ethnol- 

 ogy, continued his research in Micronesian ethnology. Preparation 

 of manuscripts for publication proceeded in the fields of social organi- 

 zation, leadership, political change, and native bead-money, data for 

 which were secured during field work undertaken in 1954-56 by 

 Curator Force for the Tri-Institutional Pacific Program (see Annual 

 Report 1956, page 40). During August and September he visited 

 the major ethnological museums in western Europe to examine the 

 Pacific collections held by them. Exhibits and study-storage collec- 

 tions were inspected and discussed with curatorial staffs in London, 

 Cambridge, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Leiden, Cologne, Hamburg, 

 Copenhagen, Basel, and Lisbon. 



Assistant Curator Phillip H. Lewis, who was appointed in July 

 to establish and develop a Division of Primitive Art in the Depart- 

 ment of Anthropology, has planned a program of research and exhi- 

 bition designed to study the nature of art as a phenomenon of human 

 endeavor, thereby developing an anthropological approach to the 

 study of primitive art that will be intelligible to nonanthropological 

 researchers in art as well as to anthropologists. His research has two 

 aspects. One aspect is concerned with adapting existing methods 

 and ideas of the history and psychology of art to the problem of deal- 

 ing with the art of primitive peoples. The other aspect is the study 

 of change in primitive art in a specific culture — that of New Ireland. 

 He has found that about one-third of the specimens collected by him 

 in New Ireland in 1954 are the same as many of the older pieces in 

 the Museum's collection and thus are directly comparable and that 

 the rest can be compared stylistically with the earlier specimens. 



During the year Evett D. Hester, Thomas J. Dee Fellow in An- 

 thropology and Associate Director of the Philippine Studies Program 

 (see Annual Report 1956, page 74), continued work on the transla- 

 tion and preparation for publication of the Alcina manuscript. 



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