ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH OUTSIDE AMERICA. 21 



to collect a large mass of knowledge of the utmost value by the use of modern 

 methods of research, especially through the use of pedigrees. 



If information of value can thus still be collected from such places as the 

 Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand, and Tonga, where western influence has 

 been especially pronounced, there must still be much to be learned in the 

 more remote groups of Polynesia, such as the Paumotu, Marquesan and 

 Harvey groups, and in the smaller scattered islands. In some of these in the 

 neighborhood of Melanesia, such as Tikopia, Anudha, Bellona, and Sikaiana, 

 it is certain that the native Polynesian culture still remains in an almost 

 pure form. A thorough survey of Polynesia will yet provide material of the 

 utmost value to the ethnologist. 



While the opportunity still remains for intensive research in Polynesia, 

 little or nothing is being done. An expedition has recently gone from England 

 to investigate the archaeology of Easter Island and, as I have already men- 

 tioned, Mr. Elsdon Best is putting on record the memories of Maori culture, 

 but with these exceptions nothing is being done to save vanishing knowledge. 

 In such centers of western culture as the Hawaiian Islands and New Zealand 

 most of those who are interested in native lore and custom spend their time 

 in linguistic and other speculations rather than in endeavoring to recover 

 from the natives such evidence of past history as still remains. 



In Micronesia the conditions are more satisfactory. In some islands, 

 as in those of the Ladrones or Marianne Group, the native culture would 

 seem wholly to have disappeared, but much still persists in others, such 

 as the Caroline, Pelew, Gilbert, and Ellice Groups. Not only is there thus 

 a better field for work, but the work is being done. The large expedi- 

 tion which went to the Pacific Ocean from Hamburg a few years ago has 

 carried out a thorough investigation of the groups which form part of the 

 German possessions, viz., the Caroline, Pelew, and Marshall Islands, but 

 there still remain other islands, such as the Gilbert and Ellice Groups, about 

 which our existing knowledge is trivial, and where there is a rich harvest 

 awaiting the investigator. 



The main result of this survey has been to show that there are two parts 

 of the world outside America which present a combination of great urgency 

 and favorable conditions for work with very deficient attempts to do what 

 is needful. These two places are the southern parts of Africa and Oceania, 

 both of which contain peoples of the greatest scientific interest, whose 

 culture is on the point of extinction ; in both a large amount of work of the 

 utmost value can be done comparatively easily and economically and, with 

 the exception of the German possessions in Oceania, practically nothing is 

 now being done to meet the urgent needs presented by the rapid disappear- 

 ance of the native cultures. In other parts of the world, such as the coun- 

 tries of Asia, Australia, and northern Africa, the need is either less urgent or 

 there is a definite prospect of the accomplishment of the necessary work by 

 agencies already in operation. 



