ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH OUTSIDE AMERICA. 7 



cially interested in some special subject, such as religion, language, or the 

 useful arts, and does not attempt to study the culture of the people as a 

 whole. His object is to gain knowledge of a number of peoples and of a 

 variety of cultures, and in so doing he is obhged to be content lai'gely with 

 superficial information. The essence of intensive work, on the other hand, 

 is limitation in extent combined with intensity and thoroughness. A typical 

 piece of intensive work is one in which the worker lives for a year or more 

 among a community of perhaps four or five hundred people and studies every 

 detail of their life and culture; in which he comes to know every member of 

 the community personally; in which he is not content with generalized infor- 

 mation, but studies every feature of life and custom in concrete detail and by 

 means of the vernacular language. It is only by such work that one can realize 

 the immense extent of the knowledge which is now awaiting the inquirer, 

 even in places where the culture has already suffered much change. It is 

 only by such work that it is possible to discover the incomplete and even 

 misleading character of much of the vast mass of survey work which forms 

 the existing material of anthropology. 



I have presented this rough sketch of the two main varieties of anthropo- 

 logical work at this stage of my report because, if the distinction be accepted 

 and the need for intensive work recognized as the more important, it will 

 follow that the state of flux which characterizes the material of the science 

 is of great importance. Such intensive work as I have considered is not pos- 

 sible among a people who are as yet wholly untouched by western influence. 

 A friendly reception and peaceful surroundings are essential to such work. 

 It is only a people already subject in some measure to the mollifying influ- 

 ences of the oflficial and the missionary who will not fear, or be offended by, 

 inquiry into their customs. 



Probably the most favorable moment for ethnographical work is from 

 ten to thirty years after a people has been brought under the influence of 

 official and missionary. Such a time is sufficient to make intensive work 

 possible, but not long enough to have allowed any serious impairment of the 

 native culture and, even if it has been changed, full and trustworthy infor- 

 mation about the past can still be obtained from those who have participated 

 in the rites and practices which have disappeared or suffered change. 



If one were guided solely by the desire to obtain the most complete and 

 ample records of human culture and to acquire the maximum amount of 

 information in the shortest time, it would be best to seek out such places as 

 I have indicated. There are, however, other considerations which must be 

 taken into account. The rapidity with which culture changes varies greatly 

 in different places, not only according to the extent of the external influence, 

 but also with the susceptibility of the people to change. In many of the 

 places which would provide the most profitable fields of work change is pro- 

 gressing so slowly that such a period as ten years will probably produce no 

 very decided loss. We know, however, that ten years will see, not merely 



