42 ANTHROPOLOGY IN WESTERN HEMISPHERE AND PACIFIC ISLANDS. 



Among the large group of unsolved problems which Malaysia presents is 

 that of the so-called Indonesians. Is there an Indonesian strain in Malaysia, 

 or are the brown men there members of one stock scattered from the same 

 parent nest successively after repeated cultural developments? This is a 

 working hypothesis. 



Besides the general Malaj^an problems of origin, migration, language, 

 and material culture, there are specific problems in the Philippines of great 

 practical importance to America. It is an historical fact that no pure 

 jNIalayan people of their own initiative have attained any considerable devel- 

 opment. The most highly developed were the Mohammedans, the " Moros," 

 of the Philippines; but the germs of peaceful progress were not in them and 

 are absent to-day. Their historic turbulent restlessness was not Malayan in 

 origin, but was due to the personal genius of Mohammedan Arabs, who now, 

 as 450 years ago, easily secure and hold leadership among them. What are the 

 facts as to inherent qualities of leadership among i)ure Malayan peoples? 

 Another practical anthropological problem in the Philippines is that of 

 the relative fitness for physical and cultural development of the Filipino of 

 pure Malayan stock and the one of mixed Chinese blood. This is not an 

 academic question. It is one whose solution should assist in settling prob- 

 lems of Philippine immigration. 



Before leaving Malaysia we may briefly suggest three additional prob- 

 lems which are not specifically incorporated in the large Pacific island 

 problem, but which, since their research field is located in Malaysia, must 

 be studied there. 



Malaysia is believed by some anthropologists to be the cradle of man- 

 kind. In 1891-92 Dubois found in eastern Java certain fossil bones of an 

 animal scientifically known as Pithecanthropus erectus, or erect apeman. As 

 to the exact zoological position of this animal, anthropologists have divided 

 into three groups, each group, on account of its personnel, meriting equal 

 confidence. One group claims the animal as a true man, another regards 

 it as a gigantic anthropoid ape, and the other takes the middle ground of 

 the "missing link." The question is still open. The extensive rocks in 

 which Dubois found these fossils contain those of many animals. Digging 

 Trinil rocks for additional fossils of members of the same species as Pithe- 

 canthropus erectus is an uncertain undertaking; but presumption is in favor 

 of the belief that sufficiently extensive excavation would reward the endeavor, 

 in spite of the failure of the Selenka expedition to make such discoveries. 

 It matters not whether this creature proves to be, as so many think, the 

 earliest discovered proto-human being; the real problem is to determine 

 what its kinship with man is, and then determine at what geological age 

 such creatures lived. To the anthropologist neither time nor labor would 

 be considered wasted, if this twofold question could be conclusively solved 

 for the expectant world. 



