28 ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH OUTSIDE AMERICA. 



cultures can be studied exactly and intensively. It is this exact and inten- 

 sive study of which there is such urgent need at the present moment. 



If intensive work be recognized as the immediate need of anthropology, 

 this has a definite bearing on the choice of a field of work. There are still 

 parts of the world where savage peoples are so untouched by external in- 

 fluence that intensive study is not yet possible, and these places should be 

 left for the future. In other places human culture is in a condition most 

 favorable for intensive work, so that a large mass of information of the greatest 

 value can be readily obtained. Such places would no doubt give the largest 

 returns for a given expenditure, but it is necessary to weigh their claims 

 against those of other places where there is less to be learned, but where the 

 imminent disappearance of their culture introduces the factor of urgency. 



The nature of the agencies by which work is now being done is then con- 

 sidered. It is shown that the official and the missionary who might seem, 

 through their knowledge of the people and their language, to be best fitted for 

 intensive work are nevertheless subject to grave disadvantages for such work, 

 even if they have the necessary time and training. Attention is drawn to the 

 obstacles which arise if undue prominence be given to phj^sical measure- 

 ments or to collecting for museums. What is needed is work in which trained 

 investigators can give their whole attention to etlmological work, untram- 

 melled by official or other duties, in which different lines of research shall 

 be coordinated in such a way that no one of them shaU interfere with the 

 general efficiency of the undertaking. 



The different regions of the earth outside America are then surveyed 

 with respect to the urgency of their needs and the agencies by which these 

 needs are now being met. It is show^n that the amount of attention given 

 to ethnological research in different parts of the world stands in a definite 

 relation to their distance from centers of western civilization, and that 

 two regions, southern Africa and Oceania, combine an extreme degree of the 

 urgency of their needs with very inadequate attempts to meet those needs. 

 Of these regions it is suggested that Oceania should have the preference. It 

 includes places where interesting and important examples of human culture 

 are on the verge of extinction and other places which are in a condition espe- 

 cially suited for intensive work, so that a large mass of valuable material can 

 be obtained with relative ease. Through its insular character Oceania pre- 

 sents conditions of especial importance in the study of certain theoretical 

 problems, and it has a special interest in that its culture stands in close rela- 

 tion to that of the American continents. It is suggested that the study of a 

 region allied in culture to that of America may react on the study of American 

 ethnology and may prove the best means of reaching positive conclusions 

 concerning the exact nature of the indigenous culture of America. 



August 4, 1913. 



