ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH OUTSIDE AMERICA. 27 



is any relation between the two, it must be in their being vastly different 

 developments starting from similar origins, and till we know far more than at 

 present of the more backward elements of the culture of these peoples, little 

 is to be expected from a study of China and Japan in relation either to the 

 general problem of the interaction of cultures or to the more special problem 

 of the origins of American culture. 



One consideration may be suggested as justifying the study by American 

 ethnologists of cultures different from that of their own continent. The 

 proverb that "outsiders see most of the game" is nowhere truer than in 

 science. One coming to the study of a problem from some other field of 

 scientific work is very likely to find the solution of a problem which has 

 escaped those who, through long absorption in the details of their subject, fail 

 to see the conclusion to which those details lead. If this be true of science 

 in general and of a change from one science to another, it is still more true of 

 the different fields of work which form the objective of such a subject as eth- 

 nology. It would, I believe, be difficult to overestimate the advantage which 

 would accrue to the study of American ethnology by the establishment in 

 America of a body of workers devoted primarily to the study of some other 

 people. Oceanic culture, though allied to that of America, is yet so different 

 that it would furnish a field the study of which should react on that of Amer- 

 ican culture, and bring into the latter new points of view, new modes of 

 thought, and new methods of inquiry. The study of Oceania or of some 

 other external field of work must do much to stimulate and fertilize American 

 ethnology. It may perhaps in the long run turn out to I^e the ]:)cst way to 

 advance our knowledge of the processes wherebj' there came into being the 

 indigenous culture of the American continents. 



'o^ 



SUMMARY OF REPORT. 



In considering the claims of different kinds of work and the choice of a 

 region where work is needed, especial stress is laid on the factor of urgency, 

 which is taken as the chief guide throughout the report. Anthropology 

 differs from all other sciences in that its material is undergoing rapid change. 

 In many parts of the world examples of savage or barbarous cultures are so 

 near extinction that, if anything is to be saved, a special effort must be made 

 within the next few years. 



Of the two chief departments of anthropology, viz., ethnology and archse- 

 ology, it is the needs of the former which are especially urgent, while with 

 some exceptions archaeology will even gain by delay. 



The nature of research in ethnology is considered and two main vari- 

 eties distinguished, survey and intensive work. Through a large amount of 

 survey work we already possess a wide knowledge of savage and barbarous 

 cultures in their more superficial aspects, but it is only in quite recent years 

 that methods have been developed by which the deeper elements of such 



