26 ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH OUTSIDE AMERICA, 



former home. It is in such httle islands as the Reef Islands, Tikopia, Anudha, 

 Bellona, Sikaiana, and Ongtong Java that we may expect to find the purest 

 traces of such Polynesian and pre-Polynesian influences as seem to be the 

 most probable sources of any stimuli from without which may have reached 

 the American continents. 



From the point of view now under consideration the interest of the islands 

 of the Malay Archipelago lies in the fact that they form a region through 

 which the ancestors of the Polynesians passed on their way eastward. 

 In some islands of Malaysia, such as Mentawei, Engano, and Nias — and 

 probably also in the interior of the larger islands — there still remain cultures 

 which seem to be closely related to that of the founders of Polynesian culture, 

 and an investigation of these places will be an indispensable preliminary to 

 any complete understanding of influences which may have reached America 

 from the west. There are, however, two reasons which make the matter 

 somewhat less important and urgent than the study of Polynesia and Mela- 

 nesia. One is that the earlier culture of the Malay Archipelago has been 

 overlain by relatively recent Chinese, Mahommedan, and Hindu influence, 

 so that we are here confronted with the difficult task of analyzing out these 

 elements of the culture, and abstracting them from the existing cultures, 

 before we are able to place ourselves in a position to study the earlier 

 cultures related to those of America. Secondly', there is reason to believe that 

 the need for investigation is less urgent here than in the case of Melanesia 

 and certainly far less so than in the case of Polynesia. Nevertheless, it is 

 to be hoped that the ethnographical investigation of this vastly important 

 region wiU not be long delayed, for it probably contains the clue to many 

 now mysterious features of man's history. 



There remain the peojDles of eastern Asia, the most important of which, 

 from their possible relation to American culture, are probably those of the 

 southern and northern corners. The southeastern corner of Asia and the 

 regions bordering on the southern parts of China have probably been the seat 

 of very important developments of the cultures of the peoples Avho populated 

 the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and it is to be hoped that these regions will 

 sooner or later receive attention at the hands of ethnologists. There do 

 not appear, however, to be such changes in progress in these regions as give 

 any special urgency to the need for investigation. It is probably only when 

 we have succeeded in formulating problems more exactly that exploration of 

 these regions will be undertaken most profitabl3^ 



The relation of the northeastern corner of Asia to American culture is 

 clear, but this relation is already fuUy recognized, and the work of the Jesup 

 Expedition has been especially devoted to the problems so suggested. Till 

 the accounts of the work of this expedition are complete, it seems hardly 

 needful to consider how it may be supplemented by further work. 



The relation of the civilization of China and Japan to American culture 

 does not seem a profitable subject at the present moment. In so far as there 



