JOURNAL 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. io August 19, 1920 No. 14 



ETHNOLOGY. — International and interclass misunderstandings. 

 John R. Swanton, Bureau of American Ethnology.^ 



Both individually and in the mass man tends to see in the 

 world about him, animate and inanimate, what he feels within 

 himself. If "God made man in His own image," it is equally 

 true that man has ever since insisted in making over God into 

 his. Not only so but, until the most recent times — and even 

 now more than we are willing to admit — man has made over 

 nature. In scientific terminology he has "anthropomorphized" 

 it. The student of primitive mythology is familiar with this 

 process, and the student of the child knows how natural it is 

 to an immature mind. But while those of us who esteem our- 

 selves "civilized" no longer see human personalities in the animals, 

 plants, and natural phenomena, and refrain from worrying our- 

 selves about hatreds or friendships on their part which are 

 nothing more than reflections of our own psychological processes, 

 we are far from having conquered the same tendency as it is 

 applied to our fellow man. Of course our fellow man does 

 have mental processes similar to ours, and it is therefore possible 

 for us to interpret them to our mutual advantage. We do this 

 daily. What I have reference to is the tendency that each 

 evinces to interpret the thoughts and actions of another, not 

 in terms of human mental processes in the broad sense, but in 

 terms of his own individual processes. We are familiar in daily 

 life with the man who suspects everyone of insincerity or dis- 

 honesty because he is insincere or dishonest himself, and to a 

 somewhat less degree with the man who is easily cheated because 



' Received June 14, 1920. 



405 



