THE ^'^-TATIOI^'' AS AN ELEMENT IX ANTHROPOLOGY.* 



By Daniel G, Brinton. 



The subject wliicli I bring' before you is one which I have selected in 

 order to impress upon you forcil)ly the true breadth and full meaning 

 of the science toward the cuiti\ation of whicli we have assembh^d at 

 this time. 



There is no other word wliicli so thoroughly expresses the purpose of 

 this brancli of learning as that which we have adopted — Anthropology, 

 the science of man, the study of the nature of man, the search for and 

 correct expression of those laws, and all the hiws, which govern the 

 birth, growth. dev('lo])nH'nt, and decay of all his traits, powers, and 

 facvdties. 



Anthroi>ology means this, and notlung less than this. Its motto is 

 that of the character in the Terentiau drama — 



''»! me viiUiim liitmannin alioiinn puto.'' 



It embraces everything and excludes nothing which pertains to 

 humanity, whether in the individual or in his various aggregations. It 

 omits no part or function of him as unworthy of its notice; it admits 

 the existence of none so suj)erior or sacred as to be beyond the pale of 

 its investigations. The held which it goes forth to reap is the world, 

 and its harvest season covers all time since man first set foot upon it. 



It is signally unfortunate that the full connotation of the term has 

 not been <'onstantly present in the minds of those who have pursued 

 the science. We should not then have witnessed tlie cheerless spec- 

 tacle of one school of anthroi)ologists claiming that man is nothing 

 more than the highest mammal, and that the study of his anatomical 

 and physiological relations exhausts the definition of their science, and 

 that those who go beyond these are merely " historians and men of 

 letters;" or that of anotlier school, which, disregarding the incalculable 

 potency of man's physical conditions, seeks to erect the science exclu- 

 sively on Ihe basis of the products of the mental faculties, his arts, 

 institutions, religions, and languages. 



*Pre8idential address before the luteruatioual Congress of Anthropology at Chicago, 

 1893. (From proceedings of the congress, jip. 19-34.) 



589 



