ANTHROPOLOGY. 



By Otis T. Mason. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The summary of progress in Anthropology for 1884 will contain the 

 titles of many illustrious works in every department of the science. 



The programme of anthropology has been admirably sketched by 

 Professor Flower in his anniversary address before the Anthropological 

 Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 



'' One of the great difficulties with regard to making anthropology a 

 special subject of study and devoting a special organization to its pro- 

 motion, is the multifarious nature of the branches of knowledge com- 

 prehended under the title. Anthropology, as now understood, treats 

 of mankind as a whole. It investigates his origin and his relations to 

 the rest of the universe. It involves the aid of the science of zoology, 

 comparative anatomy, and physiology ; and the wider the range of 

 knowledge met with in other regions of natural structure, and the more 

 abundant the terms of comparison known, the less risk there will be of 

 error in attempting to estimate the distinctions and resemblances be- 

 tween man and his nearest allies, and fixing his place in the zoological 

 scale. Here we are drawn into contact with an immense domain of 

 knowledge, including a study of all the laws which modify the condi- 

 tions under which organic bodies are manifested. Furthermore, it is 

 not only with man's bodily structure and its relation to that of the lower 

 animals that we have to deal : the moral and intellectual side of his 

 nature finds its rudiments in them also, and the difficult study of com- 

 parative psychology is an important factor in any complete system of 

 anthropology. 



" The study of ' prehistoric archaeology,' as it is commonly called, in- 

 vestigates the origin of all human culture, endeavoring to trace to their 

 common beginning the streams of all our arts, customs, and history, 

 knowledge of the origin and development of particular existing cus- 

 toms, throws immense light upon their real nature and importance, and, 

 conversely, it is often only from a profound acquaintance with the 

 present, or comparatively modern, manifestations of culture that we 

 are able to interpret the slight indications afforded us by the scanty 

 remains of primitive civilization. Even the more limited subject of 

 ethnology must be approached from many sides, and requires for its 



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