SECRETARY'S REPORT 21 



field. He especially studied collections from South West Africa and 

 Angola, a region he expects to visit in 1960. 



Late in December Dr. Gibson attended the annual meeting of the 

 American Anthropological Association in Mexico City and presented 

 a paper to the session on African ethnology on "Levels of Residence 

 among the Herero." Subsequently, with several other delegates, he 

 went to Palenque in Chiapas Province, an area of great interest 

 anthropologically. The visitors examined the famous pyramid con- 

 taining a tomb which is said to destroy the distinction formerly 

 drawn between Egyptian and American pyramids. Until the dis- 

 covery of this tomb, it had been stated that American pyramids were 

 never tombs, but only the bases for religious structures. Dr. Gibson 

 also examined anthropological collections in Mexico City. 



In preparing for his forthcoming field trip Dr. Gibson visited New 

 York and Cambridge, Mass., in March to investigate sources of field 

 equipment. In Cambridge he consulted with Laurence Marshall, 

 director of several expeditions in southern Angola and South West 

 iVfrica, about problems of field maintenance and motion-picture work 

 in those areas. 



Dr. Eugene I. Knez, associate curator of ethnology, attended the 

 annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies in New York 

 City, April 10-12. The scientific papers dealt with the people and 

 cultures of southern, southeastern, and eastern Asia. In Cleveland, 

 following this meeting. Dr. Ivnez examined the pipe collection of 

 Dr. Leo Stoor and visited staff members of the Cleveland Museum 

 of Natural History to discuss possible exchange of ethnological 

 material. 



Early in December, Dr. T. Dale Stewart, curator of physical an- 

 thropology, visited Guatemala to confer with staff members and 

 advisers of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama. 

 The problem involved was the planning of a 5-year program directed 

 toward the investigation of atherosclerosis in Latin America popu- 

 lations. Dr. Stewart participated as a consultant in matters of race. 



On December 26 Dr. Stewart went to Mexico City primarily to 

 attend the meetings of the American Anthropological Association, 

 where he delivered two papers — "The Evidence of Phj'sical Anthro- 

 pology Bearing on the Peopling of the New World" and "The Chi- 

 nook Sign of Freedom: a Unique Record of Cranial Defonnity." 

 With other anthropologists he joined a tour to the Mayan ruin of 

 Palenque, a ruin which makes it easier for an anthropologist to com- 

 prehend the problems surrounding the rise and fall of the Mayan 

 civilization. He also visited Lake Patzcuaro in western Mexico, where 

 he was able to observe living Tarascan Indians, a group which has 

 figured prominently of late in the literature of physical anthropology. 



