256 REPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1901. 



exhibits of superlative interest and value. It is true that man Is 

 properly treated along with the lower orders of creatures as one of a 

 great system of biological units, and he should therefore be included 

 in all general biological presentations in museums. But man consti- 

 tutes a unit of particular interest and importance which should be 

 presented as a whole. The first chapter in any treatise on anthro- 

 pology deals with man's physical characteristics and his relations to 

 nature. The curator teaches but half the lesson if he omits illustra- 

 tions of the physical man from his museum exhibits. The naturalist 

 could as consistently display the nests of birds in a separate depart- 

 ment from the birds themselves as could the anthropologist present 

 the phenomena of culture independently of the ptrysical man. There is 

 excellent reason, therefore, for making a special study and exhibition 

 of physical man in immediate association with culture exhibits. It is 

 necessary to bring together everything that relates to the great human 

 group. However, it is not the purpose at present to take up this 

 branch in detail, but rather to give almost exclusive attention to the 

 phenomena of culture. 



CULTURAL DIVISION. 



If the physical phenomena of man include all that connects him 

 with the brute, his culture phenomena include all that distinguishes 

 him from the brute. If we wish to realize more fully the scope of 

 the latter division of the subject, which includes the objective evi- 

 dences of culture, we have only, in imagination, to sweep away all the 

 multitude of things that it has brought into the world; destroy every 

 city, town, and dwelling, every article of furniture, picture, sculpture, 

 book, textile fabric, fictile product, every article of clothing and orna- 

 ment; every vehicle, machine, utensil, and implement, and, in fact, 

 every trace of human handiwork; set aside the use of fire and cooked 

 food; banish all language, social organization, government, religion, 

 music, literature, and intellectual life generally. When this has been 

 done we may behold the real man standing in his original nakedness 

 among his fellows of the brute world. 



Limitations of culture material. — The material •■evidences of culture 

 are thus seen to be of vast extent and importance; but it should be 

 observed that, notwithstanding this fact, all of culture can not be 

 illustrated in the museum, for in it we can utilize material things only. 

 We can not show by its collections the social, moral, religious, and 

 intellectual traits of man save in an indirect way. We can do little to 

 illustrate language save by displaying the methods of its expression 

 to the eye in pictures and letters. We can tell little of religion save 

 by assembling the idols and devices that represent its symbolism and 

 the paraphernalia which pertain to the practice of its rites. We can 

 tell nothing of music save by a display of the curious array of instru- 



