CHAPTER XVIII 

 ANTHROPOLOGY 



INTRODUCTION 



THE methods of life of the African native have been found to be 

 relevant to the subject of each of the foregoing chapters, with 

 the exception of those on Surveys and Geology, and even these 

 two subjects bear on African life in the light which they throw on 

 the physical environment. Hence this study of science in the 

 African continent necessarily involves some reference to anthro- 

 pology. 



Modern anthropological studies are largely directed to an 

 analysis of those institutions, economic, political, and legal, on 

 which the everyday life of the native is based, and the changes 

 which these are undergoing in response to the various agencies of 

 European contact. The policy of Indirect Rule seeks the develop- 

 ment of native political institutions to meet the needs of modern 

 times, and it is generally recognized that the study of social 

 anthropology may assist this form of relation, between controlling 

 power and subject race, to be efficient. 



It is sometimes argued that the administrative officer, whose 

 duty it is to apply this political system, is best qualified to under- 

 take the research involved, and there are many instances of valu- 

 able studies carried out by officials. But the necessary time is sel- 

 dom at the command of the official, and, moreover, the very fact 

 that it is he who has to apply the necessary changes may bias in 

 some degree his view of the existing systems of native life. The work 

 required involves time and special technique which are seldom at 

 the disposal of the administrative official. 



Anthropology is included amongst the subjects in the training 

 course for probationers in the British colonial administrations, and 



