592 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



tity of the food supply from season to season, of the amount of food 

 stored each year by the average householder, and of the quantity 

 and type of food consumed during different months of the year 

 by representative families. 



Similar questions arise in connection with the overstocking of 

 native reserves, which is one of the most pressing economic prob- 

 lems of Eastern and Southern Africa. Attempts to compel Africans 

 to reduce their stock are bound to rouse determined opposition 

 unless account is taken of the part played by cattle in the social 

 organization of the tribe, of the religious beliefs and social values 

 attaching to them, of their importance in the marriage contract 

 and of their many other connections with the whole economy of 

 native life. Only the scientific study of the interconnection of these 

 social facts will make it possible for Europeans to understand the 

 African's refusal to make what seems the obvious adjustment, and 

 will provide the knowledge on the basis of which the problem may 

 be attacked with some hope of success. 



The subject of native food and nutrition has been considered in 

 Chapter XVII. Once again, however, anthropology has an 

 important part to play in obtaining the initial information about 

 diets, and in explaining the part played by traditional economic 

 organization and social structure in the production and distribu- 

 tion of food. The same may be said of all health work throughout 

 rural Africa. 



The development of co-operative societies (Chapter XIII) is a 

 question of the first importance for the whole of Africa. Not only 

 may the establishment of such societies contribute in important 

 ways to economic development, but they may prove both a valuable 

 actor in promoting social cohesion and also a substitute for native 

 institutions which are no longer adequate to meet the changed 

 conditions of life. Trained scientific workers can probably best 

 discover how these new forms of social co-operation can be grafted 

 on to existing African institutions and how the living forces and 

 customary loyalties of native society can most effectively be de- 

 veloped and utilized for the achievement of new social purposes. 



A field in which the need for further scientific investigation has 

 become increasingly evident is the adaptation of education to the 

 conditions and needs of African life. The principle of such adapta- 



