VI. THE ARRANGEMENT OF EXHIBITS IN THE HALLS 

 OF ANTHROPOLOGY 



By Clark Wi.sshr 



IT is fitting that a natural history museum should show something as to 

 the natural history of man and in accordance the anthropological halls 

 of the Museum exhibit samples of handiwork illustrating, as we say, 

 the cultures of the less civilized races. We fear however that few who 

 visit our halls really understand the principle upon which the specimens are 

 arranged. If you ask one what any of our biological halls represents the 

 answer is as instantaneous as a reflex — evolution. If you ask a biologist 

 what an anthropological hall should indicate you receive the same answer — 

 the evolution of man and his culture. Yet, if you ask the anthropologist 

 he is somewhat at a loss for a definite term or phrase to express the idea, for 

 while the whole biological world is almost unanimous that evolution is for 

 it the one working hypothesis, the anthropologists of Europe and America 

 are by no means agreed except in that the origin and historical de\elop!nent 

 of culture is the fundamental problem. Animal life is the biologist's prob- 

 lem until that life takes the shape of man whence the classification becomes 

 the anthroj)ologist's problem. Since with the exception of a few very 

 ancient skeletons howexer, all men seem to constitute a single biological 

 species and cannot readily l)e arranged in a series of descent according to 

 ancestry, the chief interest of anthropologists has been in habits and customs, 

 or culture. While most museum anthropologists will agree that exhibits 

 should be so ordered as to show the origin and historical development of 

 culture, they are confronted with no generally accepted theory of develop- 

 ment according to which museum material could be arranged. Hence they 

 all fall back upon a geographical scheme of classification. 



As our halls now stand we have on the ground floor five of the great 

 culture areas of the American Indians — the Eskimo, the North Pacific Coast, 

 the Eastern Woodland, the Great Plains and the Southwest. On other 

 floors are halls for Asia, Africa, the South Seas and South America. The 

 ancient races are represented in the ^Mexican and general archaeological 

 halls. Such an arrangement has this virtue, it presents man in approxi- 

 mately the time and place relation he really occupied at the date of observa- 

 tion. 



Many of our visitors, especially teachers of cliildren, are interested in 

 the de\elopmental sequences, such as methods of fire-making, iiouse con- 

 struction, and stone and metal work. On all such points illustrati\e material 

 will readily be found in the various collections. If one is interested in 

 houses, many types will be found in the exliibits for the difl'erent geographical 

 areas. If one wishes to formulate a theory as to how the various types 



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