386 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1958 
or often by transfusion. Much has been lost, much may be misunder- 
stood, but the main trends are clear and growing more so every year. 
It is not enough, however, to know the record. We need to know 
its meaning as well. Until very recently history told us much about 
man, little about environment and practically nothing about their 
interrelation. In other words, moral history was a thing completely 
apart from natural history. This, let us add, could scarcely be helped, 
for our discovery of the method of discovery, that is science, is some- 
thing quite new, old though its roots may be. 
What can and must be helped, however, is any further continuance 
of a bad situation. Now that we stand committed to universal educa- 
tion and the political responsibility of the individual we must close 
the gap between the humanities and the sciences. We must rewrite 
history and restudy human values with an eye to man’s long evolu- 
tionary background and his growing role as a natural force. What en- 
vironment does to him and what he in turn does to it are of far more 
significance than the loves of monarchs and the quirks of generals. 
Conquests and migrations, campaigns and battles, creative arts and 
religious philosophies all take on a fuller meaning in the context of 
ecology. 
Environment and life are inseparable, as Darwin showed them to be. 
MAN THE DOMINANT 
A Tenant Becomes LANDLORD 
Our discussion up to this point might be summarized by saying that 
man has enjoyed the benefits of a highly developed and organized 
environment. As for the environment itself, it can be described as 
a whole that is more than the sum of its parts, thanks to its organiza- 
tion. The same thing is true of the human being, whose peculiar 
bodily characters do not increase his power by simple addition as each 
layer of boards increases the height of a pile of lumber. Instead his 
facility of manipulation, vision, speech, and thought resulting finally 
in culture, increase his basic animal powers in a manner truly ex- 
ponential. 
For an analogy we need only think of a company of say 100 men. 
Add another individual and if he be vested with authority and en- 
dowed with certain qualities of character and personality you will 
have not 101 percent of what you had before, but perhaps 500 or 
even 1,000 percent. 
Precisely such an instance occurred when hunting was replaced 
by an efficient agriculture. There were, of course, many degrees of 
effectiveness in various cultures as there still are. The most notable 
perfection was, curiously enough, where difficulties had to be over- 
come, particularly where the control of moisture conditions was in- 
