366 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



this and previous eras lie in the abundance of all sorts of data and the 

 kind of theoretical approach made possible by advances in biolog} r 

 and related sciences. 



The primary aims of recent classifications are the same as those of 

 the earlier ones. The first is to describe various people of the world in 

 superficial terms. The purpose of this sort of description is to destroy 

 intellectual isolationism. One wonders how many of our soldiers in 

 the Far East had any idea of Polynesians, Melanesians, or aboriginal 

 Australians before they went there. Some of these people seem very 

 different and queer when one meets them for the first time. The best 

 way to keep one's perspective is to have a good idea of the different 

 races before being plunged into the midst of a foreign people. 



Granted that it is desirable for citizens in a democracy with commit- 

 ments all over the world to have some idea about the physical characters 

 of the peoples of the world, how is this end to be accomplished ? It is 

 impossible to consider each of the 2 billion persons in the world. 

 Therefore some system of sampling is necessary. It happens that 

 mankind does divide into great groups, so that a relatively small num- 

 ber of individuals may substitute for the entire group. One Bushman 

 looks more like the next Bushman than either looks like a European or 

 a Mongolian. There is a great variation in each group. Races inter- 

 grade and mix. Nevertheless, at present there is no other practical 

 method of obtaining some superficial acquaintance with what mankind 

 is like from a physical point of view. The racial classification is a 

 simple sampling system which allows a student to become familiar with 

 the superficial physical characters of 2 billion people in a remark- 

 ably short period of time. 



Existing races are the products of evolution, and a second aim of 

 classification is to determine the relations of various races to fossil men 

 and ultimately to other primates. The methods necessary for this 

 purpose are very different from those which were adequate for the first. 

 An understanding of comparative human anatomy is essential. Since 

 fossils consist of bones and teeth only, knowledge of these parts is 

 particularly important. Studies of the different proportions of the 

 body are best carried out according to biometric methods. Genetics, 

 particularly of the blood groups, is playing a larger and larger part in 

 studies of the living. 



The utility of the classification which has resulted from intensive 

 anatomical and metrical studies is very great, and only a few examples 

 can be cited here. It has made possible the determination of man's 

 place in nature with an ever-increasing accuracy. It has served as an 

 aid in historical reconstructions, as in determining the way in which 

 the New World and Oceania were populated. It is of constant use in 

 the anatomical laboratory where subjects of different races are dis- 



