SMITHSONIAN'S PART IN WORLD WAR II 469 



Dr. Steward also provided the initiative for the formation of two 

 other agencies designed to improve cultural relations among the var- 

 ious countries of the Western Hemisphere, namely, the Inter-Ameri- 

 can Society of Anthropology and Geography, and the Institute of So- 

 cial Anthropology. The first of these, founded with the assistance 

 of the Coordinator of Inter- American Affairs, was organized for the 

 purpose of bringing together the scholars of the Western Hemisphere 

 who are working on problems of the cultures, both aboriginal and 

 contemporary, of the Americas. The Society, supported entirely by 

 dues of the members, has a membership of more than 700 representing 

 nearly every country in the Hemisphere. A journal entitled "Acta 

 Americana," with articles in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, re- 

 cords the activities of the Society and the findings of the individual 

 members. 



The Institute of Social Anthropology is a joint project of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution and the State Department's Interdepartmental 

 Committee on Cooperation with the American Republics. Set up as 

 an autonomous unit of the Bureau of American Ethnology and fi- 

 nanced by the State Department, the Institute cooperates with institu- 

 tions in other American countries in training personnel to carry out 

 anthropological research through university instruction and field 

 work. One of the cooperative programs of the Institute is with the 

 Escuela Nacional de Antropologia of the Instituto Nacional de An- 

 tropologia e Historia of Mexico. This program involves teaching 

 anthropology, cultural geography, linguistics, and related subjects at 

 the Escuela and field research among the Tarascan Indians of the State 

 of Michoacan in Mexico. Another project is under way in Peru and 

 yet others are being formulated. The Institute has already issued 

 two publications bearing on its work and two others are in the hands 

 of the printer. 



Other examples of Smithsonian wartime efforts to improve cultural 

 relations with the other American republics are the doubling of its 

 exchanges of scientific and governmental publications with those 

 countries through its International Exchange Service, and the show- 

 ing of a number of special exhibitions of the work of Latin-American 

 artists by the National Collection of Fine Arts, another branch of the 

 Institution. 



It will be seen that these Inter-American projects are for the most 

 part extensions of the Institution's normal activities in research, ex- 

 ploration, and other fields. The emphasis was placed on building 

 good will with our neighbors to the south, and whenever possible the 

 work was planned on a cooperative basis so that the peoples of the two 

 continents might feel that they had an equal interest in the furtherance 

 of cultural activities. 



