464 ANTHROPOLOGY 



a growth no less natural than that of tree or shrub, originating 

 within, conditioned by external environment, and not derived 

 from any extraneous source. Thus the generalization in 1900 of a 

 quarter-century's observations on mankind brought empirical know- 

 ledge to the theoretical plane so masterfully projected by Bacon 

 three centuries before for he it was who first grasped the great 

 concept that mind is at once product and mirror of other nature. 



Is the Baconian foundation for all science sound; is the most 

 sweeping generalization of anthropology safe? This problem 

 for the two questions are but one is the most important pre- 

 sented by the science of man, indeed, by all science; for it threads 

 the whole web of human knowledge, touches every human thought, 

 tinctures every human hope, tinges every human motive. True, 

 it is too large for easy apprehension, too round for ready grasp; 

 but it spans the world's intellectual structure from corner-stone 

 to dome, and must sooner or later be wrought out personally (as 

 are all problems in the end) by every rational being. 



Problems of Distribution 



Anthropology arose in Britain as a branch of biology fertilized by 

 the doctrine of organic evolution; it grew up in a field of thought 

 dominated by a tradition of human descent from a single pair and 

 shaped by the habit of tracing nearer ancestry to the worthier 

 sires in otherwise neglected lineage, and the coincidence of the 

 doctrine of differentiation with revered tradition and honorable 

 regard for honored sires led naturally to an assumption of mono- 

 genesis. The assumption spread and pervaded the writings and 

 teachings of anthropologists trained in the biologic school; it still 

 prevails, and is still supported by the argument from biology, 

 though Keane and others have balked at the corollary that wavy- 

 haired White, kinky-haired Black, straight-haired Red, and va- 

 riable-haired Brown nestled in the same womb and sucked at the 

 same breast. It is needful to note that the assumption, albeit per- 

 fectly "natural," is purely gratuitous, and that it is not sustained 

 by a single fact in anthropology as a science of observed and ob- 

 servable actualities: the Blacks are not growing blacker,. the Reds 

 are not blushing redder, no new races are arising, no old types are 

 increasing in diversity; Graham Bell's note of warning against 

 the danger of a deaf race advertised a solitary definite suggestion 

 of the formation of a new human type, though even this seems to 

 weaken with the lapse of time; indeed, it cannot be two strongly 

 emphasized that, howsoever besetting and enticing the hypothesis 

 of differentiation or diversification of Homo sapiens may be, it is 

 absolutely without direct observational basis. 



