480 ANTHROPOLOGY 



whole range of problems of a science appears simple and easily 

 explicable have always preceded the periods of steady empirical 

 work which makes necessary a complete revision of the original 

 theories, and leads through a period of uncertainty to a more strictly 

 inductive attack of the ultimate problems. So it is with anthropo- 

 logy. Later than the older sciences, it has outgrown the system- 

 atizing period, and is just now entering upon the empirical revision 

 of its theories. 



Our sketch of the history of the prevailing tendencies in anthro- 

 pology would be incomplete without a few remarks on the men 

 who have made it what it is. What has been said before shows 

 clearly that there is hardly a science that is as varied in its methods 

 as anthropology. Its problems have been approached by biologists, 

 linguists, geographers, psychologists, historians, and philosophers. 

 Up to ten years ago we had no trained anthropologists, but students 

 drifted into anthropological research from all the sciences that I have 

 mentioned here, and perhaps from others. With many it was the 

 interest aroused by a special problem, not theoretical considera- 

 tions, that decided their course. Others were attracted by a general 

 interest in the evolution of mankind. The best among them were 

 gradually permeated by the fundamental spirit of anthropological 

 research, which consists in the appreciation of the necessity of 

 studying all forms of human culture, because the variety of its 

 forms alone can throw light upon the history of its development, 

 past and future, and which deigns even the poorest tribe, the degraded 

 criminal, and the physical degenerate, worthy of attentive study, 

 because the expressions of his mental life, no less than his physical 

 appearance, may throw light upon the history of mankind. 



Even now the multifarious origin of anthropology is reflected in 

 the multiplicity of its methods. The historian or the political econo- 

 mist who comes in contact with anthropological problems cannot 

 follow the methods of the biologist and of the linguist. Neither can 

 the anthropologist of our period fill the demands for information of 

 all those who may need anthropological data. It might almost 

 seem that the versatility required of him will set a limit to his use- 

 fulness as a thorough scientist. However, the solution of this diffi- 

 culty is not far off. We have seen that a great portion of the domain 

 of anthropology has developed through the application of the new 

 historical point of view to the mental sciences. To those who occupy 

 themselves with this group of problems, anthropological knowledge 

 will be indispensable. Though the anthropological point of view 

 may thus pervade the treatment of an older branch of science, and 

 help to develop new standpoints, the assistance that anthropology 

 renders it does not destroy the independence of the older science, 

 which in a long history has developed its own aims and methods. 



