THE PROBLEMS OF SOMATOLOGY 



BY GEORGE AMOS DORSET 



[George Amos Dorsey, Curator of Anthropology; Field Columbian Museum, 

 Chicago, since 1898; and Professor of Comparative Anatomy, Northwestern 

 University Dental School, since 1898. b. Hebron, Ohio, February 6, 1868. 

 Graduate, Denison University, 1888; Harvard University, 1890; Ph.D. ibid. 

 1894. Assistant and Instructor in Anthropology, Harvard University, 1894-96; 

 traveled and conducted anthropological investigations in South America for 

 World's Columbian Exposition, 1891-92. Member of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History; American Folk-Lore Society; and various scientific and 

 learned societies. Author of numerous papers relating to anthropology and 

 anatomy.] 



WITHIN a radius of a mile of the meeting-hall of this Congress are 

 representatives of perhaps half the types of mankind. Indeed, 

 it has been the aim of this Exposition that it should be an expo- 

 sition, above all else, of mankind, and the study of mankind consti- 

 tutes the subject-matter of anthropology. We may survey the 

 collective exhibit here assembled of man and his works, from one 

 of three viewpoints: First, we may note that certain types differ 

 from us in color, character of hair, perhaps in the proportions of 

 the limbs; indeed, their whole physiognomy seems to be built on 

 a plan different from ours. This, then, is the point of view of bodily 

 structure, or of somatology. Secondly, the majority of the types 

 of mankind here represented speak a tongue foreign to our ears. 

 This is the point of view of language, or of linguistics. In the third 

 place, these types have a method of thinking, acting, and doing 

 different from ours. They wear strange garments, use strange tools, 

 live in strange habitations, in fact, their whole material life is differ- 

 ent from ours. This is the point of view of culture, or of ethnology. 

 These, then, are the great subdivisions of the study of mankind, or 

 anthropology: somatology, linguistics, ethnology. 



It should be noted that the boundaries of these three divisions 

 of anthropology, with their aims, methods, and results, are not 

 necessarily the same. Thus, continuing our survey of the types here 

 represented, we may observe that while certain groups of indi- 

 viduals speak the same language, they are not of the same physical 

 type; and again, we may observe that, though certain groups of 

 these peoples are practically in the same state of culture, they dif- 

 fer widely, both in physical type and in language. In other words, 

 although the study of mankind may be approached from three 

 distinct points of view, the aims, methods, and results of any one 

 will be generally distinct from those of the other two. Hence, 

 should we attempt to classify the people here represented, which 

 for present purposes may be regarded as representative of mankind, 



