ETHNOLOGY: ITS SCOPE AND PROBLEMS 



BY ALFRED CORT HADDON 



[Alfred Cort Haddon, M.A., Sc.D., F.R.S.; University Lecturer in Ethnology, Cam- 

 bridge, since 1900 ; Senior Fellow, Christ's College, b. London, May 24, 1855. 

 Professor of Zoology, Royal College of Science, Dublin, 1880-1901 ; made 

 zoological and ethnological investigations in Torres Straits, 1888-89 ; organized 

 and conducted the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, 

 New Guinea, and Sarawak, 1898-99. Author of Introduction to Embryology 

 (1887); The Decorative Art of British New Guinea (1894); Evolution in Art 

 (1895); The Study of Man (1898); Head-Hunters: Black, White, and Brown 

 (1901); and numerous papers and memoirs on zoological and anthropological 

 subjects.] 



PERHAPS there are few branches of knowledge in which it is so 

 difficult to define its subject-matter as is the case with anthropo- 

 logy. The comparative newness of the study and the lack of uni- 

 formity in terminology among those who prosecute it are perhaps 

 mainly responsible for this indefiniteness; further, the inherent 

 complexity of the phenomena that are studied has to be taken into 

 account. Precision of nomenclature is more difficult in the biolog- 

 ical field than in inorganic nature, and the more complex the life the 

 harder the task becomes. Thus it transpires that we who study the 

 actions and thoughts of various races of men and their social group- 

 ings are sometimes at a loss to know how to name our studies with 

 precision or to define their limits. I have had the honor of being 

 invited to address this Congress on Ethnology, but as no information 

 was given as to what the organizers of the Congress understood by 

 that term, I feel it incumbent upon me to state as briefly as may be 

 what I believe ethnology to be. 



Anthropology, which is the Science of Man, clearly falls into two 

 main divisions, the one which deals with the natural man (avOpuiros 

 or homo), the other which is concerned with man in relation to his 

 fellows, or, in other words, with the social man (Wvos or socins). 



The first group of anthropological studies includes such subjects 

 as the comparative anatomy (somatology), physiology, psychology, 

 development, paleontology, classification, and the distribution of 

 the varieties of man. It was proposed by Dr. Brinton to include 

 all these and other subjects under the term "somatology," and this 

 classification has been adopted by the organizers of this Congress; 

 but it appears to many British anthropologists that "anthropo- 

 graphy "is a preferable name, the older term " physical anthropology" 

 being somewhat cumbersome, and the restriction of the word "an- 

 thropology" to this group, as is so frequently done on the Continent 

 of Europe, leaves no distinctive name for the whole subject. Sys- 

 tematic, or taxonomic, anthropography, that is, the classification of 



