ETHNOLOGY: ITS SCOPE AND PROBLEMS 557 



The foresters and the miners, as such, have played only a pass- 

 ive part in the history of Europe. 



Speaking broadly, we may say that human societies are molded 

 by physical environment, conditioned by biologic environment, and 

 stimulated by ethnic environment. 



As human societies become more complicated, their interrela- 

 tions grow more complex; but in one form or another the struggle 

 of classes continues. For the elucidation of the earlier phases of 

 these and similar social or historical occurrences recourse must 

 be had to the ethnologist, for it is his province to record the social 

 constitution and the social kinetics of existing backward peoples, 

 and it is only by these comparative studies that light can be thrown 

 upon the past history of nations. 



Have we, however, a right to restore the past by an appeal to 

 the present? The labors of such students as Andree, Bastian, 

 Durkheim, Frazer, Gerland, Hartland, Post, Ratzel, Robertson 

 Smith, Steinmetz, Tylor, and others have, in the words of Dr. 

 Brinton, proved there is something universal in humanity. "Its 

 demonstration is the last and greatest conquest of ethnology, and 

 it is so complete as to be bewildering. It has been brought about 

 by the careful study of what are called 'ethnographical parallels.'" * 

 Dr. Post does not hesitate to say: "Such results leave no room for 

 doubt that the psychical faculties of the individual, as soon as 

 they reach outward expression, fall under the control of natural 

 laws as fixed as those of inorganic nature. " 2 " As the endless variety 

 of arts and events in the culture-history of different tribes in dif- 

 ferent places, or of the same tribe at different epochs, illustrates the 

 variables in anthropologic science, so," continues Dr. Brinton, "these 

 independent parallelisms prove beyond cavil the ever-present con- 

 stant in the problem, to wit, the one and unvarying psychical 

 nature of man, guided by the same reason, swept by the same storms 

 of passion and emotion, directed by the same will towards the 

 same goals, availing itself of the same means when they are within 

 reach, finding its pleasure in the same actions, lulling its fears with 

 the same sedatives. " l 



On the other hand, absolutely necessary and invaluable as is 

 the comparative method, it should not be abused. Things which 

 are apparently similar need not necessarily be the same, for, as 

 the biologists have long taught, analogy and homology are two 

 very different things. Thus it is conceivable that two customs or 

 simple ceremonies may resemble one another so closely as to ap- 

 pear quite similar, but, however convergent their outward forms 



1 D. G. Brinton, "The Aims of Anthropology," Proceedings, American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, 1895, XLIV. 



2 A. H. Post, " Ethnologische Gedanken," Globus, LIX, no. 19. 



