ETHNOLOGY: ITS SCOPE AND PROBLEMS 561 



certain ethnologists as the main divisions of their science, and to 

 indicate some of the lines that require investigation. 



Esthetology embraces the study of the activities of mankind con- 

 nected with more or less spontaneous sensations of pleasurable 

 character. It has been said that among primitive peoples these 

 activities appeal chiefly to the senses, and among the more advanced 

 peoples they appeal largely to the emotions and to the purely intel- 

 lectual faculties. 



Of late years considerable attention has been paid to the subject 

 of decorative art, and there are few subjects studied by ethnologists 

 which have such a wide range of interest as has this. It is being 

 abundantly proved that, speaking generally, the majority of designs 

 and patterns have a definite significance, and thus they are not 

 merely pleasing and meaningless dispositions of form, or color, as 

 so often are those of modern decorative artists. There is only one 

 possible method of discovering the real meaning of any particular 

 design, and that is by inquiry in the field, and even then it is not 

 always possible to get all the information that is desired, for, as 

 has been shown by von den Steinen, 1 Kroeber, 2 Boas, 3 and others, 

 the same simple design may have different meanings, and often it 

 is the original designer alone who knows precisely what was the idea 

 that a particular decoration was intended to record; at all events, 

 this is the case with the Plains Indians. How mistaken, therefore, 

 is it for students to rely solety upon museum material, as still is too 

 much done! 



What do we really know about the music of most of the backward 

 peoples? 



The amusements of peoples deserve more careful study, but this 

 is becoming increasingly difficult, owing to the recent rapid diffusion 

 of alien culture among native races. A comparative study of games 

 is being made by Culin, based mainly upon the collection in the 

 Free Museum of Science and Art in Philadelphia; but here also 

 much work must be done in the field before trustworthy results can 

 be obtained. 



in the Introduction to the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology, 1894-95 (1897), when the term " sophiology " was introduced (p. 

 xviii). They were amplified by W J McGee in an address on "The Science of 

 Humanity" delivered before Section H of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, Detroit, August 9, 1897 (cf. American Anthropologist, 

 1897, p. 241; Science, Sept. 17, 1897, p. 413, and Annual Report, American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, vol. LXVI, p. 293; also cf. American 

 Anthropologist (N. S.) i, 1899, p. 401). Major Powell elaborated his ideas in 

 a series of essays published in the American Anthropologist (N. S.) i, 1899, pp. 1, 

 319,475; n, p. 603; m, p. 51. 



1 K. von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvolkern Zcntral-Brasiliens, 1894, pp. 258- 

 270. 



2 A. L. Kroeber, American Anthropologist, 1901, in, p. 308; Bulletin, Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural Historv, 1900, xm, p. 69; 1902, xvm, p. 1. 



3 F. Boas, Popular Science Monthly, Oct., 1903; Supplement to Am. Museum 

 Journal, iv, no. 3 (Guide Leaflet to Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. no. 15). 



