304 GOVERNMENT OF SUBJECT PEOPLES 



position of anthropology is very different in the 

 case of the third policy. Whatever be the degree 

 of interference with indigenous customs involved in 

 this policy, knowledge of the culture to be modified 

 is absolutely necessary if changes are to be made 

 without serious injury to the moral and material 

 welfare of the people. Before we can decide in any 

 satisfactory manner whether a custom or institution 

 is contrary to our standards of morality and justice, 

 we must understand its nature as exactly as possible. 

 Certain customs such as cannibalism, infanticide, 

 head-hunting and the immolation of widows are 

 so clearly contrary to generally accepted standards 

 of morality that they have been prohibited wherever 

 Britain rules; but usually it is only these more 

 flagrant examples of conflict with our own standards 

 which have been prohibited, while other customs and 

 institutions, containing elements equally contrary 

 to these standards, have been left alone because the 

 evil has not lain on the surface, and has remained 

 unknown to, and even unsuspected by, the rulers. 

 Far more important, however, than this per- 

 sistence of cruel or immoral practices is the serious 

 modification, and even destruction, of native custom 

 and institution which constantly take place owing 

 to ignorance on the part of rulers. The customs 

 thus changed or destroyed are often highly salutary, 

 and may rest on a morality as high as our own, and 

 yet the rulers may themselves have taken the 

 leading part in the work of destruction by decisions 



