306 GOVERNMENT OF SUBJECT PEOPLES 



changes to which society has been subject in the 

 course of its history. 



In the present state of the science it is the first 

 only of these tasks which has so far given results of 

 any practical value, and it is with the work of the 

 anthropologist in the recording and classification of 

 social facts that this essay will be mainly occupied. 



The value to the administrator of a knowledge of 

 the social conduct of the people he has to govern 

 would seem to be so obvious as to leave little to be 

 said. It is necessary to begin by pointing out 

 certain considerations which have prevented and 

 still prevent the recognition of the value of scientific 

 work in the art of government. 



It is a widespread popular idea that the chief 

 tasks of the anthropologist are the measurements of 

 heads and the collection of curious or beautiful 

 objects for museums. It is because these have been 

 his main occupation in the past and are believed by 

 so many to be his main business still that the 

 practical value of anthropology is so little recognised. 

 In recent years, however, the whole movement of 

 interest, especially in our own country, has been 

 away from the physical and material towards the 

 psychological and social aspects of the life of 

 Mankind. The main interest of the anthropologist 

 to-day and the most active growing-points of his 

 knowledge lie in the regions concerned with the 

 structure and organisation of human society, with 

 the political and economic relations of its constituent 



