September 22, 1923] 



NATURE 



441 



in history before gold coinage was invented, although 



the metal was being used as tribute. Gold was the 



first metal used by man, and it was the arbitrary value 



iittached to it for its supposed magical properties as an 



pelixir of life that initiated the world-wide search for it 



which has now lasted for sixty centuries, although the 



motive for the search — in other words, the reason for 



attaching so peculiar a value to the soft yellow metal — 



has changed. The search for gold has been the most 



potent influence in the development and the spread 



of civilisation. From the pictures in the tomb of 



Tutankhamen's viceroy Huy, we learn that the gold 



was obtained from Nubia and the Soudan, and we are 



also shown the peculiar types of ships which brought 



this tribute down the Nile. The demonstration of 



the effects of such exploitation upon the Soudan 



has recently been revealed by the investigations of 



Prof. Reisner, which have provided us with an object 



lesson in the process of cultural diffusion such as has 



been happening in every part of the world since then. 



In modern times we have seen it in the Transvaal, in 



Australia, and in California— the settlement of relat- 



ivelv small bands of miners to get gold and incidentally 



to plant in hitherto waste places of the earth certain 



of the elements, good and bad, of our civilisation. In 



the Soudan thirty-five centuries ago the Egyptians 



were doing what our own people are now doing in the 



|Transvaal. A relatively small band of people of 



f higher culture were making use of the local population 



f to exploit the gold to which the latter had previously 



'[attached no value. As the result of the settlement of 



•cultured immigrants in their midst certain of their 



I customs and beliefs were adopted by the indigenous 



.inhabitants and blended with their own customs. In 



a report upon Prof. Reisner's work in the Soudan which 



\ submitted to the British Association in 1915 (Report, 



p. 189) the facts relating to this racial and cultural 



i mixture were summarised. 



The geographical distribution of arch3eological re- 

 fmains and the features of the culture reveal to every 

 ^one who is willing to read the plain story told by 

 : these facts, first emphasised by Mr. W. J. Perry, that 

 the same process has been going on ever since the 

 ^ first civilisation was invented, and that it has been the 

 r chief motive for the diffusion of culture throughout 

 ■the world. Whether one examines the distribution 

 of the earliest monuments in Southern India, or the 

 ■ settlements mentioned in the Rig Veda in the North- 

 West, the distribution of ancient settlements in Persia, 

 Siberia, the Caucasus and Asia Minor, or further afield 

 from the ancient East in Europe and the British Isles, 

 in Africa to the Niger and Zimbabwe, in the lands of 

 gold in Malaysia and Eastern Asia, and further still in 

 America, we can read the same story, the same motive 

 and the same result of the exploitation of the local 

 natural resources by the native population under the 

 direction of relatively small bands of alien immigrants. 

 Many other materials to which a magical or economic 

 value was attached played a part in this process of ex- 

 ploitation. Resin, timber, pearls, copper, flint, jade, 

 turquoise, lapis lazuli, amber, tin, and eventually all 

 metals, were some of the more obtrusive lures that im- 

 pelled men to embark upon any adventure, however 

 hazardous : and the search for these things was respon- 

 sible for the world-wide diffusion of culture. 



NO. 2812, VOL. I 12] 



The investigation of the details of these events throws 

 new light upon ancient history and affords a convincing 

 explanation of much that hitherto has been obscure in 

 the history of civilisation. 



Ancient Mariners. 



Considerations of time will permit me to refer only 

 to one aspect of this world-wide diffusion. The 

 pictures of the boats used by Tutankhamen's viceroy 

 reveal certain peculiar features which were adopted 

 also in sea-going ships in the Mediterranean and Ery- 

 thraean Seas. These distinctive methods of ship- 

 building have been preserv^ed until the present day in 

 the Victoria Nyanza in East Africa and in certain parts 

 of the Malay Archipelago. They are also revealed in 

 quite unmistakable fashion in sculptures of the Early 

 Bronze Age in Sweden. Here there is a specific illustra- 

 tion not only of the fact of the world-wide diffusion of 

 culture but also of the chief means by which it was 

 effected. 



The New Vision in Anthropology. 



The investigation of the factors involved in this 

 demonstration of the unity of civilisation brings to 

 light the motives that prompted its origin, and provides 

 us with a new insight into the real meaning of customs 

 and beliefs. It contains the germ of a new method of 

 approach to the problems of psychology, and a means 

 whereby in time the unification of anthropology will 

 be effected and a real science of man created. 



During the last twelve years there has been a pro- 

 found change in most of the fields of investigation 

 concerned with the study of man. Not only has there 

 been a rich harvest of new facts and a fuller under- 

 standing of the meaning of such knowledge as we 

 possess, but also there has begun to emerge a radically 

 new attitude toward the problems awaiting solution. 

 Hitherto the investigator who concerns himself with 

 the problems of human structure and function, of the 

 races of man, of the fossil remains of man, of evolution 

 and inheritance, as a rule has refused to discuss customs 

 and beliefs, arts and crafts, social organisation, and the 

 psychological aspects of anthropology which are now^ 

 commonly called cultural. The two branches of 

 anthropology have been cultivated in water-tight 

 compartments, and the fact that the results achieved 

 in each of them have far-reaching significance for the 

 interpretation of the problems of the other is as a rule 

 totally ignored. 



During recent years some of the more far-seeing 

 students of man have been insisting upon what the 

 late Dr. Rivers called the unity of anthropology and 

 the urgency of the need for more co-operation between 

 the different fields of research.^ Until such integra- 

 tion is effected there can be no real science of man. 

 In this address I propose to give a sketch of the new 

 trends in anthropological thought, and to suggest how 

 they may be unified and focussed upon a definite aim, 

 the interpretation of man's history and human conduct. 

 Perhaps a simple illustration will explain the value 

 of the correlation of physical and cultural studies. 

 Twelve years ago, when attempting to interpret the 



» W. H. R. Rivers, "The Unity of Anthropology," Jox^m. Royal 

 Anthropological InsiUuU, 1922 ; also B. Malinowski on the same subject, 

 Nature, Sept. i, 1923, p. 3t4- 



