X BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



the product of the researches in American ethnology during 

 the last two decades of that century. Now that the .system 

 has assumed definite form, it affords a foundation not only for 

 future researches, but for applying the principles of ethnology 

 to practical questions. Accordingly, tlie work of the year was 

 gradually turned toward lines bearing directly on questions of 

 public interest. 



Among the lines of work in what may bo called applied 

 ethnology, to which special attention has been given during 

 the year, two may be particularly mentioned: 



1. Physical ethnology. On the institution of the Bureau in 

 1879 the Director found the science incomplete in that it dealt 

 largely with merely casual characteristics of tribes and races, 

 and neglected the essential characteristics expressed in the 

 activities of peoples. Hence special attention was given to the 

 habitual doings of the several tribes studied, and at the outset 

 each was regarded as an activital type or genus; these were 

 then compared, and in the light of the comparison the activi- 

 ties themselves were analyzed and afterward grouped syste- 

 matically. It was in this way that tlie science of demonomy, 

 with its subdivisions, each relating to a group of activities, was 

 developed. Now this great science, dealing as it does with 

 the doings of tribes and races, each regarded as a typical 

 group, is practically confined to the psychical side of man- 

 kind; it barely touches the physical attributes; yet it affords 

 a basis for classifying these attributes and measuring the 

 influence of the prime force of demotic activity in shaping 

 their development. In other words, the earlier ethnology 

 dealt only with features and traits inlierited from prehistoric 

 ancestry; what may be called the new ethnology deals 

 with those traits and human powers by which mankind is 

 distinguished from all other organisms. The researches indi- 

 cate that such traits and powers, such features and faculties, 

 are connected with the normal development of tribes and 

 races, and are, indeed, the essential factors in the growth 

 of nations. Accordingly it would seem that the time is 

 at hand for applying the principles of the new ethnology 

 to American aborigines as ethnic constituents of a growing 



