XXXVIII BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



and the accepted keynote is evolution; in liuman or demotic 

 development the main lines are convergent and the effective 

 processes are integration and blending. 



When the effect of activital development on the human 

 bod)" — the material object-matter of ethnology — is considered, 

 it is found that the demotic and the ethnic elements so interact 

 that the former dominates the latter both directly and indi- 

 rectly: (1) The mind-led activities of both advanced and 

 primitive men lead to the exercise of certain structures (e. g., 

 muscles of the hand) and to the disuse of others (e. g., auricular 

 nmscles), whereby the former are invigorated and enlarged, 

 while the latter are atrophied. Accordingly, the somatikos is 

 gradually reshaped by the demotic activities; and, since the 

 course of development of the activities is convergent, the 

 somatic modification is also convergent, and hence bodies of 

 unrelated peoples tend toward a common type. (2) By rea- 

 son of the essentially convergent character of the activities, 

 discrete tribes and peoples interchanging demotic attributes 

 through contact, are gradually brought into intellectual har- 

 monj'; such liarmony is attended or soon followed, as obser- 

 vation among the American aborigines clearly discloses, by 

 commingling of blood, which still further reduces tribal differ- 

 ences, both somatic and demotic; and tlie ultimate effect is 

 somatic coordination and equalization. 



Conformably to custom, the operations of the Bureau during 

 the year have been carried forward in accordance with law, 

 and with the principles outlined in the foregoing paragi-aphs. 



In each stage of the work the plans are determined by the 

 data previously collected; accordingly, the annual summary 

 of results made in pursuance of the ]5lan formulated at the 

 beginning of the year is never quite up to the revised classifi- 

 cation of the end of the year. During the last year the opera- 

 tions were somewhat arbitrarily divided into the commonly 

 recognized departments of (1) Prehistoric Estlietology and 

 Technology, or Archeology, (2) Descriptive Ethnology, (3) 

 Sociology, (4) Linguistics, (5) Mythology, (6) Psychology, 

 (7) Bibliography, and (8) Publication, with the necessary 

 administrative and miscellaneous work. Most of the reseai'ches 



