4i6 



NATURE 



[September 29, 1910 



beliefs and usages which ignores this fact is certain to bs 

 misleading. 



This popularisation of our science has not, however, been 

 universally welcomed. It has been urged with much reason 

 that this overabundance of material tends lo encourage an 

 unscientific method, particularly the comparison of isolated 

 facts without due regard to the context of culture to which 

 they are organically related. 'I'hrrc is much force in this 

 contention ; and prob.^bly when the work of this generation 

 comes to be critically reviewed we shall be rightly charged 

 with rashly attempting a synthesis of facts not generically 

 related, with reposing loo mucli confidence in evidence 

 collected in a haphazard fashion, and with losing sight of 

 their historical relations in our quest after survivals. 

 Those who have practical experience of work among 

 savage or semi-savage races undei stand the difficulty of 

 collecting information on subjects outside the range of their 

 material interests. Only a skilled linguist is able to inter- 

 pret their hazy religious beliefs. We fail to evolve order 

 from what is and always must be chaotic ; we fail to 

 discriminate religion from sociology because both are from 

 the savage point of view identical; and generally it is only 

 the by-products of religion, such as demonology, witch- 

 craft, mythology w^hich reward our search. The most 

 dogmatic among us, when they consider the divergent views 

 of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen and Strehlow, may well 

 hesitate to frame theories about the .Arunta. 



In the next place it has been objected that the scientific 

 side of anthropology is in danger of being submerged by a 

 flood of amateurism. It is only within recent vears that a 

 supply of observers trained in scientific methods has become 

 available. .Much of the work in India, the dominions, and 

 other parts of the Empire has been done by amateurs, that 

 is to say, by officers in the service of the Crown, mis- 

 sionaries, or planters, who understand the languages, 

 manners, and prejudices of the people, but have not 

 received the advantage of scientific training. Some of this 

 work is, in its kind, useful ; but there seems reason to 

 believe that inquiries conducted by this agencv have almost 

 reached their limit. The existing material niav be supple- 

 mented and corrected by workers of the same class ; but 

 from them no important additions to our knowledge can 

 reasonably be expected. 



Criticisms such as these have naturally suggested pro- 

 posals for improving the qualifications of this agencv bv 

 providing a course of training for public servants before 

 they join their appointments ; and excellent arrangements 

 with this object have been made by several of our univer- 

 sities. In addition to this schemes are in the air for the 

 establishment of a .School of Oriental Studies in London or 

 of a College for Civilians in Calcutta. We must, however, 

 recollect that the college established by Lord Wellesley at 

 the beginning of the last century with the intention, to' use 

 his own words, of promoting among junior officers " an 

 intimate acquaintance with the history, language, customs, 

 and manners of the people of India," failed to meet the 

 aims of its founder. We must also remember that recruits 

 for the Colonial services do not undergo any training in 

 this country : and that in the case of the Covenanted Civil 

 Service of India the period extends only to a single year, 

 during which the candidate is expected' to learn the rudi- 

 ments of at least one Oriental language and to acquire 

 some knowledge of the law and history of India. It seems 

 obvious that this leaves little time for the scientific study 

 of anthropology ; and the most that can be expected is to 

 excite in the young official a desire to study the native races 

 and to define the subjects lo which his attention may 

 usefully be directed. There is, again, the obvious risk of 

 letting loose the half-trained amateur among savage or 

 semi-savage peoples. He may see a totem in everv hedge 

 or expect to meet a corn-spirit on every threshing-floor. 

 He may usurp the functions of the arm-chair anthropologist 

 by adding to his own proper business, which is the collec- 

 tion of facts, an attempt to explain their scientific relations. 

 As a matter of fact, the true anthropologist is born, not 

 made ; and no possible course of study can be useful except 

 in the case of a few who possess a natural taste for this 

 kind of work. 



Having then practically exhausted our present agency it 



is incumbent upon us to press upon the Governments 



throughout the Empire the necessity of entrusting the 



supervision of ethnographical survcvs' to specialists. This 



NO. 2135, VOL. 84] 



principle has been recognised in the case of botany, geology, 

 and archaeology, and it is high time that it was extended 

 to anthropology. It is the possession of such a trained 

 staff that has enabled the American Government to carry 

 out with success a survey of the natives of the Phiiipoine 

 Islands ; and it is gratifying to record that the Canadian 

 legislature, in response to resolutions adopted by ihH 

 section at the Winnipeg meeting, has recently voted funds 

 to provide the salary of a superintendent of the ethnological 

 survey. We may confidently expect that other Governments 

 throughout the Empire will soon follow this laudable 

 example. These Governments will, of course, continue to 

 collect at each periodical census those statistics and facts cf 

 sociology and economics which are required for purposes 

 of administration. But beyond these practical objects there 

 art^ questions which can be adequately investigated only by 

 specialists. 



The duties of such a director will necessarily be three- 

 fold : First, to sift, arrange, and coordinate the facts 

 already collected by non-scientific observers ; secondly, to 

 initiate and control special investigations, in particular that 

 intensive study of smaller groups within a limited arf-a 

 which, in the case of the survey of the Todas by Dr 

 Rivers, has so largely contributed to our knowledge of that 

 tribe. Such methods not only open out new scientific 

 fields, but, and this is perhaps more important, establish a 

 standard of efficiency which improves later survej's of these 

 or neighbouring races. 



The field for inquiry throughout the Empire is so vast 

 that there is ample room for expeditions independent of 

 official patronage. In some respects the private traveller 

 possesses advantages over the official — in his freedom from 

 the bondage of red tape and from the suspicion which 

 inevitably attaches to the servant of Government that his 

 inquiries are conducted with the object of imposing taxation 

 or of introducing some irksome measures of administra- 

 tion. He is always sure to receive the aid of local officers, 

 whose familiarity with the native races must be of the 

 highest value. 



The third duty of the director will be to organise in a 

 systematic way the collection of specimens for home arid 

 colonial museums. Our ethnographical museums, as a 

 whole, have not reached that standard of efficiency which 

 the importance of the Empire and the needs of training in 

 anthropology obviouslv require ; and our students have to 

 seek in museums at Berlin and other foreign cities for 

 collections illustrative of tribes which have long been 

 subject to British law. It is only necessary to refer to 

 the recent handbook of the ethnographical collections in the 

 British Museum to see that there are wide gaps in the 

 series which might easily be filled by systematic effort. No 

 time is to be lost, because the tragedy of the extinction of 

 the savage is approaching the final act, and our grand- 

 children will search for him in vain except perhaps in the 

 slums of our greater cities. 



.Assuming then that in the near future anthropological 

 inquiries will be organised on practical lines, I invite your 

 attention to some special problems in India which deserve 

 intensive study, and which can be solved in no other way. 

 India is a most promising field for such inquiries. Here 

 the student of comparative religion can trace with more 

 precision than is possible in any other part of the Empire 

 the development of animism and the interaction on it of the 

 forces represented by Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and 

 Christianity. The anthropologist can observe the most 

 varied types of moral and material culture, from those 

 represented by the heirs of its historic civilisation down to 

 forest and depressed tribes little raised above the level of 

 savagery. 



The first question which aw-aits examination is that of 

 the prehistoric races and their relation to the present popu- 

 lation. Unfortunately the materials for this inquiry are 

 still imperfect. The operations of the arch.-eological survey, 

 with the scanty means at its disposal, have rightly been 

 concentrated upon the remains of architecture in stone, 

 which starts from the Buddhist period, and upon the con- 

 servation of the splendid buildings which are our inherit- 

 ance from older ruling powers. The pr.ehistoric materials 

 have been collected by casual workers who were not always 

 careful to record the localities and circumstances of the dis- 

 covery of their contributions to the local museums. Many 

 links are still wanting, some altogether absent from Indian 



