5i8 



NA TURE 



[October 14, 1922 



the underlying principles of life. These lessons learnt, 

 he was able to attack the problems affecting the welfare 

 of mankind. 



So with the student of man. For many centuries 

 historians, philosophers, and theologians have been 

 studying the ways of civilised humanity, though not 

 by the methods of the anthropologist. For, just as 

 they were attracted by the higher -roups of men, so 

 were they fascinated by the more conspicuous indi- 

 viduals. During the nineteenth century, students 

 were attracted towards the backward types of human- 

 it}-, partly because of their very unlikeness to our- 

 selves, and of recent years liccau.se they felt that the 

 customs of these peoples were fast disappearing. But 

 from a scientific point of view, the paramount reason 

 was because it was felt that in such simple societies we 

 should find the germ from which human civilisation 

 had begun. 



-Much of the force of this last argument is disappearing 

 as the evolutionary school gives place to the historical. 

 We are becoming aware that the civilisation of back- 

 ward peoples is more complex than was at first believed. 

 We are giving up the belief that such people have pre- 

 served our ancestral types alive to the present day, for 

 we are realising that they represent not so much our 

 ancestors as our poor relations. 



Though we must abandon the ancestral view, and 

 cease to believe that these backward communities 

 represent to-day the conditions under which we dwelt 

 in the past, the institutions of these folk are in many 

 respects less complex than our own, and it is possible 

 to study them from every aspect with far greater ease 

 than we could do in the case of one of the higher 

 civilisations. Since it is the function of anthropology 

 to study man synthetically, this is a great advantage. 

 When dealing with these simpler problems we can 

 evolve a method and a discipline to be applied in more 

 complicated cases. Again, the backward peoples have 

 no written history, and we are forced in this case to 

 restore their past by other means. This has led to the 

 development of fresh methods of attacking the prob- 

 lems of the past, which may prove of value in the case 

 of more advanced communities. 



For these reasons the study of backward peoples still 

 has great value for the anthropologist. He has not yet 

 solved all the problems concerned with the dawn of 

 civilisation, nor has he yet perfected his methods and 

 discipline. More workers and expert workers are 

 needed in this field, and so it is that our universities 

 devote the greater part of their energies to training 

 students for this purpose. There are many students. 

 however, who cannot visit wild lands to stud}- the ways 

 of their inhabitants. Some of these, it is true, may silt 

 the material collected by their colleagues, though the} 

 will be at considerable disadvantage if they have had 

 no personal experience of the people with which their 

 material deals. 



The time seems to have arrived when anthropologists 

 should not concentrate so exclusively upon these lowly 

 cultures, but might carry on their researches into those 

 civilisations which have advanced further in their 

 evolution. Not that I wish to deprecate in any way 

 the study of backward peoples, or to discourage :tudi n1 

 from researches in that direction ; but I would suggest 

 ome anthropologists might initiate a closer 



NO. 2763, VOL. I IO] 



inquiry into the conditions of more civilised peoples in 

 addition to the studies already described. 



We have in the Old World three great centres of 

 culture, each of which has been in the van of progress, 

 and each of which has contributed to the advance 

 of the others. These are the civilisations of China. 

 Hindustan, and what I will call the European Region. 



Though our relations with China and Japan have 

 been intimate for several generations, and many of our 

 compatriots are familiar with both countries, it is sur- 

 prising how little we know of either of these people 

 from the anthropological point of view. This is the more 

 to be regretted since for more than half a century Japan 

 has been adopting features from Western civilisation, 

 while there are signs that the same movement is begin- 

 ning in China. So far those who have made them- 

 selves familiar with the languages of the Far East have 

 studied the art. literature, philosophy, and religion of 

 these regions, rather than those aspects which more 

 properly belong to our subject. 



What concerns us more nearly in this country is the 

 Indian Region. Here we have a well-defined province, 

 peopled by successive waves of different races, speaking 

 different languages, and with different customs and 

 beliefs — an apparently inextricable tangle of diverse 

 elements in various stages of cultural evolution. A 

 vast amount of material has been gathered in the past, 

 though such collecting has not been proceeding so fast 

 during the last generation ; but basic problems are 

 still unsolved, and seem at times well-nigh insoluble. 

 Perhaps it is this superabundance of material, or it may 

 be the apparent hopelessness of the task, which has 

 diminished the interest taken in these studies during 

 the past few years. This attitude is regrettable, and 

 the only redeeming feature is the extremely active and 

 intelligent interest in these problems now taken by 

 various groups of Indian students, especially in the 

 University of Calcutta. 



I have suggested that perhaps the lack of interest 

 in such matters among Anglo-Indians, and especially 

 among members of the Indian Civil Service, may be 

 due to the apparent hopelessness of reaching a solution 

 of any of the problems involved. It may also be due 

 to the fact that the}- are sent out from this country to 

 govern a population with different cultures and beliefs, 

 and traditions wholly unlike those of this continent, 

 without having received in most cases any preparation 

 which will enable them to study, appreciate, or under- 

 stand an alien civilisation. Thus they misunderstand 

 those among whom they are sent, and are in turn mis- 

 understood. Guiltless of any evil intent, they offend 

 the susceptibilities ofthose among whom their lot is 

 cast, and acts are put down to indifference which are 

 only the product of ignorance. After making their 

 initial mistakes the more intelligent set to work to study 

 the people committed to their charge, but faced with 

 problems of extreme intricacy, and without any previ- 

 ous training, more often than not they give up the 

 attempt as hopeless. 



That candidates for the Indian Civil Service should 

 receive a full training in anthropology before leaving this 

 countr}- has been pleaded time after time by this Section 

 and l>\ the Anthropological Institute, and though I 

 repeat 1 lie plea , \\ hii li will probably be as useless as its 

 predecessors. I would add more. The problems con- 



