I08 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 10/ 



training of experts, and scholarly analysis of regions. For this, the 

 survey of area programs would again be helpful, but other activities 

 of the Directorate would serve only as a basis for estimating the 

 Army and Navy needs. 



Area Reports 



Any great expansion of the Board's report service was blocked 

 because of the lack of an acceptable outline of the type of information 

 needed. The war agencies sent in broad outlines, but these were never 

 revised to fit the capacities and knowledge of the scholars. This 

 problem must be defined if a stockpile of useful area reports is to be 

 built up for the future. 



This is not a simple task. Every scholar knows that factual ma- 

 terials must be gathered in terms of a framework, and that this varies 

 in terms of every problem. Still, all disciplines are able to agree on 

 certain broad categories which have proved useful in the past and 

 presumably would continue to serve. A definition cannot be too rigid, 

 both because these categories are constantly changing and because 

 area involves cross-disciplinary interests. 



The outline developed by the Cross-Cultural Survey for filing ma- 

 terials in the field of anthropology was modified to meet the area re- 

 quirements for the Pacific region. An examination of this revised 

 outline would be profitable as a basis for definition. Scholars should 

 be able to agree on certain basic categories of area information and 

 still leave ample leeway for the special interests of any particular 

 discipline. The Joint Committee on Latin American Studies has set 

 a precedent in its "Outline of Research in the Study of Contemporary 

 Culture Patterns in Latin America" (Notes on Latin American 

 Studies, No. 2, pp. 3-26, 1943). 



A satisfactory outline is but the preliminary step. It must next be 

 decided what kind of a summary or report is most useful. The Pa- 

 cific Survey Project never got by this stumbling block, since some 

 wanted a brief summary of sources, others wanted a 5-foot shelf of 

 books. There have been innumerable handbooks, varying from single 

 immense volumes like the Africa Survey to soldier's pocket guides. 

 A review of these would not lead to a final, rigid model, but would 

 allow an appraisal of the potential usefulness of different types of 

 area reports. 



Area Training 



Although the Ethnogeographic Board itself did not actively engage 

 in any training program, the Director was consulted about the sub- 



