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ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 
H. A. AUDEN, D.Sc. 
‘THE ADMINISTRATIVE VALUE OF ANTHROPOLOGY’ was the 
title of Sir Richard Temple’s Presidential Address to the 
Anthropological Section. The leading idea was to emphasize 
the fact that, if the British Empire is to avoid grave mistakes 
in administration and legislation, it is essential that those to 
whom the work of government of alien peoples is entrusted 
should acquire a working knowledge of the habits, customs, 
ideas that governed the conduct of such peoples and of the 
conditions in which they passed their lives. It is obvious 
that Sir Richard Temple’s suggestion for the founding of a 
College of Applied Anthropology will, if carried to a successful 
issue, be of definite and incalculable utility in the government 
of an Empire so heterogeneous as ours. It is pre-eminently 
a case in which ‘ the proper study of mankind is man.’ 
In ‘A Gypsy Pedigree and its Lessons’ the Rev. G. Hall 
and Mr. W. H. R. Rivers showed that there is no evidence 
of any diminution in the size of the family, and that, as 
among other people, there is an excess of male births, while 
the first-born child is more often male than female. 
A paper, ‘Gypsy Taboo and Funeral Rites,’ contained a 
selection from a mass of material collected by Mr. T. W. 
Thompson, mainly from gypsies with whom he was personally 
acquainted. There are a number of prohibitions based on the 
belief that contaminating influence emanates from anything 
used in the washing of apparel or of the person, and anything 
connected with the toilet or with the bed, also from any sick 
person. A woman’s dress must not be allowed to touch any 
article of food, or any vessel in which food is prepared or 
from which it is eaten, otherwise the food or vessel becomes 
‘mokhadi’ (ceremonially contaminated), and must be 
destroyed. This taboo is probably the basis of destroying, 
usually by burning, the effects of a dead person. The 
destruction which is the main feature of gypsy funeral rites, 
is carried out, not to benefit the deceased in his future life, 
but from fear that his belongings should afford a lurking- 
ground for his ghost. 
Miss C. S. Burnes’s paper shows the great value of sys- 
tematic study of folk-lore questions. By mapping the areas 
in which the customs of ‘souling,’ ‘clementing,’ and ‘catterning ’ 
prevailed, the connection between local trades and the cults 
of patron saints is suggested. Early calendar festivals were 
at once religious, social, and economic. The Celtic, and 
perhaps the Teutonic year began and ended in November. 
In Cheshire, North Shropshire, and North Staffordshire, 
‘souling’ is observed by children, who beg for cakes, ale, 
Naturalist, 
