H.— ANTHROPOLOGY. 151 



'I'he newer, while) Ijelieviny no less in Evolution, leels it ;.i duty to 

 ti'ace out minutely the various stages through which each type of civilisa- 

 tion has passed by independent inquiry, rather tiian to assume that 

 these stages have followed the succession observable elsewhere; thus, 

 as historical factors form a. large part ol its inquiiy, it has been tenned 

 the Historical School.^ 



The first note announcing the coming change was sounded from 

 this chair eleven years ago,- and during the interval which has elapsed 

 since then the new school has gained many adherents. All of these 

 will not subscribe to the dictum that no discovery has been made twice, 

 for was not the safety-pin patented early in the nineteenth century by 

 someone who must have been ignorant that the same device had been 

 employed at the lake-dwelling of Peschiera about 1400 B.C. ? Never- 

 theless, there is a tendency at present not to assume an independent 

 origin for any custom or device until it has been proved that such could 

 not; have been introduced from some other ai'ea where such custom was 

 practised or such device known. 



These tendencies have led the anthropologist to inquire more fully 

 into the history of the peoples whose civilisation he is studying, and 

 to note, too, minute points in their environment, which may have 

 suggested customs or modifications in practice in use elsewhere. At 

 the same time geography, which had been growing into a more living 

 study, and ceasing to be a mere record of places and statistics, began 

 in some centres to take special note of man and his doings. This 

 anthropogeography concerned itself mainly with inquiring into the 

 reactions between man and his environment, and though at first the 

 environment was the main object of the geographer's attention, its 

 effect upon man has become more and more pronounced of late. Thus 

 anthropology and geography have been drawing closer together during 

 the last few years, and as the latter is a recognised and popular subject 

 in the curriculum of our schools, no small amount of anthropological 

 knowledge has been instilled into the minds of our boys and girls, and 

 with that knowledge a still greater measure of interest in the subject. 



It might have been expected that before the geographers the his- 

 torians would have been attracted to the anthropological approach, but 

 recent political events have up to now engrossed the attention of most 

 historical students. Signs have not been lacking, however, especially 

 during the last year, that the study of peoples and their customs, rather 

 than of kings and politicians, is gaining ground, and we may, I think, 

 look with confidence towai'ds closer relations between the studies of 

 history and anthropology in the near future. 



Again, we may notice an increasing interest in our subject among 

 sociologists and economists. These have rightly focused their atten- 

 tion upon the social o)-ganisation and economic well-being of highly 

 civilised communities such as our own, with a view to presenting an 

 orderly array of facts and principles before our political leaders. There 



' Rivers. W. H. R., ' History and Ethnology.' 11 ix fori/, v. 65-7 London 

 (1920). 



2 Rivers, W. H. R., 'The Etlmological Analysis of Culture.' Fenort of 

 Biit. Assoc, 1911, 490-2. 



