170 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
about the shape of a witness’s head instead of attending to the evidence 
he was giving in court. These are typical examples of the sort of thing 
I have met with over and over again. For the man in the street anthro- 
pology is the study of skulls or stone implements or of the ethnological 
specimens that we collect in our museums, or else theories about the 
travels of ancient Egyptians round the world in search of pearls. And 
indeed, if he judges by the subject as treated in universities, or by the 
contents of anthropological periodicals, or the proceedings of anthropo- 
logical congresses, these things do constitute the major part of what is 
known under the name. 
I do not wish for a moment to suggest that these studies are not of 
academic and scientific value. I am only saying that they are of no 
value in the practical business of governing and educating dependent 
peoples. On the other hand, I have been experimenting for ten years 
with a course of study which consists of a general course covering the 
whole field of comparative sociology, followed by a functional sociological 
study of the culture with which the students were to be concerned (Bantu 
Africa in one instance, New Guinea and Melanesia in another), supple- 
mented by a comparative study of methods and policies of colonial 
administration and native education considered in the light of the results 
of comparative sociology. I have found good evidence that such a 
course of study pursued over not less than one year is really adapted to 
the needs of the students, and does do what it is claimed anthropology 
should do, namely, provide a scientific basis for the control and education 
of native peoples. 
In this Empire of ours, in which we have assumed control over so 
many diverse native peoples in Africa, Asia, Oceania and America, it 
seems to me that two things are urgently needed if we are to carry out 
as we should the duties we have thus taken upon ourselves. We have 
exterminated some of these native peoples and have done, and are doing, 
irretrievable damage to others. Our injustices, which are many, have 
been largely the effect of ignorance. One thing, therefore, that is urgently 
needed is some provision for the systematic study of the native peoples 
of the Empire. I have pointed out how rapidly material that is of 
inestimable value for the scientific study of mankind is disappearing 
through the destruction or modification of backward cultures. From the 
practical point of view of colonial administration a thorough systematic 
knowledge of native cultures is required before administration and — 
education can be placed on a sound basis. Research of this kind has been 
all too long neglected. It can, of course, only be carried out effectively 
by trained experts. But even if we can find enthusiastic students to take 
OM SBR tpn yy 
up the difficult and unremunerative work, there is no such provision for — 
research as there is in other sciences. A little, really a very little, con- 
sidering the magnitude of the work, has been done from our universities, 
but I am afraid that most of our British universities will not be likely to 
take any real active interest in the subject until it will be too late to do 
the work that is now waiting to be done. The International Institute of 
African Languages and Cultures is preparing to undertake a five-years’ 
program of research in Africa, which I hope will be continued and 
extended. But for such work we still have to rely on occasional contribu- 
iimae Xi 
