■OCTOBEB 29, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



607 



TBE WINlflPEG MEETING OF THE 

 BRITISH ASSOCIATION 

 SECTION n— ANTHROPOLOGY 

 Fob twenty-five years it has been tlie policy of 

 the British Association for the Advancement of 

 :Science not to confine its annual meetings to the 

 British Isles. Pursuant to this truly imperial 

 policy a meeting was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, 

 August 25 to September 1, 1909. This was the 

 third meeting on Canadian soil, the first having 

 been held at Montreal in 1884, and the second at 

 Toronto in 1897. To the Winnipeg meeting the 

 -officers of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science were invited as guests, while 

 a general invitation was extended to all its mem- 

 bers and fellows. Tliese invitations were not only 

 very highly appreciated, but also accepted by a 

 •considerable number of American men of science 

 who are only too glad of an opportunity to attend 

 a meeting of the British Association without be- 

 ing compelled to cross the Atlantic. 



By a curious coincidence the anthropological 

 incerests of each association are represented by a 

 .Section H, which had held its first meeting in 

 Montreal — that of the American Association in 

 1882 and that of the British Association in 1884. 

 The sectional president at Winnipeg was Professor 

 John L. Myres, of the University of Liverpool. 

 The full text of his address on " The Influence of 

 Anthropology on the Course of Political Science " 

 has appeared in Nature of September 23. In it he 

 •emphasizes the double place held by anthropology 

 in the general scheme of knowledge. On the one 

 hand it may be considered as a department of zool- 

 ogy, or geography; on the other as embracing whole 

 sciences such as "psychology, sociology, and the ra- 

 tional study of art and literature." From ancient 

 Greece, the renaissance, and the periods of great 

 • discovery and colonization, numerous authors were 

 cited "to show how intimately the growth of 

 political philosophy has interlocked at every stage 

 with that of anthropological science." The history 

 of the subject for the last fifty years shows how 

 European colonization and anthropological dis- 

 coveries have united to establish a matriarchal 

 theory of society as a rival of the patriarchal, 

 and then to confront both with the phenomenon 

 of totemism. Anthropology may yet furnish the 

 facts about human societies that will make it 

 possible for the student of political science to 

 measure the forces which maintain or destroy 

 ;«tates. The address closea with a strong plea 



for an ethnological survey of Canada before it is 

 too late. 



The reports of various committees formed an 

 important part of the program. The committee 

 appointed to investigate the lake villages in the 

 neighborhood of Glastonbury reported that owing 

 to the amount of work recjuired in compiling and 

 arranging the details of the monograph on Glas- 

 tonbury lake village, it was found inexpedient to 

 resume excavations this summer on the new site 

 at Meare. The expenses incurred in the prelim- 

 inary excavations carried on at Meare last sum- 

 mer have already been paid by Mr. Bulleid, and, 

 consequently, no part of the £5 grant made by 

 the association has been expended. The committee 

 have, therefore, to recommend that this grant be 

 renewed, together with at least £30 in addition. 

 With a sum of £35 assured, and the number of 

 private contributions already announced, the com- 

 mittee hope to make considerable progress in 

 excavating the Meare lake village during the sum- 

 mer of 1910. Judging from the discoveries al- 

 ready made and recorded (Tenth Report, Dublin 

 Volume, p. 414), this new lacustrine site promises 

 to be richer in archeologieal remains than even 

 Glastonbury. 



The committee appointed to ascertain the age 

 of stone circles have obtained evidence bearing on 

 the probable date of the monument at Avebury, 

 which is ascribed to the neolithic period. Sec- 

 tional and other plans of all the parts excavated 

 have been prepared with great care and a large 

 number of photographs were taken. The grant of 

 the association, together with most of the money 

 raised by subscriptions, having been expended, the 

 committee ask for a new grant of £75, and for 

 reappointment with leave to invite subscriptions 

 commensurate with the costliness of the excava- 

 tions due to the huge scale of the earthworks. 



The committee appointed for the collection, 

 preservation and systematic registration of photo- 

 graphs of anthropological interest, reported that, 

 as no grant was made to it last year, and the 

 balance in hand has all been expended, no addi- 

 tions to the collection have been made since the 

 last meeting of the association, as it is useless to 

 accept prints for the collection, if it is not pos- 

 sible to mount and store them. The committee, 

 first appointed in 1899, has received nothing be- 

 yond the initial grant of £10, which has now all 

 been expended. Over 1,000 photographs have been 

 received and mounted, while in addition to this 

 other collections, numbering some 3,000 subjects. 



