December 17, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



571 



logically, and what is true of the western part 

 of China is even more true of the neighboring 

 Tibet. The southern portions of Tibet are 

 the least desirable anthropologically because 

 they are the most mixed, and they have been 

 investigated to a certain extent by the Eng- 

 lish. The real Tibetans live more in the 

 center and towards the northeast of the great 

 region, and among them again one finds the 

 physiognomy of the American Indian. 



South of China are masses of mixed popu- 

 lation; but there is one prevailing group that 

 needs careful attention, and that is the 

 Malays. These people are found in Borneo, 

 in Java and the rest of the Malay Archi- 

 pelago, in the Philippines and elsewhere, be- 

 sides on the continent, and we still lack a 

 knowledge of them which would enable us to 

 say precisely what they represent, and which 

 would enable us to join them more directly to 

 other branches of the yellow-brown people. 



Here in the south we find too one of the most 

 enigmatic of all the now existing groups of 

 humanity, namely the ITegrito. There are 

 indications that at one time the Negrito occu- 

 pied a very much larger territory than he occu- 

 pies to-day, that he was in other words a much 

 more important anthropological group than he 

 seems to be now. There are to this day Ne- 

 grito settlements in the little islands oS the 

 southeast of Formosa ; there are traces of them 

 in southern China, and more in Burma and 

 Indo-China; they people the Andaman and 

 the Nicobar Islands off the coast of India, and 

 there is a large remnant of them in the Philip- 

 pine Islands, especially on the island of Luzon. 

 But they, or traces of them, exist also in New 

 Guinea, and in many of the islands of Micro- 

 nesia, Melanesia and even Polynesia. There- 

 fore the opinion is justified that the Negrito at 

 one time, before and during the influx of 

 stronger peoples from the northwest, played an 

 important part in the peopling of Asia. But 

 ■we still do not know just where to place the 

 Negrito. Is he allied to the African Pygmy? 

 or is he a separate development? That he has 

 some connection with the Negro is certain, but 

 how can this connection be explained? And 

 when and whence has he reached the territories 



he peopled? If any human group should be 

 thoroughly known, it is surely the Negrito; 

 but he is receiving nowhere near the attention 

 that he deserves. Here again there is a fertile 

 field for investigation. 



As we proceed eastward we now approach the 

 great group of Polynesians. This is the par- 

 ticular group that is just now receiving so 

 much attention; but I am afraid that some of 

 this attention will be misplaced, for it can not 

 lead to any great results. In the first place it 

 is well known that the peopling of Polynesia is 

 quite recent; in the second place nothing has 

 ever been found on all these islands that would 

 justify a belief in anything more ancient. 

 Furthermore, and this is perhaps the most im- 

 portant, any one who has had any direct ac- 

 quaintance with the Polynesians must readily 

 have recognized that they are a mixed people. 

 There are individuals among them who re- 

 semble more or less the American Indian, while 

 others represent more the Malayan type of 

 yellow-browns; there are those who clearly ap- 

 proach the white man ; and there are numerous 

 individuals who bear traces of the Negrito or 

 Negro. Now, a mixed population of this na- 

 ture, and of recent historical derivation, can 

 not yield a great deal to anthropological re- 

 search. There are undoubtedly problems of 

 interest in the study of the Polynesians, but 

 when we contrast them with those of the rest 

 of the Far East, we can not but perceive that 

 the Polynesian problems have not a primary 

 importance. 



A more important set of problems are those 

 relating to Australia. We have heard much 

 about the " Australian race," but it is very 

 doubtful if there is any such thing as an Aus- 

 tralian race. If we compare the natives of one 

 part of Australia with the natives of other 

 parts, we see such differences that physical 

 unity can scarcely be contemplated. They 

 have of course been territorially circumscribed 

 and they have intermixed ; they have numerous 

 customs in common, though they also differ in 

 this respect; but they are probably not one 

 people. They have commonly been talked of 

 as " the Australian " ; they should rather be 

 dealt with as the " Australians." The anthro- 



