APRIL 26, 1912] 
ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE WASHINGTON 
MEETING FOR 1911 
THE annual meeting of the American Anthro- 
pological Association was held in the United States 
National Museum, Washington, D. C., December 
27-30, 1911, in affiliation with Section H of the 
American Association for the Advancement of 
Science and the American Folk-Lore Society. The 
attendance was good and the program exception- 
ally long and interesting. The most important 
features were the two symposia: (1) ‘‘The Prob- 
lems of the Unity or Plurality and the Probable 
Place of Origin of the American Aborigines,’’ 
discussed by J. W. Fewkes, A. Hrdlitka, W. H. 
Dall, J. W. Gidley, A. H. Clark, W. H. Holmes, 
Alice ©. Fletcher, Walter Hough, Stansbury 
Hagar, A. F. Chamberlain and R. B. Dixon; and 
(2) ‘Culture and Environment,’’ discussed by 
J. W. Fewkes, Clark Wissler, Edward Sapir and 
Robert H. Lowie. The first of these two discus- 
sions is printed in full in the January—March issue 
of the Anthropologist, and the second will appear 
in the April-June issue. Dr. J. Walter Fewkes pre- 
sided at the six sessions in charge of the American 
Anthropological Association; also at the single 
session of the American Folk-Lore Society, in the 
absence of Professor Henry M. Belden, president 
of that society. Professor George T. Ladd, vice- 
president of Section H, was chairman of the 
single session in charge of the section. The social 
functions to which members of the affiliated so- 
cieties were invited included: a reception by Dr. 
and Mrs. Robert S. Woodward at the Carnegie 
Institution, a reception at the New National Mu- 
seum, and the opening of the Corcoran Gallery of 
Art. 
SECTION H 
Officers for the Washington meeting were nom- 
inated as follows: member of the council, Dr. Ales 
Hrdlitka; member of the general committee, Dr. 
Charles Peabody. Sectional offices were filled by 
the nomination and election by the general com- 
mittee, of Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, Bureau of Amer- 
ican Ethnology, as vice-president for the ensuing 
year; Dr. Alfred M. Tozzer, member of the sec- 
tional committee to serve four years (to fill a 
_yacaney), and Dr. Pliny H. Goddard, member of 
the sectional committee to serve five years. 
President Fewkes opened the first public session 
of the joint meeting with the following remarks: 
SCIENCE 
665 
Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the American 
Anthropological Association: 
A year has passed since the last meeting of the 
association and we have now again gathered to- 
gether, bringing from field and laboratory new 
material to lay before our fellow workers for their 
critical examination. It is eminently fitting that 
we should hold our service in this beautiful build- 
ing erected by the nation to contain the precious 
collections gathered from the uttermost parts of 
the earth as well as our own country. Part of 
these collections illustrate the physical and cul- 
tural history of man, the sciences we cultivate. 
Our place of meeting should stimulate us with a 
new enthusiasm and a high ideal of research, and 
the time of year a new sense of the service to 
humanity it requires. Although our science has a 
very practical side, its strength lies primarily in 
the study of truth for its own sake and thereby 
the elevation of human character. With your 
assistance it shall be our effort to eliminate, as 
far as possible, all personal feeling in our dis- 
cussions and keep continually in mind the noble 
ideal that all our work is a service to science. 
It has seemed desirable to group our communica- 
tions in such a way that discussions of methods 
and principles would be a prominent feature, and 
it is earnestly hoped that these discussions may 
be untrammeled by personal feeling, critical when 
necessary, but always on the highest possible 
plane. It is evident to all that with so many 
speakers, all of whom we desire to hear, it may 
be necessary sometimes for a speaker to curtail 
his remarks to conform to the time allowed by the 
committee. Although in such condensation he may 
feel that he can not do himself full justice, it is 
to be hoped that he will make the sacrifice for the 
sake of others who follow. 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS 
The address of retiring Vice-president Roland 
B. Dixon of Section H on ‘‘The Independence of 
the Culture of the American Indian’’ is printed 
in SCIENCE of January 12, 1912. 
In the absence of President Henry M. Belden, 
of the American Folk-Lore Society, his address on 
‘¢Wolk Poetry in America’’ was read by Dr. 
Charles Peabody. 
Many of the important papers read at the joint 
meeting are represented in this report by abstracts. 
These are: 
Investigations among the Plains Indians: CLARK 
WISSLER. 
A preliminary statement of the general plan 
