532 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 379. 



TWENTY TEARS OF SECTION H, 

 ANTHROPOLOGY. 



The American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science very early mani- 

 fested an interest in anthropology. In 

 1849, at the second meeting of the Associa- 

 tion, Professor S. S. Haldeman read a 

 paper entitled ' Linguistic Ethnology.' 

 Communications relating to anthropology 

 were presented at almost every meeting 

 until 1869, when increasing interest in the 

 subject led to the formation of a subsection- 

 of ' Ethnology ' under the general section 

 of natural history. In 1873, the name of 

 the subsection was changed to ' Anthro- 

 pology.' At the Buffalo Meeting in 1876, 

 anthropology was recognized as a perma- 

 nent subsection of natural history. 



When the Association was finally divided 

 into sections, as now constituted, Section H 

 fell to anthropology. The first program 

 of Section H was presented at Montreal 

 in 1882, Professor Alexander Winehell 

 presiding in the absence of Sir Daniel 

 AVilson. 



By a curious coincidence, Section H of 

 the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science is also devoted to anthro- 

 pology, and its first session was held in 

 Montreal in 1884, two years after the initial 

 meeting of our OAvn Section H in that city. 

 The story of the early struggles of anthro- 

 pology for recognition in the British Asso- 

 ciation, as told by Sir William Flower,* is 

 strikingly similar to that of its early strug- 

 gles for recognition here. 



Eighty-six papers on anthropological 

 subjects were read prior to the organiza- 

 tion of Section H in 1882. From 1882 to 

 1901, inclusive, the communications num- 

 bered 589, or an average of more than 29 

 per meeting. These figures refer only to 

 the annual meetings, no records having 

 been kept of the mnter programs. The 



* Report of the British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, 1894, p. 762. 



maximum number of papers, 45, were pre- 

 sented at the Boston meeting of 1898, and 

 the minimum number, 11, were presented 

 at Montreal in 1882. 



Judging from the nature of the com- 

 munications, the interest of anthropolo- 

 gists has been somewhat unevenly divided 

 among four general branches of anthro- 

 pology, viz., archeology, ethnology, soma- 

 tology and general anthropology. Archeol- 

 ogy was the favorite subject prior to 1882, 

 as it has been since. 



The following tabulation is offered as a 

 means of making a numerical comparison 

 of the work clone in the four general divi- 

 sions of the subject: 



1849-1881 1882-1901 Totals. 



Archeology 48 261 309 



Ethnology 22 211 233 



Somatology 14 80 94 



General Anthropology.. 2 37 39 



Totals 86 589 675 



I have followed Brinton's* scheme of 

 classification, grouping sociology, religion,' 

 mythology, linguistics and folk-lore under 

 ethnology, and psychology under somatol- 

 ogy. 



In so far as the communications pre- 

 sented admit of geographical classification, 

 it has been found that the members of the 

 section have devoted themselves almost ex- 

 clusively to the American continent. The 

 reasons for such a choice are obvious. 

 While science is supposed not to recognize 

 political boundaries, problems that have a 

 geographical basis go logically to resident 

 workers, other things being equal. Legis- 

 lation has also come to favor the home 

 archeologist as opposed to the foreign. 

 The study of anthropology naturally be- 

 gins at home, a course always favored by 

 questions of transportation. 



* ' Proposed Classification and International 

 Nomenclature of the Anthropologic Sciences,' 

 Proc. Amer. Assoc, for the Adv. of Science, 1892. 



