488 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 404. 



ish all language, social organization, gov- 

 ernment, religion, music, literature and in- 

 tellectual life generally. When this has 

 been done we may behold the real man 

 standing in his original nakedness among 

 his fellows of the brute world. 



Limitations of Culture Material.— The 

 material evidences of culture are thus seen 

 to be of vast extent and importance ; but it 

 should be observed, notwithstanding this 

 fact, that all of culture can not be illus- 

 trated in the museum, for we can utilize 

 material things only. We cannot show 

 l3y its collections the social, moral, relig- 

 ious and intellectual traits of man save in 

 an indirect way. We can do little to illus- 

 trate language save by displaying the 

 methods of its expression to the eye in pic- 

 tures and letters. We can tell little of re- 

 ligion save by assembling the idols and 

 devices that represent its symbolism, and 

 the paraphernalia which pertains to the 

 practice of its rites. We can tell nothing 

 of music save by a display of the curious 

 array of instruments used in producing 

 sound, and society and government are 

 even less within the sphere of the museum. 

 Yet it is wonderful how much of the imma- 

 terial side of the race can be illustrated by 

 the material things that man has used and 

 made; for the mind is in the things and 

 was developed tvitli and hy the things more 

 than is commonly understood. 



Classification of Culture Materials. —'But 

 what shall we attempt to show in the cul- 

 ture division of ouv anthropological mu- 

 seum, and how shall we classify and place 

 our collections? Classification is the first 

 essential. Taking a view of the world and 

 its inhabitants from a sufficiently distant 

 point of view, a few of the greater groups 

 of facts attract the eye. First, we observe 

 that men are of several distinct races and 

 varieties; but a closer look demonstrates 

 that these are not separated one from an- 

 other, but are intermingled in such ways 



as to afford no basis save the most general 

 for a grouping of their culture products. 

 Second, we observe that nearly all peoples 

 are separated into social and political 

 groups— into clans, tribes and nations— oc- 

 cupying distinct areas of the habitable 

 globe ; looking closer at these, one sees that 

 they are not all alike, that the widest pos- 

 sible differences in condition and culture 

 status exist. Some of the groups are sav- 

 ages almost without art and without any 

 evidences of higher culture ; some are more 

 advanced, occupying the barbarian grade; 

 while still others are highly cultured and 

 surrounded by a thousand evidences of en- 

 lightenment and luxury. Shall we then 

 classify and display our museum exhibits 

 on the basis of this grou.ping of the peoples 

 into tribes and nations? Let us see what 

 would be the result. The British Empire 

 is a nation of commanding power and 

 boundless territory, but its culture ma- 

 terials would comprise every variety of pro- 

 duct under the sun, from the lowest to the 

 highest, and from every known region of 

 the globe. The same is true of nearly all 

 of the civilized nations. It is evident, there- 

 fore, that units of this class are too large 

 and too complex to be of use in classifica- 

 tion. Besides, civilized nations may weU 

 be expected each to have and maintain its 

 own national museum as an independent in- 

 stitution or as a department of its general 

 museum. 



Let us take another illustration. Sup- 

 pose that we decide to arrange our collec- 

 tions by the inferior social or political units 

 — as by states or tribes. Investigation 

 shows that these units are too small, that we 

 should have thousands of exhibition units 

 —too many entirely for practical purposes 

 of grouping and installation. Besides, some 

 are artificial divisions and some are natural 

 divisions, and the classification would be 

 mixed and wholly unsatisfactory. What is 



