Februakt 11, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



197 



by our culture, for, so far as anthropologists 

 can see, a culture is a definite association 

 complex of ideas. When anthropologists 

 assert that culture is not innate, they have 

 this in mind and should, if it were true 

 that definite associations between ideas 

 were innate, find it difficult to harmonize 

 these contradictions. The assumption, 

 therefore, that it is chiefly between sensory 

 factors that inborn connections exist, is 

 complementary to the anthropological view. 

 In content, culture is highly rationalistic, 

 or fundamentally a matter of thought, or 

 idea connection. There is, however, con- 

 siderable confusion on this point, appar- 

 ently due to lack of discrimination as to the 

 thinking process and what is thought. As 

 we have already noted, the individual's atti- 

 tude toward culture is apparently entirely 

 an innate affair, or is truly a part of his 

 innate behavior. The obscurity of the case 

 arises in part from the fact that it is this 

 innate behavior that produces cultures and 

 perpetuates them. It is quite natural, 

 therefore, that many should claim the non- 

 rationalistic factors as cultural. "We have 

 various fairly satisfactory theories of cul- 

 ture origin based upon the conception that 

 man's less material traits are rationalistic 

 constructs from instinctive actions, the 

 latter serving as the suggestive structural 

 elements. Our contention here is, how- 

 ever, not on the reality of an instinctive 

 basis to culture, but that the investigation 

 of man's true behavior is a psychological 

 problem and must be approached from the 

 psychological horizon. The moment we, as 

 anthropologists, attempt to apply cultural 

 data and cultural methods to these under- 

 lying instinctive phenomena, our psycho- 

 logical friends will find our assertions just 

 as naive as theirs to us when they reverse 

 the application. Since wc can not expect 

 to be at home in the psychological field, 

 we must leave those problems to them. 



Perhaps in passing we should note the 

 much-discussed question as to the power of 

 ideas, for many psychologists vigorously 

 insist that an idea can in some way lead 

 to action irrespective of other conditions. 

 Now it may be that every idea causes a re- 

 action, as to that an anthropologist's opin- 

 ions are of no importance, but such acts 

 seem to fall into the behavior class and be- 

 long, therefore, to the innate equipment of 

 man for cultural activity. 



We are familiar with the fact that all 

 the known cultures of the world have cer- 

 tain marked similarities ; in fact, from one 

 point of view, they are very much alike. 

 It has been claimed that this likeness is due 

 to many fundamental ideas in common. 

 Bastian seems to have believed that these 

 ideas were to be found wherever people 

 lived, because the very constitution of their 

 nervous system made them arise with cer- 

 tainty. Now, if this is true, such ideas 

 must be set down as part of man's original 

 nature. If they result as a universal re- 

 sponse to situations, the situations must be 

 uniform ; but in any event, if all men, how- 

 ever isolated from birth, will get these 

 ideas, then they are essentially inborn and 

 so constitute the basic elements of culture. 



We may also note the older belief that 

 man's original nature was so ordered that 

 social groups everywhere tended to develop 

 their culture on the same pattern, rising 

 from the lowest state of savagery to the 

 highest civilization. This again, if true, 

 would necessitate a kind of mechanical 

 view, for we make the whole merely a re- 

 sponse on the part of man's original nature. 



However, these views are quite anti- 

 quated. We now have the rival theories of 

 independent development and single origin 

 of culture traits. In response to the inde- 

 pendent versus common origin of traits, we 

 have such compromise theories as con- 

 vergent evolution, limited possibilities, etc. 



