522 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 512. 



\vould be contained in a knowledge of the 

 chronological development of culture. Of 

 course, in many cases the chronological 

 question can not be answered and then the 

 archEeological observations simply rank 

 with ethnological observations of primitive 

 people. 



The field work of etluiologists has been 

 influenced in several directions by the theo- 

 retical discussions of anthropologists. We 

 do not need to dwell on the fact that the 

 scope of ethnological research has become 

 more extensive and exhaustive by taking 

 into consideration more thoroughly than 

 before the whole range of cultural phe- 

 nomena. More interesting than this is the 

 stimulus that has been given to historic 

 and psychological observation. On the one 

 hand, the theory of transmission has in- 

 duced investigators to trace the distribution 

 and history of customs and beliefs with 

 care so as to ascertain empirically whether 

 they are spontaneous creations or whether 

 they are borrowed and adapted. On the 

 other hand, the psychic conditions that ac- 

 company various types of culture have re- 

 ceived more careful attention. 



These detailed archaeological and ethno- 

 logical studies have retroacted upon the 

 theories of anthropology. The grand sys- 

 tem of the evolution of culture, that is valid 

 for all humanity, is losing mvich of its 

 plausibility. In place of a simple line of 

 evolution there appear a multiplicity of 

 converging and diverging lines which it is 

 difficult to bring under one system. Instead 

 of uniformity the striking feature seems to 

 be diversity. On the other hand, certain 

 general psychic facts seem to become dis- 

 cernible, which promise to connect folk 

 psychology with individual psychology. 

 The trend of this development is familiar 

 to us in the history of other sciences, such 

 as geology and biology. The brilliant theo- 

 ries in which the whole range of problems 

 of a science appears simple and easily ex- 



plorable have always preceded the periods 

 of steady empirical work which make neces- 

 sary a complete revision of the original 

 theories and lead through a period of un- 

 certainty to a more strictly inductive attack 

 of the ultimate problems. So it is with an- 

 thropology. Later than the older sciences, 

 it has outgrown the systematizing period 

 and is just now entering upon the empirical 

 revision of its theories. 



Our sketch of the history of the prevail- 

 ing tendencies in anthropology would be 

 incomplete without a few remarks on the 

 men who have made it what it is. What 

 has been said before shows clearly that 

 there is hardly a science that is as varied in 

 its methods as anthropology. Its problems 

 have been approached by biologists, lin- 

 guists, geographers, psychologists, histori- 

 ans and philosophers. Up to ten years ago 

 we had no trained anthropologists, but 

 students drifted into anthropological re- 

 search from all the sciences that I have 

 mentioned here and perhaps from others. 

 With many it was the interest aroused by a 

 special problem, not theoretical considera- 

 tions, that decided their course. Others 

 were attracted by a general interest in 

 the evolution of mankind. The best among 

 them M'cre gradually permeated by the 

 fundamental spirit of anthropological re- 

 search, which consists in the appreciation 

 of the necessity of studying all forms of 

 human culture, because the variety of its 

 forms, alone can throw light upon the his- 

 tory of its development, past and future, 

 and which deigns even the poorest tribe, 

 the degraded criminal and the physical de- 

 generate worthy of attentive study because 

 the expressions of his mental life, no less 

 than his physical appearance, may throw 

 light upon the history of mankind. 



Even now the multifarious origin of an- 

 thropology is reflected in the multiplicity 

 of its methods. The historian or the polit- 

 ical economist who comes into contact with 



