534 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 226 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



'*:t*The attention of scientific men is called to the advantages 

 of the correspondence columns of SCIENCE for placing promptly 

 an record hrief preliminary notices of their investigations. 

 Twenty copies of the number containing his communication 

 will he furnished free to any correspondent on request. 



The editor will he glad to puhlish any queries consonant with 

 the character of the journal. 



Correspondents are requested to he as hriefas possible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



The occurrence of similar inventions in areas 

 widely apart. 



In Science of May 20, Dr. Franz Boas lias reviewed 

 in a very courteous manner my plan of studying and 

 exhibiting anthropological material, to which I am 

 happy to make reply. 



I think that Dr. Boas honors me overmuch in 

 giving me the entire credit for a system which had 

 taken possession of some men's minds before I was 

 born. As your space will not allow an extended argu- 

 ment, I shall confine myself to general statements. 



1. Whoever attempts to classify material must first 

 have in his mind certain notions, ideas, or character- 

 istics by means of which he will separate one object 

 from another. These ideas let us 'call ' classific 

 concepts.' 



2. AH curators of anthropological museums must 

 recognize the following classific concepts : material, 

 race, geographical areas, social organizations, en- 

 vironment, structure and function, and evolution or 

 elaboration. Besides these, there are other minor 

 concepts which enter into a more minute classifica- 

 tion. 



3. Every scientific anthropologist charged with a 

 great collection has in his own mind decided the 

 order in which these concepts should be considered 

 in the distribution of material, and I consider this 

 the greatest blessing to science. If all the museums 

 in the world were arranged upon the same plan, 

 only one set of philosophical problems could be con- 

 sidered, and the study would be correspondingly 

 circumscribed. If, however, such a measure be- 

 comes necessary, I sincerely hope the plan will be 

 that of the national miiseum at Washington. Let it 

 be distinctly kept in mind that the only difference 

 among curators is in the degree of prominence given 

 to each concept. 



4. There is another factor which enters into the 

 arrangement of material, and that is those who are 

 to study the material. For instance, there are 

 archeologists, ceramists, musicians, technologists of 

 many kinds, and students of Avar, religion, and the 

 aesthetic arts, who desire to see, in juxtaposition, 

 the specimens which they would study. On the 

 other hand, there are ethnologists and sociologists 

 who desire to see all that belongs to a consanguine 

 race, or to a geographical area, in juxtaposition. 



One of the most delightful incentives technique 

 as the ruling concept is the great variety of intelli- 

 gent people who can be brought into co-operation 

 in the work. It seems that there is something for 

 everybody on earth to do, and I attribute the phe- 

 nomenally rapid growth, at little cost, of the national 

 mtiseum, to the great variety of minds that catch its 

 spirit and are glad to work for it in their several 

 spheres. 

 _ Now, in a museum properly constructed it is pos- 

 sible to arrange the cases in the form of a checker- 

 board, so that by going in a certain direction the 

 parallels of cases represent races or tribes or loca- 

 tions. By inspecting the same cases in a direction 



at right angles to the former, the visitor may study 

 all the products of human activity in classes accord- 

 ing to human wants. At any rate, whatever the 

 fundamental conception be, in any museum every 

 thing should tend to enlist the sympathies and co- 

 operation of the greatest diversity of mind. 



Finally, as regards similarities in the products of 

 industry of areas wide apart, I think Dr. Boas's 

 suggestion about superficial similarities from unlike 

 causes a very ingenious one, but it has nothing to 

 do with the case. Except in a general way, his affir- 

 mation that similar effects proceed from different 

 causes will hardly meet with acceptance, in the face 

 of the axiom that ' like effects spring from like 

 causes.' 



In another place I have sought to show the grada- 

 tions of similarities. Superficial, formal, or func- 

 tional similarities in nature may spring from dia- 

 metrically opposite motives, as in the case of mim- 

 icry. But according to the doctrine of chances, the 

 possibility of similar effects diminishes with the 

 complexity of the organization and the number of 

 co-operating factors. 



The perplexing question is this : Can these simi- 

 larities be made to throw any light upon the migra- 

 tions of men ? The philosophical ethnologist is 

 always in a ' double corner,' by reason of two inter- 

 pretations of similarities, — the one arguing contact 

 of some kind ; the other, disconnected causes, 

 whether similar or dissimilar it matters not. 



I think it is a growing conviction that inventions 

 of both customs and things spring from prior inven- 

 tions, just as life springs from life, and that the 

 sooner we recognize the fact that in the study of 

 arts, institutions, language, knowledge, customs, re- 

 ligion, and races of mep, we must always apply the 

 methods and instrumentalities of the biologist, the 

 sooner will our beloved science stand upon an im- 

 movable foundation. 



There is a disposition to magnify the importance 

 of museum specimens. The valuable thing about 

 them is the knowledge we acquire concerning them. 

 A museum is an encyclopaedia, with specimens in- 

 stead of pictures. I hold, and would emphasize, the 

 opinion that the explorer who goes among a people 

 to studj"^ their entire creed and activity will do his 

 work better by having in his mind the determination 

 to bring each industry into comparison with the 

 same activities in otjier times and places.' 



There is one thought which should always be borne 

 in mind in considering the biological method of 

 treating ethnological material. In the natural world 

 some beings are monorganic, others are poly- 

 organic. It is so in the history of human inven- 

 tions, therefore in the arrangement of specimens 

 there are things which mxist always apjDear in sets. 

 No one should think of separating a suit of clothing, 

 a full-rigged vessel, the entire outfit of the arrow- 

 maker, potter, weaver, or other craftsman. Pro- 

 fessor Putnam would not think of separating the 

 entire contents of a mound. Each of these things 

 mentioned is a polj'organic unit whose parts are 

 just as much related as the parts of the human 

 body. 



In conclusion, it is but just to remark that during 

 the two years in which I have had charge of the de- 

 partment of ethnology in the national museum, I 

 have given no attention as yet to the west coast of 

 America from California to Mount St. Elias. To 

 this fact, and not to any fault in my system, must 



