THE PAST PROGRESS AND PRESENT POSITION OF THE 

 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 1 



By E. W. Brabrook. 



I am very sensible of the honor of presiding over this section at a 

 Bristol meeting. Bristol, from its association with the memory of 

 J. C. Prichard, may be regarded as the very birthplace of British 

 anthropology. 



In submitting to this section some observations on the past progress 

 and the present position of the anthropological sciences I use the 

 plural term, which is generally adopted by our French colleagues, in 

 order to remind you that anthropology is in fact a group of sciences. 

 There is what in France is called pure anthropology or anthropology 

 proper, but which we prefer to call physical anthropology — the science 

 of the physical characters of man, including anthropometry and crani- 

 ology, and mainly based upon anatomy and physiology. There is com- 

 parative anthropology, which deals with the zoological position of man- 

 kind. There is prehistoric archeology, which covers a wide range of 

 inquiry into man's early works, and has to seek the aid of the geolo- 

 gist and the metallurgist. There is psychology, which comprehends 

 the whole operations of his mental faculties. There is linguistics, 

 which traces the history of human language. There is folklore, which 

 investigates man's traditions, customs, and beliefs. There are ethnog- 

 raphy, which describes the races of mankind, and ethnology, which 

 differentiates between them, both closely connected with geographical 

 science. There is sociology, which applies the learning accumulated 

 in all the other branches of anthropology to man's relation to his fel- 

 lows, and requires the cooperation of the statistician and the econo- 

 mist. How can any single person master in its entirety a group of 

 sciences which covers so wide a field, and requires in its students such 

 various faculties and qualifications"? Here, if anywhere, we must be 

 content to divide our labors. The grandeur and comprehensiveness of 

 the subject are among its attractions. The old saying, " I am a man, 



1 Opening address by E. W. Brabrook, C. B., F. S. A., president of the section of 

 anthropology. From Report of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, 1898, pp. 999-1010. 



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