1 64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE RELATION OF CULTURE TO ENVIRONMENT FROM 

 THE STANDPOINT OF INVENTION 



By Dr. CLARK WISSLER 



AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



THE relation between man's life and the physical make-up of the 

 earth has always been a serious problem. In our schools we often 

 hear the doctrine that geography is nothing more than the study of 

 peoples in their adjustment to the particular part of the earth they 

 inhabit. This emanates from the teachings of the great German geog- 

 raphers Humboldt and Ritter, to whom the physical features of the earth 

 were the determining factors in the distribution of life. Later Ratzel 

 took up the problem from a strictly human or anthropological point of 

 view and gave us the term anthropo-geography. The rapid development 

 of anthropology during the past twenty years, and especially its recent 

 trend toward a cultural point of view, has again brought to the front 

 this question of relationship between human activities and physical 

 geography. To anthropology the problem becomes rather fundamental, 

 and while not by any means so inclusive as it must be to anthropo- 

 geography, which must depend upon the truth of the assumption for 

 its existence, is nevertheless one whose solution is a matter of some 

 consequence. Thus the question of culture and environment becomes the 

 common concern of at least two sciences, geography and anthropology. 



A full discussion of the subject would take us over the whole field of 

 geography and anthropology; hence, we may here consider but a few 

 points. As a rule, those who discuss this problem know a great deal 

 more of geography than they do of anthropology and indeed it is but 

 recently that we had at hand anything like a complete collection of 

 data on the culture of even one non-historic group of people. As field- 

 anthropologists are now industriously increasing our knowledge of such 

 peoples, it may not be out of place to discuss the general problem from 

 the standpoint of these data. 



In such discussions it is convenient to make a provisional distinction 

 between cultural phenomena and biological phenomena and the most 

 convenient is that based upon heredity. The strictly anatomical char- 

 acters, physiological and psychological functions are innate, while cul- 

 ture is not innate but acquired by the individual during life by imita- 

 tive or educative processes. We can thus set over on one side man's 

 biological equipment, his bodily functions, mental characters, instincts, 

 etc., as against or in contrast to the cultural characters, or products of 

 these activities in social life. 



