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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 542. 



PROBLEMS OF DISTRIBUTION. 



Anthropology' arose in Britain as a 

 branch of biology fertilized by the doctrine 

 of organic evolution ; it grew up in a field 

 of thought dominated by a tradition of 

 human descent from a single pair and 

 shaped by the habit of tracing nearer an- 

 cestry to the worthier sires in otherwise 

 neglected lineage— and the coincidence of 

 the doctrine of differentiation with re- 

 vered tradition and honorable regard for 

 honored sires led naturally to an assump- 

 tion of monogenesis. The assumption 

 spread and pervaded the writings and 

 teachings of anthropologists trained in the 

 biological school ; it still prevails, and is 

 still supported by the argument from biol- 

 ogy, though Keane and others have balked 

 at the corollary that wavy-haired white, 

 kinky-haired black, straight-haired red, 

 and variable-haired brown nestled in the 

 same womb and suckled at the same breast. 

 It is needful to note that the assumption, 

 albeit perfectly 'natural,' is purely gra- 

 tuitous, and that it is not sustained by a 

 single fact in anthropology as a science of 

 observed and observable actualities : the 

 blacks are not growing blacker, the reds are 

 not blushing redder, no new races are aris- 

 ing, no old types are increasing in divers- 

 ity; Graham Bell's note of warning against 

 the danger of a deaf race advertised a 

 solitary definite suggestion of the forma- 

 tion of a new human type, though even this 

 seems to weaken with the lapse of time; 

 indeed, it can not be too strongly empha- 

 sized that, howsoever besetting and entic- 

 ing the hypothesis of differentiation or 

 diversification of Homo sapiens may be, it 

 is absolutely without direct observational 

 basis. 



When practical anthropology arose in 

 America, it was seen by Gallatin and Mor- 

 gan and other pioneers that languages and 

 social usages tend to spread among con- 

 tiguous tribes; and as Indian students ad- 



vanced it was perceived that the tendency 

 toward activital interchange extended also 

 to arts and industries and myths, and had, 

 indeed, resulted in the development of 

 powerful federations (somewhat miscalled 

 'nations'), such as the Iroquois League and 

 the Dakota Confederacy. Meantime it 

 was observed that the spontaneous inter- 

 change of words and weapons, usages and 

 utensils, with contiguous tribes was sooner 

 or later accompanied by intermarriage, so 

 that blood and culture blent together. Of 

 course this observation merely reflected 

 the unwitting experience of every genera- 

 tion among every people in every land; 

 but, made as it was under the stress of 

 practical problems of polity and peace, it 

 awakened consciousness — and the law of 

 convergent development among mankind 

 was grasped. Once realized, the law was 

 found of wide application; it was per- 

 ceived that black folk are not growing 

 blacker, nor brown men browner, nor red 

 tribesmen redder, but that (among other 

 relations) some interchange of culture and 

 blood begins with first contact and in- 

 creases with time, until at least some of 

 the leaven of the highest humanity per- 

 vades the lump, while the ideals and stand- 

 ards of all progress toward unity; it was 

 perceived that the types of Homo sapiens 

 (i. e., the 'races' of mankind) are not dif- 

 ferentiating, but bent by that irresistible 

 mimetic impulse which is the mainspring 

 of elevation especially among the lower and 

 measurably among the higher; it was per- 

 ceived that culture is fertilized by contact 

 with other culture more effectively than in 

 any other fashion ; and it was perceived 

 that when the initial differences are not too 

 great, blood fertilizes blood in such wise 

 that the vigor of a people may be meas- 

 ured by the complexity of their interwoven 

 strains— that European yesterday and 

 American to-day led and still lead the 

 world because the blood of each streamed 



