ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 AS A PRACTICAL SCIENCE 
 
 ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT MEETINGS OF THE 
 
 BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT BIRMINGHAM, THE 
 
 ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY OF CAMBRIDGE, AND 
 
 THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY .. 
 
 OF OXFORD 
 
 BY T ■. - 
 
 SIR RICHARD C. TEMPLE, Bt. 
 
 HON. FELLOW OF TRINITY HALL, CAMBRIDGE, AND FORMERLY 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SECTION OF THE 
 
 BRITISH ASSOCIATION AND OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL 
 
 SOCIETY OF BOMBAY, AND MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL 
 
 OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE 
 
 LONDON 
 
 G. BELL AND SONS, LTD. 
 
 1914 
 
 Price One Shilling net 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 AS A PRACTICAL SCIENCE 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 AS A PRACTICAL SCIEIsXE 
 
 ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT MEETINGS 
 
 OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT BIRMINGHAM, 
 
 THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY OF CAMBRIDGE, 
 
 AND THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
 
 OF OXFORD 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR RICHARD C. TEMPLE, BT. 
 
 Hon. Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and formerly President of the 
 
 Anthropological Section of the British Association and of the 
 
 Anthropological Society of Bombay, and Member of the 
 
 Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute 
 
 . \ • ' ' • 
 
 LONDON 
 G. BELL AND SONS, LTD. 
 
 1914 
 
~t 
 
 r- 
 
 G^? 
 <^> 
 
 £") 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In 1904 I addressed the Cambridge Antiquarian 
 Society on the practical value of Anthropology at a 
 time when it was proposed to take up the study 
 thereof as part of the University course. In 1913 
 I took advantage of my position as President of 
 Section H (Anthropology) of the British Association 
 at Birmingham of impressing on the Section views 
 similar to those expressed at Cambridge. The 
 Birmingham address was followed up by a dis- 
 cussion. Since then I have twice had an oppor- 
 tunity of stating my ideas again, briefly on taking 
 the chair at Professor Seligmann's inaugural lecture 
 as Professor of Ethnology in the University of 
 London, and at length before the Anthropological 
 Society of Oxford in the presence of a number of 
 candidates for the Indian Ci\dl Ser\'ice. 
 
 One result of the efforts made at Birmingham 
 has been the acceptance by the University there 
 of a series of valuable lectures on the practical as 
 well as the scientific side of Cultural Anthropology by 
 a competent and experienced anthropologist, Mr. 
 A. R. Brown, of Cambridge. Another has been the 
 formation of a Joint Committee of the British 
 Association and the Royal Anthropological Institute 
 to find ways and means of securing an officially 
 supported training in anthropology for candidates 
 
 3 
 
A : : •: •/: PREFACE 
 
 ♦,'.«••.,•••, 
 
 for, and young officials in, the ci\dl services of our 
 colonies and dependencies. It appears to me, 
 therefore, that the time has now come for a ^\dder 
 circulation of addresses and lectures on the general 
 subject than has hitherto been possible. 
 
 Through the courtesy of the bodies concerned — 
 the British Association, the Royal Anthropological 
 Institute, the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, and 
 the Oxford Anthropological Society — I am able 
 to publish this little volume in the hope that it will 
 be of some service to those interested in the im- 
 portant subject of Cultural Anthropology^ — the 
 study of the ways and thoughts of mankind. 
 
 R. C. TEMPLE. 
 
 The Nash, 
 
 Worcester, 1914. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATIVE VALUE OF 
 
 ANTHROPOLOGY .... 7 
 
 Presidential Address to Section H (Anthro- 
 pology) of the British Association for 
 the Advancement of Science, at Birming- 
 ham in 1913. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR A SCHOOL OF 
 
 APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY . . 38 
 
 Paper read at Birmingham in 19 13, and 
 discussion on the Practical Application 
 of Anthropological Teaching in Universi- 
 ties. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF ANTHRO- 
 POLOGY . . . ^(\ . . 57 
 
 Address to the Antiquarian Society of Cam- 
 bridge in 1904. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE VALUE OF A TRAINING IN 
 ANTHROPOLOGY FOR THE AD- 
 MINISTRATOR, WITH SPECIAL RE- 
 FERENCE TO CANDIDATES FOR 
 THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE . 91 
 
 Extracts from an Address to the Anthropolo- 
 gical Society of Oxford, in 1913. 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 AS A PRACTICAL SCIENCE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATIVE VALUE OF 
 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 Address to the Anthropological Section of the British 
 Association for the Advancement of Science, 
 delivered at Birmingham in 19 13. 
 
 The title of the body of which those present 
 at this meeting form a section is, as all my hearers 
 will know, the British Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science, and it seems to me therefore 
 that the primary duty of a sectional President 
 is to do what in him hes, for the time being, to 
 forward the work of his section. This may be 
 done in more than one way : by a survey of the 
 work done up to date and an appreciation of its 
 existing position and future prospects, by an 
 address forwarding it in some particular point or 
 aspect, by considering its apphcability to what 
 is called the practical side of human life. The 
 choice of method seems to me to depend on the 
 circumstances of each meeting, and I am about to 
 choose the last of those above mentioned, and to 
 conhne my address to a consideration of the adminis- 
 trative value of anthropology, because the locahty 
 
 7 
 
8 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 in which we are met together and the spirit of the 
 present moment seem to indicate that I shall best 
 serve the interests of the anthropological section 
 of the British Association by a dissertation on the 
 importance of this particular science to those who 
 are or may hereafter be called upon to administer 
 the pubhc jagairs of the Jand in which they may 
 reside. '~~" " "^ 
 
 I have to approach the practical aspect of the 
 general subject of anthropology under the difficulty 
 of finding myself once more riding an old hobby, 
 and being consequently confronted with views and 
 remarks already expressed in much detail. But 
 I am not greatly disturbed by this fact, as experience 
 teaches that the most effective way of impressing 
 ideas, in which one beheves, on one's feUow man 
 is to miss no opportunity of putting them forward, 
 even at the risk of repeating what may not yet 
 have been forgotten. And as I am convinced that 
 the teachings of anthropologists are of practical 
 value to those engaged in guiding the administration 
 of their own or another countr}'% I am prepared to 
 take that risk. 
 
 Anthropology is, of course, in its baldest sense 
 the study of mankind in all its possible ramifications, 
 a subject far too wide for any one science to cover, 
 and therefore the real point for consideration on 
 such an occasion as this is not so much what the 
 students of mankind and its environments might 
 study if they chose, but what the scope of their 
 studies now actually is, and wliither it is tending. 
 I propose, therefore, to discuss the subject in this 
 hmited sense. 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 9 
 
 What then is the anthropology of to-day, that 
 claims to- be of practical value to the administrator ? 
 In what directions has it developed ? 
 
 Perhaps the best answer to these questions is 
 to be procured from our own volume of " Notes . 
 and Queries on Anthropology," a volume pubhshed j\) ^ 
 imder the arrangements of the Royal Anthropo- 
 logical Institute for the British Association. This 
 volume of " Notes and Queries " has been before 
 the pubhc for about forty years, and is now in the 
 fourth edition, which shows a great advance on 
 its predecessors and conforms to the stage of develop- 
 ment to wiiich the science has reached up to the .tj 
 present time. ' , 
 
 The object of the " Notes and Queries " is stated 
 to be " to promote accurate anthropological observa- ^(.°A 
 tion on the part of travellers (including all local ; ^^5v,l 
 observers) and to enable those who are not anthro- 
 pologists themselves to supply information which 
 is wanted for the scientific study of anthropology 
 at home." So, in the heads under which the subject 
 isT considered in this book, we have extiibited to 
 us the entire scope of the science as it now exists. - 
 These heads are (i) Physical Anthropology, (2) 
 Technology, (3) Sociology, (4) Arts and Sciences. 
 It is usual, however, nowadays to divide the subject V 
 into two main divisions — physical and cultural 
 anthropology. 
 
 Physical Anthropology aims at obtaining " as 
 exact a record as possible of the structure and 
 functions of the human body, with a view to deter- 
 mining how far these are dependent on inherited 
 and racial factors, and how far they vary with 
 
10 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 environment." This record is based on two separate 
 classes of physical observations : firstly on descriptive 
 characters, such as types of hair, colour of the eyes 
 and skin, and so on, and actual measurement ; and 
 secondly on attitudes, movements, and customary 
 actions. By the combined study of observations 
 on these points physical heredity is ascertained, 
 and a fair attribution of the race or races to which 
 individuals or groups belong can be arrived at. 
 
 But anthropology, as now studied, goes very much 
 further than inquiry into the physical structure of 
 the human races. Man, " unhke other animals, 
 habitually reinforces and enhances his natural 
 quahties and force by artificial means." He does, 
 or gets done for him, all sorts of things to his body 
 to improve its capacities or appearance, or to 
 protect it. He thus supphes himself wdth sanitary 
 appUances and surroundings, with bodily ornamen- 
 tation and ornaments, with protective clothing, 
 with habitations and furniture, with protection 
 against chmate and enemies, with works for the 
 supply of water and lire, with food and drink, drugs 
 and medicine. And for these purposes he hunts, 
 fishes, domesticates animals, and tills the soil, and 
 provides himself with implements for all these, and 
 also for defence and offence, and for the transport 
 of goods, involving working in wood, earth, stones, 
 bones, shells, metals and other hard materials, and 
 in leather, strings, nets, basketry, matting and 
 weaving, leading him to what are known as textile 
 industries. Some of this work has brought him to 
 mine and quarry, and to employ mechanical aids 
 in the shape of machinery, however rude and simple. 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY ii 
 
 The transport of himself and his belongings by land 
 and water has led him to a separate set of industries 
 and habits : to the use of paths, roads, bridges, and 
 halting places, of trailers, sledges, and wheeled 
 vehicles ; to the use of rafts, floats, canoes, coracles, 
 boats, and ships, and the means of propeUing them, 
 poles, paddles, oars, sails, and rigging. The whole 
 of these subjects is grouped by anthropologists 
 under the term Technology, which thus becomes 
 a very wide subject, covering all the means by which 
 a people supphes itself with the necessaries of its 
 mode of hvehhood. 
 
 In order to successfully carry on what may be 
 termed the necessary industries or even to be in a 
 position to cope with them, bodies of men have to 
 act in concert, and this forces mankind to be gre- 
 garious, a condition of hfe that involves the creation 
 of social relations. To understand, therefore, any 
 group of mankind, it is essential to study Sociology 
 side by side with Technology. The subjects for 
 inquiry here are the observances at crucial points 
 in the hfe history of the individual — birth, puberty, 
 marriage, death, daily hfe, nomenclature, and so 
 on ; the social organisation and the relationship 
 of individuals. On these follow the economics of 
 the social group, pastoral, agricultural, industrial, 
 and commercial, together with conceptions as to 
 property and inheritance (including slavery), as 
 to government, law and order, politics and morals ; 
 and finally the ideas as to war and the external 
 relations between communities. 
 
 We are still, however, very far from being able 
 to understand in all their fullness of development 
 
12 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 even the crudest of human communities, without 
 a further inquiry into the products of their purely 
 mental activities, which in the '' Notes and 
 Queries " are grouped under the term " Arts and 
 Sciences." Under this head are to be examined, 
 in the first place, the expression of the emotions 
 to the eye by physical movements and conditions, 
 and then by gestures^, signs jind sig nals, before we 
 come to language, which is primarily expressed by 
 the voice to the ear, and secondarily to the eye in 
 a more elaborate form by the graphic arts — 
 pictures, marks and writing. Man further tries 
 to express his emotions by what are known as the 
 Fine Arts ; that is by modifying the material 
 articles which he contrives for his hvehhood in a 
 manner that makes them represent to him some- 
 thing beyond their economic use — makes them 
 pleasant, representative or symbohcal — leading him 
 on to draw, paint, enamel, engrave, carve and 
 mould. In purely mental efforts this striving jto 
 satisfy the artistic or aesthetic sense takes the form 
 of stories, proverbs, riddles, songs, and music. 
 Dancing, drama, games, tricks and amusements are 
 other manifestations of the same effort, combining 
 in these cases the movements of the body with 
 those of the mind in expressing the emotions. 
 
 The mental processes necessary for the expression 
 of his emotions have induced man to extend his 
 powers of mind in directions now included in the 
 term " Abstract Reasoning." This had led him 
 to express the results of his reasoning by such terms 
 as reckoning and measurement, and to hx standards 
 for comparison in such immaterial but all essential 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 13 
 
 matters as enumeration, distance, surface, capacity, 
 weight, time, value and exchange. These last 
 enable him to reach the idea of money, which is 
 the measurement of value by means of tokens, 
 and represents perhaps the highest economic develop- 
 ment of the reasoning powers common to nearly 
 all mankind. 
 
 The mental capacities of man have so far been 
 considered only in relation to the expression of the 
 emotions and of the results of abstract reasoning ; 
 but they have served him also to develop other 
 results and expressions equally important, which 
 have arisen out of observation of his surroundings, 
 and have given birth to the Natural Sciences : 
 astronomy, meteorology, geography, topography 
 and natural history. And further they have 
 enabled him to memorise all these things by means 
 of records, which in their highest form have brought 
 about what is known to all of us as history, the 
 bugbear of impulsive and shallow thinkers, but 
 the very backbone of all solid opinion. 
 
 The last and most complex development of the 
 mental processes, dependent upon all the others 
 according to the degree to which they themselves 
 have been developed in any given variety of man- 
 kind, is, and has always been, present in every race 
 or group on record from the remotest to the most 
 recent time in some form or other and in a high 
 degree. Groups of men observ^e the phenomena 
 exhibited by themselves or their environment, and 
 account for them according to their mental capacity 
 as modified by their heredity. Man's bare abstract 
 reasoning, follo^^^ng on his obsen^ation of such 
 
14 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 phenomena, is his philosophy, but his inherited 
 emotions influence his reasoning to an almost 
 controlUng extent and induce his rehgion, which is 
 thus his philosophy or explanation of natural 
 phenomena as affected by his hereditary emotions, 
 producing that most wonderful of all human 
 phenomena, his belief. In the conditions, behef, 
 faith, and rehgion must and do vary with race, 
 period and environment. 
 
 Consequent on the behef, present or past of any 
 given variety of mankind, there follow rehgious 
 practices (customs as they are usually called) based 
 thereon, and described commonly in terms that are 
 famihar to all, but are nevertheless by no means 
 feven yet clearly defined : theology, heathenism, 
 // fetishism, animism, totemism, magic, superstition, 
 with soul, ghost, and spirit, and so on, as regards 
 mental concepts ; worship, ritual, prayer, sanctity, 
 sacrifice, taboo, etc., as regards custom and practice. 
 Thus have the anthropologists, as I understand 
 them, shown that they desire to answer the question 
 as to what their science is, and to explain the main 
 points in the subject of which they strive to obtain 
 and impart accurate knowledge based on scientific 
 inquiry : that is, on an inquiry methodically con- 
 ducted on hues which experience has shown them 
 will lead to the minimmn of error in observation 
 and record. 
 
 I trust I have been clear in my explanation of 
 the anthropologists' case, though in the time at 
 my disposal I have been unable to do more than 
 indicate the subjects they study, and have been 
 obliged to exercise restraint and to employ conden- 
 
-o 
 
 ANTHROPOLOGY 15 
 
 sation of statement to the utmost extent that even 
 a long experience in exposition enables one to achieve. 
 Briefly, the science of anthropology aims at such a 
 presentation and explanation of the physical and 
 mental facts about any given species or even group 
 of mankind as may correctly instruct those to whom 
 the acquisition of such knowledge may be of use. 
 In this instance, as in the case of the other sciences, 
 the man of science endeavours to acquire and pass 
 on abstract knowledge, which the man of affairs can 
 confidently apply in the daily business of practical 
 life. 
 
 It will have been observed that an accurate 
 presentation of the physical and mental character- 
 istics of any species of mankind which it is desired 
 to study is whoUy dependent on accurate inquiry 
 and report. Let no one suppose that such inquiry 
 is a matter of instinct or intuition, or that it can be 
 usefully conducted empirically or \vithout due 
 reference to the experiences of others ; in other 
 words without sufficient preHminary study. So 
 likely indeed are the uneducated in such matters 
 to observe and record facts about human beings 
 inaccurately, or even wTongly, that about a fourth 
 part of the " Notes and Queries " is taken up with u 
 showing the inquirer how to proceed, and in exposing ^"'i ^ 
 the pitfaUs into which he may unconsciously fall. |i. 
 The mainspring of error in anthropological observa- ./ 
 tion is that the inquirer is himself the product of /v 
 heredity and environment. This induces him to J^l'"^' 
 read himself, his own unconscious prejudices and ^-^^^ 
 inherited outlook on Hfe, into the statements made ^/v/w^ 
 to him by those who view life from perhaps a totally 1^^401 
 
^ 
 
 i6 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 different and incompatible standpoint. To the 
 extent that the inquirer does this, to that extent 
 are his observations and report likely to be inaccurate 
 and misleading. To avoid error in this respect, 
 previous training and study are essential, and so 
 the " Notes and Queries on Anthropolog}^" a guide 
 compiled in co-operation by persons long familiar 
 with the subject, is as strong and exphcit on the 
 point of how to inquire as on that of what to inquire 
 about. 
 
 Let me explain that these statements are not 
 intended to be taken as made ex cathedra, but 
 rather as the outcome of actual experience of mis- 
 takes made in the past. Time does not permit 
 me to go far into this point, and I must Hmit myself 
 to the subject of Sociology for my illustration. 
 If a man undertakes to inquire into the social hfe 
 ^j of a people or tribe as a subject apart, he is com- 
 mitting an error, and his report will ahnost certainly 
 j be misleading. Such an investigator will find that 
 I rehgion and technology are inextricably mixed up 
 I with the sociology of any given tribe, that rehgion 
 '^- intervenes at every point not only of sociology but 
 also of language and technology. In fact, just 
 /as in the case of all other scientific research, the 
 / phenomena observable by the anthropologists are 
 I not the result of development along any single 
 Hne alone, but of a progression in a main general 
 direction, as influenced, and it may be even 
 1 deflected, by contact and environment. 
 
 If again the inquirer neglects the simple but 
 essential practice of taking notes, not only fuUy, 
 but also immediately or as nearly so as practicable, 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY vj 
 
 he will find that his memoiy of facts, even after a 
 short time, has become vague, inexact, and in- 
 complete, which means that reports made from 
 memory are more hkely to be useless than to be of 
 any scientific value. If voluntary information or 
 indirect and accidental corroboration are ignored, 
 if questions are asked and answers accepted without 
 discretion, if exceptions are mistaken for rules, then 
 the records of an inquiry may well mislead and thus 
 become worse than useless. If leading or direct 
 questions are put without due caution, and if the 
 answers are recorded without reference to the 
 natives' and not the inquirer's mode of classifying 
 things, crucial errors may easily arise. Thus, 
 in many parts of the world, the term " mother " 
 includes all female relatives of the past or passing 
 generation, and the term " brother " the entire 
 brotherhood. Such expressions as " brother " and 
 *' sister " may and do constantly connote relation- 
 ships which are not recognised at all amongst us 
 The word " marriage " may include *' irrevocable 
 betrothal," and so on ; and it is very easy to fall 
 into the trap of the mistranslation of terms of 
 essential import, especially in the use of words 
 expressing rehgious conceptions. The conception 
 of godhead has for so long been our inheritance 
 that it may be classed almost as instinctive. It is 
 nevertheless still foreign to the instincts of a large 
 portion of mankind. 
 
 If also, when working among the uncultured, 
 
 * the inquirer attempts to ascertain abstract ideas, 
 
 except through concrete instances, he will not 
 
 succeed in his purpose for want of representative 
 
 B 
 
i8 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 terms. And lastly, if he fails to project himself 
 sufficiently into the minds of the subjects of inquiry, 
 or to respect their prejudices, or to regard seriously 
 .what they hold to be sacred, or to keep his con- 
 tenance while practices are being described which 
 to him may be disgusting or ridiculous — if indeed 
 he fails in any way in communicating to his inform- 
 ants, who are often super-sensitively suspicious in 
 such matters, the fact that his sympathy is not 
 feigned — he will also fail in obtaining the anthro- 
 pological knowledge he is seeking. In the words 
 of the " Notes and Queries " on this point, " Nothing 
 is easier than to do anthropological work of a certain 
 sort, but to get to the bottom of native customs 
 and modes of thought, and to record the results 
 of inquiry in such a manner that they carry con- 
 viction, is work which can be only carried out 
 properly by careful attention." 
 
 The foregoing considerations explain the scope 
 of our studies and the requirements of the prehmi- 
 ^ nary inquiries necessary to give those studies 
 value. The further question is the use to which 
 the results can be put. The point that at once 
 arises here for the immediate purpose is that of the 
 conditions under which the British Empire is 
 administered. We are here met together to talk 
 scientifically, that is, as precisely as we can : and so 
 it is necessary to give a definition to the expression 
 " Imperial Admmistration," especially as it is 
 constantly used for the government of an empire, 
 whereas in reahty it is the government that directs 
 the administration. In this address I use the term 
 ( " administration " as the disinterested management 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 19 
 
 of the details of public affairs. This excludes 
 "pontics" from our purview, defining that term as 
 the conduct of the government of a country 
 according to the opinions or in the interests of a 
 particular group or party. — — i==a 
 
 Now in this matter of administration the position 
 of the inhabitants of the British Isles is unique, 
 ftt falls to their lot to govern, directly or indirectly 
 the hves of members of nearly every variety of the 
 human race. Themselves Europeans by descent 
 and intimate connection, they have a large direct 
 interest in every other general geographical division 
 of the world and its inhabitants. It is worth while 
 to pause here for a moment to think, and to try and 
 reahse, however dimly, something of the task before 
 the people of this coimtry in the government and 
 control of what are known as the subject races. 
 
 For this purpose it is necessary to throw our 
 glance over the physical extent of the British Empire. 
 In the first place, there are the ten self-governing 
 components of the Dominion of Canada and that 
 of Newfoundland in North x\merica, the sLx Colonial 
 States in the Commonwealth of Austraha, with the 
 Dominion of New Zealand in Australasia, and the 
 four divisions of the Union of South Africa. All 
 these may be looked upon as indirectly administered 
 portions of the British Empire. Then there is the 
 mediatised government of Egypt, with its appanage, 
 the directly British administered Sudan, which 
 alone covers about a milhon square miles of territory 
 in thirteen provinces, in Northern Africa. These 
 two areas occupy, as it were, a position between the 
 self-governing and the directly-governed areas. 
 
20 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 Of these, there are in Europe Malta and Gibraltar, 
 Cyprus being officially included in Asia. In Asia 
 itself is the mighty Indian Empire, which includes 
 Aden and the Arabian Coast on the West and Burma 
 on the East, and many islands in the intervening 
 seas, with its fifteen provinces and some twenty 
 categories of Native States " in subordinate aUiance," 
 that is, under general Imperial control. To these 
 are added Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, and 
 the Malay States, federated or other. North Borneo 
 and Sarawak, and in the China Seas Hongkong and 
 Wei-hai-wei. In South Africa we find Basutoland, 
 Bechuanaland, and Rhodesia ; in British West 
 Africa, Gambia, the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and 
 Nigeria ; in Eastern and Central Africa, Somahland, 
 the East Africa Protectorate, Uganda, Zanzibar, and 
 Nyassaland ; while attached to Africa are the 
 Mauritius, Seychelles, Ascension and St. Helena. 
 In Central and South Amicrica are Honduras and 
 British Guiana, and attached to that continent the 
 Falkland Islands, and also Bermuda and the six 
 colonies of British West Indies. In the Pacific Ocean 
 are Fiji, Papua and many of the Pacific Islands. 
 
 I am afraid that once more during the course of 
 this exposition I have been obliged to resort to a 
 concentration of statement that is ahnost bewilder- 
 ing. But let that be. If one is to grapple success- 
 fully with a large and complex subject, it is necessary 
 to try and keep before the mind, so far as possible, not 
 only its magnitude, but the extent of its complexity. 
 This is the reason for bringing before you, however 
 briefly and generally, the main geographical details 
 of the British Empire. The lirstjoint to reahse 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 21 
 
 on such a survey is that the. mere extent of such 
 airEffipire makes the subject of its administration 
 an immensely important one for the British people. 
 
 The next point for consideration and reahsation 
 is tharan empiFe, situated in so many widely separ- 
 ated parts of the world, must contain within its 
 boundaries groups of every variety of mankind, 
 in such numerical strength as to render it necessary 
 to control them as individual entities. They do 
 not consist of small bodies lost in a general popu- 
 lation, and therefore neghgible from the adminis- 
 trator's point of view, but of whole races and tribes 
 or of large detachments thereof. 
 
 These tribes of mankind profess every variety of 
 rehgion known. They are Christians, Jews, Mahom- 
 medans, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Animists and 
 to use a very modern expression, Animatists, ad- 
 herents of main rehgions followed by an immense 
 variety of sects, governed, however loosely, by every 
 'species of philosophy that is or has been in fashion 
 among groups of mankind, and current in every 
 stage of development, from the simplest and most 
 primitive to the most historical and complex. 
 One has to bear in mind that we have within our 
 borders the Andamanese, the Papuan, and the Poly- 
 nesian, as well as the highly civihsed Hindu and 
 Chinese, and that not one of these, nor indeed of 
 many other peoples, has any tradition of philosophy 
 or rehgion in common with our own ; their very in- i^~ 
 stincts of faith and behef following other lines than , ;. 
 ours, the prejudices with which their minds ard ^ * • 
 saturated being altogether ahen to those witlj. ^,|4 
 which we ourselves are deeply imbued. 
 
22 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 The subjects of the British King-Emperor speak 
 between them most of the languages of the world, 
 and certainly every structural variety of human 
 speech has its example somewhere in the British 
 Empire. A number of these languages is still 
 only in the process of becoming understood by our 
 officials and other residents among their speakers, 
 and let there be no mistake as to the magnitude 
 of the question involved in the point of language 
 alone in British Imperial regions. A man may be 
 what is called a hnguist. He may have a working 
 knowledge of the main European languages and of the 
 great Oriental tongues, Arabic, Persian, and Hindus- 
 tani, which will carry him very far indeed among 
 the people — in a sense, in fact, from London to Cal- 
 cutta — and then, without leaving that compact 
 portion of the British Possessions known as the 
 Indian Empire, with all its immense variety of often 
 incompatible subordinate languages and dialects, 
 he has only to step across the border into Burma 
 and the Further East to find himself in a totally 
 ^«5,f'(i- different atmosphere- of speech, where not one of 
 I^^S the sounds, not one of the forms, not one of the 
 methods, with which he has become famiharised is 
 of any service to him whatever. The same observa- 
 tion wdll again be forced on him if he transfers him- 
 self thence to Southern Africa or to the Pacific Ocean. 
 Let him wander amongst the North American 
 Indians, and he will find the hnguistic climate 
 once more altogether changed. 
 J- ' ^ f Greater Britain may be said to exhibit all the many 
 ^^f^ varieties of internal social relations that have been 
 set up by tribes and groups of mankind — all the 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 23 
 
 different forms of family and general social organisa- 
 tion, of reckoning kinship, of inheritance and control 
 of the possession of property, of deahng with the 
 birth of children and their education and training, 
 physical, mental, moral, and professional, in many 
 cases by methods entirely foreign to British ideas 
 and habits. For instance, infanticide as a custom ^ ^ 
 has many different sources of origin. 
 
 Our fellow-subjects of the King follow, somewhere 
 or other, all the different notions and habits that have 
 been formed by mankind as to the relations between 
 the sexes, both permanent and temporary, as to 
 marriage and to what have been aptly termed 
 supplementary unions. And finally, their methods 
 of deahng with death and bringing it about, of dis- 
 posing of the dead and worshipping them, give 
 expression to ideas, which it requires study for an 
 inhabitant of Great Britain to appreciate or under- 
 stand. I may quote here as an example, that of 
 all the forms of human head-hunting and other 
 ceremonial murder that have come wdthin my 
 cognisance, either as an administrator or investiga- 
 tor, not one has originated in callousness or cruelty 
 of character. Indeed, from the point of view of the 
 perpetrators, they are invariably resorted to for 
 the temporal or spiritual benefit of themselves or 
 their tribe. . In making this remark, I must not be 
 understood as proposing that they should not be 
 put dowTi, wherever that is practicable. I am 
 merely trying now to give an anthropological ><» 
 explanation of human phenomena. ^ 
 
 In very many parts of the British Empire, the] 
 routine of daily life and the notions that govern it j 
 
24 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 often iind no counterparts of any kind in those of 
 the British Isles, in such matters as personal habits 
 and etiquette on occasions of social intercourse. 
 And yet, perhaps, nothing estranges the adminis- 
 trator from his people more than mistakes on these' 
 lu -' l_points^ It is small matters — such as the mode of 
 salutation, forms of address and politeness, as rules of 
 precedence, hospitality, and decency, as recognition 
 of superstitions, however apparently unreasonable 
 — which largely govern social relations, which no 
 stranger can afford to ignore, and which at the 
 same time cannot be ascertained and observed 
 correctly without due study. 
 
 The considerations so far urged to-day have carried 
 us through the points of the nature and scope of 
 the science of anthropology, the mental equipment 
 necessary for the useful pursuit of it, the methods 
 by which it can be successfully studied, the extent 
 and nature of the British Empire, the kind of 
 knowledge of the alien populations wdthin its boun- 
 daries required by persons of British origin who 
 would administer the Empire with benefit to the 
 people dwelling in it, and the importance to such 
 persons of acquiring that knowledge. 
 
 I now turn to the present situation as to this last 
 point and its possible improvement, though in doing 
 so I have to cover ground that some of those present 
 may think I have already trodden bare. The main 
 proposition here is simple enough. The Empire 
 is governed from the British Isles, and therefore 
 year by year a large number of young men is sent 
 out to its various component parts, and to them 
 must inevitably be entrusted in due course the 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 25 
 
 administrative, commercial, and social control over 
 many alien races. If their relations with the foreign r, 
 peoples \\dth whom they come in contact are to be ; 
 successful, they must acquire a working knowledge •- 1 
 of the habits, customs, and ideas that govern the ' (IQ 
 conduct of those peoples, and of the conditions in J 
 which they pass their lives. All those who succeed 
 find these things out for themselves, and discern 
 that success in administration and commerce is 
 intimately affected by success in social relations, 
 and that that in its turn is dependent on the know- 
 ledge they may attain of those with whom they have 
 to deal. They set about learning what they can, 
 but of necessity empirically, trusting to keenness 
 of obser\'ation, because such self-tuition is, as it 
 were, a side issue in the immediate and imperative 
 business of their lives. But, as I have already said 
 elsewhere, the man who is obhged to obtain the 
 requisite knowledge empirically, and without any 
 previous training in observation, is heavily handi- 
 capped indeed in comparison with him who has 
 already acquired the habit of right observ^ation, and, 
 what is of much more importance, has been put 
 in the way of correctly interpreting his observations 
 in his youth. 
 
 To put the proposition in its briefest form : in 
 order to succeed in administration a man must use 
 tact. Tact is the social expression of discernment 
 and insight, quahties born of intuitive anthropologi- L 
 cal knowledge, and that is what it is necessary to 
 induce in those sent abroad to become eventually 
 the controllers of other kinds of men. What is 
 required, therefore, is that in youth they should have 
 
26 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 imbibed the anthropological habit, so that as a 
 result of having been taught how to study mankind, 
 they may learn what it is necessary to know of those 
 about them correctly, and in the shortest practicable 
 time. The years of active life now unavoidably 
 wasted in securing this knowledge, often inade- 
 quately and incorrectly even in the case of the 
 ^ablest, can thus be saved, to the incalculable 
 i benefit of both the governors and the governed. 
 
 The situation has, for some years past, been 
 appreciated by those who have occupied themselves 
 with the science we are assembled here to promote, 
 and several efforts have been made by the Royal 
 Anthropological Institute and the Universities 
 of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, at any rate 
 to bring the pubhc benefits accruing from the 
 estabHshment of anthropological schools before 
 the Government and the people of this country. 
 
 In 1902 the Royal Anthropological Institute sent 
 a deputation to the Government with a view to the 
 establishment of an official Anthropometric Survey 
 of the United Kingdom, in order to test the founda- 
 tion for fears, then widely expressed, as to the 
 physical deterioration of the population. In 1909 
 the Institute sent a second deputation to the present 
 Government, to urge the need for the official training 
 in anthropology of candidates for the Consular 
 Service and of the Indian and Colonial Civil Services. 
 There is happily every reason to hope that the PubHc 
 Services Commission may act on the recommenda- 
 tions then made. This year (19 13) the Institute re- 
 turned to the charge and approached the Secretary of 
 State for India, with a view to making anthropology 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 27 
 
 an integral feature of the studies of the Oriental 
 Research Institute, to the estabUshment of which the 
 Government of India had officially proposed to 
 give special attention. The Institute has also 
 lately arranged to deal with all questions of scientific 
 import that may come before the newly constituted 
 Bureau of Ethnology at the Royal Colonial Institute, ^^ 
 in the hope with its co-operation of eventually 
 estabHshing a great desideratum — an Imperial Bureau ^/^ 
 of Ethnology. It has further had in hand a scheme 
 for the systematic and thorough distribution of 
 local correspondents throughout the world. 
 
 At Oxford, anthropology as a serious study was 
 recognised by the appointment, in 1884, of a Reader, 
 who was afterwards given the status of a Professor. 
 In 1885, it was admitted as a special subject in the 
 Final Honours School of Natural Science. In 1904, 
 
 a memorandum was drawn up by those interested in 
 the study at the University, advocating a method 
 of systematic training in it, which resulted in the 
 formation of the Committee of Anthropology in the 
 follo\ving year. This Committee has estabHshed a 
 series of lectures and examinations for a diploma 
 which can be taken as part of the degree course, 
 but js^^pen to all officers of the pubhc services as 
 well. By these means a School of Anthropology 
 has "'been created at Oxford, which has already 
 registered many students, among whom officers 
 engaged in the administration of the British Colonies 
 in Africa and members of the Indian Civil Service 
 have been included. The whole question has been 
 systematically taken up in all its aspects, the in- 
 struction, formal and informal, comprising physical 
 
 
28 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 anthropology, psychology, geographical distribu- 
 tion, prehistoric archaeology, technology, sociology, 
 and philology. 
 
 At Cambridge, in 1893, there was a recognised 
 Lecturer in Physical Anthropology, an informal 
 ofhce now represented by a Lecturer in Physical 
 Anthropology and a Reader in Ethnology, regularly 
 appointed by the University. In 1904, as a result 
 of an expedition to Torres Straits, a Board of 
 Anthropological Studies was formed, and a Diploma 
 in Anthropology instituted, to be granted, not for 
 success in examinations, but in recognition of 
 meritorious personal research. At the same time, 
 in order to help students, among whom were in- 
 cluded officials in the African and Indian Civil 
 Services, the Board established lectures on the same 
 subjects as those taught at Oxford. This year, 1913, 
 the University has instituted an Anthropological 
 Tripos for its Degrees on lines similar to the others. 
 The distinguishing feature of the Cambridge system 
 is the prominence given to field work, and this is 
 attracting foreign students of all sorts. 
 
 In 1909, joint representations were made by a 
 
 deputation from the Universities of Oxford and 
 
 \ Cambridge to both the India and Colonial Offices, 
 
 advocating the training of Civil Service candidates 
 
 and probationers in ethnology and primitive 
 
 |(fiL< rehgi( 
 
 / 
 
 established a Lectureship in Ethnology in connec- 
 tion with the University of London, which has since 
 developed into a Professorship of Ethnology with a 
 Lectureship in Physical Anthropology. In the 
 
 ' In 1904, the generosity of a private individual 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 29 
 
 same year the same benefactor instituted a Chair 
 of Sociology. In 1909 the University estabhshed a 
 Board of Anthropology, and the subject is now 
 included in the curricula for the Degrees of the 
 University. In and after 19 14, Anthropology will 
 be a branch of the Science Honours Degree. The 
 Degree course of the future covers both physical 
 and cultural anthropology in regard to zoology, 
 palceontology, physiology, psychology, archaeology, 
 technology, sociolog3^ Hnguistics and ethnology. 
 There will also be courses in ethnology with special 
 attention to field work for officials and missionaries, 
 and it is interesting to note that students of Egypt- 
 ology are already taking a course of lectures in 
 ethnology and physical anthropology. 
 
 Though the Universities have thus been definite 
 enough in their action where the authority is vested 
 in them, it is needless to say that their representations 
 to Governments have met with varying success, 
 and so far they have not produced much practical 
 result. But it is as well to note here that a precedent 
 for the prehminary anthropological training of 
 probationers in the Colonial Civil Service has been 
 already set up, as the Government of the Sudan has 
 directed that every candidate for its services shall 
 go through a course of anthropology at Oxford or 
 Cambridge. In addition to this, the Sudan Govern- 
 ment has given a grant to enable a competent 
 anthropologist from London to run a small scientific 
 surv^ey of the peoples under its administration. The 
 Assam Government has arranged its ethnographical 
 monographs on the lines of the British Association's 
 " Notes and Queries " with much benefit to itself, 
 
30 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 and it is believed that the Burma Government will 
 do likewise. 
 
 Speaking in this place to such an audience as that 
 before me, and encouraged by what has already been 
 done elsewhere, I cannot think that I can be mis- 
 taken in venturing to recommend the encourage- 
 ment of the study of anthropology to the University 
 of such a city as Birmingham, which has almost un- 
 Umited interests throughout the British Empire. 
 Eor it should be remembered that anthropological 
 knowledge is as useful to merchants in partihns in 
 deahng with ahens as to administrators so situated. 
 Should this suggestion bear fruit, and should it be 
 thought advisable some day to estabhsh a School of 
 Anthropology in Birmingham; I would also venture 
 to point out that there are two requirements pre- 
 hminar}^ to the successful formation of almost any 
 school of study. These are a hbrary and a museum 
 ad hoc. At Oxford there is a well known and well 
 conducted anthropological museimi in the Pitt 
 Rivers Collection, and the Museum of Archaeology 
 and Ethnology at Cambridge contains collections of 
 the greatest service to the anthropologist. Liverpool 
 is also interesting itself in such matters. The Royal 
 Anthropological Institute is forming a special hbrary, 
 and both that Institute and the University of 
 London have the benefit of the splendid collections 
 of the British Museum and of the Horniman Museum 
 readily accessible. The hbraries at Oxford and 
 Cambridge are, I need hardly say, of world-wide 
 pfame. At all these places of learning, then, these 
 a \ requisites for this department of knowledge are 
 J, forthcoming. 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 31 
 
 It were almost superfluous to state why they are 
 requisites. Every student requires, not only com- 
 petent teachers to guide him in his particular branch 
 of study, but also a hbrary and a museum close at 
 hand, where he can find the information he wants 
 and the illustration of it. Where these exist, thither 
 it will be found that students \vi]l flock. Birming- 
 ham possesses pecuhar facihties for the formation of \ 
 both, as the city has all over the Empire its com- 
 mercial representatives, who can collect the required 
 museum specimens on the spot. The financial 
 labours also of those who distribute these men over 
 Greater Britain, and indeed all over the world, pro- 
 duce the means to create the hbrary and the school, 
 and their universal interests provide the incentive for 
 securing for those in their employ the best method of 
 acquiring a knowledge of men that can be turned to 
 useful commercial purpose. Beyond these sugges- 
 tions I will not pursue this point now, except to 
 express a hope that this discourse may lead to a 
 discussion thereon before this meeting breaks up. 
 
 Before I quit my subject I would like to be some- 
 what insistent on the fact that, though I have been 
 dweUing so far exclusively on the business side, as it 
 were, of the study of anthropology, it has a personal 
 side as well. IjytQuld^hke^^to impress once more on rjl/3 
 the student, as I have often had occasion to do ~ r T/^ 
 already, that whether he is studying of his own free Y 
 will or at the behest of circumstances, there is hardly 
 any better hobby in existence than this, or one that 
 can be ridden with greater pleasure. It cannot, 
 of course, be mastered in a day. At first the lessons 
 will be a grind. Then, until they are well learnt, 
 
 ^ 
 
32 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 they are irksome, but when fullness of knowledge 
 and maturity of judgment are attained, there is, per- 
 haps, no keener sense of satisfaction which human 
 beings can experience than that which is afforded 
 by this study. Its range is so wide, its phases so 
 very many, the interests involved in it so various, 
 that it cannot fail to pleasantly occupy the leisure 
 hours from youth to full manhood, and to be a 
 solace, in some aspect or other, in advanced hfe 
 and old age. 
 
 The processes of discovery in the course of this 
 study are of such interest in themselves that I 
 should wish to give many instances, but I must 
 confine myself now to one or two. The student 
 will find on investigation, for instance, that how- 
 ever childish the reasoning of savages may appear 
 to be on abstract subjects and however silly some 
 of their customs may seem, they are neither childish 
 nor silly in reahty. They are almost always the 
 result of " correct argument from a false premiss " 
 y^ — a mental process not unknown to civihsed races. 
 The student will also surely find that savages are 
 not fools where their concrete interests are concerned, 
 as they conceive those interests to be. For example, 
 in commerce, beads do not appeal to savages merely 
 because they are pretty things, except for purposes 
 of adornment. They will only part with articles 
 they value for particular sorts of beads which are to 
 them money, in that they can procure in exchange 
 for them, in their own country, something they 
 much desire. They have no other reason for 
 accepting any kind of bead in payment for goods. 
 On few anthropological points can mistakes be 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 33 
 
 made more readily than on this, and when they are 
 made by merchants, financial disaster can well 
 follow, so that what I have already said elsewhere 
 as to this may bear repetition in part here. Savages 
 in their bargains with civilised man never make one 
 that does not, for reasons of their own, satisfy 
 themselves. Each side, in such a case, views the 
 bargain according to its own interest. On his side, 
 the trader buys something of great value to him, when 
 he has taken it elsewhere, with something of Httle 
 value to him, which he has brought from elsewhere, 
 and then, and only then, can he make what is to 
 him a magnificent bargain. On the other hand the 
 savage is more than satisfied, because with what 
 he has got from the trader he can procure from 
 among his own people something he very much 
 covets, which the article he parted with could not 
 have procured for him. Both sides profit by the bar- 
 gain from their respective points of view, and 
 traders cannot, as a matter of fact, take undue 
 advantage of savages, who, as a body, part with 
 products of httle or no value to themselves for 
 others of vital importance, though these last may be 
 of httle or none to the civihsed trader. The more 
 one dives into recorded bargains, the more clearly 
 one sees the truth of this view. 
 
 I have always advocated personal inquiry into 
 the native currency and money, even of pre-British 
 days, of the people amongst whom a Britisher's lot 
 is cast, for the reason that the study of the mental 
 processes that lead up to commercial relations, 
 internal and external, the customs concerned with 
 daily buying and selhng, take one more deeply into 
 
34 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 aliens' habits of mind and their outlook on practical 
 life than any other branch of research. The student 
 will find himself involuntarily acquiring a know- 
 ledge of the whole hfe of a people, even of super- 
 stitions and local politics, matters that commercial 
 men, as well as administrators, cannot, if they only 
 knew it, ever afford to ignore. The study has also 
 a great intellectual interest, and neither the man of 
 commicrce nor the man of affairs should disregard 
 this side of it if he would attain success in every 
 sense of that term. 
 
 Just let me give one instance from personal 
 experience. A few years back a nimiber of ingots 
 of tin, in the form of birds and animals and imitations 
 thereof, hollow tokens of tin ingots, together with 
 a number of rough notes taken on the spot, were 
 handed over to me for investigation and report. 
 They came from the Federated Malay States, and 
 were variously said to have been used as toys and as 
 money in some form. A long and careful investi- 
 gation unearthed the whole story. They turned 
 out to be surviving specimens of an obsolete and 
 forgotten Malay currency. Bit by bit, by researches 
 into travellers' stories and old records, European and 
 vernacular, it was ascertained that some of these 
 specimens were currency and some money, and 
 that they belonged to two separate series. Their 
 relations to each other were ascertained, and also 
 to the currencies of the European and Oriental 
 nations with whom the Malays of the Peninsula had 
 come in contact. The mint profit in some instances, 
 and in other instances the actual profit European 
 governments and mercantile authorities, and even 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 35 
 
 native traders, had made in recorded transactions 
 of the past, was found out. The origin of the 
 British, Dutch, and Portuguese money, evolved for 
 trading with the Malays, was disclosed, and several 
 interesting historical discoveries were made ; as, 
 for instance, the explanation of the coins still 
 remaining in museums and issued in 15 10 by 
 the great Portuguese conqueror, Albuquerque, for 
 the then new Malay possessions of his country, and 
 the meaning of the numismatic plates of the great 
 French traveller Tavemier in the next century. 
 Perhaps the most interesting, and anthropologically 
 the most important, discovery was the relation of 
 the ideas that led up to the animal currency of the 
 ^Malays to similar ideas in India, Central Asia, China, 
 and Europe itself throughout all historical times. 
 One wonders how many people in these isles grasp 
 the fact that our own monetary scale of 960 farthings 
 to the sovereign, and the native Malay scale of 
 1,280 cash to the dollar, are representatives of one 
 and the same universal scale, with more than 
 probably one and the same origin out of a simple 
 method of counting seeds, peas, beans, shells, or 
 other small natural constant weights. But the 
 point for the present purpose is that not only will 
 the student find that long practice in anthropological 
 inquiry, and the learning resulting therefrom, will 
 enable him to make similar discoveries, but also 
 that the process of discovery is intensely interesting. 
 Such discoveries, too, are of practical value. In 
 this instance they have taught us much of native 
 habits of thought and views of Hfe in newly 
 acquired possessions which no administrator there, 
 
36 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 mercantile or governmental, can set aside with 
 safety. 
 
 I must not dwell too long on this aspect of my 
 subject, and will only add the follov/ing remark. 
 If any of my hearers will go to the Pitt -Rivers 
 Museum at Oxford he will find many small collections 
 recording the historical evolution of various common 
 objects. Among them is a series showing the 
 history of the tobacco pipe, commonly known to 
 literary students in this country as the nargileh 
 and to Orientalists as the hukka. At one end 
 of the series will be found a hollow cocoanut wdth 
 an artificial hole in it, and then every step in 
 evolution between that and an elaborate hukka 
 with its long, flexible, drawing-tube at the other 
 end. I give this instance as I contributed the 
 series, and I well remember the eagerness of the 
 hunt in the Indian bazaars and the satisfaction on 
 proving every step in the evolution. 
 
 There is one aspect of life where the anthropological 
 instinct would be more than useful, but to which, 
 alas, it cannot be extended in practice. Politics, 
 government, and administration are so inter- 
 dependent throughout the world that it has always 
 seemed to me to be a pity that the value to himself 
 of following the principles of anthropology cannot 
 be impressed on the average pohtician of any 
 nationality. I fear it is hopeless to expect it. 
 Were it only possible the extent of the consequent 
 benefit to mankind is at present beyond human 
 forecast, as then the pohtician could approach his 
 work without that arrogance of ignorance of his 
 fellow-countrymen on all points except their 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 37 
 
 credulity that is the bane of the ordinary types 
 of his kind wherever found: — that ignorant 
 assumption of rectitude with which they have 
 always poisoned and are still poisoning their minds, 
 mistaking the satisfaction of the immediate tem- 
 porary interests and prejudices of themselves and 
 comrades for the permanent advantage of the whole 
 people, whom, in consequence, they incontinently 
 misgovern whenever and for so long as their country 
 is so undisceming as to place them in power. 
 
 Permit me, in conclusion, to enforce the main 
 argument of this address by a personal note. It 
 was my fortune to have been partly trained in youth 
 at a University College, where the tendency was to 
 produce men of affairs rather than men of the 
 schools, and only the other day it was my privilege 
 to hear the present master of the College, my own 
 contemporary and fellow-undergraduate, expound 
 the system of training still carried out there. " In 
 the government of young men," he said, " intellect 
 is aU very well, but sympathy counts for very much 
 more." Here we have the root principle of Apphed 
 Anthropology. Here we have in a nutshell the full^ 
 import of its teaching. The sound administration 
 of the affairs of men can only be based on cultured 
 sympathy, that sympathy on sure knowledge, that 
 knowledge on competent study, that study on 
 accurate inquiry, that inquiry on right method, and 
 that method on continuous experience. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR A SCHOOL OF APPLIED 
 ANTHROPOLOGY. 
 
 Report of a discussion on the practical application 
 of Anthropological teaching in Universities, 
 held at Birmingham in 19 13. 
 
 Sir Richard Temple opened the discussion with a 
 short paper on Suggestions for a School of 
 Applied Anthropology. 
 
 The object of this paper is to provide a basis for a 
 
 discussion on the advisabihty and on ways and means 
 
 of estabhshing a School of Apphed Anthropology. 
 
 In the course of my Presidential Address to Section 
 
 H (Anthropology), it is explained that the desire of 
 
 teachers and students of Anthropology is to acquire 
 
 y^ and impart abstract knowledge about human beings 
 
 I which men of affairs and commerce can confidently 
 
 apply in the daily business of practical hfe to the 
 
 benefit of themselves and of those with whom they 
 
 come in contact, such knowledge being based on 
 
 inquiries methodically conducted on hues which 
 
 experience has shown will lead to the minimum of 
 
 error in observation and record. 
 
 . It is pointed out that it is not enough in the case 
 
 of mankind, or, indeed, of almost any hving thing, 
 
 to study physical structure only, but that the pro- 
 
 38 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 39 
 
 ducts of the mind, as shown in habits of thought and 
 action, must also be studied. The anthropologists 
 have, therefore, divided their subject into the two 
 main heads of Physical and Cultural Anthropology, 
 the former being concerned with the structure of 
 the body, and the latter with manners and customs 
 and other results of mental activity. 
 
 When the extent and nature of the British Empire 
 is examined, it becomes apparent that the com- 
 plexity of the Empire and its distribution over the 
 world makes the subject of its administration, both 
 officially and commercially, an immensely important 
 one for the British people. As the Empire is gov- 
 erned from the British Isles, it is inevitable that a 
 large number of young men must be sent out annually 
 to its various component parts, and be entrusted in 
 due course wdth the administrative, commercial, 
 and social control over many ahen races. If their 
 relations \nth the foreign peoples with whom they 
 come in contact are to be successful, they must 
 acquire a working knowledge of the habits, customs, 
 and ideas that govern the conduct of those peoples, 
 and of the conditions in which they pass their hves. 
 All those who succeed find out these things for 
 themselves, and discern that success is dependent 
 on the knowledge they may attain of those with 
 whom they have to deal. They set about learning 
 what they can, but of necessity empirically and as a 
 side issue, as it were, in the immediate and impera- 
 tive business of their hves. But the man who is 
 obhged to obtain the requisite knowledge empirically, 
 and without any previous training in observation, is 
 heavily handicapped indeed in comparison with him 
 
 V 
 
40 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 who has already acquired the habit of right observa- 
 tion, and, what is of much more importance, has 
 been put in the way of correctly interpreting his 
 
 . observations in his youth. 
 
 h I To put the proposition in its briefest form, in 
 order to succeed in administrative or commercial life 
 abroad a man must use tact. Tact is the social 
 expression of discernment and insight, qualities 
 bom of intuitive anthropological knowledge, and 
 that is what it is necessary to induce in those sent 
 abroad to become eventually the controllers of, 
 and dealers with, other kinds of men. What is 
 required, therefore, is that in youth they should 
 have imbibed the anthropological habit, so that, 
 as a result of having been taught how to study 
 mankind, they may learn what it is necessary to 
 know of those about them correctly and in the 
 shortest possible time. The years of active hfe 
 now unavoidably wasted in securing this knowledge, 
 often inadequately and incorrectly, even in the case 
 . of the ablest, can thus be saved. 
 
 «^kM^/ The important point to bear in mind is, that in 
 / deahng with men " intellect is all very well, but 
 I sympathy counts for very much more." And so the 
 ' anthropologists desire to instil into the minds of 
 those at home, who guide the work of representatives 
 abroad, that the sound administration of the affairs 
 of men can only be based on cultured sympathy, 
 springing in its turn from sure knowledge, competent 
 study, and accurate inquiry conducted on a right 
 method, itself the result of continuous experience. 
 
 Incidentally anthropological inquiry is an intensely 
 interesting occupation to those who have mastered 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 4t , 
 
 the preliminary study, and no better way of filling , 
 
 up the leisure hours of a European in a foreign coun- ~^ ' 
 try could be found, especially in remote and lonely ' 
 locahties. 
 
 The situation has, for some years past, been 
 appreciated by those who have occupied themselves 
 with Anthropology as a science, and several efforts 
 have been made by the Royal Anthropological 
 Institute and the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, 
 and London, at any rate, to bring the pubhc benefits" « 
 accruing from the estabhshment of anthropological 
 schools before the Government and the people of 
 this country. With the co-operation of some of the 
 Colonial Governments, practical work has been done 
 by all these bodies towards teaching Anthropology 1 
 to probationers and candidates for the Civil Serv'ices \ 
 in Africa, India, and elsewhere, and it is a matter 
 of pubhc importance that great centres of education 
 and commerce should give practical encouragement 
 to the study by the estabhshment of a School of 
 Apphed Anthropology, with a special museum and 
 hbrary attached. These last are necessary, because 
 the kind of students desired need not only competent 
 teachers to guide them, but also a hbrary and a 
 museum close at hand, where they can find the 
 information they want and the illustration of it. 
 
 I venture to suggest that the Cityjof Birminj 
 with its university, possesses peculiar facihties for the„^ 
 formation of a School of Apphed Anthropology and 
 also of its hbrar}'" and museum, as the city has all - i 
 over the~~empire~ifs commercial representativeSj^ 
 who can collect the required museum specimens on 'p ^( « 
 Jthe spot. The financial labours also of those who 
 
42 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 distribute these men over greater Britain, and, 
 indeed, all over the world, produce means to create 
 the library and the school, and their universal 
 interests provide the incentive for securing for those 
 in their employ the best method of acquiring a 
 knowledge of men that can be turned to useful 
 commercial purpose. 
 
 DISCUSSION. 
 
 After his opening statement, the President (Sir 
 R. Temple) read the following extracts from letters 
 received from those who had been invited to take 
 part in the discussion but were unable to attend : — 
 
 From Lieut.-General Sir Reginald Wingate, 
 K.C.B., K.C.M.G., Sirdar Egyptian Army and 
 Governor-General of the Sudan : — 
 
 . . . I am in entire sympathy with every 
 word you say, and in the evidence I gave before the 
 Commission for the Estabhshment of a School of 
 Oriental Languages in London, under the Presi- 
 dency of the late Sir Alfred Lyall, I briefly referred 
 to the great importance of the study of Anthropology, 
 not only for administrators, but also for merchants, 
 missionaries, and others whose Hves are spent in our 
 Colonies, Dependencies, and Protectorates. . . . 
 So impressed also was I with the importance of the 
 study of Anthropology that I arranged for anthro- 
 pological lectures to be given to probationers to the 
 Sudan Civil Service at Oxford and Cambridge, and, 
 in order to provide material for these lectures and 
 to assist in anthropological research in the Sudan, 
 we have obtained the services of Dr. Seligmann, 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 43 
 
 who, accompanied by ]\Irs. Seligmann, has already 
 carried out one or two journeys in the Sudan, and 
 is, I beheve, now occupied in the preparation of a 
 book on his discoveries. 
 
 From Sir Frank Swettenham, G.C.M.G., late 
 Governor of the Straits Settlements and High 
 Commissioner of the Federated Malay States : — 
 
 . . . I have read your " suggestions " with 
 much interest, and if you will allow me to say so, 
 I cordially concur with all you say. Such a school 
 as you suggest would no doubt be extremely useful, 
 but, if instituted mainly with the idea that it would 
 help our young administrators to a right knowledge 
 of, and sympathy with, the people they may be sent 
 to govern or to minister to in other ways, then I 
 confess that 1 should put the study of Oriental and 
 other languages and the study of administration, 
 especially the administration of Eastern peoples, 
 first. I mention Eastern peoples because we have 
 300,000,000 subjects in British India, a milhon 
 Chinese in British Colonies and Protected States in 
 the East, and about a milhon Malays in the same 
 places, to say nothing of the population of Ceylon — 
 Sinhalese and Tamils. Until this country founds and 
 supports a School of Oriental Languages I hardly 
 see how the student is to arrive at a real knowledge 
 of Oriental people. Until we teach the art of 
 administration, we cahTonly rely upon the genius of 
 our race to fit oui young men to administer properly 
 and sympathetically the affairs of Eastern and other 
 ahen peoples. I admit that we have been successful 
 in the past, but I also know that knowledge has often 
 
44 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 been gained at the expense of those we rule. We 
 send men to teach them, but the teachers must begin 
 by learning almost everything that makes for really 
 successful work. You cannot teach sympathy, 
 but without that the rest will never give the best 
 results. 
 
 From Prof. C. G. Seligmann, the London School 
 of Economics : — 
 
 I have read the abstract of Sir Richard Temple's 
 paper with a great deal of interest, and it summarises 
 the matter so ably that there seems httle left to add. 
 But I should Hke to say that what Sir Richard has 
 written about the drawback of the knowledge 
 empirically gained during active administration 
 has struck me over and over again. In more than 
 \f\^ one country, I have been told that So-and-So has a 
 -f'^ splendid knowledge of such-and-such a people. 
 So-and-So is immediately sought out, and alw^ays 
 proves most wiUing to assist, but it is soon evident 
 that his knowledge, even when he knows something 
 of the language, is superficial, and a stranger capable 
 of thinking along anthropological hnes can generally 
 discover more in a few weeks than the most sympa- 
 thetic administrator has been able to find out, per- 
 haps, in the course of years. When I say adminis- 
 trator I do not only mean Government official ; 
 all that I have written applies with equal force to 
 even the best prepared mxissionary. Without train- 
 ing it is indeed extremely rare to find what I may 
 call the anthropological attitude of mind, though 
 there is no scarcity of men w^ho have the fullest 
 sympathy with those committed to their charge. I 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 45 
 
 do not know how many Government officials and 
 missionaries I have watched in close contact with 
 the natives among whom they hved during the last 
 fifteen years, but the number is certainly not small, 
 and during that time I have met but two men, one 
 an Enghshman and the other an Itahan, who had 
 found and trodden the anthropological path unaided. 
 
 From Mr. T. C. Hodsox, Secretar^^ of the Royal 
 Anthropological Institute : — 
 
 . . . Once more as Secretary of the Institute 
 may I wish you all success in your endeavour to 
 persuade the authorities of Birmingham to take up 
 the teaching of Apphed Anthropolog>\ It is not 
 to Government ser\-ants alone to whom it is of use, 
 but to every person who is brought into contact, 
 in any capacity whatsoever, with persons of different 
 cidture. The prejudices with which the statesman 
 has to contend are as much the subject matter for 
 the anthropologist as are the economic habits of 
 any society, and if Birmingham does take it up it 
 wih, I hope and I am sure, take it up thoroughly. 
 There is only one way nowadays in a modem uni- 
 versity of the type of Birmingham of organising 
 work of this kind, and that is to secure the best men 
 for the work, and in a university the investigation of 
 novel problems by sound and tried methods of 
 experimentation is necessarily of high importance. 
 
 In the discussion which foUowed, 
 
 Sir Everard im Thurx, K.C.M.G., late High 
 Commissioner in the Pacific, said : As one who has 
 
46 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 himself spent most of his active hfe among and in 
 sympathy with " natives," i.e., with folk whose 
 material culture has advanced comparatively little, 
 and certainly in a very different direction from that 
 followed by our own ancestors, I strongly support the 
 proposal put forward by our President — that a 
 great and urgent imperial purpose would be served 
 by the estabhshment of a great anthropological 
 centre — call it school, institute, or what you hke — 
 at which youths who go out from home to serve in 
 the distant parts of the Empire might learn to think 
 and act in accordance with the lessons taught by the 
 science of Anthropology. 
 
 My own experience during more than thirty years 
 of administration among natives, first in Guiana, 
 then for a few years at the Colonial Office — wherein 
 the strings that pull the native affairs of our Empire 
 are moved — then for three years in Ceylon, and 
 lastly for seven years in the islands of the South 
 Seas, makes me most strongly wish for the estabhsh- 
 ment of such a centre. 
 
 In my case, an innate taste for natural history 
 — and especially for the natural history of man — 
 was, after my first couple of years among natives, 
 given a more serious trend by a chance meeting — 
 the beginning of a hfe-long friendship — with Sir 
 Edward Tylor, the father of modern scientific 
 Anthropology in England. But, despite this excep- 
 tional advantage, I know that it would have been 
 an enormous gain to me — and certainly of advantage 
 to the Empire which I have humbly served — had I 
 started with a preliminary training in anthropological 
 method, and had I been able throughout my career 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 47 
 
 to turn back for guidance to some centre here at 
 home, and to which, in return, I might have im- 
 parted my own observations for more scientific 
 treatment than I could give them while still in the 
 field. 
 
 Again, when, as time went on, and I came into a i| 
 position of greater responsibihty, I experienced to [iv\/ - 
 the full the difficulty of finding young men who, l/y^^( 
 however otherwise well quahfied, were of the right 
 habit of anthropological thought to serve under and 
 after me. 
 
 It has happened that my work has been chiefly 
 with natives of a very primitive type — vdth the 
 kind of folk who are usually, but most misleadingly, 
 called " savages," rather than the kind much further 
 advanced in social organisation and thought such 
 as those with whom Indian Civil Service students 
 chiefly have to deal. I think that a well-thought- 
 out scheme for the anthropological education of the 
 men — and women — who are to deal with the more 
 primitive folk is even more necessary for imperial 
 purposes than in the case of those who are to deal 
 with more " civihsed " natives. 
 
 The Europeans who come most in contact with 
 surviving very primitive folk are generally — to 
 mention them in the order in which they have usually 
 appeared on the scene — either traders, missionaries, 
 or administrators. Though myself belonging to 
 the latter class, I have naturally come much in 
 contact with my European colleagues of the other 
 two classes, and I am quite convinced that we should 
 all have done much more useful work — for ourselves, 
 for our natives, and for the Empire to which we 
 
48 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 belong — if we had had a real training in Anthro- 
 pology, and consequently a truer understanding and 
 a more rational sympathy with the na.tives. 
 
 The imperial need for such a school as is proposed 
 seems to me not to admit of question. As to the 
 exact nature of the school, I would only here add 
 this. I think that it should be a school in which 
 teachers and students should always remain in 
 touch. For instance, the teachers should not be 
 mere book and museum students, but should from 
 time to time be expected to take a turn abroad in 
 the field ; I mean that by some such arrangement 
 as that by which in places teachers are permitted to 
 take a year off — a Sabbatical year I think it is some- 
 times called — the teachers should visit their students 
 abroad. On the other hand, the students, after 
 graduation, should remain associated in some way 
 with the institute or school ; they should habitually 
 send their observations for record at that school, 
 and should revisit it for fresh study whenever they 
 are at home on leave. 
 
 I am, of course, aware that Anthropology is already 
 taught at some of our universities and similar institu- 
 tions, but I do not think that anywhere, in any one 
 place, has the machinery for such teaching been 
 sufficiently advanced to do much real and widespread 
 good. If at every university there were a thoroughly 
 good anthropological school it would be a splendid 
 thing for the Empire. But even one really ade- 
 quately equipped school would be costly, and 
 I think it would be well to concentrate efforts, 
 and to aim — at least at first — at one really good 
 school. 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 49 
 
 \Miere that school should be I am not prepared to 
 say. Birmingham is said to offer special advantages 
 for it. Personally, as an Oxford man, I should 
 prefer to see the school estabhshed at Oxford. But 
 the selection of the site practically depends chiefly 
 on the generous donor or donors who will provide the 
 funds, necessarily large. 
 
 ]\1r. W. Crooke, from his experience of twenty- 
 live years' service in the Bengal Civil Service, 
 cordially supported this proposal to organise 
 anthropological teaching for selected candidates of 
 the Indian services. He laid special stress on the 
 encouragement of the study of the native languages, 
 and suggested a special course of teaching of the 
 rules of Oriental etiquette, particularly necessary 
 ^mce the unfortunate estrangement of a section of 
 the educated classes from the British officials, which 
 necessitates care to prevent offence to persons 
 nervously concerned about their o\vn dignity. 
 
 At the same time, he was not inchned to advocate 
 instruction in special anthropological problems. It 
 was inadvisable to famiharise students with theories 
 which tended to the search for material in support of 
 one suggestion or the other. All that was necessary 
 was to arouse the faculty of curiosity and investiga- 
 tion, to show to young officers how fascinating the 
 study of anthropology and folklore was. The present 
 course of instruction in this country lasted only one 
 year, and if Anthropology were made a regular 
 subject here was a danger of overburdening students, 
 with the result that they would reach India jaded 
 and overworked. The definite study of Anthro- 
 pology could be secured only by abandoning part 
 
 D 
 
 y 
 
50 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 of the present curriculum, which was the minimum 
 accepted by the Government of India. 
 
 LiEUT.-CoLONEL P. R. GuRDOX (Assam) said : 
 I do not think I can profitably add to the very cogent 
 and admirably expressed argumients of Sir Richard 
 Temple in favour of a School of Apphed Anthro- 
 pology in England, except to say that Sir Richard 
 Temple's plan might be made to fit in with the 
 scheme outlined by Sir Archdale Earie, Chief Com- 
 missioner of Assam, in his statement forwarded to 
 the Public Servdce Commission. This scheme pro- 
 vides for the estabhshment of a college, not only for 
 European officers about to proceed to the East, but 
 for Indians who are candidates for admission to the 
 Indian Services as well. European candidates for 
 employment in the Indian Services would thus be 
 thrown in direct contact with Indians early in their 
 career, and be able to understand something of the 
 Indian point of view, a matter of very great import- 
 ance, which I venture to think has not so far 
 received sufficient attention. The scheme might be 
 extended so as to suit the needs of the colonies, e.g., 
 the x\frican colonies. At the college Applied Anthro- 
 pology should be made one of the principal subjects, 
 together with Indian and other necessary languages. 
 Anthropology, which includes ethnography, has 
 received some attention in India of recent years, an 
 ethnographic survey having been undertaken by the 
 Indian Government. Unfortunately this survey 
 could not be completed for want of funds, but a 
 considerable amount of work was done in the shape 
 \ of preparation and publication of detailed accounts 
 1 of castes and tribes in various Provinces. In Assam, 
 
 /N^^^^^vWX - (-^^ 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 5I 
 
 at the instigation of Sir Bampfylde Fuller, when 
 Chief Commissioner, the preparation of a series of 
 tribal, monographs by selected officers has been 
 undertaken, which, as Sir Richard Temple has 
 pointed out, has proved most useful already. Up 
 to the present time seven such monographs have been 
 pubhshed, and more are under preparation. It may 
 be mentioned that both the Eastern Bengal and 
 Assam Governments generously provided a large 
 proportion of the funds for the pubhcation of 
 these monographs. I should hke to refer also 
 to the services of Messrs. Macmillan & Co., in 
 this connection. The recording of accounts of 
 tribes and castes, however, does not quite meet all 
 the needs of the case, as young men proceeding to 
 the East do not possess either the time or the inchna- 
 tion usually to read many books of study beyond 
 those which are compulsory for their examinations. 
 What is required, I venture to think, is oral and 
 ocular demonstration, to be obtained from lectures 
 (to be made interesting) and a good anthropological 
 museum and hbrary in England. Both of these 
 could be provided at the School of AppHed Anthro- 
 pology outhned by Sir Richard Temple. A few 
 words in conclusion. It is impossible to over-esti- 
 mate the importance of officers, who are candidates 
 for the Indian Services, learning something about 
 the habits and customs of the people who are about 
 to be committed to their care, as well as the standard 
 language or languages of the Province of their 
 appointment. Young men at present come out ; 
 to India often astonishingly ignorant of the 
 conditions of the country and the people, and only 
 
52 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 learn what to avoid by making continual mistakes. 
 Many such mistakes would be obviated probably 
 if some knowledge of Indian ethnology as well as 
 languages were made compulsory before officers took 
 up their work in India. I therefore cordially support 
 Sir Richard Temple's scheme. 
 
 Dr. a. C. Haddon, F.R.S., Reader in Ethnology 
 in the University of Cambridge, said : Anthropology 
 has been taught systematically for some years in the 
 Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, and 
 the older universities would welcome the estabhsh- 
 ment of the subject in Birmingham, Manchester, 
 Liverpool, or anjrwhere else. In university instruc- 
 tion there are tw^o main classes of students to be 
 considered, the elementary and the advanced. 
 The former require more or less formal lectures, 
 owing to the lack of adequate text-books. The latter 
 should be lectured to as little as possible, conversa- 
 tional classes and direction of reading and research 
 being best suited for their needs. What is most 
 appropriate in the anthropological instruction of 
 those who are going abroad as Government officials, 
 missionaries, or traders is neither a cramming up 
 of various theories nor even an accumulation of 
 ascertained facts, but a general survey of the main 
 principles of the science, with an indication as to 
 how the student can acquire information for himself. 
 The real training of the student should be in what 
 may be termed attitude of mind, both as regards 
 relations with natives, whether civilised or uncul- 
 tured, and as regards the methods of ethnological 
 investigation. Even in the investigation of savages, 
 and still more so in dealings with the more cultured 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 53 
 
 peoples, behaviour and etiquette are of prime 
 importance, and students should be warned to make 
 it their first business to discover the rules of conduct 
 that obtain locally so that friction may be avoided. V^ 
 This appUes not only to officials and missionaries, 
 but if possible with still more force to those who enter 
 into trading relations wdth ahen peoples. 
 
 An essential part of the equipment of a School of 
 Anthropology is a departmental hbrary and museum. 
 The museum may be one of the museums of a 
 university, or some arrangement may be made 
 between a municipal museum and the teaching staff 
 of the university, as, for example, at Liverpool. 
 
 Various departments of the Government are 
 beginning to realise the practical importance of 
 ethnological knowledge in the administration of the 
 portions of the Empire which are under their care. 
 At the present time successful candidates of the 
 Indian Civil Ser\'ice are not expected to study 
 ethnology, and, indeed, with the great amount of 
 work they have to crowd into their preparatory 
 year, it could hardly be expected of them. But 
 in two successive years the Indian Civil Service 
 students at the University of Cambridge requested 
 me to give them a course of lectures on the ethnolo.gy 
 of India, as they felt that such knowledge would be 
 of value to them. It would be well if more time could 
 be allowed to such students, and then definite 
 instruction in ethnology might be compulsory. 
 
 The anthropological sciences have such a wide 
 outlook that they throw hght upon many other 
 subjects, such as history, law, economics, sociology, 
 theolog^^ literature, and the fine arts, so that, apart 
 
54 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 from the direct practical importance of the subject 
 itself, Anthropology should be taught and studied 
 in every important university. 
 
 Dr. R. R. Marett, Reader in Social Anthropology, 
 Oxford, said that he wished to bear out Dr. Haddon's 
 contention that in some universities at any rate the 
 teaching of Anthropology had already made con- 
 siderable headway. Thus at Oxford the interest 
 in Anthropology was no new thing, the Tradescant 
 Collection of ethnological material going back to 1685, 
 while exactly 200 years later the Pitt-Rivers Museum 
 was estabhshed, Sir E. Tylor having been appointed 
 Reader in Anthropology in the previous year — 
 namely, 1884. The Oxford School of Anthropology 
 was not, however, organised on its present scale until, 
 in response to a memorandum presented by Sir 
 E. Tylor and others in 1904, the university instituted 
 a diploma and certificates in Anthropology. Between 
 1906 and 1913 the names of 66 students have 
 appeared on the register, of whom 40 have entered 
 for examination and 33 have proved successful, 8 of 
 them obtaining " distinction," the standard being 
 equivalent to that of a first class in a Final Honours 
 School. The development of the school has been 
 rapid, as the following figures will show : In 1906 
 there was i student ; in 1907 there were 4 ; in 
 1908, 6 ; in 1909, 7 ; in 1910, 10 ; in 1911, 24 ; and 
 in 1912, 34. Various classes of students show an 
 interest in the subject. Besides 11 women of all 
 nationahties, there have been 17 m.en from the 
 British Isles, 8 from the Colonies (of whom 5 were 
 Rhodes scholars), 7 from the United States (of whom 
 4 were Rhodes scholars), and 2 from the Continent. 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 55 
 
 In addition, 21 officers of the Public Service have 
 undergone the same course of anthropological train- 
 ing, of whom 10 hail from West Africa, 9 from the 
 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Egypt, i from British 
 East Africa, and i from India. The officers in 
 question are, of_cpurse, mainly interested in the 
 subject from the practical point of view of adminis- 
 trators and men of affairs, though several have 
 managed to produce scientific work of some import- 
 ance into the bargain. Of the other students, at 
 least a dozen have enHsted for research work in 
 various parts of the ethnological field. Even at 
 home there is plenty to do for the trained anthro- 
 pologist, and several students have, for instance, 
 been helping the Folk-lore Society to collect material 
 for their projected edition of Brand's Antiquities, a 
 work needing accuracy and critical acumen, and in 
 certain ways especiall}^ suitable for women students. 
 These facts are enough to show that there are 
 plenty of keen anthropologists in the making, 
 whose number will doubtless steadily augment as 
 more and more teaching centres are available for the 
 propagation of the requisite knowledge. 
 
 Professor Peter Thompson, of Birmingham 
 University, said that with the remarks of the 
 President and the succeeding speakers he imagined 
 they would be in general agreement, and he did not 
 propose to labour that side of the question. He 
 would, however, hke to take this opportunity of 
 stating what the position of Anthropology in the 
 University was at the present time. A student 
 could take a B.Sc. Degree in Human Anatomy and 
 Anthropology, a course of three years. In Anthro- 
 

 56 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 pology he must attend a course of general embryology 
 and a course of lectures and practical instruction in 
 Physical Anthropology. At present those who took 
 the degree were mainly medical students, and some 
 of these might pass into the Indian Medical Service. 
 If there were any demand on the part of merchants 
 and others for a course of Social or Cultural Anthro- 
 
 l polog^^ the machinery for such a course already 
 
 existed. The nucleus was there. It only wanted 
 
 C developing. It was largely a question of money, 
 since a special lecturer or reader in this subject 
 would be necessar\^ If the money were forthcoming 
 
 , ^ he would be glad to bring the matter before the 
 
 M^' ^ authorities of the university ; with regard to a 
 museum, they aheady had the beginnings of an 
 ethnological museum, fairly- good on the prehistoric 
 ^v side (thanks to the gifts of Sir John Holden, Mr. 
 Seton-Karr, and other generous donors), not so good 
 on the cultural side. It seemed to him that a good 
 way to proceed, once the matter emerged into a 
 practical scheme, was to associate it with the Faculty 
 of Commerce, for there we have students who look 
 I forward to business careers, at home and abroad, 
 I preparing for a Commerce Degree, and under existing 
 arrangements such students could take an approved 
 course selected for the Faculty of Science. If a 
 School of Anthropology were developed, it seemed 
 hkely that those students who intended going abroad 
 would choose a course of Apphed Anthropology, 
 once the great importance of the subject was brought 
 home to them. 
 
 [Reprinted from Man, 1913.] 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 ON THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF 
 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 Address to the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 
 delivered at Cambridge in 1904. 
 
 We are gathered to-day to welcome the estabhsh- 
 ment at this L'niversity of a Board of Anthropo- 
 logical Studies/ the object of which is to add a 
 working knowledge of mankind to the equipment 
 of those already possessed of a matured, or at least 
 a considerable, acquaintance with science or litera- 
 ture generally. The aim is, in fact, to impart a 
 human interest to scholarship or to scientific attain- 
 ment, which are othenvise apt to become mere 
 exercises of the intellect : — an aim rendered prac- 
 ticable by the research and stud^^ in certain 
 directions, during quite recent years, of a number of 
 independent students, haihng from all parts of the 
 civilised world. The particular directions in which 
 Anthropological Science has thus been developed 
 to an extent that has obtained for it a recognised 
 and important position among the sciences, are in 
 Archaeology, Ethnology, and Physical and Mental 
 
 1 Appointed by Grace, 26 May, 1904, comprising a Report 
 (dated 12 May) of a Syndicate appointed to consider a 
 Memorial on the Study of Anthropology. See Cambridge 
 University Reporter, pp. 806, 888. 
 
 57 
 
58 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 Anthropology. The archaeologists have included 
 enquiries into Prehistoric and Historic Anthro- 
 pology in their researches, the ethnologists have 
 included Sociology, Comparative Religion, and 
 Folk-lore, while Mental Anthropology covers a 
 study of the whole field of psychological 
 investigation. 
 
 Now, w^hen we are started on a new Hne of re- 
 search, when we add a new course of studies to a 
 University curriculum, there is a question that we 
 cannot help facing — a question, in fact, that ought 
 to arise — What is the good of it all ? What is the 
 good of Prehistoric Anthropology^ for instance, 
 or of Comparative Rehgion, to an undergraduate 
 about to undertake a course of study, which is to 
 enable him to-^mbark fittingly on the practical 
 affairs of hfe ? This is the problem that it is pro- 
 posed to tackle now. 
 
 Let us commence a survey of the trend of this 
 last development of scientific effort with a truism. 
 Every successful man has to go on educating himself 
 all his life, and the object of a University training is 
 to induce in students a habit of self-education, which 
 is in the future to stand them in such good stead. 
 Before those freshly passed through an English 
 University there is a very wide field spread. Year 
 by year whole batches of them are destined to go 
 forth to all parts of the world to find a Uvehhood ; 
 to find places where work, lucrative, dignified, and 
 useful, awaits them ; to find themselves also in a 
 human environment, strange, alien and utterly un- 
 like anything in their experience. It is a fair 
 question to ask : — Will not a sound grounding in 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 59 
 
 anthropology be a help to such as these ? There 
 is a patter saying : — The proper study of mankind 
 is man. Will not a habit, acquired here, of syste- 
 matically pursuing this study, of examining intelli- 
 gently, until their true import is grasped, customs, 
 modes of thought, behefs, and superstitions, physical 
 and mental capacities, springs of action, differences 
 and mutual relations, and the causes leading up to 
 existing human phenomena, be of real value to the 
 young Englishmen sent among aHens ? Will it 
 not be a powerful aid to them in what is called 
 " understanding the people " ? 
 
 And do not let us run away with the idea that such 
 knowledge is easily or quickly acquired, because 
 one is in the environment. There is another patter 
 saying : " One half of the world does not know 
 how the other half lives." This is apphed to, and 
 is only too true of those who belong to the same 
 rehgion, who have been born, as it were, with the 
 same social instincts, and are endowed presumably 
 with the same mental and physical capacities. How 
 many English Roman Catholics, living amongst 
 Protestants, could tell one, on enquiry, anything of 
 practical value as to Protestant ideas, and vice ^ 
 versa ? How many of the gentry can project ,- -u^ 
 themselves successfully into the minds of the 
 peasantry ? And how many peasants understand 
 the workings of the gentleman's mind, or the causes 
 leading to his actions ? How often do masters 
 complain of the utter misunderstanding of them- 
 selves exhibited in the comments of their servants ? 
 But do they always, in their turn, understand the 
 actions of their servants ? Do masters always 
 
6o ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 grasp why the most faithful and honest of menials 
 may also confidently be predicted in given circum- 
 stances to be unblushing liars ? Do the upper 
 classes have a clear conception of the reason why the 
 lower orders will scrupulously see fair play in some 
 circumstances, but be incapable of fair play in most 
 others ? It is the same all the world over. Life- 
 long neighbours among Hindus and Muhammadans 
 living chock-a-block in the same street usually know 
 nothing of each other's ways. Again, every Indian 
 talks of " caste," but there is nothing more difficult 
 than to get information of practical value from an 
 Indian about any caste, except his own, though the 
 instinct of caste is so strong in the people that new 
 " castes " inevitably spring up in new communities, 
 w^hen these are faced w^ith novel social con- 
 ditions. So strong, indeed, is it, that Muham- 
 madan '' castes " abound, despite this condition 
 being a contradiction in terms, and even the native 
 Christians of India are frequently by themselves, 
 and usually by others, looked upon as belonging to 
 a " caste." 
 
 , We often talk in Greater Britain of a ''good" 
 magistrate or a " sympathetic " judge, meaning 
 thereby that these officials determine the matters 
 before them wdth insight, that is, with a working 
 anthropological knowledge of those with whom they 
 have to deal. But observe that these are all phe- 
 nomena of human societies with identical social 
 instincts, showing the intense difficulty that indi- 
 viduals of the human race have in understanding each 
 other. Pondering this, it ^\dll be perceived what 
 the difficulties are that await him of an alien race 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 6i 
 
 who essays to project himself into the minds of the 
 foreigners \\'ith whom he has to deal and associate, 
 or whom he has to govern : an attempt that so many 
 who pass through an Enghsh University must have 
 to make in this huge Empire of ours. If such an 
 individual trusts to his own unaided capacities, a 
 master}' of his business will come to him but ver\' 
 slowly and far too late. It is indeed everv'thing to 
 liim to acquire the habit of useful anthropological 
 study before he commences, and to be able to avail 
 himself practically and intelhgently of the facts 
 gleaned, and the inferences drawn therefrom, by 
 those who have gone before him. 
 
 At the samie time it is of the highest importance 
 personally to men of all kinds, who have deahngs of 
 the superior sort — such as it is presumed young 
 men trained here are destined to have — with those 
 with whom they are thrown at home, and more 
 especially abroad, to be imbued with as intimate 
 a knowledge of them as is practicable. It matters 
 nothing that they be civil ser\-ants, missionaries, 
 merchants, or soldiers. Sympathy is one of the 
 chief factors in successful deahngs of any kind with 
 human beings, and sympathy can only come of 
 knowledge. And not only also does s\Tnpathy 
 come of knowledge, but it is knowledge chat begets 
 sympath3^ In a long experience of ahen races, and 
 of those who have had to govern and deal with 
 them, all whom I have known to dishke the ahens 
 about them, or to be unsympathetic, have been 
 those that have been ignorant of them ; and I have 
 never yet come across a man, who reaUy knew an 
 ahen race, that had not, unless actuated by race 
 
62 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 jealousy, a strong bond of sympathy with them. 
 Famiharity breeds contempt, but it is knowledge 
 that breeds respect, and it is all the same w^hether 
 the race be black, white, yellow, or red, or whether 
 it be cultured or ignorant, civilised or semi-civihsed, 
 or downright savage. 
 
 Let me quote what is now another ghb saying : 
 — " One touch of nature makes the whole world 
 kin." It is necessary to grasp the truth underlying 
 this, if one would succeed. Who is the better or 
 more useful regimental officer than he who knows 
 and sympathises with his men, who knows when to 
 be lenient and when to be strict, when to give leave 
 and when to refuse it, when a request for a favour 
 is genuine and when it is humbug, when treatment is 
 disciphnary and when it is merely irritating ? 
 And what British officer in charge of British troops 
 will achieve this S3nTipathy, but he who takes the 
 trouble to know them ? But place a British officer 
 with local troops : take him to Egypt, the Sudan 
 and Uganda, to Nigeria and the Gold Coast, to 
 Rhodesia and South Africa, to India and Burma, to 
 the Straits Settlements and China, to the West 
 Indies and the Pacific Islands, and put him in charge 
 of regulars, irregulars, or pohce. WTio will so weU 
 bring about the all-essential sympathy between 
 himself and his men as he who has acquired a habit, 
 tiU by reason of his early training it has become a 
 pleasure to him, of finding out all about them ? 
 
 Take the merchant, trader, squatter, planter, or 
 dealer in supphes to aUen races. WTio is successful 
 in commerce but he who finds out where the market 
 is, and having found the market, knows how to take 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 63 
 
 advantage of it and what to avoid ? In seeking a 
 market, the habits, ways, predilections, and pre- 
 judices of many kinds of people have to be learnt, 
 and this is the case in a much higher degree in pre- 
 serving the market when found. Practically nearly 
 all the blunders made by British manufacturers in 
 supplying foreign markets, and mistakes made by 
 British merchants whereby markets have been lost, 
 have been due to ignorance of the local inhabitants, 
 and others have been due to their own pride, born 
 of the same ignorance. " We have always made 
 the article in this way in the past for home consump- 
 tion, and we are not going to make it in any other 
 way for the foreigner," is an argument that has lost 
 many markets. But it is hopelessly wrong. No 
 foreigner has ever taken what he did not happen to 
 like, and no foreigner ever will. No one who has a 
 knowledge of mankind generally would think so. 
 The civihsed will have things exactly to their liking, 
 and it cannot be too clearly impressed on the trading 
 community that this prejudice is even more strongly 
 characteristic of the savage and the semi-savage. 
 Beads as beads do not appeal to the savage, but 
 it is a particular kind and form of beads that he 
 wants for reasons of his own, practical enough in 
 their own way — and so on through every article of 
 trade. 
 f It is here that what one may call '* the anthropo- . ^^yi 
 i logical habit " will come to the aid of those engaged ^^ 
 I in commerce, and an anthropological training in 
 ' youth will certainly not tend to the diminishing of 
 later profits. It is a common commercial saying 
 that trade accommodates itself to any circumstances. 
 
64 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 So it does ; but he who profits first and best is he 
 'who knows the most of mankind and its ways. Many 
 successful mercantile firms with a foreign trade 
 have not been slow to appreciate this truth. Taught 
 by the spectacle of unlooked-for failures, there have 
 been firms which have long since insisted on their 
 youngsters acquiring a knowledge of the local 
 languages and of the local peoples. This insistence 
 has often been of the highest profit to them. As 
 one instance of its value among many, let me quote 
 the case of a well-known firm which took to supply- 
 ing, as an essential part of its work, the wax candles 
 used at Buddhist shrines, temples, and ceremonies. 
 This proved a wide and profitable field for enter- 
 prise, because the candles were made in the right 
 way, which right making came of anthropological 
 knowledge of more than one kind, and of more than 
 one place and community. 
 
 It is not only direct knowledge that is necessary to 
 the merchant, and I will give an instance where 
 mercantile bodies have found a kind of knowledge 
 At that is apparently remote as regards their business 
 I to be of paramount importance to them. A few 
 years ago I made efforts to establish a series of 
 wireless telegraphic stations in the Bay of Bengal, 
 
 J^S^ which have since borne fruit, partly on account 
 ^^V\ of the value of the meteorological information 
 
 ^H \ that could be gathered in time to be of practical 
 daily use to the immense amount of shipping travers- 
 ing the Bay in all directions. I found that among 
 I my strongest supporters were the great Chambers 
 /u of Commerce, not only in the shipping interests, 
 but in those of general commerce also. One can 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 65 
 
 readily understand the value of tnistworthy weather 
 forecasts to the great agricultural industries depend- 
 ing on a heavy rainfall, such as rice, jute, and sugar, 
 but their value to the dealers in cotton cloth is not 
 so apparent. These dealers, however, had found 
 out that the success of such crops, out of which the 
 milhons made their hving, depended on the rainfall, 
 and that on the success of the crops depended the 
 purchasing power of the milhons, and that on that 
 depended the quantity of the stuffs which could 
 be profitably exported from year to year. Conse- 
 quently there were no more anxious students of ' 
 the meteorological returns than the manufacturers , 
 and merchants of dry goods in far-away England, / 
 and no set of men to whom accurate meteorological 
 information was of higher value. 
 
 Now, the point I would like to drive home from 
 this object-lesson is that the apparently remote 
 study of anthropology, in all its phases, is of similar 
 value. The habit of inteUigently examining the 
 peoples among whom his business is cast cannot 
 be overrated by the merchant wishing to con- 
 tinuously \\iden it to profit. It may be said that 
 the kind of knowledge above noted can be, and often 
 has been in the past, successfully acquired empiri- 
 cally by mere quickness of ob5er\'ation. Granted : 
 but the man who has been obhged to acquire it 
 without any previous training in obser\^ation, is 
 heavily handicapped indeed in comparison with 
 him who has acquired the habit of right observation, 
 and what is of much more importance, has been 
 put in the way of rightly interpreting his observa- 
 tions in his youth. This is what such a body as the 
 
 L--^ 
 
66 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 Board of Anthropological Studies here can do for 
 the future merchant. 
 _^ Then there are the men who have to administer, 
 the magistrates and the judges. One has only to 
 consider for a moment what is involved in the term 
 " administration " to see that success here rests 
 almost entirely on knowledge of the people. Take 
 the universally dehcate questions of reverm^^and 
 taxation,, and consider how very much the successful 
 administration of either depends on a minute ac- 
 quaintance with the means, habits, customs, manners, 
 institutions, traditions, prejudices, and character 
 of the population. And think over both the framing 
 and working of the rules and regulations, under laws 
 of a municipal nature, that affect the every-day 
 hfe of all sorts and conditions of men. In the 
 making of laws, too close a knowledge of the persons 
 to be subjected to them cannot be possessed, and 
 however wise the laws so made may be, their object 
 can be only too easily frustrated, if the rules they 
 authorise are not themselves framed with an equally 
 great knowledge, and they in their turn can be made 
 to be of no avail, unless an intimate acquaintance 
 with the population is brought to bear on their 
 administration. For the administrator an extensive 
 knowledge of those in his charge is an attainment, 
 not only essential to his owti success, but beneficial 
 in the highest degree to the country he dwells in, 
 provided it is used \^'ith discernment. And discern- 
 ment is best acquired by the " anthropological 
 habit." The same extent and description of know- 
 ledge is required by the judges and the magistrates 
 in apportioning punishments, and by the judges 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 67 
 
 in adjudicating effectively in civil cases. No amount 
 of wisdom in the civil and criminal laws of the land 
 in the British possessions will benefit the various 
 populations, unless they are administered with 
 discernment and insight. 
 
 To the administrator and the magistrate, and to 
 the judge especially, there is an apparently small 
 accomplishment, which can be turned into a mighty 
 lever for gaining a hold on the people : the apt ' 
 quotation of proverbs, maxims, and traditional 
 verses and sayings. They are always well worth 
 study. Quote an agricultural aphorism to the 
 farmer, quote a Hne from one of his own popular 
 poets to the man of letters, quote a wise saw in 
 reproof or encouragement of a ser\'ant, and you 
 cannot but perceive the respect and kindly feehng 
 that is produced. Say to the North Indian, who 
 comes with a belated threat : " You should have 
 killed the cat on the first day " ; stay a quarrel 
 with the remark that '' When two fight one \\\1\ 
 surely fall " ; repeat to one in trouble a verse 
 from one of the Indian mediaeval reformers ; 
 jingle a nursery rhyme to a child ; quote a text 
 from the Pah Scriptures to a Burman or a text 
 from the Koran to ^lusalman ; speak any one a 
 of these things \rith aU the force, vjgour_„and^ / 
 raciness of the vernacular, and you will find as 
 your reward' the attention arrested, the dull eye 
 brightened, the unmistakable look that comes of a J 
 kindred inteUigence awakened. The proverbs of 
 a people do not merely afford a phase of anthro- 
 pological study ; they are a powerful force working 
 for influence. 
 
 -^ 
 
68 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 Let me take another class of men largely educated 
 at the Universities — a class which one would 
 like to see entirely recruited from amongst those 
 who have been subjected in early life to the Uni- 
 versity method of training — the missionaries. Now, 
 what is the missionary in practice required to do ? 
 He is required to bring about in ahen races a change 
 of thought, which is to induce in them what we 
 consider to be a higher type of faith and action than 
 their own rehgion or behef is capable of inducing. 
 There is perhaps no more difficult task to accompHsh 
 than this, on a scale that is to have a solid effect on 
 a population, and surely the first requisite for 
 success is that the missionary himself should have 
 an insight into three mental characteristics, at any 
 rate, of those he is seeking to convert : that is to 
 say, into their customs, their institutions, and their 
 habits of thought. That this appHes wdth tre- 
 mendous force in the case of civilised peoples is 
 obvious, on very shght consideration, but it is 
 possibly not equally well understood that it is no 
 less apphcable in reahty in the case of the semi- 
 civihsed, and even of the untutored savage. There 
 is perhaps no human being more hidebound by 
 custom than the savage. It should be remembered 
 that custom is all the law he knows. Custom, both 
 in deed and thought, represents all the explanation 
 "^jiv he has of natural phenomena within his ken. It 
 V controls with iron bands aU his institutions — and 
 the customary institutions of savages are often 
 i^J^^^ complicated in the extreme, and govern individual 
 action with an irresistible power hardly realisable 
 by. the freer members of a civihsed nation. Let 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 69 
 
 any one dive seriously, even for a little while, into 
 the maze of customs connected with tabu, or \vith 
 the marriage customs — laws if you hke — of the 
 Austrahan aborigines or of the South Sea Islanders, 
 and he will soon see what I mean. 
 
 So far as regards civihsed peoples, what._individual 
 of them is not Sound and hampered by_custom and 
 convention in every direction ? From what does 
 the civihsed woman, who, as we say, falls, suffer 
 most ? From the law or from custom ? What 
 is her offence ? Is it against law ? Or, is it against 
 convention ? If it were against law, would the 
 law pursue her so long, so persistently and so relent- 
 lessly as does custom ? I quote this as an incon- 
 trovertible example of the irresistible nature of 
 pubhc feehng among our own class of nations. 
 Well : among vast populations the most heinous 
 offence, the one offence customarily unpardonable, 
 is to become a pervert to the faith, that is, to become 
 a convert to Christianity. Some here present may 
 have seen the result of committing that offence. 
 I can recall a case in point. I knew a medical man, 
 by birth a Brahman and by faith a Christian, with 
 an European education. WTiat was his condition ? 
 His habits were not Enghsh, and he could only 
 associate on general terms with Enghsh people, 
 and then he was an outcast from his own family and 
 people, in a sense so absolute that a Christian reahses 
 it but with difficulty. That was a lonely hfe indeed, 
 and few there be of any nation that would face it. 
 But mark this. He was ostracised, not because of 
 any crime or any evil in him that made him danger- 
 ous, but because of custom and the fear of breaking 
 
70 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 through custom on the part of those connected or 
 associated wdth him. One of the saddest of creatiures 
 in my experience was a servant of my own, who had 
 been what is known in India as a child " caste 
 widow." She had nevertheless married a Mu- 
 hammadan and become a ]\Iuhammadan, her own 
 kind and rehgion being in the circumstances im- 
 possible to her, and she paid the penalty of isolation 
 from her home all her hfe. These are the instances 
 and these are the considerations which show how 
 serious a personal matter it can be to change one's 
 mother faith. 
 
 Of course it has been done over and over again, 
 and missionaries have succeeded with whole popu- 
 lations, but in every case success has been obtained 
 by working on the hne of least resistance, and has 
 been the reward of those who have exercised some- 
 thing of what we call the wisdom of the serpent in 
 ascertaining that hne. This involves a most exten- 
 sive knowledge of the people ; and their work and 
 writings prove how closely the great missionaries 
 of all sorts have studied those amongst whom their 
 lot has been cast, in every phase. It has always 
 and everywhere been so. The var3dng festivals 
 of Christianity in Europe, its many rituals and its 
 myriad customs, show that the missionaries of old 
 succeeded by adapting to their own ideals, rather 
 than by changing, the old habits they found about 
 them. In the East, the Buddhists were in ancient 
 days, and nominally still are, great missionaries, 
 and they have invariably worked on the same 
 Hues. I have also elsewhere had reason to point 
 out that in the present day the most successful 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 71 
 
 missionary in India is, after all, the Brahman priest, 
 and that because he apparently changes nothing, 
 accepts the whole hagiolatry and cosmogony of 
 the tribe he takes under his wing, declares the chief 
 tribal god to be an emanation from the misty Hindu 
 deity Siva, starts a custom here and a ceremony 
 there, induces the leaders to be select and particular 
 as to association with others, and as to marriages, 
 eating, drinking, and smoking, and straightway is 
 brought into being a new caste and a new sect, 
 belonging loosely to that agglomeration of sects 
 and small societies known generically as Hinduism. ^ 
 
 The process can be watched wherever British roads |' 4 
 and railroads open up the wilder regions. It^t^Jis 
 
 All this is working factfuU^r, and because tact 
 is instinctive anthropological knowledge, it is 
 working anthropologically, and wherever, without 
 the immediate aid of the sword and superior force, 
 any other method is tried — wherever there has been 
 a direct effort to work empirically — wherever a 
 sudden change of old social habits has been incul- 
 cated — there has been disaster, or an unnecessary 
 infliction of injury, or a subversion of the consti- 
 tuted social system, or an actual conflict with the 
 civil authority. Mischief, not good, comes of such 
 things. I remember, many years ago, having cause 
 to examine the rehgious ideas of a certain Indian 
 tribe, and being advised to consult a missionary, 
 wiio had hved with it for about twenty-live years. 
 I wrote to him for my information, and the answer 
 I received was that he could not give it, as his 
 business was to convert the heathen to Christianity, 
 not to study their rehgion. Such a man could not 
 
72 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 create a mission station, and was not likely to 
 improve one placed in his charge. Another instance 
 of the wrong spirit, born of anthropological ignor- 
 ance, comes to light in the existence of certain 
 all-important provisions in Acts of the Indian 
 Legislature and in judicial decisions affecting Indians, 
 which prevent a change of rehgion from affecting 
 marriages celebrated, and the legitimacy of children 
 born, before the change, and prevent reliance on 
 customs opposed to the newly adopted rehgion. 
 Men have become Muhammadans in order to apply 
 the Muhammadan law of divorce to former wives, 
 as they thought legally, and men have become 
 Christians in order to get rid of superfluous wives 
 and families, and — what is to the point here — 
 Christian converts have been advised by their 
 pastors to put away extra wives. Think of the 
 cruel wrongs which would thus have been inflicted 
 on lawfully married women and lawfully begotten 
 children, and the wisdom of the legislature and of 
 the judges will be perceived. But the strongest 
 instance I can recall of the results of anthropological 
 ignorance is the sad case of the Nicobar Missions 
 in the Bay of Bengal. Off and on for two hundred 
 years, missionaries of all sorts and nationahties 
 attempted conversion and colonisation of these 
 islands. Thay were well intentioned, enthusiastic, 
 and in a sense truly heroic, and some of them were 
 learned as well, but they were without practical 
 knowledge and without proper equipment. Their 
 lives were not only miserable, but they were horribly 
 miserable, and every mission perished. \\Tiat is 
 more, so far as I could ascertain after prolonged 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 73 
 
 enquiry, their efforts, wiiich were many and sus- 
 tained, have had no appreciable effect on the people, 
 indeed apparently none at all. And this has partly 
 been due to an anthropological error. They worked 
 with their own hands. It may seem a small thing, 
 but with the population they dealt with it meant 
 that they could secure no influence, and it is a truth 
 that, wherever you go, if you are to have influence, 
 you must have anthropological knowledge. There 
 is a mission in the Nicobars now, and when I last 
 heard of it it was flourishing, but the leader was 
 a contributor to the Journal of the Anthropological 
 Institute, and had it borne in on him that a 
 knowledge of the people in their every aspect is 
 essential to his success. ]\Iany a time has he used 
 his knowledge to the practical benefit of the islanders, 
 converts or other. 
 
 So far we have been discussing the case of those 
 who dwell and work abroad. Let us now pay a 
 little attention to that of a very different class, the 
 armchair critics, academical, philosophical, political, 
 pragmatic, doctrinaire — those gentlemen of Eng- 
 land that live at home at ease. It is a commonplace 
 amongst Europeans in India that the home-stayer's 
 ignorance of India and its affairs is not only 
 stupendous : it is persistent and hopeless, because 
 self-satisfied. But the home criticism is of great 
 importance, as the ultimate power for good and 
 evil hes at the head-quarters of the Empire. It 
 must be so : and what is true of India is true also of 
 any other outl3dng part of the world-wide dominion 
 of the British race. But do the ghb critics of Eng- 
 land pause to dwell on the harm that severe criticism 
 
74 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 of their fellow-countrymen abroad often does ? 
 Do they stop to consider the pain it causes ? Or to 
 ponder on the very superficial knowledge on which 
 their strictures are based ? Or to think that there 
 is no adverse criticism that is more annoying or 
 disheartening than that which is w^holly ignorant, 
 or springs from that httle knowledge which is a 
 dangerous thing ? Indeed, the chief quahfication 
 for a savage onslaught on the striver at a distance 
 is ignorance. He who knows and can appreciate, 
 is slow to depreciate, as he understands the danger. 
 I do not wish to illustrate my points too profusely 
 out of my own experience, but on the whole it is 
 best to take one's illustrations, so far as possible, 
 at first hand, and I will give here an instance of 
 advice tendered without adequate anthropological 
 instruction. { For some years I had to govern a very 
 large body of Indian convicts, among whom were a 
 considerable number of women. Some pressure 
 was brought to bear on me, partly from England, 
 to introduce separate sleeping accommodation 
 among the women, on the intelligible ground^ 
 that it is well to separate the unfortunate from the 
 bad, and that in England women who had found 
 their way into gaol, but were on the whole of cleanly 
 hfe, highly appreciated the privilege of sleeping 
 apart from those whose hves, thoughts and speech 
 were otherwise. But I avoided doing this, because 
 the Indian woman in all her hfe, from birth to 
 death, from childhood to old age, is never alone, 
 especially at night, and if you want to thoroughly 
 frighten the kind of woman that finds herself in an 
 Indian prison, force her to sleep, or to try to sleep. 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 75 
 
 in a solitary cell, where her wild superstitious 
 imagination runs riot. It is an act of torture. 
 
 Now, those who fill posts that bring them con- 
 stantly before the public eye soon become callous 
 to the misinterpretation that dogs the judgment 
 of the ill-informed critic. They are subjected to 
 it day by day, and the experience early comes to 
 them that it does them no personal harm. But the 
 case is quite different with men who lead sohtary 
 hves on the outskirts of the Empire, surrounded 
 by difficulties not of the ordinary sort, and working 
 under unusual conditions. The lonehness tries 
 the nerves and leads to brooding, and then the 
 unkind word, the thoughtless criticism, wounds 
 deeply. It disheartens, discourages, and takes the 
 zest and spirit out of the worker. To test the truth 
 of this, let any stay-at-home quit the comfortable 
 waUs of this hub of a mighty Empire and go out on 
 to the bare t^Te thereof, and see for himself. There 
 is probably no kind of worker abroad, though he 
 is only too often guilty of it himself, who suffers 
 more from ignorant criticism than the lonely mission- 
 ary-, and he is so placed that he cannot ignore it. 
 
 Even those who should be thicker of skin often 
 do not escape the soreness caused in this way, and 
 I cannot forget the heart-burning that arose on 
 the spot, during the ver>- difficult pacification of 
 the country after the last Burmese \\ ar, out of the 
 relentless criticism set up at home with so Httle 
 knowledge, though there must have been many who 
 must have knowm that the treatment they received 
 but repeated that meted out to the controllers of 
 the operations in the previous war. One of the 
 
76 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 most pathetic of public speeches is that of General 
 Godwin, at Rangoon, shortly before his death, 
 referring to the ruthless persecution to which he 
 had been subjected for his conduct of the war of 
 1852. It has always been so. Read about the 
 Peninsular Campaigns, the Sikh Wars, the so-called 
 Sale of Kashmir, and again about the late South 
 African War, and the Russo-Japanese struggle in 
 the Far East. The remarks one usually sees in the 
 daily Press are uninformed enough in all conscience, 
 but they, all the same, evidently wounded at times 
 even so collected a people as the Japanese. The 
 point is, then, that ignorant criticism does harm, 
 even in the case of the experienced in human affairs. 
 To show how easy and even natural it is to judge 
 wrongly, let me quote as an example the unjust 
 attacks that have often been made, by missionaries 
 among others, upon those who have had truck with 
 savages. Savages within their Hmitations are very 
 far from being fools, especially in the matter of a 
 bargain with civihsed man, and never make one that 
 does not for reasons of their own satisfy themselves. 
 Each side in such a case views the bargain according 
 to its own interest. On his side the trader buys 
 something of great value to him, when he has taken 
 it elsewhere, with something of small value to him, 
 which he has brought from elsewhere, and then he 
 can make what is to him a magnificent bargain. 
 On the other hand, the savage is more than satisfied, 
 because \vith what he has got from the trader he can 
 procure from amongst his own people something he 
 very much covets, which the articles he parted wdth 
 could not have procured for him. Both sides profit 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 77 
 
 by the bargain from their respective points of \ae\v, 
 and the trader has not as a matter of fact taken an 
 undue advantage of the savages, who as a body part 
 \\dth products of httle or no value to themselves for 
 others of vital importance, though of Httle or none 
 to the civihsed trader. The more one dives into the 
 recorded bargains \\dth savages the more clearly 
 one sees the truth of this view. Taking advantage 
 of the love of all savages for strong drink to conclude 
 unconscionable bargains, by which they part with 
 their produce for an insufficient quantity of articles 
 of use to them, is another matter, and does not affect 
 the argument. 
 
 Ever^' administrator of experience can recall 
 many instances of conventionally wTong judgments 
 even in high places, on pubhc affairs abroad, based 
 on anthropological misapprehension ; but one of the 
 most humihating in my own recollection was the 
 honest, but doctrinaire and pragmatic, onslaught 
 in England on the Opium Traffic of India, whereby, if 
 it had succeeded, some entire populations would 
 have been deprived of those httle but very highly 
 prized comforts assured in overcrowded agricultural 
 locaUties by the cultivation of opium, and others 
 of the most valued prophylactic they possess against 
 physical pain and suffering by its medicinal con- 
 sumption. In both cases it is this much abused 
 product of the fields that enables the very poor in 
 large areas to keep their heads above water, so that 
 their not very happy hves may be worth hving. 
 
 There is another most venerable anthropological 
 error, quaintly expressed by a seventeenth-century 
 writer on Greenland, who describes that country 
 
78 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 * ' as being so happy as not to know the value of gold 
 and silver." It is to be found all the world over 
 and in all times. It is expressed in Ovid's hackneyed 
 lines : — 
 
 Effodiuntiir opes, irritamenta malonim. 
 
 Jamque nocens ferrum, ferroque nocentius aurum 
 
 Prodierant. 
 
 But it is based on a misunderstanding of the ways of 
 mankind in given circumstances. Barter, sale, and 
 purchase must go on, whether there is money in the 
 land or not, and an examination of the state of com- 
 p mercial business in any country in pre-coinage days 
 will soon convince the student that the opportunities 
 for unfair deahng, where the value of gold and silver 
 for currency has not been discovered, are just 
 double those where money exists ; and opportunity 
 is the mother of sin. The actual monetary condi- 
 tion of a country without a definite and settled 
 currency and without the buUion metals is not by 
 any means of that desirable simpHcity, which civihsed 
 man is, without due thought, so apt to attribute to 
 savages and semi-savages. Simphcity in deahngs 
 can only exist where money consists of a recognised 
 coinage, and where wealth is expressed in terms of 
 that coinage. Indeed, the invention of money, 
 based on the metallurgical skiU which can produce 
 from the ore gold and silver of a fixed fineness, is 
 one of the mightiest triumphs of the human brain, 
 and one of the most potent blessings evolved by 
 man for the benefit of his kind. 
 
 But mischievous as uninformed criticism^ is, 
 there is nothing of greater value and assistance than 
 the criticism of the well informed. Lookers on see 
 
-t^ 
 
 ANTHROPOLOGY 79 
 
 most of the game, provided they understand it. 
 That is just the point. They must understand it to 
 perceive its drift and to forward it by useful com- 
 ment. By learning all about it, by viewing it at a 
 distance, by the very detachment and general 
 grasp that a distant view secures, the critic at 
 home can materially help the worker abroad. Com- 
 ment made with knowledge never offends, because it 
 is so very helpful. It cheers, it invigorates, it leads 
 to further effort, it creates a bond of sympathy 
 between the critic and the criticised. It does 
 nothing but good. In this immense Empire it 
 means that all, from the centre of the hub to the 
 outer rim of the wheel, can work with one mind and 
 one mighty effort, with one strong pull together, for 
 the magnificent end of its continued well-being, j ^ 
 Therefore it behoves the critic at home of all men 
 to cultivate the anthropological instinct. 
 
 Let us now turn to another class, such as this 
 University is pre-eminently capable of affording : 
 the professors, the lecturers, the teachers and leaders 
 of Hterary and scientific, not to mention anthropolo- 
 gical, study. Let no one be filled with the idea that 
 their labours, in so far as anthropology is concerned, 
 are a neghgible quantity, as only resulting in ab- 
 stract speculation of no immediate and probably of 
 no ultimate practical value. What the obscure 
 calculations of the pure mathematicians, the in- 
 ventions based on apphed mathematics, and the 
 deductions of the meteorologists have done for so 
 eminently practical an occupation as navigation ; 
 what the abstract labours of the chemist and the 
 electrician have done for the doctor ; what the 
 
 -J 
 
8o ANTHROPOLOCxY 
 
 statistician and the actuary have done for such 
 purely practical bodies as insurance companies and 
 the underwriters ; what the desk work of the ac- 
 countant does for commerce and finance : that can 
 the analyses of the anthropologist do for that large 
 and important class of workers which labours 
 among men. Let not the remoteness of any particu- 
 lar branch of his subject from the obviously practical 
 pursuits deter him who spends his energies in 
 research. Let him remember that, after all, the 
 best instrument for approaching ancient and mediae- 
 val history is abstract study of the ways and thoughts 
 of the modern savage and semi-civihsed man. Let 
 him remember, too, that many of the customs and 
 ideas of the most civilised and advanced of modern 
 nations have their roots in savage and semi-civihsed 
 behefs. What can be remoter at first sight from 
 the navigation of an ocean steamer than logarithms ? 
 But let any one who has reason to go on a long sea 
 voyage keep his eyes open, and he cannot but per- 
 ceive how important a part apphed logarithmic 
 calculations play in the sure pilotage of the ship he 
 is in from port to port. And what is more to the 
 effective point, let not the controllers of the Univer- 
 sity be turned back by any such considerations as 
 apparent remoteness from pursuing the course they 
 are now embarked on ; rather let us hope that the 
 tentative scheme w^e are now engaged in examining 
 is but the first timid step towards the estabhshment 
 of what will ultimately prove to be an important 
 School of Applied Anthropology. 
 
 And if this University takes up this study in 
 earnest, let me draw attention to another point. 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 8i 
 
 It is said in a thoughtful obituary notice of my old 
 friend, the great Orientahst, Professor Georg Biihler, 
 of Vienna, that not only was he a thorough scholar, 
 a hard worker and a master of general Oriental 
 learning, but that he had also the insight to perceive 
 that judicious collections promote and even create 
 those studies, the advancement of which he had at 
 heart. In all such matters there must not only be 
 the desire to learn, there must also be the oppor- 
 tunity, for if desire be the father, then assuredly 
 opportunity is the mother of all learning. So he 
 hunted up, collected, and presented to seats of 
 learning every MS. or original document his own 
 financial capacity or his powers of persuasion per- 
 mitted to himself or to others. Where the carcase 
 is, there shall the eagles be gathered together. In 
 the present case, if the students are to be attracted 
 and encouraged, there must be collected together the 
 Museum and the Library, a carcase fitted for their 
 appetite. I do not say this in a mere begging spirit. 
 Cast your thoughts over the great speciahsed schools 
 of learning, present or past, and consider how many 
 of them have owed their existence or success to the 
 Hbrary or museum close at hand. It is a considera- 
 tion worthy of the attention of the governing body of 
 a University that these two, the library and the 
 museum, are as important factors in the advance- 
 ment of knowledge as teaching itself. 
 
 And now we come to the last, but not the least 
 important point for consideration : the personal 
 aspect of this question. We have been deahng so 
 far with the value of an early anthropological train- 
 ing to a man in his work. Is it of any value to him 
 
r 
 
 82 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 in his private life ? For years past I have urged upon 
 all youngsters the great personal use 01 having a 
 hobby and learning to ride it early, for a hobby to 
 be valuable is not mastered in a day. The know- 
 ledge of it is of slow growth. At first the lessons 
 are a grind. Then until they are mastered they are 
 irksome. But when the art is fully attained there 
 is perhaps no keener pleasure that human beings 
 can experience than the riding of a hobby. Begin, 
 therefore, when you are young and before the work 
 of the world distracts your attention and prevents 
 or postpones the necessary mastery. But what is 
 the use of the mastery ? There comes a time, 
 sooner or later, to all men that live on, when for 
 one reason or another they must retire from active 
 hfe, from the pursuits or business to which they 
 have become accustomed, from occupations that 
 have absorbed all their energies and filled up all 
 their days. A time when the habits of years must 
 be changed and when inactivity must follow on 
 activity. Then is the time when a man is grateful 
 for his hobby. By then he has mastered it. Its 
 pursuit is a real pleasure to him. It is a helpful 
 occupation as the years advance, and even when he 
 can no longer push it on any further himself, he can 
 take his dehght in giving his matured advice and 
 help to those coming up behind him, and in watching 
 their progress and that of their kind with the eye of 
 the old horseman. 
 
 And what better hobby exists than anthropology ? 
 Its range is so wdde, its phases so very many, the 
 interests involved in it so various, that it cannot 
 fail to occupy the leisure hours from youth to full 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 85 
 
 manhood, and to be a solace in some aspect or other 
 in advanced Hfe and old age. So vast is the field 
 indeed, that no individual can point the moral of 
 its usefulness, except from a severely hmited portion 
 of it. At any rate, I have learnt enough in an 
 experience of a third of a century in its study to 
 prevent me from going beyond my personal tether, 
 though perhaps my hues have been cast in a 
 favourable spot, for rightly or wrongly anthro- 
 pologists consider India to be an exceptionally, 
 though far from being the only, favoured land 
 for study. In it can be observ^ed stiU dweUing 
 side by side human beings possessed of the oldest 
 and youngest civihsations. In it can be traced by 
 the modern eye the whole evolution of most arts 
 and many ideas. For instance, you can procure in 
 quite a smaU area of the country concrete examples, 
 all still in use, of the whole story of the water pipe 
 or hooka, starting from the plain cocoanut with a 
 hole to suck the smoke through. You can then pass 
 on to the nut embeUished with a brass binding at 
 the top, and next at the top and bottom, until it is 
 found covered over with brass and furnished with 
 a sucking pipe. Then you can find the nut with- 
 drawn and only the brass cover remaining, but this 
 requires a separate stand, hke a miniature amphora. 
 Then it is turned over on to its wider end and the 
 stand is attached to it, and finally the stand is 
 widened and enlarged and the vessel narrowed and 
 attenuated to give it stabihty, until the true hooka 
 of the Oriental pictures with its elegant and flexible 
 sucking pipe is reached, which differs from a cocoa- 
 nut in appearance as much as one article can be 
 
.^ 
 
 84 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 made to differ from another. Go and buy such 
 things in the bazaars if you have the chance, and 
 find out for yourselves how great the interest is. 
 
 Sticking to my own experience, for reasons given 
 above, and leaving it to my hearers to follow the 
 Hne of thought indicated from theirs, let me here 
 give an instance or so of the pleasures of research. 
 In Muhammadan India especially there are many 
 cases, some beyond doubt, of the marriage of 
 daughters of royal blood, even of the most powerful 
 sovereigns, to saintly persons of no specially high 
 origin. It is to Europeans an unexpected custom, 
 and is not the finding of the explanation of interest 
 to the discoverer ? In the contemporary vernacular 
 history of the Sixteenth Century Dynasty of the 
 Bahmanis in Southern India, we read that Sultan 
 Muhammad Shah Bahmani gave two sisters in 
 marriage to two local saints, with a substantial terri- 
 torial dowry to each, " for the sake of invoking the 
 divine blessing on his own bed." An Indian anthro- 
 pologist sees at once in this what the native hne of 
 thought has been. The custom is simply a nostrum 
 ,for procuring sons. The overwhehning hankering 
 after a son in India is of Hindu origin, based on the 
 superstition that the performance of funeral obsequies 
 by a son is a sure means of salvation. The desire 
 has long become universal there, and the whole wide 
 category of nostrums known to the inhabitants is 
 employed by the barren or the sonless to overcome 
 \ their misfortune. This is one of them. 
 
 Again, is it not of interest to trace out a reason 
 for the weU-known customary ill-treatment of Hindu 
 widows in India, ill-treatment of relatives being so 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 85 
 
 foreign to a class with such strong family feelings 
 as the Hindus ? Work it out and you will find that 
 this is an instance of the quite incalculable misery 
 and suffering caused to human beings, that has for 
 ages arisen out of " correct argument from a false 
 premiss." The theory is that misfortune is a sin, 
 and indicates a sinful condition in the victims thereof, 
 defining sin as an offence, witting or unwitting, 
 against social conventions. The good luck of the 
 lucky benefits their surroundings and the bad luck 
 of the unlucky as obviously brings harm. Therefore 
 the unlucky are sinful, and what is of supreme 
 importance to them, must be punished accordingly, 
 as a precautionary measure for their own safety on 
 the part of those around them. The fact that, as in 
 the case of widows, the misfortune is perfectly 
 involuntary and uncontrollable does not affect the 
 argument. This in its turn has given rise to an 
 interminably numerous and various body of 
 nostrums for the prevention of the dreaded sin of 
 misfortune, and a cumulative ball of folk-custom 
 has been set rolHng. 
 
 Take again the ancient royal prerogative of releas- 
 ing prisoners on customary occasions of personal 
 royal rejoicing, nowadays in civiHsed Europe 
 attributed solely to kindhness and mercy. This is, 
 in Indian song and legend, given, in the directest 
 phraseology, its right original attribution of an act to 
 insure good luck. Is not this of interest also ? 
 
 Now, these ideas, and with modifications these 
 
 customs, are not confined to India, and the interest 
 
 I provided by all such things is their universahty 
 
 among human beings, pointing to the existence of a 
 
86 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 fundamental principle, or Law of Nature, which I 
 have elsewhere endeavoured to develop in propound- 
 ing the principles undertying the evolution of speech : 
 namely, that a convention devised by the human 
 brain is governed by a general natural law, however 
 various the phenomena of that law may be. Con- 
 trolled by their physical development human brains 
 must in similar conditions, subject to modifications 
 caused by the pressure of two other fundamental 
 natural laws, think and act in a similar manner. 
 
 As a concrete example, let us take the idea of 
 sanctuary, asylum, or refuge, as it is variously 
 termed. Wherever it is found, in ancient and modern 
 India, in ancient Greece, in mediaeval Europe, in 
 modern Afghanistan, its practical appUcation is 
 everywhere the same : protection of the stranger 
 against his enemy, so long as he pays his way, and 
 only so long. Pursuing this universal idea further, 
 it will be seen that the Oriental conception of 
 hospitahty and its obhgations is based on that of 
 sanctuary, and is still, in many instances, not 
 distinguishable from it. The practical reflection : 
 You scratch my back, and I will scratch yours, is at 
 the bottom of all this, however far final developments 
 in various places may have diverged from it. 
 
 Work out the idea of virtue, w^hich for ages every- 
 where meant, and still in many parts of the earth 
 means, valour in a man and chastity in a woman, 
 being nowhere dead in that sense, as the modern 
 European laws relating to marital and conjugal 
 fidehty show, and you will find that it rests on very 
 ancient conditions of society. The men preserved 
 themselves by their valour, and the women preserved 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 87 
 
 their tabu to the men by their chastity. It was so 
 everywhere. The zone as a term and as an article of 
 costume shows this. There was ahva^^s the female 
 girdle or zone, the emblem of chastity, and the male 
 zone, or sign of virility and fighting capacity. 
 
 Then there is the royal custom of marriage with a 
 half-sister, found in ancient Egypt, in the modem 
 ]\Ialay States, and in the lately deposed dynasty 
 of Burma and elsewhere. This is not mere incest, 
 itself an idea based in many an apparently queer 
 form on a fundamental necessity of human society. 
 It is and was a matter of self and famity protection, 
 to be found in a much milder form in the familiar 
 EngHsh idea of the marriage of heir and heiress to 
 preserve the " ring fence." 
 
 Take the custom of succession of brothers before 
 sons, found in old England, in Burma, in some of the 
 Indian mediatised States, and in other places, and 
 we have again a custom arising out of the environ- 
 ment ; the necessity of providing a grown man to 
 maintain the State. And so one could go on to an 
 indefinite multiplication of instances. 
 
 But in unworked-out directions, unworked-out, 
 that is, so far as known to myself, the interest and 
 principles are the same. Let me give an instance 
 to which my attention was some years ago attracted, 
 though I have never had the leisure to follow it to a 
 satisfactory' conclusion. At Akyab on the Arakan- 
 Burma Coast is a weU-known shrine, nowadays 
 usually called Buddha-makan. It is repeated con- 
 spicuously further south at ^lergui, and incon- 
 spicuously elsewhere along the coast. The name is 
 an impossible one etymologically. Investigation, 
 
 1/ 
 
88 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 however, showed that the devotees were the Muham- 
 madan sailors of the Bay of Bengal, haihng chiefly 
 from Chittagong, and that the name was really 
 Badr-maqam, the shrine of Badr, corrupted in 
 Buddhist Arakan into Buddha-makan, the house of 
 Buddha, b}' folk-etymolog}^ striving after a meaning. 
 The holy personage worshipped was Badru'ddin 
 Auha, who has a great shrine at Chittagong, and 
 is the patron saint of the saihng community. Bad- 
 iii'ddm, as a name, is our old famihar friend Bedred- 
 din of the popular Enghsh versions of the Arabian 
 Nights. This Badru'ddin Aulia is one of the misty 
 but important saints, those wiU-o'-the-wisps of 
 Indian hagiolatry, who is mixed up with another, the 
 wddely known Khwaja Khizar, par excellence the 
 Muhammadanised spirit of the flood : and here is 
 the immediate explanation. But Khw^aja Khizar 
 is mixed up with ]\Iehtar IHyas, the Muhammadan 
 and Oriental form of the prophet Ehas of the legends, 
 to be traced in the same capacity in modern Russia. 
 This god, and in some places goddess, of the flood is 
 traceable all over India, even amongst the ahen 
 populations of Madras, We are now^ involved in 
 something universal, something due to a Hne of 
 popular inductive reasoning. Will it not repay 
 following up, as a matter of interest, and probing 
 to the bottom by a mixed body of investigators, 
 Oriental and Occidental, in the same manner as 
 Indian epigraphical dates and the eras to which 
 they refer w^ere, several years back, worked out and 
 settled b\^ scholars, mathematicians, and astronomers 
 working together ? 
 
 A study of the highest anthropological interest 
 
 N 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 89 
 
 is to be found in an examination of currency and 
 coinage, and of the intermingled question of weights 
 and measures. Perhaps nothing leads to so close a 
 knowledge of man and his ways of life and notions, 
 and perhaps no subject requires more sustained atten- 
 tion, or a greater exercise of the reasoning powers. 
 Plere, too, there is a universal principle to be un- 
 earthed out of the immense maze of facts before one, 
 for, as in the case of the days of the week, there is a 
 connected world-wide series of notions of the penny- 
 we^ht, ounce, pound, and hundredweight, and of 
 their equivalents in cash, based on some general 
 observation of the carrying capacity of a man and 
 of tke constant weight of some vegetable seed, and 
 also of the value of some animal or thing important 
 to mm. Here, too, a combination of Oriental and 
 Occicental research and speciahsed knowledge is 
 necessary. 
 
 But experience will show that in following up all 
 such subjects as these, there is a Law of Nature, 
 in addi ion to that of the fundamental community 
 of human reasoning already alluded to, which must 
 never be lost sight of, if the successful elucidation of 
 an anthropological problem is to be achieved. This 
 Law is thit there is no such thing as development 
 along a siigle line only. Everything in Nature is 
 subjected t) and affected by its environment. A 
 httle is picked up here, and snatched there, and 
 what is ca\ght up becomes engrafted, with the 
 result that he subsequent growth becomes com- 
 plicated, or e\en diverted from its original tendency. 
 Bear these principles in mind and work con- 
 tinuously as opportunity offers, and it will be found 
 
90 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 that anthropolog}^ is a study of serious personal 
 value. Not only will it enable the student to do the 
 work of the world, and to deal with his neighbours 
 and those with whom he comes in contact, through- 
 out all his active life, better than can be otherwise 
 possible, but it will serve to throw a light upon what 
 goes on around him, and to give an insight into 
 human affairs, past and present, that cannot but be 
 of benefit to him, and it will provide him with intel- 
 lectual occupation, interest and pleasure, as bug 
 as the eye can see, or the ear can hear, or the biain 
 can think. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE VALUE OF A TRAINING IN ANTHRO- 
 POLOGV FOR THE ADMINISTRATOR 
 
 Extracts from an address to the Oxford Anthropolo- 
 gical Societ}^ delivered at Oxford in 19 13, in the 
 i presence of a number of probationers for the 
 llpdian Civil Service. -- 
 
 I UNDERSTAND that I am called upon to address 
 to-day, amongst others, probationers for the Indian 
 Civil Service, and I wish to sa}^ at once that in 
 urging them to train themselves in iVnthropology I 
 have no desire to add another subject to their 
 already overburdened curriculum. My object in 
 doing what is possible to for\vard the movement in 
 favour of Schools of Applied Anthropology, for the 
 benefit of such students as they are, is to ensure that 
 they shall be put in the way of knowing for them- 
 selves the people with whom they may come in con- 
 tact. The essential points of knowledge for young 
 men going out to India to assist in the government 
 are Languages, Administration and Law. I put 
 them in that order advisedly, as the result of many 
 years' experience, and to these I strongly desire to 
 add Anthropology, for the reason that if they are 
 to succeed in governing men, knowledge of their 
 languages or of the administration and the law of the 
 
 9» 
 
92 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 country is not quite enough. It is also necessary 
 to know the culture of the people one is dealing with. 
 This is the knowledge that the Schools of Applied 
 Anthropology advocated by myself and others are 
 intended to provide, not so much by directly teach- 
 ing it as by putting students in the way of acquiring 
 it for themselves accurately. We know very well 
 the weight of the tax placed on the intellectual 
 powers of students by the Indian Civil Service 
 examination system, and we know how loyal are 
 the efforts they make to meet that tax. We have 
 no wish therefore to add to the burden, but we do 
 wdsh, firstly to interest them in Anthropology, and 
 secondly by that means to lead them on to the 
 study of it throughout life, to the benefit of them- 
 selves and of those amongst whom they work. 
 
 It will have been perceived in the remarks I have 
 already made that I have been true to m.y principles, 
 and have used only general terms in treating my 
 subject, but as I am addressing those who are going 
 to work in India, I propose giving one or two general 
 hints not so much as statements of positive facts, 
 but as my own \'iews after forty years of study, 
 which they can most usefully spend their spare time 
 in verifying later on. 
 
 The outstanding human fact in Indi a is ca ste, 
 which is the principle of family exclusiveness camM' 
 to its logical conclusion, and in this form it exists^ 
 nowhere else in the world. It is there a birthriglit 
 of divine origin preserved as rigidly as possible by 
 immemorial custom. It is maintained by as com- 
 plete avoidance as practicable of bodily contact with 
 all outsiders. This has made the marriage rules 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY 93 
 
 most rigid and has led to female infanticide, child- 
 marriage and widow celibacy. Work these points 
 out for yourselves with such help as you can get 
 from old students like myself. It has also divided 
 the natives of India into a network of isolated 
 communities, and rendered the population unable 
 to combine against attack from outside. Hence 
 the many foreign rulers in India. Hence also our 
 own empire over a courageous, physically strong 
 and mentally capable population. Hence, too, 
 the tendency of the people to spht up into innumer- 
 able small rehgious sects, each with its own system 
 of ethics. 
 
 ^"Caste, being the rule of life of the great majority of 
 the people, affects every one in India. It \\ill 
 affect you who are going to India, for you will find 
 that Europeans are there, owing to the conditions, 
 a caste, whether they like it or not. It^is this^ and 
 not the superciliousness of the Englishmen, that 
 makes intimate social relations between British and 
 Indian famihes impossible. The common com- 1 / 
 plaint that our national characteristic of aloofness is /''^^^y 
 responsible for our social isolation in India is a 
 shallow observation. It occurs simply because it 
 has been the rule of the land from a period long 
 before our time. 
 
 The point to watch in the future is the breaking 
 down of this social system. It is coming for a 
 certainty, and its advent will mean a complete 
 social revolution with all its consequences. The 
 causes are Western education awaking the critical 
 faculties of the natives and shaking their faith in the 
 complete purity of their birthright, and modern 
 
94 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 opportunities for cheap and rapid movement 
 making personal isolation more and more difficult. 
 
 The second cardinal point about India is Hinduism. 
 Like caste it permeates everything. Hinduism is 
 more than a religion. It provides a rule of life 
 guiding the conduct of practically the whole Indian 
 populace, whatever the form of the creed they may 
 profess. Modern Hinduism is the outcome of 
 many centuries of growth and exposure to outside 
 influences, and is divided nowadays into two almost 
 separate parts, philosophy and practice. The 
 philosophy is monotheistic and the practice animis- 
 tic : that is to say there is a theoretical behef in the 
 supreme power of one God, combined with a practical 
 belief in the powers of innumerable supernatural 
 personages and forces. This apphes chiefly to 
 the higher castes and classes, but there is an enor- 
 mous population below them who are known as the 
 low castes — outcasts according to high-caste Hindu 
 theory. Their faith is the primitive animism of the 
 country largely tinged with the philosophy and the 
 high moral teaching of the popular eclectic mediaeval 
 reformers of India, as to whom you should learn all 
 you can when you get there. 
 
 It is these low castes that are becoming ripe for 
 accepting Christianity wholesale. The higher caste 
 Hindus and the educated natives generally are 
 aware of this, and have started a strong revival of 
 all the old native rehgions and of Hinduism especi- 
 ally. This is one of the chief causes of the unrest 
 you will hear so much of when 3^ou get to India. 
 And as to this you may usefully hear one or two 
 things from an old anthropologist. The first point 
 
• • •• 
 
 ANTHR'OP^LOG"^ • * 95 
 
 to grasp is that the unrest is real, inevitable and 
 natural. It is due entirely to the revolution caused 
 in native life by the contact of old Eastern and 
 Western ci\ilisations. Our mere presence in India, 
 as the controlhng power with a strong distinct 
 civilisation of our own, has seriously threatened 
 the caste system, and the chief religion through the 
 education we have imported wholesale. Western 
 education is also completely upsetting the whole 
 of the long established methods of treating women 
 and it has created a new educated middle class, 
 largely unemployed in a suitable manner, and there- 
 fore inflammable and disappointed, ready to fan the 
 flame of unrest whenever possible. All this is the 
 necessary consequence of the conditions resulting 
 from our overlordship. It is essentially a state of 
 things where anthropological training will avail 
 largely to make you understand it, and by under- 
 standing it to keep the cool head required in a situa- 
 tion that can only become dangerous if ignorantly 
 treated. 
 
 One or two more words with your leave. Be 
 very careful to learn the spoken languages, or at 
 least the chief language, of the province in which your 
 lot is cast. You can never secure the interest of 
 the people, or really know anything of them, 
 unless you do. It is better for the people you 
 govern that you should know their language well 
 than that you should be hrst-rate lawyers or 
 minutely accurate administrators. The other 
 point is as regards the chmate. Long continued 
 residence in India affects the nervous system 
 more than the muscles or the vital organs. It is 
 
96 ANTHROPOLOGY 
 
 not so much, as you will be told, the liver, the spleen, 
 the stomach or the head that are injured, as the 
 nerves. The thing to avoid is the local " head," 
 a common colloquial recognition of that insidious 
 disease neurasthenia, the visible signs of which are 
 irritability and loss of memory for small details, 
 such as names and words. If you want to keep 
 yourselves fit for work, endeavour to preserve your 
 EngHsh steadiness of nerve, knowing that it is 
 being more and more undermined by every year you 
 spend in India. 
 
 I have spoken dogmatically because the time is 
 short, but I wish you to understand that it is not 
 my desire to dogmatise. What I have tried to do 
 is to give you some of the conclusions resulting from 
 many years of study, as a basis for you to work on 
 for yourselves. 
 
 THE LONDON AND NORWICH PRESS, LIMITED, LONDON AND NORWICli 
 
WEBSTER'S 
 New International Dictionary 
 
 Over 400,000 Defined Words 
 
 12,000 Biographical & 30,000 Geographical Entries 
 
 Over 6,000 Illustrations. 2,700 Pages 
 
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 THE modern dictionary is no longer a book for giving the spelling 
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 who has gathered his material from the whole field involved. 
 
 The New International is not a patched-up, slightly added-to 
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 the old International the volume sho ws little increase in bulk, but in 
 reality it has some 4cx) more pages, thousands more illustrations, 
 and by an ingenious division of the page, which separates the im- 
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 than double the number of words defined. Synonyms have received 
 special attention and greatly increased in number. Illustrative 
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 phonetic markings. The Biographical Dictionary and G-azetteer 
 of the World have been thoroughly revised, while words added to 
 the language during the last few months are fully defined. See 
 Tango^ Cubism., Volplane^ etc. 
 
 Sir ARCHIBALD G'EIKI'B,¥ .R.S. ,PresideiU of the Koyal SociefyySays: 
 
 •• I have no hesitation in saying that, full as the last edition was 
 acknowledged to be, it is surpassed to an almost incredible degree 
 by the new issue which you have just published. There can be r;o 
 doubt that, leavino^ of course the great Oxford work out of account, 
 ' Webster ' is more than ever the most compendious and useful 
 Dictionary of the English language." 
 
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