Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 22.djvu/17

 WISSLER] OPPORTUNITIES FOR CO-ORDINATION J 5

independently, but in addition, the Division as a whole must make it its special business to throw its united strength upon the study of racial and social groups.

Since I have been asked to speak of possible ways of cooperation and coordination in the work of the Division, I need not discuss the special problems of psychology on the one hand, nor those of anthropology on the other. It seems unnecessary to say that when we speak of cooperating, we do not mean that anthropologists shall do the work of psychologists, and vice versa nothing of the kind. It should be obvious that there are many important prob- lems in anthropology that make no appeal to psychologists. For example, it would be too much to expect psychologists to care about the excavation of a shell-heap in Patagonia, or to show enthusiasm for a study of the relationship systems for Melanesia. Yet the pursuit of these problems may mean a great deal for the future of anthropology. Likewise there are numerous psychological prob- lems of great import to psychology, for which no anthropologist will show much in the way of appreciation for example the behavior of a white rat in a maze. There is no reason, however, why each half of our division cannot give sympathetic support to what the other considers of vital import to the development of its science. Hence, we have now to consider only such problems as fall within the do- main of the common objective. As we have just seen, this common objective is the study of human groups racial, cultural, and mental.

However, at this point it may be profitable to turn back and again contrast anthropology and psychology from quite a different angle. Instead of considering the main objectives of the two sciences, let us look into their histories and accomplishments. The " new psychology " of twenty-five years ago, now the psychology you profess, has been from the start a practical science, potentially so, if not actually. No doubt many of you will resent this state- ment, but the facts in your history cannot be denied. Those of you who were in educational work thirty or more years ago know how the whole teaching profession of the country took to psychology as an applied science. It is not strange then to find it one of the

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