Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 22.djvu/19

 WISSLER] OPPORTUNITIES FOR CO-ORDINATION 7

lowly and backward peoples of the earth. On this account, anthro- pologists have been frequently denounced. Not so very long ago I heard a distinguished scientist say something like this, "The trouble with these anthropologists is that they while away their time studying Indians, Negroes, Bushmen, and other savages, when they should study Europeans: Europeans are the only people that count."

Now there are several reasons why the anthropologists have studied these "lowly peoples." For one thing, nobody objected. There were beneficent gentlemen willing to pay for this sort of thing, but who would not stand for having their families or friends investigated. Cities would support museums of anthropology so long as that subject was not in any way connected with the lives of their citizens. So the anthropologist bided his time. If any of you doubt his industry begin to round up the literature of the subject and to study a large museum. You will find that practically no savage group has escaped him.

Also, the anthropologist wished to be humane; his position was not unlike that of the much abused "animal experimenter" who first "tries it out on the dog." Well, he now has a profound know- ledge of "the under dog"; he has confidence in the technique he has developed and his hands have long been itching for a chance to lay hold of Europeans and their cultures; in short, the anthropologist has arrived at the table of the National Research Council, dropped thereon his instrument case and announced that he is ready for the patient. Just how the psychologists will receive the newcomer remains to be seen; they have been at the bedside already, taken the first steps in diagnosis, and show some tendency to regard the case as their own. In proof of this, I may be permitted to quote a few words from the Proceedings of the Psychological Association at Baltimore, just one year ago:

The course of events has put America under bonds to find and develop the social and mental factors that make for a stable social equilibrium. This is peculiarly the job of American psychology.

Another speaker forcibly defended the thesis that, "The future of the world depends upon the American psychologists."

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