Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/63

 Presidential Address. 31

in a way that, to m\' mind, provides an excellent pro- gramme for future research.-'' It is true that considerations of relevancy make him limit his attention to one, and that the simplest, case of the diffusion of culture, namel}-, where the representatives of different cultures not only come into direct contact, but actually combine to form one society. How, then, may we classify the general conditions governing culture-contact in this special but highly typical case .''

First, there are the various geographical conditions that may be summed up under the heads of route and habitat. It goes without saying that these must be studied in their influence on the cultural as well as on the purely physical life of the people, so as to bring out all the sociological and psychological effects that such influence involves. Thus, to illustrate the latter only, route must be talcen into account in explaining the beliefs of a band of immigrant sea-rovers;^" or, again, habitat will have a bearing if we try to show that fauna and flora, a special type of weather, a volcanic environment, and so forth, can give a peculiar turn to religious ideas.-"'^

In the next place, the material culture of the peoples who intermix, comprising all appliances brought into play by their arts, whether industrial or aesthetic, may be dis- tinguished as a special set of conditions. Here, again, though we treat these facts to some extent apart, we must never lose sight of their relation to the rest. Thus, on the one hand, they must be connected with route and habitat ; sea-farers may have no use for the bow in warfare,'*'- while inland-dwellers will hardly be expert in sea-fishing. On

-^ The History of Melaiiesiaii Society (Cambritlge, 1914), ii. 292-303.

••'' Compare Hist. Mel. Soi. ii. 262.

"^ As regards the effect of volcanic surroundings on l:)elief, see Hist. Mel. Soe. ii. 263, 479 ; compare Sir J. G. Frazer, T/ie Golden Bough (3rd ed.), v. 18S f. on " volcanic religion."

■'^Compare Hist. Mel. Soc. ii. 447.