5.

The Role of Anthropology in Colonial Development

Author(s): Lord Hailey
Source: Man , Jan. - Feb., 1944, Vol. 44 (Jan. - Feb., 1944), pp. 10-16
Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2791896

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to Man

This content downloaded from

103.4.95.3 on Wed, 15 Sep 2021 04:18:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 No. 5] MAN [January-February,
THE ROLE OF ANTHROPOLOGY IN COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. By the Right Honourable Lord Hailey.
5 Some two hundred years ago, David Hume fore-
saw the creation of a science of man which, in his
words, 'will not be inferior in certainty, and will be
' much superior in utility, to any other of human
' comprehension.' How far the science of man can
be said to have attained certainty is a point 'which
I must leave philosophers to debate; it may well be
that the subtle and elusive character of the forces
which actuate human behaviour forbid us to look for
the type of certainties which students of the natural
sciences are concerned to establish. But because
social research engages itself with elements which are
so difficult to evaluate, that does not nedessarily
deprive it of the utility which Hume sought to find in
prosecuting the science of man.
I am concerned now to examine only one of the
many fields in which studies of the type of those
promoted by members of the Royal Anthropological
Society can have a definite utility for those whose
task lies in dealing with human affairs. But looking
back on the long history of your Society, now so
happily celebrating its centenary, I realize how signifi-
cant a part interest in this particular field-the
promotion of knowledge about the indigenous life of
the Colonies-has played in its development. Let me
recall that the inspiration which led to the foundation
of the Ethnological Society in 1848 was due to that
humanitarian movement which first manifested itself
in the campaign which secured the abolition of slave
trade in 1807 and the Emancipation Act of 1833, and
subsequently directed its attention to questions
affecting the general welfare of the peoples of the
dependencies. It was to the humanitarian move-
ment that Colonial policy owed the doctrine of
trusteeship which so long formed the guiding principle
of those who sought to promote an enlightened out-
look in Colonial policy. We may to-day feel that
this doctrine needed a more constructive interpreta-
tion in order to bring it into line with the political and
social conceptions of our own times. That is another
part of the story into which I need not enter here.
But there can be no doubt of the influence which it
has exercised not only in the direction of our own
policy, but in the formation of international opinion
regarding the responsibility of Colonial Powers for
the welfare of the peoples of their dependencies.
But there are also subsequent chapters in the
history of your Society which have a bearing on the
subject to which I am addressing myself. The issue
which in the sixties of the last century divided the
Ethnologists and the Anthropologists into two
dissenting camps was fundamentally the same issue
as that which also caused some doubt in the minds of
colonial administrators as to the nature of the con-
tribution which specialists in anthropological studies
[ 10 ]
This content downloaded from
103.4.95.3 on Wed, 15 Sep 2021 04:18:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
1944.
(and I am using that term here, as I shall do elsewhere,
in its most comprehensive sense) could make for their
guidance. I am not referring, of course, to the value
which administrators, as individuals interested in the
social or cultural evolution of mankind, might have
placed on these studies. There were many who
appreciated their value in this respect. That was
certainly the case also in India, and I recall with some
satisfaction that the honoured roll of your Presidents
includes the names of three members of the Indian
Services. But I am referring here to the extent to
which it was considered that the administration, as
such, could with benefit to itself either enlist in its
service workers experienced in the technique of social
research, or alternatively commission such workers to
undertake specific investigations on its behalf.
One cannot overlook the frequent expressions of
disappointment at the failure of those responsible for
government policy to make a fuller use of the specialist
in anthropological study. Addressing the Society
in 1916 Sir Arthur Keith recalled that the Society had
on more than one occasion approached Government,
but had not found that those in authority had shown
an intelligent sympathy with either its efforts or its
aims. Speaking on the theme of the ' Science of Man
'in the Service of the State' Sir John Myres carried
on the story to 1929, and though there were some
instances to the contrary, the record did not differ
materially from that of previous years. Nor can one
be unaware that the attitude of the government and
public bodies is felt to have had its reaction in the
character of the recognition given by our Academic
institutions to anthropological studies. It is not, of
course, true that the content of academic education
is entirely determined in this or any other advanced
country by the extent to which those who have taken
its courses can count on securing employment for
their services. It is nevertheless true that if any
particular field of activity, whether in the scientific,
industrial, or public world, evinces a demand for a
specially trained personnel, our academic bodies will
sooner or later set themselves to provide it. The
paucity of careers open to anthropological workers
either in the universities, or in the government
services, has been a frequent cause of complaint
among yoiunger research students. Not only is this
discouraging to them, but it necessarily restricts the
growth of a sound school of anthropological research,
by driving into other fields of work men whose
interests would otherwise have led them to this branch
of study. That may be an argument of the market
place; but it is an argument which has a very
practical logic behind it.
Now I must recall again that I am considering here
only one field of work in which the more systematic
 January-February,
use of the anthropologist may be justified. I do not
here deal with projects, such as that for the extension
of an Ethnological Survey, or for the institution of an
Ethnological Bureau, to which reference was made in
the Presidential addresses to which I have alluded.
Looking to the colonial field, I think it will be found
that a somewhat wider use has in fact been made of
the anthropologist by the administrations than is
often supposed, and I shall subsequently refer to
instances where this has occurred. You will pardon
me if I interpolate here one experience of a personal
nature, for it has some relevance to this matter. In
the Annual Meeting of 1935 your then President, the
Rev. Edwin Smith, expressed his regret that the
announcement made regarding the undertaking
known as the African Survey, of which I was in
charge, described one of its principal objectives as an
examination of the application of scientific knowledge
to the problems of Africa, but did not, in doing so,
make any reference to the science of man. He
assumed, and perhaps he may have felt that previous
experience justified the assumption, that our enquiry
would be limited to the applioation of the natural
sciences. That assumption was not in fact correct,
but we had no reason to complain of it, for the result
was to impel him to undertake that comprehensive
study of the sources of our knowledge about Africa,
which he embodied in the Presidential address of
1935, and which proved to be of the greatest value to
the subsequent work of the Survey. If, however, one
is ablI to quote more than one instance in which the
administrations have shown some appreciation of the
work of anthropologists, yet it would, I think, be true
to say that the recognition of its value has come late
in the day, and has not as yet led to any systematic
demand for the services of research workers.
What are the reasons for this ? If I examine them
shortly here it is because I feel that this may have
some practical value in assisting us to indicate the
manner in which anthropology can now be of service
in Colonial development. The reasons seem to be
twofold, and can best be explained by considering,
first, certain changes which have taken place in the
direction taken by anthropological studies, and
secondly, the modification which modern develop-
ments have produced in the objectives of Colonial
administration.
To deal with the first point, it would clearly be
beyond my purpose to attempt to review the stages
through which anthropological study has passed, or
the modifications in technique which have ensued.
I could not pretend to add anything to the review of a
century of work that has been presented to you by a
master hand to-day. I must confine myself to the
significance attached to those changes by those who
have viewed them mainly from the standpoint of an
[ 11 ]
This content downloaded from
103.4.95.3 on Wed, 15 Sep 2021 04:18:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
1944.] MAN [No. 5
interest in Colonial affairs. At an earlier stage they
saw anthropologists largely interested in comparative
studies of different social groups, directed in the main
to tracing the manner of their evolution, and they felt
that the technique followed involved much that was
irrelevant to the problems with which the day-to-day
work of administration was concerned. They have,
however, of more recent years seen the development
of a branch of anthropological study which has a
somewhat different objective, namely, the investiga-
tion of the manner in which societies work, rather
than of the manner in which they have originated.
It is in particular the technique necessitated by this
branch of anthropological study which has appealed
to them. Knowledge of the functioning of a particu-
lar culture and of the fundamental impulses deter-
mining human activities within that culture has
demanded an intensive study carried out in the main
by field workers, and it is from the experience gained
by such workers that the administrations feel that
they can find assistance in solving the practical prob-
lems with which they are faced.
So much for the developments within the range of
anthropological study. Let me turn now to the
modifications which circumstances have produced in
the objectives of colonial policy. Broadly speaking,
there have been three different stages in the develop-
ment of the dependencies. The initial stage was one
in which the primary consideration was the introduc-
tion of law and order and the provision of those more
rudimentary services which would enable the com-
munity to begin to develop the natural resources of
the country and to build up its own economic life.
In the older colonies,Xsuch as Ceylon, or in conditions
such as were presented by the West Indies, that was,
of course, in many ways a less exacting task than was
encountered in Africa or Malaya or some of the Pacific
Islands. The second stage is that in which the more
essential requirements of development may have been
met, and the administration is faced with the problem
of assisting the indigenous communities to advance
their social life and to better their standards of living,
using that term in its widest sense. The third stage
is that in which the progress made in social life is
judged to have afforded an adequate foundation for
political advance, and attention is increasingly
directed to political issues.
Now no one could doubt that in the first stage of
colonial rule the administrations would have gained
much if they had possessed a fuller knowledge of the
customs of the people and their traditional institu-
tions. That was perhaps less conspicuous in some of
the Eastern countries where the conditions, though
novel in many ways, did not offer a complete contrast
to conditions in Europe, and where the administra-
tions conld in any case count on the association of an
 No. 5] MAN [January-February,
educated native community in the Crown services.
It was perhaps less conspicuous also in Malaya, where
the system of rule involved the extension of adminis-
trative control over Sultanates which retained a con-
siderable measure of political independence. But it
was undoubtedly conspicuous in Africa and in some
of the Pacific Islands, where administrations encoun-
tered cultures which were to them of a novel type,
and where they did not find personnel of a class which
they could readily associate with themselves in the
formation of the legal or administrative institutions
of the country. The importance of this latter con-
sideration will be appreciated by those who recall the
history of the development of administrative rule in
India. I do not suggest that its paths were always
those of wisdom, or that it made no mistakes. But
in some of its more important problems, such as the
integration of the systems of Hindu and Muslim law
with the conceptions of European law, or in legislating
for the definition and recording of land rights, the
Government always had available to it the experience
of Indians who were well qualifi'ed to interpret to it
the bearing which any action it might contemplate
would have on the traditional custom or the outlook
of the people. In one respect, it admittedly fell
short, I mean in the adequate study of the require-
ments of those aboriginal peoples, who stand outside
the orbit of the Hindu, Muslim, or analagous cultures
which regulate the life of the majority of the popula-
tion. But it was precisely here that the administra-
tion was not able to count on guidance from its Indian
associates, whose traditions gave them as a rule little
knowledge and indeed little sympathy with the
culture of aboriginal people..
In the earlier stage of colonial development of
which I have been speaking, the lack of knowledge of
native custom and of the forces activating native
society was responsible for many administrative
errors. All students of colonial affairs must be con-
scious of them, and on more than one occasion the
administrations have had cause both to admit and
regret them. But I must here draw a distinction.
In part these errors were certainly due to lack of
knowledge. The attitude of South Africa to the
function of bride-price in native matrimony, or
mistakes due elsewhere to a misunderstanding of the
nature of native land tenures-these may have been
typical cases of errors due primarily to this cause.
But errors of this class must be distinguished from
those due to a more fundamental cause, namely, the
failure to appreciate the place which indigenous
institutions and the institutions of European civiliza-
tion respectively must occupy in building up the
future life of these communities. I can best illustrate
this point by reference to two typical instances. The
Rev. Edwin Smith's book The Golden Stool was
[ 12 ]
This content downloaded from
103.4.95.3 on Wed, 15 Sep 2021 04:18:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
1944.
effective in bringing home to a wide circle of readers
the danger of disregarding the deep-seated attach-
ment which native peoples have felt to their institu-
tions. I do not say that this lesson was not needed.
But I ask myself whether the Governor of the Gold
Coast, when he proceeded in 1899 to Kumasi and
demanded that the Golden Stool should be handed
over to his possession as representative of the para-
mount power, was entirely ignorant of the mystical
significance which the Stool possessed for the Ashanti
people ? He may not have had all the knowledge on
the subject which the writings of R. S. Rattray have
made available to us; but reverence to the Stool is a
part of the general Akan tradition, and the Gold
Coast Administration could not have been unaware of
the sentiments of the Ashantis regarding their own
Stool. There was clearly in this case something more
than mere lack of knowledge. It has, again, often
been said that the creation of 'warrant chiefs ' in
South Eastern Nigeria was partly responsible for the
widespread disturbances of 1927. That is doubtless
true; but I doubt whether the administration of the
time was under any illusion as to the fact that these
men had themselves no inherent or traditional
authority, and must draw from the official adminis-
tration, rather than from popular support, any
influence they could exert. They were utilized,
because the administration had not yet learnt from
its experiences elsewhere that seemingly amorphic
institutions, such as village moots or clan councils,
could be made of service as agencies of local govern-
ment. Since it had not yet appreciated this fact, it
did not exert itself to search for the somewhat obscure
authorities which had sufficed to regulate the relations
within the various groups concerned, nor did it
endeavour to enlist the advice of anthropologists on
the subject.
One could easily multiply such illustrations.
Incidents of this nature certainly justified Mary
Kingsley's reminder that mere goodwill is not enough;
we ought to have such regard to native observances
as would-in her words-' prevent us from engineering
' our good intentions in such a manner as to make
'them appear tyrannies and hateful to those whom
'we wish to benefit from them.' But that was a
counsel of ordinary political prudence. It did not
need extensive anthropological knowledge to enable
us to appreciate the lesson. It would be at all events
true to say that a relatively limited study of the facts
of native life was enough to bring it home. I suggest
that it is not enough that the anthropologist should
be felt to be of help in avoiding errors such as will
disturb the relations between the administration and
the native population, or will prejudice the introduc-
tion of necessary reforms. The demand for his
services will only arise in any effective form when it is
 January-February,
felt that they have a positive and constructive value.
But we can in my opinion now claim that we are
arriving at this position. Two developments, due to
somewhat different causes, have combined to produce
this result.
We have in the first place recognized that though
external influences, coming either through the
administration or from other sources of European
origin, may provide a stimulus towards the kind of
progress which we hope to achieve, yet the shape
which progress takes must depend on the readiness
and capacity of native society to adapt its traditional
life and modes of thought to the changes which such
progress may demand. It has become, therefore, of
great importance to appreciate the character of the
forces which regulate the individual and collective
conduct of life in different cultural groups, and to note
the manner in which they respond to the new forces
with which they come into contact. Moreover,
experience has shown the value, from many points of
view, of utilizing traditional native institutions as a
basis on which to frame the newer institutions on
which an administration must depend in building up
the structure of social and political advance. That is
the fundamental principle underlying the system of
Indirect Rule, some of the practical applications of
which were illustrated in a paper contributed to your
Journal by Sir Alan Pim in November 1938. This is
not the place to discuss the merits of that system ; if
it has had many strong advocates, it has also had
some critics. But there can, on the balance, be no
doubt of its success where circumstances have
favoured its adoption, as in considerable parts of
Africa. The consideration which is of chief impor-
tance for our present purpose, lies in the fact that
many administrations have realized that the success-
ful operation of this system demands a far more
intensive study of native institutions than a previous
generation thought necessary, and that study of this
type requires the special technique of the anth.ropolo-
gist.
The new interest shown by the administrations in
studies of this nature has been further reinforced by
some of the consequences flowing from the changes
in the objective of colonial policy to which I have
referred. The majority of the Colonies have now
passed beyond the more elementary stage of adminis-
tration; they have reached that in which the exten-
sion of the social services, and all that tends to the
betterment of the standards of life, have become of
urgent concern. The Colonial Office itself, as a
former Secretary of State has said, is no longer con
cerned mainly in safeguarding law and order in the
dependencies; it has become a Ministry of Health, of
Agriculture, of Transport, of Labour-of all the
services indeed which signalize the new conception
[ 13
This content downloaded from
103.4.95.3 on Wed, 15 Sep 2021 04:18:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
1944.] MAN [No. 5
held in our domestic politics regarding the function
of the State as the guardian of our standards of life
and as the primary agency for the promotion of
nation-building activities. In the Colonies, this has
directed attention to the need of research which in
some cases must utilize the technique of the anthro-
pologist interested in the functioning of social groups,
and in others the statistical and other methods usually
employed in cost-of-living surveys, the analysis of
demographic movements, and the like.
Thus in planning for the improvement of nutrition,
it is as important to study the place of food in the
religious or culturallife of the people as it is to analyse
their dietary. In the betterment of labour conditions,
a consideration of the social effects of labour migra-
tion or of the detachment from traditional life
involved in the transfer from village life to industrial
conditions has no less importance than questions of
pay or the facilities for collective bargaining. In
agricultural advance, it is as necessary-perhaps
even more necessary-to study the best way of
adapting existing systems of landholding to the
needs of a more intensive cultivation, as it is to intro-
duce improved methods of cropping or the measures
required to maintain soil fertility and to prevent
erosion. The great part which the development of
the system for the administration of justice can play
in the development of the social and economic life of a
colonial people is often overlooked by those who are
acquainted only with the evolution of our own
domestic system of law, which has all the appearance
of recording changes in popular conceptions of
morality or social relations, rather than of exercising
a directive influence over them. Law must clearly
have a more directive function in the Colonial field.
But a general measure of popular acceptance is every-
where essential to the proper functioning of a system
of law, and the adjustment of native conceptions of
justice to meet the requirements of new economic and
social conditions demands an intimate knowledge of
the position of law among the complex forces which
regulate conduct in native society and a careful study
of the customary procedure for the trial of issues.
Let me take some further examples of a somewhat
different range. If the true test of economic progress
is not the increase of trade or industry, but the
improvement effected in the general standards of life,
then statistical surveys of the relation of living costs
to earnings, and sociological enquiry into the influence
of monetary incentives in the life of less developed
peoples, are both essential to the correct adjustment
of economic policy. Again, one could not hope to
plan successfully for the improvement of the con-
ditions of urban life without the assistance of investi-
gations which adapt to colonial conditions the
technique evolved in recent years for the study of
 No. 5] MAN [January-February,
urban conditions in Europe. The direction of educa-
tional policy demands the application of knowledge
for which we must look to a combination of the efforts
of the psychologist and the specialist in social research.
It will embrace subjects so diverse as the adaptation
of intelligence or aptitude tests, the sociological map-
ping of particular areas selected for experiments in
mass education, a study of the problems of adoles-
cence in tropical populations, and an observation of
the operation on more primitive people of modern
systems of diffusing knowledge, such as the broadcast
and the cinema. I will take one more example.
The study of linguistics is an important factor in
educational policy; but the services of the anthro-
pologist are essential to assist the student of languages
to determine the actual religious or social context of
much of the terminology with which he has to deal.
I have approached this matter on somewhat
different lines from those followed in the debate
between the late Professor Malinowski and Sir Philip
Mitchell, which, as many here may recall, was pub-
lished under the title of ' A Rationalization of Anthro-
' pology and Administration ' in the Journal of the
International Institute of Afetcan Languages and
Cultures, in the years 1929 and 1930. It took a
somewhat controversial form; and though there is a
stimulating air about controversy, it is not always the
most economical way of arriving at truth. In this
case each of the protagonists tended to draw, for his
own purposes, an exaggerated picture of the position
of the other. If the picture drawn by Sir Philip
Mitchell of the anthropological standpoint was perhaps
the less realistic of the two, he made some amends in
the support he gave to the preparation of the study
by Gordon Brown and Bruce Hutt, issued under the
title of Anthropology in Action-an admirable illustra-
tion of the value of the collaboration of an anthropolo-
gist and an administrator. But though there is much
of interest in discussions such as those to which I
have just referred, I myself prefer to turn rather to
the evidence to be obtained from a consideration of
the cases in which colonial governments have of
recent years called on the services of anthropologists,
or where independent studies made by them have
clearly been of use to the administrator.
An early instance of the use of the services of an
anthropologist by the government will be found in
the studies made by Dr. Evan Pritchard on behalf
of the Sudan administration. Among typical
instances of a later date, are the enquiries into the
legal system of Bechuanaland by Professor Schapera,
and into the adaptation for educational purposes of
the regimental system in Swaziland, carried out by
Dr. Beemer, both of which were undertaken at the
request of the Protectorate administrations. I may
quote also the recent enquiry by Dr. Margaret
[ 14 ]
This content downloaded from
103.4.95.3 on Wed, 15 Sep 2021 04:18:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
1944.
Read into the social effects of Labour migration
and her association with the nutritional survey
in Nyasaland, of Dr. Fortes in the enquiry into
marriage law in the Gold Coast, of Dr. Stanner into
land tenures in Kenya, and of Mr. and Mrs. Culwick
into vital statistics and nutritional problems in
Tanganyika. I have already referred to the study
entitled Anthropology in Action which was carried out
with the support of the government of Tanganyika.
A Linguistic survey is being undertaken on behalf of
the government of the Gold Coast by Dr. Ida Ward
and was carried out on behalf of Southern Rhodesia
by Dr. Doke. Not long ago the GoverAment of
Kenya sought to engage the services of no less than
six anthropologists in connexion with the develop-
ment of the resources of the Native Reserves, but this
project was interrupted by the war. I may recall
also that the Gold Coast Government seconded one
of its officers, the late Captain R. S. Rattray, to carry
out anthropological, enquiries, and that similar action
was taken by Nigeria in the case of Mr. P. A. Talbot
and Dr. C. K. Meek, in each case with valuable
results.
When I turn to the instances in which the indepen-.
dent research worker has contributed studies of value
to colonial governments, it would be a somewhat
embarrassing task to make a selection among the
numerous works, including both more general surveys
and special monographs, which have issued in recent
years. So far as relates to Africa, I attempted in the
chapter of the African Survey dealing with African
social life to enumerate some of the studies which
seemed to be of value to the different administrations
concerned. Since then, there have been notable
additions, particularly in the monographs primarily
devoted to the study of culture contacts, issued under
the auspices of the International Institute of African
Languages and Cultures, and in some of the mono-
graphs issued by the London School of Economics.
But the field is not limited to Africa; a full enumera-
tion would include also studies of acknowledged value
undertaken in Malaya and the Pacific Islands.
As you will realize, I have taken a very comprehen-
sive view of the range in which anthropological studies
have been, or can be, of use to those who have to plan
colonial development. It may be that I have
included aspects of study which may be felt to fall
more strictly within the field of some of the allied
branches of knowledge. This, however, is one of the
standing difficulties which confront those who deal
with the problems of research in the social sciences.
It has certainly been the experience of the Committee
appointed, as one of the results of the passing of the
Colonial Development and Welfare Act of 1940, to
co-ordinate research in colonial problems. The
boundaries of different branches of the natural sciences
 January-February,
are sufficiently charted, and the committee found well
organized bodies prepared either to advise regarding
methods of research in their own branches of work or
to undertake its execution. But in approaching the
field of the social sciences, the Committee had not the
same advantage, and I suggest that anything which
you, or others interested in allied branches of social
science, could do to secure a more effective organiza-
tion, and a clearer demarcation of the spheres of
responsibility for different branches of social research,
would be of great service to those who seek aid in the
solution of problems arising in these fields of know-
ledge.
But there are some other considerations, more
directly germane to my subject, which I venture to
commend to you. I suggest that one of the primary
interests of those concerned in the future of the types
of research with which we have been dealing to-day,
must be to join in concerting measures by which their
pursuit will be placed on a more secure basis. There
have been suggestions made for the provision of
travelling fellowships for students who desire to pursue
research in the colonies, similar to those now provided
for students in some of the natural sciences. That
would be all to the good; but it is of equal importance
that the pursuit of these studies should be encouraged
by our academic bodies. One would be glad if our
universities could be brought to recognize that these
studies not only have a value on-their own merits, but
are a necessary part of our equipment for discharging
our obligations to our dependencies. It is not unjust
to say that the interest hitherto shown by British
universities in this matter compares unfavourably not
only with that of Holland but also with that of South
Africa.
In the second place, I suggest that it should be
recognized that acquaintance with the practical
problems of colonial development is an essential
preparation for undertaking social or anthropological
research in the colonial field. No one would wish to
prescribe for students of the social sciences, any more
than for students of the natural sciences, the direc-
tion in which they can make their individual contribu-
tion to general knowledge. But the enlistment of
their services by government would be an important
contribution to the process by which these studies
can be placed on a more secure basis, and it is inevi-
table that the fype of research which will appeal most
to an administration is that which has some bearing
on its own problems. That, of course, has been
equally the case in the application of the natural
sciences. The student must be prepared to find that
the requirements of the administrations do not take a
common form. Thus in Africa attention may centre
largely on enquiries into native institutions, the
effects of cultural contacts and the like; in differently
[ 15 1
This content downloaded from
103.4.95.3 on Wed, 15 Sep 2021 04:18:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
1944.] MAN (No. 5
constituted areas, as for instance in the West Indies,
the demand will be rather for research employing
methods more resembling those now employed in
investigating social and cconomic conditions in this
country.
May I add here that some attention might well be
given also to the manner of the presentment of the
results of this enquiry ? Every science must, of
course, have its own terminology, and it will always
present some difficulty to the layman. But I some-
times feel that the work of anthropologists would be
more readily appreciated if they showed greater
solicitude for the weaker brethren who desire to profit
by their research, but are not equipped to deal with
the more esoteric of their terminologies.
There is a further point. I know that in the past
there was a belief in some quarters that the primary
interest of the anthropologist must be in the sur-
vival, at any cost, of those traditional institutions
or modes of life, the study of which occupies so large.
a part of his attention. But no one can seriously
believe this of the anthropologist of to-day. If for
the purposes of his study he may attempt a theoretical
reconstruction of them, that is mainly for the purpose
of estimating the manner in which they have reacted
to the new influences which are being brought to bear
on them. But it would be prudent if he, on his part,
were to give special attention to the reactions of
native life to the measures taken by an administration
in pursuit of its programme of social and political
progress. In certain respects native custom is fluid,
and shows a great capacity for adjustment to external
influence. Experience has shown that a ' custom'
which results from administrative or legislative
measures, can in certain conditions be as well estab-
lished, and as readily accepted, as one which has a
deep-seated basis in tradition.
One word in conclusion. My own interest in this
matter is not that of one who can make any kind of
claim to an expert knowledge of anthropology, but
arises from a real concern for anything, coming from
whatever source, which can assist the course of
colonial development. But that is an interest I share
with an ever-widening section of the British public.
There has never been a time when there has been a
more genuine concern that we should rightly dis-
charge our responsibility for the welfare of our
dependencies. There has never been a time when
there has been a keener recognition of the need for
the application of scientific knowledge in their
development. If attention has hitherto been directed
largely to the openings presented for the application
of the natural sciences, we must now realize that
development can only be successfully achieved by
a partnership in which the social no less than the
natural sciences play their part.
 Nos. 5, 6] MAN [January-February, 1944.
SIR ARTHUR KEITH moved a vote of thanks to Lord Hailey
not only for the solid fare of his address but for coming
amongst the Fellows of the Institute on the occasion of their
centenary. The privilege of moving this vote came to-him
as the senior of those who had occupied the presidential chair.
He might also lay a distant claim to the privilege in the
circumstance that Lord Hailey's father and he were Fellows of
the same college-the Royal College af Surgeons of England.
He regarded Lord Hailey's address as marking the begin-
ning of a new era in the relationship between the professional
administrator or governor, and the professional anthropolo-
gist in the cultural, social, or evolutionary sphere. Perhaps
the failure to co-operate hitherto was as much the fault of the
anthropologist as of the administrator. Anthropologists
have been too afraid of the 'rough and tumble' of practical
life, too much attracted by the academical side of their subject,
for the academical, being removed from the practical affairs
of life, was free from the passions which arise when ways and
THE FUTURE OF ANTHROPOLOGY :ADDRESSES AND DISCUSSIONS AT THE CENTENARY MEETING
OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.
The Future of Physical Anthropology. By G. M. Morant,
M.D.
T The distinctions between physical anthropology
and other branches of the science of man are fairly
clear-cut. Physical anthropology is the study of
man from a zoological point of view. Its theme is the
biological history of mankind, and its object is to reveal
man's origin and to trace the course of his descent.
It is convenient to distinguish three branches of the
study. The first is concerned with man's place in
nature, that is to say it deals with the status of man
considered as a member of the animal kingdom. Dis-
cussion of this question can be traced back to classical
times, and the modern phase of it had its beginnings in
the writings of zoologists and anatomists some three or
four hntdred years ago. About a century ago embryo-
logists and physiologists began to make their contribu-
tions to the anthropological problem, and soon after
Darwinian theory affected it profoundly. More recently
it has been affected by genetical facts and theories.
An authority has said recently1: 'The question now
'ariseg whether we are likely to gain any more certain
'knowledge regarding the genetic affinities of man and
' the anthropoid apes by further comparative anatorpical
'studies of existing forms. The answer to this is-
'probably not.' The position seems to be much the
same in the case of the bearings that the studies of
physiology, individual development, and behaviour may
have on the taxonomic problem. In spite of notable
advances made in recent years, it may be doubted
whether the further study of living forms in any way
will ever throw much clearer light on man's origin and
descent, though this is likely to be a fertile field for future
speculation. Advances in genetics, too, may clarify
interpretation of the evidence, but by themselves they
are not likely to reveal the course of human descent in
any detail.
So far as can be seen at present, our more precise
knowledge of man's place in nature will depend princi-
pally on the slow accumulation of new fossils represent-
ing the earliest human and related non-human forms.
W. E. Le Gros Clark, ' The Scope and Limitations of
'Physical Anthropology.' Presidential Address to Section H,
Anthropology. Report of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, Dundee Meeting, 1939.
16 ]
This content downloaded from
103.4.95.3 on Wed, 15 Sep 2021 04:18:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
means are discussed. Anthropologists had still to learn that
statesmen, or all who were responsible for the destiny of a
tribe, a people, or a conglomeration of tribes and peoples, were
-or at least should be-anthropologists. And a good
anthropologist should also be a good statesman-a deviser of
wise policy-a politician.
Lord Hailey was not merely an administrator. How could
one who had graduated in the most instructive anthropologi-
cal school on this earth-the Empire of India-fail to be
otherwise than proficient in anthropology ? In India the
whole gamut of human evolution, from lowest tribe to highest
caste, was still very vivid and alive. And if there were
another school of anthropology which could rival India it
was the continent of Africa with peoples of a hundred sorts
grouped into thousands of communities grading from wild
tribes to multi-tribal states. Lord Hailey had graduated also
in the African school; as an anthropologist he was a 'double
' first.'
Discussion of them, and of the problem in general, must
remain in an unsettled state until the evolutionary
theory on which any rational interpretation must be
b?sed has itself become more settled.
The study of this first branch of the study does not
involve any discipline or technique which is peculiar to
anthropology. So far the anthropologist takes his data
and his methods from workers in other fields. Advances
must depend not so much on our department as on the
activities of the biological faculty in general. It may
be hoped that the Institute will have closer contacts in
future than it has had in the past with specialists in
various branches of biology who are interested in the
problem of man's zoological relationships.
The second branch of the study-human palaeontology
-is concerned with the evolution of man judged from
skeletal remains of geological antiquity, and in dealing
with it the physical anthropologist is rather more
independent. It is proper that he should be the authoritv
on all human fossils, but in the treatment of them he has
to collaborate with, or'seek guidance from, specialists of
several kinds. The report of the Swanscombe Committee,
published in the Journal of the Institute in 1938,2 might
well serve as a model for future researches of the same
kind. It was the product of co-operation between
geologists, palaeontologists, prehistorians, an anatomist,
and a physical anthropologist. Their aim was to give a
factual record, and speculative comment was rigidly
restrained. Such a composite report is likely to be far
more satisfactory than any which a physical anthropo-
logist could hope to write by himself.
In dealing with palaeolithic skelefal material, it is not
to be doubted that the descriptive is the most enduring
part of the work of the physical anthropologist. Inter-
pretation of the evidence is always uncertain. The
discovery of a new human fossil is likely to be.of far more
importance than speculation, however acute, regarding
specimens previously described.
In describing ancient remains the physical anthropo-
logist has only a share in the report, but in that part he
applies techniques of his own. The same techniques are
used in dealing with the far more extensive skeletal
material preserved representing populations that have
existed since palaeolithic times.
2 Report on the Swanscombe Skull. Journal of the Royal
Anthropological In8titute, Vol. 68.