ANTHROPOLOGY IN AMERICA. Since the whole habitable world has long been occupied by man we may expect an anthropol ogy for each grand division of land. Thus, Europe, Asia and Africa being after all one land mass, their peoples have established vary ing contacts so that the study of any single group can rarely be pursued without some con sideration of the whole. On the other hand, Australia and the Americas have no actual land connections with the Old World land mass and consequently the specific anthropological problems of these two areas have little direct bearing upon each other or upon those of Eu rope, Asia and Africa. Naturally then, when. we turn to America, its sharp cultural and racial differentiation from all other parts of the world, together with its great geographical extent and internal anthropological complexity, all combine to make its anthropology a fairly distinct field. Hence, we are justified in treat ing the anthropology of America as a separate topic.
The history of American anthropology dates back to the first voyage of Columbus, that most famous of all explorers, who found not only a new land, but a new people. The term Indian first given the few known representatives of this people can be consistently applied to all from north to south for an unmistakable so matic unity exists throughout. Since no traces of a totally different people have come to light in either North or South America our subject is strictly the anthropology of the American In dian.
The lead in this study has been taken by the anthropologists of the United States. Among those who have contributed most to the scientific development of American anthro pology are Maj. J. W. Powell, D. G. Brin ton, Frederic Ward Putnam and Franz Boas. Under the guidance of such men scientific methods were devised and the subject placed on a level with other university studies. How ever, the greatest impetus came not from the universities of the United States, but from mu seums and research institutions. Perhaps the most important event in the history of Ameri can anthropology was the establishment in 1879 of the Bureau of American Ethnology at Washington, D. C., as a part of the Smithso
nian Instithtion. This institution was from the first effective in research and still serves as an inspiration to all who are engaged in anthropological pursuits. The next great event was the anthropological exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, or ganized by Frederic Ward Putnam. As a re sult of the great anthropological awakening following this exposition and Putnam's en thusiasm the Field Museum of Natural His tory was established in Chicago in 1894; the anthropological section of the American Mu seum of Natural History in New York reor ganized; and the University of California mu seum established in 1901. All of these insti tutions now maintain a large number of highly trained research men who give their whole at tention to anthropological investigations in North and South America.
One of the most signal achievements in American research was the complete linguistic classification of North American tribes under the leadership of Major Powell. This still remains the only true scientific classification of the aboriginal population and it is not far wrong to say that its attainment marks the be ginning of American anthropology as a recog nized science. Practically all of the native languages spoken in the United States and Canada have been recorded and in many cases texts in the original have been printed. At present the chief interest of anthropologists is in seeking out relationships between what have so far been considered independent languages. Already some progress has been made in this direction and we may expect in the near future a satisfactory reconstruction of the linguistic history of the tribes inhabiting North America. For South America there has been less prog ress, but a provisional classification has been made that embraces all the known tribes.