ANTHROPOLOGY. Anthropology is the name for a group of problems arising from inquiries as to man's origin. As used in the United States and England this name stands for the science that deals with these problems, hut on the continent of Europe the tendency is to restrict the term anthropology to a study of man's body, particularly his bones. This, like most other facts of this kind, has an his torical explanation. Thus, the study of an thropology really begins with Blumenbach (1752-1840) of Gottingen, Germany, who con ceived of classifying skulls according to form and measurement. While it is true that this idea was in a way entertained by Vesalius, Linnmus and other pioneers, nevertheless it was Blumenbach who first struck the keynote of classification according to form and dimen sions of the human skull. Following him were Retzius who devised the cephalic index, Cam per who invented the facial angle, and, finally, the great French anthropologists Broca and Topinard who systematized the subject. It will be noted that so far anthropology dealt almost exclusively with man's anatomy, where as at present it gives even more attention to his modes of life, or his culture.
While the above interest in man's anatom ical attributes was taking form other students began to systematize the available knowledge concerning the habits and customs of differ ent peoples. To this study the name ethnology is often applied. The great leaders of this movement were Tylor (England), Ratzel (Germany) and Reclus (France). The pub lished works of these men dealt exclusively with the social life of man and his distribu tion over the earth and in so far were distinct from the anthropology of the day. From some points of view these two subjects, eth nology and anthropology, as then defined, had little in common and indeed the tendency in Germany and other continental countries is to so regard them still; hut the great synthe tizing work of Prichard (1786-1848) in Eng land gave a new unity to the whole study of man. According to this author, man should be classified according to all definitive char acters: anatomy, psychology, geographical distribution, and habits. Since man's zoologi cal characters were regarded as the pivotal point in his development, the term anthropol ogy was applied to this new synthetic whole. This thenceforth became the ideal for Eng lish students of man — to deal synthetically with all the data available bearing upon the problems of man's origin and early career. In the main, American anthropologists have fol lowed the English in this respect.
We can define anthropology, therefore, as the natural history of man, or the science which begins where history leaves off, and which seeks to recover the story of man's origin and varying fortunes in that dim and shadowy era we call the prehistoric. The
limitations that must be imposed upon this general statement will be more apparent when we summarize the content of our subject.
The anthropology of any group of people now deals with three great classes of charac ters: the somatic, linguistic, and cultural.
Somatic Characters.— One of the great problems under this head is to know man's zoological position among mammals. The classification of existing men is the great pre requisite to such investigations. Though as a mere proposition this seems a small task, it proves to be one of very great difficulty, so difficult that even now there is no generally accepted classification. The trouble arises from the almost hopeless blending and inter grading of all the known types, or the exist ence of many extremely variable characters. There is, for instance, no one somatic char acter that will consistently segregate mankind; yet there are some such as hair, color of skin, head form, face form, and bodily proportions that almost rise to that level. Of these the most consistent is the character of the hair, of which three gross types are recognized: straight, wavy, and woolly, each with a distinct cross-section and associated peculiarities. On this basis all living peoples fall into three large groups: 1. Straight hair (leiotrichi). The Asian American group.
2. Wavy hair (cymotrichi). The Poly nesian-European group.
3. Woolly hair (ulotrichi). The Austra lian-African group.
Though the general reader will find many proposed classifications in anthropological lit erature, all show a tendency to recognize this three-part grouping. Further, the color of skin, the shape of the head and the profile of the face are found to be in frequent associa tion with type of hair. In consequence we have such tentative groupings as that proposed by Giddings: 'I. The Australian-African acteristics: black skin, dolichocephalic (long headed), prognathic, woolly or frizzly-haired (cross-section of hair very elliptical). Area of distribution: Australia and Africa, south of the equator.
91. The Polynesian-European Group.— Characteristics: fair skin, mesocephalic, or thognathic, straight or wavy hair (cross-sec tion slightly elliptical). Area of distribution: broad zone from Polynesia northwestward through southwestern Asia and northern Africa and most of the continent of Europe.