AN'THROPOL'OGY (Gk. *(109pwroc, anthro pos, man + ?i)oc, logos, discourse, science). The science of man. Anthropology is the youngest of the sciences and borrows methods from all, though the object matter—the human genus—is so far distinct as to require special treatment. This may be illustrated by noting the relations among the older sciences determined by their re spective phenomena or object matter. In astron omy the objects of study arc stellar and plan etary bodies arranged in systems controlled by gravity; in chemistry, the objects are substances affected by gravity and also by affinity; in phy tolog,y, or botany, the same factors remain and vitality is added; in zoiilogy, the objects are sub ject to the laws of gravity, affinity, and vitality, while motility is added: and in anthropology, all the simple factors remain, yet they are subordi nate to the special factor of mentality which gives character to the science. in view of this relation it becomes clear that the course of de velopment of the sciences from astronomy to anthropology is the normal one of passage from the simple to the complex. The same relation indicates that interdependence of the sciences which makes anthropology the debtor of the old er branches of knowledge for methods of weigh ing and measuring. and of locating and tracing. yet leaves each older science practically inde pendent of those younger, and all measurably free of the youngest science except in so far as it reveals the laws of thought, on which all knowl edge is founded. accordingly, the older sciences have cooperated to define and establish certain laws which may be styled the cardinal principles, viz.: the indestructibility of matter, the persist ence of motion, the development of species. and the uniformity of nature; but it remained for anthropology (despite a definite suggestion by Bacon) to establish the complementary principle of the responsivity of mind.
At the outset anthropology was little more than an extension of zoalogy to a distinct germs, and the methods were shaped accordingly. As the study of structures was pursued, comparative anatomy made useful progress, and many homol ogies between the genus Homo and both simian and pitheeoid genera were discovered; later the methods and objects of niensurement were extend ed, and anthropometry became prominent in sci entific thought and literature; and during recent years the study of structures and functions of the an body has taken definite form. under the
term somatology (q.v.). Concurrently the study of functions, especially those of nenra I and cere bral character, has made great progress under the designation of experimental psychology. time certain observers of men and tribes became impressed with the collective characteristics of the genus, characteristics so striking as to lead to the recognition of the group, rather than the in dividual, as the true unit of anthropology. This collective unit is called the 80614S by Giddings, and the ethnos or demos (according to the de gree of development) by other investigators. The recognition of collective units was soon followed by recognition of collective functions, i.e., of the fact that what men do is of greater moment than what they merely are and this led to the definition, largely by Powell, of the sci ence of demology, or the science of col lective human activity. The activities them selves have been classified as those pertain ing respectively to arts, industries, lan guages, and philosophies; and corresponding subseienees have been defined as esthetology, technology, sociology, philology, and sophiology. In this arrangement of the subdivisions of an thropology prehistoric technology becomes prac tically equivalent to the branch of knowledge long pursued as archaeology, while sophiology embraces folk-lore and the study of primitive faiths or mythology: and when the activities are classified with a view to the definition of races and peoples, the product is ethnology. The gen eral subject of anthropology is treated under the designation of the object matter of the science, MAN, and the subdivisions of the science are entered under their proper heads.