Applied Anthropology

Abstract

IN the course of the recent meeting of the British Association in Edinburgh one of the sessions of the Anthropological Section was devoted to the discussion of the ways and means by which the science of anthropology might be made of greater practical utility in the administration of the Empire, particularly in relation to the government of our subject and backward races. The question was raised by a communication from Sir Richard Temple, who, unfortunately, was not able to be present in person. He recalled the fact that in the course of his address as president of the section at the Birmingham meeting in 1913, and in a discussion which had been held later in the same meeting, he had brought this question before the Association and recapitulated the steps which had been taken afterwards by the Association and other bodies to bring this matter to the notice of the Government of that time and the public. This movement, which gained considerable support, was brought to an end by the outbreak of war. Once more Sir Richard Temple, in the present appeal, urged the necessity for the official recognition of anthropology as an essential part in the training of those members of the public services whose duties in remote parts of the Empire will bring them into contact with an alien of primitive culture. To this end he advocated the institution of an Imperial School of Anthropology of which the function should be both the training of the official and the collection and classification of the data gathered in the field by such trained officials and others, to form at once the subject-matter of the instruction given by the school and the basis of further research.