Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 22.djvu/24

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12 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 22, 1920

if so, the important problems we have cited will fall to no one; anthropology will become even more than before merely the de- tached study of the lowly and obscure peoples of the earth, her energy dissipated by internal quarrels as to the relative values of the zoological and cultural methods. She will lose the stimulating contacts with the large and diversified personnel of psychology and so suffer more and more the evils of isolation. On the other hand, I believe that psychology will also be the loser. She will for one thing ignore the experience and technique pertaining to a phe- nomenon, some aspects of which can with difficulty be distinguished from what she regards as her own. Further, she will ultimately find herself forced by public demand to take up problems of race and culture and thus to duplication of effort. As I see it the two sciences have nothing to lose and much to gain in a united effort. But far above our narrow personal interests are the needs of the nation. The hope of mankind is that science will point the way to correct procedure even in matters of education and social adjust- ment. The power of science, when its efforts are coordinated, was clearly demonstrated during the war. It needs no defense now. It is for psychology and anthropology to live up to the reputation of science as a whole.

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK CITY.

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