4 2 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 22, 1920
heterogeneous and variously derived elements of which it is com- posed. Therefore, I suspect, it is more or less coordinated clusters of ideas or idea-systems rather than singular idea-systems that the author will encounter in his comparative study of different forms and states of civilization. On the other hand, the author is to be congratulated upon his endorsement of the view, latterly decidedly on the ascendent, that "human advancement is the outcome of the commingling of ideas through the contact of different groups" (p. in). It is to be expected that the evidently partial truth of this statement will be done justice to in the author's fuller treat- ment of the subject; also, considering that the theoretical postulate of progress through "the commingling of ideas" has, in the do- main of ethnology, led to such widely different systems as those of Graebner, Rivers, and Boas, it is not a little curious in what particu- lar way the author will handle the difficult set of problems involved. 1 One has a sharp sense of disappointment to find that, in the last analysis, the subject of idea-systems is brought down to the wholly inadequate level of the environmentalist. We read: "Dif- ferences in idea-systems are, fundamentally, man's response to dif- ferences in his surroundings" (p. 113, and similar statements on pp. 117 and 1 1 8). Must we hear once more that the "surround- ings" of a group "determine" its primary interests and that these, the primary economic interests, determine the system of ideas? What the "surroundings" do effect is, at most, to hold man to an adjustment once made (the adjustment itself always remaining one of a set of possible ones), also offering considerable resistance to further readjustments. 2 As to idea-systems, when we hear that while the language of the Eskimo has many different words for "seal," that of the Arab displays a similar elaboration of terms for the "camel" (p. 114), the cultural significance of this is by no means apparent. In fact, both might conceivably have similar or identical
1 Cf. also my "History, Psychology and Culture," etc., Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, vol. xv (1918), in which a number of points bearing on the theoretical issues mentioned above are discussed under the general caption of "accidental" factors.
2 See Clark Wissler, "Aboriginal Maize Culture as a Typical Culture Complex," American Journal of Sociology, vol. xxi, 1916.
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