Produced by Ron Swanson HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE No. 37 _Editors:_ HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A. PROF. GILBERT MURRAY, LITT.D., LL.D., F.B.A. PROF. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A. PROF. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A. _A complete classified list of the volumes of_ THE HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY _already published will be found at the end of this book_. ANTHROPOLOGY BY R.R. MARETT, M.A. READER IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD AUTHOR OF "THE THRESHOLD OF RELIGION," ETC. NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY LONDON WILLIAMS AND NORGATE CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I SCOPE OF ANTHROPOLOGY . . . 7 II ANTIQUITY OF MAN . . . . . 30 III RACE . . . . . . . . . . . 59 IV ENVIRONMENT . . . . . . . . 94 V LANGUAGE . . . . . . . . . 130 VI SOCIAL ORGANIZATION . . . . 152 VII LAW . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 VIII RELIGION . . . . . . . . . 204 IX MORALITY . . . . . . . . . 235 X MAN THE INDIVIDUAL . . . . 241 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . 251 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . 254 "Bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, are these half-brutish prehistoric brothers. Girdled about with the immense darkness of this mysterious universe even as we are, they were born and died, suffered and struggled. Given over to fearful crime and passion, plunged in the blackest ignorance, preyed upon by hideous and grotesque delusions, yet steadfastly serving the profoundest of ideals in their fixed faith that existence in any form is better than non-existence, they ever rescued triumphantly from the jaws of ever-imminent destruction the torch of life which, thanks to them, now lights the world for us. How small, indeed, seem individual distinctions when we look back on these overwhelming numbers of human beings panting and straining under the pressure of that vital want! And how inessential in the eyes of God must be the small surplus of the individual's merit, swamped as it is in the vast ocean of the common merit of mankind, dumbly and undauntedly doing the fundamental duty, and living the heroic life! We grow humble and reverent as we contemplate the prodigious spectacle." WILLIAM JAMES, in _Human Immortality_. ANTHROPOLOGY CHAPTER I SCOPE OF ANTHROPOLOGY In this chapter I propose to say something, firstly, about the ideal scope of anthropology; secondly, about its ideal limitations; and, thirdly and lastly, about its actual relations to existing studies. In other words, I shall examine the extent of its claim, and then go on to examine how that claim, under modern conditions of science and education, is to be made good. Firstly, then, what is the ideal scope of anthropology? Taken at its fullest and best, what ought it to comprise?