Does it follow from the foregoing that there is no possible relation
between psychology and culture, that psychological results are a matter
of utter indifference to the ethnologist? In their desire to vindicate
for their own branch of knowledge a place in the sun, some ethnologists
have come very near, if they have not actually reached such a
conclusion. To me the case appears in a somewhat different light.
Whatever division of labor may be desirable for the economy of
scientific work, knowledge as a whole knows nothing of watertight
compartments. Further, the nominally distinct sciences are not
subordinated to one another, but coexist in a condition of democratic
equality and coöperativeness. We cannot reduce cultural to psychological
phenomena any more than we can reduce biology to mechanics or chemistry,
because in either case the very facts we desire to have explained are
ignored in the more generalized formulation. But for specific purposes,
the student of culture can call for aid upon each and all of the other
branches of learning. It is a very important cultural problem whether
the natives of South America knew the bronze technique, _i.e._, whether
they consciously produced the observed alloy of copper and tin. But how
can the ethnologist solve this problem? Only by requisitioning the
services of the chemist.
Now very few would deny that services of the kind rendered by chemistry
can also be rendered to the study of culture by psychology. Indeed, most
people would at once admit that the relationship with psychology is _a
priori_ likely to be far more extensive and thorough-going. A few
concrete examples will illustrate how this relationship may be
conceived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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