CULTURE & ETHNOLOGY

CULTURE & ETHNOLOGY

BY
Robert H. Lowie, Ph.D.
Associate Curator, Anthropology
American Museum of Natural History

NEW YORK
DOUGLAS C. McMURTRIE
1917

CONTENTS

PREFACE

This booklet is an attempt at popularization. The first four chaptersare practically identical with as many lectures, delivered in 1917 asthe January course offered by the Department of Anthropology of theAmerican Museum of Natural History. The purpose of the January series,which was instituted in 1914 by Dr. P. E. Goddard and the writer, is toacquaint an audience of intelligent laymen with some of the results ofmodern ethnological work, the emphasis being on principles and problems,rather than on purely descriptive detail. The course, in short, occupiesan intermediate position between technical discourses addressed toscientists and the more popular lectures which are designed to furnishmainly entertainment. Each year different topics have been chosen andseveral members of the staff have cooperated. Owing to the dearth ofrecent ethnological literature reflecting the position of Americanfield-workers, and at the same time accessible to the interestedoutsider, I was easily persuaded to issue the 1917 lectures in thepresent form.

The last chapter may not seem to fit within the scope of thispublication. It is obviously more technical than the rest in treatmentand may appear to deal with too special a topic. My object, however, wasto conclude with a concrete illustration of ethnological method, and Inaturally selected a subject to which I had paid considerable attentionduring the last two years. It is a subject in which Morgan was able toarouse the interest of hundreds of laymen; and I can see no reason whyan up-to-date exposition of the problems involved should not be able tohold their attention.

Robert H. Lowie

May