Abstract
SECTION H. ANTHROPOLOGY. OPENING ADDRESS BY C. H. READ, PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. THE difficulties that beset the President of this Section in preparing an address are chiefly such as arise from the great breadth of our subject. It is thought by some, on the one hand, to comprehend every phase of human activity, so that if a communication does not fall within the scope of anv other of the Sections into which the British Association is divided, it must of necessity belong to that of anthropology. On the other hand, there are many men, wanting neither in intelligence nor education, who seem incapable of grasping its general extent, but, mistaking a part for the whole, are fully content with the conclusions that naturally result from such a parochial method of reasoning. The Oxford don who stated, a year or two ago, his belief that anthropology rested on a foundation of romance can only have arrived at this opinion by some such inadequate process, and the conclusion necessarily fails to carry conviction. The statement was, however, singularly ill-advised, for anthropology gives way to no other branch of science in its reliance upon facts for its existence and its conclusions. Had the reproach been that the facts were often of a dry and repellent character we might have pleaded extenuating circumstances, but I fear it must have been admitted that there was some justice in the complaint, though we could fairly point to instances where master minds have made even the dry bones of anthropology live, and that without trenching upon the domain of romance.
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The British Association. Nature 60, 554–562 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1038/060554a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/060554a0