Abstract
IN the early years of the twentieth century, it was generally accepted—in fact it had almost come to be regarded as axiomatic—that the ‘backward’ races must inevitably die out. The white man's burden—to civilize the savage—was being discharged in a process of elimination. Now, however, owing in part to a stern check on the more questionable ‘advantages’ of civilization, in part to what may be termed compendiously the anthropological approach in methods of administration, there are populations, comparatively speaking extensive, of which the numbers are more or less decisively increasing. The peoples of the greater part of Africa are an instance in point, while even the Indians of North America, for long quoted as a tragic example of degeneration and decay, seem to have entered definitely on the upward grade. Evidence from many quarters affords no uncertain indication, not merely that degeneration and extinction are by no means inevitable concomitants of the spread of white civilization to the remoter parts of the world, but also that under regulation of cultural contact and with such a degree of provision of medical attention as civilization normally brings in its train, native communities may retain, or even actually improve, their level in the matter of population, both in respect of absolute numbers and of relative increase.
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Australia's Burden. Nature 140, 1029–1031 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/1401029a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1401029a0