European Civilization and the African

Abstract

IN affairs concerning native Africa the anthropologist is no longer, as a generation ago, a voice crying in the wilderness. An ever increasing literature offers studies of the problem of the native in a varying range and from various points of view; but the authors in the main are at one in making scientific investigation of native life and conditions the essential principle of argument in theory and practice. A further difference to be noted?and this is of no little importance in view of much misunderstanding?is that these scientifically trained students of native Africa argue with detachment. Unlike their predecessors, they neither play upon the strings of philanthropy, nor as anthropologists enter unqualified protests against the modification of custom, arguing that if preserved it might serve as material for scientific investigation. Recognizing that Africa cannot be kept as a museum piece, they accept the inevitability of change, and record the facts and appraise tendencies in relation to native institutions as social and economic phenomena per se. It follows, almost as a matter of course, that they are aloof from political prepossessions.

(1) Native Policies in Africa

By Dr. L. P. Mair. Pp. xi + 312. (London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1936.) 12s. 6d. net.

(2) Reaction to Conquest:

Effects of Contact with Europeans on the Pondo of South Africa. By Dr. Monica Hunter. (Published, with the assistance of a Grant from the Carnegie Corporation through the Research Grant Board, Union of South Africa, for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures.) Pp. xx + 582 + 28 plates. (London: Oxford University Press, 1936.) 30s. net.

(3) Ten Africans

Edited by Margery Perham. Pp. 356 + 16 plates. (London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 1936.) 15s. net.