Abstract
ON p. 208 of this issue we publish a communication from Prof. J. L. Myres in reference to the article “Centralisation of Anthropological Studies” appearing in NATURE of July 22, p. 113, in which he directs attention to the efforts made to bring about an improved organisation in the science of anthropology in Great Britain since 1896 and earlier. Such efforts have been noted from time to time and made the subject of comment in NATUBE, nor must it be assumed, if no reference has been made to them on this occasion, that they have been overlooked. Lest any confusion should arise, however, it may be as well to point out that the various movements chronicled by Prof. Myres have by no means had an identical objective. Each has pressed for such measures as the circumstances of the time have seemed to demand. At the turn of the century, both on public and on academic grounds, an Imperial Bureau of Ethnology was deemed the most pressing need: the Joint Committee for Anthropological Research and Teaching, which works in association with the Royal Anthropological Institute, is the form taken by the most recent and successful effort. This latter has provided an effective medium for authoritative pronouncement of anthropological opinion on matters of policy, and for the promotion of concerted action. The ‘Joint Committee’, however, is not an academic body; and the consolidation of anthropological teaching and research within the universities on some such lines as those suggested in NATURE should strengthen the hand of the representatives of the universities on the Committee, rather than conflict with its functions.
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Centralisation of Anthropological Studies. Nature 132, 197 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132197c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132197c0