The Science of Man in the World Crisis

This is a collection of articles, essays and studies all related to the problems pertaining to the future of mankind and whether we have one. THE PRESENT CRISIS in world affairs has resulted in a flood of books. Most of these are concerned with plans for world reorganization. The purpose of the present volume is much less ambitious. Everyone recognizes that such planning will require all the aid which science can give. At the same time, the problems involved are complex and many sided and can only be solved by collaboration between workers in many different fields of scientific research. It has been observed that it usually takes about a generation for the new discoveries and techniques of one science to become a part of the regular working equipment of other sciences. It takes considerably longer for such findings to become familiar to the layman and to exert any significant influence upon his thinking. The present book is an attempt to shorten this time interval. It is directed both to scientists and planners and to the general public without whose cooperation no plan can succeed. The science of man is so new an$ its fund of knowledge has been increasing so rapidly that many of its findings have not yet reached scientific workers in other fields, let alone the man in the street. At the same time, some of these findings are of the utmost importance both for the intelligent planning of the new world order which now appears inevitable and for the implementation of any plans which may be made. The builders of such an order are foredoomed to failure unless they understand the potentialities and limitations of their human material. Scarcely less important is a knowledge of those trends which operate over long periods of time and of the problems which the specialist can foresee before they arise or can recognize before they become acute enough to call for drastic action. Lastly, even plans which take all these factors into account cannot succeed without the use of adequate techniques. At all these points the science of man can provide some aid. RALPH LINTON Department of Anthropology Columbia University New York, N.Y. Contents THE SCOPE AND AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY by Ralph Linton SOCIETY AND BIOLOGICAL MAN by H. L. Shapiro THE CONCEPT OF RACE by Wilton Marion Krogman RACIAL PSYCHOLOGY by Otto Klineberg THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE by Clyde Kluckhohn and William H. Kelly THE CONCEPT OF BASIC PERSONALITY STRUCTURE AS AN OPERATIONAL TOOL IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES by Abram Kardiner THE COMMON DENOMINATOR OF CULTURES by George Peter Murdoch THE PROCESSES OF CULTURAL CHANGE by Melville J. Herskovits SOCIOJ>SYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF ACCULTURATION by A. Irving Hallowell PRESENT WORLD CONDITIONS IN CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE by Ralph Linton THE PRESENT STATE OF WORLD RESOURCES by Howard A. Meyerhoff POPULATION PROBLEMS by Karl Sax THE CHANGING AMERICAN INDIAN by Julian H. Steward THE COLONIAL CRISIS AND THE FUTURE by Raymond Kennedy THE PROBLEM OF MINORITY GROUPS by Louis Wirth APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY IN COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION by Felix M. Keesing SOME CONSIDERATIONS OF INDIANIST POLICY by Manuel Gamio TECHNIQUES OF COMMUNITY STUDY AND ANAYYSIS AS APPLIED TO MODERN CIVILIZED SOCIETIES by Carl C. Taylor THE ACQUISITION OF NEW SOCIAL HABITS by John Dollard COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION by Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Genevieve Knupfer NATIONALISM, INTERNATIONALISM, AND THE WAR by Grayson Kirk