ANTHROPOLOGY

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26261, 4 November 1950, Page 3

ANTHROPOLOGY

Mirror far Man. By Clyde Kluckhorn. Harrap. 321 pp. The author of this book is Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University. His method of anthropological investigation is similar to that of Margaret Mead and derives from the work of Frenz Boas. It is a blending of the discoveries of modern Freudian psychology with a study of both the physical and the cultural patterns of life of primitive peoples. From this blend conclusions are drawn which concern the nature and problem, of modern civilised society. "Applied anthropology,” Dr. Kluckhorn calls it; and he defines applied anthropology as “a way of selecting and using the data from both the physical and cultural studies, for dealing with modern social, political, and economic problems such as colonial administration, military government, and labour relations." This makes anthropology into a sort of portmanteau subject and gives the anthropologist a finger in every pie.' Hardly an administrative agency in the world but should have its consultant anthropologist attached to its staff. The modern anthropologist must be an expert, in a great many fields and capable of superhuman feats of detachment and correlation in order to make his allembracing and authoritative judgments.

The methods used bv Dr. Kluckborn ean best be illustrated by a typical quotation: “In a society,” he says, “where the childhood experience is typically that of overstrong but unsatisfied dependency on the father there is a fertile soil for the demagogue. On the other hand, a culture like that of the Zuni Indians, where the child’s attachments are spread among many relatives and where dependence is focused upon the group as a whole rather than upon particular individuals, is peculiarly resistant to leaders of the Hitler type.” Dr. Kluckhorn is less concerned in this book with the usual interesting detail of anthropology than with informing the world how anthropology can solve its problems for it. "Is prolonged collaboration between different peoples possible?" he asks, and reassures us benignly with the statement that “anthropology knows of no definitive evidence to the contrary." "Anthropology." he confidently asserts, "provides a scientific basis for dealing with the crucial dilemma of the world to-day; how can peoples of different appearance, mutually unintelligible tongues, and dissimilar ways of life get along together." Those who are not scientists but moralists or practical politicians will not altogether agree with this rather vague statement of the nature of the world's dilemma, or with the various “scientific” solutions propounded in this book. Anthropologists are also only fallible mortals. But whether one agrees or disagrees with the new claims made for anthropology as a science, there are some facts of interest to be gleaned by the way in a book like “Mirror for Man” —that is, provided the reader can overcome his initial repugnance for the author's vocabulary, which is sorinkled with phrases like "basic abilities,’' -“positive attitudes." “per-sonality-trends.” and "the cultural compulsive.” One cannot help wishing that Dr. Kluckhorn could be required to render in words of one syllable the following sentence: “An absolute cul-ture-bound view of human nature not only holds no conception of what future developments may be. but actively stands in the way of thefe efforts that can be rationally made to hasten the realisation of possible levels of personal, social, and international integration.’’ Stated in a few words, this would sound like sheer platitude, one fears. All this pretentious jargomsometimes conceal, an absence of real thought, at other times obscures a worthwhile thought and at all times is appallingly bad style.