2-16-24 239451-7 PREFACE The passages in this volume have been selected for their utility in stimulating discussion. They are included not because they present ultimate scientific truth, but because they embody facts and interpretations which are useful for the exercise of thought on some of the larger problems of anthropology. The volume was undertaken and was published in several smaller editions as an auxiliary to an ordinary working library in anthropology. In that stage it embodied chiefly articles which are out of print or accessible in journals of which a library, even a great library, often possesses only a single file. In its present form the volume is intended as the basis for study in courses of instruction in general anthropology. Any library will provide collateral and special reading. There are some famous and many useful passages in anthropological literature which might well have been included. In some of these cases copyright privileges conflicted. In other instances, articles have been omitted because they were essentially interpretative or controversial, assuming the facts as known, instead of presenting them. Nothing has been included here which is available in W. I. Thomas' Source Book for Social Origins. A. L. KROEBER. |