Indian Antiquary Vol 42

SR No.: 032534
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 400
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 307

DECEMBER, 1918.)
ADMINISTRATIVE VALUE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
293
questions are put without due caution, and if the answers are recorded without reference to the natives' and not the enquirer's mode of classifying things, crucial errors may easily arise. Thus, in many parts of the world, the term 'mother 'includes all female relatives of the past or passing generation, and the term “brother' the entire brotherhood. Such expressions as brother and sister' may and do constantly connote relationships which are not recognised at all amongst us. The word ' marriage may include irrevocable betrothal,' and so on; and it is very easy to fall into the trap of the mistranslation of terms of essential import, especially in the use of words expressing religious conceptions. The conception of godhead has for so long been our inheritance that it may be classed almost as instinctive. It is nevertheless still foreign to the instincts of a large portion of mankind.
falso, when working among the uncultured, the inquirer attempts to ascertain abstract ide , except through concrete instances, he will not succeed in his purpose for want of representative terms. And lastly, if he fails to project himself sufficiently into the minds of the subjects of inquiry, or to respect their prejudices, or to regard seriously what they hold to be sacred, or to keep his countenance while practices are being described which to him may be disg sting or ridiculous-if indeed he fails in any way in communicating to his informants, who are often super-sensitively suspicious in such matters, the fact that his sympathy is not feigned he will also fail in obtaining the anthropological knowledge he is seeking. In the words of the 'Notes and Queries 'on this point, 'Nothing is easier than to do anthropological work of a certain sort, but to get to the bottom of native customs and modes of thought, and to record the results of inquiry in such a manner that they carry conviction, is work which can be only carried out properly by careful attention.'
The foregoing considerations explain the scope of our studies and the requirements of the preliminary inquiries necessary to give those studies value. The further question is the use to which the results can be put. The point that at once arises here for the immediate purpose is that of the conditions under which the British Empire is administered. We are here met together to talk scientifically, that is, as precisely as we can : and so it is necessary to give a definition to the expression Imperial Administration,' especially as it is constantly used for the government of an empire, whereas in reality it is the government that directs the administration. In this address I use the term 'administration as the disinterested management of the details of public affairs. This excludes politics' from our purview, defining that term as the conduct of the government of a country according to the opinions or in the interests of a particular group or party.
Now in this matter of administration the position of the inhabitants of the British Isles is unique. It falls to their lot to govern, directly or indirectly, the lives of members of nearly every variety of the human race. Themselves Europeans by descent and intimate connection, they have a large direct interest in every other general geographical division of the world and its inhabitants. It is worth while to pause here for a moment to think, and to try and realise, however dimly, something of the task before the people of this country in the government and control of what are known as the subject races.
For this purpose it is necessary to throw our glance over the physical extent of the British Empire. In the first place, there are the ten self-governing components of the Dominion of Canada and that of Newfoundland in North America, the six Colonial States in the Commonwealth of Australia, with the Dominion of New Zealand in Australasia, and the four divisions of the Union of South Africa. All these may be looked upon as indirectly administered portions of the British Empire. Then there is the mediatised government of Egypt,