You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This volume represents modern anthropology and is a worthy tribute to the significance of Seligman in the development of anthropological science. Every anthropologist will endorse Haddon's words in the 'appreciation' for truly 'no anthropologist has had a wider experience in the field or has studied so many aspects of human life. He has found interest in the most simple objects, in the relation of man to man, and in
human ideas and ideals, and in all he has appreciated the broader implications'.
The volume contains many important papers, but here we shall quote only those that are likely to interest the psycho-analytical reader. The two psycho-analytical papers are written by Marie Bonaparte and the reviewer. The paper of Marie Bonaparte considers the question of psycho-analytic anthropology from a general point of view (Psychoanalyse et Ethnographie, p. 19). Human nature is formed in the family and determined by the prolongation of infancy in the human species. Freud's view of the origin of totemism, of morals, of magic and animism is explained in a few clear sentences. For the 'diffusionist' psycho-analysis appears to be superfluous, for the adherents of the 'evolutionary' and the 'functional' school it is to say the least of it too daring. But the chief obstacle in the way of co-operation is that the anthropologist is a human being and therefore has his resistances. It is impossible to study human beings without taking account of their sexual life, and for this reason among others, anthropologists should be in the position to avail themselves of the insight afforded by the psycho-analytic method.
My own paper (The Study of Character Development and the Ontogenetic Theory of Culture, p. 281) contains a brief statement of my position and compares the formation of an individual character to the development of a specific cultural area.
Brenda Z. Seligmans (The Part of the Unconscious in Social Heritage), although it seems that she misunderstands the concept o