bilities and habits acquired by man as a member
of society."

For purely practical reasons, connected with
the minute division of labor that has become
imperative with modern specialization, ethnology
has in practice concerned itself with the cruder
cultures of peoples without a knowledge of writ-
ing. But this division is an illogical and artificial
one. As the biologist can study life as manifested
in the human organism as well as in the amoeba,
so the ethnologist might examine and describe
the usages of modern America as well as those of
the Hopi Indians. In these lectures I shall there-
fore not hesitate to draw upon illustrations from
the higher civilizations where these seem most
appropriate.

Indeed, it may be best for pedagogical reasons
to commence with an enumeration of instances of
cultural activity in our own midst. And since
there is a persistent tendency to associate with
culture the more impressive phenomena of art,
science, and technology, it is well to insist at the
outset that these loftier phases are by no means
necessary to the concept of culture. The fact
that your boy plays 'button, button, who has the
button?' is just as much an element of our cul-
ture as the fact that a room is lighted by elec-
tricity. So is the baseball enthusiasm of our

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