Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/172

ment of culture. Because they see how the environment sets limitations to human culture, or inventions, they sometimes assert that in it are to be found the causes producing cultures. A more acceptable view seems to be that which recognizes the province of the environment in deciding as to what may not become a part of human experience, but that among the experiences it makes possible is a wide range, in fact almost infinite range, of yet to be discovered relationships among which are many that may enter into the culture of the future, if both the man and the hour come. If in the discussion of this question we do not lose sight of the inventive nature of the processes producing material cultures and the curious psychic origin of the underlying relationship of ideas, on the one hand, and the passive limiting character of the geographical environment on the other, we shall not be led far astray. It is natural that in the study of geography emphasis should be given to the physical, faunistic and floral characters of the environment, but this should not warrant the assumption that these characters will in themselves be a sufficient explanation of the cultural differences observed among the peoples of the earth. It is also to be expected that anthropologists will overweight the value of the psychic factor in the formation of cultures because they deal in the main with such phenomena, but they in turn must not ignore the limiting character of the environment. The value of such discussions as this can only consist in holding each group of investigators to the proper recognition of the relations between their respective fields. Environment vs. culture may never cease to be the debatable ground over which the opposing parties struggle with varying fortunes, but we believe that a little analysis of the phenomena will reveal the chief factors, make evident their relative values and so lead to saner views.