FILMS WILL ASSIST STUDY OF SCIENCE

As a result of the recent agreement with the Pathe Exchange Film Company to use a certain number of motion picture films for the purpose of illustrative instruction in its courses the Department of Anthropology has made known the three most important types of films that will be produced, on the subject of school geography. It is the opinion of the division that the scientific knowledge of its staff can be devoted with profit to the tasks of developing the subjects of human evolution and the building of civilization by means of films not only for adult students but equally for children.

The series of anthropological films contemplated will be built upon the highly organized and extensive courses of instruction in Anthropology which have been developed as a result of many years of experience.

The series of films to be produced on the subject of school geography are as follows:

1. A series of films dealing with the areas of Africa, Asia, Oceanica, North and South America, and perhaps Europe, showing first the types of environment in the various regions of each area, along with the flora and fauna of these regions; then a detailed study of the native inhabitants of each region, portraying their physical characteristics, their daily life, houses, methods of hunting, fishing and agriculture, arts and industries in general; and, where possible certain phases of their social and religious life.

2. A series of films designed to show the primary racial divisions of the human species and the criteria of race, by "close-ups" and animated, cartoons expressed simply enough so that the school children will be able to grasp the general idea. The purpose of this series is to give the school children a clear idea not only of the various racial types of man, but also of their distribution and possible migrations in the past. It is designed also to destroy the archaic racial classification on the basis of color still extant in most school geography books.

3. A series of films showing the facility, or lack of it, with which primitive groups in various regions have adapted their material and social culture to the dictates of their environments. The Eskimo will be used as an example of the way in which an intelligent people have made the most of an apparently unfavor- able environment, utilizing what scant materials are at hand to make their lives fairly comfortable in a most inhospitable region; the Bedawins of Arabia to show how a desert environment has led them to adopt a pastoral, nomadic form of existence and has shaped many of their beliefs and customs; and the Polynesians and the Melanesians, to show how their environment has stimulated them in the art of navigation. The policy of this series will be not to insist on the compulsory character of environment, but rather on its suggestive character; its ability to furnish opportunities which may or may not be taken, and its ability to forbid certain features.

The films prepared for university and college use will cover much the same ground as those designed for secondary schools, but the titling will be more technical and the subjects will be developed in greater detail