ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses European penetration and African civilization and social anthropology and the study of modern problems. Anthropologists have rightly complained that in the past their advice has often not been heeded, and that misunderstandings and disasters might have been avoided if the lines of conduct laid down as the result of anthropological investigation had been followed. The task of social anthropology is not only to study the political organization of a tribe and from that to reconstruct a previous phase of that organization. Anthropological field-work is carried on not only by fully trained anthropologists but to a large extent by persons who, without possessing the necessary technical training, are anxious to obtain knowledge of the people among whom they are working, moved thereto either by scientific inclination or by the necessities of their calling. The majority of these are missionaries and administrative officials.
