ABSTRACT
Distinguishing the sciences, one from another, according to the diversity of their objects, they have come to think that they ought to be studied separately, each science independently of all the others. Northrup classes the Abam headhunters of south-eastern Nigeria as mercenaries ‘specializing in warfare the way other groups specialized in trading, farming or fishing’. Northrup’s euphemisms are part of an attempt to imply that south-east Nigerian trade was similarly motived to that of the West. There is no more formidable obstacle to understanding the Third World than that presented by Marxism as it is applied today. Narrowness has long been a trait of those engaged in what are called the social sciences, even within disciplines. When inquirers have the urge and the energy to get to the bottom of the Third World problem, it will be possible to co-ordinate the relevant aspects of sociology, anthropology, psychology, biochemistry and genetics.
