Introduction

ONE of the greatest difficulties which the student of anthropology has to face is the selection of criteria which he is to adopt in order to distinguish the various peoples he is describing. Many such criteria have been suggested in the past and have been variously accepted. Most books therefore which deal with any country, other than a restricted area, are apt to be very confusing because the same basis of classification has not been adhered to throughout. In some cases the authors, although consistent, have used criteria which have not won general acceptance, and therefore their works have proved less useful because it has been hardly possible to compare them with other investigations in the same field.