William A. Smalley

Making and Keeping Anthropological Field Notes

The individual who is resident among the people of another culture, even though he is not a professional anthropologist, has marvelous opportunities for observation, for casual or intensive interviewing, and for other ways of gaining extensive information about the people around him and their way of life. He often has a very real advantage over many professional anthropologists in the possibility of such contacts over a period of many years. Only a small percentage, however, of missionaries and other such residents abroad make any kind of systematic record of what they learn. This article discusses briefly the advantages of record-keeping, and makes some practical suggestions.

Music, Church, and Ethnocentrism

It was more by accident than by design that the articles which comprise this special issue on “Developing Hymnology in New Churches” have been brought together. They all came to my attention about the same time, and they have been published together because they rather complement each other.

What are Indigenous Churches Like

It seems that the only optimism that can be generated with respect to reaching the millions without Christ is not to be found in the number of missionaries who go to the field, but in the rapid multiplication of Christianity among nationals reached by nationals. How effective are indigenous churches? How free are indigenous churches? How numerous are they? Is the use of the term “indigenous church” simply lip service to a concept? [Question by Frank E. Houser, Jr.]

Modern Asians and Western Churches

As a missionary in his first year, eager to apply the “indigenous principle,” I have been hearing but one thing lately: “The trend is to become Western.” It is my impression that this is far too much a rationalization on the part of missionaries. Of course, I realize that “if the natives want to ‘go Western,’ the indigenous thing to do is to let them make that choice.” But long before they make such a choice, it seems that the missionaries mold that choice in their minds. People advise me to take a look around in this area of Hong Kong to see the Western, modern buildings, etc., and label other efforts “reactionary” and “antiquarian.” Yet I cannot help but believe that “the Western trend” in an area like Hong Kong, is only a short-lived fad which will never make a dent in Chinese ways. Is it not likewise true, in the history of Africa for example, that a trend to go “enthusiastically Western” is followed by a stronger trend to assert and exalt that which is native? Now I am coming to my point: Is it not the role of the missionary at times to encourage natives to develop their own ways further and to discourage Western mimicry? For example, even if Africans or Chinese liked Western music, is it not the wiser thing to encourage them to compose their praises of God in their own idiom of music? (And, without becoming autocratic at all, to discourage Bach and Wesley?) Even in Hong Kong, our churches smell so Western that if I were a mainlander they would hardly appeal to me; in either case, the perfume of “non-Chinese” is all over it.—Manfred Berndt.

“Practical Anthropology” Content and Style

As Practical Anthropology grow, the range of potential contributors to its pages is also growing. So does the range of content. While we are most anxious for just such a widening representation of author and content. PA does have a definite purpose, and a definite personality which we try to maintain. In the following paragraphs we will outline for authors and reviewers some of the elements of that purpose and personality with suggestions for the presentation of materials. Included is an explanation of preferred format for typescripts. If this format is followed in submitting articles or reviews, it will save considerable time and expense in editing.

Anthropological Study and Missionary Scholarship

The growing interest in the study of anthropology among missionary scholars and prospective missionaries in the United States prompted the Missionary Research Library to ask for a bibliography of anthropology for missionaries together with an interpretive introduction. The article which follows reproduces that introduction, with minor changes. Many of the readers of Practical Anthropology have had little or no formal training in this field, and perhaps this article will help to place the contents of this journal in greater focus.

What is Christian Education

Over the past two years Practical Anthropology has had an exchange of discussion on the nature and relevance of Christian education in the Cross-cultural situation. It started with an editorial which posed very briefly the problem of the effectiveness of our witness to bring to men an understanding of God and of their relation to him.1 It continued when William J. Samarin raised the question of goals for Christian education among non-Christian peoples.2 Samarin agreed with the major point of the editorial, but raised important practical issues in defense of the present approach to education. Chester J. Jump of Congo, Wesley J. Culshaw of India, and the editor made some remarks in reply. Now Charles R. Taber discusses the issues again.

The Moral Implications of Social Structure

It has not been often that the editor of Practical Anthropology has received a letter raising serious objection to any of the many viewpoints which have been expressed in the pages of the magazine. We welcome such letters, of course, as they draw attention to weaknesses of presentation, faulty logic, wrong data, unwarranted conclusions, and many other possible problems with material published in PA. We did receive one such letter from the Rev. Paul Abrecht of the Department on Church and Society, Division of Studies of the World Council of Churches in Geneva. Since it was in reference to something I had written, I am taking this opportunity of printing the letter along with an explanation of my earlier statement.