Culture and Agriculture: Cultural Anthropology in Relation to Current Agricultural Problems

Excerpts: A series of conferences with representatives of the various social science disciplines regarding the contribution that each can make to an integrated approach by all the social sciences to the functions and problems of the U. S. Department of Agriculture was held in the Department of Agriculture under the chairmanship of Under Secretary M. L. Wilson in the spring of 1939. A principal hope was to find out how the social sciences might contribute to the union of democratic procedures and scientific methods in the development of agricultural planning and policymaking, and in the educational and research activities of the Department in general, and of the reconstituted Bureau of Agricultural Economics in particular. A conference on cultural anthropology was the second of this series of meetings. It was held on May 17-19, 1939. The immediate purpose was to acquaint workers of the Department with the nature of findings in the field of cultural anthropology that might aid the process of agricultural planning and policy-making, and the process of efficient administration. In addition to scientists from outside the Department, there was a wide representation of the workers from the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, which sponsored the conference, and from the Farm Security Administration and other agencies and bureaus of the Department. The recommendations formulated by a special committee, and approved by those attending the conference follows the close of the dialogue here reproduced.