"I have outlined elsewhere in some detail that in meaningful research, seven factors and five stages are necessarily involved, and that the research is meaningful only to the extent to which these seven factors and five stages have been fully in operation. 

"The seven factors are 1: Method, 2: Theory, 3: Subject of research, 4: Purpose of research, 5: Motivation, 6: Relationship-Index, by which I mean the extent to which the researcher identifies with the Culture within which the subject of research is found, and 7: The Individual conducting the research, by which his personal 'World-View,' his concept of 'Nature,' etcetera, indicate the possibilities there might be that research results may be unwittingly filtered through unsuspected or unacknowledged prejudices. Factors 6 and 7 are the key ones. 

"The five stages of research I have postulated, briefly, as follows: 1: The recognition, as an organic unity, of the Hierarchy of Cosmos-Man-Nature, that is, of Life as an Organic Whole, manifesting as a Diversified Unity, 2: The recognition of the Culture concerned as an integral part of this Organic Whole, distinguishable but inseparable. Culture I have specifically defined as the antithesis of Civilization, as a Way of Life in which the 'spiritual-ethical forces of progress' (of Schweitzer) are just as much at work as the 'material forces of progress,' over which they have priority, 3: The clear statement of a Synthesis, in which the Subject of Research is expressed in terms of its organic relationship to the Culture in which it exists, 4: The research-proper on the Subject, within and in terms of the Culture, 5: The statement of a new Synthesis, incorporating the results of research, and checked against stages 3, 2, and 1 above. "What I am saying here is, of course, that the recognition and application of something like the twelve strata . . . presented below, is essential, and that the context of the Great Belief is the only valid one within which to conduct any research into any aspect of any Culture whatever, but particularly of the Black Race. 

Stratum   1: Customs and Language 
Stratum   2: Social Organization 
Stratum   3: The Sciences 
Stratum   4: The Arts 
Stratum   5: Folklore 
Stratum   6: Mythology 
Stratum   7: Rituals 
Stratum   8: Primal Sounds 
Stratum   9: Philosophy 
Stratum 10: Religion 
Stratum 11: The Pantheon and Nature Spirits 
Stratum 12: The Archetypes and Earth Forces
THE ANCESTRAL GOD: THE CORE-OF-BEING OF THE HUMAN GROUP 

The intention here is to suggest that each stratum is the offspring of that which lies immediate below it, and that it can properly be understood within the context of the culture, only in terms of its parent-stratum. Thus Stratum 5: Folklore, comes to life only when viewed within the context of Stratum 6: Mythology, and ipso facto. The Arts cannot be understood in depth without Folklore from which they derive."