Primary Docs Index

1872 Notice...Natural Science School...Oxford

2012-10-05T09:46:56+00:00

Note that this is transcription of parts of this notice, the parts which seem to relate to the study of anthropology before 1880 at Oxford. A PDF version of the notice is available at the end of this page

Notice by the Board of Studies for the Natural Sciences School of the University of Oxford issued in pursuance of Statute Tit. V. (VI.) Section I Oxford 1872

The Board consisted of:

Henry W. Acland, Regius Professor of Medicine

B. Price, Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy

M.A. Lawson, Professor of Botany

R.B. Clifton, Professor of Experimental Philosophy

M.N.H. Story Maskelyne, Professor of Mineralogy

John Phillips, Professor of Geology

B.C. Brodie, Waynflete Professor of Chemistry

George Rolleston, Linacre Professor of Physiology

J.O. Westwood, Hope Professor of Zoology

[see further details in People]

School of Natural Science

The Board of Studies for the Natural Science School hereby give notice that the range of subjects included in the Examinations, shall be as follows:--

Preliminary Honour Examination

1. Mechanics and Physics ...

2. Chemistry ...

Final Honour Examination

The Final Honour Examination comprises three General Subjects, viz.--

I. Physics,

II. Chemistry,

III. Biology;

and the following Special Subjects, which may be taken in as supplementary to one or more of the General Subjects:--

A. Crystallography and Mineralogy,-- the former as included under the General Subjects of Physics and Chemistry, the latter as included under Chemistry.

B. Geology and Palaeontology,--the former as included under the three General Subjects, the latter as included under Biology.

C. Zoology } as subjects included under Biology

D. Botany } as subjects included under Biology

The several sections which follow deal with the manner in which each separate subject, whether general or special, is to be studied by a Candidate for honours.

The appended list of books are intended to serve as guides, suggestive of the best courses of study, and offering some choice of text-books. Alternative treatises are in several cases included in the lists in the same paragraph.

In many instances portions only of the works recommended will need to be studied as treating in a special manner of the subjects for which the book may be recommended.

The Board desire it to be understood that a knowledge of the subjects, based on practical work, as well as knowledge gathered from books, will always be required at the examinations in this School.

... III. Biology

1. Candidates who offer themselves in the Final Honour Examination for examination in Biology will be expected to show an acquaintance, firstly, with General and Comparative Anatomy and Histology; [footnote: Under these terms vegetable structures are included] secondly, with Human and Comparative Physiology, inclusive of Physiological Chemistry; and thirdly, with the General Philosophy of the subject.

2. In these subjects the Candidates will be examined both by paper work and practically; and will be required to give evidence of being competent not merely to verify and describe specimens already prepared for naked-eye or microscopic demonstration as the case may be, but also to prepare such or similar specimens themselves.

3. Candidates may, in addition to the amount of work indicated in the preceding paragraphs, bring up any of the 'Special Subjects' contained in the list appended below. A Candidate who offers himself for examination in a Special Subject will be expected to show, firstly, a detailed practical acquaintance with specimens illustrating that subject, for which purpose the Catalogues of the University Museum can be made available; and secondly, exact knowledge of some one or more monographs treating of it. Excellence, however, in a Special Subject will not compensate for failure in any essential part of the general examination.

Every Candidate must state, at the time of entering his name for examination, what Special Subject, if any, he takes in.

A student who offers himself for examination in a Special Subject is referred to the following provision List:--

a. Comparative Osteology.

b. The Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Organs of Digestion.

c. The Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Organs of Circulation and Respiration.

d. The Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System

e. The Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Reproductive Systems.

f. Ethnology [boldening by transcriber [1]]

4. The following works are provisionally recommended by the Board of Studies for use in the study of the above-mentioned Departments of Biology.

... (b) List of books recommended in connexion with 'Special Subjects':--

... Ethnology

Brace's Races of the Old World, 2nd ed. Lond., 1869.

5. Candidates who offer themselves for examination in Geology, Zoology, or Botany, will be required to exhibit practical acquaintance with those subjects to at least the same extent as Candidates who offer themselves for examination in any one of the Special Subjects above mentioned are required to do with reference to those subjects. But they will not be required to go through the same amount of practical work in the Departments of Biology not specially connected with Geology, Zoology, or Botany, as Candidates who do not bring up any of these three subjects.

... Signed by order of the Board of Studies in the Natural Science School

Henry W. AclandChairman

May 4, 1870.

Appendix.

Statt. Tit. V. (VI.) Section. 1

§6. Of the Honour School of Natural Science.

1. The subjects of examination in the Honour School of Natural Science shall be Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

2. The Examination shall be divided into two parts: the one to be termed the Preliminary Honour Examination; the other to be termed the Final Honour Examination.

3. The Preliminary Honour Examination shall be compulsory upon all Candidates in the School, and shall be restricted to the more elementary parts of (1) Mechanics and Physics, (2) Chemistry, together with a practical examination of a simple character in the latter subject at least.

3. A Candidate shall be allowed to present himself for the Preliminary Honour Examination either on the occasion of his Final Honour Examination, or at any previous Examination in the Natural Science School subsequent to the time at which he passes his First Public Examination; and he shall be allowed to present himself for the Preliminary Examination in Mechanics and Physics at a different Examination from that in which he presents himself for the Preliminary Examination in Chemistry.

5. In the Final Honour Examination, a Candidate may offer himself for examination in one or more of the three general subjects of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The Final Honour Examination shall in each subject be partly practical.

6. The place assigned to a Candidate in the list of Classes shall depend upon the joint result, in the judgement of the Examiners, of his examination in all the subjects in which he offers himself for examination on the occasion of his Final Honour Examination, whether they be included in the Preliminary or Final divisions of the Examination.

7. The Final Honour Examination shall begin not later than seven days after the termination of the Preliminary Honour Examination; and, during the interval between the two parts of the Examination, a list of those who have passed the Preliminary Examination shall be issued by the Examiners, the subject or subjects in which each Candidate has passed being stated.

8. In the Final Honour Examination, a Candidate may, in addition to his general subject or subjects, offer himself for examination in special subjects included under any of the three general subjects of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. These special subjects shall be selected by the Candidate from a list to be issued by the Board of Studies.

9. The Board of Studies for this School shall be--

The Regius Professor of Medicine,

The Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy,

The Professor of Botany,

The Professor of Experimental Philosophy,

The Professor of Mineralogy,

The Professor of Geology,

The Waynflete Professor of Chemistry,

The Linacre Professor of Physiology.

The Professor of Zoology,

together with the Examiners in the School for the time being, and all persons who serve as Examiners in the School within the two years preceding.

10. The Board of Studies shall issue a notice explanatory of the range of subjects included in the Preliminary Honour Examination, and also a similar notice with respect to the Final Honour Examination; and shall have power, subject to the provisions of this statute, to revise such notices from time to time.

The Board shall also issue a list of the special subjects above mentioned, and have power to revise the same from time to time.

The Board shall also have power to frame, from time to time, regulations as to the conduct of the Examinations.

See here for Nature's review of this Notice

My thanks to Mark Dickerson and Kate Santry from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History Research Libraries who retrieved and scanned this notice.

Notes by transcriber

[1] OED definition of Ethnology:

'The science which treats of races and peoples, and of their relations to one another, their distinctive physical and other characteristics, etc.'

OED quotes John Lubbock, 'Ethnology, in fact, is passing at present through a phase from which other Sciences have safely emerged.' (from Prehistoric Times 4th edition Preface page 9]

Wikipedia defines ethnology as:

'Ethnology (from the Greek ἔθνος, ethnos meaning "people, nation, race") is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity'

See here for an article about the Pitt Rivers Museum and Ethnology

PDF of Notice

Transcribed by AP October 2012

1895 Anthropology as Principal Subject in Honour School

2013-07-03T14:10:31+00:00

(For the Hebdomadal Council only)

Report of the Committee of the Board of the Faculty of Natural Science for considering the conditions under which Anthropology might be admitted as a Principal Subject in the Honour School of Natural Science. [Professor Price, Professor Burdon-Sanderson, Professor Thomson, Dr. Tylor, Mr. Balfour.]

[March 19, 1895]

The Committee recommend--

1. That a Candidate for Honours in Anthropology should be required to have previously satisfied the Examiners both in the Preliminary Examination in Animal Morphology, and also in two other subjects.

2. That the Examination be partly practical.

3. That a Candidate offering Anthropology shall give at least three month's notice of his intention to the Chairman of the Board of the Faculty of Natural Science [as in the subjects Animal Morphology, Geology, and Botany].

4. That the Examiners be appointed by the Committee which nominates Examiners in Animal Morphology, Botany, and Geology.

5. The adoption of the Schedule below, together with general Regulations similar to those respecting Animal Physiology, Animal Morphology, and Botany (given on pages 61, 62, Examination Statutes), but modified as required by the subject matter of Anthropology.

ANTHROPOLOGY

Zoological position of Man, with special reference to points of agreement and difference between Man and the Anthropomorpha, as regards

(a) Structure;

(b) Function and habits;

Evidence as to the antiquity of Man from Geology, based upon the position of human remains, and upon the associated animal remains; sequence of pre-historic periods.

Comparative anatomy of races of Man, including such description as may be necessary of

(a) Skeleton;

(b) Integument (skin and hair);

Anthropometry, as applied to (a) the living, (b) the separate bones of the skeleton, especially the skull (Craniometry).

Colouration, especially with regard to skin, hair, and iris.

Physical classification, geographical distribution, and probable lines of migration of races (Ethnology). Effects upon races of their environment (e.g. climate, soil, local condition, food-supply). Variations of race-type by intercrossing. Liability of different races to special diseases.

Value of language, arts, customs, mythology, religion, &c. in determining affinity, dispersion, and intercourse of races.

Expression of feeling and thought by features and voice; gesture-language; interjectional and imitative sounds. Theories of origin of language. Application of evidence from Comparative Philology as a means of classifying families of language by grammar and vocabulary.

Development of culture in pre-historic and historic times as evidenced by a comparative study of

(a) Arts of industry and war and their appliances (e.g. implements, weapons, dwellings, clothing, means of locomotion).

(b) Staple foods of various races; animals and plants domesticated by man; agricultural and pastoral conditions; use of stimulants and narcotics.

(d) Development of arithmetic and mensuration.

(e) Communication and record of objects and pictures; phonetic writing and alphabets, &c.

(f) Arts of pleasure (music, dancing, dramatic representation, graphic and plastic arts; games, &c.).

(g) Traditions, customs and ceremonies, mythology, poetry.

(h) Theories as to cause of diseases; their treatment. Practice of artificial deformation.

(i) Magic and sorcery; their connexion with spiritual agencies.

(j) Moral condition, social and political organization. Family ties; rules of peace and war; marriage and descent; family, clan, and tribe divisions; communal and individual property; vengeance and criminal law; development of military, judicial, and administrative authority.

(k) Religions of mankind. Definitions of souls and spiritual beings generally; ideas of future state; treatment of dead; prayer, sacrifice, and other rites of worship. Social and political influence of religion.

(l) Survival of primitive conditions in the culture of the lower races.

Practical Examination.

The subjects for practical examination will comprise:--

Recognition of the more distinctive separate bones of the human skeleton. These should be described and, where necessary, measured; and any features which may appear of importance should be pointed out.

A practical knowledge of the methods of taking the various measurements of the skull. Recognition of typical skulls of well-defined varieties of Man and the Anthropomorpha.

Identification of typical varieties of Man from photographs, with description of their characteristic features. Such description of the living as will include those points which are of importance from an Anthropological standpoint; the accounts should be illustrated where necessary with sketches.

Estimation of the tints of hair and skin colouration, and the recognition of different kinds of hair.

Identification of well-marked portions of the skeletons of the commonest domestic animals, and also of the extinct mammalia contemporaneous with Man.

Identification of typical weapons, implements, articles of dress and ornament, artificial deformation of the person, magic and other appliances, and works of art, &c., of living and extinct races, either from the actual objects or from illustrations. Of such objects Candidates will be expected to write accounts describing the race or races to which they belong, their use, geographical distribution of allied forms, and, when required, their place in the developmental history of the class of objects to which they belong. Indication, upon blank outline maps of the world, of the geographical position of some of the more important races and varieties of mankind and the distribution of the more distinctive arts, customs, appliances, religions, &c.

February 7, 1895

Originally transcribed during the Relational Museum project, transferred to this site 2013.

1904 Address by Balfour to RAI

2012-08-06T12:01:13+00:00

Presidential Address by Balfour to Royal Anthropological Institute, 1903-1904

The Relationship of Museums to the study of Anthropology

The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 34, (Jan.-Jun.,1904), pp. 10-19

It has usually been the custom, on the occasion of our annual meetings, for the President to give in his address a resumé of the principal events of anthropological interest which have occurred during his term of office, and to pass in review the work done by the Institute during the past year. That the observance of this prevailing custom has been acceptable to the Fellows cannot, I think, be doubted. It may even be that it was originally intended that the President should, in this manner, sum up once a year the achievements and noteworthy features of the science-which he represents, and that this was the primary raison d'etre of the presidential address. At any rate, the numerous addresses which have been delivered by former Presidents having this theme for their basis, have amply justified this procedure, and have afforded eloquent testimony to the fact that, in able hands, a retrospect of the year's anthropological work may be presented in a form which for interest and instructiveness leaves nothing to be desired.

In recent years, the Annual Report of the Council has to some extent relieved the President of this duty, and, partly on this account, partly, too, no doubt, because, were I to follow on the accepted lines, I should dread a comparison of the clumsy efforts of my own pen with the able addresses of my distinguished predecessors I, have welcomed the precedent, established by some of the former occupants of the chair, of departing from the usual observance, and devoting the major portion of their addresses to some selected topic of general anthropological interest. I cannot but think that the President of the Institute is justified in asking leave to unburden his soul on such an occasion, provided that he is sanguine enough to believe that his views may be of some practical value in furthering the developmental progress of the science of Anthropology. In following the lead of those of my predecessors who have selected their own theme for their addresses, I readily yield to them the credit for having initiated a departure from normal procedure, together, of course, with the blame should any have been incurred.

That the general progress of Anthropology in our country has been maintained, cannot, I think, be denied, and, if its steps are slower than we could wish, at least the advance has been continuous and unchecked. Enough useful and interesting work has been done to show clearly what great advances might be made in this important science, were the funds available for its pursuit in any way proportioned to its needs. Fortunately genuine enthusiasm is not lacking, and that may be regarded as a certain sign of the healthy vitality of the science, which, if restrained, is at least unsubdued by the lack of adequate financial support.

Among the signs of an increasing appreciation of the value of anthropological investigations, may be mentioned the fact that there is an increasing number of workers in the field, and that the work of anthropologists is being more and more appealed to on matters not only of scientific research, but also of practical economical importance.

Reference should also be made, in this connection, to the recent action taken by the governing body of one of the colleges at Oxford, by which a fellowship, tenable for five years, has been given for anthropological research, a most gratifying recognition of the importance of this science.

The work of the Institute has gone on unchecked, and the publications have fully maintained their high standard. It is true that, in spite of an increasing membership, the income has not proved sufficient to meet all the expenses incurred, and that some capital expenditure has been unavoidable, so that it is clear that an increase in the membership, bringing an increased income, is most necessary, if we are to carry on adequately the useful work on which we are engaged, of collecting, recording, and marshaling the facts relating to Man's history and present status. If every two Fellows would enlist a single new one, the financial position would be most usefully improved, and the strain materially relieved. It is only asking each Fellow to assume a minimum responsibility to the extent of half a candidate, no very extravagant demand, in view of the importance of the result which would accrue.

I have to deplore the loss, during my year of office, of two valued colleagues, through their retirement from official posts. Early in the year Mr. Myres resigned the Secretaryship, which he had held with much benefit to the Institute, and to which he had devoted so much of his time and so great an activity. At the end of the year Mr. Lewis is not seeking re-nomination to the Treasurership, and thus retires from the important position which he has filled with devotion and courtesy during a great many years, ever mindful of the financial interests of the Institute. If it has not been his happy lot to be able to carry forward large and appropriate balances, by reason of the smallness of our income, at least, in his latest report, he has the satisfaction of recording the fact that our publication, Man, has been self-supporting during the past twelve months.

That the work of the Institute has progressed so favourably during the year is very largely due to the activity of the Secretary ad interim, Mr. Joyce, and the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Kingsford, and, last but not least, to Mr. Fallaize, who has generously given his valuable services in many ways, more especially to the work of bringing out the Journal. To one and all of these gentlemen I take this opportunity for offering the hearty thanks of a colleague, who, although, by the kindness of the Fellows, occupying a coveted and prominent position, has filled a far less important place than they in the machinery which drives the Institute along the path of progress.

Among the losses from the ranks of workers in the field of Anthropology to which reference has been made in the Council's Report, there is one name which stands out pre-eminently. I refer to Mr. Herbert Spencer, a giant among philosophical thinkers, and one who laboured unselfishly, and with complete devotion to his subject, since he consistently refused the many well-earned honours which were offered to him. Although, by the death of a man of such striking individuality of mind, a gap is left in the ranks which it will be impossible to fill, yet Herbert Spencer has left an indelible mark upon the literature of all time, and will always live in his works and in the school of thought over which his genius and individuality have been disseminated.

With these few references to past events, I will turn now to my main subject.

The two annual addresses delivered by my immediate predecessor in this chair, were devoted in a very practical manner to making clear the position, aims and requirements of Anthropology, on the one hand by means of a classification of the various aspects of the study, together with suggestions as to the means whereby the science may be developed, and, on the other hand, by offering a highly stimulating object lesson, based upon the development of Anthropological study, as it is being pursued in the United States of America, from which it must be admitted that the pursuit of this subject in our own country suffers from comparison with the achievements wrought by "the energy and enthusiasm of American anthropologists”, who are backed up by the "liberality of enlightened business men." To money we must needs look for the sinews of scientific pursuits as of war, and enlightened liberality is a thing to be encouraged in every way. At the same time, it seems to me that, in certain directions, a vast amount might be done for Anthropology without necessarily involving any immediate serious increase in the funds at present available; though I firmly believe that, if successfully carried out, the very success of the scheme would react upon the liberality of fund providers, and, again, the stimulus of augmented resources would lead to a further increase in the efficiency of the work.

It is mainly to the museums of this country that I would appeal, and I would ask whether something cannot be done, in the direction especially of individualization and co-operation, to extend greatly the scientific value of these institutions, and, in so doing, to assist very materially in the advancement of Anthropology, I confine my remarks, of course, to museums which are either entirely or partially anthropological in character, using the term in its widest sense, to include all matters relating to the study of Man.

On the whole, we cannot complain as to the number of museums in the British Islands. They are, in fact, very numerous. Most of our principal cities possess at least one, while many of the smaller towns and suburbs also boast of a museum, often enough one which reflects great credit upon its founders and organizers. I do not wish to advocate any increase in their number. If anything, I would rather suggest a diminution, since one cannot blind oneself to the fact of their being a certain number of so-called "museums," which would but force a groan from Calliope and her eight sisters, through the completeness with which they have failed to justify their existence as institutions worthy of the name. I do not wish to speak harshly of the happily few instances. Museums are frequently started with the best intentions by, or in response to, local enthusiasts, who, while they live, render the institution a success by their own individual efforts; but, as too often happens, no adequate permanent provision having been made for future maintenance, and for providing an efficient staff of workers, there is a tendency for such a museum to stagnate and decay after the death of its founder, whose place may not readily be filled by another self-sacrificing enthusiast. Enterprise begins to flag and apathy rules; the familiar "Cannibal club from the South Seas" languishes against its neighbour, which as likely as not is a stuffed "Egyptian ibis"; the label drops from the authentic “Dagger which killed Captain Cook" on to the unsuspecting "Turtle from the West Indies" immediately below, whose back it henceforth adorns. The museum becomes a mere scrap-heap of "curios," a burden and then an eyesore, and is apt, finally, to be handed over to the tender care of a committee à discretion of moths, beetles, dust and damp, having full powers to dispose of the specimens as they think fit.

This is no exaggerated picture. Many a valuable, even unique, specimen has gone through these stages of devolution, and it is sad indeed to think how much valuable material has been lost to Science through this process of neglect, atrophy and decay. Often enough, it is true, it is only a certain portion of a museum which receives inadequate attention, other departments being developed and well cared for. The Curator may be a specialist, having naturally enough his own hobby, which he understands, and to which all his attention is devoted. We are none the less concerned, for, only too frequently, it is the Ethnological or Archaeological section which suffers.

This, however, is the gloomy side of the picture, and I gladly turn to the brighter aspects. I believe that the class of "museum" to which I have just referred is, rapidly disappearing, and that out of the ashes there will arise institutions which, even though they may be small, will take a definite place among the teaching units of our country. In response to the growing public interest in Science, which will have demanded their remodeling and re-juvenescence, they will play their part in further stimulating that interest by the quality of their exhibits.

One must pay a well-deserved tribute to that excellent organization, the Museums Association, which through the medium of its meetings, discussions and published Report, has already done much towards promoting a healthy activity in the Museum World, and towards shaming out of existence any retrogressive tendencies. May its work prosper!

Our ethnological museums and collections play an important part in the education of the nation, but their influence may be enormously increased. With our Imperial and Colonial interests and responsibilities, the study of comparative and local ethnology is of prime importance to us, not only because we are exceptionally favoured in regard to the material for that study, which lies ready to hand, by reason of our dominant position in many and varied regions of the world, inhabited by races in all stages of culture, but still more because the proper understanding of native races and their relationship to each other is a matter of vital interest to us, if we are to govern justly and intelligently the very heterogeneous people who come under our sway. Nor is this all. The great variety in the conditions of culture observable amongst the peoples and tribes of various regions, supplies us with a most valuable mass of material for tracing the developmental history of human culture in general. Gaps in the archaological and historical record may, as is now fully recognized, frequently be filled by means of a comparative study of modern races, the study, in fact, of the "Past in the Present," to use Mitchell's happy phrase.

How, then, can our museums best assist in the advancement of the study of Man? I do not propose to attempt even to reply in full to this question, as this would take me too far afield; and I may well neglect all reference to the general principles of museum administration, the proper methods of exhibiting, labelling and preserving specimens, and so on. These are matters which have received much attention elsewhere at the hands of experts, and they fall outside my province this evening. I am concerned more particularly with the general nature of the collections illustrating Man and his culture.

I am especially desirous of pleading the cause of variety and individuality in Museums. One thing which must inevitably strike any one who has visited any considerable number of our Ethnological Museums and collections, is the fact of there being a marked general similarity, both in the nature of the collections themselves, and in their treatment for purposes of exhibition. Some are, of course, either richer in material or more carefully arranged; but, taken as a whole, one is accustomed to expect to find ethnological collections arranged, when classified at all, upon a purely geographical system, the specimens being, almost invariably, classified into groups based upon the regions whence the objects have come. Far be it from me to condemn a geographical system, so long as it can be carried out successfully, in such a way as to teach the museum-going public the main differences which exist between the various races of Man, whether it be in the physical or cultural aspects of Ethnology. It is absolutely necessary that some of our museums should be so arranged, but this system can only be followed with success in an institution of relatively large size, since much space and material is required in order to do justice to it. That the main ethnological collection in the British Museum should be arranged upon a geographical system, goes, I think, without saying, and there are other large museums, located in the more important centres, to which this principle of classification is eminently suitable.

With the very numerous smaller museums, the case is, I venture to think, different. The space is apt to be far too limited, and the specimens too few, to enable the Curator to arrange the collection in a manner whereby the principal ethnological features of the various regions are brought out in an instructive manner. As a rule there will be an absence of balance between the regional groups. One or two regions may be well represented, others poorly or not at all, and a false impression is likely to be conveyed, even though the arrangement of the specimens may be well and thoughtfully executed. A purely geographical system on a small scale is, no doubt, a relatively easy one to follow, but this can hardly be advanced as a valid reason for its adoption. An easy method of arrangement is too frequently a mistaken one.

Admitting, as I cordially do, that, in certain Ethnological Museums--mainly those which are of large extent and well endowed—a geographical system of classification is most desirable, I wish now to point out how, in my opinion, the other museums may fill important places in the list of such institutions, and how they may incidentally better their own prospects, through the increasing support which would attend their enterprise in advancing the cause of Science.

It will be generally admitted that the most effective and legitimate method of attracting specimens to a museum lies in making it evident that specimens and collections accepted will be made to serve a really useful purpose, and be utilized in a scientific manner, either for educational purposes or for the advancement of Science through research. The science of Ethnology is so wide and comprehensive, and embraces the consideration of so many distinct factors and phenomena, that the classification of ethnological material in museums may well be subject to considerable variation, with the best results to the science. An immensely wide scope is afforded for specialization, if individual museums are devoted to the adequate treatment of selected branches of the science, instead of attempting to illustrate Ethnology in its wider aspects, an attempt which must in many cases be foredoomed to failure while, even if successfully carried out ,it would only lead to a repetition of what was being done elsewhere.

I readily sympathize with the view that the authorities of local museums should devote their attention largely to collecting materials for illustrating the archaeology and ethnology of their own districts, and this, I am glad to think, is to a great extent being done. At the same time it appears to me that a reasonable concentration is desirable, and that this work should be definitely delegated to certain selected centres, in order that the material may not be too scattered.

Apart from this question of local antiquities, and specimens illustrating Man's occupation of the several districts, there are many problems which might be successfully undertaken, either in conjunction with local phenomena, or as an alternative to the more usual, generalized methods of treating ethnology.

There is one type of museum in which the British Islands are singularly deficient, and, by some irony of fate, it is one which would fully illustrate the ethnology and culture of the people of Great Britain, that is so conspicuously lacking. We have every reason for being proud of that noble institution the British Museum in Bloomsbury, with its immense wealth of archaeological and ethnological material. At the same time, we must admit that its name implies rather that it is a treasured possession of the British Nation, than that it illustrates its characteristics, developmental history and culture. British archaeology is, it is true, well represented, but there has been little space devoted to a connected treatment of the arts, industries and general culture of the nation through the historical period. This clearly indicates that this phase of the subject must be illustrated elsewhere. We want a National museum, national, that is, in the sense that it deals with the people of the British Islands, their arts, industries, customs and beliefs, local differences in physical and cultural characteristics, the development of appliances, the survival of primitive forms in certain districts, and so forth. Some attention has, I know, been given to these matters, as, for example, in the Antiquaries Museum in Edinburgh, the small; private museum at Farnham, Wiltshire, formed by the late General Pitt Rivers, and some other museums and private collections; but nothing of a comprehensive nature has been attempted and we have allowed many interesting, and at one time important customs and appliances, associated with our national life, to die out, without having taken adequate steps to preserve their record. We have no institution in this country which occupies the position of the larger "Folk-museums" of the continent.

Paris, Moscow, Stockholm, Christianiand Copenhagen, not to mention other large cities, all have their Folk-museums, illustrating in a most interesting and instructive manner the life of their people, particularly of their peasantry. Nor is it only the great cities, for many of the smaller towns, such as Bergen, Helsingfors, Sarajevo and others, have well-equipped and very popular museums of a similar kind. Surely, we have reason to be as interested in our national characteristics as other countries are of theirs, and, surely, the ethnology of and culture development in Great Britain are as important to us as these subjects are to continental peoples.

And yet we still lack an institution in which the non-political history of the British Nation is studied and illustrated in a comprehensive manner. It is not too late even now to start such a National Museum, on the model of the famous Nordiska Museum in Stockholm, the life-work of Dr. A. Hazelius, which combines both indoor and outdoor museums, and which not only illustrates in a splendid manner the life of Scandinavian peoples, but also furnishes a valuable object lesson, as a record of what can be achieved through the enterprise and devotion of one man, starting with but very meager funds.

There must be a great amount of material, representing the obsolete appliances and customs of Great Britain in the hands of private collectors, which would find its way into such a museum, if it were once started upon a satisfactory and systematic basis; and, with reasonable energy, we might in a few year’s time boast of a National Museum which would defy the world to taunt us with the accusation that, while we eagerly look after and make collections illustrative of everybody else's ethnology, we neglect our own. Ethnological museums on an extensive scale are every now and then founded by enlightened private individuals, but, with the establishment of each new one on the old familiar lines, there is the loss of an opportunity for filling a serious gap, and for providing the country with something which it definitely lacks,

The establishment of a National Museum of the kind referred to, would probably entail an entirely new institution, or, at least, the complete remodelling of an existing one; but most of our present museums, whether large or small, could assist very materially in the advancement of anthropological studies, even without increasing the demands upon space and funds. If, for instance, some of our local museums were to relinquish the idea of forming general ethnological collections, which are as a rule beyond their scope, and for these would substitute collections illustrating particular branches of the subject, special phases of ethnology, a great advance would, I think, have been made. The subject selected would necessarily be one proportioned to space available and the financial conditions of the institution. There is a wide range of subjects from which to choose, since all the phenomena which touch upon man's life in the past and the present are available, any one of which is capable of furnishing material for educational and popular exhibits, as well as for research into the highways and byways of the science. A museum devoted, say, to illustrating well such a subject as the "influence of environment upon Man's physique and culture," would be teaching a very useful lesson in human bionomics. "Man's place in Nature" and the "Antiquity of Man" are obvious subjects, which can be treated in extenso or very concisely, according to circumstances, but in either case in an educational manner.

I might mention, further, a few of the many other subjects which almost cry out for proper treatment and development. The evolution and geographical distribution of special arts, industries and their appliances, or of customs, might be illustrated by means of comparative series; the early history of warfare or of the chase, by means of examples of the weapons and other appliances used for the purpose by savage and barbaric peoples. Or, again, the evolution of currency from its origin in mere barter, down to the development of a true coinage; early methods of navigation; the history of agriculture; the phylogeny of musical-instruments; these are all subjects of interest to all, and capable of being well illustrated. Then, comparative series illustrating the development of weaving, metallurgy, and other such industries, would be eminently adapted for museums in the main centres of the present industries themselves, and the local familiarity with the technique of the crafts, would be invaluable to the student and researcher in their comparative history and phylogeny. The growth of realistic and decorative art from the earliest rudiments including the evolution of patterns and the factors determining variation, is a peculiarly fascinating study, which has received a good deal of attention, though, as yet, no museum has been devoted to this subject, excepting as an incidental feature. In investigating these and all other manifestations of human enterprise, one is carried far behind the scenes in the workings of the human mind, and I cannot but think that anthropology would gain enormously, both in popular estimation and in scientific results, if a number of our museums would take up special branches of the science of a more or less comprehensive nature according to the available space

And funds, but, in all cases, with the definite intention of rendering their collections as complete as possible within the imposed limits. Far more benefits would accrue to anthropology from such individualization amongst museums, than could possibly be derived from what I must describe as the wearying monotony of geographical groups on a small scale, which is at present the prevailing system of classification, varied locally with no arrangement at all, or, perhaps, what is even worse, one based upon a system of grouping together specimens given by a particular benefactor, however miscellaneous they may be.

By taking up in a thorough and exhaustive manner special lines, each of these museums would acquire a really attractive individuality, gaining greatly in prestige thereby, and the collections would develop into connected series which would teach something definite, and attract both the public and the expert, and last but not least, the benefactor. The museum would become the focusing point, as it were, for the subject which it was developing; material suited to the special character of the institution would alone be retained, and take the place of the unconnected miscellanea which the museums are now apt to accept--leading so frequently to a mere jumble of exhibits. Every incoming specimen would have a definite importance and an appropriate place in the series. Students would soon get to know where the collections illustrating particular subjects were to be found, and their infinite labour and the expense involved in hunting for particular objects among the museums would be greatly lessened. Since every accepted specimen would have its proper place in the collection, whether exhibited or not, those museum abominations, the so-called "trophies" of miscellaneous weapons and other objects would come to a not untimely end. "Trophies" are easy to design and set up, but in nine cases out of ten, however artistic they may be from a purely decorative point of view, only disfigure the walls of museums, and, to the visitor desirous of learning, are merely an advertisement of the fact that there is something wanting in the scientific methods of the institution. They are apt to be the refuge of unenlightened curators, pandering to an assumed weakness on the part of the public.

I do not hesitate to admit that there are many difficulties which would have to be overcome, if the scheme suggested is to be carried out, and I do not wish to under value these. Many of them, however, would, I think, disappear automatically, once such a scheme was working, and when the results began to declare themselves. Some are purely sentimental difficulties and should easily be overcome. At first it would, no doubt, in many instances be far from easy to obtain leave to exchange the existing miscellaneous specimens for fresh material of a homogeneous kind, suited to the special requirements of the museum. There is a prevailing feeling that gifts to museums must on no account be parted with, since it is thought that the generous donors would feel slighted thereby. Could anything be more fallacious than this superstition? The donor, presumably, wishes to benefit the institution, but some, or all, of his gifts may be of a kind of which that museum cannot make proper use, and, in such a case, neither is the institution benefited by the well-intentioned generosity, nor is Science. But, under a well-organized scheme of museum specialization, there would be a suitable home for every specimen somewhere, and a judicious system of exchanges between museums would lead, not only to each establishment receiving suitable in lieu of unsuitable acquisitions, but the generous donor would have the satisfaction of seeing his gifts properly located where they would be of scientific interest, his own liberality to the museum which he specially wished to benefit, being represented by a gain to that institution of specimens of real value to it. He would thus be benefitting two or more museums instead of possibly hampering one.

A regularly organized system of exchanges would of itself lead to co-operation among museums; and, without free interchange and mutual support, the individualization of collections would be liable to fail in the full realization of its aims. Exchanges of specimens would bring exchange of ideas, and, as all the separate units in the general scheme would, in their several ways, be aiming at the advancement of Anthropology as a whole, active and whole-hearted co-operation would hasten the steps by which the goal is to be reached.

A friendly and stimulating rivalry would remain as an accompaniment to the desire to steadily improve the various collections and to maintain a high standard. Rare and unique specimens would not be valued on account of their being objects not possessed by other museums, but they would be estimated in accordance with their scientific bearing upon the special series of which they formed part, or, in the event of their being unsuited to these, they would be sent as valuable exchanges to museums in which they would find a proper context, mutual benefit thus resulting. It has occurred to me that something of the nature of a "court of arbitration" might be a useful adjunct to such a scheme as I have suggested, but this is a some-what large subject with which I cannot here deal, and I have probably already overstepped the limits of your patience. I may be accused, perhaps, of nursing a wild and unpractical scheme, or of lotus-eating, or, possibly, of building castles in the air. I hold, nevertheless, that the scheme only requires nursing to bring it to maturity; that a lotus may become digestible and even nutritious if properly prepared; and that those castles, however much in the air at present, can be erected upon solid foundations of practical utility. Anthropological museums and collections are not only a means of edifying and educating the public, but they are to a great extent the laboratories of anthropologists, and, while I recognize to the full the important part which they play, even now, in the progress of the science, I am deeply impressed with the belief that, under a suitable system of co-operative individualization a harmony, as it were, of individual efforts their potentialities as factors in the advancement of Science, would be almost infinite. The work of these museums would thus be conducted in unison, with the same principal object in view, and with the certainty of attaining that object, namely, the increase of knowledge and the better understanding of Man and his works.

Transcribed by AP September 2012

Anthropological Institute obituary of Rolleston

2012-10-09T14:20:24+00:00

Report of the Council of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland for 1881

The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 11 (1882), p. 485 [pp. 482-487]

... Anthropological Science has also suffered during the last year a heavy loss by the death of Professor GEORGE ROLLESTON. In 1860, the year in which he was elected to the Linacre Professorship of Anatomy and Physiology at Oxford, he joined the Ethnological Society, and thence passed to the Institute on its formation as one of the original members. The Journal of the Institute contains several characteristic papers from Professor Rolleston's pen, especially those "On the People of the Long Barrow Period," "On the Human Remains at Cissbury," and "On Excavations at Sigwell." Probably his most important contribution to anthropology was contained in the well-written work on "British Barrows," prepared in conjunction with our respected member Canon Greenwell. But the value of Professor Rolleston's services to anthropology is by no means to be measured by the number of his written contributions. Always burdened by the pressure of official duties, he could command but scant leisure for original investigation or for the preparation of papers. But whenever he was able to attend our evening meetings, he never failed to freshen our discussions by his singular fluency of speech, and by his extraordinary range of general knowledge. At the Bristol Meeting of the British Association in 1875, he presided over the Department of Anthropology, and not only delivered an address of great value, but conducted the whole proceedings with his accustomed felicity. Professor Rolleston's death is the more to be deplored in as much as it occurred at the comparatively early age of fifty-two, at a time of life when hope was entertained of much future work, especially in the domain of archaeological anatomy, for which he was peculiarly fitted by a rare combination of science and scholarship. ...

Anthropology by Tylor 1889

2013-01-18T10:33:25+00:00

Anthropology: An Introduction to the Study of Man and Civilization

London: Macmillan and Co. 1889. Second edition, revised.

[The edition held by the Balfour Library, Pitt Rivers Museum, which was used to compile this page, was dedicated by Tylor to a Miss Lloyd on March 10 1889. It is possible that Miss Lloyd was Lucy Catherine Lloyd who was the sister in law of W. Bleek and who donated material to the Pitt Rivers Museum from South Africa [see 1891.29.2 for example] and who had returned to the UK to live from 1883, see here for more information. Another interesting thing is that the volume was given to the Balfour Library by Beatrice Blackwood, who worked at the Museum from the late 1930s. It is not known whether Miss Lloyd in turn gave her the book, or whether Blackwood came across it in a secondhand bookshop and acquired it that way.

Note that the summaries are taken from Tylor's chapter introductions.

This book is an introduction and summary of contemporary and current anthropological knowledge rather than an introduction to anthropological methodology.

Note that this second edition, despite being flagged as having been revised, seems little different from the first edition.]

p. v-vii: Preface

In times when subjects of education have multiplied, it may seem at first sight a hardship to lay on the already heavily-pressed student a new science. But it will be found that the real effect of Anthropology is rather to lighten than increase the strain of learning. In the mountains we see the bearers of heavy burdens contentedly shoulder a carrying-frame besides, because they find its weight more than compensated by the convenience of holding together and balancing their load. So it is with the science of Man and Civilization, which connects into a more manageable whole the scattered subjects of an ordinary education. Much of the difficulty of learning and teaching lies in the scholar's not seeing clearly what each science or art is for, what its place is among the purposes of life. If he knows something of its early history, and how it arose from the simpler wants and circumstances of mankind, he finds himself better able to lay hold of it than when, as too often happens, he is called on to take up an abstruse subject not at the beginning but in the middle. When he has learnt something of man's rudest means of conversing by gestures and cries, and thence has been led to see how the higher devices of articulate speech are improvements on such lower methods, he makes a fairer start in the science of language than if he had fallen unprepared among the subtleties of grammar, which unexplained look like arbitrary rules framed to perplex rather than to inform. The dislike of so many beginners to geometry as expounded by Euklid, the fact that not one out of three ever really understands what he is doing, is of all things due to the scholar not being shown first the practical common-sense starting point, where the old carpenters and builders began to make out the relations of distances and spaces in their work. So the law-student plunges at once into the intricacies of legal systems which have grown up through the struggles, the reforms, and even the blunders of thousands of years might have made his way clearer by seeing how laws begin in their simplest forms, framed to meet the needs of savage and barbaric tribes. It is needless to make a list of all the branches of education in knowledge and art; there is not one which may not be the easier and better learnt for knowing its history and place in the general science of Man.

With this aim in view, the present volume is an introduction to Anthropology, rather than a summary of all it teaches. It does not deal with strictly technical matter, out of the reach of readers who have received, or are receiving, the ordinary higher English education. Thus, except to students trained in anatomy, the minute modern researches as to distinction of races by skull measurements and the like would be useless. Much care has been taken to make the chapters on the various branches of the science sound as far as they go, but the more advanced work must be left to special students.

While the various departments of the science of Man are extremely multifarious, ranging from body to mind, from language to music, from fire-making to morals, they are all matters to whose nature and history every well-informed person ought to give some thought. It is much, however, for any single writer to venture to deal even in the most elementary way with so immense a variety of subjects. In such a task I have the right to ask that errors and imperfections should be lightly judged. I could not have attempted it at all but for the help of friends eminent in various branches of the science, whom I have been able to consult on doubtful and difficult points. My acknowledgments are especially due to Professor Huxley and Dr. E.A. Freeman, Sir Henry Maine, Dr. Birch, Mr. Franks, Professor Flower, Major-General Pitt-Rivers, Professor Sayce, Dr. Beddoe, Dr. D.H. Tuke, Professor W.K. Douglas, Mr. Russell Martineau, Mr. R. Garnett, Mr. Henry Sweet, Mr. Rudler, and many other friends whom I can only thank unnamed. [1] The illustrations of races are engraved from photographic portraits, many of them taken by the permission of Messrs. Dammann of Huddersfield from their valuable Albums of Ethnological Photographs.

February, 1881.

Chapter 1: Man: Ancient and Modern

Summary: Antiquity of Man, 1—Time required for Development of Races, 1—of Languages, 7—of Civilization, 13—Traces of Man in the Stone Age, 25—Later Period, 26—Earlier Quaternary or Drift-Period, 29.

p. 23-25: Without attempting here to draw a picture of life as it may have been among men at their first appearance on the earth, it is important to go back as far as such evidence of the progress of civilization may fairly lead us. In judging how mankind may have once lived, it is also a great help to observe how they are actually found living. Human [p. 24] life may be roughly classed into three great stages, Savage, Barbaric, Civilized, which may be defined as follows. The lowest or savage state is that in which man subsists on wild plants and animals, neither tilling the soil nor domesticating creatures for his food. Savages may dwell in tropical forests where the abundant fruit and game may allow small clans to live in one spot and find a living all the year round, while in barer and colder regions they have to lead a wandering life in quest of the wild food which they soon exhaust in any place. In making their rude implements, the materials used by savages are what they find ready to hand, such as wood, stone, and bone, but they cannot extract metal from the ore, and therefore belong to the Stone Age. Men may be considered to have risen into the next or barbaric state when they take to agriculture. With the certain supply of food which can be stored till next harvest, settled village and town life is established, with immense results in the improvement of arts, knowledge, manners, and government. Pastoral tribes are to be reckoned in the barbaric stage, for though their life of shifting camp from pasture to pasture may prevent settled habitation and agriculture, they have from their herds a constant supply of milk and meat. Some barbaric nations have not come beyond using stone implements, but most have risen into the Metal Age. Lastly, civilized life may be taken as beginning with the art of writing, which by recording history, law, knowledge, and religion for the service of ages to come, binds together the past and the future in an unbroken chain of intellectual and moral progress. This classification of three great stages of culture is practically convenient, and has the advantage of not describing imaginary states of society, but such as are actually known to exist. So far as the evidence goes, it seems that civilization has actually grown up in the [p. 25] world through these three stages, so that to look at a savage of the Brazilian forests, a barbarous New Zealander or Dahoman, and a civilized European, may be the student's best guide to understanding the progress of civilization, only he must be cautioned that the comparison is but a guide, not a full explanation.

In this way it is reasonably inferred that even in countries now civilized, savage and low barbaric tribes must have once lived. Fortunately it is not left altogether to the imagination to picture the lives of these rude and ancient men, for many relics of them are found which may be seen and handled in museums. It has now to be considered what sort of evidence of man's age is thus to be had from archaeology and geology, and what it proves.

p. 33-34: '... At any rate the conclusive proofs of man's existence during the quaternary or mammoth period do not even bring us into view of the remoter time when human life first began on earth. Thus geology establishes a principle which lies at the very foundation of the science of anthropology. Until of late, while it used to be reckoned by chronologists that the earth and man were less than 6,000 years old, the science of geology could hardly exist, there being no room for its long processes of [p. 34] building up the strata containing the remains of its vast successions of plants and animals. These are now accounted for on the theory that geological time extends over millions of years. It is true that man reaches back comparatively little way into this immense lapse of time. Yet his first appearance on earth goes back to an age compared with which the ancients, as we call them, are but moderns. The few thousand years of recorded history only take us back to a praehistoric period of untold length, during which took place the primary distribution of mankind over the earth and the development of the great races, the formation of speech and the settlement of the great families of language, and the growth of culture up to the levels of the old world nations of the East, the forerunners and founders of modern civilized life.

Having now sketched what history, archaeology, and geology teach as to man's age and course on the earth, we shall" proceed in the following chapters to describe more fully Man and his varieties as they appear in natural history, next examining the nature and growth of Language, and afterwards the development of the knowledge, arts, and institutions, which make up Civilization.'

Chapter 2: Man and other animals

Summary: Vertebrate Animals, 35—Succession and Descent of Species, 37—Apes and Man, comparison of structure, 38—Hands and Feet, 42—Hair, 44—Features, 44—Brain, 45—Mind in Lower Animals and Man, 47.

p.35: 'To understand rightly the construction of the human body, and to compare our own limbs and organs with those of other animals, requires a thorough knowledge of anatomy and physiology. It will not be attempted here to draw up an abstract of these sciences, for which such handbooks should be studied as Huxley's Elementary Physiology and Mivart's Elementary Anatomy. But it will be useful to give a slight outline of the evidence as to man's place in the animal world, which may be done without requiring special knowledge in the reader.

That the bodies of other animals more or less correspond in structure to our own is one of the lessons we begin to learn in the nursery ...'

Chapter 3: Races of Mankind

Summary: Differences of Race, 56—Stature and Proportions, 56—Skull, 60—Features, 62—Colour, 66—Hair, 71—Constitution, 73—Temperament, 74—Types of Races, 75—Permanence, 80—Mixture, 80—Variation, 84—Races of Mankind classified, 87.

p. 56: 'In the first chapter something has been already said as to the striking distinctions between the various races of man, seen in looking closely at the African negro, the Coolie of India, and the Chinese. Even among Europeans, the broad contrast between the fair Dane and the dark Genoese is recognised by all. Some further comparison has now to be made of the special differences between race and race, though the reader must understand that, without proper anatomical examination, such comparison can only be slight and imperfect. Anthropology finds race-differences most clearly in stature and proportions of limbs, conformation of the skull and the brain within, characters of features, skin, eyes, and hair, peculiarities of constitution, and mental and moral temperament.'

p. 60: 'In comparing races, one of the first questions that occurs is whether people who differ so much intellectually as savage tribes and civilized nations, show any corresponding difference in their brain. There is, in fact, a considerable difference. The most usual way of ascertaining the quantity of brain is to measure the capacity of the brain-case by filling skulls with shot or seed. Professor Flower gives as a mean estimate of the contents of skulls in cubic inches, Australian, seventy-nine; African, eighty-five; European, ninety-one. Eminent anatomists also think that the brain of the European is somewhat more complex in its convolutions than the brain of a Negro or Hottentot. Thus, though these observations are far from perfect, they show a connexion between a more full and intricate system of brain-cells and fibres, and a higher intellectual power, in the races which have risen in the scale of civilization.

The form of the skull itself, so important in its relation to the brain within and the expressive features without, has been to the anatomist one of the best means of distinguishing races. It is often possible to tell by inspection of a skull what race it belongs to. The narrow cranium of the negro...would not be mistaken for the broad cranium of the Samoyed ...' [Tylor goes on to contrast appearance, temperament etc, as set out in the summary of the chapter]

p. 82-83: 'Not only does a mixed race arise wherever two races inhabit the same district, but within the last few centuries it is well known that a large fraction of the world's population has actually come into existence by race-crossing.[p. 83] This is nowhere so evident as on the American continent, where since the Spanish conquest such districts as Mexico are largely peopled by the mestizo descendants of Spaniards and native Americans, while the importation of African slaves in the West Indies has given rise to a mulatto population. By taking into account such inter-crossing of races, anthropologists have a reason to give for the endless shades of diversity among mankind, without attempting the hopeless task of classifying every little uncertain group of men into a special race.'

p. 84-86: 'Now experience of the animal world shows that a race or breed, [p. 85] while capable of carrying on its likeness from generation to generation, is also capable of varying. In fact, the skilful cattle-breeder, by carefully choosing and pairing individuals which vary in a particular direction, can within a few years form a special breed of cattle or sheep. Without such direct interference of man, special races or breeds of animals form themselves under new conditions of climate and food, as in the familiar instances of the Shetland ponies, or the mustangs of the Mexican plains which have bred from the horses brought over by the Spaniards, It naturally suggests itself that the races of man may be thus accounted for as breeds, varied from one original stock. It may be strongly argued in this direction that not only do the bodily and mental varieties of mankind blend gradually into one another, but that even the most dissimilar races can intermarry in all directions, producing mixed or sub-races which, when left to themselves, continue their own kind. Advocates of the polygenist theory, that there are several distinct races of man, sprung from independent origins, have denied that certain races, such as the English and native Australians, produce fertile half-breeds. But the evidence tends more and more to establish crossing as possible between all races, which goes to prove that all the varieties of mankind are zoologically of one species. While this principle seems to rest on firm ground, it must be admitted that our knowledge of the manner and causes of race-variation among mankind is still very imperfect. The great races, black, brown, yellow, white, had already settled into their well-known characters before written record began, so that their formation is hidden far back in the prae-historic period. Nor are alterations of such amount known to have taken place in any people within the range of history. It has been plausibly argued that our rude primitive ancestors, being [p. 86] less able than their posterity to make themselves independent of climate by shelter and fire and stores of food, were more exposed to alter in body under the influence of the new climates they migrated into. Even in modern times, it seems possible to trace something of race-change going on under new conditions of life. Thus Dr. Beddoe's measurements prove that in England the manufacturing town-life has given rise to a population an inch or two less in stature than their forefathers when they came in from their country villages.'

p. 87: 'That there is a real connexion between the colour of races and the climate they belong to, seems most likely from the so-called black peoples. ...'

p. 112-113: 'Thus to map out the nations of the world among a few [p. 113] main varieties of man, and their combinations, is, in spite of its difficulty and uncertainty, a profitable task. But to account for the origin of these primary varieties or races themselves, and exactly to assign to them their earliest homes, cannot be usefully attempted in the present scantiness of evidence. If man's first appearance was in a geological period when the distribution of land and sea and the climates of the earth were not as now, then on both sides of the globe, outside the present tropical zones, there were regions whose warmth and luxuriant vegetation would have favoured man's life with least need of civilized arts, and whence successive waves of population may have spread over cooler climates. It may perhaps be reasonable to imagine as latest-formed the white race of the temperate region, least able to bear extreme heat or live without the appliances of culture, but gifted with the powers of knowing and ruling which give them sway over the world.'

Chapters 4-5: Language / Chapter 6: Language and Race / Chapter 7: Writing

[Several of the next chapters' summaries suffice to show the topics Tylor covered within the chapters, for example in Chapter 4 he basically looked at gesture language, simple language, and then more complex language and its roots using English as his example. Note that the page numbers given in the summaries differs from the actual page numbers in the book]

Chapter 4: Sign-making, 114—Gesture-language, 114—Sound-gestures, 120—Natural Language, 122—Utterances of Animals, 122—Emotional and Imitative Sounds in Language, 124—Change of Sound and Sense, 127—Other expression of Sense by Sound, 128—Children's Words, 128—Articulate Language, its relation to Natural Language, 129—Origin of Language, 130

Chapter 5: Articulate Speech, 130—Growth of Meanings, 131—Abstract Words, 135—Real and Grammatical Words, 136—Parts of Speech, 138—Sentences, 139—Analytic Language, 139-—Word Combination, 140—Synthetic Language, 141—Affixes, 142-—Sound-change, 143—Roots, 144—Syntax, 146—Government and Concord, 147—Gender, 149—Development of Language, 150.

Chapter 6: Language and Race: Adoption and loss of Language, 152—Ancestral Language, 153—Families of Language, 155—Aryan, 156—Semitic, 159—Egyptian, Berber, &c. 160—Tatar or Turanian, 161—South-East Asian, 162—Malayo-Polynesian, 163—Dravidian, 164—African, Bantu, Hottentot, 164—American, 165—Early Languages and Races, 165.

Chapter 7: Summary: Picture-writing, 168—Sound-pictures, 169—Chinese Writing, 170—Cuneiform Writing, 172—Egyptian Writing, 173—Alphabetic Writing, 175—Spelling, 178—Printing, 180.

Chapter 8: Arts of Life

Summary: Development of Instruments, 183—Club, Hammer, 184—Stone-flake, 185—Hatchet, 188—Sabre, Knife, 189—Spear, Dagger, Sword, 190—Carpenter's Tools, 192—Missiles, Javelin, 193—Sling, Spear-thrower, 194—Bow and Arrow, 195—Blow-tube, Gun, 196—Mechanical Power, 197—Wheel-carriage, 198—Hand-mill, 200—Drill, Lathe, 202—Screw, 203—-Water-mill, Wind-mill, 204.

[This chapter, written before Tylor came to Oxford (and before the Pitt Rivers Collection at Oxford existed, seems heavily influenced by Pitt-Rivers' own theories; he was, of course, thanked in the foreword.]

p. 182: 'The arts by which man defends and maintains himself, and holds rule over the world he lives in, depend so much on his use of instruments, that it will be well to begin with some account of tools and weapons, tracing them from their earliest and rudest forms.'

p. 183: 'The lowest order of implements are those which nature provides ready-made, or wanting just a finish; such are pebbles for slinging or hammering, sharp stone splinters to cut or scrape with, branches for clubs and spears, thorns or teeth to pierce with. These of course are oftenest found in use among savages, yet they sometimes last on in the civilized world, as when we catch up any stick to kill a rat or snake with ... The higher implements used by mankind are often plainly improvements on some natural object, but they are adapted by art in ways that beasts have no notion of, so that it is a better definition of man to call him the "tool-maker" than the "tool-user." Looking at the various sorts of implements, we see that they were not invented all at once by sudden flashes of genius, but evolved, or one might almost say grown, by small successive changes. It will be noticed also that the instrument which at first did roughly several kinds of work, afterwards varied off in different ways to suit each particular purpose, so as to give rise to several different instruments.'

p. 197-198: 'As thus plainly appears, the ingenuity of man has been eminent in the art of destroying his fellowmen. In surveying the last group of deadly weapons, from the stone hurled by hand to the rifled cannon, there comes well into view one of the great advances of culture. This is the progress [p. 198] from the simple tool or implement, such as the club or knife, which enables man to strike or cut more effectively than with hands or teeth, to the machine which, when supplied with force, only needs to be set and directed by man to do his work. Man of ten himself provides the power which the machine distributes more conveniently, as when the potter turns the wheel with his own foot, using his hands to mould the whirling clay. The highest class of machines are those which are driven by the stored-up forces of nature, like the saw-mill where the running stream does the hard labour, and the sawyer has only to provide the timber and direct the cutting.'

p. 203: 'In examining these groups of instruments and machines, the development of many of them has been traced back till their origins are lost in dim praehistoric ages, or to where ancient history can show them arising from a fresh idea or a new turn given to an old one. It is seldom possible to get at the real author of an ancient invention.'

Chapter 9: Arts of life (continued)

Summary: Quest of wild food, 206—Hunting, 207—Trapping, 211—Fishing, 212—Agriculture, 214—Implements, 216—Fields, 218—Cattle, pasturage, 219—War, 221—Weapons, 221—Armour, 222—Warfare of lower tribes, 223—of higher nations, 225.

p. 206: 'Having, in the last chapter, examined the instruments used by man, we have next to look at the arts by which he maintains and protects himself. ...'

[describes various weapons and tools like traps for catching animals and fish, and hunting and fishing methods, early agricultural tools and methods and the history of the domestication of animals [without naming sources for anecdotal evidence, as elsewhere in the volume]

p. 220: 'There is a strong distinction between the life of the wandering hunter and the wandering herdsman. Both move from place to place, but their circumstances are widely different. The hunter leads a life of few appliances or comforts, and exposed at times to starvation; his place in civilization is below that of the settled tiller of the soil. But to the pastoral nomads, the hunting which is the subsistence of the ruder wanderer, has come to be only an extra means of life. His flocks and herds provide him for the morrow, he has valuable cattle to exchange with the dwellers in towns for their weapons and stuffs, there are smiths in his caravan, and the wool is spun and woven by women.'

p. 221: 'After the quest of food, man's next great need is to defend himself. The savage has to drive off the wild beasts which attack him, and in turn he hunts and destroys them. But his most dangerous foes are those of his own species, and thus in the lowest known levels of civilization war has already begun, and is carried on against man with the same club, spear, and bow used against wild beasts. General Pitt-Rivers has shown how closely man follows in war the devices he learnt from the lower animals ...'

p. 228: [Lastly, viewed with the irony of hindsight:] Lastly, looking at the army system as it is in our modern world, one favourable change is to be noticed. The employment of foreign mercenary troops, which almost through the whole stretch of historical record has been a national evil alike in war and peace, is at last dying out. It is not so with the system of standing armies which drain the life and wealth of the world on a scale more enormous even than in past times, and stand as the great obstacle to harmony between nations. The student of politics can but hope that in time the pressure of vast armies kept on a war-footing may prove unbearable to the European nations which maintain them, and that the time may come when the standing army may shrink to a nucleus ready for the exigencies of actual war if it shall arise, while serving in peace time as a branch of the national police.'

Chapter 10: Arts of Life (continued)

Summary: Dwellings:—Caves, 229—Huts, 230—Tents, 231—Houses, 231—Stone and Brick Building, 232—Arch, 235—Development of Architecture, 235—Dress:—Painting skin, 236—Tattooing, 237—Deformation of Skull, &c., 240—Ornaments, 241—Clothing of Bark, Skin, &c., 244—Mats, 246—Spinning, Weaving, 246—Sewing, 249—Garments, 249—Navigation:—Floats, 252—Boats, 253 Rafts, 255—Outriggers, 255—Paddles and Oars, 256—Sails, 256—Galleys and Ships, 257.

p. 235-236: 'In thus looking over the architecture of the world, we see that its origins lie too far back for history to record its beginning and earliest progress. Still there is reason to [p. 236] believe that, in architecture as in other arts, man began with the simple and easy before he came on to the complex and difficult.'

p. 236: 'After dwellings, we come to examine clothing. It has first to be noticed that some low tribes, especially in the tropical forests of South America, have been found by travellers living quite naked. But even among the rudest of our race, and in hot districts where clothing is of least practical use, something is generally worn, either from ideas of decency or for ornament.'

p. 249-250: 'Next, as to the shape of garments. If we knew of no costume but what we commonly wear now, we might think it more a product of mere fancy than it really is. But on looking carefully at the dresses of various nations, it is seen that most garments are variations of a few principal kinds, each made for a particular purpose in clothing the body. [p. 250] The simplest and no doubt earliest garments are wraps wound or hung on the body, and by noticing how these are worn it may be guessed how they led to the later use of garments fitted to the wearer's shape....'

p. 251-252: 'These remarks may lead readers to look attentively into books of costume, which indeed are full of curious [p. 252] illustrations of the way in which things are not invented outright by mere fancy, but come by gradual alterations of what was already there. To account for our present absurd "chimney-pot" hat, we must see how it came by successive changes from the conical Puritan hat and the slouched Smart hat, and these again from earlier forms. The sense of the hat-band must be found in its once having been a real cord to draw in the mere round piece of felt which was the primitive hat; and to understand why our hat is covered with silk nap, it must be remembered that this is an imitation of the earlier beaver-fur hat, which would stand rain. Even the now useless seams and buttons on modern clothes (see page 15) are bits of past history.'

[he concludes the chapter by looking at water transport]

Chapter 11: Arts of life (concluded)

Summary: Fire, 260—Cookery, 264—Bread, &c., 266—Liquors, 268—Fuel, 270—Lighting, 272—Vessels, 274—Pottery, 274—Glass, 276—Metals, 277—Bronze and Iron Ages, 278—Barter, 281—Money, 282—Commerce, 285

p. 286: 'The merchants did much to break down the everlasting jealousy and strife between nations into peaceful and profitable intercourse. Moreover it may be plainly proved that the old hostile system of nations is kept up by every kind of restriction on trade, every protective duty imposed to force the production of commodities in countries ill-suited to them, to prevent their coming in cheap and good from where they are raised with least labour. There is no agent of civilization more beneficial than the free trader, who gives the inhabitants of every region the advantages of all other regions, and whose business is to work out the law that what serves the general profit of mankind serves also the private profit of the individual man.'

Chapter 12: Arts of Pleasure

Summary: Poetry, 287—Verse and Metre, 28S—Alliteration and Rhyme, 289—Poetic Metaphor, 289—Speech, Melody, Harmony, 290—Musical Instruments, 293—Dancing, 296—Drama, 298—Sculpture and Painting, 300—Ancient and Modern Art, 301—Games, 305.

p. 292-293: 'Modern music is thus plainly derived from ancient. But there has arisen in it a great new development. The music [p. 293] of the ancients scarcely went beyond melody. The voice might be accompanied by an instrument in unison or at an octave interval, but harmony as understood by modern musicians was as yet unknown. Its feeble beginnings may be traced in the middle ages, when musicians were struck by the effects got by singing two different tunes at once, when one formed a harmony to the other.'

p. 293: 'The musical instruments of the present day may all be traced back to rude and early forms.'

p. 296: 'Dancing may seem to us moderns a frivolous amusement; but in the infancy of civilization it was full of passionate and solemn meaning. Savages and barbarians dance their joy and sorrow, their love and rage, even their magic and religion.'

p. 300: 'On this same power of make-believe or imagination are founded the two other fine arts, sculpture and painting. Their proper purpose is not to produce exact imitations, but what the artist strives to bring out is the idea that strikes the beholder. Thus there is often more real art in a caricature done with a few strokes of the pencil, or in a rough image hacked out of a log, than in a minutely painted portrait, or a figure at a waxwork show which is so like life that visitors beg its pardon when they walk up against it. The painter's and sculptor's art seems to have arisen in the world from the same sort of rude beginnings which are still to be seen in children's attempts to draw and carve.'

Chapter 13: Science

Summary: Science, 309—Counting and Arithmetic, 310—Measuring and Weighing, 316—Geometry, 318—Algebra, 322—Physics, 323—Chemistry, 328—Biology, 329—Astronomy, 332—Geography and Geology, 335—Methods of Reasoning, 336—Magic, 338.

p. 309-310: 'Science is exact, regular, arranged knowledge. Of common knowledge savages and barbarians have a vast deal, indeed the struggle of life could not be carried on without it. The rude man knows much of the properties of matter, how fire burns and water soaks, the heavy sinks and the light floats, what stone will serve for the hatchet and what wood for its handle, which plants are food and which are poison, what are the habits of the animals that he hunts or that may fall upon him. He has notions how to cure, and much better notions how to kill. In a rude way he is a physicist in making fire, a chemist in cooking, a surgeon in binding up wounds, a geographer in knowing his rivers and mountains, a mathematician in counting on his fingers. All this is knowledge, and it was on these foundations that science proper began to be built up, when the art of writing had come in and society had entered on the civilized stage. We have to trace here in outline the rise and progress of [p. 310] science. And as it has been especially through counting and measuring that scientific methods have come into use, the first thing to do is to examine how men learnt to count and measure.'

Chapter 14: The Spirit-World

Summary: Religion of Lower Races, 342—Souls, 343—Burial, 347—Future Life, 349—Transmigration, 350—Divine Ancestors, 351—Demons, 352—Nature Spirits, 357—Gods, 358—Worship, 364—Moral Influence, 368.

p. 343: 'It does not belong to the plan of this book to give a general account of the many faiths of mankind. The anthropologist, who has to look at the religions of nation's as a main part of their life, may best become acquainted with their general principles by beginning with the simple notions of the lower races as to the spirit-world. That is, he has to examine how and why they believe in the soul and its existence after death, the spirits who do good and evil in the world, and the greater gods who pervade, actuate, and rule the universe. Any one who learns from savages and barbarians what their belief in spiritual beings means to them, will come into view of that stage of culture where the religion of rude tribes is at the same time their philosophy, containing such explanation of themselves and the world they live in as their uneducated minds are able to receive.'

p. 362-363: 'This will give a notion of the confusion which begins in religion as soon as the worshippers cease to think of a deity by his first meaning and purpose, and only know of him [p. 363] as the god so-and-so, whose image stands in such-and- such a temple. The wonder is not that the origin of so many ancient gods is now hard to make out, but that so many show so clearly as they do what they were at first, a divine ancestor, or a sun, or sky, or river.'

p. 368: 'We have hitherto only looked at barbaric religion as such an early system of natural philosophy, and have said nothing of the moral teaching which now seems so essential to any religion. The philosophical side of religion has been kept apart from the moral side, not only because a clearer view may be had by looking at them separately, but because many religions of the lower races have in fact little to do with moral conduct.'

p. 371: 'Animism, or the theory of souls, has thus been shown as the principle out of which arose the various systems of spirits and deities, in barbaric and ancient religions, and it has been noticed also, how already among rude races such beliefs begin to act on moral conduct. We here see under their simplest aspects the two sides of religion, its philosophical and its moral side, which the reader should keep steadily in view in further study of the faiths of the world. In looking at the history of a religion, he will have to judge how far it has served these two great purposes—on the one hand that of teaching man how to think of himself, the world around him, the awful boundless power pervading all—on the other hand that of practically guiding and strengthening him in the duties of life.'

p. 372: 'Unless a religion can hold its place in the front of science and of morals, it may only gradually, in the course of ages, lose its place in the nation, but all the power of statecraft and all the wealth of the temples will not save it from eventually yielding to a belief that takes in higher knowledge and teaches better life.'

Chapter 15: History and Mythology

Summary: Tradition, 373—Poetry, 375—Fact in Fiction, 377—Earliest Poems and Writings, 381—Ancient Chronicle and History, 383—Myths, 387—Interpretation of Myths, 396—Diffusion of Myths, 397.

p. 373: 'History is no longer looked to for a record of the earliest ages of man. As the first chapter of this volume shows, we moderns know what was hidden from the ancients them- selves about the still more ancient ancients. Yet it does not at all follow that ancient history has lost its value. On the contrary, there are better means than ever of confirming what is really sound in it by such evidence as that of antiquities and language, while masses of very early writings are now newly opened to the historian. It was never more necessary to have clear ideas of what tradition, poetry, and written records can teach as to the times when history begins.

The early history of nations consists more or less of traditions handed down by memory from ages before writing.'

p. 379-380: 'Much of what is called ancient history has to be looked at in this way. Historical criticism, that is, judgment, is practised not for the purpose of disbelieving but of believing. Its object is not to find fault with the author, but to ascertain how much of what he says may be reasonably taken as true. Thus a modern reader may have a sounder opinion [p. 380] about early Roman history than the Romans themselves had in the time of Livy and Cicero.'

p. 387: 'Having thus looked at the sources of early history as belonging to the study of mankind, we need not go over the well-trodden ground of later history. It remains to notice myth, the stumbling-block which historians have so often fallen over. Myth is not to be looked on as mere error and folly, but as an interesting product of the human mind. It is sham history, the fictitious narrative of events that never happened. Historians, especially in writing of early ages, have copied down the traditions of real events so mixed up with myths, that it is one of the hardest tasks of the student to judge what to believe and what to reject. He is fortunate when he can apply the test of possibility, and declare an event did not happen because he knows enough of the course of nature to be sure it could not.'

p. 400: 'For understanding the thoughts of old-world nations, their myths tell us much we should hardly learn from their history.'

Chapter 16: Society

Summary: Social Stages, 401—Family. 402—Morals of Lower Races, 405—Public Opinion and Custom, 408—Moral Progress, 410—Vengeance and Justice, 414—War, 418—Property, 419—Legal Ceremonies, 423 Family Power and Responsibility, 426—Patriarchal and Military Chiefs, 428—Nations, 432—Social Ranks, 434—Government, 436.

p. 402: 'Mankind can never have lived as a mere struggling crowd, each for himself. Society is always made up of families or households bound together by kindly ties, controlled by rules of marriage and the duties of parent and child. Yet the forms of these rules and duties have been very various.'

p. 404-405: 'Marriage has been here spoken of first, because upon it depends the family, on which the whole framework of society is founded. What has been said of the ruder kinds of family [p. 405] union among savages and barbarians shows that there cannot be expected from them the excellence of those well-ordered households to which civilized society owes so much of its goodness and prosperity.'

p. 410: 'Thus communities, however ancient and rude, always have their rules of right and wrong. But as to what acts have been held right and wrong, the student of history must avoid that error which the proverb calls measuring other people's corn by one's own bushel. Not judging the customs of nations at other stages of culture by his own modern standard, he has to bring his knowledge to the help of his imagination, so as to see institutions where they belong and as they work. Only thus can it be made clear that the rules of good and bad, right and wrong, are not fixed alike for all men at all times.'

p. 426: 'To come now to the last subject of this volume, the history of government. Complicated as are the political arrangements of civilised nations, their study is made easier by their simple forms being already found in savage and barbaric life. The foundation of society, as has been already seen, is the self-government of each family.'

p. 434: 'As society in tribes and nations became a more complex system, it early began to divide into classes or ranks. If we look for an example of the famous first principle of the United States, "that all men are created equal," we shall in fact scarcely find such equality except among savage hunters and foresters, and by no means always then.'

p. 436: 'As nations become more populous, rich, and intelligent, the machinery of government has to be improved. The old rough-and-ready methods no longer answer, and the division of labour has to be applied to politics.'

p. 438-439: 'Here this sketch of Anthropology may close. The examination of man's age on the earth, his bodily structure and varieties of race and language, has led us on to enquire into his intellectual and social history. In his many-sided life there may be clearly traced a development, which, notwithstanding long periods of stoppage and frequent falling back, has on the whole adapted modern civilized man for a far higher and happier career than his ruder ancestors. In this development, the preceding chapters have shown a [p. 439] difference between low and high nations, which it only remains to put before the reader as a practical moral to the tale of civilization. It is true that both among savage and civilized peoples progress in culture takes place, but not under the same conditions. The savage by no means goes through life with the intention of gathering more knowledge and framing better laws than his fathers. On the contrary, his tendency is to consider his ancestors as having handed down to him the perfection of wisdom, which it would be impiety to make the least alteration in. Hence among the lower races there is obstinate resistance to the most desirable reforms, and progress can only force its way with a slowness and difficulty which we of this century can hardly imagine. Looking at the condition of the rude man, it may be seen that his aversion to change was not always unreasonable, and indeed may often have arisen from a true instinct. With his ignorance of any life but his own, he would be rash to break loose from the old tried machinery of society, to plunge into revolutionary change, which might destroy the present good without putting better in its place. Had the experience of ancient men been larger, they would have seen their way to faster steps in culture. But we civilized moderns have just that wider knowledge which the rude ancients wanted. Acquainted with events and their consequences far and wide over the world, we are able to direct our own course with more confidence toward improvement. In a word, mankind is passing from the age of unconscious to that of conscious progress. Readers who have come thus far need not be told in many words of what the facts must have already brought to their minds—that the study of man and civilization is not only a matter of scientific interest, but at once passes into the practical business of life. We have in it the means of understanding our own lives and our place in the world, vaguely and imperfectly it is true, but at any rate more clearly than any former generation. The knowledge of man's course of life, from the remote past to the present, will not only help us to forecast the future, but may guide us in our duty of leaving the world better than we found it.'

Transcribed by AP January 2013

Notes by transcriber

[1] See notes on 1881 edition for biographical information about these people

Anthropology Marett 1925

2013-04-22T10:44:57+00:00

'Anthropology' by R.R. Marett, Home University Library of Modern Knowledge London: Williams and Norgate Ltd New York: Henry Holt and Co.

1925 [6th edition]

Chapter 1: Scope of Anthropology

p. 7-8. 'Anthropology is the whole history of man as fired and pervaded by the idea of evolution. Man in evolution--that is the subject in its fullest reach. Anthropology studies man as he occurs at all known times. It studies him as he occurs at all known parts of the world. It studies him body and soul together--as a [p. 8] bodily organism, subject to conditions operating in time and space, which bodily organism is in intimate relation with a soul-life, also subject to those same conditions. Having an eye to such conditions from first to last, it seeks to plot out the general series of the changes, bodily and mental together, undergone by man in the course of his history. Its business is simply to describe. But, without exceeding the limits of its scope, it can and must proceed from the particular to the general; aiming at nothing less than a descriptive formula that shall sum up the whole series of changes in which the evolution of man consists.'

p. 8-9. 'Anthropology is the child of Darwin. Darwinism makes it possible. Reject the Darwinian point of view, and you must reject anthropology also. ... Darwinism is a working hypothesis ... [p. 9] What is the truth that Darwinism supposes? Simply that all the forms of life in the world are related together; and that the relations manifested in time and space between the different lives are sufficiently uniform to be described under a general formula, or law of evolution.'

p. 10 'With Darwin, then, we anthropologists say: Let any and every portion of human history be studied in the light of the whole history of mankind, and against the background of the history of living things in general.'

p. 11-12 'At any rate, anthropology stands or falls with the working hypothesis, derived from Darwinism, of a fundamental kinship and continuity amid change between all the forms of human life.

It remains to add that, hitherto, anthropology has devoted most of its attention to the peoples of rude--that is to say, of simple--culture, who are vulgarly known to us as "savages." ... We anthropologists are out to secure this: that there [p. 12] ahll not be one kind of history for savages and another kind for ourselves, but the same kind of history, with the same evolutionary principle running right through it, for all men, civilized and savage, present and past.'

p. 12 '... anthropology, though a big thing, is not everything.

It will be enough to insist briefly on the following points: that anthropology is science in whatever way history is science; that it is not philosophy, though it must conform to its needs; and that it is not policy, though it may subserve its designs.

Anthropology is science in the sense of specialized research that aims at truth for truth's sake.'

p. 12-13 'The scientific mood, however, is uppermost when one says: Here is a particular lot of [p. 13] things that seem to hang together in a particular way; let us try to get a general idea of what that way is. Anthropology, then, specializes in the particular group of human beings, which itself is part of a larger particular group of living beings. Inasmuch as it takes over the evolutionary principle from the science dealing with the larger group, namely biology, anthropology may be regarded as a branch of biology. Let it be added, however, that, of all the branches of biology, it is the one that is likely to bring us nearest to the true meaning of life; because the life of human beings must always be nearer to human students of life than, say, the life of plants.'

p. 19-20 'Hitherto, the trouble with anthropologists has been to see the wood for the trees. Even whilst attending mainly to the peoples of rude culture, they have heaped [p. 20] together facts enough to bewilder themselves and their readers. The time has come to do some sorting; or rather the sorting is doing itself. All manner of groups of special students, interested in some particular side of human history, come now-a-days to the anthropologist, asking leave to borrow from his stocks of facts the kind that they happen to want.

p. 20-21 '... Be it supposed that a young man or woman who wants to take a course, of at least a year's length, in the elements of anthropology, joins some university which is thoroughly in touch with the scientific activities of the day ... [p. 21] In such a well-organized university, then, how would our budding anthropologist proceed to form a preliminary acquaintance with the four corners of the subject? ... Man is a many-sided being; so there is no help for it if anthropology also is many-sided.

For one thing, he must sit at the feet of those who particular concern is with prehistoric man. ...'

[p. 22] 'Again he must be taught something about race, or inherited breed, as it applies to man. A dose of practical anatomy--that is to say, some actual handling and measuring of the principal portions of the human frame in its leading varieties--will enable our beginner to appreciate the differences in outer form that distinguish, say, the British colonist in Australia from the native "black-fellow," ... At this point, he may profitably embark on the details of the Darwinian hypothesis of the descent of man ...'

[p. 23-24] 'Further, our student must submit to a thorough grounding in world-geography with its physical and human sides welded firmly together. ... His next business is to master the main facts about the natural conditions to which each people is subjected--the climate, the conformation of land and sea, the animals and plants. From here it is but a step to the economic life--the food supply, the clothing, the dwelling-places, the principle occupations, the implements of labour. ... No less important is it to work steadily through the show-cases of a good ethnological museum. ... 'The communications between regions--the migrations and conquests, the trading and the borrowing of customs--must be traced and accounted for. Finally, on the basis of their distribution, ... the chief varieties of the useful arts and appliances of man can be followed from stage to stage of their development.'

p. 24-25 'To what extent, then, must our novice pay attention to the history of language? [p. 25] ... language is no longer supposed to provide, by itself at any rate, and apart from other clues, a key to the endless riddles of racial descent.' [Marett then suggests that time needs to be spent on social organization, history of law and religion]

p. 30 '... it is well for the student of man to pay separate and special attention to the individual agent. The last word in anthropology is: Know thyself.'

p. 31-33 [Marett discusses the importance of stratigraphical method for studying prehistoric man]

p. 40-42 [Marett discusses eoliths as part of a look at the 'stone-age']

pp. 59 et seq 'Race'

p. 63 'To see what race means when considered apart, let us first of all take your individual self, and ask how you would proceed to separate your inherited nature from the nature which you have acquired in the course of living your life. It is not easy.' [He suggests that one way is to look at two twins, one of whom loses a leg and therefore whose activities are limited, and whose different occupations affects the way they look but not 'the same underlying nature and bent'. [he then discusses, in what appears to be a rather old-fashioned for 1925 way, the different ways race had been and could be distinguished into colour, 'head-shape' etc]

p. 72 'Oh for an external race-mark about which there could be no mistake!'

p. 92 'What then, you exclaim, is the outcome of this chapter of negatives? Is it driving at the universal equality and brotherhood of man? Or, on the contrary, does it hint at the need of a stern system of eugenics? I offer nothing in the way of a practical suggestion. I am merely trying to show that, considered anthropologically--that is to say, in terms of pure theory--race or breed remains something we cannot at present isolate, though we believe it to be there.'

pp. 94 et seq Environment

p. 95 '... it remains the fact that our material circumstances in the widest sense of the term play a very decisive part in the shaping of our lives.'

p. 128-9 'Our conclusion, then, must be that the anthropologist, whilst constantly consulting [p. 129] his physical map of the world, must not suppose that by so doing he will be saved all further trouble. Geographical facts represent a passive condition, which life, something by its very nature active, obeys, yet in obeying conquers. We cannot get away from the fact that we are physically determined. Yet physical determinations have been surmounted by human nature in a way to which the rest of the animal world affords no parallel. Thus man, as the old saying has it, makes love all the year round. Seasonal changes of course affect him, yet he is no slave to the seasons.'

pp. 130 et seq 'Language'

p. 130 'The differentia of man--the qualit that marks him off from the other animal kinds--is undoubtedly the power of articulate speech.'

pp. 152 eq seq 'Social Organization'

p. 152-3 'If an explorer visits a savage tribe with intent to get at the true meaning of their life, his first duty, as every anthropologist will tell him, is to acquaint himself thoroughly with the social organization in all its forms. The reason for this is simply that only by studying [p. 153] the outsides of other people can we hope to arrive at what is going on inside them. "Institutions" will be found a convenient word to express all the externals of the life of man in society, so far as they reflect intelligence and purpose. Similarly the internal or subjective states thereto corresponding may be collectively described as "beliefs." Thus, the field-worker's cardinal maxim can be phrased as follows: Work up to the beliefs by way of the institutions.

Further, there are two ways in which a given set of institutions can be investigated, and of these one, so far as is practicable, should precede the other. First the institutions should be examined as so many wheels in a social machine that is taken as if it were standing still. You singly note the characteristic make of each, and how it is placed in relation to the rest. Regarded in this static way, the institutions appear as "forms of social organization." Afterwards, the machine is supposed to be set going, and you contemplate the parts in movement. Regarded thus dynamically, the institutions appear as "customs."'

[By the way, there is an interesting bit of annotation on page 58 of the Balfour copy of this edition:

Marett writes: 'And Mr Snare [Fred Snare, the flintknapper from Brandon] is not merely an artisan but an artist. He has chipped out a flint ring ... whilst with one of his own flint fish-hooks he has taken a fine trout from the Little Ouse that runs by the town.'

Besides this in capitals in pencil, by an unknown person is 'Utter Rot. No trout in Ouse'

This site appears to support the annotater. ]

Quotes transcribed by AP April 2013

Anthropology Tylor 1881

2013-01-18T12:21:09+00:00

Anthropology: An Introduction to the Study of Man and Civilization

London: Macmillan and Co. 1881. First edition.

p. v-vii. Preface

'In times when subjects of education have multiplied, it may seem at first sight a hardship to lay on the already heavily-pressed student a new science. But it will be found that the real effect of Anthropology is rather to lighten than increase the strain of learning. In the mountains we see the bearers of heavy burdens contentedly shoulder a carrying-frame besides, because they find its weight more than compensated by the convenience of holding together and balancing their load. So it is with the science of Man and Civilization, which connects into a more manageable whole the scattered subjects of an ordinary education. Much of the difficulty of learning and teaching lies in the scholar's not seeing clearly what each science or art is for, what its place is among the purposes of life. If he knows something of its early history, and how it arose from the simpler wants and circumstances of mankind, he finds himself better able to lay hold of it than when, as too often happens, he is called on to take up an abstruse subject not at the beginning but in the middle. When he has learnt something of man's rudest means of conversing by gestures and cries, and thence has been led to see how the higher devices of articulate speech are improvements on such lower methods, he makes a fairer start in the science of language than if he had fallen unprepared among the subtleties of grammar, which unexplained look like arbitrary rules framed to perplex rather than to inform. The dislike of so many beginners to geometry as expounded by Euklid, the fact that not one out of three ever really understands what he is doing, is of all things due to the scholar not being shown first the practical common-sense starting point, where the old carpenters and builders began to make out the relations of distances and spaces in their work. So the law-student plunges at once into the intricacies of legal systems which have grown up through the struggles, the reforms, and even the blunders of thousands of years might have made his way clearer by seeing how laws begin in their simplest forms, framed to meet the needs of savage and barbaric tribes. It is needless to make a list of all the branches of education in knowledge and art; there is not one which may not be the easier and better learnt for knowing its history and place in the general science of Man.

February, 1881.

[This book is an introduction and summary of contemporary and current anthropological knowledge rather than an introduction to anthropological methodology]

Chapter 1: Man: Ancient and Modern

... p. 23-25: 'Without attempting here to draw a picture of life as it may have been among men at their first appearance on the earth, it is important to go back as far as such evidence of the progress of civilization may fairly lead us. In judging how mankind may have once lived, it is also a great help to observe how they are actually found living. Human [p. 24] life may be roughly classed into three great stages, Savage, Barbaric, Civilized, which may be defined as follows. The lowest or savage state is that in which man subsists on wild plants and animals, neither tilling the soil nor domesticating creatures for his food. Savages may dwell in tropical forests where the abundant fruit and game may allow small clans to live in one spot and find a living all the year round, while in barer and colder regions they have to lead a wandering life in quest of the wild food which they soon exhaust in any place. In making their rude implements, the materials used by savages are what they find ready to hand, such as wood, stone, and bone, but they cannot extract metal from the ore, and therefore belong to the Stone Age. Men may be considered to have risen into the next or barbaric state when they take to agriculture. With the certain supply of food which can be stored till next harvest, settled village and town life is established, with immense results in the improvement of arts, knowledge, manners, and government. Pastoral tribes are to be reckoned in the barbaric stage, for though their life of shifting camp from pasture to pasture may prevent settled habitation and agriculture, they have from their herds a constant supply of milk and meat. Some barbaric nations have not come beyond using stone implements, but most have risen into the Metal Age. Lastly, civilized life may be taken as beginning with the art of writing, which by recording history, law, knowledge, and religion for the service of ages to come, binds together the past and the future in an unbroken chain of intellectual and moral progress. This classification of three great stages of culture is practically convenient, and has the advantage of not describing imaginary states of society, but such as are actually known to exist. So far as the evidence goes, it seems that civilization has actually grown up in the [p. 25] world through these three stages, so that to look at a savage of the Brazilian forests, a barbarous New Zealander or Dahoman, and a civilized European, may be the student's best guide to understanding the progress of civilization, only he must be cautioned that the comparison is but a guide, not a full explanation.

p. 33-34: '... At any rate the conclusive proofs of man's existence during the quaternary or mammoth period do not even bring us into view of the remoter time when human life first began on earth. Thus geology establishes a principle which lies at the very foundation of the science of anthropology. Until of late, while it used to be reckoned by chronologists that the earth and man were less than 6,000 years old, the science of geology could hardly exist, there being no room for its long processes of building up the strata containing the remains of its vast successions of plants and animals. These are now accounted for on the theory that geological time extends over millions of years. It is true that man reaches back comparatively little way into this immense lapse of time. Yet his first appearance on earth goes back to an age compared with which the ancients, as we call them, are but moderns. The few thousand years of recorded history only take us back to a praehistoric period of untold length, during which took place the primary distribution of mankind over the earth and the development of the great races, the formation of speech and the settlement of the great families of language, and the growth of culture up to the levels of the old world nations of the East, the forerunners and founders of modern civilized life.

Chapter 2: Man and other animals

That the bodies of other animals more or less correspond in structure to our own is one of the lessons we begin to learn in the nursery ...'

Chapter 3: Races of Mankind

Summary: Differences of Race, 56—Stature and Proportions, 56—Skull, 60— Features, 62—Colour, 66—Hair, 71 —Constitution, 73—Temperament, 74—Types of Races, 75—Permanence, 80—Mixture, 80 Variation, 84—Races of Mankind classified, 87.

This is nowhere so evident as on the American continent, where since the Spanish conquest such districts as Mexico are largely peopled by the mestizo descendants of Spaniards and native Americans, while the importation of African slaves in the West Indies has given rise to a mulatto population. By taking into account such inter-crossing of races, anthropologists have a reason to give for the endless shades of diversity among mankind, without attempting the hopeless task of classifying every little uncertain group of men into a special race.'

p. 84-86: 'Now experience of the animal world shows that a race or breed, while capable of carrying on its likeness from generation to generation, is also capable of varying. In fact, the skilful cattle-breeder, by carefully choosing and pairing individuals which vary in a particular direction, can within a few years form a special breed of cattle or sheep. Without such direct interference of man, special races or breeds of animals form themselves under new conditions of climate and food, as in the familiar instances of the Shetland ponies, or the mustangs of the Mexican plains which have bred from the horses brought over by the Spaniards, It naturally suggests itself that the races of man may be thus accounted for as breeds, varied from one original stock. It may be strongly argued in this direction that not only do the bodily and mental varieties of mankind blend gradually into one another, but that even the most dissimilar races can intermarry in all directions, producing mixed or sub-races which, when left to themselves, continue their own kind. Advocates of the polygenist theory, that there are several distinct races of man, sprung from independent origins, have denied that certain races, such as the English and native Australians, produce fertile half-breeds. But the evidence tends more and more to establish crossing as possible between all races, which goes to prove that all the varieties of mankind are zoologically of one species. While this principle seems to rest on firm ground, it must be admitted that our knowledge of the manner and causes of race-variation among mankind is still very imperfect. The great races, black, brown, yellow, white, had already settled into their well-known characters before written record began, so that their formation is hidden far back in the prae-historic period. Nor are alterations of such amount known to have taken place in any people within the range of history. It has been plausibly argued that our rude primitive ancestors, being less able than their posterity to make themselves independent of climate by shelter and fire and stores of food, were more exposed to alter in body under the influence of the new climates they migrated into. Even in modern times, it seems possible to trace something of race-change going on under new conditions of life. Thus Dr. Beddoe's measurements prove that in England the manufacturing town-life has given rise to a population an inch or two less in stature than their forefathers when they came in from their country villages.'

p. 87: 'That there is a real connexion between the colour of races and the climate they belong to, seems most likely from the so-called black peoples. ...'

p. 112-113: 'Thus to map out the nations of the world among a few main varieties of man, and their combinations, is, in spite of its difficulty and uncertainty, a profitable task. But to account for the origin of these primary varieties or races themselves, and exactly to assign to them their earliest homes, cannot be usefully attempted in the present scantiness of evidence. If man's first appearance was in a geological period when the distribution of land and sea and the climates of the earth were not as now, then on both sides of the globe, outside the present tropical zones, there were regions whose warmth and luxuriant vegetation would have favoured man's life with least need of civilized arts, and whence successive waves of population may have spread over cooler climates. It may perhaps be reasonable to imagine as latest-formed the white race of the temperate region, least able to bear extreme heat or live without the appliances of culture, but gifted with the powers of knowing and ruling which give them sway over the world.'

Chapters 4-5: Language, Chapter 6 Language and Race, Chapter 7: Writing

[The chapters' summaries suffice to show the topics Tylor covers ]

Chapter 4 Summary: Sign-making, 114—Gesture-language, 114—Sound-gestures, 120—Natural Language, 122—Utterances of Animals, 122—Emotional and Imitative Sounds in Language, 124—Change of Sound and Sense, 127—Other expression of Sense by Sound, 128—Children's Words, 128—Articulate Language, its relation to Natural Language, 129—Origin of Language, 130

Chapter 5 Summary: Articulate Speech, 130—Growth of Meanings, 131—Abstract Words, 135—Real and Grammatical Words, 136—Parts of Speech, 138—Sentences, 139—Analytic Language, 139-—Word Combination, 140—Synthetic Language, 141—Affixes, 142-—Sound-change, 143—Roots, 144—Syntax, 146—Government and Concord, 147—Gender, 149—Development of Language, 150.

Chapter 6Summary: Adoption and loss of Language, 152—Ancestral Language, 153—Families of Language, 155—Aryan, 156—Semitic, 159—Egyptian, Berber, &c. 160—Tatar or Turanian, 161—South-East Asian, 162—Malayo-Polynesian, 163—Dravidian, 164—African, Bantu, Hottentot, 164—American, 165—Early Languages and Races, 165.

Chapter 7 Summary: Picture-writing, 168—Sound-pictures, 169—Chinese Writing, 170— Cuneiform Writing, 172—Egyptian Writing, 173—Alphabetic Writing, 175—Spelling, 178—Printing, 180.

Chapter 8: Arts of Life

This chapter, written before Tylor came to Oxford (and before the Pitt Rivers Collection at Oxford existed, seems heavily influenced by Pitt-Rivers' own theories; he was, of course, thanked in the foreword.

p. 197-198: 'As thus plainly appears, the ingenuity of man has been eminent in the art of destroying his fellowmen. In surveying the last group of deadly weapons, from the stone hurled by hand to the rifled cannon, there comes well into view one of the great advances of culture. This is the progress from the simple tool or implement, such as the club or knife, which enables man to strike or cut more effectively than with hands or teeth, to the machine which, when supplied with force, only needs to be set and directed by man to do his work. Man of ten himself provides the power which the machine distributes more conveniently, as when the potter turns the wheel with his own foot, using his hands to mould the whirling clay. The highest class of machines are those which are driven by the stored-up forces of nature, like the saw-mill where the running stream does the hard labour, and the sawyer has only to provide the timber and direct the cutting.'

Chapter 9: Arts of life (continued)

p. 206: 'Having, in the last chapter, examined the instruments used by man, we have next to look at the arts by which he maintains and protects himself. ...'

p. 228: [Lastly with the irony of hindsight for present day readers:] 'Lastly, looking at the army system as it is in our modern world, one favourable change is to be noticed. The employment of foreign mercenary troops, which almost through the whole stretch of historical record has been a national evil alike in war and peace, is at last dying out. It is not so with the system of standing armies which drain the life and wealth of the world on a scale more enormous even than in past times, and stand as the great obstacle to harmony between nations. The student of politics can but hope that in time the pressure of vast armies kept on a war-footing may prove unbearable to the European nations which maintain them, and that the time may come when the standing army may shrink to a nucleus ready for the exigencies of actual war if it shall arise, while serving in peace time as a branch of the national police.'

Chapter 10: Arts of Life (continued)

Summary: Dwellings:—Caves, 229—Huts, 230—Tents, 231—Houses, 231—Stone and Brick Building, 232—Arch, 235—Development of Architecture, 235—Dress:—Painting skin, 236—Tattooing, 237—Deformation of Skull, &c., 240—Ornaments, 241—Clothing of Bark, Skin, &c., 244—Mats, 246—Spinning, Weaving, 246—Sewing, 249—Garments, 249—Navigation:—Floats, 252—Boats, 253—Rafts, 255—Outriggers, 255—Paddles and Oars, 256—Sails, 256 Galleys and Ships, 257.

p. 235: 'In thus looking over the architecture of the world, we see that its origins lie too far back for history to record its beginning and earliest progress. Still there is reason to believe that, in architecture as in other arts, man began with the simple and easy before he came on to the complex and difficult.'

p. 249-250: 'Next, as to the shape of garments. If we knew of no costume but what we commonly wear now, we might think it more a product of mere fancy than it really is. But on looking carefully at the dresses of various nations, it is seen that most garments are variations of a few principal kinds, each made for a particular purpose in clothing the body. The simplest and no doubt earliest garments are wraps wound or hung on the body, and by noticing how these are worn it may be guessed how they led to the later use of garments fitted to the wearer's shape....'

p. 251-252: 'These remarks may lead readers to look attentively into books of costume, which indeed are full of curious illustrations of the way in which things are not invented outright by mere fancy, but come by gradual alterations of what was already there. To account for our present absurd "chimney-pot" hat, we must see how it came by successive changes from the conical Puritan hat and the slouched Smart hat, and these again from earlier forms. The sense of the hat-band must be found in its once having been a real cord to draw in the mere round piece of felt which was the primitive hat; and to understand why our hat is covered with silk nap, it must be remembered that this is an imitation of the earlier beaver-fur hat, which would stand rain. Even the now useless seams and buttons on modern clothes (see page 15) are bits of past history.'

[he concludes the chapter by looking at water transport]

Chapter 11: Arts of life (concluded)

p. 286: The merchants did much to break down the everlasting jealousy and strife between nations into peaceful and profitable intercourse. Moreover it may be plainly proved that the old hostile system of nations is kept up by every kind of restriction on trade, every protective duty imposed to force the production of commodities in countries ill-suited to them, to prevent their coming in cheap and good from where they are raised with least labour. There is no agent of civilization more beneficial than the free trader, who gives the inhabitants of every region the advantages of all other regions, and whose business is to work out the law that what serves the general profit of mankind serves also the private profit of the individual man.'

Chapter 12: Arts of Pleasure

p. 292-293: 'Modern music is thus plainly derived from ancient. But there has arisen in it a great new development. The music of the ancients scarcely went beyond melody. The voice might be accompanied by an instrument in unison or at an octave interval, but harmony as understood by modern musicians was as yet unknown. Its feeble beginnings may be traced in the middle ages, when musicians were struck by the effects got by singing two different tunes at once, when one formed a harmony to the other.'

p. 293: 'The musical instruments of the present day may all be traced back to rude and early forms.'

p. 296: 'Dancing may seem to us moderns a frivolous amusement but in the infancy of civilization it was full of passionate and solemn meaning. Savages and barbarians dance their joy and sorrow, their love and rage, even their magic and religion.'

Chapter 13: Science

p. 309-310: 'Science is exact, regular, arranged knowledge. Of common knowledge savages and barbarians have a vast deal, indeed the struggle of life could not be carried on without it. The rude man knows much of the properties of matter, how fire burns and water soaks, the heavy sinks and the light floats, what stone will serve for the hatchet and what wood for its handle, which plants are food and which are poison, what are the habits of the animals that he hunts or that may fall upon him. He has notions how to cure, and much better notions how to kill. In a rude way he is a physicist in making fire, a chemist in cooking, a surgeon in binding up wounds, a geographer in knowing his rivers and mountains, a mathematician in counting on his fingers. All this is knowledge, and it was on these foundations that science proper began to be built up, when the art of writing had come in and society had entered on the civilized stage. We have to trace here in outline the rise and progress of science. And as it has been especially through counting and measuring that scientific methods have come into use, the first thing to do is to examine how men learnt to count and measure.'

Chapter 14: The Spirit-World

p. 362-363: 'This will give a notion of the confusion which begins in religion as soon as the worshippers cease to think of a deity by his first meaning and purpose, and only know of him as the god so-and-so, whose image stands in such-and-such a temple. The wonder is not that the origin of so many ancient gods is now hard to make out, but that so many show so clearly as they do what they were at first, a divine ancestor, or a sun, or sky, or river.'

p. 372: 'Unless religion can hold its place in the front of science and of morals, it may only gradually, in the course of ages, lose its place in the nation, but all the power of statecraft and all the wealth of the temples will not save it from eventually yielding to a belief that takes in higher knowledge and teaches better life.'

Chapter 15: History and Mythology

The early history of nations consists more or less of traditions handed down by memory from ages before writing.'

p. 379: 'Much of what is called ancient history has to be looked at in this way. Historical criticism, that is, judgment, is practised not for the purpose of disbelieving but of believing. Its object is not to find fault with the author, but to ascertain how much of what he says may be reasonably taken as true. Thus a modern reader may have a sounder opinion about early Roman history than the Romans themselves had in the time of Livy and Cicero.'

p. 400: 'For understanding the thoughts of old-world nations, their myths tell us much we should hardly learn from their history.'

Chapter 16: Society

Summary: Social Stages, 401—Family. 402—Morals of Lower Races, 405—Public Opinion and Custom, 408—Moral Progress, 410—Vengeance and Justice, 414—War, 418—Property, 419—Legal Ceremonies, 423—Family Power and Responsibility, 426—Patriarchal and Military Chiefs, 428—Nations, 432—Social Ranks, 434—Government, 436.

p. 404-405: 'Marriage has been here spoken of first, because upon it depends the family, on which the whole framework of society is founded. What has been said of the ruder kinds of family union among savages and barbarians shows that there cannot be expected from them the excellence of those well-ordered households to which civilized society owes so much of its goodness and prosperity.'

p.426: 'To come now to the last subject of this volume, the history of government. Complicated as are the political arrangements of civilised nations, their study is made easier by their simple forms being already found in savage and barbaric life. The foundation of society, as has been already seen, is the self-government of each family.'

p. 434: 'As society in tribes and nations became a more complex system, it early began to divide into classes or ranks. If we look for an example of the famous first principle of the United States, ''that all men are created equal," we shall in fact scarcely find such equality except among savage hunters and foresters, and by no means always then.'

p. 438-439: 'Here this sketch of Anthropology may close. The examination of man's age on the earth, his bodily structure and varieties of race and language, has led us on to enquire into his intellectual and social history. In his many-sided life there may be clearly traced a development, which, notwithstanding long periods of stoppage and frequent falling back, has on the whole adapted modern civilized man for a far higher and happier career than his ruder ancestors. In this development, the preceding chapters have shown a difference between low and high nations, which it only remains to put before the reader as a practical moral to the tale of civilization. It is true that both among savage and civilized peoples progress in culture takes place, but not under the same conditions. The savage by no means goes through life with the intention of gathering more knowledge and framing better laws than his fathers. On the contrary, his tendency is to consider his ancestors as having handed down to him the perfection of wisdom, which it would be impiety to make the least alteration in. Hence among the lower races there is obstinate resistance to the most desirable reforms, and progress can only force its way with a slowness and difficulty which we of this century can hardly imagine. Looking at the condition of the rude man, it may be seen that his aversion to change was not always unreasonable, and indeed may often have arisen from a true instinct. With his ignorance of any life but his own, he would be rash to break loose from the old tried machinery of society, to plunge into revolutionary change, which might destroy the present good without putting better in its place. Had the experience of ancient men been larger, they would have seen their way to faster steps in culture. But we civilized moderns have just that wider knowledge which the rude ancients wanted. Acquainted with events and their consequences far and wide over the world, we are able to direct our own course with more confidence toward improvement. In a word, mankind is passing from the age of unconscious to that of conscious progress. Readers who have come thus far need not be told in many words of what the facts must have already brought to their minds—that the study of man and civilization is not only a matter of scientific interest, but at once passes into the practical business of life. We have in it the means of understanding our own lives and our place in the world, vaguely and imperfectly it is true, but at any rate more clearly than any former generation. The knowledge of man's course of life, from the remote past to the present, will not only help us to forecast the future, but may guide us in our duty of leaving the world better than we found it.'

Transcribed by AP January 2013

Second edition 1889

Notes by transcriber

[1]Thomas Henry Huxley; Edward Augustus Freeman; Henry James Sumner Maine, Dr. Birch is presumably Samuel Birch, Augustus Wollaston Franks, William Henry Flower, Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers, Archibald Henry Sayce, John Beddoe, Daniel Hack Tuke, Professor W.K. Douglas, Russell Martineau, Richard Garnett (I am presuming this is the right match), Henry Sweet, Frederick William Rudler. The most unexpected person on this list to me is Tuke, assuming I have identified the right person, as he was a doctor, specialist in mental health, and not someone I had previously associated with Tylor. I have not been able to identify who Professor Douglas was.

[2] The Pitt Rivers Museum photographic collections hold some Damman photographs.

Ashmolean Museum

2012-07-09T15:16:18+00:00

'The present Ashmolean was created in 1908 by combining two ancient Oxford institutions: the University Art Collection and the original Ashmolean Museum. The older partner in this merger, the University Art Collection, was based for many years in what is now the Upper Reading Room in the Bodleian Library. ... Had Elias Ashmole (1617-92) not stipulated that his collection of curiosities and antiquities should be placed in a custom-built museum, it would have been installed in the Bodleian or in the Anatomy Theatre. In the event, Ashmole’s benefaction was placed inside a small but imposing building adjacent to the Bodleian which opened its doors on 24th May 1683 with much fanfare.' To find out more about the museum see here.

The Ashmolean Museum's Department of Antiquities manuscript collections contain many relevant letters and other documents. Below are overall assessments of the ones that have been reviewed, and some transcriptions. Please note that all 'footnotes' are the transcribers, the letters have been transcribed as they are and not edited. We are very grateful to the Ashmolean Museum for allowing us to place transcriptions on this website and wish to thank Alison Roberts in particular for her help in this matter. We are also very grateful to Alice Stevenson who worked on the Rolleston manuscripts for the Ashmolean Museum. If you wish to arrange to see the originals or to discuss the content further then please contact the Department of Antiquities at Tel: +44 (0)1865 278020 Email: antiquities@ashmus.ox.ac.uk

Introduction to the Ashmolean Museum, history

Full list of Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities manuscripts (Historic Museum archives)

Ovenell papers

1. 3 printed pamphlets about the Rowell Catalogue of the Ashmolean Collection and the discovery of diverse objects in an outhouse of the Ashmolean Museum (from 1879 to 1881) [RFO/A/3/11]

2. Extracts from Ovenell's own handwritten notebook about Ashmolean collections 1878 onwards, particularly about the Rowell catalogue [also covered in 1. above] [RFO/A/3/11]

Rolleston papers

Copy or draft letter from George Rolleston to the University of Oxford vice-chancellor dated 26.1.1867 regarding the future of ethnological displays at the University Museum.

Greville Chester and Archaeology at Oxford, 1881

'The Ashmolean as a home of archaeology in Oxford' Lecture given by Arthur Evans in 1884

Introduction to the 1886 transfer of objects from the Oxford University Museum to the Ashmolean Museum

Ashmolean Museum Rolleston correspondence

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George Rolleston papers

The Department of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum (University of Oxford) holds a large archive of correspondence and working papers from George Rolleston which were transferred to it from the Oxford University Museum in 1886 as part of a larger reorganization of University collections.

We are very grateful to the Ashmolean Museum for allowing us to place these transcriptions on this website and wish to thank Alison Roberts in particular for her help in this matter. We are also grateful to Alice Stevenson who catalogued the Rolleston manuscripts for the Ashmolean Museum.

The transcriptions were done as part of the Scoping Museum Anthropology project, they are rough transcriptions and many words were illegible (George Rolleston's handwriting is very difficult to read). All scholars are recommended to contact the Ashmolean Museum to see the original manuscripts before using these transcriptions in their own work.

A full catalogue of the Rolleston papers held by the Ashmolean Museum has been prepared, and is available here. Please contact antiquities@ashmus.ox.ac.uk if you wish to see any of the material.

Transcriptions of relevant correspondence etc from the Ashmolean Rolleston papers relating to anthropology, ethnographic specimens etc

General Rolleston notes (and some correspondence): GR/1/4; GR/B/1; GR/B/4; GR/B/5; GR/B/6 [except GR/B/6/6 which is given separately below]

GR/B/6/6 Rolleston correspondence and notes relating to W.G. Lawes, S.J Whitmee, and Joseph King (all missionaries) and T.H.T. Hopkins

Short biographies of:

GR/A/1, GR/A/2, GR/A/3 Rolleston correspondence (arranged by senders' surnames A-Z)

GR/A/2 Henry Nottidge Moseley's correspondence to Rolleston, including letters from HMS Challenger

See here for transcriptions of Rolleston and Pitt-Rivers' correpondence

See here for an account of a jawbone examined by Tylor and Rolleston in March 1881 in Nice

If you wish to arrange to see the originals or to discuss the content further then please contact the Department of Antiquities at Tel: +44 (0)1865 278020 Email: antiquities@ashmus.ox.ac.uk

If you would like to know more about the image of the crania display from the Oxford University Museum, please contact Malgosia Nowak-Kemp at the Zoological Collections, Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Balfour letter to W.B. Spencer 28.9.1898

2012-08-24T12:41:55+00:00

Walter Baldwin Spencer manuscript collection Box 4

5. Henry Balfour to Walter Baldwin Spencer, 28 September 1898 [emphasis added for website not in original]

apologizes for not having written, have had a busy year and have been abroad a bit.

‘Things here are much as heretofore, the chief excitement is caused by Lankester’s translation to a higher sphere + of course the question of his successor. Now I am very sorry that you don’t mean to go in for it, there are so many who would welcome you back here, + you have been gaining so much experience of the A.K. at large. The difficulty, to my mind, about the post is that nearly everyone is a complete specialist, almost a one-group man, and for the purposes of the Honour School it is surely desirable to have as much of a generalist as possible, not too much biased by ideas as to the special + overwhelming claims of any one group.’ Weldon can do this to some extent, Bourne is very estimable and amiable. Had always hoped that BS would come back to England. Look forward to the publication of their work, will be of great value. Comments on Roth’s book ‘The information is most valuable + well collected + illustrated, the deductions must be taken cum grano, the terminology in many instances fairly ‘gives one the blight’! I wonder if he would collect a few specimens for my museum. There are so many things I want. I was of course delighted with the Horn Exped. specimens which are a grand addition to the Museum. I have just received a lot of things from a certain E. Clement who travelled in W. and N.W. Australia up country. He brought back a large collection. Do you know of him? What is your opinion of Louis de Rougemount, we are having a dose of him in England…’ …

‘Tylor is quite well, getting rather old perhaps + he may forget things a bit. He will be back here I fancy about the 10^th Oct. I will ask him about Miss Howitt’s ms of which I had not heard, I will ask him to let me see it, + if I can help in the matter I shall be very pleased.’ Discusses what Tylor has done with BS’s proofs. Hope Frazer will refrain from editing BS’s ms.

‘I wrote to Gillen some good time ago asking him if he could very kindly let me have photographs of his natives especially such as deal with arts, customs etc. I have not heard from him + I daresay he is far too busy to attend to ‘begging letters’, so I haven’t worried him again. Photos I find are so important an adjunct to a Museum that I try to beg all I can for a series I am making for the Museum. My funds don’t allow of my buying many in the open Market, + the trade ones are apt to be unsatisfactory + made up.’…

‘I envied Partington his cruise around, I greatly wish I could get to Australia + see the Museums, but I don’t just yet see my way to being away long enough I have no understudy who can do my work in the Museum, + I have some papers I want to get off my hands. Can you or anyone trace out + map the native trade routes in Australia generally. I wish one could feel a bit clear on this point, the general lines of dispersal of ideas from one part to another, + the extent to which the fragments of New Guinea + Madagascar Culture have penetrated along trade routes (or longstanding lines of communication) from the North in to the remoter parts of Australia. I am busy with a monograph (to give it so dignified a title) on the musical bow, + have a very wide distribution for it over the world. So far as I can see the evidence points to dispersal from one or at most two centres, dispersal in early terms, but I don’t want to theorize + shall stick to description so far as possible. The more I go on the more I see that it is still dangerous to form theories, + I prefer to collect + collate + leave the theories to fit themselves onto masses of facts not small groups of indifferently connected examples.

‘I wish that men like Howitt + Fison, Gillen + the ‘Pakeha Maori’ [author of ‘Old New Zealand’] would appear in England + come + chat over pipes now + then.’ Was delighted to see Fison when he was over but little time for quiet talk. …

‘My work lies amongst the arts + appliances of Man + my main object is to trace the histories of things back as far as possible using modern ‘survivals’ to fill in gaps in the Archaeological record. Customs, myth etc. I hardly dare write about as the difficulty of getting hold of them completely is so great, + it is hard at home to sort the facts from the lies in the ordinary published accounts of more or less inaccurate observers. Moreover Tylor has a natural aptitude for this line of research + I can be relieved of the responsibility which he can so well tackle. He really is wonderful in a way, + is one of the very few stay-at-homes who can make much of the subject. He is at present ramming his head against Totems, + is somewhat fogged just now, but I fancy that your work has clear matters for him, though it is the N. American side of things with which he has been dealing.

‘Anson of All Souls is to be our next Vice Chancellor, I hope that he will view the Museum with a kindly eye, though I have my doubts. Science I fancy does not mean very much to him. Carfax Church has been pulled down leaving the tower only, to the great improvement of the traffic arrangements + also the appearance of that part. The Brit. Assoc. at Bristol was pretty successful, the heat was awful however. We had a few No. 1 size cranks around offering papers, + it was amusing boo[m]ing them off. There were some very good papers too. I was up the Norwegian Coast this summer, mostly north of the circle with my wife + boy. We had a jolly time in the Lofoten Ids. + Tromsö, but the weather was bad + spoilt a lot of small trips I wished to make.’ …

‘Remember me to Fison + Stirling if ever you come across them.’

28. HB to BS, (no date)

was away when your letter arrived, glad the memorial was successful, and that you and Gillen to continue the ground work you have begun, hope you will be able to get to Tommy Roth’s domain and clear up question of totemism which must exist. ‘Shall you be able to make large collections, or will transport be too great a difficulty. Find out all you can in regard to details of belief + practice in ‘Sympathetic Magic’, + ideas which lie at the root of it…Try and get examples as you go along of the best efforts at realistic representations of men + animals, + ask the natives to draw profile faces, + to make the best they can of portraiture. It is rather a chance with quite untaught savages to see how their ideas run.’ All waiting to hear first news from you.

[Comments on death of Acland] ‘Acland was certainly very decrepit, but I was very fond of him + his work in getting the Museum founded + the deep interest he took in it to the end, make one miss him as a founder of science in Oxford. Hatchett Jackson is Radcliffe Librarian now, + the Museum is throwing out pseudopodia in all directions, a new Pathology laboratory, a new Morphological ditto, + a new library are all large additions, + as they are being all built in different styles (some of which are anything definite) the Museum is becoming the most heterogeneous medley of architectural horrors that can be imagined. However inside is better than out. The Pitt Rivers jogs along gaily, + I have had a fine year for accessions. With the Hardy collection I got a large number of good Australian things. Amongst them two of the ‘strangling cords’ which B. Smyth describes. I believe there are but three or so known, though I may be wrong. Also I have a [beaked] boomerang made in two pieces, somewhat thus [sketch], a new type to me. Also many other interesting things which are very good additions.’ …

‘Tylor + Thomson would send greetings in they were here.’

As a P.S. ‘Thanks, I got over my typhoid fever in time, it took 6 months but I put in a trip to S. Africa for the sea voyage, + that was something. The rest was sheer waste.’

[Transcribed by Frances Larson for the Relational Museum project]