History Of Anthropology

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Alfred Cort Haddon, 1855-1940 Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng., one of the founders of modern British anthropology. Virtually, the sole exponent of anthropology at Cambridge for 30 years, it was largely through his work and especially his teaching that the subject assumed its place among the observational sciences.

Educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, he distinguished himself in comparative anatomy and zoology and in 1880 was appointed professor of zoology at the Royal College of Science, Dublin. His first book, Introduction to the Study of Embryology, appeared in 1887, followed by many papers on marine biology.

Haddon's publications cover virtually every aspect of human social life, from the anthropology of art to problems of racism. Numbering more than 600, they include Evolution in Art (1895); Head- Hunters: Black, White and Brown (1901); Wanderings of Peoples (1911); and (with Sir J.S. Huxley) We Europeans (1936).

Haddon's History of Anthropology (1910) has been the first effort of this kind to give an outline of the developments in the discipline up to that period. The 1934 edition, which has been followed here was completely revised by Haddon. For Haddon, the scope of anthropology is spread in three major subdivisions: Human Biology, Cultural Anthropology (Ethnology) and Ethnography. This book has these three main sections which are again distributed into altogether nine chapters. The sections or parts deal with nature and definition of anthropology. voyagers and philosophers, professionalization and history from within the discipline.

This celebrated and pioneering work of anthropology is being published for greater readership of the present generations to keep them abreast of the very foundational ideas in the discipline of anthropology. The book brings before us many of the information that are useful even today.

When it was suggested that I should bring out a second edition of The History of Anthropology I soon found that it was possible to retain only relatively small portions of the first edition, in which I was so ably helped by Mrs. A. Hingston Quiggin. There is indeed so much new matter that this is virtually a new book.

A book of such small size which deals with so vast a subject, comprising so many different stuidies, cannot satisfy the specialists in the several departments. Mention has been made only of some of those whose work notably contributed to or illustrates the growth of Anthropology. Doubtless many criticize the amount of space allocated to certain authors, and wonder why others have been omitted or have received, but scanty recognition. "Meddling with questions of merit or priority is a thorny business at the best of times," as Huxley remarked. All I can say in extenuation for the selection is that the task has been by no means an easy one, and that I have been guided in some degree by the fact that the readers will mainly be of British nationality.

In most cases references are given in the text; a few works are listed at the ends of the several sections, but all these must not be taken in any sense as a bibliography, though students wit! find in the books cited all the necessary references to other literature. The two dates which follow a name refer to the years of the individuaI's birth and death; a single date refers to the date of publication of the book or memoir.

**Contents and Sample Pages**