Victorian

Anthropology
George W. Stocking, Jr.

THE FREE PRESS

A Division of Macmillan, Inc.
New York
Maxwell Macmillan Canada
Toronto
Maxwell Macmillan International
New York Oxford Singapore Sydney

Contents

Preface

xi

Prologue: A Precipice in Time

1. The Idea of Civilization Before the Crystal Palace
(1750-1850)
The Progress of Civilization in the Enlightenment
The History of Culture in Germany
The Science of Progress in France
The Problem of Civilization in England
Civilization as an Issue of Attitude and Method
Biblical Anthropology and the Vestiges of Creation

2. Ethnology on the Eve of Evolution (1830-1858)

James Cowles Prichard and the Ethnological Problem
From Popular Antiquities to Folklore
Linguistic Paleontology: The Aryans as Primitive Men
Anglo-Saxonism, Polygenism, and Physical Anthropology
The Revolution in Human Time
The Crisis of Prichardian Ethnology

vii

8
10
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25
30
36
41

46
48
53
56
62
69
74

Contents

3.

Travelers and Savages:

The Data of Victorian Ethnology (1830-1858)
The Benevolent Colonial Despot as Ethnographer
A Methodist Missionary in Cannibal Feejee
The Gentleman Traveler as Social Darwinist
Primitivism, Polygenism, and Natural Selection
Ethnographic Data, Racial Attitudes, and
Ethnological Theory

78
81
87
92
96
102

4. The History of Civilization Before the Origin

110

of Species (1851-1858)
The Triumph of the Laws of Intellect over the Laws
of Nature
Retracing Historically the Social Progress
of the Aryan Race
Making the Associationist Tradition Evolutionary
Redefining the Basis of Human Psychic Unity

5. The Darwinian Revolution and the Evolution

of Human Culture (1858-1871)
Filling the Gap in the Fossil Record
Tracing Up the Origin of Civilization
The Natural Development of Spiritual Culture
The "Comparative Method" and the Antiquity of Man
Evolutionary Argument and Polemical Context
Continuity and Disjuncture in Classical Evolutionism

6. Victorian Cultural Ideology and the Image

of Savagery (1780-1870)
Animistic Religion and the Progress of Human Reason
Primitive Promiscuity and the Evolution of Marriage
Savagery and Civilization in Early Victorian England
Reason, Instinct, and the Problem of Moral Progress
A Cosmic Genealogy for Middle-Class Civilization
Colonial Otherness and Evolutionary Theory

viii

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137

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156

164
169
179

186
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197
208
219
228
233

Contents

7. Evolutionary Ideas and Anthropological

Institutions (1835-1890)
The Protection of Aborigines and the Advancement
of Ethnology
The Emergence of Anthropology as an Alternative
to Ethnology
The Darwinian Resistance to "Anthropology"
Organizational Struggle and Institutional Compromise
The Anthropology of the Anthropological Institute
The Limits of Institutionalization in Victorian
Anthropology
The Victorian Anthropological Compromise

238
240
245
248
254
257
262
269

Epilogue: The Extinction of Paleolithic Man

274

A Prospective Retrospect: The Historical Significance

of Victorian Anthropology (1880-1980)

284

The Anthropological Reputation of Victorian

Anthropology
The Historical Reputations of Victorian Anthropologists
Classical Evolutionism and the Idea of Culture
Classical Evolutionism and Disciplinary Discourse
The Ambiguous Heritage of Evolutionary Anthropology

286
294
302
314
324

Notes

331

A Note on Manuscript Sources

356

References Cited

357

Index

411

ix