Paper short abstract:

Within a comparative framework, this paper identifies significant monographs predating professional anthropology, while pinpointing some risks behind the search for pioneering figures. It addresses the ways in which disciplinary past may be subject to different forms of myopia or exclusion.

Paper long abstract:

Within a comparative framework, this paper highlights the existence of other Argonauts, a provocative expression that applies to monographs of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century ethnographers who were overshadowed by professional anthropologists. Instead of presenting a single case study, it marshals diverse materials as pointers to the past. The myth of Malinowski as inventor of modern fieldwork has long been shattered by historians of anthropology who have brought to the fore the decisive role of a previous generation, such as the veterans of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Strait. Also the fame of Franz Boas's critique of evolutionism partly explains the weight of armchair anthropology in many portrayals of the discipline in the nineteenth century. The other side of the coin is his overlooking of previous ethnographies that matched his own call for thorough and minute monographic descriptions in significant ways. Are amateur ethnographers from this formative period an excluded category? The answer to this question depends on where we look for it, considering that numerous contributions to the reassessment of this or that particular case may be found in area studies journals, specialized books within specific national traditions or World Anthropologies, online encyclopaedias and dictionaries, and also, albeit in a scattered way, in mainstream publications of the English-speaking anthropological world. The disciplinary past may be subject to unconscious myopia or deliberate forms of exclusion. This paper addresses a few selected cases, while identifying some risks behind the search for pioneering figures.

Paper short abstract:

The ethnography of Edward Westermarck has been greatly criticized. This paper argues that the time is ripe for a reconsideration.

Paper long abstract:

Edward Westermarck (1862-1939) is often dismissed as the last of the 'scissors and paste' generation, a man who somehow ended up as Malinowski's teacher and was superseded by him. This criticism is no-where stronger then when considering his fieldwork in North Africa, which has been regarded frequently as being almost useless for modern anthropology. In this paper, I argue that this caricature is misplaced. It is perfectly true that in form it resembles a Victorian anthropologist (indeed, his first work received a puff by Alfred R. Wallace, Darwin's contemporary). Yet, he did conduct detailed, long-term fieldwork and he knew Berber, French and Arabic. Looked at closely, I suggest that his most detailed ethnographic volumes 'Religion and Ritual in Morocco' are still immensely suggestive, and as we today become more accustomed to a variety of ethnographic approaches, the time has come to rehabilitate this work into the canon of fine fieldwork monographs. In conclusion, I attempt to present a fresh perception of his place within the history of modern anthropology.

Paper short abstract:

Daisy Bates is an 'excluded ancestor'. We explored her writings and find her work to be 'seriously anthropological' and insightful. Her contribution to the development of ethnographic fieldwork compares favorably with Malinowski's. Bates ought to be "reclaimed" as an anthropologist.

Paper long abstract:

Daisy Bates (1859-1951) has long been denied the status of a 'real' anthropologist; at best she is considered an 'enthusiastic amateur'. Her work is often discredited because of moralistic views about her personal life: a 'spoilt' moral character, evidence that her writings cannot be trusted. Examining her correspondence, published and unpublished papers, we argue that much of her work is "seriously anthropological" and her 'invention' of ethnographic fieldwork compares favourably with Malinowski's developments a decade later.

We suggest that Bates was ahead of her time, avoiding many of the shortcomings of 'modern' anthropology with its focus on Aboriginal 'cultures' as discrete and fixed. She understood the interaction of local and regional systems, of the movement of people, objects and intangible phenomena within and between regions. However, in other ways she remained a pre-modern anthropologist focusing on ethnology and endeavouring to create an encyclopedic compendium of 'facts' about all aspects of Aboriginal culture. But then, so did many of her contemporaries.

We argue that much of the criticism of Bates and her work is moralist and 'presentist' in the extreme and fails to acknowledge the complex history of the development of anthropology and ethnographic fieldwork. We contend that Bates is an "excluded ancestor" who needs to be "reclaimed". Her corpus of ethnographic material needs to be examined not for "useable bits of lore" but in such a way as to provide a more critical understanding of the development of ethnographic fieldwork in Aboriginal Australia.

Paper short abstract:

In 1911, the famous missionary-ethnographer Junod published a novel called Zidji: a Study of Southern African Custom. He claims it is fully valid empirically as a document, but he decided tow rite it in fictional format because "it deals with the present". What are the implications of this choice?

Paper long abstract:

The Swiss missionary ethnographer Henri-Alexandre Junod is universally considered one of the principal inspirations of twentieth century anthropology. The first versions of his main work, The Life of a South African Tribe, appeared in French in 1898 and later in 1912-14. The definitive English version, however, only came out at the end of his life in 1927. To judge of this work's impact, we must consider that Radcliffe-Brown depended on Junod's ethnographic material to write Structure and Function in Primitive Society, and that Gluckman and Turner explicitly declare to have been inspired by it for their processual approach. In this long tradition of fascination with Junod's work, however, few have been aware that he also published in French a number of works of missionary fiction: two short plays and, in 1911, a novel called Zidji: a study of Southern African Custom. Junod himself declares that the novel bears as much empirical validity as his remaining work. However, according to him, because it deals with the "present", it could only have been written in fictional format. This paper explores, on the one hand, the relation between modernity and ethnographic description and, on the other hand, Junod's profoundly ambivalent relation to Africans and Africanness.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines three emblematic ethnographers in late 19th- and early 20th-century South-Eastern Europe, questioning the political subtext of their ethnographic writings, their experimentation with text formats and genres, and their humanitarian engagement in the region.

Paper long abstract:

In the final decades of the 19th century and until the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, South-Eastern Europe attracted a number of diverse ethnographers from different countries - all, to various degrees, and willingly or not, drawn into the paramount political matter of the time: the impending reorganisation of the Ottoman Empire into a series of successor states, mostly along perceived ethnic lines.

This paper deals with three emblematic writers of ethnography in the region during the period in question: Guillaume Lejean (1824-1871), author of a bilingual Ethnographie de la Turquie d'Europe, alongside other texts; Edith Durham (1863-1944), who published a series of ethnographic accounts of highland Albania; and Eugène Pittard (1867-1962), an anthropologist working mainly in the Dobrudja region claimed by both Romania and Bulgaria.

It is interesting to see to what extent all three ethnographers catered to Balkanist stereotypes while also effectively cutting through them, and in what ways their ethnographies reflect their inevitable political positioning.

All three writers experimented with different text formats and genres, taking advantage of the possibilities afforded by the burgeoning popular press of the time, as well as publishing book-length essays for the broader public. In the same vein, they also made innovative use of maps, illustrations and photographs.

Finally, the paper addresses the humanitarian engagement deployed by Lejeune, a campaigner against slavery, Durham, an occasional refugee aid worker, and Pittard, the founder of the Albanian Red Cross: how did these forms of ethic commitment influence their ethnographic stance?

Paper short abstract:

The archives are full of surprises, some of which raise awkward questions, like "What if foundational tropes, generated by historicists who wrote the history of anthropology before Malinowski, are based on a misreading of the archive?" That is the effect of a new "Irish" reading of Haddon's papers.

Paper long abstract:

It is difficult to decide which is more surprising: an insurgency by Victorian ethnographers that was inspired by anarchist and Solidarist ideas, or the roll-out of a formally-innovative, visual anthropology as a vehicle for anti-colonial activism in the 1890s. What is not surprising is that both are invisible to historians of anthropology, which raises some questions: what happens when an historiographical tradition is based on faulty premises? What if the foundational tropes, generated by the historicists who defined the history of anthropology before Malinowski, are based on a misreading of the archive? In response, I argue that the experimental ethnographic study of the Aran Islands that Haddon undertook in 1892 represents a synthesis of Kropotkin's anarchist geography, Geddes' interpretation of Le Play's social survey, and Havelock Ellis's Solidarist reworking of the theory of village communities. Furthermore, I will argue that Haddon's study has to be "read" in the context of decolonisation in Ireland in the 1890s. I will present, as evidence, an "Irish" reading of the Haddon papers and related material, which includes material discovered in 2013 and 2015. This relates to a programme of anti-colonial slideshows that have remained invisible to historians of disciplinary anthropology. I propose that these slideshows constituted a modern form of visual anthropology that Haddon deployed in an insurgency in the 1890s, which pivoted on a confrontation between "cultural" and "physical" factions in Ipswich in 1895. At stake was the capacity of anthropologists to prevent to genocide, a challenge that remains utterly relevant today.

Paper short abstract:

This paper outlines the rise and decline of the so-called Gothenburg school in Sweden under the leadership of Erland Nordenskiöld. Focus will be on his fieldwork and the use he made of ethnographical and archaeological collections.

Paper long abstract:

On 20 August 1924 the second part of the 21st International Congress of Americanists was opened in Gothenburg, Sweden, coinciding with the city's 300 year's anniversary. Papers pertaining to North and Central America had already been presented in The Hague, while lectures and discussions concerning Inuit and South America were organized in Gothenburg by Erland Nordenskiöld (1877-1932). In spite of an unstable world economy, with parts of Europe still suffering from unemployment, epidemics, and starvation, the Congress became a success. Nordenskiöld gained international recognition and the concept of a Nordenskiöld or Gothenburg school, sometimes also labelled as a Nordic school of ethnography, was born. In this presentation I will outline the development of anthropology in Sweden following Nordenskiöld's and Eric von Rosen's "Chaco-Cordillera-Expedition" in 1901-02. With emphasis on the collection of material objects, Nordenskiöld made additional ethnographical and archaeological field trips to various parts of South America in 1904, 1907, 1913 and 1926. A clear shift in his fieldwork style can be noted as he moved from a large scale expedition to making field studies on his own or with a single collaborator. As important and interesting, however, is how Nordenskiöld used the material collections at home, not only pioneering new ways of making exhibits, but transforming the museum into a laboratory. The use of metallurgy, mathematics, botany and cartograpics in combination with careful studies of old and rare reports and travel litterature resulted in his monumental serie publication Comparative Ethnographical Studies in ten volumes.

Paper short abstract:

Raised in a traditional religious Jewish environment, Moisei Krol' was exiled to Siberia in 1890 for anti-government activities. There he undertook an ethnographic study of the Buryats. I examine Krol's views of the Buryats and their effect on his eventual decision to "return to the Jewish people."

Paper long abstract:

Born in 1862 in Ukraine, Moisei A. Krol' received a traditional Jewish religious education. However, as a Russian high school student he embraced secular Western culture and a radical Populist ("Narodnik") ideology. Exiled to southern Siberia in 1890 for radical anti-government activities, he undertook an ethnographic study of the local indigenous people - the Buryats. Despite his somewhat eurocentric and evolutionist views Krol' ended up admiring the Buryats and especially appreciating "a positive role of Buddhism in their life," which he compared to a similar role of Judaism in his own people's lives. While delving deep into another culture, he developed a much greater appreciation for the values subscribed to by his own parents and other ordinary traditional Jews of Russia. As a result, following the end of his exile in 1895, Krol' (a lawyer by training) devoted his entire life to serving various Jewish causes, while also participating in the neo-populist political activities of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. While he did publish a number of important ethnographic works on the Buryats, Krol' did not become a professional anthropologist. In this respect his career differed from that of his friends and fellow-Populists Lev Shternberg, Vladimir Bogoraz and Vladimir Jochelson. This paper explores Krol's experience as ethnographer, focusing on his views of the Buryats and the effect of these views on his decision "to return to the Jewish people."

Paper short abstract:

Franz Boas was a pioneer ethnographer who began his fieldwork in the Arctic and then on the Northwest Coast of North America in the 1880s, three decades before Malinowski. This paper will consider recent criticisms of Boas's relationships with collaborators on Vancouver Island.

Paper long abstract:

Franz Boas (1858-1942) was an ethnographer before Malinowski, having begun his fieldwork in Baffin Island in 1883 and his work on the Northwest Coast of North America in 1886. The quality of his ethnography was criticized (after his death) by Leslie White and others, but more recently new criticisms have arisen about his relationship to his associates in the field. Wendy Wickwire (2019) celebrates James Teit ("prolific ethnographer and tireless Indian rights activist") to the distinct disadvantage of Franz Boas and Judith Berman is concerned about Boas's appreciation and acknowledgement of the contributions of George Hunt (2019). A more elaborate story has been put forth by Isaiah Wilner (2018; n.d.) who envisions a transformation of Franz Boas, under the tutelage of Hunt and the Kwakwaka'wakw, from a typical rigid and somewhat testy European (colonial) male to that of a peace-loving, native-appreciating vessel appropriate to carry the message of diversity and universalism to the world. This paper will interrogate Boas's early fieldwork relationships as revealed in his diary, letters home, and professional correspondence as well as in the writings by Wendy Wickwire, Judith Berman, and Isaiah Wilner.