Paper Short Abstract:

From 1807 to 1848 James Cowles Prichard drew on a variety of resources to agglomerate the broad discipline of anthropology that dominated British anthropological thought during much of the nineteenth century. This paper outlines his motives and provides a brief chronology of his contributions.

Paper Abstract:

James Cowles Prichard, a devout Evangelical Quaker growing up in the British port city of Bristol, understood that all humankind was of a single species and of single origin, not multiple ones as a pernicious theory then gaining ground asserted. Lacking in scientific proof and contradicting Holy Scripture, the notion of polygenism could justify the abhorrent institution of slavery. Vowing to demonstrate scientifically the single origin and unity of humankind, he trained as a scientist by studying medicine.

This paper outlines some of Prichard’s publications and speeches in which he brought to bear on his subject biology, history, linguistics, psychology and the study of cultures and ‘sepulchral remains’ - the stuff of modern anthropology. He published widely, cultivated an international network of scholars and was instrumental in developing organisational anthropology. His final publication of 1849 describes the modern discipline in its broadest sense, defines culture and stresses the importance of its study. His career-long struggle against a rising tide of race-ranking biological anthropology was all but lost for a time, however. Threads of humane Prichardian anthropology nevertheless run through the eventually regenerated discipline - one with new founders, new assumptions and new histories.

James Cowles Prichard of the Red Lodge: A Life in Science during the Age of Improvement will be published by the University of Nebraska Press in June, 2025.