The Making of British Anthropology, 1813-1871

Download or read book The Making of British Anthropology, 1813-1871 written by Efram Sera-Shriar and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2016-08-03 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Victorian anthropology has been derided as an "armchair practice," distinct from the scientific discipline of the twentieth century. But the observational practices that characterized the study of human diversity developed from the established sciences of natural history, geography and medicine. Sera-Shriar argues that anthropology at this time went through a process of innovation which built on scientifically grounded observational study. Far from being an evolutionary dead end, nineteenth-century anthropology laid the foundations for the field-based science of anthropology today.