Alfred C. Haddon

Alfred Cort Haddon (born May 24, 1855 in London , † April 20, 1940 in Cambridge ) was a British anthropologist and zoologist .

life and work

From 1888 Alfred Haddon worked as a zoologist researching the coral reefs in Torresstrasse . He got to know the native inhabitants of the island world and was fascinated by their cultural tradition and their oral traditions. After his return to England he devoted himself again to his studies and in 1897 graduated from the subject of anthropology with a doctorate from Cambridge University .

He led from 1898 to 1899, the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits , an ethnographic expedition to the inhabitants of the islands in the Torres Strait . The results of this expedition, which he had carried out together with various experts from the University of Cambridge, the scientific results of which he later published. During the expedition he first came into contact with so-called indigenous peoples, whose lives he subsequently began to study.

From 1880 to 1910 he was a professor in Dublin. He returned to Christ's College (Cambridge) in Cambridge, where he had been a student, and successfully founded his own school of anthropology. In 1895, Haddon published Evolution in Art, as illustrated by the Life-Histories of Designs . In this he argues that the conservatism of primitive artists and their rejection of major deviations from the traditional form can only be changed through incremental innovations. The origin of special forms was investigated by tracing different, slightly varying objects along a time line.

From 1909 to 1926 he was a professor at Cambridge. The main focus of his work was the "racial structure" of humans. His work there is remembered with the dedication of the Haddon Library .

Haddon's work influenced the development of British social anthropology. Haddon Bay , a bay in Antarctica , is named in his honor .

Fonts

Polyplacophora. In: Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of HMS Challenger during the Years 1873 - 76
The decorative art of British New Guinea. A study in Papuan ethnography . Academy House, Dublin 1894 (Cunningham Memoirs / Royal Irish Academy; 10)
The Study of Man . John Murray, 1898
Head hunters. Black, White, and Brown . 1901
The races of man and their distribution. Milner & company limited, 1909
with A. Hingston Quiggin: History of anthropology. London, Watts & Co., 1910
The Wanderings of Peoples. London Cambridge at the University 1911
with Julian Huxley: We Europeans. a survey of 'racial' problems. Cape 1935
Appendix on the physical characters of the races of Borneo. In: Charles Hose and William McDougall : The Pagan tribes of Borneo. A description of their physical, moral and intellectual condition with some discussion of their ethnic relations. London 1912
(Ed.) Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits . 6 volumes. 1901–1935 overview

literature

A. Hingston Quiggin: Haddon, the Head Hunter . Cambridge 1942.
ES Fegan: Bibliography of AC Haddon 1855-1940 . Cambridge 1978.

Web links

Steve Mullins: Alfred C. Haddon . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1966–2012 (English).
Obituary (English)

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b Philip Steadman, The Evolution of Designs , Cambridge a. a. 1979, ISBN 0-521-22302-4 , p. 87.
^ Philip Steadman, The Evolution of Designs , Cambridge et al. a. 1979, ISBN 0-521-22302-4 , p. 103.

personal data
SURNAME	Haddon, Alfred C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Haddon, Alfred Cort
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British anthropologist and zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH	May 24, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH	London
DATE OF DEATH	April 20, 1940
Place of death	Cambridge

[steadman-87-1] A ^b Philip Steadman, The Evolution of Designs , Cambridge a. a. 1979, ISBN 0-521-22302-4 , p. 87.

[steadman-103-2] Philip Steadman, The Evolution of Designs , Cambridge et al. a. 1979, ISBN 0-521-22302-4 , p. 103.