An innovative account of one of the least-understood characters in the
history of anthropology.
Using previously overlooked, primary sources Ciarán Walsh argues that
Haddon, the grandson of anti-slavery activists, set out to revolutionize
anthropology in the 1890s in association with a network of
anarcho-utopian activists and philosophers. His book regards most of
what has been written about Haddon in the past as a form of disciplinary
folklore shaped by a theory of scientific revolutions.
The main action takes place in Ireland, where Haddon adopted the persona
of a very English savage in a new form of performed photo-ethnography
that constituted a singularly modernist achievement in anthropology.
From the Introduction:
Alfred Cort Haddon was written out of the story of anthropology for the
same reasons that make him interesting today. He was passionately
committed to the protection of simpler societies and their civilisations
from colonists and their supporters in parliament and the armed forces.