The origins of humanity?
The comparative study of human society received a tremendous boost in 1859 when Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species. Darwin's theory of evolution reinforced a deeply held European conviction that just as animal and plant species were evolving, so too were the social forms of human societies. Aborigines thus became 'interesting', as an example - still available for study - of what human beings must have been like at the very beginning of human society.
The idea that human history was a progression through 'stages' stimulated a few Australian researchers to make the first systematic studies of Aboriginal systems of kinship. William Alfred Howitt (1830-1908), Lorimer Fison (1832-1907), W Baldwin Spencer (1860-1929) and Francis Gillen (1855-1912) wrote a series of books and papers over a fifty year period, from the 1870s to the 1920s, about the complexities of Aborigines' 'primitive' society. Their work included the earliest accounts of Aboriginal religion.
The idea that human history was a progression through 'stages' stimulated a few Australian researchers to make the first systematic studies of Aboriginal systems of kinship. William Alfred Howitt (1830-1908), Lorimer Fison (1832-1907), W Baldwin Spencer (1860-1929) and Francis Gillen (1855-1912) wrote a series of books and papers over a fifty year period, from the 1870s to the 1920s, about the complexities of Aborigines' 'primitive' society. Their work included the earliest accounts of Aboriginal religion.
Keywords: anthropology, Baldwin Spencer, Walter, custom, Darwin, Charles, Fison, Lorimer, Howitt, William Alfred
Author: Rowse, Tim and Graham, Trevor