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"Everything is Relatives:
William Rivers"

Strangers Abroad Series

52 min., 1990, VC 1795

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W.H.R. Rivers -- Wikipedia

The Development of Ethnological Theory (chart)

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Terms / Concepts:

• Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits (map) -- see below
  
  
• "The Geneological Method"
  
  
• "informant" = "respondent"
  
  
• moiety
  
  
  • describes the two groups by which all Toda clans (15) are divided
    
    
  • among the Todas (India) = Tharthar and Teivali
    
    

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• "kin"
  • "blood relatives"
    
    
• "affines"
  • "or 'inlaws', as we call them"
  • relatives by marriage
    
    
• 1 furlong = 1/8 mile (201 meters)
  
  
• exogamy / endogamy
  
  
  • village exogamy
    
    

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• different color perception
  
  
• "survivals"
  
  
• "instinctive tendencies"
  
  
• mechanisms of change
  
  
  • diffusion
  • invention
  • migration

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Notes:

• Viewing Notes -- Catherine Timura
  
  
• W. H. R. Rivers
  
  
  • examined the mental characteristics of the people of Torres Straits by examing their senses
    
    
    • starting with what he new best -- visual perception
      
      

    		“carpentered-world hypothesis”
    Müller-Lyer Illusions F.C. Müller-Lyer 1889 Wikipedia

    
    
    • researched color perception
      
      
      • thought that differences in color perception ran in familes, and hence got into family research. . . .
        
        
  • Hypothesis: Differencs in color perception might run in families.
    
    
    • This led to "The Geneological Method."
      
      
  • was one of the first to emphasize fieldwork, and thought it was best to spend the most time possible with a group
    
    

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• he wanted to make anthropology a science
  
  
  • it was said that he hoped his epitaph would read "He Made Anthropology a Science."
    
    
• was one of the first anthropologists to study seriously the idea of morality
  
  
  • "there is no word for adultery in Toda"
    • and they did not consider it wrong
      
      
  • recognized that there were rules, however, though the rules were different
    
    
• was one of the first scientists to recognize the problems with observer bias
  
  
• introduced new psycho-analytic approaches to the treatment of shell-shocked sodiers of WWI
  • National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
    
    
• Rivers was most proud of The History of Melanesian Society, 2 Vols. (1914 Cambridge University Press; Reprinted, Humanities Press, 1968)

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• Research Generations:
  
  
  • 1st Generation: Armchair Anthropologists
    
    • e.g., Sir James Frazer
      
      
  • 2nd Generation
    • W. H. R. Rivers
      • stayed close to the British Raj station in India
        
        
  • 3rd Generation
    • people like Margaret Mead (next class period)

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• Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits (map)
  
  
  • Torres Strait Islanders An Exhibition Marking the Centenary of the 1898 Cambridge Anthropological Expedition -- University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology
    
    
  • "The place of the 1898 Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits (CAETS) in the history of British social anthropology" -- Keith Hart
    
    
  • CAMBRIDGE SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY: THE RESEARCH TRADITION
    
    
    
• first time a team of experts set out to study various aspects of a culture
  
  
  • attempted to understand "naked culture in its own setting"
    
    
  • wanted to study the "mental characteristics of the native," of "the lower orders of creation"
    
    
  • mental capacity of the natives was assumed to be inferior
    
    
    • "concrete" vs. "abstract"
      
      

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• Where Can I Learn More About Making String Figures

• took some of the first anthropological cine footage ever shot
  
  
• recorded audio cylinder recordings using wax cylinders

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• Book of Common Prayer
  
  
  • "Table of Kindred and Affinity"
  • Cf., State Laws on Marriage to Relatives in the United States
  • Cf., States that Allow Cousin Mariage
    
    
    
• Pidgin English

• Cf., gift giving -- "total Prestation"
  
  
  • Marcel Mauss, The Gift (1924)
    
    
    
• Cf., George Foster
  
  
  • "Image of the Limited Good"
    
    
• Cf., Louise and George Spindler
  
  
  • Spindler G. ­ 1955. Sociocultural and Psychological Processes in Menomini Acculturation. Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press.
  • Spindler L. ­ 1962. Menomini Women and Culture Change: Memoir 91. Menasha, WI: Am. Anthropol. Assoc.
    
    
    
• talking to plants
  
  
  • name plants
  • name animals
    
    
    
• forced assimilation -- Somalians

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Cultures:

• Torres Straits Islanders
  
  
• Todas (India)
  
  
  • polyandry
    
    
    • the Toda practice "adelphic," or "fraternal," polyandry
      
      
      • husbands are brothers
        
        
    • the "bow and arrow ceremony"
      
      
      • pater (sociological father) vs. genitor (biological father)
        
        
      • Rivers thought it was a "survival" from the past
        
        
        
    • dairy shrines were run by dairymen who were also priests "dairymen priests"
      
      
      • Rivers recognized that these highly ritualized buffalo cults were also a religion
        • deity = Tarkesh
          
          

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• cross-cousin marriage
  
  
• infant marriage
  • 2 - 3 years of age
    
    
• village exogamy
  
  
• dairy shrines sacred
  • notions of "purity" dominate their lives
    
    
• Rivers' work among the Toda never really involved a "total immersion" in their culture
  
  
  • Rivers, among the Todas, was an observer
  • he felt no need to participate
  • he was never far from "his own kind of people"

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Sites:

• Murray Island, Torres Straits (off the southern coast of New Guinea; Papuans)
  
  
  • Torres Strait Island Communities. . . -- State Library of Queensland
  • Torres Strait Islanders -- University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology
    
    
• Egypt
  
  
  • Rivers researched color perceptions of the people
    
    
    • brought with him instruments to measure visual acuity and spacial and color perception
      
      
    • specific dimensions of color
      
      
      • RGB: red / green / blue
        
        
      • HSV: hue / saturation / value
        
        
        • hue
          • kind of color
          • tells where along the spectrum the color lies
            
            
        • saturation / chroma
          • the amount of color
          • how pure the color is
          • strong / washed out
            
            
        • value / lightness
          • how bright the color is
          • the amount of white that is mixed in with the color
            
            
            
• Melanesia (cultural "area")
  
  
• India (Todas)
  

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Individuals:

• Sir James Frazer
  
  
  • The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion
  • during the 1890s this was of great interest at Cambridge
    
    
• Alfred Cort Haddon
  
  
  • HADDON: The online catalogue of archival ethnographic film footage 1895-1945
  • HADDON PAPERS -- CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
  • L'invention du terrain anthropologique -- Anita Herle
    
    
• Sir Edmund Leach
  
  
  • "Without Rivers what came after 1922 would not have been possible."
  • Culture and Personality studies are devided into two parts, "those which came before Rivers, and those which came after." 
    • "He represents a landmark in the sense that if you came behind Rivers there is one kind of science, and if you came after, there is another."
  • Rivers thought of the Toda's "giving of the bow" as a "survival" from the past
    
    
• Grafton Elliot Smith (1871-1937)
  
  
  • developed the theory of diffusionism which saw Egypt as the source of all civilization
    • "heliolithic theory"

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References and Resources:

• "W. H. R. RIVERS: A FOUNDING FATHER WORTH REMEMBERING" -- Paul Whittle

• "William Halse Rivers Rivers (1864 - 1922)" -- Michèle Fry
  
  
• Slobodin, Richard. 1978 (1997). W. H. R. Rivers: Pioneer Anthropologist, Psychiatrist of The Ghost Road.

The poem on kinship in the video, said to be written by C. E. Fox, missionary and ethnographer friend of Rivers, appears on pp. 43-44 of the Sutton revised 1997 edition (Sutton Publishing, Ltd., Gloucestershire, England).

Anthropological Thoughts The Doctor took his book in hand His pen was in his finger His foot was on a foreign strand -- But there I need not linger. "Now how," said he, "if I may ask About your cousin's mother Would she attempt the simple task Of speaking of your brother? Ah yes, just so, ut if she were Your mother's uncle's sister How would your cousin's sister's aunt Address her when she kissed her? Yes that's a point I meant to add Your nephew's cousin's father If he an uncle's sister had (And neither of the two were mad) Would he respect her rather? But if your father's cousin's niece (His brother's cousin's mother) Were married to your father's son Would he be called your brother? Indeed, now this if it be so Is very interesting And really should not be I think The subject of your jesting. For if your father's mother's son Were nephew to your mother I really cannot understand Why she should call him "brother." Alas, Alas, for just before The doctor's mind could grip her A shout of laughter issued from The Cabin of the Skipper. (Haddon Envelope 12051)





• Kinship and Social Organization: An Interactive Tutorial -- Brian Schwimmer
  
  
• A Select Bibliography of Sources on Torres Strait -- Professor Clive Moore
  
  
• THE TODAS -- W. H. R. RIVERS