"Notes and Queries on Anthropology" and the Development of Field Methods in British Anthropology, 1870-1920

Introduction: Lay Participation in the History of Scientific Observation

“…It therefore presented a potential problem for the credibility of the data, and Didier's unusually revealing example allows us a significant glimpse into the actual practices by which statistical data have been gathered. It also provides an example of the production of knowledge in the human sciences, which usefully complements existing studies on the involvement of lay people in fields such as anthropology, whether through questionnaires for travelers (e.g., Urry 1972) or as collaborators in ethnography (e.g., Schumaker 2001).…”

“Did He Ever Darn His Stockings?” Beatrice Blackwood and the Ethnographic Authority of Bronislaw Malinowski

“…Ethnographers, Rivers noted, should speak the vernacular, witness local ceremonies for themselves, and pay special attention to volunteered information because direct questioning could be problematic. Rivers prioritized "sociological" study over and above archaeology, material culture and physical anthropology, arguing that a focus on the latter two risked undermining the rapport between the inquirer and their subject while they were in the field (Rivers 1912;Stocking 1995: 123;Urry 1993: 27-31; see also Stocking 1984;Urry 1972).…”

Different visions. A comparison of the central African collections of W. F. Burton and Irma stern

“…Although not mentioned specifically by Burton, it is very likely that he would have had at hand a copy of Notes and Queries on Anthropology, indispensable aid to serious observers of other cultures since the publication of its first edition in 1874. Revised editions followed at intervals, changing in accord with anthropological concerns of the moment (Urry, 1972). The fifth edition, published in 1929 and compiled by a committee chaired by A. C. Haddon, would have been well known to Winifred Hoernlé, whose academic appointment at the University of the Witwatersrand had been supported by Haddon.…”