Alfred Cort Haddon (1855-1940) Alfred Cort Haddon (1855-1940)By Philippe Bourgoin Alfred C. Haddon, a major figure in the history of British anthropology, is well-known for the two expeditions he organized to the Torres Strait in 1888 and 1898. These important undertakings, the results of which had a major influence on nascent ethnographic research, led to one of the first studies of the arts of this region and to the publication of a remarkable monograph (A. C. Haddon et al., Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, vols. I to VI, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1901-1935). Alfred Cort Haddon, 1898 Haddon grew up in a non-conformist family with a passion for art, humanitarian activism and radical political ideas. His grandparents campaigned for the abolition of slavery. His father, a talented publisher and illustrator, ran a successful printing business that acted as an agency for the Baptist Missionary Society, and two of his aunts were founding members of the Fabian Society in 1884. Thanks to his mother, who wrote children’s books, he became interested in nature and animal life, and spent a great deal of time in his childhood sketching in zoos. But what would ultimately nurture his youthful imagination most markedly and influence his future choices most decisively were the stories told by his father’s family’s business clients - freight brokers from Africa and the Pacific Islands - when they returned from the distant lands they had visited. He began his studies in comparative anatomy and zoology at Christ’s College, Cambridge University, in 1875. He became a Demonstrator in Zoology there in 1879 but left in 1880. Having failed to secure a position at the British Museum, it was thanks to the support and assistance of physiologist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) that he was appointed the Chair of the Zoology Department at the Royal College of Science in Dublin. At the same time, he became Honorary Secretary of the Irish Dredging Company, and he developed his interest in marine zoology and sea anemones through extensive contact with fishermen. Eager for first-hand observations and contacts, Haddon set about studying his subjects in situ. Haddon, A.C., “Torres Strait, Mer. Three Meriam men, Gadodo, Mamai, and Pasi, dressed for a danse”. 1888-1889. Lantern slide. © Museum of Archaeology and anthropology Cambridge. LS.109351.TC1. It was in light of his own participation in the voyage of the H.M.S. Rattlesnake (1848-1850) and his sojourn on the Cape York Peninsula, Australia’s northernmost region, that Thomas Huxley suggested to Haddon that he visit the Torres Strait. Located between Australia and Papua New Guinea, the strait is named after the Spanish navigator Luis Váez de Torrès, who crossed it in 1606. Just under 300 islands are strewn across it. Very few are inhabited, but thanks to their geographical location, they have always been a hub for various activities. Not only have goods circulating between Australia and Papua New Guinea moved through them for tens of thousands of years, but the islands were also an early point of contact between their inhabitants and Westerners. They are home to two of the oldest cultures on earth, that of the aborigines of Melanesian origin who are related to the Papuans of New Guinea, and that of the aborigines of tropical North Queensland. Haddon’s participation in this first expedition, from August 8, 1888 to April 15, 1889, was the first milestone in his intellectual and professional development. Haddon and William Henry Flower (1831-1899), whom Huxley had appointed Director of the Natural History Department, set about planning the expedition’s ethnological program. Haddon also consulted Samuel McFarlane (1837-1911), an ethnologist and evangelist who had established a regional base for the London Missionary Society on Murray Island (Mer) in 1871. Even before Haddon’s arrival, the rapid Christianization of these islands had brought artistic production to a halt, and McFarlane was the first to systematically collect the region’s most emblematic objects, in particular the famous tortoiseshell masks. These masks, remarkably fashioned from pieces of tortoiseshell, display an extraordinary graphic and sculptural complexity, and usually combine anthropomorphic and zoomorphic representations. They were used for various types of ceremonies, accompanied by songs and the playing of the unique hourglass-shaped warup drums, the open ends of which depict the head of a sea mammal with its mouth wide open. Nicholas, R.J., St. Austell Studio, “Torres Strait masked man, and man with warup drum. Torres Strait, Murray Island, Meriam”. 1905. Lantern slide. 83 x 83 mm. Haddon Collection. © Museum of Archaeology and anthropology Cambridge. LS.109373.TC1. As soon as Haddon arrived in the Torres Strait, one of his first endeavors was to accompany government resident Hugh Milman (1845-1911), who was based on Thursday Island, on his inspection tour, in order to become acquainted with the islands and their inhabitants. It was in the company of the native fishermen who took him to explore the shores of the strait in their canoes that Haddon learned about their beliefs and customs. He found that the number of inhabitants had dwindled considerably in recent years, and that only the oldest men were still able to provide reliable information. Ceremonial carved wooden drum warup in an hour glass shape, with one end carved as a fish mouth; feathers and nuts are attached to the mouth. Tudu Island, Torres Strait. Object donated by A.C. Haddon, 1889 (Inv. Oc,89+.189). Gelatin silver print. 52,20 x 37 cm. © British Museum, London. Inv. Oc,A69.122. Fascinated by the tales of a bygone era that the people he encountered shared with him, and confronted with a society he believed was disappearing before his eyes, he devoted his spare time to studying and trying to preserve these vanishing traditions by assembling an ethnographic collection and taking photographs. Relying on the local social network, Haddon was able to establish close relationships with numerous local inhabitants who became his informants (Ulai, Enocha, Gadodo, Mamai, Pasi, Gizu (the expedition’s chief informants on Mabuiag Island), Ned Waria, and the Mamoose (Mamoose were chiefs and government representatives on their respective islands) of Mabuiag and Arei, the Mamoose of Mer and, in particular, Maino (c. 1860-1939), the Mamoose of Iama (Yam) and Tudu islands, an influential figure who became a true friend. Haddon, A.C., Group of two Muralug Island men dressed for the Waiitutukap (Dance of the Sawfish) wearing large tin masks and zazi (grass skirt). To the right two other men sit playing warup drums [detail]. Thursday Island. Torres Strait. 11-15 November 1888. Glass Negative Halfplate. © Museum of Archaeology and anthropology Cambridge. Inv. N.22895.ACH2. It was through the latter that Haddon was able to acquire numerous objects in exchange for goods such as calico, tobacco, axes and knives. Maino also provided the ethnologist with valuable cultural information, as well as the names and uses of the various specimens he had collected. Haddon asked his informants to make cardboard reproductions of the types of masks that no longer existed on the islands, and Maino organized a dance for him. It was on Thursday Island that he met James Chalmers (1841-1901), a Scottish LMS missionary. Appointed to Papua New Guinea in 1877, Chalmers had been the first European to come into contact with numerous indigenous groups. In his company, Haddon was able to explore the regions of Papua New Guinea bordering the Torres Strait, and once again obtained valuable information. Haddon brought back not only artifacts from this expedition, but also linguistic data that resulted in his subsequently working with prominent British linguist Sidney Herbert Ray (1858-1939), famous for his comparative philology studies of Pacific languages. This in situ field experience so profoundly transformed Haddon that he turned his full attention to the study of human societies. He would thus become one of the founders of modern British anthropology. After his return to England, Haddon kept in touch by exchanging letters with his companion Maino, whom he reunited with on his second expedition in 1898-1899, and again in 1914. Most of the objects collected during this first expedition were presented by Haddon and Flower to the British Museum. On this occasion, Haddon gave a lecture titled The Ethnography of the Western Tribe of Torres Straits (in The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. 19, 1890). Some of these pieces went on to the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Horniman Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of Ireland and the Queensland Museum. Cardboard model of a Bomai turtle-shell mask krar, made for A.C. Haddon by Wano and Enocha of Mer. The mask was worn by an Islander when he performed segments of the original Malo-Bomai dances for Haddon to film on the cinematograph. Lantern slide. Collected by A.C. Haddon, 1898. © Museum of Archaeology and anthropology Cambridge. Inv. Z 9440. Also in 1890, Haddon and anatomist Andrew Francis Dixon (1868-1936) spent a week in the Aran Islands, off the coast of Galway, Ireland, to carry out a landmark ethnographic survey. These three isolated islands are fascinating both historically and culturally, with their inhabitants having developed a unique singing style and a very distinctive dialect. At the time, the islanders, who wore their “Galway suits” and “calico gowns” as symbols of their refusal to be assimilated, were under pressure from Anglo-Saxon colonization. Haddon and Dixon documented the glaciokarst landscapes, the islands’ inhabitants, their way of life, beliefs, customs, folklore and numerous archaeological sites. In 1893, Haddon moved to Cambridge, where he supplemented his lectures and work in the fields of anthropology, zoology and human evolution with the publication of studies on the decorative arts of Papua New Guinea (The Decorative Art of British New Guinea: A study in Papua Ethnography, The Academy House, Dublin, 1894) and on the evolution of art (Evolution in Art, Walter Scott Ltd., London, 1895). Crocodile mask of turtleshell surmounted with a human face with two projecting arms and hands, made by Gizu of Nagir. The mask refers to the story of Uberi Kuberi, where a man was eaten by a crocodile kept as a pet by his daughter. Nagir, Torres Strait. 50 x 82 x 80 cm. Collected by A.C. Haddon, 1888. Donated by the Hon. Sir A.H. Gordon G.C.H.G, 1890. © Museum of Archaeology and anthropology Cambridge. Inv. 1890.182. In the field of anthropology, The Study of Man (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, Bliss, Sands, & Co., London, 1898) is a pioneering work that remains a classic in the discipline. The most important event in Haddon’s scientific life was however his second expedition to the Torres Strait and Sarawak, Borneo, in 1898-1899. The expedition, made with psychologist Charles Samuel Myers (1873-1946), in charge of studying songs and music, anthropologist William Haise Rivers (1864-1922), linguist Sidney Herbert Ray (1858-1939), psychologist William McDougall (1871-1938), physician and anthropologist Charles Gabriel Seligman (1873-1940) and archaeologist Anthony Wilkin (ca. 1877-1901), the trip’s photographer, reached Thursday Island on April 22, 1898. “Formal portrait with four men standing (left-right) Rivers, Seligman, Ray, Wilkin, Haddon (seated), Mabuiag, Torres Strait”. Glass Negative Quarterplate. A.C. Haddon Collection, 1898. © Museum of Archaeology and anthropology Cambridge. Inv. N.23035.ACH2. During their stay, they visited not only the Thursday Island group, but also the Murray (Sea) Islands, Saibai and Mabuiag. They also visited Port Moresby in the Papuan Gulf, the Mawatta district and Kiwai Island. Thanks to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that had been established in this region since 1881, they were able to visit the Mekeo region. In the course of these excursions, Haddon kept diaries and wrote numerous letters to his wife, Fanny, with descriptions what he had seen, some of them richly illustrated with sketches. The expedition as a whole was a significant event in the history of anthropological research. It is considered, in the annals of ethno-anthropological science, to represent the first attempt to study a population and its environment from a multidisciplinary perspective, using an anthropological approach integrating the viewpoints of fields such as sociology, linguistics, religious science and art. Wilkin, A., “Myers recorded the sacred song of the Malu ceremonies”. Mer, Torres Strait. Gasu is beating the drum wasikor, while Usai sings into the recording”. July, 29, 1898. Lantern slide. Haddon collection. © Museum of Archaeology and anthropology Cambridge. LS.109415.TC1. It collected what is now invaluable cultural heritage data, given the scarcity of information available from this period. It was also a photo-ethnographic project and a first attempt to apply the technologies of filming and recording to ethnological research (the British Library in London has 140 wax cylinders recorded by Myers on the islands of Mabuiag, Saibai and Yam and in Papua New Guinea). Opposing the misuse of the human sciences as tools to promote racist ideas, the photographs and portraits taken by the team played a considerable role. The islanders the expedition encountered soon made them their own, and some of the documentation clearly attests to the feelings of equality that prevailed between the local inhabitants and the members of the expedition. There was no hint of an attitude of superiority, let alone of racism. This privileged relationship led the expedition members to provide their informants with notebooks and sheets of paper so that they could draw pictures illustrating certain ceremonies that were no longer practiced because they were contrary to the Christian faith, give examples of songs and dances, and describe the mythical stories of the founding heroes. If Haddon didn’t hesitate to venture out alone and unarmed among these people, considered “savages” at the time, it was thanks to a simple string. When he sat down in a village and started making string figures, the children would come out and show him how they made theirs, then the mothers would come and see what the children were interested in, and the men followed quickly thereafter. The making of figures from a loop of string has been observed since the end of the 19th century in a number of cultures and is particularly prevalent in so-called oral societies. In their analysis from a comparative ethnological perspective, Rivers and Haddon documented the methods used by Torres Strait islanders to produce 31 kinds of string figures, and developed a nomenclature for the designation of all stages of their creation (Rivers & Haddon, A Method of Recording String Figures and Tricks, in Man, 2, 1902; Haddon, String figures and tricks, in Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits, Vol. 4, Cambridge, 1912). In October 1898, Rivers, Wilkin and McDougall returned to England, while Haddon, Seligman, Myers and Ray, at the invitation of Baram District Administrator Charles Hose (1863-1929), visited Sarawak, Borneo, from December 12, 1898 to April 25, 1899. Hose, whose collection of ethnographic objects was acquired by the British Museum in 1905, was fascinated by fauna, flora and indigenous peoples. Having been initiated into the subject by Hose, Haddon took a particular interest in Iban textiles during his stay. He collected and bought some examples from Hose, which are now in the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology in Cambridge. The curator of the Sarawak Museum, Robert W. C. Shelford (1872-1912), also welcomed him, and made it possible for him to study the museum’s collection. This led to the publication of an important work titled Iban or Sea Dayak Fabrics and Their Patterns (The University Press, Cambridge, 1936) which Haddon co-authored with Laura Emily Start (1875-1957), an ethnologist with a specialty in the field. Haddon published a travelogue aimed at a wider audience (Head-Hunters Black, White, and Brown, Methuen & Co., London, 1901) about this trip to New Guinea and Sarawak. Upon his return to England, he had been warmly welcomed by the scientific community. In 1900, he gave up his position as the Chair of the Department of Zoology in Dublin to devote himself entirely to anthropology. In 1901, in recognition of his services, Cambridge University appointed him Assistant in Ethnology and a member of its College Board. At the same time, he began his collaboration with the Horniman Museum when the London County Council commissioned him to inspect and evaluate the collection donated to it by Frederick John Horniman (1835-1906). After submitting his report in 1902, he held the position of consultant curator at the museum until 1915. Under his supervision, the institution redesigned itself and reclassified its collections as an educational resource. Group portrait of British anthropologists posing in front of the New Guinea cases in the Museum’s galleries. In the centre is Alfred Cort Haddon, with Louis William Gordon Malcolm (1888-1946) on the far left, possibly Thomas Athol Joyce (1878-1942), second from left. Second from right is probably John D. Newsom (?-1954). The man on the far right is currently unidentified. Thomas Forsyth McIlwraith (1899-1964) is seated at the front. Circa 1921. Unknown photographer. © Museum of Archaeology and anthropology Cambridge. Inv. 145684. The Horniman’s collections also reflect his influence, both through the Inuit and Northwest Coast ensemble assembled by Haddon that had been acquired by Frederick Horniman’s son, Emslie Horniman (1863-1932) in the course of his several sojourns in North America and among the Indians of Oklahoma and Montana, and then donated to the Museum, as well as through collections received from Haddon’s network of friends and colleagues including Charles Hose for Borneo, Sir Everard Im Thurn (1852-1932) for Guyana, his son Ernest Balfour Haddon (1882-1976) for Africa (Sudan, Uganda and KwaZulu-Natal), Stanley Gardiner (1872-1946) who took part in three expeditions to the Indian Ocean (1896-1909), Charles Seligman and Major William Cooke Daniels (1870-1918) who visited Papua New Guinea (1903-1904), Alfred Reginald Radcliffe Brown (1881-1955) who did ethnographic research in the Andaman Islands (1906-1908) and Emil Torday (1875-1931) for the Congo. Ever active, Haddon visited the Torres Strait and the Gulf of Papua for a third and last time, accompanied by his daughter, Kathleen Haddon Rishbeth (1888-1961), a zoologist, photographer and string-figure specialist, from September 16 to November 20, 1914. From 1909 to 1926, Haddon held the post of Lecturer in the Faculty of Anthropological Studies at Cambridge, founded in 1904. In 1920, he became Assistant Curator of the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Haddon retired in 1925 and died in Cambridge on April 20, 1940. Alfred Cort Haddon was a source of inspiration to all those who gathered around him, and for almost thirty years virtually the sole representative of the field of anthropology at Cambridge. Through his advocacy of an engaged and socially responsible approach to its study, and his contributions to learning, teaching and research, he became one of the driving forces that gave this discipline its place within the group of the observational sciences. His numerous publications cover just about every aspect of social life, anthropology and art. He continued to work to the end of his days, his last achievements being a comprehensive study of Pacific canoes produced in collaboration with James Hornell (1865-1949) (Canoes of Oceania, 3 vols., Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1936-1938) and the posthumously published work Smoking and Tobacco Pipes in New Guinea, (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Vol. 232, No. 586, June 6, 1946).
