Albert Cort Haddon: A Very English Savage

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.

Ciarán Walsh curated in 2010 an internationally acclaimed exhibition of photography by John Millington Synge which brought the photography of Alfred Cort Haddon into focus. He works as a freelance curator and writer.