Article ID: CBB950685485

The “Tribal Spirit” in Modern Britain: Evolution, Nationality, and Race in the Anthropology of Sir Arthur Keith (2020)

unapi

This article re-examines the anthropological scholarship of Sir Arthur Keith (1866–1955), who served as the president of the Royal Anthropological Institute (1914–1917), the Royal Anatomical Society (1918), and the British Association of the Advancement of Science (1927), who wrote prolifically on anatomy, evolution, and the idea of race. While most commonly associated with the Piltdown man hoax, Keith's contributions to the discipline were far greater and more complex. This essay specifically considers how Keith sought to problematize the concept of the nation, considering the nation-state as an evolutionary unit. The first half of this essay examines Keith's theories on the mechanism of evolution (hormonal instincts) and how this informed his ideas of races and nations as evolutionary units. The second half of the essay considers how Keith deployed his ideas about evolutionary instincts, with the goal of advising Britons about how an evolutionary perspective would help understand, if not resolve, modern political challenges, both international and domestic, that faced the British Empire around the time of the First World War.

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Authors & Contributors
Evans, Andrew David
McMahon, Richard
Yu, Xiaobo
Herza, Filip
Stanley, Matthew
Juzda, E
Concepts
Anthropology
Science and politics
Nationalism
Science and race
Evolution
World War I
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century, late
20th century
18th century
Places
Germany
Great Britain
China
Yugoslavia
Poland
Greece
Institutions
X-Club
Rockefeller Foundation
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