Finding revelation in anthropology: Alexander Winchell, William Robertson Smith and the heretical imperative

Anthropological inquiry has often been considered an agent of intellectual secularization. Not least is this so in the sphere of religion, where anthropological accounts have often been taken to represent the triumph of naturalism. This metanarrative however fails to recognise that naturalistic explanations could sometimes be espoused for religious purposes and in defence of confessional creeds. This essay examines two late nineteenth-century figures – Alexander Winchell in the United States, and William Robertson Smith in Britain – who found in anthropological analysis resources to bolster rather than undermine faith. In both cases these individuals found themselves on the receiving end of ecclesiastical censure and were dismissed from their positions at church-governed institutions. But their motivation was to vindicate divine revelation, in Winchell’s case from the physical anthropology of human origins and in Smith’s from the cultural anthropology of Semitic ritual.

‘“Indelible characters”:Tattoos, Power and the Late Nineteenth-Century Irish Convict Body

Since the late nineteenth-century works of criminologists Lombroso and Lacassagne, tattoos in Europe have been commonly associated with deviant bodies. Like many other studies of tattoos of non-indigenous origin, the locus of our research is the convict body. Given the corporeal emphasis of prison records, we argue that tattoos form a crucial part of the power dynamic. Tattoos in the carceral context embody an inherent paradox of their being a component in the reidentification of 'habitual criminals'. We argue that their presence can be regarded as an expression of convict agency: by the act of imprinting unique identifiers on their bodies, convicts boldly defied the official gaze, while equally their description in official records exacted power over the deviant body. Cursory findings show an alignment with other national studies; corporeal inscriptions in Ireland were more prevalent in men's prisons than women's and associated, however loosely, with certain occupations. For instance, maritime and military motifs find representation. Recidivists were more likely to have tattoos than first-time offenders; inscriptions were described as monotone, rudimentary in design and incorporated a limited range of impressions. Further to our argument that tattoos form an expression of convict defiance of prison authority, we have found an unusual idiosyncrasy in the convict record, that is, that the agency of photography, while undermined in general terms, was manipulated by prison officers.

Tartessos: a construção de identidades através do registo escrito e da documentação arqueológica : um estudo comparativo

Tese de doutoramento, História (Arqueologia), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2014

Mémoires de l'Institut national des sciences et arts.... Littérature et beaux-arts

1801/05 (T3).

Mémoires de l'Institut national des sciences et arts.... Littérature et beaux-arts

1799/08 (T2).

Mémoires de l'Institut national des sciences et arts.... Littérature et beaux-arts

1803 (T4).

Mémoires de l'Institut national des sciences et arts.... Littérature et beaux-arts

1798/07 (T1).

Mémoires de l'Institut national des sciences et arts.... Littérature et beaux-arts

1804/08 (T5).

Histoire et mémoires de l'Institut royal de France : classe d'histoire et de littérature ancienne

1824 (T7).

Histoire et mémoires de l'Institut royal de France : classe d'histoire et de littérature ancienne

Variante(s) de titre : Mémoires de l'Institut royal de France

Histoire et mémoires de l'Institut royal de France : classe d'histoire et de littérature ancienne

1815 (T2).

Histoire et mémoires de l'Institut royal de France : classe d'histoire et de littérature ancienne

1818 (T4).

Histoire et mémoires de l'Institut royal de France : classe d'histoire et de littérature ancienne

1822 (T6).

Missale Sancti Dyonisii.

Principales fêtes seulement. Circoncision (1) ; — Avent (2) ; — Pâques (22v) ; — s. Denis (38 et 61) ; — Canon (50v) ; — Messes votives (57-80v) ; — s. Eugène (80v) ; — Commun des saints (81) ; — Bénédiction de l'eau (92). F. 1v Inscriptions de l'église de Boisemont (dioc. de Rouen) (XVIe s.).