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W. H. R. Rivers
(12 Mar 1864 - 4 Jun 1922)
English medical psychologist and anthropologist.
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Quotes by others about W. H. R. Rivers (1)
[W.H.R.] Rivers is the Rider Haggard of anthropology; I shall be the Conrad.
[Drawing parallel with popular novelists.]
[Drawing parallel with popular novelists.]
Attributed. As quoted in Raymond Firth, Malinowski as Scientist and as Man (1964), 6. However, Michael W. Young in his biography found that Malinowski in fact (in a letter to Mrs. Seligman, 1918) wrote only a comment upon re-reading Rivers' Melenesians, that the book 'reads like Rider Haggard rather than Joseph Conrad. It is rather a pursuit of fact than of the philosophical importance of fact.' See Malinowski. Odyssey of an anthropologist, 1884-1920 (2004), 237.
See also:
- 12 Mar - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Rivers's birth.
- Medicine, Magic and Religion, by W.H.R. Rivers. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
