Edward Westermarck
Edward Westermarck (1862-1939) is a curious figure in the history of anthropology. I have sometimes been tempted to regard him a missing link between the earlier, nineteenth century figures and the modern school which began in the 1920s. Usually, however, by casual historians of the discipline, such as the late John Davis, he has been relegated firmly to the dark nineteenth century. However, I have never managed to reconcile the obvious quality of his ethnographic work with this easy dismissal as a figure without an intellectual after life. Eventually, after a careful study of both his written work and the archives, I have come to realise that far from being an incidental he is absolutely key - far from being derivative of an earlier period, he is in many respects a remarkably original and powerful thinker.
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There is a number of different ways that this significance may be demonstrated. In terms of his personal influence, he was appointed to the LSE as the first Professor of Sociology in 1908. When Malinowski came to join the school, he very quickly became close friends with Westermarck. Often, Malinowski has been painted as an adversarial figure. He certainly could be. But in this particular case, they appear to have become not only friends but later close colleagues, and in turn Malinowski was profoundly influenced by him when developing his understanding of anthropology. Indeed, Malinowski’s later theories of functionalism, and of societal institutions, can clearly be traced back to Westermarck’s teachings, something that he himself was content to admit. These connections have been explored by Otto Pipatti in a recent monograph.
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However, Westermark’s contribution is much more widespread than being Malinowski’s teacher. Early on in his career, he questioned the idea of survivals or the presumption of inherited characteristics from an earlier age, particularly in the study of kinship. This foreshadowed the later presumption at the heart of social anthropology that kinship systems can be studied synchronously without being concerned as to the origins.
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Over and above this, however, the fieldwork was outstanding. Over many summers he would visit Morocco, and eventually gained an excellent knowledge of both Berber and Arabic. The fieldwork that he wrote up can appear to be diffuse, but the key to understanding it is to realise that he intended it as the exemplification of his earlier theories of morals and ethics. When this is understood it falls into place as an extraordinary description of the way that complex cultural and religious demands on any one believer can be negotiated in way that makes sense from their point of view.
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References
Pipatti, O. 2024 The Origins Of Human Social Nature: Westermarckian Sociology and Social Anthropology, London: Palgrave.
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Shankland, D. 2022 Westermarck and Social Anthropology, in ‘Before and After Malinowski: Alternative Views on the History of Anthropology’, edited by Han F. Vermeulen and Freerico Delgado Rosa, Article BEROSE, 17-21.
Open access at: Before and After Malinowski: Alternative Views on the History of (…) - Bérose (berose.fr)
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Shankland, D. 2022 ‘Edward Westermarck, a Master Ethnographer, and His Monograph Ritual and Belief in Morocco (1926)’, Chapter Three in Ethnographers before Malinowski, edited by Frederico Delgado Rosa and Han F. Vermeulen, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 117-152.
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Shankland, D. (ed) 2014 Westermarck, RAI Occasional Publication 44, Sean Kingston Books. Short-listed for the 2014 Katharine Briggs Prize of the Folklore Society.
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Westermarck, E. 1891. The History of Human Marriage, London: Macmillan and Co.
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Westermarck, E. 1906–1908. The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, 2 vols. London: Macmillan.
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Westermarck, E. 1926. Ritual and Belief in Morocco, 2 vols. London: Macmillan.