1990. “Strangers Abroad” series. Produced, written, and narrated by Bruce Dakowski.

W. H. R. Rivers, born 12 March 1864 as William Halse Rivers Rivers, was a man of many talents and interests. As a physiologist, psychologist, psychiatrist and anthropologist, he made contributions to and helped to shape the development of academic disciplines. His contributions to anthropology lie mainly in the development of systematic field methodologies and the shaping of the Cambridge University department of anthropology. Although Rivers is not taken to have contributed to the development of a particular theoretical position, his work towards the creation of anthropology as a science is probably his most lasting influence, which, although never achieved, did produce a systemization of field work and field methodologies, especially the genealogical method.

River's work in anthropology began with his participation in the Torres Straits expedition, headed by Alfred Cort Haddon. The expedition (May- October 1898) aimed to survey a small group of islands in the straits between the north of Australia and the south coast of New Guinea; its projects focused on "primitive mentality." Rivers' contribution was to examine the sensory perception of the local peoples, especially their vision and color perception. Rivers' work on color led him to note that color names varied within communities, but ran in families. He thus began to gather genealogies of the local people to trace the color naming patterns. In the development of the "genealogical method", Rivers took his first steps towards a systematization of ethnographic methods.

While on the Torres Straits expedition, Rivers also began to engage with the prevailing paradigm of the inferiority of "savage mentality". Rivers himself characterized the difference between the savage and civilized minds as those focused on concrete ideas versus the more developed capable of abstract thought. Even so, Rivers' was particularly fascinated by the complexity of the games played by the local people, whose abstract thought abilities clearly challenged the savage mentality paradigm. Finally, the Torres Straits expedition established two new kinds of field data in the form of films and recordings of songs and music.

Rivers stopped briefly in Egypt to collect more data on cross-cultural sensory perception. While there, he met Grafton Elliot Smith, a young professor of anatomy at Cairo. Rivers' own interest in diffusion as a mode of cultural change so impressed Elliot Smith that he was drawn to becoming an anthropologist. Grafton Smith elaborated a theory of global diffusion from an Egyptian origin gained him much fame and notoriety.

Rivers' next important anthropological work was in with the Todas in southwest India, where he spent five months of intensive field study in 1901-1902. It was a long period of study for that time, although one should also note that Rivers resided outside of the community in the resort of a local raj. He was more a scientist observer than a participant observer as Malinowski was to become. While Rivers produced an insightful perspective on the Todas, a heavily studied people, which emphasized the connectivity of every practice to the intricately woven whole (The Todas, 1906). The Todas practiced polyandry (in part the source of the fascination which produced a large volume of work even at Rivers' time) and child marriage. Rather than viewing the Todas as having a loose morality, from Rivers' description a view of the alternative morality of the Todas emerges.

Rivers' final anthropological work was in Melanesia and Polynesia (1907-1908), based on which he wrote The History of Melanesian Society (1914). He also continued working in psychology and psychiatry throughout his life, contributing importantly to the development of the psychoanalytic method and to the recognition and treatment of shell-shock victims. After his trip to Melanesia and Polynesia, Rivers returned to Cambridge and focused on developing more systematic field methodologies (as illustrated by his essay in the new edition of Notes and Queries on Anthropology).

W. H. R. Rivers died suddenly at the age of 58 on June 4, 1922. Dakowski argues that Rivers made no lasting theoretical contribution to anthropology. Rather, Dakowski concludes, Rivers' emphasis on systematic field research and his refinements of methods of inquiry significantly strengthened the research basis of the emerging discipline. Rivers’ methodological contributions emphasized the problems of bias and the ways that systematic methods helped to lessen bias. He also emphasized that the ultimate goal of ethnographic work was description, a key contribution at a time when theoretical paradigms like diffusionism and evolutionism continued to shape ethnographic work. Although Rivers' never made anthropology a science, he made key contributions to anthropology in methodologies and in the training of many early students of anthropology, including Radcliffe-Brown.

Additional material for this commentary has been drawn from Richard Slobodin, W. H .R. Rivers. New York: Columbia, 1978.