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The Ethnological Society of London (ESL) was a learned society founded in 1843 as an offshoot of the Aborigines' Protection Society (APS). The meaning of ethnology as a discipline was not then fixed: approaches and attitudes to it changed over its lifetime, with the rise of a more scientific approach to human diversity. Over three decades the ESL had a chequered existence, with periods of low activity and a major schism contributing to a patchy continuity of its meetings and publications. It provided a forum for discussion of what would now be classed as pioneering scientific anthropology from the changing perspectives of the period, though also with wider geographical, archaeological and linguistic interests. In 1871 the ESL became part of what now is the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, merging back with the breakaway rival group the Anthropological Society of London. ==Background== At the time of the Society's foundation, "ethnology" was a neologism. The Société Ethnologique de Paris was founded in 1839,〔(Waterloo Chronology of Scholarly Societies, 1830s )〕 and the Ethnological Society of New York was founded in 1842.〔Michael Keevak, ''Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking'' (2011), p. 162 note 32; (Google Books ).〕 An earlier Anthropological Society of London existed from 1837 to 1842; Luke Burke who was a member published an ''Ethnological Journal'' in 1848.〔Richard Handler, ''Excluded Ancestors, Inventible Traditions: essays toward a more inclusive history of anthropology'' (2000), pp. 24–25 with note 7; (Google Books ).〕 The Paris society was set up by William Frederic Edwards, with a definite research programme in mind.〔Henrika Kuklick, ''New History of Anthropology'' (2009), p. 98; (Google Books ).〕 Edwards had been lecturing for a decade on the deficiency of considering the races as purely linguistic groups.〔Stocking, p. 27.〕 The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' records the term "ethnology" used in English by James Cowles Prichard in 1842, in his ''Natural History of Man'', for the "history of nations". The approach to ethnology current at the time of the Society's founding relied on climate and social factors to explain human diversity; the debate was still framed by Noah's Flood, and the corresponding monogenism of human origins.〔Nicholas Jardine, James A. Secord, Emma C. Spary, ''Cultures of Natural History'' (1996), p. 339; (Google Books ).〕 Prichard was a major figure in looking at human variability from a diachronic angle, and argued for ethnology as such a study, aimed at resolving the question of human origins.〔Sadiah Qureshi, ''Peoples on Parade: Exhibitions, Empire, and Anthropology in Nineteenth-Century Britain'' (2011), p. 327 note 60; (Google Books ).〕 The early days of ethnology saw it in the position of a fringe science.〔Salesa, p. 145; (Google Books ).〕 Prichard commented in 1848 that the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) still classed ethnology as a subdivision of natural history, as applied to man.〔J. C. Prichard, ''On the Relations of Ethnology to Other Branches of Knowledge'', Journal of the Ethnological Society of London (1848-1856) , Vol. 1, (1848), pp. 301-329. Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3014091〕 It stayed in Section D for a period, but in 1851 it was classed in a new Section E for Geology and Geography, after lobbying by supporters including Roderick Murchison.〔(Paul Sillitoe, ''The Role Of Section H at the British Association for the Advancement of Science in the History Of Anthropology'' ), Durham Anthropology Journal.〕 The overlap of interests between the ESL and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was reflected by common membership.〔Notably Richard Francis Burton, John Crawfurd, Francis Galton, Frederick Hindmarsh, Thomas Hodgkin, William Spottiswoode, and Alfred Russel Wallace. David N. Livingstone, ''The Geographical Tradition: episodes in the history of a contested enterprise'' (1993), p. 163; (Google Books ).〕 Around 1860 the discovery of human antiquity and the publication of the ''Origin of Species'' caused a fundamental change of perspective, with the older historical approach looking hopeless given the emergence of prehistory, but the biological issue gaining in interest.〔Stocking, p. 76.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ethnological Society of London」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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