The Foundation and Early Years of the Anthropological Society of South Australia
Philip Jones, South Australian Museum
The Anthropological Society of South Australia was formed during 1926, the first such society in Australia. Its key founder, Frederic Wood Jones, later helped found the Anthropological Society of Victoria. The South Australian Anthropological Society’s primary aim was to place existing knowledge about Australian Aboriginal people on the record, before it was ‘lost to science’. For this reason, the Society welcomed corresponding members from the bush with ‘first-hand information’, and extended invitations to interested amateurs across the country. A list of topics for urgent investigation was drawn up, results were collated and discussed at monthly meetings, and newspaper reports relayed summaries to the public. This paper investigates the conjunction of personalities and events leading not only to the formation of the Anthropological Society, but also to the foundation of the Board for Anthropological Research during the same year. Not surprisingly, the two Adelaide organisations shared members, research aims and a commitment to a ‘salvage’ approach, but from the outset the Society also held a brief to examine issues relating to the ‘preservation’ of Aboriginal life and culture, allowing for topical, even political, discussion. The Society’s relationship with other learned societies, the University, the Museum, missionaries and the government will be briefly considered.
