The Roth Family, Anthropology, and Colonial Administration

No family better represents the overlapping roles of administrator and scientist in the British empire than the Roths. Descended from a Hungarian emigrant to Australia, two generations of Roths served the empire on four continents and, at the same time, produced ethnographic, archaeological, and linguistic studies that form the basis for much modern research. This volume assesses the often-conflicting roles and contributions of the Roths as government servants and anthropologists. Most of the volume deals with Walter E. Roth, who developed foundational studies of both the Australian Aborigines—considered to be among the first systematic ethnographies anywhere—and South American tribes while serving as Chief Protector of Aborigines in Queensland and later medical officer, magistrate, museum curator and indigenous relations officer in British Guyana. Henry Ling Roth’s contributions to the anthropology of Tasmania, Benin, Sarawak, and New Zealand are also enumerated, as are the publications and administrative activities of the succeeding generation of Roths. This volume serves the reader as a family biography, a slice of the English colonial history, and an important introduction to the history of anthropology.

This volume serves the reader as a family biography, a slice of the English colonial history, and an important introduction to the history of anthropology.

“…it is easy to welcome this collection of papers that had their genesis in a conference devoted exclusively to the purpose of exploring the achievements as well as other aspects of the careers of this remarkable family. As someone who has worked in central and western Queensland for a number of years I have always found it a pleasure to delve into Roth’s voluminous materials from these regions for some new insight. This volume nicely complements that. For others there will be other aspects to catch their interest, including an opportunity to compare colonial administrations in Australia, the Pacific, and South America.”- Luke Godwin, Australian Archaeology

Russell McDougall has published widely on West African, West Indian and Australian literatures and histories. He is Associate Professor in English at the University of New England.Iain Davidson has studied the archaeology of hunter-gatherers in Europe and Australia since the early 1970s. He has studied stone tools, animal bones and rock art, and published extensively on the archaeology of language origins, often with psychologist William Noble. He has undertaken archaeological work in North West Central Queensland since 1986.