Books in the Cambridge Library Collection - Anthropology series

First published in 1911, this account of the Baganda tribe of Uganda by missionary John Roscoe remains an important anthropological work. Speaking their language and with influential native friends, he was able to collect information on their culture before it was transformed by colonial rule and conversion to Christianity.

A physician and psychotherapist, W. H. R. Rivers (1864-1922) was also interested in anthropology. In 1901-2 he studied the genealogies and customs of the Todas, inhabitants of a high plateau in south-west India. This illustrated book, published in 1906, was regarded as a standard ethnography for half a century.

Though professionally a banker and politician, John Lubbock (1834-1913) is best remembered for his scientific contributions. Tutored as a boy by Charles Darwin, Lubbock later used evolutionary theory to explain the development of human civilisations. This 1870 anthropological work compares ancient social structures with those of contemporary primitive cultures.

Published in 1932 by John Henderson Soga (1860-1941), a Xhosa minister and scholar, this important work of social anthropology records the customs and traditions of the Xhosa as distinct from other tribal communities in South Africa.

Published in English in 1930 by John Henderson Soga (1860-1941), a Xhosa minister and scholar, this important work is based on Xhosa oral traditions collected by the author. A standard authority on the author's own people, it documents their history, traditions and tribal lives.

As a left-hander, the archaeologist and anthropologist Daniel Wilson (1816-92) was interested to discover as many left-handed Stone Age implements as right. In 1891 he published the results of his studies of left-handedness, which he concludes is hereditary and relates to the dominance of one hemisphere of the brain.

Swedish-American missionary Ola Hanson (1864-1929) lived with the Kachin people of Burma for over twenty years. He published this unique insight into Kachin culture in 1913, beginning with their origins, language and appearance, and going on to describe Kachin religious beliefs, traditions and ceremonies.

Published in 1901, this two-volume set looks at how entertainment in London changed dramatically between the restoration of Charles II and the accession of Queen Victoria. From bear-baiting and prize-fights with swords, tastes turned to less bloodthirsty pastimes such as gambling, masked balls, and opera and theatre.

The Maori texts in this 1913-15 publication were written down over fifty years earlier by W.H. Whatahoro, acting as scribe for senior Maori elders. Whatahoro himself assisted the retired government surveyor Stephenson Percy Smith (1840-1922) with the accompanying English translation. Volume 1 focuses on the gods and creation.

This compilation of Maori oral literature was commissioned in 1879 by the New Zealand government to help preserve indigenous traditions. The ethnographer John White (1826-91) collected the texts and provided accompanying English translations. Volume 1 (1887) includes narratives about the Horouta canoe, the gods and the creation of humans.

First published in 1813 as a revision of an earlier edition, this two-volume almanac of British customs and superstitions is widely regarded as one of the earliest authorities on folklore. Volume 1 details the origins and practices of annual festivals including religious holidays, saints' days, and pagan celebrations.

Edith Simcox (1844-1901) was a prominent British feminist, social critic and a prolific writer. These volumes, first published in 1897, contain a pioneering comparative analysis of aspects of the economic history of ancient societies. Volume 1 contains her discussions of ancient Egypt and Babylonia.

Dr C. G. Seligmann (1873-1940) was a renowned field anthropologist. This book contains his pioneering study of the indigenous aboriginal Vedda people of Sri Lanka, which examines the social, religious and economic life of this group. This ethnology remains the standard reference work for information about the Veddas.

H. A. MacMichael (1882-1969) was a member of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan government who was the deputy Inspector of Kordofan province in Sudan between 1906 and 1912. His ethnographic research in Kordofan was published as part of the Cambridge Archaeological and Ethnographic Series in 1912.

W. Rickmer Rickmers (1873-1965) was a German explorer who visited central Asia five times between 1894 and 1906. This book, illustrated with 207 maps and photographs, provides a description of the area he calls Turkestan (incorporating modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and south-west Kazakhstan).

The linguist and philologist Jacob Grimm (1785-1863), best remembered as co-editor of Grimm's Fairy Tales, also wrote this exhaustive study of comparative mythology, first published in German in 1835. This English translation of the enlarged, posthumous fourth German edition of 1875 was published between 1880 and 1888.

Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917) was an English anthropologist who is widely considered the founder of anthropology as a scientific discipline. First published in 1871, this influential work explains Tylor's idea of cultural evolution in relation to anthropology. Volume 1 focuses on social evolution, language and myth.

A pioneer in establishing the field of Celtic studies, John Rhys (1840-1915) became the first professor of Celtic languages at Oxford in 1877. This two-volume work, published in 1901, illuminates folklore fieldwork and its difficulties. For each text, Rhys provides information about his sources, and an English translation.

First published in 1864, this two-volume work is an account by the American explorer Charles Francis Hall (1821-71) of his journey to the Arctic to investigate the fate of Sir John Franklin's 1847 expedition. In Volume 1 he describes the life of the Inuit people with whom he lived.