‘The remnants of a Stone Age people’: Race theory, technology, and ignorance in colonial Australia

Abstract

Colonial-era anthropology, ethnography, and collection were dictated by predetermined conclusions regarding race and technology that emerged in the eighteenth century and solidified by the mid-nineteenth. The Australian continent represented a testing ground for ideas on race and technology, especially in European studies of Australian Aboriginal people. Such notions converged with colonial policy and protection agencies, but protection measures were secondary to the acts of recording and collecting. This article uses the textual records of the leading anthropologists, ethnographers, and collectors in colonial Australia to build on prior research into Australian Aboriginal material culture and the prevailing attitudes of contemporary European observers, and explore how their preconceptions determined their research and collection practices.