Haddon, Alfred Court (1855-1940)

British zoologist and anthropologist. Haddon led the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits in 1898 to study the physical characteristics, culture, and psychology of the native people.

Appointed professor of zoology at Dublin in 1880, Haddon visited the Torres Strait in 1888 to study coral reefs but became fascinated by the culture of the natives. Concerned that their culture was rapidly disappearing under the impact of civilization, he organized the 1898 expedition to salvage as much ethnographic data as possible. The expedition represented a turning point in anthropology, for not only did several members (C G Seligman, W H R Rivers, C S Meyers, and William McDougall) subsequently become leading social scientists, but the difficulties they encountered in collecting ethnographic data highlighted the need for anthropologists to live among the people they studied and to speak the native language.

After the expedition Haddon lectured in ethnology at Cambridge and around the country. He was reader in ethnology at Cambridge University 1909-26.