The Huxley Memorial Medal and Lecture is a lecture and associated medal that was created in 1900 by the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland to honour the anthropologist Thomas Henry Huxley.[1] The lecture and medal are awarded annually to any scientist who distinguishes themselves in any field of anthropological research.[1] Thomas Huxley was fortunate to have another memorial lecture named his honour, The Huxley Lecture that was instituted by the members of Charing Cross Hospital Medical School in 1896.[2]
Huxley had been a member of both the Ethnological Society of London (ESL) and the Anthropological Society of London since 1863, and he was President of the ESL during its last two years,[3] and Vice President of the Institute when John Lubbock, Lord Avebury was President. A Huxley Lecture Committee was convened in May 1896, which decided that scientist should be invited to deliver a lecture to honour Huxley.[4]
Year | width=15% | Laureate | width=13% | Nationality | Title | width=13% class="unsortable" | Date | width=4% class="unsortable" | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1900 | United Kingdom | "Huxley, the man and his work" | 13 November 1900 | [5] | |||||
1901 | United Kingdom | "The possible improvement of the human breed under existing conditions of law and sentiment" | 29 October 1901 | [6] | |||||
1902 | United Kingdom | "Right-handedness and left-brainedness" | 28 October 1902 | [7] | |||||
1903 | United Kingdom | "On the inheritance in man of mental and moral characters, and its relation to the inheritance of physical characters" | 16 October 1903 | [8] | |||||
1904 | France | "The six races that make up the current population of Europe" | 7 October 1904 | [9] | |||||
1905 | United Kingdom | "Colour and race" | 31 October 1905 | [10] | |||||
1906 | United Kingdom | "Migrations" | 1 November 1906" | [11] | |||||
1907 | United Kingdom | Awarded the Huxley medal on 5 November 1907 | 5 November 1907 | [12] | |||||
1908 | United States | "The European population of the United States" | 13 November 1908 | [13] | |||||
1909 | Sweden | "The so-called North European race of mankind: a review of and views on the development of some anthropological questions" | 5 November 1909 | [14] | |||||
1910 | United Kingdom | "The arrival of man in Britain in the Pleistocene age" | 22 November 1910 | [15] | |||||
1911 | Austrian Empire | "The early inhabitants of Western Asia" | 23 November 1911 | [16] | |||||
1912 | United Kingdom | "The metals in antiquity" | 19 November 1912 | [17] | |||||
1913 | United Kingdom | Paviland Cave an Aurignacian station in Wales | 14 November 1913 | [18] | |||||
1914 | United Kingdom | For the presentation of the Huxley medal | |||||||
1915 | France | For the presentation of the Huxley medal | |||||||
1916 | United Kingdom | "Ancient stories of a great flood" | 14 November 1916 | [19] | |||||
1917 | No medal was given nor lecture held. Likely due to World War I | ||||||||
1918 | No mention of the lecture being held. | ||||||||
1919 | No mention of the lecture being held. | ||||||||
1920 | United Kingdom | "Migrations of cultures in British New Guinea" | 23 November 1920 | [20] | |||||
1921 | United Kingdom | "The archer's bow in the Homeric poems: an attempted diagnosis" | 1 September 1921 | [21] | |||||
1922 | France | "L’oeuvre anthropologique du Prince Albert 1er de Monaco et les récents progrès de la Paléontologie humaine en France" | Never delivered | [22] | |||||
1923 | United Kingdom | Hartland was awarded the Huxley Medal in 1922 but was not able to prepare and deliver the Huxley Memorial Lecture owing to his health | |||||||
1924 | France | "La race de Néanderthal et la race de Grimaldi: leur rôle dans l’Humanité" | 25 November 1924 | ||||||
1925 | United Kingdom | "The early Nilotic, Libyan and Egyptian relations with Minoan Crete" | 24 November 1925 | ||||||
1926 | United Kingdom | The death of William Ridgeway meant the Huxley Memorial Lecture was not delivered | |||||||
1927 | United States | "The Neanderthal phase of man" | Unknown | [23] | |||||
1928 | United Kingdom | "The evolution of the human races" | 27 November 1928 | [24] | |||||
1929 | Sweden | "The American Indian as an inventor" | 26 November 1929 | [25] | |||||
1930 | United Kingdom | "The antiquity of civilized man" | 18 November 1930 | [26] | |||||
1931 | Germany | "On some biological view-points in ethnology" | 29 September 1931 | [27] | |||||
1932 | United Kingdom | "Anthropological perspective and psychological theory" | 29 November 1932 | [28] | |||||
1933 | United Kingdom | "The Cretan labyrinth: a retrospect of Aegean research" | 28 November 1933 | [29] | |||||
1934 | United Kingdom | "The Indo-Iranian borderlands: their prehistory in the light of geography and of recent explorations" | 31 July 1934 | [30] | |||||
1935 | Australia | "The place of Thomas Henry Huxley in anthropology" | 26 November 1935 | [31] | |||||
1936 | Finland | "Methods in social anthropology" | 27 October 1936 | [32] | |||||
1937 | United Kingdom | "Racial evolution and archaeology" | 9 November 1937 | [33] | |||||
1938 | France | "Une catégorie de l’esprit humain: la notion de personne, celle de ‘moi’: un plan de travail" | 29 November 1938 | [34] | |||||
1939 | United Kingdom | "Charity and the struggle for existence" | 28 November 1939 | [35] | |||||
1940 | United Kingdom | "The study of prehistoric times" | 26 November 1940 | [36] | |||||
1941 | France | "The discovery of the antiquity of man: some of the evidence" | 16 April 1946 | [37] | |||||
1942 | United Kingdom | "North Syria as a cultural link in the ancient world" | 24 November 1942 | [38] | |||||
1943 | United Kingdom | "Anthropology in reconstruction" | 23 November 1943 | [39] | |||||
1944 | Australia | "Archaeological ages as technological stages" | [40] | ||||||
1945 | United States | "The ancient Oikoumenê as an historic culture aggregate" | [41] | ||||||
1946 | United Kingdom | "The Aterian industry: its place and significance in the Palaeolithic world" | 6 May 1946 | [42] | |||||
1947 | United Kingdom | "Some complexities of human structure" | 25 November 1947 | [43] | |||||
1948 | United States | "Some aspects of political organization among the American aborigines" | [44] | ||||||
1949 | United Kingdom | Died before delivery of lecture | |||||||
1950 | United Kingdom | "New bottles for new wine: ideology and scientific knowledge" | 28 November 1950 | [45] | |||||
1951 | United Kingdom | "The comparative method in social anthropology" | [46] | ||||||
1952 | New Zealand | Died before delivery of lecture | |||||||
1952 | Denmark | "The history of ethnology in Denmark" | [47] | ||||||
1953 | United Kingdom | "On the diversity of morals" | 26 November 1953 | [48] | |||||
1954 | United States | Died before delivery of lecture | |||||||
1954 | France | "Neanderthals and Praesapiens" | 25 November 1954 | ||||||
1955 | United Kingdom | Died before delivery of lecture | |||||||
1955 | United States | "Societies and cultures as natural systems" | 22 March 1955 | [49] | |||||
1956 | United Kingdom | "The argument from animals to men: an examination of its validity for anthropology" | 29 November 1956 | [50] | |||||
1957 | Sweden | "Technical secrets of American Indians" | 28 November 1957 | [51] | |||||
1958 | United Kingdom | "Bones of contention" | 28 November 1957 | [52] | |||||
1959 | New Zealand | "Problem and assumption in an anthropological study of religion" | [53] | ||||||
1960 | United States | "Early migration to central and south America" | 25 November 1960 | [54] | |||||
1961 | United Kingdom | "Evolution, genetics and anthropology" | 24 November 1961 | [55] | |||||
1962 | United Kingdom | "The middle Palaeolithic of the near east and the problem of Mount Carmel man" | 2 November 1962 | [56] | |||||
1963 | United Kingdom | "The Zande state" | 27 June 1963 | [57] | |||||
1964 | West Germany | "Early man facts and fantasy" | 2 April 1964 | [58] | |||||
1965 | France | "The future of kinship studies" | [59] | ||||||
1966 | United Kingdom | "The Maya central area at the Spanish Conquest and later: a problem in demography" | [60] | ||||||
1967 | United States | "Behaviour and the origin of man" | [61] | ||||||
1968 | France | "My experience at the Musée d’Ethnologie" | [62] | ||||||
1969 | United Kingdom | "The crime of sorcery" | [63] | ||||||
1970 | United Kingdom | "Ecology and social structure" | [64] | ||||||
1971 | United States | "Anthropology’s mythology" | [65] | ||||||
1972 | Italy | "Origin and differentiation of human races" | [66] | ||||||
1973 | United Kingdom | "Spencer to Hood: a changing view of non-European music" | [67] | ||||||
1974 | United Kingdom | "Africa in prehistory: peripheral or paramount?" | 7 November 1974 | [68] | |||||
1975 | Austria | "Cosmology as ecological analysis: a view from the rain forest" | 27 November 1975 | [69] | |||||
1976 | India | "The changing position of Indian women" | 25 November 1976 | [70] | |||||
1977 | South Africa | "Sacrifice, or was your fieldwork really necessary?" | unknown | ||||||
1978 | United Kingdom | "Beyond physical anthropology" | 8 November 1978 | [71] | |||||
1979 | United States | "Towards a holistic view of ancient Maya civilizations" | 7 November 1979 | [72] | |||||
1980 | United Kingdom | "Why did Moses have a sister?" | 21 November 1980 | [73] | |||||
1981 | China | "Some observations on the transformation of rural China" | 18 November 1981 | [74] | |||||
1982 | United States | "Adaptive limits of human populations" | 17 November 1982 | [75] | |||||
1983 | United States | "Culture and change: the indonesian case" | 1 February 1983 | [76] | |||||
1984 | Japan | "The evolution of primate social structure" | 21 November 1984 | [77] | |||||
1985 | France | "Are cultures living beings? German identity in interaction" | 14 November 1985 | [78] | |||||
1986 | United States | "Data, relativism and archaeological science: looking at, thinking about and inferring the past" | 17 September 1986 | [79] | |||||
1987 | United Kingdom | "Social heterogeneity and biological variation" | 18 November 1987 | [80] | |||||
1988 | United States | "New plagues - old scourges: epidemics of brain disease in population isolates in the twentieth century" | 2 November 1988 | [81] | |||||
1989 | Norway | "Transmission, and the shaping of culture in Asia and Melanesia" | 22 November 1989 | [82] | |||||
1990 | United Kingdom | "A biologist looks at anthropology" | 21 November 1990 | [83] | |||||
1991 | United Kingdom | "Archaeology, genetics and linguistic diversity: a new synthesis?" | 27 November 1991 | [84] | |||||
1992 | United Kingdom | Balaam's Place in the Book of Numbers | 18 November 1992 | [85] | |||||
1993 | United States | Reading the palimpsest of enquiry: Notes and Queries and the history of social anthropology | 16 February 1993 | [86] | |||||
1994 | United States | Enduring substances and trying theories: the Caribbean region as Oikumenê | 7 December 1994 | [87] | |||||
1995 | United Kingdom | A kernel of doubt: agnosticism in cultural and cross-cultural perspective | 6 December 1995 | [88] | |||||
1996 | South Africa | The ape-like Australopithecus after 70 years: was it hominid? | 27 November 1996 | [89] | |||||
1997 | United States | Transnational movements, multiculturalism and ethnonationalism | 18 November 1997 | [90] | |||||
1998 | United States | Two or three things that I know about culture | 18 November 1998 | [91] | |||||
1999 | United States | Certainties undone: fifty turbulent years of legal anthropology, 1949-1999 | 27 October 1999 | [92] | |||||
2000 | France | Participant objectivation: breaching the boundary between anthropology and sociology – how? | 6 December 2000 | [93] | |||||
2001 | United Kingdom | Merchants: An Essay in Historical Ethnography | 14 November 2001 | [94] | |||||
2002 | United Kingdom | The scientific study of primates and its impact on contemporary world-views | 4 December 2002 | [95] | |||||
2003 | United States | Cannibal talk: dialogical misunderstandings in the south seas | 15 July 2003 | [96] | |||||
2004 | United Kingdom | A Community of Critics? Thoughts on New Knowledge | 8 December 2004 | [97] | |||||
2005 | United Kingdom | Forms such as never were in nature: forging authenticity | 7 December 2005 | [98] | |||||
2006 | United States | Diet, energy and human evolution | 7 December 2006 | [99] | |||||
2007 | South Africa | Changing the subject – about cousin marriage, among other thing | 14 December 2007 | [100] | |||||
2008 | France | Community, society, culture: three keys to understanding today’s conflicted identities | 7 November 2008 | [101] | |||||
2009 | United Kingdom | Human-thing entanglement: towards an integrated archaeological perspective | [102] | ||||||
2010 | Netherlands | Cultural anthropology and the question of knowledge | 4 February 2010 | [103] | |||||
2011 | Australia | How Anthropologists Think: Refiguring the Exotic | 16 December 2011 | [104] | |||||
2012 | United Kingdom | Anthropology, Empire and Modernity | 14 December 2012 | [105] | |||||
2013 | United Kingdom | Extended Lives in Global Spaces: The Anthropology of Yolngu Pre Burial Ceremonies | [106] | ||||||
2014 | United Kingdom | On Human Correspondence | 7 November 2014 | [107] | |||||
2015 | United Kingdom | Dunbar's number(s): constraints on the social world | [108] | ||||||
2016 | Canada | Mutable Environments and the Permeable Human Body | 11 November 2016 | [109] | |||||
2017 | United States | Field Walking, Walking the Field: Anthropological Archaeology as Viewed from Deep Time | [110] | ||||||
2018 | United States | Feral Atlas:The More-than-Human Anthropocene | 29 November 2018 | [111] [112] | |||||
2019 | United Kingdom | Economy and Ethics in the Cosmic Process | 18 December 2019 | [113] | |||||
2020 | United Kingdom | The ‘interaction engine’: the evolution of the infrastructure for language | 14 December 2020 | [114] | |||||
2021 | United Kingdom | Population and the dynamics of culture change | 14 December 2021 | [115] | |||||
2022 | Austrialia | No lecture | |||||||
2023 | United Kingdom | Mostly Out of Africa: how, when and where | 8 November 2023 | [116] | |||||
2024 | United Kingdom |