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CREDIBLE WITNESSING: A. R. WALLACE, SPIRITUALISM, AND A “NEW BRANCH OF ANTHROPOLOGY”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2018

EFRAM SERA-SHRIAR
EFRAM SERA-SHRIAR*
Affiliation:
Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies, Leeds Trinity University E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper situates Alfred Russel Wallace's spiritualist writings from his book Miracles and Modern Spiritualism (1875) against the backdrop of Victorian anthropology. It examines how he constructed his argument, and the ways in which he verified the trustworthiness of his evidence using theories and methods drawn from anthropology. Spirit investigations relied on personal testimony. Thus the key question was: who could be trusted as a credible witness? While much has been written on Wallace's inquiries into spirit phenomena, very little scholarship has taken seriously his remark about how his studies of spirits and mediums were a “new branch of anthropology.” Wallace's aim of aligning his spirit investigations to the practices of British anthropology fed into larger disciplinary discussions about the construction of reliable anthropological data. Most notably, like many of his Victorian anthropological counterparts, Wallace grounded his research in a double commitment to firsthand observation and Baconian inductivism.

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Articles
Information
Modern Intellectual History , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , June 2020 , pp. 357 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Ian Hesketh, Nathan Uglow, Iwan Morus, Bernie Lightman, Andreas Sommer, Shane McCorristine and Nanna Kaalund for their amazing support while researching and writing this paper. Their insightful commentary was truly invaluable. My thanks also extends to the referees for their critical feedback, and Duncan Kelly for his guidance.

References

1 Wallace, Alfred Russel, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism: Three Essays (London, 1875), vi–viiGoogle Scholar.

2 Wallace defined modern spiritualism as the practice of the living communicating with the dead through psychic mediums. See Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 80.

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8 For more on the establishment of credible witnesses in ethnology and anthropology see Sera-Shriar, Efram, “Arctic Observers: Richard King, Monogenism and the Historicization of Inuit through Travel Narratives,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 51 (2015), 23–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Sera-Shriar, “Tales from Patagonia: Phillip Parker King and Early Ethnographic Observation in British Ethnology, 1826–1830,” Studies in Travel Writing 19/3 (2015), 204–23.

9 For more on observational practices within Victorian anthropology see Sera-Shriar, Efram, “What Is Armchair Anthropology? Observational Practices in Nineteenth-Century British Human Sciences,” History of the Human Sciences 27 (2014), 180–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Bleichmar, Daniela, Visible Empire: Botanical Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment (Chicago, 2012), 6–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For more secondary literature on the history of scientific observation within the natural and social sciences see Anne Secord, “Artisan Naturalists: Science as Popular Culture in Nineteenth-Century England” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, London, 2002), 135–206; Grasseni, Cristina, ed., Skilled Visions: Between Apprenticeship and Standards (Oxford, 2007)Google Scholar; Grimshaw, Anna, The Ethnographer's Eye: Ways of Seeing in Modern Anthropology (Cambridge, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Daston, Lorraine and Galison, Peter, Objectivity (New York, 2007)Google Scholar.

11 As Wallace published his book after the amalgamation of the ESL and ASL, I use the term “anthropology” as an umbrella category to include ethnographic, ethnological and anthropological methods and theories.

12 See, for example, the following works on Wallace's spirit investigations: Keezer, William, “Alfred Russel Wallace: Naturalist, Zoogeographer, Spiritualist, and Evolutionist,” Bios 36/2 (1965), 66–70Google Scholar; Kottler, Malcolm Jay, “Alfred Russel Wallace, the Origin of Man, and Spiritualism,” Isis 65 (1974), 144–92Google ScholarPubMed; Durant, John, “Scientific Naturalism and Social Reform in the Thought of Alfred Russel Wallace,” British Journal for the History of Science 12/2 (1979), 31–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pels, Peter, “Spiritual Facts and Super-Visions: The Conversion of Alfred Russel Wallace,” Religion and Modernity 8/2 (1995), 69–91Google Scholar; Fichman, “Science in Theistic Contexts,” 227–50; and Mitchell, Benjamin David, “Capturing the Will: Imposture, Delusion, and Exposure in Alfred Russel Wallace's Defence of Spirit Photography,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 46 (2014), 15–24CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. Wallace's spiritualism has also been discussed in the following biographies: Shermer, Michael, In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace (Oxford, 2002)Google Scholar; Slotten, Ross, The Heretic in Darwin's Court: The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace (New York, 2004), 326–51Google Scholar; and Fichman, Martin, An Elusive Victorian: The Evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace (Chicago, 2004), 139–208Google Scholar.

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21 Wallace to Huxley, 22 Nov. 1866.

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23 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 125–6.

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26 Fichman, “Science in Theistic Contexts,” 231.

27 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 125.

28 For Wallace's theory of spiritualism see Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 100–4. In addition to mesmerism, there were other ideas shaping Wallace's views on spiritualism. For example, although he does not engage with the writings of the Swedish theologian, philosopher and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) in Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, Swedenborgian ideas came to be important for Wallace's later writings on spirits and psychical forces. For more on this connection see Fichman, An Elusive Victorian, 112–17.

29 Weisberg, Barbara, Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism (San Francisco, 2004), 12–13Google Scholar.

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36 For more on true-to-nature objectivity see Daston and Galison, Objectivity, 55–113.

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39 Durant, “Scientific Naturalism and Social Reform,” 40; Vetter, “The Unmaking of an Anthropologist,” 25–42; and Stocking, Victorian Anthropology, 148–9.

40 Wallace's original three essays appeared as follows: Wallace, Alfred Russel, The Scientific Aspect of the Supernatural: Indicating the Desirableness of an Experimental Enquiry by Men of Science into the Alleged Powers of Clairvoyants and Mediums (London, 1866)Google Scholar; Wallace, “An Answer to the Arguments of Hume, Lecky, and Others, against Miracles,” The Spiritualist: A Record of the Progress of the Science and Ethics of Spiritualism 1 (1870), 113–16Google Scholar; Wallace, “A Defence of Modern Spiritualism,” Fortnightly Review 15 (1874), 630–57Google Scholar; Wallace, “A Defence of Modern Spiritualism: Part II,” Fortnightly Review 15 (1874), 785–807Google Scholar.

41 For more on reliable evidence in spiritualism see Noakes, Richard, “Haunted Thoughts of the Careful Experimentalist: Psychical Research and the Troubles of Experimental Physics,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 48 (2014), 46–56CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Lamont, “Spiritualism,” 897–920.

42 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 100.

43 Ibid., 100.

44 Oppenheim, The Other World, 307; and Fichman, An Elusive Victorian, 141.

45 For more on scientific naturalism see Macleod, Roy, “The X Club: A Social Network of Science in Late-Victorian England,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 24 (1970), 305–22Google ScholarPubMed; Turner, “The Victorian Conflict,” 356–76; Barton, Ruth, “Huxley, Lubbock, and Half a Dozen Others,” Isis 89/3 (1998), 410–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Desmond, Adrian, “Redefining the X Axis: ‘Professionals’,’ ‘Amateurs’ and the Making of Mid-Victorian Biology—A Progress Report,” Journal of the History of Biology 34/1 (2001), 3–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Dawson, Gowan and Lightman, Bernard, eds., Victorian Scientific Naturalism: Community, Identity and Continuity (Chicago, 2014)Google Scholar.

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47 Ibid., 109.

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51 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 109.

52 Ibid., 101.

53 Fichman, “Science in Theistic Contexts,” 228. See also Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 116.

54 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 115–16.

55 For more on Hunt and the Anthropological Society of London see Burrow, J. W., “Evolution and Anthropology in the 1860’s: The Anthropological Society of London, 1863–71,” Victorian Studies 7/2 (1963), 137–49Google Scholar; Stocking, “What's in a Name?”, 369–90; Stocking, Victorian Anthropology, 247–55; Spencer, Frank, “Hunt, James (1833–1869)”, in Spencer, ed., History of Physical Anthropology, 2 vols. (London, 1997), 1: 506–8Google Scholar; Kenny, “From the Curse of Ham to the Curse of Nature,” 367–88; Kuklick, “The British Tradition,” 52–5; and Sera-Shriar, “Observing Human Difference,” 461–91.

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58 James Hunt, “On Physio-anthropology,” ccxii.

59 For more on the race taxonomies of Prichard and Lawrence see Prichard, Researches, 7, 21–5; Lawrence, Natural History of Man, 107, 242–52. See also Sera-Shriar, The Making of British Anthropology, 27–42.

60 Tylor, Edward Burnett, Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art and Custom, 2 vols. (London, 1871), 1: viGoogle Scholar. See also Sera-Shriar, The Making of British Anthropology, 163–4.

61 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 47.

62 Bleichmar, Visible Empire, 6–10.

63 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 32.

64 Ibid., 32.

65 See Noakes, “Haunted Thoughts,” 46–56. For more, generally, on measurement, standardization and science see Gooday, Graeme, The Morals of Measurement: Accuracy, Irony and Trust in Late Victorian Electrical Practice (Cambridge, 2004), 1–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

66 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 199–200.

67 Ibid., 200–2.

68 Ibid., 202.

69 Ibid., 104.

70 The use of travel narratives to substantiate ethnological and anthropological research was widespread within the two disciplines and is sprinkled throughout the works of nineteenth-century researchers. For example, see Prichard, Researches; Lawrence, Natural History of Man; Latham, Robert Gordon, The Natural History of the Varieties of Man (London, 1850)Google Scholar; Hunt, James, On the Negro's Place in Nature (London, 1863)Google Scholar; Tylor, Primitive Culture.

71 Vetter, “The Unmaking of an Anthropologist,” 25–42; Durant, “Scientific Naturalism and Social Reform,” 31–58.

72 Daston and Galison, Objectivity, 19–27. See also Bleichmar's discussion on long-distance observation in Blechmar, Visible Empire, 66–72.

73 For more on observation and ethnography see Janet Browne, “Biogeography and Empire,” in Jardine, Secord and Spary, Cultures of Natural History, 305–21, at 306–8; Bravo, “Ethnological Encounters,” 338–57; Sera-Shriar, “Tales from Patagonia,” 206–9; Sera-Shriar, “Arctic Observers,” 23–31.

74 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 145.

75 For more on how armchair ethnologists made sense of others’ firsthand observations see Sera-Shriar, The Making of British Anthropology, 75.

76 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 47–8.

77 Ibid., 51.

78 Much has been written on Kate Fox and her sisters. For example, see Davenport, Reuben Briggs, The Death-Blow to Spiritualism: Being the True Story of the Fox Sisters, as Revealed by Authority of Margaret Fox Kane and Catherine Fox Jencken (New York, 1888)Google Scholar; Oppenheim, The Other World, 11, 32, 35, 126, 297, 331, 344; Weisberg, Talking to the Dead; Chaplin, David, Exploring Other Worlds: Margaret Fox, Elisha Kent Kane, and the Antebellum Culture of Curiosity (Amherst, 2004)Google Scholar; McCorristine, Spectres of the Self, 12, 60.

79 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 156. It is worth noting, however, that in 1888 Margaret Fox publicly admitted to committing fraud with her sisters during performances.

80 For more on Owen and spiritualism see Lehman, Amy, Victorian Women and the Theatre of Trance: Mediums, Spiritualists and Mesmerists in Performance (London, 2002), 160–68Google Scholar.

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83 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 156.

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85 The most comprehensive study of Home's career is Lamont, Peter, The First Psychic: The Extraordinary Mystery of a Notorious Victorian Wizard (Preston, 2005)Google Scholar.

86 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 158–9. The original source of these observations is Brewster's daughter's biography of her father: Gordon, Margaret Maria, The Home Life of Sir David Brewster (Edinburgh, 1869), 257–8Google Scholar.

87 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, pp. 158–9.

88 Ibid., 161.

89 Ibid., 161. For the original source see Cox, Edward William, What Am I? A Popular Introduction to the Study of Psychology, 2 vols. (London, 1873), 2: 388Google Scholar.

90 For more on Guppy see Noakes, Richard, “Guppy (Agnes) Elisabeth (1838–1917),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004)Google Scholar, at www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/54083, accessed 7 June 2017.

91 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 163.

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93 Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, 126.

94 Ibid., 126.

95 Tylor, Primitive Culture, 1: 384–5.

96 Wallace to Huxley, 22 Nov. 1866.

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