Thomas Callan Hodson (1871–1953) was the first

William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology The William Wyse Professorship of Social Anthropology is a professorship in social anthropology at the University of Cambridge. It was founded on 18 June 1932 and endowed partly with the support of Trinity College from money bequeathed to them by W ...

at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, where he was a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of St Catharine's College, notable for his writings on Indian

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

and for coining the term ''

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...

''.

1931 Census of India

In ''Analysis of the 1931 Census of India'' (Now in public domain) (Government of India Press, 1937) Hodson analysed the physical types in India, in great detail, adopting the models dominant in his day. This analysis was independent of the castes, and Brahmins and Dalits were classified in the same "racial groups". For example, Telugu Brahmins and

Chamar Chamar is a Dalit community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of affirmative action. Historically subject to untouchability, they were traditionally outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna. ...

s were classified as "Racial Element A". In total, he distinguished seven "racial elements", from A to G. Hodson used the classical " brachycephalic" and "

dolichocephalic Dolichocephaly (derived from the Ancient Greek δολιχός 'long' and κεφαλή 'head') is a condition where the head is longer than would be expected, relative to its width. In humans, scaphocephaly is a form of dolichocephaly. Dolichocep ...

" terminology in force in racial discourses of the day. This was a typology constructed from the so-called " cephalic index" (the ratio of the maximum width of the head to its maximum length) and to classify human populations according to this purported scientific

measure Measure may refer to: * Measurement, the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event Law * Ballot measure, proposed legislation in the United States * Church of England Measure, legislation of the Church of England * Mea ...

. Invented by the anatomist Anders Retzius (1796–1860), the cephalic index classification was disputed by

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

works, and Boas's criticisms are widely accepted today. Hodson also typically associates racial categories with supposed stages of economic and linguistic development, implying a hierarchy of racially defined cultures, a view characteristic of scientific racism. Hodson believed that the earliest occupants of India were probably of the "

Negrito The term Negrito () refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, the Onge, ...

race", followed by the "proto- Australoids". Later, an early stock probably of the Mediterranean race, came to India and mingled with the proto-Australoids. He believed that these people spoke an

agglutinative language An agglutinative language is a type of synthetic language with morphology that primarily uses agglutination. Words may contain different morphemes to determine their meanings, but all of these morphemes (including stems and affixes) tend to remain ...

from which the present Austroasiatic languages are derived. They had a rudimentary knowledge of agriculture, building stone monuments, and primitive navigation. This migration was followed by an immigration of more civilised Mediterraneans from the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

(ultimately from eastern Europe). These people had the knowledge of the metals, but not of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

. They were followed by later waves of immigrants who developed the

Indus valley civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...

. All these immigrants were of the

type, but the Indus valley people had a mixed brachycephalic element coming from the Anatolian plateau, in the form of the

Armenoid The Armenoid race was a supposed sub-race in the context of a now-outdated model of dividing humanity into different races which was developed originally by Europeans in support of colonialism. The Armenoid race was variously described (depending ...

branch of the Alpine race. These people probably spoke the

Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant ...

. Later, a brachycephalic race speaking perhaps an Indo-European language of the "

Pisacha Pishachas ( sa, पिशाच, ') are flesh-eating demons in Dharmic religions, appearing in Buddhist and Hindu mythologies. A pishacha is a malevolent being that has often be referred to as the very manifestation of evil. Mythology The M ...

or Dardic family", migrated to India from the Iranian plateau and the Pamirs. During about 1500 B.C., the Indo-Aryans migrated into Northern India.

Publications

Thado Grammar
Eastern Bengal and Assam Secretariat Printing Office, 1905
The Meitheis
D. Nutt, 1908, reprinted by the Obscure Press 2006
The Naga Tribes of Manipur
Macmillan 1911
The primitive culture of India
lectures delivered in 1922 at the School of Oriental Studies (University of London)
India
Delhi, Manager of Publications, 1937
India Census Ethnography 1901-1931
1937

References

* Obituary by J.H.Hutton in

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

171, 328-329 (21 February 1953)

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodson, Thomas Callan 1871 births 1953 deaths Fellows of St Catharine's College, Cambridge English anthropologists William Wyse Professors of Social Anthropology