Baldwin Spencer was born in Manchester, England on June 23, 1960. He died in Navarin Island on July 14, 1929. His contributions to the field of anthropology were outstanding. His most famous work coming out of central Australia. He graduated with honors from University of Oxford with a science degree. He later assisted Edward Tylor in the transfer of the ethnographic collection of Augustus Lane-fox Pitt-Rivers to the Oxford Museum. He soon became a Professor of Biology at the University of Melbourne. Here he conducted taxonomic and biogeographic studies of Australian fauna. Spencer first experienced Aboriginal society with an expedition into central Australia.
At Alice Springs, Spencer met a man by the name of F. J. Gillen, and made a long lasting relationship that took him into the field of ethnography. Soon after Spencer's meeting with Gillen, he left for Australia and studied the tribes from Lake Eyre region and how they interacted with their peers. He studied their techniques of hunting, farming, and religion. He later published his findings in a four part series, the first named Native tribes of Central Australia.
As an evolutionary biologist, he applied his observational skills by describing these Aboriginal societies. However, social Darwinism was popular and covered his views. Spencer was soon contacted by James G. Frazer in 1897 while still preparing his findings of Australia. Frazer acted as a mentor to Spencer and also helped with publishing his work. The publishing of Spencer's findings profoundly influenced European Paleolithic art and models of social and religious origins. Spencer's findings severed, in Australia, to provide academic respectability for popular racial prejudice, justifying authoritarian social control. His photographs, movies, and recordings are of utmost quality.
"So Much that is New." Baldwin Spencer.1869-1929, a Biography (Melbourne:1985).
Written by Jim Laszewski