J.-F. Lafitau (1681-1746), Precursor of Scientific Anthropology

Abstract

Lafitau is an important figure in the history of ethnology, and his great comparative work which appeared early in the 18th century is a milestone on the way to a science of custom. He did not originate the comparative method, and he wrote the fashionable dissertation of the day; but he developed a method of reciprocal illumination, using field observations to throw light on the customs of antiquity and employing the customs of the ancients to provide leads for field work. His book utilized a wide variety of sources on the New World and on antiquity, and it was read, although not always acknowledged, by the thinkers of the day. A century later it influenced the founders of scientific ethnology in Europe and America. Lafitau made a number of important discoveries, which were largely rediscovered afterward.