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. The lecture and medal are awarded annually to any scientist who distinguishes themselves in any field of anthropological research. 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.
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, 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.
Recipients YearLaureate Nationality Title Date Ref1900 United Kingdom"Huxley, the man and his work" 13 November 1900 1901 United Kingdom"The possible improvement of the human breed under existing conditions of law and sentiment" 29 October 19011902 United Kingdom"Right-handedness and left-brainedness" 28 October 19021903 United Kingdom"On the inheritance in man of mental and moral characters, and its relation to the inheritance of physical characters" 16 October 19031904France"The six races that make up the current population of Europe" 7 October 1904 1905 United Kingdom"Colour and race"31 October 19051906 United Kingdom"Migrations"1 November 1906"1907 United KingdomAwarded the Huxley medal on 5 November 19075 November 19071908 United States"The European population of the United States"13 November 19081909 Sweden"The so-called North European race of mankind: a review of and views on the development of some anthropological questions"5 November 19091910 United Kingdom"The arrival of man in Britain in the Pleistocene age"22 November 19101911 Austrian Empire"The early inhabitants of Western Asia"23 November 19111912 United Kingdom"The metals in antiquity"19 November 19121913 United KingdomPaviland Cave: an Aurignacian station in Wales14 November 19131914 United KingdomFor the presentation of the Huxley medal1915 FranceFor the presentation of the Huxley medal1916 United Kingdom"Ancient stories of a great flood"14 November 19161917 No medal was given nor lecture held. Likely due to World War I 1918No mention of the lecture being held.1919No mention of the lecture being held.1920 United Kingdom"Migrations of cultures in British New Guinea"23 November 19201921 United Kingdom"The archer's bow in the Homeric poems: an attempted diagnosis"1 September 19211922 France"L’oeuvre anthropologique du Prince Albert 1er de Monaco et les récents progrès de la Paléontologie humaine en France"Never delivered1923 United KingdomHartland 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 19241925 United Kingdom"The early Nilotic, Libyan and Egyptian relations with Minoan Crete"24 November 19251926 United KingdomThe death of William Ridgeway meant the Huxley Memorial Lecture was not delivered1927 United States"The Neanderthal phase of man"Unknown1928 United Kingdom"The evolution of the human races"27 November 19281929 Sweden"The American Indian as an inventor"26 November 19291930 United Kingdom"The antiquity of civilized man"18 November 19301931 Germany"On some biological view-points in ethnology"29 September 19311932 United Kingdom"Anthropological perspective and psychological theory"29 November 19321933 United Kingdom"The Cretan labyrinth: a retrospect of Aegean research"28 November 19331934 United Kingdom"The Indo-Iranian borderlands: their prehistory in the light of geography and of recent explorations"31 July 19341935 Australia"The place of Thomas Henry Huxley in anthropology"26 November 19351936 Finland"Methods in social anthropology"27 October 19361937 United Kingdom"Racial evolution and archaeology"9 November 19371938 France"Une catégorie de l’esprit humain: la notion de personne, celle de ‘moi’: un plan de travail"29 November 19381939 United Kingdom"Charity and the struggle for existence"28 November 19391940 United Kingdom"The study of prehistoric times"26 November 1940 1941 France"The discovery of the antiquity of man: some of the evidence"16 April 19461942 United Kingdom"North Syria as a cultural link in the ancient world"24 November 19421943 United Kingdom"Anthropology in reconstruction"23 November 19431944 Australia"Archaeological ages as technological stages"1945 United States"The ancient Oikoumenê as an historic culture aggregate"1946 United Kingdom"The Aterian industry: its place and significance in the Palaeolithic world"6 May 19461947 United Kingdom"Some complexities of human structure"25 November 19471948 United States"Some aspects of political organization among the American aborigines"1949 United KingdomDied before delivery of lecture1950 United Kingdom"New bottles for new wine: ideology and scientific knowledge"28 November 19501951 United Kingdom"The comparative method in social anthropology"1952 New ZealandDied before delivery of lecture1952 Denmark"The history of ethnology in Denmark"1953 United Kingdom"On the diversity of morals"26 November 19531954 United StatesDied before delivery of lecture1954 France"Neanderthals and Praesapiens"25 November 19541955 United KingdomDied before delivery of lecture1955 United States"Societies and cultures as natural systems"22 March 19551956 United Kingdom"The argument from animals to men: an examination of its validity for anthropology"29 November 19561957 Sweden"Technical secrets of American Indians"28 November 19571958 United Kingdom"Bones of contention"28 November 19571959 New Zealand"Problem and assumption in an anthropological study of religion"1960 United States"Early migration to central and south America"25 November 19601961 United Kingdom"Evolution, genetics and anthropology"24 November 19611962 United Kingdom"The middle Palaeolithic of the near east and the problem of Mount Carmel man"2 November 19621963 United Kingdom"The Zande state"27 June 19631964 West Germany"Early man facts and fantasy"2 April 19641965 France"The future of kinship studies"1966 United Kingdom"The Maya central area at the Spanish Conquest and later: a problem in demography"1967 United States"Behaviour and the origin of man"1968 France"My experience at the Musée d’Ethnologie"1969 United Kingdom"The crime of sorcery"1970 United Kingdom"Ecology and social structure"1971 United States"Anthropology’s mythology"1972 Italy"Origin and differentiation of human races"1973 United Kingdom"Spencer to Hood: a changing view of non-European music"1974 United Kingdom"Africa in prehistory: peripheral or paramount?"7 November 19741975 Austria"Cosmology as ecological analysis: a view from the rain forest"27 November 19751976 India"The changing position of Indian women"25 November 19761977 South Africa"Sacrifice, or was your fieldwork really necessary?"unknown1978 United Kingdom"Beyond physical anthropology"8 November 19781979 United States"Towards a holistic view of ancient Maya civilizations"7 November 19791980 United Kingdom"Why did Moses have a sister?" 21 November 19801981 China"Some observations on the transformation of rural China"18 November 19811982 United States"Adaptive limits of human populations"17 November 19821983 United States"Culture and change: the indonesian case"1 February 19831984 Japan"The evolution of primate social structure"21 November 19841985 France"Are cultures living beings? German identity in interaction"14 November 19851986 United States"Data, relativism and archaeological science: looking at, thinking about and inferring the past"17 September 19861987 United Kingdom"Social heterogeneity and biological variation"18 November 19871988 United States"New plagues - old scourges: epidemics of brain disease in population isolates in the twentieth century"2 November 19881989 Norway"Transmission, and the shaping of culture in Asia and Melanesia"22 November 19891990 United Kingdom"A biologist looks at anthropology"21 November 19901991 United Kingdom"Archaeology, genetics and linguistic diversity: a new synthesis?"27 November 19911992 United KingdomBalaam's Place in the Book of Numbers18 November 19921993 United StatesReading the palimpsest of enquiry: Notes and Queries and the history of social anthropology16 February 19931994 United StatesEnduring substances and trying theories: the Caribbean region as Oikumenê7 December 19941995 United KingdomA kernel of doubt: agnosticism in cultural and cross-cultural perspective6 December 19951996 South AfricaThe ape-like Australopithecus after 70 years: was it hominid?27 November 19961997 United StatesTransnational movements, multiculturalism and ethnonationalism18 November 19971998 United StatesTwo or three things that I know about culture18 November 19981999 United StatesCertainties undone: fifty turbulent years of legal anthropology, 1949-199927 October 19992000 FranceParticipant objectivation: breaching the boundary between anthropology and sociology – how?6 December 20002001 United KingdomMerchants: An Essay in Historical Ethnography 14 November 20012002 United KingdomThe scientific study of primates and its impact on contemporary world-views4 December 20022003 United StatesCannibal talk: dialogical misunderstandings in the south seas15 July 20032004 United KingdomA Community of Critics? Thoughts on New Knowledge 8 December 20042005 United KingdomForms such as never were in nature: forging authenticity7 December 20052006 United StatesDiet, energy and human evolution7 December 20062007 South AfricaChanging the subject – about cousin marriage, among other thing14 December 20072008 FranceCommunity, society, culture: three keys to understanding today’s conflicted identities7 November 20082009 United KingdomHuman-thing entanglement: towards an integrated archaeological perspective2010 NetherlandsCultural anthropology and the question of knowledge4 February 20102011 AustraliaHow Anthropologists Think: Refiguring the Exotic16 December 20112012 United KingdomAnthropology, Empire and Modernity14 December 20122013 United KingdomExtended Lives in Global Spaces: The Anthropology of Yolngu Pre Burial Ceremonies2014 United KingdomOn Human Correspondence7 November 20142015 United KingdomDunbar's number(s): constraints on the social world2016 CanadaMutable Environments and the Permeable Human Body11 November 20162017 United StatesField Walking, Walking the Field: Anthropological Archaeology as Viewed from Deep Time2018 United StatesFeral Atlas:The More-than-Human Anthropocene29 November 20182019 United KingdomEconomy and Ethics in the Cosmic Process18 December 20192020 United KingdomThe ‘interaction engine’: the evolution of the infrastructure for language14 December 20202021 United KingdomPopulation and the dynamics of culture change14 December 2021 2022 No lecture 2023 United Kingdom Mostly Out of Africa: how, when and where8 November 2023 2024 United Kingdom 2025
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