Robert Ranulph Marett (13 June 1866 – 18 February 1943) was a British ethnologist and a proponent of the British Evolutionary School of cultural anthropology. Founded by Marett's older colleague, Edward Burnett Tylor, it asserted that modern primitive societies provide evidence for phases in the evolution of culture, which it attempted to recapture via comparative and historical methods. Marett focused primarily on the anthropology of religion. Studying the evolutionary origin of religions, he modified Tylor's animistic theory to include the concept of mana. Marett's anthropological teaching and writing career at Oxford University spanned the early 20th century before World War Two. He trained many notable anthropologists. He was a colleague of John Myres, and through him, studied Aegean archaeology.
Family background Marett was the only son of Sir Robert Pipon Marett and Julia Anne Marett. He was born in Saint Brélade. He belonged to a family, originally named Maret, that settled on Jersey from Normandy in the 13th century. The Saint Brélade branch built a manor house for themselves, La Haule Manor (today a hotel).Marett births on Jersey were mostly at the same place, La Haule, in the village of Saint Aubin, Jersey, part of the parish of Saint Brélade. St. Aubin is on the southwest side, on the west of St. Aubin’s Bay. Eastward along the beach, is a projection, La Haule Slip, which originally joined the estate. The coastal road, originally running around the north side of the estate, has been made to run between the estate and the beach. The location is informally called ‘’blanc pignon’’, “White Gable,” from the sailing directions for entering the port of St. Aubin, a fishing village. The bay is shallow. The fishermen were to take a bearing on the “white house” located on what became “upper blanc pignon” on the slopes. La Haule is in “Lower Blanc Pignon,” of interest mainly for the meteorological station there. The location of the original white house is obscure; the directions indicate there was more than one. La Haule also is said to be “the village of La Haule,” but if there ever was such a village in Jersey (there are some in France), perhaps before the manor, it has been lost. They had substantial wealth and position, contributing high-level magistrates to the government of Jersey. Robert's father had been Bailiff of Jersey. He was one of the founders of La Patrie, a patriotic newspaper. Earlier, Philip Maret, third son of the second Seigneur of La Haule, born in 1701, had emigrated to Boston, where he became a merchant captain. His subsequent family participated in the American Revolution and the War of 1812.
Robert's mother, Julia Anne, also bore the name of Marett before marriage. She was one of the eight children of the Janvrin sisters, Esther Elizabeth and Maria Eliza, by one Philip Marett, who was not in Robert Pipon's immediate line. Philip was a name often used by the Maretts. Thus, Julia Anne was only a distant cousin of her husband. The house, however, came into Robert Ranulph's possession through his mother. Her mother was Maria Eliza Janvrin. She and Robert Pipon had four children, Robert Ranulph, Mabel Elizabeth, Philippa Laetitia, and Julia Mary. Robert Ranulph was an only son but had three sisters and a large number of cousins. The family was Anglican. Cyril Norwood said of him, in a review of his autobiography in 1941:
Born of good family, reaching back through many generations of service in Jersey, he was brought up in a good home with wise and cultured parents in a beautiful place set fair in the freedom of sky and sea. Nature in her kindness endowed him with good brains, good memory, lively imagination, and abounding physical vigour.
Education
Primary and secondary education
For his initial educational years, the young Robert was taught in a Dame school of the area.The term went out of use in the United States in the 20th century, being replaced by day care. He was then placed in St. Aubin's School, a private grammar school founded in Maison Martel. This was the former home of the Martel family, merchants, in Saint Aubin, Jersey, which was not far from La Haule Manor. It had been founded in 1813 by Esther Brine and her husband, Philip le Maistre, a schoolteacher. The Brines had purchased the mansion from the Martels. In 1867, they reported a student population of about 50 boys, half of whom were boarders. For the wealthy in Jersey, this school was the only path to secondary school.Parish schools were of poor quality, and the Elementary Education Act 1870 in Britain, appropriating and funding them for public education, was not to be realised on Jersey for many years. The current roster of primary schools is entirely later 20th century.
St. Aubin's had an international reputation. Robert attended between ages nine through 14, 1875–1880. On the death of Le Maistre in 1873, the new headmaster and owner was John Este Vibert, who had a military frame of mind. Many future military officers came from St. Aubin's. Vibert was also a scientist and a member of the Royal Meteorological Society. He manned a weather station in the building. The school and the station came to an end with his early death in 1886. The house was sold, to become later the Hotel La Tour, renamed from a modification that added a mediaeval tower. Since 2013, its destruction has been planned to make way for luxury housing.
Marett went on to secondary school at Victoria College, Jersey. It was founded in 1850 on the recommendation of Queen Victoria. Marett was there from the age of 14 to 18, 1880–1884. He commuted daily by the train line which existed for several decades across the south of the island.With the advent of the automobile, the train fell into disuse. The Germans restored it during World War II. Today most of the rail-bed is a pedestrian path, while there are no traces of the stations. In secondary school, and then in university, Marett was gregarious, popular, and athletic. Later, he spent his time golfing and shooting. For fun, he loved to party and prank as he had a sense of humor. He joined the Jersey Militia, which was a social club, and he was made a lieutenant at age 17. He also read avidly in La Haule's extensive library. He took a great interest in natural history.
After finishing school in 1884, he planned to start at Balliol College, Oxford University in autumn, but his father's lingering illness delayed him. His father died on November 10. According to the British law of primogeniture, he inherited the entire estate, but for the time being, he was not interested. There were no practical changes in the management of the estate. His mother and three sisters continued living in the home. However, his mother died in 1901, and the three sisters never married. They were still in the house, all over 70, when the Germans occupied it in 1940. Leaving for Oxford, Robert never returned on a permanent basis. His own family did eventually move there, but for him, it was only a part-time home which he occupied mainly in the summer. It was an ideal summer home as it was sparsely populated, located on the shore, spacious, luxurious, but without such amenities as electricity.
College education
Though well-to-do, Marett applied for financial assistance, the award of which was based on excellence and typically demonstrated in an examination. In British English, he won an "exhibition" from the Council of Legal Education (today's Inns of Court School of Law). In this case, this was a modest financial award for the study of law. The award made him an "exhibitioner".American English does not have the word. There were no exhibitions of any sort as Americans understand them. Etymologically the word means “showing.” He had to join the Inner Temple, one of the four groups of a professional association of barristers called the Inns of Court. It was (and is) primarily an educational institution qualifying lawyers to argue at the bar; that is, professionally in court.
There was an overlap with Marett's interest: Roman Law. Marett majored in classics, the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Anthropology as an academic subject did not exist at the time; in fact, Marett was to be one of its first professors, the first at Oxford. As required by membership in the Inner Temple, he had finally to pass a "bar examination" in Roman Law, which he did in 1891. This success did not qualify him in any way to practice law. He was never a lawyer, and he was never interested in the government of Jersey, as his father had been.The results of the Bar Exam are given in Many of the cursory sources in American English, confused by the language, draw the wrong conclusions. Marett did not major in law at Oxford. He was never qualified to argue at any bar, let alone the bar in Jersey. Although Jersey’s government consisted mainly of barristers working in London, Marett had no interest in being one of them. By an accident of culture, the Council of Legal Education was willing to support the history of law, Roman in this case. Proof of excellence was expressed as “a bar exam.”
Marett received notice of his grant in November. It was too late to begin in autumn. He, therefore, petitioned to begin with the Hilary term. He had enrolled in a classics curriculum called Literae Humaniores (Lit. Hum.). It is divided into two sequential parts, Honour Moderations, or "Mods", a study of the Ancient Greek and Latin languages. He then enrolled in courses selected from a variety of classical topics, with the requirement that eight papers be written. This part is called "Greats".Classics in British English is verbally and conceptually different from the American version. There is a certain commonality of subject material, but ideas about what should be included vary somewhat.
Marett was finished with his Mods by 1886, with a First. Going on to the Greats, he won the Chancellor's Prize for Latin verse in 1887, which was a modest sum contingent on submission of some New Latin verse composed by the recipient. He had nearly completed the Greats by 1888, concentrating on philosophy. British degrees at the time were designed for three years.American English sources are apt to describe Marett’s progress as though he had a double major, or earned two degrees. There are many differences in the educational system, but the British division into the two levels is based on the fact that some mastery of Greek and Latin is a prerequisite for reading authors who wrote in Greek and Latin. There was one major, one degree, and both levels were required to obtain it. However, this specific curriculum was designed for four years.
He still had more work to do when, in early 1889, he was struck by meningitis walking home from class. Knowing he was in a possibly life-threatening condition, he intruded on the first doctor's office he saw, and he was lucky enough to be diagnosed immediately by an experienced physician. He was then unable to attend Oxford for the rest of the term. When he had recovered sufficiently, he was sent to Switzerland for final treatment. In July he was granted the degree of Bachelor of Arts (BA) in absentia with a First anyway, but he still needed to pass the Bar in Roman Law.