ABSTRACT
In 1912, W. H. R. Rivers published what, we, as students, regarded as a “classic” in anthropology. We have reference to an essay called “The Disappearance of Useful Arts.” Rivers’s point is framed in his introduction:
The civilized person, imbued with utilitarian ideas, finds it difficult to understand the disappearance of useful arts. To him it seems almost incredible that arts which not merely add to the comfort and happiness of a people but such as seem almost essential to his very existence should be lost. (Rivers 1912:109)
