ABSTRACT
The path-breaking Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits illustrates beautifully the eclecticism of research funding in anthropology’s early years. The Torres Straits Expedition exemplified not only the patchwork nature of early research funding, but also the nonprofessional status of early researchers. Anthropology was often more avocation than vocation, the pursuit of “leisured gentlemen, business men, and professionals with anthropological interests,” as George Stocking typified the 1888 membership of the Royal Anthropological Institute. The context for funding changed after the war. American anthropologists in particular evidenced a new consciousness of the hazards as well as the opportunities associated with government research support. In both the United States and Britain, most anthropologists are employed in academic positions. The strong emphasis on peer review presents another set of problems, given the absence of consensus about research methods and priorities and the fragmentation of sociocultural anthropology into subfields.
