ABSTRACT
Since the authors are concerned with the influence, direct or indirect, of the Age of Discovery on anthropology, it is a matter of some importance to relate them in a chronological frame work. Whether we look to antiquity or closer to people own times, the origin of anthropology is more complex than the simile with biological paternity would suggest. The fact is that J. J. Rousseau, considering his fame and wide body of readers, was rarely quoted by writers who were closer to the mainstream of anthropology. To this extent the fruits of the Age of Discovery were being gathered by European writers for systematic use and in something of an historical and developmental framework. The chapter supposes, inevitable that as the concept of biological races of man became a widely accepted way of looking at mankind the discoveries and descriptions of new tribes and people would raise the question of their place in the racial scheme.
