The Anthropolgy Of Robert Knox
March 7, 2010
Robert Knox, was an outstanding and highly popular lecturer of Anatomy, Charles Darwin among others was one of his students. An outspoken man considered both a radical and an atheist. He is perhaps best remembered for his involvement in Scotland’s, famous body snatching case. It was Knox who purchased the murder victims of Burke and Hare.
Knox also had some views with regard to race which even by the standards of his day were out of step. He complains about the attitude to his views, a number of times in the text. His perspective on race are not popular but not utterly out of step with his time. He was disgraced for his involvement with Burke and Hare, not for his perspective on Anthropology and Ethnology.
He also discusses some of the problems faced by the inquirer into the races of man and his view that a Celt was a Celt in whatever culture he would be found is not uncommon.
