The Races of Man and Their Distribution

Record summary

A. C. Haddon’s The Races of Man and Their Distribution summarized early twentieth-century anthropological views about human populations, including Pacific peoples and migration. It provides a concrete source for studying the intellectual background against which claims about Aryan, Malay, Melanesian, and Polynesian origins were framed. The book is valuable as evidence for the history of anthropology rather than as a reliable account of biological race. Its classifications and assumptions should be compared with contemporary archaeology, Indigenous scholarship, population genetics, and the abandonment of typological race models.