Professor of Anthropology

Jonathan Marks

In 1760, the great Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus graduated a PhD student (one of over 140) named Christian Emmanuel Hoppé (Hoppius), with a dissertation called “Anthropomorpha”.  In those days, however, a doctoral thesis was a bit different than it is now: when your advisor thought you were ready, he would dictate your thesis, and then examine you on it.  Consequently, although the thesis is officially by Hoppius, it is generally ascribed to Linnaeus himself, whose name appears much more prominently on the work than that of the student.

 

Unfortunately, Linnaeus was not nearly as critical a thinker on this subject as was his rival, Buffon.  Buffon had two advantages: he had seen the London chimpanzee of 1738 first-hand; and he could read English, and had access to Edward Tyson’s 1699 monograph.  Buffon reprinted excerpts from it in Histoire Naturelle, but Linnaeus never cited it.

Home