‎"KRAFT, JENS. -‎
‎Kort Fortælning af de Vilde Folks fornemmeste Indretninger, Skikke og meninger, til Oplysning af det menneskeliges Oprindelse og Fremgang i Almindelighed. (Brief Account of the Principal Institutions, Customs and Ideas of the Savage peoples, to Inform... - [ FOUNDING THE SCIENCE OF ETHNOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY.]‎

‎Sorøe, Jonas Lindgren, 1760. 8vo. In recent half calf with gilt lettering to spine. Spine with a few stains and slightly miscoloured. Internally nice and clean. (8), 383, (1) pp. + 2 folded plates. ‎

Reference : 61816

‎Scarce first edition of this pioneering work considered true beginning of scientific ethnology and anthropology: “Kraft's book is the first general ethnology containing a description of the origin and development of society, economic life, religion, and arts” (Birket-Smith, The History of Ethnology in Denmark). “Actually, the first ethnologist in a modern sense was Jens Kraft (1720-65), who deserves a place of honour among the pioneers of cultural research by virtue of his little book (the present). Kraft was born in Norway, which at that time was united politically with Denmark, but after his father's untimely death he was educated in his uncle's house in Denmark, and here he was appointed professor of philosophy and mathematics at the early age of twenty-six. Urged by Rousseau's glorification of primitive man, Kraft wanted to depict the true history of humanity, and disregarding the nations of antiquity he started with the most ""savage"" peoples he knew, two tribes of South American Indians, the Lule and the Caigua. It makes no difference that his choice is not very fortunate, since these tribes are far from being on an especially low stage" the main thing is that his principle is indisputable The more you become absorbed in his queer little book, the more will the amazingly far-sighted and unbiassed view of the author compel your respect. Referring to the natives of America, he maintains, for instance, that among some peoples agriculture must be older than cattle breeding" usually it is Alexander von Humboldt who gets the credit for this discovery. In order to refute the idea that primeval man lived in a state of promiscuity Kraft mentions the fact that even among the higher animals we find something like married life, thus upholding the view of Westermarck 130 years later. He points out the authority of the women in certain societies and concludes "" that the children have for the most part followed their mothers and considered themselves their natural possessions,"" and from this circumstance he derives matrilineal succession, in other words he anticipates Bachofen's famous discovery by a century. Kraft's book is the first general ethnology containing a description of the origin and development of society, economic life, religion, and arts. It was translated into German, and if it had been known to wider circles it might have been epoch-making. This did not happen. It is doubtful whether Kraft himself was aware of the importance of his work, and anyhow he died soon after in the prime of his life. Kraft was actually a hundred years ahead of his time. In Europe generally as well as in Denmark, physical anthropology and, later, archaeology nearly killed the tiny ethnological germ, and it was not till the middle of the 19th century that it grew to be an independent science. (Birket-Smith, The History of Ethnology in Denmark)‎