COLOUR SYMBOLISM
Colour symbolism, as a line of anthropological research, is worthier of closer attention than is usually accorded to it. In this paper, which is necessarily limited in range and extent, I can do little more than emphasise the importance and wealth of the available data, and indicate by some examples how the colour clue may assist us in investigating problems of perennial interest.
Certain aspects of the subject have engaged attention from time to time. About a generation ago, for instance, an interesting controversy was conducted with much vigour and enthusiasm by prominent students of the classics regarding the colour sense of Homer. No permanent solution of the problem was reached. The controversy ended, as not a few have ended when confined within too narrow limits, in a barren triumph for those who stated the strongest objections. It seemed as if Gladstone and his allies had no case until on January 25th, 1900, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers reopened the subject in his lecture on "Primitive Colour Vision" which he delivered at the Royal Institution.[1] He showed that consideration should be given to the development of the colour sense when dealing with the Homeric problem, and provided fresh and important evidence in this connection. "The subject of the evolution of the colour sense in man," he wrote, "is one which can only be settled by the convergence to one point of lines of investigation
- ↑ Published in The Popular Scientific Monthly, vol. lix. no. i. pp. 44-58, May 1901.
