Robert Henry Codrington

Robert Henry Codrington (15 September 1830, Wroughton, Wiltshire – 11 September 1922)^[1] was an Anglican priest and anthropologist who made the first study of Melanesian society and culture. His work is still held as a classic of ethnography.

Robert Henry Codrington
Personal life
Born	(1830-09-15)15 September 1830 Wroughton, United Kingdom
Died	11 September 1922(1922-09-11) (aged 91) Chichester, United Kingdom
Religious life
Religion	Church of England

Codrington wrote, "One of the first duties of a missionary is to try to understand the people among whom he works,"^[2] and he himself reflected a deep commitment to this value. Codrington worked as headmaster of the Melanesian Mission school on Norfolk Island from 1867 to 1887.^[1] Over his many years with the Melanesian people, he gained a deep knowledge of their society, languages, and customs through a close association with them. He also intensively studied "Melanesian languages", including the Mota language.^[1]

He popularized the use of the word "mana" in the West, and described mana "as a generalized power that is perceived in objects appearing in any sense out of the ordinary, or that is acquired by persons who possess them."^[3]

Bibliography of works by Codrington

• A Sketch of Mota Grammar. (1877). (full text from the Internet Archive).
• The Melanesian Languages. (1885). Oxford: Clarendon Press. (full text from the Internet Archive).
• The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-Lore. (1891). Oxford: Clarendon Press. (full text from the Internet Archive).
• Codrington, Robert & John Palmer. 1896. A Dictionary of the Language of Mota, Sugarloaf Island, Banks' Islands: With a short grammar and index. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
• "Melanesians." Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Ed. James Hastings. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 8:529–38.