Alfred Ernest Crawley (11 July 1867'Death of Mr A. E. Crawley. An Expert in Ball Games', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'', 25 October 1924 – 21 October 1924) was an English schoolmaster,

sexologist Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviors, and functions. The term ''sexology'' does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as social criticism. Sexologists ap ...

, anthropologist,

sports journalist Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

and exponent of

ball games This is a list of ball games and ball sports that include a ball as a key element in the activity, usually for scoring points. Ball games Ball sports fall within many sport categories, some sports within multiple categories, including: * Bat-a ...

Biography

Ernest Crawley was born in

Lincoln, Lincolnshire Lincoln () is a cathedral city, a non-metropolitan district, and the county town of Lincolnshire, England. In the 2021 Census, the Lincoln district had a population of 103,813. The 2011 census gave the Lincoln Urban Area, urban area of Lincoln, ...

, the eldest child of Rev. Samuel Crawley, rector of

Oddington, Oxfordshire Oddington is a village and civil parish about south of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England. The village is close to the River Ray on the northern edge of Otmoor. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 129. History The toponym is de ...

. He was the elder brother of the Olympic lawn tennis player

Walter Crawley Walter Cecil Crawley (29 March 1880 – 11 October 1940) was a British male tennis player. Life Crawley was born on 29 March 1880 and educated at St John's School, Leatherhead.The Quest Goes On, Being a Short History of the First Hundred Y ...

. He was educated at

Sedbergh School Sedbergh School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in the town of Sedbergh in Cumbria, in North West England. It comprises a junior school for children aged 4 to 13 and the main school for 13 to 18 year olds. It ...

and

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican m ...

, where he graduated BA in classics in 1890. He became an assistant master for seven years at St John's School, Leatherhead, before teaching at

Lancing College Lancing College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in southern England, UK. The school is located in West Sussex, east of Worthing near the village of Lancing, on the south coast of Engl ...

from 1898 to 1901 and at Bradfield School from 1901 to 1905. From 1905 until the Lent Term of 1906 he taught the Sixth Form at

Abingdon School Abingdon School is a day and boarding independent school for boys in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. The twentieth oldest independent British school, it celebrated its 750th anniversary in 2006. The school was described as "highly ...

. In 1906 he became headmaster of

Derby School Derby School was a school in Derby in the English Midlands from 1160 to 1989. It had an almost continuous history of education of over eight centuries. For most of that time it was a grammar school for boys. The school became co-educational an ...

, though he resigned in December 1908 and took up journalism. In 1913, he resigned from being a clergyman under the terms of the Clerical Disabilities Act 1870. Crawley reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in

1902 Events January * January 1 ** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's ...

and

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, a ...

. He also reached the quarterfinals of

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

in 1913. Though

lawn tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

was Crawley's favourite sport, "he was also fond of golf, figure-skating,

fives Fives is an English sport believed to derive from the same origins as many Outline of sports#Racket sports, racquet sports. In fives, a ball is propelled against the walls of a 3- or 4-sided special court, using a gloved or bare hand as thoug ...

, and revolver shooting". His ''Book of the Ball'' (1914) compared several games, trying to discover and illustrate general principles governing the behaviour of the ball. Crawley wrote on sport for publications including ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...

'', ''

'', and ''Fry's Magazine''. Crawley's best-known anthropological book, ''The Mystic Rose'' (1902), dealt with the anthropology of marriage. He emphasised the importance of marriage ceremonies,'Obituary: Mr A. E. Crawley', ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

'', No. 114 (8 November 1924), pp.689–90 explaining sexual and marriage custom with reference to

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannic ...

. He contributed to the ''

Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia ( British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into arti ...

'' on a range of anthropological topics: '

Anointing Anointing is the ritual act of pouring aromatic oil over a person's head or entire body. By extension, the term is also applied to related acts of sprinkling, dousing, or smearing a person or object with any perfumed oil, milk, butter, or o ...

', '

Chastity Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains either from sexual activity considered immoral or any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when ma ...

', ' Cursing and

Blessing In religion, a blessing (also used to refer to bestowing of such) is the impartation of something with grace, holiness, spiritual redemption, or divine will. Etymology and Germanic paganism The modern English language term ''bless'' likely d ...

', 'Dress', ' Drinks, Drinking', 'Fire', ' Fire-Gods', 'Food', '

Kissing A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, Passion (emotion), passion, romance (l ...

', 'Life and Death (Primitive)', '

Oath Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to g ...

(Introductory and Primitive)', '

Obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be u ...

', '

Ordeal ''Ordeal'' may refer to: * Trial by ordeal, a religious judicial practice to determine "the will of God" Books * ''Ordeal'' (autobiography), a 1980 autobiography of Linda Lovelace * ''Ordeal'' (trilogy), 1918–1941 novel trilogy by Aleksey Nik ...

(Introductory and Primitive)', '

Orgy In modern usage, an orgy is a sex party consisting of at least five members where guests freely engage in open and unrestrained sexual activity or group sex. Swingers' parties do not always conform to this designation, because at many swing ...

', and ' Processions and Dances'.Extracts from 'Dress' have been reprinted in He was a Fellow of the

Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

and the Sociological Society. Crawley died on 21 October 1924 in Kensington.

Works

* 'Branchos', ''Folk-Lore'', Vol. 6, No. 2 (June 1895), pp. 267–69 * 'Achilles at Skyros', ''The Classical Review'', Vol. 7 No. 6 (June 1893), pp. 243–45 * 'Sexual Taboo: a study in the relations of the sexes', ''Journal of the Anthropological Institute'', Vol. 24 (1895), pp. 116–25 * 'Sexual Taboo: a study in the relations of the sexes (Part II)', ''Journal of the Anthropological Institute'', Vol. 24 (1895), pp. 219–35 * 'Sexual Taboo: a study in the relations of the sexes (Part III)', ''Journal of the Anthropological Institute'', Vol. 24 (1895), pp. 430–446 * 'Taboos of Commensality', ''Folk-Lore'' * ''The mystic rose: a study of primitive marriage'', 1902. ** Revised and enlarged ed., 2 vols, 1927. Ed. by

Theodore Besterman Theodore Deodatus Nathaniel Besterman (22 November 1904 – 10 November 1976) was a Polish-born British psychical researcher, bibliographer, biographer, and translator. In 1945 he became the first editor of the ''Journal of Documentation''. From ...

. * Translation into

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

for multilingual private printing of ''Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the astronomer-poet of Persia'', English tr. by Edward Fitzgerald, privately printed on hand-made paper / Japanese vellum, 1902 * ''The tree of life: a study of religion'', 1905 * 'The origin and function of religion', in Sociological Society, ed., ''Sociological Papers'', Vol. 3, 1906, pp. 243–278, Excerpts onlin
here
* 'Exogamy and the Mating of Cousins', in ''Anthropological Essays presented to E. B. Tylor, 1907'', pp.52–68 * ''The idea of the soul'', 1909 * Review of ''The Threshold of Religion'' by R. R. Marett, ''

Man A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chrom ...

'', Vol. 9 (1909). pp. 140–41 * 'Primitive eugenics', ''The Eugenics Review'', Jan. 1910, pp. 275–80. Reprinted onlin
here
* 'Totemism Unveiled', ''Nature'' 84 (1910), pp. 31–2 * ''Book of the ball'', 1913 * ''Lawn tennis'', 1919. * ''Skating: English, international, speed'', 1920 * ''Lawn tennis do's and don'ts'', 1922 * ''The technique of lawn tennis demonstrated by cinematography'', 1923. * ''The lawn tennis umpire & referee: what he must know, and what he should do'', 1923 * ''Studies of savages and sex'', 1929. Ed. by

. * ''Dress, drinks, and drums: further studies of savages and sex'', 1931. Ed. by Theodore Besterman. * ''Oath, curse, and blessing, and other studies in origins'', 1934. Ed. by Theodore Besterman. Thinker's Library, no. 40. (Selection from the 1929 ''Studies'' and the 1931 ''Dress, drinks, and drums''.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawley, Alfred Ernest 1867 births 1924 deaths People educated at Sedbergh School Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Schoolteachers from Lincolnshire English anthropologists English folklorists English sports journalists British sexologists Headmasters of Derby School Staff of Abingdon School Tennis writers English male tennis players Sportspeople from Lincolnshire British male tennis players