Disappearing savages? Thoughts on the construction of an anthropological conundrum

From its birth as an amateur hobby, through its inception into professional academia and to the present time, anthropologists have asserted that the p rimary subject matter of its attention is fast disappearing. The concept of the "disappearing savage," it is suggested here, has provided both a ratio nale for the existence of social and cultural anthropology as well as a rus e or mirror for our own sense of modernity.