Abstract
This article conducts a textual and reception analysis of George Jamieson’s translation of Qing marriage law with
the aim of probing a translational encounter between traditional Chinese law and British anthropology. Approaching a Qing clause
against marriage between persons of the same family name as an object of anthropological study, Jamieson annotated his rendition
with rich paratexts to orient it under the concept of exogamy. After reflecting upon predecessors’ theories, he advanced his own
by restructuring existing anthropological constructs. Taking his translation as a knowledge source, Jamieson further highlighted
the existence of an endogamous limit upon the exogamy rule; this observation was absorbed by Henry Maine to strengthen his
argument that exogamy and endogamy were not oppositional in agnatic societies. As revealed in Jamieson’s interaction with British
anthropologists, he proved himself more than a translator of Qing marriage law but also a contributor to nineteenth-century
British anthropology.
Cluster analysis of knowledge sources in standardized electrical engineering subfields