Hutton was well-known as an anthropologist who was also an administrator. When he was a political agent to the Naga hills among the tribes there he made thorough studies of the Angami and Sema Nagas. They were both published as books and became a standard reference work for the region over the years. As an ethnologist, he studied the entirety of the cultural life of the tribal communities, including their language and physical characteristics. The book on the Angamis, published in 1921, described their mythological origin, law, customs, domestic life, religion, language and folklore, ending with an appendix on their physical characteristics.
At that time, in England and in other parts of the continent, the trend among ethnologists was to find the evolutionary origins of various socio- cultural institutions. This mode was also followed by Hutton. He concludes from his study that the Nagas must have originated and migrated from somewhere close
to China. He discusses the institution of head-hunting and the Negrito element among the Angamis. This evolutionary and diffusionist work was also extended to the study of the caste system, on which Hutton wrote another book Caste In India Its Nature, Function, And Origins.
Hutton was also very much in sympathy with the problems of the tribes. In fact, he was of the opinion that autonomy could be granted to these tribes for conducting their own affairs. This stood him in good stead with the local administration and he was appointed Political Agent to the Naga hills before he became the Census Commissioner. He was also appointed as the Chairman of Anthropology at Cambridge. He was first to be appointed the President of the Indian Science Congress in 1921.