To the Editor

The State of
Anthropology
studies. 1 am entitled to.
myself as the author of plOneermg
studies in legal allthropology; and
here since I first published we. have
bad from younger a
number of excellent analyses which
, being used im.Teasingly by law-
Yn" in both teaching and research.
list. had [ the space, a number
o other fields in which anthropology,
stimulated by higher standards of
field research and aided by more
refined quantitative, and
qualitatjve mode, of analYSIs, show,s
far more vitality tban your cont}"l-
and then the theories of Western
jurisprudence as an aid in our 3nalF-
ses. None of our other colleagues dId
so. Clearly Professor cannot
have read-or if he read dId not take
in-our analyses.
But I must resist the tenlptati0!l to
deal in detail with what I consldel'
to be misrepresentations of our work
and ourselves, as in the sneering ref-
erence to a number of my
minded and independent pupIls, as
a clutch of highly and
able disciples" (itallcs added) In
review of A. Kuper,
and Anthropology: The BntLSh
School 1922-1972.
MAX GLUCKMAN,
Department of Social Anthropol-
ogy. University of Manchester.
WAG
shire.
.tDirt
Irelat
origir
epitbl
a PUI
Celtic
distol
Irish
exam
the
Hogg,
Ceiti(
oddn
For E
with 1
may I
Firth
Sir - Durjng the 19605, social
anth;opology which had had, rela-
tively at le.m, from the t
single Q; disC?urse,.
Into several' d.stincuve
plines, There ;$ an nnforlllnate tel\-
dency in the social s
mond Aron has pointed nut, for
theoretical orientations to become
doctrines: perhaps therefore
tions as well as intellectual dIVer-
aence have steadily made the adher-
ents of the several
and less able to communIcate WIth
one another. The difficulties have
been aggravated by the tendency f!Ow
to " explain " ."ome theoretical
approaches of earlier as
entirely due to a under-
lying of
gi6.'1:s to coloDlahst domlDatlOn.
in the articles by
Professor Leach and Dr Needham,
and that by Professor Sir
Evans-Pritchard, by a deveIopl'!g
introspection, strongly present 1U
sociology about the problem of how
the anthropologist can U know)'
(verscehen) another .. society" or
" culture "-01' indeed individual-
at all. This obsession, as I must call
it needs to be examined as part of a
social movement which takes
many fornts in our society-I
include under it the idea, present m
some so-called .. radical anthro-
pology", that one demeans pC;opIe by
trying to understand t.hem
tuaHy instead -of reachmg a kmd of
emotional empathy with them; the
beat of deafening music and flashing
lights on the brain ; even the "
culture". Bertrand Russell sald
that in the end solipsism alone was
logically provable; but there was
Th.
as th
minSt
expel
roUD(
it is
Sir,-I think your alone
have overluoked the most dtsasu"ous ordiu
phrase in Victor saint!
letter concerning PublIc Lendlng Jived
Right (July B) :" This i. a like'
be by the community at" ttlf!e.$
community at large had jts :::s
way, we should stm haye capital kat.-
punishment, homosexualIty wmdd to ph
remain a criminal offence. and
abortion a dream. The commumtr at
From the point of view of many
social anthropologists. it is lhese twO
tendencies which dominate a lot of
your special issue of July 6, 1973, on
.. the state land futurel of
logy" in Britain; and I 'Yfltmg In
order to inform you your non
anthropological that the
views presented are by . no
means In,' ,J;elecnng
Pr<ifessors and !'. R.
Leach and to dlSCUSS
state
large becomes the posSIble
arbiter in many speclahzed
and certainly \\o"Ould endanger, if not
completely undernliflt!. the survival
of feel
that the time-hallowed tradition of a
militant minority moving a compro 11"
mise majority to recovet its t
aims by political pressure tn some
way discreditable ?

goOd i'eason to belleve that an ex-
ternal world exists. Many of us who
are of these epistemo]ogical
therefore nevertheless
my more indignant monlent$ I
would almost encourage authorS'"
march into libraries and collec.t'tbetr
misappropriated works, 'OJ! , t, th
understanding that they would, J
turn them when Public Lend!
Right has been granted. TI', we
effectively apply tbe,same P'
as the television rental t;O#I <
who ruthlessly recover sets
ments fall into arrears.
to use.
sets the final
problem as "to reach down into the
grammar' of the other. culture,. so
88 to establish a translatIon, not Just
of the words but of the poetic mean-
(ng ". This certainly is a
problem: and there is, and has been
lor many years, considerable dis-
pute over how solve it. Many
anthropologists, besides be-
lieve that it is 110t to be .solved in'
the way that Professur Leach and
others "have by se:ar-ch
within
good luck to those wh.o attempt
We consider that more penetrating
advances have been made 'by trying
t() examine the significance of ,words.
objects and actions as' used in myths,
ritual, symbol, terms of address and
reference, and so forth, within the
context of social life within a physi-
a! environment .on which men and
women operate with material objects
within a cultural heritage. This 15,
the line which, whatever tile
oe .... 5 'If the,ir abstract theoretical
Malinowski and Rad-
diffe-Br'lwn followed in their
analyses; and folloWlqg
that line, Evans-Priti:hatd, Firth,
flortes, Turner, .np ,,}any.
.have made contributions,
""""- on rich field data, lor at Iea8t,
specific of human attLvity and
has to be
..,en allai"st the condnning analysis
of institutional socia] arrangements.
recently given great irppetus by the
study of social networks and action
sets, and also.by concentration, made
possible after the macro.tructnre 'If
exotic societies was worked on
how individuals seek to manipulate
8nd change the arrangeme.nts
to suit their view of their interestll.
This last kind of analysis I consider
link. up also with what are called
symbolic interactionist" and simi-
lar approllches, which have produced,
and arE' producing. iHuminating
on with
endlessly
the late
when
attbe
FOJJ:1iui<lti<.,...
VINCENT }ll
45 Great Ormond
WCI.


.. ,. bad a great influence
p hfO.Polo
g
ical theories. It would
" Idle to deny that it had some
i ftuence. But social anthropology
as a lfftole is much too complex to
be explained simply as a product of
colom81ism. The conquering and the
conqut!!red African peoples I studied
lJ,od theIr n anthropologists" t inter-
eSted in the customs of other peoples.
Anthropology, BS humane curiosity
about other people, has a long ances-
try in Europe. going back to Heroda-

Pritchard may say, < I was his
pupil at Oxford and DOt, as he mis
at London to gathered
Io::U!:
much to Malinowski!, he told me tbat
when, he .first, went to tbe Anglo-

not t4ere to help the administration,
but to leave for the futnre indepen-
dent Sudanese a record of their civi
litiltions. It was in the lame terms
that Vi,count Bryce encouraged thi!<
Swiss lDi .... ionary H.. A_ Junod to prn-
dUll<!, hi. classic studies of the Thonga
of Mo.,.mhique. ' .. .
I l1:ollld be more im)Jfessed If _e.
one, "'Quid show in detail this con-

tOl'egal'1l1tj1loy <iftbe gil; ,
mentS thmne ... 1l
as l del l, ...
" Centra\,Afrlca/Mantitester 1101
of weial ;'. LOaell
\I'll' pOlItical I,,
sympathy; with the .. oppre.ied ",
not.lIly. J assume, In oppoSi. tha
imposition of Central -African Feder-
a:s
Archefypt
as a
know
brings me twOp
can do from fifte
in a day." Th
satisfactorv
pleasant note -L
" the machine" I
But one feels
be earlier refer.
Mill. & Bn<>
Street, London '
Sir,-Jame!l.,,.p
WaU. (1883) ..
typewriter bUt
has a .
writer (a tYI
32 Kelvin F
N52PJ.
SaiItts
Sir,-I \
friendly re
Saints (JUl'
throu,&h lac,
viewer did
mec the ,Cf
ment. I J

'ord!l\IIry
that'tb.ey
=:

examp'
theep
Ih!rlar.
am) 1
Yo
stra.
Bro;
Ba'
tlu
of
th
HDW little be read, or understood
what be read, i. shown in bil srate-
ment thltt we' hud .. a few key prin-
derived _ ... from the termin-
ology of English jurisprudence. - .". D
ProfessorA. L. Epstem and I iJ,l our
work on African law used crdinary
English terms like contract a:bilt-ori,
Kll