Isaac Schapera

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Isaac Schapera

Isaac Schapera (born June 23, 1905 in Garies , † June 26, 2003 in London ) was a British anthropologist , ethnologist and Africanist from a South African- Jewish family.

Life

Isaac Schapera attended the South African College School in Cape Town . He then studied at the University of Cape Town , where he was one of Radcliffe-Brown's first anthropology students . In 1925 Schapera made his Master of Arts there . As a student of Charles Gabriel Seligman at the London School of Economics and Political Science , he was also in contact with Bronisław Malinowski . In 1929 Schapera did his Ph.D. and in 1939 the D.Sc. at the University of London .

From 1935 to 1950 Isaac Schapera was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town. He then was Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics between 1950 and 1969 and later Professor emeritus . In 1974 Schapera became an Honorary Fellow of the university. In 1948 he was visiting professor at the University of Chicago and in 1953 at the University of Toronto .

Research and work

Schapera researched the indigenous peoples in South Africa and the history of their contact with so-called Western civilization . The Bantu people of the Tswana were particularly close to him .

His works on the Bantu-speaking and Khoisan-speaking tribes of South Africa are classics of African ethnology .

One of his main interests was the history of the San and Khoi Khoi . He wrote a compilation of the history of the Khoi in the former Cape Province , in which he integrated the works of the Dutch Olfert Dapper (1668), Willem Ten Rhyne (1686) and Johannes Gulielmus de Grevenbroek (1695).

He also edited the African Diary and other writings by the African explorer David Livingstone .

Offices and honors

Fonts

  • The Khoisan Peoples of South Africa: Bushmen and Hottentots. Routledge, London 1930. Digitized
  • A Handbook of Tswana Law and Custom . 1938
  • Married Life in an African Tribe. 1940. Reissued: Northwestern University Press, Evanston 1966.
  • Native Land Tenure in the Bechuanaland Protectorate . 1943
  • Migrant Labor and Tribal Life . 1948
  • Some problems of anthropological research in Kenya Colony. Internatio, 1949.
  • The Bantu-speaking tribes of South-Africa: an ethnographical survey. 3. Edition. Routledge & Paul, London 1950.
  • The Ethnic Composition of Tswana Tribes . 1952.
  • The Tswana: Southern Africa. Part III. 1953. New edition: London International African Institute 1962. Ethnographic Survey of Africa, Ed. Daryll Forde.
  • Praise-poems of Tswana chiefs. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1965 ( Oxford Library of African Literature ).
  • Government and Politics in Tribal Societies. Watts. London 1956. New edition: Schocken Books 1967. (Josiah Mason lectures).
  • Tribal innovators . 1970
  • Rainmaking Rites of Tswana Tribes . 1971
  • Kinship Terminology in Jane Austen's Novels . 1977
  • Select bibliography of South African native life and problems. Kraus, New York.
Editing and editing
  • The Early Cape Hottentots: described in the writings of Olfert Dapper (1668), Willem Ten Rhyne (1686) and Johannes Gulielmus de Grevenbroek (1695). Translation into English by I. Schapera and B. Farrington. Van Riebeeck Society, Cape Town 1933. New edition: Negro Universities Press, Westport, Conn. 1970.
  • EE Evans-Pritchard, Raymond Firth, Bronislaw Malinowski, Isaac Schapera (Eds.): Essays presented to CG Seligman . Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1934.
  • The Bantu-speaking tribes of South Africa. An ethnographical survey. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1937.
  • Family Letters 1841-1856 / David Livingstone. Chatto & Windus, London 1959.
  • Livingstone's African Journal: 1853-1856 . 2 volumes. Chatto & Windus, London 1963.
  • Western civilization and the natives of South Africa. Studies in culture contact. Routledge, K. Paul, London 1967.
  • Select bibliography of South African native life and problems. Supplement 1/3: Modern status and conditions: 1939–1963. Kraus, New York 1969.
  • Select bibliography of South African native life and problems. Main band. Kraus, New York 1969. Reprint of the London 1941 edition.
  • David Livingstone South African papers. 1849-1853. Van Riebeeck Society, Cape Town 1974.

literature

  • Adam Kuper: Isaac Schapera, 1905-2003 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 130 , 2005, pp. 177-2002 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schapera, Isaac
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British anthropologist, ethnologist and Africanist
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Garies
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 2003
Place of death London