J. Clyde Mitchell

James Clyde Mitchell (born June 21, 1918 in Pietermaritzburg , † November 15, 1995 ) was a British ethnologist ( Social Anthropologist ). He was an important representative of the Manchester School .

He researched in the 1940s to 1960s a. a. at the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute in Lusaka ( Zambia ) the relationships between the clans of the Lakeside Tonga and the magical trade among the Yao . In the Zambian mining region of Copperbelt, he explored urban innovations in large dance performances ( The Kalela Dance ). His mastery of statistics strongly influenced the studies of social networks, which were maintained in anthropology (before sociology ) .

He was rector of the University in Salisbury (now Harare ), turned to England after the revolt of the white settlers in Southern Rhodesia ( see History of Zimbabwe ) and became the director of the London School of Economics and Political Science .

Publications

The Kalela dance : Aspects of social relationships among urban Africans in Northern Rhodesia , Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1956
The Yao village: A study in the social structure of a Malawian tribe Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1956, 1966, 1971
Social Networks in urban situations : Analyzes of personal relationships in Central African towns , Manchester: University Press, 1969
Networks, norms, and institutions , 1973
Configurational similarity in three class contexts in British society. In: Sociology , Vol. 19, 1985
Foreword, in: Cities, society, and social perception: A Central African perspective by Bruce Kapferer , Oxford University Press (1987)