Lucy Mair

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lucy Philip Mair (born January 28, 1901 in Banstead , Surrey , † April 1, 1986 in London ) was a British social anthropologist and professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science .

Life

Her parents were civil servant David Beveridge Mair and Jessy, b. Philip (later Janet Thomson Beveridge, wife of William Henry Beveridge ), who worked in the university administration. First, Lucy Philip Mair attended St. Paul's School for Girls. She then studied Classics at Newnham College , a women's college at Cambridge University . In 1923 she completed the Classical tripos with top marks ("First Class") and an award in philosophy in the second part.

Afterwards, Mair worked for five years in the League of Nations Union led by the classical philologist Gilbert Murray , an organization that campaigned for peace and other ideals of the League of Nations . There she was involved in public relations, as a lecturer and representative at the headquarters of the League of Nations in Geneva. At the same time she was working on her first monograph, a book on the protection of minorities in the League of Nations. The protection of minorities appeared in 1928 and was cited for three decades later as a major contribution to international relations . Later, however, their achievements in this subject were no longer noticed, while they were certainly appreciated in the field of social anthropology.

In 1927 Mair obtained her master’s degree. She then studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where she was increasingly involved in teaching as a doctoral student. She was one of the first to teach in the newly established Department for International Relations (“International Studies”, later “International Relations Department”). Inspired by seminars held by Bronisław Malinowski , she chose anthropology as a research area. With the help of a degree from the Rockefeller Foundation , she traveled to Uganda and dealt with the local regulations for property, which flowed into her dissertation ( An African people in the twentieth century ). In 1932 she received her doctorate at the LSE and taught as a lecturer in colonial administration.

In the following years Mair undertook further excursions to East Africa and continued her ethnological studies. With the support of a grant from the International African Institute , she visited the mandate of Tanganyika (1936–1937). During the Second World War, she temporarily left the LSE. From 1939 to 1943 she worked in research for the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Foreign Research and Press Service) and then for the Ministry of Information . From 1945 to 1946 she taught at the Australian Land Headquarters Civil Affairs School, where she prepared Australian administrative officials for their deployment in New Guinea . In 1948 she published her findings in Australia in New Guinea .

From 1946 Mair taught again at the LSE, although she officially changed from the Department of International Relations to Anthropology at her own request, primarily in order to obtain a research and teaching profile that was consistent with her specialization. First she taught as a reader for colonial administration, from 1952 as a reader for applied anthropology and from 1963 as a professor until her retirement in 1968. Even after retirement, she taught as an honorary professor at the University of Kent . Mair's most significant anthropological contributions during these years included Primitive Government (1962), New Nations (1963), and Anthropology and Social Change (1969). She has also published several books on the function of marriage in Africa and marriage in general ( Marriage , 1971). Mair himself remained unmarried. In addition to her work as a scientific author and university lecturer, she advised political decision-makers. Her greatest merit is considered to have shown how anthropologists can assist national and international governments in their cultural understanding.

Honors

The Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIA) awarded Mair in 1935 with the "Wellcome Medal for Research in Anthropology". Since 1998, the RIA has awarded the "Lucy Mair Medal" to recognize outstanding achievements in the field of anthropology for the alleviation of poverty and need and for the recognition of human dignity.

Works

  • The protection of minorities: the working and scope of the minorities treaties under the League of Nations. Christophers, London 1928.
  • An African people in the twentieth century. George Routledge & sons, London 1934.
  • Native policies in Africa. G. Routledge & Sons, London 1936.
  • Native marriage in Buganda. Oxford University Press, London 1940.
  • Welfare in the British Colonies. Royal Institute of International Affairs, London 1944.
  • Australia in New Guinea. London 1948.
  • Studies in applied anthropology. Athlone Press, London 1957.
  • New Nations. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1963.
  • Primitive Government. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1964.
  • African Marriage and Social Change. Routledge, London 1969, ISBN 0-7146-1908-6 .
  • Witchcraft. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1969.
    • Magic in the Black Continent. Translated from the English by H. Miklik-Stampa and E. Rössler. Kindler, Munich 1969.
  • Anthropology and Social Change. Athlone Press, London 1971, ISBN 0-485-19638-7 .
  • Marriage. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1971, ISBN 0-14-021336-8 .
  • African Societies. Cambridge University Press, London 1974, ISBN 0-521-20442-9 .
  • African kingdoms. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1977, ISBN 0-19-821698-X .
  • A Introduction to Social Anthropology. Greenwood Press, Westport 1985, ISBN 0-313-24977-6 .

literature

  • Elizabeth Colson: Lucy Mair . In: Anthropology Today . Vol. 2, No. 4 (August 1986), pp. 22-24. (Obituary)
  • John Middleton: Lucy Philip Mair, 1901-86 . In: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute . Vol. 57, No. 1 (1987), pp. 99-101.
  • John Davis: Choice and change: essays in honor of Lucy Mair. Humanities Press, London 1974 (Berg, Oxford 2004, ISBN 1-85973-834-6 ).
  • Maxwell Owusu: Colonialism and change. Essays presented to Lucy Mair. Mouton, Den Haag 1975 (Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-081263-3 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, Joy Dorothy Harvey: Mair, Lucy Philip. In: The biographical dictionary of women in science: pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century. Routledge, New York 2000, ISBN 0-415-92038-8 , p. 832.
  2. ↑ a b Patricia Owens (* 1975; Professor at the University of Sussex): Lucy Philip Mair - leading writer on colonial administration, early international relations scholar, and anthropologist. London School of Economics blog. October 3, 2018. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
  3. ↑ Awards therai.org.uk. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
  4. ^ Lucy Mair Medal discoveranthropology.org.uk. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Mair, Lucy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mair, Lucy Philip (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British social anthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Banstead , Surrey
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1986
Place of death London