RAYMOND FIRTH
1901-2002
Born in New Zealand in 1901, Raymond Firth completed a
master's degree in economics (1922), and a diploma in social science
(1923) at Auckland. When he went to the London School of Economics in
1924, Raymond planned to focus his doctoral work on economics-- indeed,
on the frozen meat industry in New Zealand (Freedman 1967:viii). He
was interested in anthropology, but as he told David Parkin in a recent
interview (1988:330), "there were no anthropological posts available
whatsoever in New Zealand at the time." That, of course, is a consideration
well understood by many today. Fortunately for anthropology and especially
the Oceanic branch thereof, circumstances at LSE and the opportunity
to study with Malinowski led him to cast his lot with Polynesian anthropology
anyway. He wrote his doctoral dissertation (later published as a monograph)
on Maori economics, receiving his Ph.D. in 1927.
Raymond has had an enormous impact on anthropological
theory and method, and on the development of Pacific anthropology. His
most significant theoretical contributions have been in economic anthropology
and the study of social relations through the perspective of social
organization. These contributions have grown out of his fieldwork among
the Maori, the Malay, and the Tikopia. His extensive ethnography, We,
the Tikopia, based on his first period of field research in 1928-29,
is an anthropological classic--a model for building theory from the
details of everyday life. His work has been eclectic in method and content,
for he has ignored virtually no aspect of human behavior. Because of
his continuing research commitment for the past 60 years, Tikopia is
one of the most comprehensively documented societies in the ethnographic
record. His major publications have included: Primitive Economics
of the New Zealand Maori (1929); We, the Tikopia: A Sociological
Study of Kinship in Primitive Polynesia (1936); Primitive Polynesian
Economy (1939); Malay Fishermen, Their Peasant Economy (1946);
Elements of Social Organization (1951); History and Traditions
of Tikopia (1961); Essays on Social Organization and Values
(1964); Tikopia Ritual and Belief (1967); Rank and
Religion in Tikopia (1971); Symbols: Public and Private
(1973); and his Tikopia dictionary, Taranga Fakatikopia ma Taranga
Fakainglisi (1985).
Many generations of students in social anthropology owe
a great intellectual debt to Raymond. From 1930-32 Raymond taught anthropology
at the University of Sydney with Radcliffe-Brown. In 1933 he returned
to LSE where he remained (except for periods of leave) until his retirement
in 1968. In the 1967 festschrift presented to Firth by his British students,
editor Maurice Freedman credits Raymond's intellectual leadership and
commitment with having created a school of anthropology out of "a
small band of scholars" at LSE, where over several decades, he
"welcomed new ideas, encouraged pioneers, and promoted innovations
in research" (p. ix).
Many ASAO members were fortunate enough to have been in
graduate school during Raymond's North American tour after his retirement
from LSE. From 1968-1974, he accepted invitations as visiting professor
from a number of American universities: Hawai'i (1968- 69), British
Columbia (1969), Cornell (1970), Chicago (1970-71), Graduate School
of the City University of New York (1971), and UC Davis (1974). The
tour came at a time when British and American schools of anthropology
were exchanging ideas and synthesizing perspectives on human behavior,
and Raymond's teaching profoundly affected the intellectual development
of many of us. A second festschrift for Raymond, this one from some
of us who studied with him during his North American tour, recognized
him as "perhaps the greatest living teacher of anthropology today,"
one whose seminars aptly illustrate his formulations of social organization
and transaction (Watson-Gegeo and Seaton 1978:viii).
REFERENCES CITED
Freedman, Maurice, ed.
1967 Social Organization: Essays Presented to Raymond Firth.
Chicago: Aldine.
Parkin, David.
1988 An Interview with Raymond Firth. Current Anthropology
29(2):327-341.
Watson-Gegeo, Karen Ann, and S. Lee Seaton, eds.
1978 Adaptation and Symbolism: Essays on SocialOrganization.
Honolulu: University Press of Hawai'i
Karen Watson-Gegeo, University of Hawai’i (Fall
1988 Newsletter) |
