Professor Robert Gordon (Research Associate, University of the Free State, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Vermont)
Max Gluckman was one of the more enigmatic figures in post-World War 2 social anthropology. Some have suggested that his ‘Bridge’ essay is the single most important article in the discipline; others have dismissed him as a controversial figure, an anticolonial activist, and a critic of establishment views in the social sciences and in public life. Not only was he a complex person, but so was social anthropology in this era. Applying a method which emerged out of his Seminars, the extended case study, I examine his career and the impact of networks and socio-cultural milieu on his scholarly
innovations and life trajectory.
Prof Rob Gordon (Vermont/Free State) will discuss his recent biography of the famous anthropologist Max Gluckman, who established what became known as the ‘Manchester School’: The Enigma of Max Gluckman: The Ethnographic Life of a “Luckyman” in Africa. This book will be of interest to students of anthropology, and in particular in debates on decolonization, ethnographic life-writing, and biography.
