Student of Man
EssaYs in Social Anthropology. By E. E. Evans- Pritchard. (Faber, 30s.) Tins is a collection of essays written between 1932 and 1961 by the most influential English social anthropologist. Professor Evans-Pritchard has incorporated most of his early essays in his monographs and hence his major contributions to the subject will be found in those rather than in the volume under review. These essays never- theless constitute a far better introduction, for the student or the general reader, to what social anthropologists do and think than many osten- sibly introductory books. As a device for presentation the author intro- duces his essays as representative of an anthro- 13,13logi5t'5 training. First the student is instructed it general theory, he then goes on to write a research thesis based 'upon literary sources, and finally he presents a thesis based upon his own field-work usually and preferably conducted in an alien culture. It should be noted, however, that the essays do not follow the author's own development in this way. The three lectures Ilealing with anthropologists and their theories, intended to correspond to the student's initiatory Period, were in fact delivered after 1950, while the essays based upon field-work refer to re- search done before 1930. The essays read best in chronological order -and are, for a historian of the subject, fascinat- ing. One notices the harmony between the approach to his field material of the young man In his late twenties and the mature reflections on theory of the professor. The field-work is of that exhaustive and free-ranging quality which follows the free association of social ideas among the people studied rather than imposes a preconceived sociology" upon them. The ttlknroughness of the field-work is demonstrated by the fact that twenty-five years later the author Was able to take up so subtle a topic as a Peculiar mode of thought and language among the Azande of Central Africa (the last essay Fe.printed here) and find more than enough in notebooks for an illuminating analysis. Field-work today has become much more sPecialised. As a result of theoretical develop- ments young men go out to their fields with analytical problems and a more exclusively !°ciological approach. At the best this makes Or more profound analyses than were achieved the 1930s but often the result is little more i,an a factual confirmation of their teachers' theories It would call for an immense act of emancipation if they could today carry out field- Work so close to the ground that it would e illain open to fresh consideration in 1990 in the of ideas then prevalent. 1 he author's development has not been as cis nsistent as the above might suggest. There which gap in the essays between 1936 and 1948 (the war years apart) is important. the In e latter half of that period we can note a diversion in Professor Evans-Pritchard's thought which led him to write more within the ambience of his predecessor at Oxford, the late Professor Radcliffe-Brown, than he had done or was to do later. The only essay in this book at all rep- resentative of that period is the Frazer Lecture of 1948 which deals with the Divine Kingship of a Nilotic People. Here is a trace of the Radcliffe-Brownian exclusive concern with groups and relations between groups, organic solidarity and the resolution of conflict by sociological optimism. This was a necessary period for the discipline as a whole. In a sense it made it a discipline. In Professor Evans- Pritchard's writings it should not be over- stressed, for two of his monographs, The Anuak and The Sanusi of Cyrenaica, written during this time, implicitly foreshadow a reaction. The Marett Lecture 1950 (here reprinted) was a magisterial debunking of earlier 'scientific' pretensions and the general reader, when he has read it, will be surprised to know what a fuss it caused and still to some extent causes. The later 'Anthropology and History' (1961) is also included and is an expansion on the earlier posi- tion. The reprinting of both essays perhaps un- balances the book a little. If I had to choose I would prefer to keep the earlier plain manifesto rather than the later triumphal march. Apart from the essays already mentioned there are four dealing with the Azande: their kings and princes, their theories of heredity and gestation, their institution of blood-brotherhood and their theology. The last two together with the essay `Sanza, a Characteristic Feature of Zande Language and Thought' repay careful reading. They have a comparative significance that goes beyond the facts discussed. They are also a useful introduction to two of his greatest works, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande and Nuer Religion. One essay is at first sight anomalous in this collection. 'Religion and the Anthropologists' was the Aquinas Lecture, 1959. It discusses and tries to account for the decline in studies in religion by social anthropologists in our time. It is a careful survey of sociological approaches to religion in relation to the religious beliefs, or lack of them, of sociologists. Inevitably a personal note enters here, a statement of position which should have the effect, for a thoughtful reader, of eliminating dogmatism from the discussion. The intellectual problem posed is a genuine one and the author's denominational allegiance is not built into it. The quality of mind which emerges from the other essays should warn the reader, if he feels irritation, to examine the grounds of his reaction.
D. P. POCOCK
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