Manchester school (anthropology)
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The Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester, founded by Max Gluckman in 1947 became known among anthropologists and other social scientists as the Manchester School. Notable features of the Manchester School included an emphasis on "case studies", deriving from Gluckman's early training in law and similar to methods used in law schools. The case method involved detailed analysis of particular instances of social interaction to infer rules and assumptions. The Manchester School also read the works of Marx and other economists and sociologists and looked at issues of social justice such as apartheid and class conflict. Recurring themes included issues of conflict and reconciliation in small-scale societies and organizations, and the tension between individual agency and social structure.
Several anthropologists who were not directly associated with the Manchester University anthropology department are sometimes considered members of the Manchester School, notably figures such as Elizabeth Colson who were associated with Gluckman through the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute.
[edit] Notable Manchester School Anthropologists
- F. G. Bailey - student of Gluckman
- Fredrik Barth - student of Gluckman
- Abner Cohen - student of Gluckman
- Elizabeth Colson - not directly affiliated with Manchester University.
- Ronald Frankenberg - student of Gluckman
- Victor Turner - student of Gluckman
- Edmund Leach - though not educated at Manchester, he was a major interlocutor of the Manchester School, especially in his early years. In later years, he engaged more directly with issues arising out of the French Structuralism of Claude Levi-Strauss.
[edit] External links
- Photographic essay: Manchester School and background
- Anthropological Theories: The Manchester School by Anna Schmidt
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