Isaac Schapera

Isaac Schapera ( born June 23, 1905 in Garies; † 26 June 2003, London ) was a British anthropologist, anthropologist and Africanist from a South African- Jewish family.

Life

Isaac Schapera visited the South African College School in Cape Town. He then studied at the University of Cape Town, where he was one of the first anthropology students of Radcliffe - Brown. In 1925, Schapera made ​​there his Master of Arts. As a student of Charles Gabriel Seligman at the London School of Economics and Political Science, he was also in contact with Bronisław Malinowski. In 1929, Schapera received his Ph.D. and 1939 the D.Sc. at the University of London.

From 1935 to 1950 Isaac Schapera was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town. Then he was 1950-1969 Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and later a professor emeritus. In 1974, Schapera Honorary Fellow of the University. In 1948 he was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago in 1953 at the University of Toronto.

Research and work

Schapera explored the indigenous peoples of South Africa and the history of their contact with the so-called Western civilization. Particularly close to him, the Bantu people of the Tswana.

Among the classics of African ethnology include his work on the Bantu-speaking tribes of South Africa and khoisansprachigen.

Here, one of his main interests was the history of the Khoi Khoi and San. On the history of the early Khoi in the Cape province, he wrote a Collective Work, in which he integrated the works of the Dutch Olfert Dapper (1668 ), Willem Ten Rhyne (1686) and John de Gulielmus Grevenbroek ( 1695).

He also edited the African diary and other writings of the African explorer David Livingstone.

Offices and honors

Writings

• The Khoisan Peoples of South Africa: Bushmen and Hottentots. Routledge, London, 1930.
• A Handbook of Tswana Law and Custom. 1938
• Married Life in an African Tribe. 1940th edition: Northwestern University Press, Evanston 1966.
• Native Land Tenure in the Bechuanaland Protectorate. 1943
• Migrant Labour and Tribal Life. 1948
• Some problems of anthropological research in Kenya Colony. Interna, 1949.
• The Bantu - speaking tribes of South - Africa: an ethnographical survey. 3rd edition. Routledge & Paul, London, 1950.
• The Ethnic Composition of Tswana Tribes. In 1952.
• Praise - poems of Tswana chiefs. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1965.
• Government and Politics in Tribal Societies. Watts. . London 1956 edition. Schocken Books, 1967 ( Josiah Mason lectures ).
• Tribal Innovators. 1970
• Rainmaking Rites of Tswana Tribes. 1971
• Kinship Terminology in Jane Austen's Novels. 1977
• Select bibliography of South African native life and problems. Kraus, New York.

• The Early Cape Hottentots: Described in the writings of Olfert Dapper (1668 ), Willem Ten Rhyne (1686) and John de Gulielmus Grevenbroek ( 1695). Translation into English by I. Schapera and B. Farrington. . Van Riebeeck Society, Cape Town 1933, new edition: Negro Universities Press, Westport, Conn. In 1970.
• EE Evans - Pritchard, Raymond Firth, Bronislaw Malinowski, Isaac Schapera (ed.): Essays presented to CG Seligman. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1934.
• The Bantu - speaking tribes of South Africa. An ethnographical survey. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1937.
• Family Letters 1841-1856 / David Livingstone. Chatto & Windus, London 1959.
• Livingstone 's African Journal: 1853-1856. 2 vols. Chatto & Windus, London 1963.
• Western civilization and the natives of South Africa. Studies in culture contact. Routledge, K. Paul, London 1967.
• Select bibliography of South African native life and problems. Supplement 1 /3: Modern status and conditions: 1939-1963. Kraus, New York 1969.
• Select bibliography of South African native life and problems. Main band. Kraus, New York 1969. Reprint of the edition London 1941.
• David Livingstone South African papers. From 1849 to 1853. Van Riebeeck Society, Cape Town 1974.