R. Firth

Raymond William Firth CNZM FBA (1901 – 2002; age 100) was recognized in his lifetime as perhaps one of the greatest ethnologists. Born in New Zealand, he set out for the London School of Economics, only to run into Malinowski and other anthropologists. He married a brilliant anthropologist and studied ethnology, the actual behaviour of societies (social organization), with detailed field work. Behavior is separated from the idealized rules of behaviour within the particular society (social show more structure). He was a long serving Professor of Anthropology at London School of Economics, and is considered to have singlehandedly created a form of British economic anthropology.

From his thesis, "We the Tikopia: A Sociological Study of Kinship in Primitive Polynesia" [London: Allen and Unwin (1936)] we can see his development of an ethnography and Typing. "Human Types: An Introduction to Social Anthropology" (1958) is where he elaborates on concepts he defines in his 1951 work, "Elements of Social Organization". For example, he puts to use his functionalist concept of "social organization" as a "systematic ordering of social relations by acts of choice and decision".

In this work on Human Types he further develops Malinowski's insights, and displays why he was one of M's favorite students. He can adopt or explain a controversy, and when it gets heated, he can set the passion aside, interrogate his own agendas and prejudices, and set the table. Here, it is the Types he finds in the social organizations of humans. show less