A Touch of Genius - (Rai) by André Singer (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Evans-Pritchard was perhaps the most influential anthropological scholar of the twentieth century. His extraordinary work in Africa has formed a central foundation to anthropological thought since the 1930s, with generations of anthropologists having read and appreciated his ethnographies of the Azande, Nuer and Sanusi, and his analyses of social structures, belief systems and history. And yet, though so much has been written about his work, a rounded understanding of the person has proved elusive.

This volume covers Evans-Pritchard as a promising student, a young graduate in search of career opportunities, an adventurous cultural explorer, a determined officer in the Second World War, and an ambitious department-building professor with a global reputation. Against a glittering array of contexts and characters - from Malinowski to Marett to the Maharaj of Kutch; from Oxford poets and pubs to Catholic conversion in war-torn Libya - there emerges a fascinating study of a figure who was much more than an innovative anthropologist.

A portrait of the man and his time is composed from personal correspondence, archives and familial recollections, contributions from surviving friends and students, and accounts by those, including contemporary African scholars, who continue to debate and re-evaluate his work in all its complexity. This book is a fitting monument to Evans-Pritchard's legacy and a landmark in anthropological historiography.

Review Quotes

No other anthropologist has had Evans-Pritchard's unique combination of theoretical sophistication and ethnographic skill in a number of very different contexts, and personal charisma. This volume will be an essential reference for anyone seeking to understand the mercurial man behind the classic monographs.

David N. Gellner - Professor of Social Anthropology and Fellow of All Souls, University of Oxford

A deep account of his life and work, lovingly assembled, and containing many nuggets of memory and analysis of a rare kind. Capturing something of a great man in a great period, it is a fascinating read and a fitting tribute to someone who shaped a generation of anthropologists.

Alan Macfarlane - Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, King's College, Cambridge

What emerges in this remarkable volume is a complex character whose attributes cannot be easily and holistically represented, but he vividly comes through in biographical accounts, interpersonal correspondence, recollections of family members, friends, students and colleagues, and, of course, his own scholarship.

Ambassador Francis Deng - United Nations Special Representative on Human Rights, and Special Representative for the Prevention of Genocide until 2012

A valuable contribution to the discipline's history through his time; both locally in Oxford, and globally.

Hilary Callan- Director Emerita, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland