Raymond Firth
Biographic Data
| ID | 3586540 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Raymond Firth |
| GIVEN NAMES | Raymond |
| FAMILY NAME | Firth |
| SIGNATURE | FIRTH R |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 173 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 938 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 172 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1925 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
Kinship and Social Organization
INTRODUCTION by Raymond Firth I PART ONE Commentaries RIVERS AND KROEBER IN THE STUDY OF KINSHIP by David M. Schneider 7 RIVERS ON OCEANIC KINSHIP by Raymond Firth 17 PART TWO Kinship and Social Organization by W. H. R. Rivers ORIGINAL PREFACE 38 LECTURE I (Classificatory Terminology and Cross-Cousin Marriage) 39 LECTURE 2 (Classificatory Terminology and Other Forms of Marriage) 55 LECTURE 3 (The Classificatory System and Forms of Social Organiza…
Rivers on Oceanic Kinship
The foundations of kinship study, laid by Morgan and McLennan, continued by Starcke, Seebohm, N. W. Thomas and Rivers, were based upon the recognition of four main sets of problems: the categorization of kin beyond the elementary family, as indicated particularly by kinship terminology; the different kinds of formalized relations between different types of kin, and the linkage of these with specific kin terms; the relation of different forms of m…
The Secret Cemetery
Burial sites have long been recognized as a way to understand past civilizations. Yet, the meanings of our present day cemeteries have been virtually ignored, even though they reveal much about our cultures. Exploring an extraordinarily diverse range of memorial practice - Greek Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, Roman Catholic and Anglican, as well as the unchurched - The Secret Cemetery is an intriguing study of what these places of death mean to the li…
Elements of Social Organization
The Symbolic Rite of ‘Giving Thanks’
The Tikopia in pagan times had a communion feast, known as the ‘Sacred Food’ – a term which nowadays they apply as Christians to the Holy Communion. Male members of the clan assembled in their temple, led by their chief, and celebrated their yam harvest by each man eating ritually a cooked yam tuber straight from the oven. In the Catholic Mass, as is well known, the overt rite includes the offering of bread and wine at the altar, purification of …
Social Change in Tikopia
Capital, Saving and Credit in Peasant Societies
1. Raymond Plant, Capital, Saving and Credit in Peasant Societies: A Viewpoint from Economic Anthropology 2. Lorraine Baric, Some Aspects of Credit, Saving and Investment in a 'Non-Monetary' Economy (Rossel Island) 3. Scarlett Epstein, Personal Capital Formation among the Tolai of New Britain 4. Fredrick Barth, Capital, Investment and the Social Structure of a Pastoral Nomad Group in South Persia 5. Joel M. Halpern, Capital, Saving and Credit amo…
Symbols (Routledge Revivals)
Originally published in 1973, Symbols: Public and Private explores the nature and use of symbols in a variety of social contexts. Raymond Firth examines how symbols function in both public and private life, drawing on a wide range of ethnographic examples from different cultures. He analyzes the relationship between symbols and ritual, the role of symbols in communication and social interaction, and the ways in which symbols can be used to expres…
We the Tikopia
First published in 1936, "We, the Tikopia: A Kinship Study of a Polynesian People" is a classic of social anthropology by Raymond Firth. The book offers a comprehensive ethnographic study of the Tikopia, a small Polynesian society residing on a remote island. Firth's work focuses on the intricate kinship system, exploring its influence on social organization, economics, religion, and political structures. He meticulously documents the complex web…
Social Change in Tikopia
First published in 1959, this book is the result of Professor Firth's second visit to Tikopia, a small Polynesian island, after a lapse of twenty-three years. It is a study of social change, and it analyses the modifications which have taken place in Tikopia social organization and economy since his first visit. The book is in three parts. Part I gives a general account of Tikopia in 1951, and describes the changes which had taken place since 192…
Religion
Religion: A Humanist Interpretation represents a lifetime's work on the anthropology of religion from a rather unusual personal viewpoint. Raymond Firth treats religion as a human art, capable of great intellectual and artistic achievements, but also of complex manipulation to serve the human interests of those who believe in it and operate it. His study is comparative, drawing material from a range of religions around the world. Its findings are…
Primitive Economics of the New Zealand Maori (Routledge Revivals)
Originally published in 1929, "Primitive Economics of the New Zealand Maori" represents a landmark study in economic anthropology. Raymond Firth conducted extensive fieldwork among the Maori, employing a functionalist approach to analyze their economic system. He challenges the prevailing notion of 'primitive' economies as irrational and unsystematic, demonstrating the complex interplay of social structure, kinship, ritual, and resource managemen…
Tikopia Songs
Mobilizing a Region to Redesign a Local System of Care
Local efforts to redesign systems of care offer fertile ground for community-based participatory research approaches to take hold and flourish. Drawing on the experiences of a learning collaborative of maternal and child healthcare stakeholders in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, this article describes 8 action steps for operationalizing key community-based participatory research principles in the context of local systems change. Highlights of the…
Polynesia
Malay Fishermen
First published in 1940, Raymond Firth's *Malay Fishermen* remains a cornerstone of social anthropology and maritime studies. This classic work offers a detailed ethnographic account of the fishing communities in Kelantan, Malaya (now Malaysia), exploring their economic practices, social organization, and belief systems. Firth's meticulous research, conducted through participant observation and detailed economic surveys, reveals the complex inter…
Attitudes et gestes de respect
Firth Raymond, Férault Dominique. Attitudes et gestes de respect. In: Communications, 69, 2000. La déférence, sous la direction de Claudine Haroche. pp. 37-60
The founding of the research school of Pacific studies∗
(1996). The founding of the research school of Pacific studies. The Journal of Pacific History: Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 3-7
Tikopia Songs
Tikopia Songs
Tikopia Songs
Tikopia Songs
Tikopia Songs
Art and Anthropology
In a discussion on art and anthropology it is not easy to strike a balance between description and theory, to show the richness of anthropological studies of art without releasing a flood of detail, to point out how our analyses of exotic, so-called primitive art can be fitted with significance into the understanding of art and of society as a whole. So I think it appropriate to say something about art in general before discussing anthropological…
Jeremy Coote and Anthony Shelton, Introduction
The essays in this volume provide an introduction to the anthropological study of art and aesthetics, reflecting the richness and variety that characterize the subject today. While most of the essays concentrate on a single theme and a single cultural tradition, together they cover a wide theoretical and cultural range.
Political Systems of Highland Burma, a Study of Kachin Social Structure
This work consists of a foreword to Edmund Leach's book, "Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure." Hobbs briefly introduces Leach's study, highlighting its significance in understanding Kachin social structure and political systems. He emphasizes the complexity of Kachin society and the challenges in analyzing its dynamics, praising Leach's approach and insights. Firth contributes a more extensive introduction, di…
Kinship and Social Organization
INTRODUCTION by Raymond Firth I PART ONE Commentaries RIVERS AND KROEBER IN THE STUDY OF KINSHIP by David M. Schneider 7 RIVERS ON OCEANIC KINSHIP by Raymond Firth 17 PART TWO Kinship and Social Organization by W. H. R. Rivers ORIGINAL PREFACE 38 LECTURE I (Classificatory Terminology and Cross-Cousin Marriage) 39 LECTURE 2 (Classificatory Terminology and Other Forms of Marriage) 55 LECTURE 3 (The Classificatory System and Forms of Social Organiza…
Primitive Economics of the New Zealand Maori (Routledge Revivals)
Originally published in 1929, "Primitive Economics of the New Zealand Maori" represents a landmark study in economic anthropology. Raymond Firth conducted extensive fieldwork among the Maori, employing a functionalist approach to analyze their economic system. He challenges the prevailing notion of 'primitive' economies as irrational and unsystematic, demonstrating the complex interplay of social structure, kinship, ritual, and resource managemen…
Capital, Saving and Credit in Peasant Societies
1. Raymond Plant, Capital, Saving and Credit in Peasant Societies: A Viewpoint from Economic Anthropology 2. Lorraine Baric, Some Aspects of Credit, Saving and Investment in a 'Non-Monetary' Economy (Rossel Island) 3. Scarlett Epstein, Personal Capital Formation among the Tolai of New Britain 4. Fredrick Barth, Capital, Investment and the Social Structure of a Pastoral Nomad Group in South Persia 5. Joel M. Halpern, Capital, Saving and Credit amo…
Malay Fishermen
First published in 1940, Raymond Firth's *Malay Fishermen* remains a cornerstone of social anthropology and maritime studies. This classic work offers a detailed ethnographic account of the fishing communities in Kelantan, Malaya (now Malaysia), exploring their economic practices, social organization, and belief systems. Firth's meticulous research, conducted through participant observation and detailed economic surveys, reveals the complex inter…
Social Organization and Social Change
Engagement and Detachment
Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Raymond Firth; Engagement and Detachment: Reflections on Applying Social Anthropology to Social Affairs. Human Organization 1 September 1981; 40 (3): 193-201. doi: https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.40.3.c035k82pm2651531 Download citation file…
An Appraisal of Modern Social Anthropology
Infrastructures are material forms that allow for the possibility of exchange over space. They are the physical networks through which goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance are trafficked. In this article I trace the range of anthropological ...Read More
Tikopia Ritual and Belief
Social Change in Tikopia
First published in 1959, this book is the result of Professor Firth's second visit to Tikopia, a small Polynesian island, after a lapse of twenty-three years. It is a study of social change, and it analyses the modifications which have taken place in Tikopia social organization and economy since his first visit. The book is in three parts. Part I gives a general account of Tikopia in 1951, and describes the changes which had taken place since 192…
The Sceptical Anthropologist? Social Anthropology and Marxist Views on Society
Two Studies of Kinship in London
Twins, Birds and Vegetables
In recent years social anthropologists have paid much attention to trying to understand and to translate into western idiom the ways of thinking of peoples whom they have studied, especially in the religious sphere. One striking aspect of this has been the examination of statements by some 'primitive' people to the effect that certain things can be both themselves and something else. One of the most spectacular examples of this is the report by G…
Contempobary British Social Anthropology
Ritual and Drama in Malay Spirit Mediumship
Phenomena identified as spirit mediumship seem to be world wide and to be recognizable from an early period in human society. Attention has been paid to them by writers of classical antiquity of whom, from an anthropological point of view, Jane Harrison was one of the most noteworthy. Influenced by Durkheim and by Rivers, she recognized the importance of collective elements in religion and of the need for a knowledge of the social structure to ga…
Malay Fishermen, Their Peasant Economy
Proverbs in Native Life, with Special Reference to Those of the Maori, I
(1926). Proverbs in Native Life, with Special Reference to those of the Maori, II. Folklore: Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 245-270
Whose frame of reference? One anthropologist's experience
1977). Whose frame of reference? One anthropologist's experience. Anthropological Forum: Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 145-167
Offering and Sacrifice
The Work of the Gods in Tikopia
INTRODUCTION TO FIRST EDITION 1 INTRODUCTION TO SECOND EDITION 5 Some Theoretical Observations GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE WORK OF THE GODS 27 THROWING THE FIRESTICK 43 RITUAL OF THE SACRED CANOES 55 THE WORK OF THE YAM 141 RE-CARPETING THE ANCESTRAL TEMPLES 198 FREEING THE LAND 255 THE PROCLAMATION AT RAROKOKA 263 THE DANCE TO QUELL THE WIND 281 THE DANCE OF THE FLAMING FIRE 332 DESERTED GODS IN TAKARITO 371 THE WORK OF SOMOSOMO AND FlORA 384 THE R…
The Work of the Gods in Tikopia
Economics of the New Zealand Maori
Rumor in a primitive society
The Sociological Study of Native Diet
In Africa to-day the need for adequate investigation of nutritional problems is evident. As European civilization advances, the task of maintaining or providing for large sections of the native population diets which shall be adequate in quality as well as in quantity becomes more and more definite. In the practical sphere the problem is of a different complexion according to whether the community considered is an artificially induced concentrati…
Spiritual Aroma
Anthropological studies of religion have been largely concerned with belief, with ritual, and with the general integrative significance of religious institutions for society. But many issues in the power relations of religious affiliation are still not clear. The political implications of religion involve grave practical as well as theoretical problems. Abstractly, religion and politics are often conceived as opposed; concretely, they interact. W…
Maori Store-Houses of To-Day
Economic Psychology of the Maori
Some Features of Primitive Industry
Journal Article Some Features of Primitive Industry Get access Raymond Firth Raymond Firth Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 36, Issue Supplement_1, 1 January 1926, Pages 13–22, https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/36.Supplement_1.13 Published: 01 January 1926
Proverbs in Native Life, with Special Reference to those of the Maori, II
Proverbs in Native Life, with Special Reference to Those of the Maori, I
(1926). Proverbs in Native Life, with Special Reference to those of the Maori, II. Folklore: Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 245-270
Wharepuni
Melanesians of the South-East Solomon Islands
The Study of Primitive Economics
Maori Hill-Forts
Many a wanderer through the country districts of New Zealand has found interest in the sight of the monumental earthworks which crown so many of our hills. There is something grand and yet pathetic about these old fortresses. Once the scene of turmoil and activity, they now lie neglected and still beneath the sky, clothed in bush, or scrub, or fern, or grass-grown and dotted with sheep. Their day is over, the Maori long since has ceased to swarm …
Totemism in Polynesia
Report on Research in Tikopia
A Dart Match in Tikopia1
Marriage and the Classificatory System of Relationship
A Raga Tale
Totemism in Polynesia
Anthropology and Native Administration
A Native Voyage to Rennell
Anthropology in Australia
Initiation Rites and Kinship Bonds in Tikopia
The Sociological Study of Native Diet
In Africa to-day the need for adequate investigation of nutritional problems is evident. As European civilization advances, the task of maintaining or providing for large sections of the native population diets which shall be adequate in quality as well as in quantity becomes more and more definite. In the practical sphere the problem is of a different complexion according to whether the community considered is an artificially induced concentrati…
Tattooing in Tikopia
Raymond Firth's 1936 article, "Tattooing in Tikopia," published in Man, offers a critical evaluation of Bronislaw Malinowski's work on the same subject. Firth challenges Malinowski's functionalist interpretation of tattooing, arguing that it overlooks the historical and aesthetic dimensions of the practice. Drawing on his own fieldwork in Tikopia, Firth demonstrates the significance of traditional designs and the role of individual artistry in sh…
We, the Tikopia
Art and Life in New Guinea
The New Premises of the Institute
J. L. Myres
History (80 works) · Sociology (78 works) · Anthropology (45 works) · Geography (43 works) · Political science (43 works) · History (38 works) · Computer Science (34 works) · Firth (33 works) · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs (30 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (28 works)