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Sir Edmund Ronald Leach FRAI FBA (7 November 1910 – 6 January 1989) was a British
social anthropologist Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...
and academic. He served as provost of
King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...
from 1966 to 1979. He was also president of the
Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biol ...
from 1971 to 1975.


Early years


Personal life

Leach was born in
Sidmouth Sidmouth () is a town on the English Channel in Devon, South West England, southeast of Exeter. With a population of 12,569 in 2011, it is a tourist resort and a gateway to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. A large part of the town h ...
,
Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, the youngest of three children and the son of William Edmund Leach and Mildred Brierley. His father owned and was manager of a sugar plantation in northern
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...
. In 1940 Leach married
Celia Joyce Celia may refer to: General *Celia (given name) *''Celia'', a subgenus of carabid beetles of the genus '' Amara'' *Celia, the last natural-born Pyrenean Ibex * Celia (virtual assistant), AI virtual assistant by Huawei *, a number of ships with ...
who was then a painter and later published poetry and two novels. They had a daughter in 1941 and a son in 1946.


Education and career

Leach was educated at
Marlborough College ( 1 Corinthians 3:6: God gives the increase) , established = , type = Public SchoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = Church of England , president = Nicholas Holtam , head_label = Master , head = Louis ...
and
Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refound ...
, where he graduated with a BA with honours in Engineering in 1932. After leaving Cambridge University, Leach took a four-year contract in 1933 with Butterfield and Swire in China, serving in
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
,
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
, Chungking (now
Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Co ...
), Tsingtao (now
Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
), and Peking (now
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
). He found out after his contract expired that he did not like the business atmosphere and never again was going to sit on an office stool. He intended to return to England by way of Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway, but increasing political turmoil in Russia convinced him otherwise. While in Peking, Leach had a chance encounter with Kilton Stewart, a psychiatrist, former-Mormon missionary, and published author who invited him on a trip to the island of Botel Tobago off the coast of Formosa. And so, on his way home Leach spent several months among the Yami of Botel Tobago, an island off the coast of
Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territori ...
. Here he took ethnographic notes and specifically focused his efforts on local boat design. This work resulted in a 1937 article in the anthropology journal ''Man''. He returned to England and studied social anthropology at the
London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...
with
Raymond Firth Sir Raymond William Firth (25 March 1901 – 22 February 2002) was an ethnologist from New Zealand. As a result of Firth's ethnographic work, actual behaviour of societies (social organization) is separated from the idealized rules of behaviou ...
who introduced him to
Bronisław Malinowski Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (; 7 April 1884 – 16 May 1942) was a Polish-British anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthro ...
. He was an active member of Malinowski's "famous seminar". In 1938, Leach went to Iraq (Kurdistan) to study the Kurds, which resulted in ''Social and Economic Organization of the Rowanduz Kurds''. However, he abandoned this trip because of the
Munich Crisis The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Ger ...
. He wrote: "I’ve got an enormous amount of ability at almost anything, yet so far I’ve made absolutely no use of it… I seem to be a highly organized piece of mental apparatus for which nobody else has any use" ( D.N.B. 258). In 1939 he was going to study the
Kachin Hills Kachin or Kakhyen may refer to: *Kachin State, in northern Myanmar/Burma * Kachin Hills, northeastern Myanmar *Kachin peoples, a generalised term for six non-Burman ethno-linguistic groups in Kachin State. **Kachin people, including the main sub-br ...
of Burma, but
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
intervened. Leach then joined the Burma Army, from the fall of 1939 to summer 1945, where he achieved the rank of Major. During his time in Burma, Leach acquired superior knowledge of Northern Burma and its many hill tribes. In particular, he grew very familiar with the Kachin people, even serving as commander of the Kachin irregular forces. This resulted in the publication of the "Jinghpaw Kinship Terminology: An Experiment in Ethnographic Algebra" in 1945. After he left the Army in 1946, he returned to the
London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...
to complete his dissertation under the supervision of Raymond Firth. In spring of 1947 he received a PhD in anthropology. His 732-page dissertation was based on his time in Burma and titled
Cultural change, with special reference to the hill tribes of Burma and Assam
'. Later that same year, at the request of Sir Charles Arden Clark, the then Governor of Sarawak (then under British Colonial rule) and a referral by Raymond Firth, the British Colonial Social Science Research Council invited Leach to conduct a major survey of the local peoples. The resulting 1948 report, ''Social Science Research in Sarawak'' (later published in 1950), was used as a guide for many well-known subsequent anthropological studies of region. In addition to the report, Leach produced five additional publications from this field work. Upon returning from his fieldwork in Borneo, Leach became a lecturer at LSE. In 1951, Leach won the Curl Essay Prize for his essay ''The Structural Implications of Matrilateral Cross-Cousin Marriage,'' which drew on his extensive data on the Kachin to make important theoretical points as it related to kinship theory. In 1953, he became a lecturer at
Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, and promoted to Reader in 1957. Along with his wife, Celia, Leach spent a year from 1960 to 1961 at the Center for Advanced Study of Behavioral Studies in Palo Alto, California. Here he met Roman Jakobson, the Russian linguist, popularizer of Saussurean structural linguistics, and a major influence on the theoretical thinking of Levi-Strauss, leading to his structural anthropology. In 1972 he received a personal chair. He was elected provost of
King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...
in 1966 and retired in 1979; President of the
Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biol ...
(1971–1975); a Fellow of the
British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...
(from 1972) and was
knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...
in 1975.


Academic contributions

Leach spanned the gap between British structural-functionalism (exemplified by Radcliffe-Brown and Malinowski), and French structuralism (exemplified by Levi-Strauss). Despite being a central interpreter of Levi-Strauss' work, producing several introductory works on Levi-Strauss' theoretical perspective, Leach considered himself "at heart, still a 'functionalist'". His book ''Lévi-Strauss'' was translated into six languages and ran three editions. His turn of phrase produced memorable quotes, such as this on Lévi-Strauss:
"The outstanding characteristic of évi-Strauss'swriting, whether in French or English, is that it is difficult to understand; his sociological theories combine baffling complexity with overwhelming erudition. Some readers even suspect that they are being treated to a confidence trick".
Leach's work on Lévi-Strauss is often relied on by other authors. For example, in
Richard Wrangham Richard Walter Wrangham (born 1948) is an English anthropologist and primatologist; he is Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University. His research and writing have involved ape behavior, human evolution, violence, and cooking. ...
's (2009) book '' Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human'', he relies on Leach in describing Lévi-Strauss's analysis of cooking in relation to human culture. Leach's first book was ''Political Systems of Highland Burma'' (1954); it challenged the theories of social structure and cultural change. Throughout, Leach was "fiercely critical of generalisations from one society to a narrative about 'politics' in so-called 'primitive societies'". His second book was ''Pul Eliya, a Village in Ceylon'' (1961), where he directed his attention to theories of kinship as ideal systems. Leach's interest in kinship was first exemplified by his 1951 article (which won the Curl Essay Prize), and it was here that he first cites Levi-Strauss, disagreeing with several aspects of the latter's kinship theory outlined in '' Elementary Structures of Kinship''. Leach applied his analysis of kinship to his disagreement with Lévi-Strauss in ''Pul Eliya'', introducing Levi-Strauss's work into British social anthropology in doing so.


Bibliography

* ''Social And Economic Organization of the Rowanduz Kurds'' (Berg Publishers, 1940) * ''Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure'' (Harvard University Press, 1954) * ed. ''Aspects of Caste in South India, Ceylon and North-West Pakistan'' (Cambridge University Press, 1960; revised edition 1971) * ''Rethinking Anthropology'' (Robert Cunningham and Sons Ltd., 1961) * ''Pul Eliya: A Village in Ceylon: A Study of Land Tenure and Kinship'' (Cambridge University Press, 1961) * ''Dialectic in Practical Religion'' (Cambridge University Press, 1968) * ed. ''Structural Study of Myth and Totemism'' (Routledge, 1968) * ''A Runaway World?'' (London: BBC, 1968) * ''Genesis as Myth and Other Essays'' (Jonathan Cape, 1969) * ''Lévi-Strauss'' (
Fontana Books HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp ...
, 1970; new edition 1985) * ''Claude Lévi-Strauss'' (Viking Press, 1970; revised edition in 1974; 2nd revised edition 1996) * ''Culture and Communication: The Logic by which Symbols Are Connected. An Introduction to the Use of Structuralist Analysis in Social Anthropology'' (Cambridge University Press, 1976) * ''Custom, Law and Terrorist Violence'' (Edinburgh University Press, 1977) * ed. ''The Kula: New Perspectives on Massim Exchange'' with Jerry W. Leach (Cambridge University Press, 1983) * ''Social Anthropology'' (Oxford University Press, 1982) * ''Structuralist Interpretations of Biblical Myth'' (Cambridge University Press, 1983) * ''The Essential Edmund Leach'' (''Anthropology & Society'' & ''Culture & Human Nature'') ed. by Stephen Hugh-Jones and James Laidlaw (Yale University Press, 2001, 2 vols.) * ed. ''Elites in South Asia'' with S. N. Mukherjee (Cambridge University Press, 2009)


Literature

*Tambiah, Stanley J., ''Edmund Leach: An Anthropological Life'' (2002). Cambridge University Press. * "Leach, Edmund Ronald" Contemporary Authors Vol. 127, Gale Research Inc. 1989. * "Leach, Sir Edmund Ronald" Dictionary of National Biography 1986–1990. Oxford University Press 1996. * "Leach, Edmund Ronald" International Dictionary of Anthropologists. Garland Publishing 1991.
Leach,_Edmund_R._''Glimpses_of_the_Unmentionable_in_the_History_of_British_Social_Anthropology.''_Annual_Review_of_Anthropology
,_Vol._13._1984..html" ;"title="Annual Review of Anthropology">Leach, Edmund R. ''Glimpses of the Unmentionable in the History of British Social Anthropology.'' Annual Review of Anthropology
, Vol. 13. 1984.">Annual Review of Anthropology">Leach, Edmund R. ''Glimpses of the Unmentionable in the History of British Social Anthropology.'' Annual Review of Anthropology
, Vol. 13. 1984.


References


External links


Biography at Minnesota State University website

Interview of Edmund Leach by Frank Kermode in 1982 (film)

Chapter 1 of Tambiah, Stanley (2002) "Edmund Leach: An Anthropological Life" Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Accessed 5 May 2010
King's College, Cambridge Repository: Papers of Edmund Ronald Leach
Accessed 5 May 2010
The Reith Lectures - Edmund Leach: A Runaway World: 1967
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leach, Edmund Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Provosts of King's College, Cambridge British anthropologists Social anthropologists Symbolic anthropologists Cultural anthropologists Anthropologists of religion Fellows of the British Academy People from Sidmouth 1910 births 1989 deaths Burmese military personnel of World War II Knights Bachelor Presidents of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Fellows of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 20th-century anthropologists