David Montgomery Hart (May 18, 1927 – May 22, 2001) was an American anthropologist and historian who specialised in

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

tribes. He spent time living amongst Berber tribes like the Ait Waryagher of the

Rif The Rif (, ), also called Rif Mountains, is a geographic region in northern Morocco. It is bordered on the north by the Mediterranean Sea and Spain and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the homeland of the Rifians and the Jebala people ...

and the

Ait Atta The Ait Atta () are a large Berbers, Berber tribal confederation or "supertribe" of south eastern Morocco. They are divided into "five fifths" (''khams khmas''), all said to descend from the forty sons of their common ancestor Dadda Atta. These f ...

Life and career

David Montgomery Hart was born on May 18, 1927, in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. He did his doctoral studies under

Carleton S. Coon Carleton Stevens Coon (June 23, 1904 – June 3, 1981) was an American anthropologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is best known for his scientific racist theories concerning the parallel evolution of human races, which ...

. Historian Sarah Barringer Gordon described Hart as an "anthropologist of the old school" and Islamic scholar and anthropologist

Akbar Ahmed Akbar Salahuddin Ahmed, is a Pakistani Americans, Pakistani-American academic, author, poet, playwright, filmmaker and former diplomat. He currently is a professor of International Relations and holds the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at ...

noted that Hart's brand of anthropology reflected an old tradition where anthropologists would go and rely on their senses for notes and live amongst the people they are studying. Hart was a prolific letter-writer and

Ernest Gellner Ernest André Gellner (9 December 1925 – 5 November 1995) was a French-born British-Czech philosopher and social anthropologist described by ''The Daily Telegraph'', when he died, as one of the world's most vigorous intellectuals, and by '' ...

said in Tribe and State: Essays in Honour of David Montgomery Hart that Hart "has developed and perfected a distinctive literary form, the long ethnographic letter". His correspondence with Ross E. Dunn and other scholars which totalled over 10,000 pages was entrusted to the Moroccan National Archives. He was married to Ursula Cook Kingsmill who lived alongside him amongst the Berber tribes. He died on May 22, 2001 in

Garrucha Garrucha is a municipality of Almería province, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Garrucha is a seaport of south-eastern Spain on the Mediterranean Sea and the right bank of the river Antas. In 1998 the town had a population of 500 ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

aged 74.

Published works

Books

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Life and career

Published works

Books

Articles

References

Further reading