J. David Sapir (1932 – August 30, 2024) was an American linguist, anthropologist and photographer.
Life and career
The son of
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist-linguistics, linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States ...
, he was born in 1932. After completing his PhD at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, he was assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania (1966–1972) and professor of
Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
from 1973 until his retirement. He is known for his research on
Jola languages. He has been editor of the journal Visual Anthropology Review
Sapir died on August 30, 2024, at the age of 91.
Selected publications
*2011. A Grammar of Diola-Fogny: A Language Spoken in the Basse-Casamance Region of Senegal. Cambridge University Press
*1994 - On Fixing Ethnographic Shadows American Ethnologist 21 (4):867-885.
*1981 The Social Use of Metaphor: Essays on the Anthropology of Rhetoric. 1977. (with J. C. Crocker, eds.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
*1981 - Kujaama, Symbolic Separation among the Diola-Fogny. American Anthropologist 72 (6):1330-48.
*1981 - Hyenas, Lepers and Blacksmiths in Kujamaat Social Thought. American Ethnologist 8 (3):526-43.
*1981 - Fecal Animals, an Example of Complementary Totemism. Man 12:1-21.
*1965 - The Music of the Diola-Fogny of the Casamance, Sénégal New York: Folkways Records.
*1965 - A Grammar of Diola-Fogny, Cambridge: University Press
References
External links
* http://fixingshadows.net/
* http://people.virginia.edu/~ds8s/Kujamaat-Joola/
1932 births
2024 deaths
American anthropologists
Linguists from the United States
American photographers
Jola languages
University of Virginia faculty
Jewish anthropologists
Harvard University alumni
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