Jaap van Velsen (28 September 1921 – 6 May 1990) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

-born

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

anthropologist.

Life

Jaap Van Velsen was born in

Soerabaja Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Java and the second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern border of Java island, on the Madur ...

as the son of Wilhelmina Louisa Metzelaar and Abraham van Velsen, a businessman at the time and later a politician with a focus on culture. Jaap studied law at

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...

before studying anthropology at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

and

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. He did fieldwork among the

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

Nyasaland Nyasaland () was a British protectorate located in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Between 1953 and 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasal ...

, developing a method of 'situational analysis' in his 1957 PhD (eventually published as ''The Politics of Kinship''), and later fieldwork among the

Karamajong The Karamojong or Karimojong are a Nilotic ethnic group. They are agro-pastoral herders living mainly in the north-east of Uganda. Their language is also known as ngaKarimojong and is part of the Nilotic language family. History The Karamojong ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The south ...

. In 1959 he joined the African Studies department at the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, but was deported in 1966 as a result of his opposition to

Ian Smith Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to ...

's UDI. He became the first professor of sociology at the

University of Zambia The University of Zambia (UNZA) is a public university located in Lusaka, Zambia. It is Zambia's largest and oldest learning institution. The university was established in 1965 and officially opened to the public on 12 July 1966. The language of ...

, and later Director of the Institute of African Studies. In 1973 he moved to the

University College of Wales, Aberystwyth , mottoeng = A world without knowledge is no world at all , established = 1872 (as ''The University College of Wales'') , former_names = University of Wales, Aberystwyth , type = Public , endowment = ...

before retiring in 1983. Living with multiple sclerosis, he committed suicide in 1990.Richard Brown, 'A touch of the Tonga', ''The Guardian, 25 May 1990 Jaap was married to Ruth van Velsen (1923-2010) and together they had three children: Cleo, Peter and Jan.

Works

* ''The Politics of Kinship'', 1964. Introduction by Clyde Mitchell.

References

1921 births 1990 deaths Dutch anthropologists Dutch emigrants to the United Kingdom People from Surabaya Utrecht University alumni Alumni of the University of Manchester Academic staff of the University of Zambia 20th-century British anthropologists British expatriates in Zambia British expatriates in Uganda {{anthropologist-stub