Meyer Fortes FBA FRAI (25 April 1906 – 27 January 1983) was a South African-born

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

, best known for his work among the Tallensi and Ashanti in

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. Originally trained in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

, Fortes employed the notion of the "person" into his structural-functional analyses of

kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

, the family, and ancestor worship setting a standard for studies on African social organization. His celebrated book, ''Oedipus and Job in West African Religion'' (1959), fused his two interests and set a standard for comparative

ethnology Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Sci ...

. He also wrote extensively on issues of the first born, kingship, and

divination Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...

Life

Fortes received his anthropological training from Charles Gabriel Seligman at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. Fortes also trained with Bronisław Malinowski and Raymond Firth. Along with contemporaries A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, Sir Edmund Leach, Audrey Richards, and Lucy Mair, Fortes held strong functionalist views that insisted upon

empirical evidence Empirical evidence is evidence obtained through sense experience or experimental procedure. It is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law. There is no general agreement on how the ...

in order to generate analyses of society. His volume with E. E. Evans-Pritchard, '' African Political Systems'' (1940) established the principles of segmentation and balanced opposition, which were to become the hallmarks of African political anthropology. Despite his work in Francophone West Africa, Fortes' work on political systems was influential to other British anthropologists, especially Max Gluckman and played a role in shaping what became known as the Manchester school of social anthropology, which emphasized the problems of working in colonial Central Africa. Fortes spent much of his career as a reader at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and was the William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology there from 1950–1973. In 1963, Fortes delivered the inaugural Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture at the University of Rochester, considered by many to be the most important annual lecture series in the field of Anthropology. Fortes was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1964, was President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland from 1965–67 and recipient of the Institute's highest honour, the Huxley Memorial Medal in 1977. He was also an elected member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

Holodomor testimony

Meyer Fortes corresponded with his close friend Jerry Berman, who in the early 1930s worked in the USSR as a civil engineer and documented the famine in his private letters. In 2021, the granddaughter of Fortes donated these letters to the National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide in Kyiv.

Selected bibliography

*1940. African Political Systems (editor, with E. E. Evans-Pritchard). London and New York: International African Institute. *1945. The Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi. *1949. The Web of Kinship among the Tallensi. *1959. Oedipus and Job in West African Religion. *1969. Kinship and the Social Order. *1970. Time and Social Structure. *1970. Social Structure (editor). *1983. Rules and the Emergence of Society.

References

* Hart, Keith (2018
“Structural Dynamics: Forms, Networks, Numbers. (Meyer Fortes in the 1940s)”
in ''BEROSE - International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology'', Paris. * Kuper, Adam (2018)

in ''BEROSE - International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology'', Paris. *

External links

Lecture by Meyer Fortes on Talensi divination followed by a discussion with students. Filmed 1982 by Audio Visual Aids Unit in Cambridge
*Resources related to research
BEROSE - International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology
Paris, 2018. (ISSN 2648-2770) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fortes, Meyer 1906 births 1983 deaths Social anthropologists Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Presidents of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Alumni of the London School of Economics South African Jews Jewish scientists 20th-century British Jews William Wyse Professors of Social Anthropology Jewish anthropologists 20th-century British anthropologists 20th-century South African anthropologists South African emigrants to the United Kingdom Members of the American Philosophical Society