Ronald Frankenberg

0:00:05 Introduction. Born 1929; came to Cambridge to read medicine and did first two years of natural science tripos; maths not good enough for chemical micro-biology so looked for something else; had read Elliot-Smith ‘Human History’ which didn’t convince him but read Herskovits ‘Man and his Works’ and Kroeber’s ‘Anthropology’ and as a result decided to do anthropology and archaeology, specialising in East Africa; teachers included John Peristiany (Evans-Pritchard had just stopped teaching in Cambridge); impressed by Gluckman whom he met in Cambridge; later in year got degree and decided to give up the idea of doing medicine; asked Gluckman to take him as a post-graduate in Manchester, interviewed by Radcliffe-Brown who said he should be accepted

0:04:06 Of all anthropologists, most influenced by Max Gluckman; he was very autocratic, but also meticulous and devoted to the subject; in 1952 did masters degree by examination and thesis on the strength of which Gluckman got him a Nuffield Foundation grant to go to the West Indies, reached Barbados but was then deported as investigations had revealed him to be secretary of the Socialist Society (Gluckman was, in fact, president); Vice-Chancellor allowed him to keep university studentship as long as he did fieldwork within a day’s drive of Manchester; went off to Wales as the only place that spoke a foreign language which was thought necessary for anthropology students at the time; wrote letter to The Observer describing what had happened which infuriated the Vice-Chancellor and Gluckman, who later forgave him

0:11:15 At Manchester, no undergraduate students, so spent all time in seminars; influenced in particular by Peter Worsley, a Marxist hero, and Victor Turner, also a Marxist at that time; description of Victor Turner’s work, had been a poet before becoming an anthropologist, and used a linguistic shorthand

0:13:45 Gluckman’s relationship with the group; invitations to his house usually led to giving help in the garden, or walking with him; some did not like him treating them as his “children”, wives particularly

0:15:26 Fieldwork in Wales; title fixed as ‘Family and Community in North Wales’ so went to study how unemployment affected family relations so chose a village where the quarries had been closed and all the men had to travel into England to work; then got interested in the tensions between men and women and the village football club; cycle of village life through its activities; interfering outsiders

0:21:30 Feels that anthropologist should study their home territory, not necessarily look outside; did feel that he was looking at another culture when he did fieldwork although this would have changed by now

0:24:18 Current work on medical anthropology in Italy; previous work on ritual healing in Zambia; sickness in industrial society; comparative work in Italy between Catholic and Communist attitudes to sickness

0:30:10 Marxism and anthropology; at one time if discovered to be a Marxist could not become an anthropologist in the Colonies; relation of production, ideology and ideas could be profitable to anthropological theory; using ideas in own work in Italy;

0:34:15 Radcliffe-Brown was his supervisor for a year at Manchester; old by then and not very impressive; John Barnes had an impact through a review of ‘Village on the Border’; some parallels as both at the Rhodes Livingstone Institute; fluffed interview and Gluckman sent him to a psychiatrist to try to improve his nerves; Gluckman and psychoanalysis; would be an anthropologist if starting again.