Philip Mayer

0:00:05 Introduction; how he became an anthropologist; took doctorate in law at Heidelberg University; left Germany the day after Hitler came to power; went first to Palestine after a conversion experience as a Zionist; came to England in 1939 arriving on 3rd September and gravitated towards Oxford with an interest in the Arab world feeling that Jews in Palestine should know much more about their Arab neighbours; got D.Phil on this work and in connection encountered Radcliffe-Brown and Meyer Fortes; at that time felt this micro-sociology not main interest; intended to go to Iraq to pursue studies; in 1946 met Radcliffe-Brown on a bus who suggested that as there were difficulties with the Iraq plan he should apply for a social science fellowship which the Colonial Office had just established; had previously worked under Marjorie Perham and had produced a reading list for her on betterment of rural conditions in the British Colonies; worked first in the Colonial Office on panel presided over by Lord Hailey and after a couple of months was made Kenya Government Sociologist; has never had formal training in anthropology nor been a member of a particular department; married Iona and they travelled to Kenya with Linton’s textbook and Fortes ‘Dynamics of Clanship’ in luggage;

0:05:15 Iona also a newcomer to anthropology via history at Oxford and social science at L.S.E.; she was appointed as field assistant but we worked as equal partners both there and later on in South Africa; in Kenya had no choice of the field but was ordered to go to the Gusii people to conduct fieldwork for two and a half years

0:06:48 Memories of Gusii; totally new to Africa and to anthropology so an overwhelming experience; struck by common humanity; Gusii because of inaccessibility relatively untouched; had been colonized only about thirty years before so admirable people to research; extremely litigious peoples

0:09:02 Despite own negative feelings about colonialism found the administration competent and well-intentioned though any African politician was totally misunderstood and not tolerated; personally not constrained in work; amelioration of situation with regard to bridewealth; as a result of the war the amounts expected had gone up alarmingly with painful consequences

0:13:20 Radcliffe-Brown and Grahams Town, South Africa; great influence; as a person; complex relationship with Malinowski; never saw him lecture but fascinating man

0:20:20 Had cordial relations with all senior anthropologists, including Evans-Pritchard, but not especially influenced by any of them

0:21:30 After Kenya came back to England and taught at Birkbeck, Cambridge and Goldsmiths; at Cambridge, Fortes was there and G.I. Jones, where taught courses to students and to Colonial cadets, largely on East Africa; 1953 went to South Africa to a chair at Rhodes which Radcliffe-Brown had occupied for a year after his retirement from Oxford, Monica Wilson had gone to Cape Town

0:22:53 Was intending to write on the Gusii but most of the material gathered probably won’t be used, though Iona has used a little; became interested in urban anthropology, particularly in Black townships; Xhosa migrants; networks;

0:25:40 Inaugural lecture on witchcraft based on work in Kenya; recently doing rural fieldwork in South Africa on migrant labour; using methods of new historiography on South Africa using very early administrative records; work done on the Pondo; work on youth movement among the Xhosa

0:31:31 Summary of themes of work to the present; urbanization and socialization;

0:34:00 Working in South Africa; liberal colleagues liked to think of themselves as interpreters of the Black culture to other Whites; as racial domination became more vicious we became more concerned to try and make people aware through teaching and writing; occasionally have been put under pressure from the Government to alter findings; always a battle of wits; still possible to do work there with circumspection.