David Henry Peter Maybury-Lewis (5 May 1929 – 2 December 2007) was a British anthropologist, ethnologist of lowland South America, activist for indigenous peoples' human rights, and professor emeritus of Harvard University.
Born in Hyderabad, Sindh (now in Pakistan), Maybury-Lewis attended the University of Oxford, where he first studied modern languages, and later earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in anthropology. In 1960, he joined the Harvard faculty, and was Edward C. Henderson Professor of Anthropology there from 1966 until he retired in 2004. His extensive ethnographic fieldwork was conducted primarily among indigenous peoples in central Brazil, which culminated in his ethnography among the Xavante, as well as post-modernist renditions. In 1972, he co-founded with his wife Pia Cultural Survival, the leading US-based advocacy and documentation organization devoted to "promoting the rights, voices and visions of indigenous peoples."
Awards
- Former president of the American Ethnological Society
- Elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1977
- Grand Cross of the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit, Brazil's highest academic honor, in 1997
- Anders Retzius gold medal of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, in 1998
Selected bibliography
- Akwẽ-Shavante Society (1974) ISBN 0-19-519729-1
- Dialectical Societies: The Ge and Bororo of Central Brazil (1979) ISBN 0-674-20285-6
- Prospects for Plural Societies: 1982 Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society (1984) ISBN 0-942976-04-5
- The Attraction of Opposites: Thought and Society in the Dualistic Mode (1989) ISBN 0-472-08086-5
- Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World (1992) ISBN 0-670-82935-8
- The Savage and the Innocent (2000) ISBN 0-8070-4685-X
- Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State (2001) ISBN 0-205-33746-5
- The Politics of Ethnicity:Indigenous Peoples in Latin American States (2003) ISBN 0-674-00964-9
References
- "David Maybury-Lewis - The Lancet".
- "In Memoriam David Maybury-Lewis 1929-2007 | Cultural Survival". www.culturalsurvival.org. 9 June 2010.
External links
- Biography
- Cultural Survival
- Prins, Harald E.L., and Graham, Laura. 2008. “Pioneer in Brazilian Ethnography & Indigenous Rights Advocacy: David Maybury-Lewis (1929-2007).” Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America, Vol.6 (No.1-2), pp. 115–22.
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- 1929 births
- 2007 deaths
- Social anthropologists
- British ethnologists
- Latin Americanists
- Harvard University faculty
- Recipients of the Great Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit (Brazil)
- Indigenous rights activists
- Non-fiction environmental writers
- Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Brazilianists
- Anthropologist stubs
- Ethnologist stubs