Lucy Philip Mair (28 January 1901 – 1 April 1986) was a British anthropologist.Lucy Mair: Oxford Biography Index Entry
/ref> She wrote on the subject of social organization, and contributed to the involvement of anthropological research in governance and politics. Her work on colonial administration was influential.

Career

Mair read Classics at

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

, graduating with a BA in 1923.Lucy Mair
obituary in Anthropology Today Volume 2, No. 4, August 1986 In 1927 she joined the

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, studying social anthropology under Bronisław Malinowski, and commenced ethnographic fieldwork in

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 sou ...

in 1931.Mair, Lucy Philip
in

Marilyn Ogilvie Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie (born 1936) is an American historian of science known especially for her work on the history of women in science. She taught at Oklahoma Baptist University before becoming curator of the History of Science Collections and ...

and

Joy Harvey Joy Dorothy Harvey (born 1934) is an American historian of science. Life Harvey gained a PhD from Harvard University in 1983. She has been an associate editor of the Darwin Correspondence Project, and written a biography of Clémence Royer, Dar ...

(eds.) ''The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science'', Taylor and Francis (2000), p.832 At Malinowski's directionVideo interview with Lucy Mair
hosted by

Alan Macfarlane Alan Donald James Macfarlane (born 20 December 1941 in Shillong, Meghalaya, India) is an anthropologist and historian, and a Professor Emeritus of King's College, Cambridge. He is the author or editor of 20 books and numerous articles on th ...

. she spent her time in Uganda studying social change, returning to the UK in 1932 to submit her dissertation and receive her PhD. She began lecturing at LSE the same year, but joined the

Royal Institute for International Affairs Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is an independent policy institute headquartered in London. Its stated mission is to provide commentary on world events and offer solutions to global challenges. It is ...

with the outbreak of

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. In 1943 she moved to the Ministry of Information, then at the war's end took a job training Australian administrators for work in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. In 1946 Mair returned to LSE as reader in colonial administration, commencing a second readership (in applied anthropology) in 1952. In 1963 she became a professor, a post she held until retirement in 1968. In 1964 she was made president of Section N of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. She gave the 1967

Frazer Lecture The Sir James George Frazer Memorial Lectureship in Social Anthropology is a British academic lecture series. In 1920 a sum of £675 was raised by a Committee of the University of Cambridge for the purpose of commemorating Sir James Frazer's cont ...

at Cambridge University.

Works

Mair published books and papers throughout her life. ''Primitive Government'', first published in 1962, discusses political patronage in relation to state formation and is cited by over 160 academic works.

Books

* ''The protection of minorities; The working and scope of the minorities treaties under the League of Nations'', Christophers, 1928 * ''An African people in the twentieth century'', G. Routledge and Sons, 1934 * ''Welfare in the British colonies'', Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1944 * ''Australia in New Guinea'', Chponeismalditosrs, 1948 * ''Native administration in central Nyasaland'',

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, 1952 * ''Studies in applied anthropology'', Athlone, 1957 * ''Safeguards for democracy'', Oxford University Press, 1961 * ''Primitive government'', Penguin Books, 1962 * ''The Nyasaland Elections of 1961'',

Athlone Press Continuum International Publishing Group was an academic publisher of books with editorial offices in London and New York City. It was purchased by Nova Capital Management in 2005. In July 2011, it was taken over by Bloomsbury Publishing. , al ...

, 1962 * ''New nations'', University of Chicago Press, c1963 * ''An introduction to social anthropology'', Clarendon Press, 1965 * ''The new Africa'', Watts, 1967 * ''African marriage and social change'', Cass, 1969 * ''Anthropology and social change'', Athlone, 1969 * ''Native policies in Africa'', Negro Universities Press, 1969 * ''Witchcraft'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1969 * ''The Bantu of Western Kenya: with special reference to the Vugusu and Logoli'', published for the International African Institute by Oxford U.P., 1970. * ''Marriage'', Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1971 * ''African societies'', Cambridge University Press, 1974 * ''African Kingdoms'', Clarendon Press, 1977 * ''Anthropology and Development'', Macmillan, 1984

RAI

Mair was throughout her working life closely involved with the Royal Anthropological Institute: after winning the RAI Wellcome medal in 1936 she was the Hon Secretary from 1974 to 1978 and the Vice-President for the year 1978–9. After her death, the RAI instituted the Lucy Mair Medal for Applied Anthropology in 1997 to commemorate her.RAI News, December 2001
, "Lucy Mair Medal for Applied Anthropology 2002".RAI news
''Anthropology Today'', Volume 13 No. 4 (April 1997)

References

External links

Interviewed by Jean La Fontaine and Alan Macfarlane, 30 July 1983 (video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mair, Lucy British anthropologists British women anthropologists Academics of the London School of Economics 1901 births 1986 deaths Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge 20th-century British women scientists 20th-century anthropologists