Richard Borshay Lee (born 1937) is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
. Lee has studied at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
and
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, where he received a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
He holds a position at the University of Toronto as Professor Emeritus of Anthropology. Lee researches issues concerning the
indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
of
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
and
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
, particularly their ecology and history.
Known best for his work on the
Ju'/hoansi, Lee won the 1980
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his book ''The !Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society''. With
Irven DeVore
Irven DeVore (October 7, 1934 – September 23, 2014) was an anthropologist and evolutionary biologist, and Curator of Primatology at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. He headed Harvard's Department of Anthropolog ...
, Lee was co-organiser of the 1966
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
Symposium
In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...
on "Man the Hunter". Lee co-edited with Richard Daly ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunter-Gatherers'', which was first published in 1999. In 2003, ''Anthropologica'', the journal of the
Canadian Anthropology Society, dedicated an issue to Lee's oeuvre. In 2011 he co-authored the children's book ''Africans Thought of It: Amazing Innovations'' with
Bathseba Opini.
Most recently his research has focused on the anthropology of health and the cultural and social
factors in AIDS epidemic in southern Africa for which he has received funds from the National Institutes of Health (U.S.) via Columbia University School of Public Health as well as directly from the University of Toronto.
Professional associations
Lee has been active in several professional associations including: the Association of American Anthropologists for which he organized several meetings and symposiums; founding member of Anthropologists for Radical Political Change; past president of the Canadian Anthropologist Society and the Canadian Ethnology Society. He has also been a referee for various publications (American Anthropologist, Current Anthropology) and granting agencies (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation and the National Science Foundation). He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and is a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Selected publications
*''Subsistence Ecology of !Kung Bushmen'' (1965), PhD Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
Hunter-gatherers in process: The Kalahari Research Project, 1963-76(1978), in G. Foster et al. (Eds.), ''Long-term field research in social anthropology'' (pp. 303–321). New York: Academic Publishing.
*''The !Kung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society'' (1979), Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press
Chapter 9 available hereAnthropology at the crossroads: From the age of ethnography to the age of world systems(1998), ''Social Dynamics 24''(1), 34-65.
*
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunter-Gatherers'(1999), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Indigenous rights and the politics of identity in post-apartheid southern Africa(2003), in B. Dean & J. M. Levi (Eds.), ''At the risk of being heard: Identity, indigenous rights, and postcolonial states'' (pp. 80–111). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
*''The Dobe Ju/'hoansi'' (2003), 3rd ed., Thomson Learning/Wadsworth.
Power and property in twenty-first century foragers: A critical examination(2004), in T. Widlok & T. Wolde, (Eds.), ''Power and equality: Encapsulation, commercialization, discrimination'' (pp. 16–31). Oxford: Berg Publishing.
*
Africans Thought of It: Amazing Innovations' (2011)
Collection of publications and picturesby Dr. Lee, Richard B.
Awards
*1980 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for ''The !Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society''
*1980 Herskovits Award of the African Studies Association for ''The !Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society''
* 2016 Appointed as an Officer of the
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
.
See also
*
Economic anthropology
*
Original affluent society
The "original affluent society" is the proposition that argues that the lives of hunter-gatherers can be seen as embedding a sufficient degree of material comfort and security to be considered affluent. The theory was first put forward in a paper p ...
*
Leveling mechanism
In cultural anthropology, a leveling mechanism is a practice that acts to ensure social equality, usually by shaming or humbling members of a group that attempt to put themselves above other members.
One commonly given example of a leveling mech ...
*
Marshall Sahlins
Marshall David Sahlins ( ; December 27, 1930April 5, 2021) was an American cultural anthropologist best known for his ethnographic work in the Pacific and for his contributions to anthropological theory. He was the Charles F. Grey Distinguished ...
References
External links
Anthropologica Vol. 45 No. 1, 2003Expanded Bibliography by Jacqueline SolwayRichard Lee archival papers
held at th
University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Richard Borshay
1937 births
Living people
Canadian anthropologists
Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
University of Toronto alumni
University of Toronto faculty
Officers of the Order of Canada
University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty