Raymond Firth

Raymond Firth (March 25th 1901 - February 22nd 2002) was a ethnologist and anthropologist New Zealand.

Regarded as one of the founders of the economic Anthropology, it off directed the department of anthropology of the London School Economics following Bronislaw Malinowski. Like him, Firth fits in the functionalist current . From an ethnographic point of view its work is known for its monograph of the Polynesian company traditional of the island of Tikopia (the Solomon Islands).

Biography

Born close from Auckland in New Zealand, Firth started by studying the economy there. Thus it came, in 1924, with the the United Kingdom with the intention to prepare there its thesis of doctorate in economy in London School off Economics. It meets there Bronislaw Malinowski, just appointed professor, and who had just published his first work on the economy of the islands Trobriand (New Guinea). Under its influence, Firth is reorientated then towards the Ethnologie and initially towards the economy of the traditional companies of the Pacific. It supports its thesis of doctorate on " Primitive The Economics off the New Zealand Māori " in 1927.

This first work being based only on written sources, Firth leaves, in 1928, to undertake a investigation of ground into the island of Tikopia. The island, of share its insulation, then is particularly preserved European influences. The Polynesian company in which Firth in 1928-1929 lives thus preserved its religion and its economy traditional. It will poursuivera this study of the company of Tikopia and will not publish less than seven works of analysis of this company under various aspects thus producing traditional ethnology oceanist and economic Anthropologie.

Firh obtains off a post office in London School Economics in 1933. In 1944, it succeeds Malinoswki with the head of the department of anthropology, posts that it will occupy until 1968. Since 1939, it begins a new work from ground with Terengganu, on the east coast of the Malaysia, where it studies the saving in a village of sinner, its increasing integration with the market economy and the upheavals related to the appearance of the reports/ratios of the capitalist type in this traditional company.

In 1973, it becomes Sir Raymond Firth. After its university retirement, it continued this research, publishing many articles and works. He dies in London on February 22nd, 2002.

Publications

• Primitive Economics off New Zealand Maori (1929)
• We, the Tikopia: In Sociological Study off Kinship in Primitive Polynesia (1936) ISBN 0804712026
• Primitive Polynesian Economy (1939) ISBN 039300774X
• The Work off the Gods in Tikopia (1940)
• Malay Fishermen: Their Peasant Economy (1946) ISBN 0393007758
• Social Exchange in Tikopia: Re-study off has Polynesian Community After has Generation (1959) off ISBN 0415330181
• History and Traditions Tikopia' (1961)
• Capital, Savings and Credit in Peasant Societies: Studies from Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean and Middle America (1964) ISBN 0415330157
• Tikopia Ritual and Belief (1967)
• Topics in Economic Anthropology: In General How (1967)
• Rank and Religion in Tikopia: With Study in Polynesian Paganism and Conversion to Chistianity (1970)