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.[1]
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."[2]