Rhodes-Livingstone Institute Explained

The Rhodes-Livingstone Institute (RLI) was the first local anthropological research facility in Africa; it was founded in 1937 under the initial directorship of Godfrey Wilson.^{[1] [2]} It is located a few miles outside Lusaka.^[3] Designed to allow for easier study of the local cultures of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, it became the base of operations for a number of leading anthropologists of the time.

The RLI anthropologists have been lauded by some as liberal, anti-racists, furthering the cause of African independence. Among the participating anthropologists at the RLI, In addition to Wilson, were Monica Hunter Wilson, Max Gluckman, J. Desmond Clark, Elizabeth Colson, E.L. Epstein, J. Clyde Mitchell, and William Watson.

Others have called attention to what they regard as misguidedness on the part of the RLI anthropologists, stemming from the fact that they were embedded in the colonial system and blind to its reality as a component in dialectic study.^{[4] [5]} Contrasting views are presented in a study by Lyn Schumaker (2001) and a chapter by Richard Brown (1973).^{[6] [7]}

Publications

The Institute published a series of papers:

• No. 1 - 1938 - The land rights of individuals among the Nyakyusa by Godfrey Wilson^[8]
• No. 2 - 1938 - The study of African society by Godfrey Wilson and Monica Hunter Wilson^[9]
• No. 3 - 1939 - The Constitution of Ngonde by Godfrey Wilson^[10]
• No. 4 - 1939 - ?? ^[11]
• No. 5 - 1941 - An Essay on the Economics of Detribalization in Northern Rhodesia - Part 1 by G.Wilson.^[12]
• No. 6 - 1942 - An Essay on the Economics of Detribalization in Northern Rhodesia - Part 2 by G.Wilson.^[13]
• No. 7 - 1941 - Economy of the Central Barotse Plain. By Max Gluckman.^[14]
• No. 8 - 1942 - Good out of Africa. By A. T. Culwick^[15]
• No. 9 - 1968 - The African as suckling and as adult. by J.F. Ritchie^[16]
• No. 10 - 1943 - Lozi Land Tenure^[17]
• No. 12 - 1946 - Fishermen of the Bangweulu Swamps^[18]
• No. 13 - 1948 - Rooiyard by Ellen Hellmann.
• No. 18 - ???? - Gusii Bridewealth: Law and Custom by Philip Mason
• No. 20 - 1951 - Marriage in a changing society by J.A. Barnes
• No. 21 - 1951 - ? on the Luapula^[19]
• No. 22 - 1953 - Accommodating the spirit amongst some North-Eastern Shona tribes by J.F. Holleman
• No. 26 - 1956 - A Social Survey of the African Population of Livingstone. by Merran McCulIoch.
• No. 30 - 1961 - [unreadable] ^[20]

Also a series of Occasional Papers^[21]

References

1. Book: Crehan . Kate . 1997 . The Fractured Community: Landscapes of Power and Gender in Rural Zambia. Berkeley, California . University of California Press . https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft0779n6dt&chunk.id=d0e2527&toc.depth=100&toc.id=d0e2413&brand=ucpress . Max Gluckman and the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute.
2. Schumaker, Lynette Louise, "The lion in the path: Fieldwork and culture in the history of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, 1937-1964" (1994). Dissertations available from ProQuest. AAI9521118.https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI9521118
3. Heron . Alastair . Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, Lusaka . The Journal of Modern African Studies . March 1964 . 2 . 1 . 112–113 . 10.1017/S0022278X00003724. 155082162 .
4. Ferguson, James. 1999, Expectations of Modernity, Berkeley, LA, London. University of California Press
5. Magubane, Bernard. 1971, "A Critical Look at the Indices Used in the Study of Social Change in Colonial Africa". Current Anthropology. 12(4/5): 419-445
6. Schumaker, Lyn. 2001, Africanizing Anthropology: Fieldwork, Networks, and the Making of Cultural Knowledge In Central Africa. Durham, London. Duke University Press.
7. Brown, Richard, 1973, "Anthropology and Colonial Rule: Godfrey Wilson and the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute". In Talal Asad, ed. Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter. New York, Humanities Press.
8. Web site: The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers. 1938.
9. Web site: The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers. 1938.
10. Web site: Rhodes-Livingstone Papers. 1939.
11. Web site: The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers. 1938.
12. https://brill.com/previewpdf/journals/jaas/1/1/article-p35_5.xml
13. https://brill.com/previewpdf/journals/jaas/1/1/article-p35_5.xml
14. Web site: Pulford Media . www.pulfordmedia.co.uk . 12 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081211101713/http://www.pulfordmedia.co.uk/i_pages/i_features/african.htm . 11 December 2008 . dead.
15. Good out of Africa. By A. T. Culwick. Rhodes-Livingstone Papers, No. 8. Rhodes-Livingstone Institute1942. Pp. 43. 2s.. 10.2307/1156493. 1156493. Africa. October 1943. 14. 4. 223–224. Green. M. M.. 145147948.
16. Web site: Rhodes-Livingstone Papers. 1968. Fletcher . I. M. .
17. Web site: Rhodes-Livingstone Papers. 1943.
18. Web site: Rhodes-Livingstone Papers. 1946.
19. Web site: Rhodes-Livingstone Papers. 1951.
20. Web site: Rhodes-Livingstone Papers. 1960.
21. Book: 978-0719012730.