E. E. Evans-Pritchard
English anthropologist who studied Azande and Nuer peoples.
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard was an English anthropologist whose work fundamentally shaped the discipline of social anthropology. Educated at Winchester College and Exeter College, Oxford, where he was influenced by R. R. Marett, he later pursued postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics. There, he came under the influence of Bronisław Malinowski and, more significantly, Charles Gabriel Seligman, the founding ethnographer of the Sudan. His first fieldwork, beginning in 1926, was with the Azande people of the upper Nile, leading to his doctoral thesis and his classic study *Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande*. This work is considered a major contribution to the sociology of knowledge, noted for its neutral stance on the correctness of Zande beliefs about causation. Evans-Pritchard documented how the Azande attributed mishaps, such as deaths from a collapsing termite-infested door frame, to witchcraft, focusing on the psychological process of attribution. He later conducted research among the Nuer, producing a trilogy of works—*The Nuer*, *Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer*, and *Nuer Religion*—which, along with the coedited volume *African Political Systems*, became classics of British social anthropology. During the Second World War, he served in Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan, and Syria, raising irregular troops among the Anuak and later producing *The Sanusi of Cyrenaica* based on his experience in North Africa. After the war, he became Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College. In 1950, he famously argued that anthropology should be grouped among the humanities, particularly history, rather than the natural sciences, contending that the main challenge for anthropologists was translation—understanding another culture and explaining it to one’s own. His later work, *Theories of Primitive Religion*, criticized existing theories for failing to enter the minds of the people studied and for the differing approaches of believers and non-believers to the study of religion. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1944.
- field
- Social anthropology
- nationality
- English
- known_for
- Studies of Azande and Nuer; structural-functionalism; argument that anthropology
Quick Facts
- Birth Name
- Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
- Birth Date
- 1902-09-21
- Birth Place
- Crowborough, East Sussex, England
- Death Date
- 1973-09-11
- Death Place
- Oxford, England
- Field
- Anthropology
- Thesis Title
- The social organisation of the Azande of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
- Known For
- Evans-Pritchard's theories of religion / Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande
- Children
- Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
- Thesis Url
- http: · etheses.lse.ac.uk/102
- Thesis Year
- 1928
- Notable Students
- M. N. Srinivas / Talal Asad / Mary Douglas / Audrey Colson / John Francis Marchment Middleton / Steven Lukes / André Singer
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard (1902–1973) was an English anthropologist and a key figure in the development of social anthropology. He was educated at Winchester College and Exeter College, Oxford, where he was influenced by R. R. Marett, before completing postgraduate work at the London School of Economics under Charles Gabriel Seligman and Bronisław Malinowski. His first fieldwork, beginning in 1926 among the Azande of the upper Nile, produced his doctoral thesis and the classic study *Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande*. This work is noted for its neutral stance on Zande beliefs about causation, particularly its documentation of how the Azande attributed mishaps—such as the deaths of eight people from a collapsing termite-infested door frame—to witchcraft. Evans-Pritchard later conducted extensive research among the Nuer, resulting in a trilogy of works that became classics of structural-functionalism. During the Second World War, he served in Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan, and Syria, raising irregular troops among the Anuak and later producing *The Sanusi of Cyrenaica* based on his experience in North Africa. He became Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford in 1946, remaining at All Souls College for the rest of his career. In 1950, he disavowed the view that anthropology was a natural science, arguing it should be grouped among the humanities, with translation between cultures as its central challenge. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1944 and had five children.
Reader's Guide
Evans-Pritchard's significance lies in his foundational contributions to social anthropology through detailed ethnographic fieldwork and theoretical innovation. His study of Azande witchcraft, oracles, and magic is considered the first major anthropological contribution to the sociology of knowledge, taking a neutral—some would say relativist—stance on the correctness of Zande beliefs about causation. His work on the Nuer, developed alongside Meyer Fortes and A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, became classics of British social anthropology and helped establish structural-functionalism. His co-edited volume *African Political Systems* (1940) was also seminal. Later in his career, his argument that anthropology is a humanity rather than a natural science influenced the discipline's self-understanding.
Did You Know?
- Evans-Pritchard was known to friends and family as 'EP'.
- He raised irregular troops among the Anuak during the Second World War.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is E. E. Evans-Pritchard?
Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard was a British social anthropologist born in East Sussex in 1902 who spent the bulk of his academic career at Oxford. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in shaping the discipline of social anthropology during the twentieth century.
What are Evans-Pritchard's most famous field studies?
He is best known for his detailed ethnographic work among the Nuer of southern Sudan and the Azande of the Upper Nile region. These two monographs became foundational texts for how anthropologists examine kinship, political organization, and indigenous belief systems.
What was Evans-Pritchard's major theoretical argument?
He pushed back firmly against the notion that anthropology should be classified alongside the natural sciences such as biology or chemistry. He contended that the discipline belongs among the humanities because it deals with meaning, interpretation, and cultural context rather than universal natural laws.
Where did Evans-Pritchard hold his professorship?
He was appointed Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford in 1946 and held that chair until 1970. He passed away in Oxford just three years after stepping down from the position.
Why do anthropology fans still discuss Evans-Pritchard?
His structural-functionalist approach to understanding societies, paired with his insistence that anthropology is interpretive rather than purely empirical, set the stage for decades of methodological debate in the field. Even scholars who rejected his functionalist assumptions had to grapple with the analytical frameworks he established.
More in Archaeologists And Anthropologists 1-23
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record