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Isaac Schapera, FBA.

Early Life and Education

Schapera was born in 1905 in Garies, Namaqualand, South Africa where he was brought up surrounded by Indigenous peoples. His father was a storekeeper in Garies prior to the family’s move to Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town would serve as an important city for Schapera for much of his life. He attended the University of Cape Town where he excelled during his undergraduate degree and completed his Master’s in 1925. He was one of the famous anthropologist Alfred Radcliffe-Brown’s students while attending the University of Cape Town and attributed his interest in anthropology to Radcliffe-Brown’s engaging class lectures. Schapera later went on to pursue a doctorate, writing on the history, language, and culture of the Khoikhoi and Khoisan. He did this on scholarship at the London School of Economics. As a student in London, Schapera was in the company of E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Edith Clarke and Jack Driberg. While his supervisor was the notable scholar C.G. Seligman, from whom Schapera learned “a respect for ethnographic description,” Schapera was also a student of Bronislaw Malinowski and filled the position of research assistant to him on two occasions.

Academic Career and Achievements

In 1929, Schapera returned to South Africa and taught briefly at the University of the Witwatersrand before going back to the University of Cape Town as a lecturer where he was promoted to the position of professor in 1935. During this time he “contributed greatly to the growing stature of social anthropology in South Africa.” During the next 15 years, during school breaks, Schapera would travel to Bechuanaland to work with Tswana-speaking groups. He conducted a great deal of fieldwork with the Tswana-speaking groups and published important works including A Handbook of Tswana Law and Custom (1938), Native Land Tenure in the Bechuanaland Protectorate (1943), Migrant Labour and Tribal Life (1947), The Ethnic Composition of Tswana Tribes (1952), and The Tswana (1953). Schapera’s work on the Tswana and Bechuanaland covers nearly every aspect of life from law and custom to sorcery and witchcraft, Schapera has covered these people extensively. In 1952, he was described as the “greatest academic authority living on the total situation in Bechuanaland" during a lecture he gave at a joint meeting under the chairmanship of Sir William Clark. According to his obituary in The Guardian, Schapera “worked closely with a colonial administration. Less typically - and this must be one of his lasting achievements - his work openly portrayed a group of societies already encapsulated in the colonial world.” This portrayal avoided any impression of presenting an immaculate and untouched culture. Schapera’s concern with history was evident in his inclusion of the impact of traders, missionaries, administrators and the migrant labour system and its recruiters. He drew attention to the exploitative aspects of colonialism and thus his work in Botswana is irrefutably acknowledged and appreciated by the people of that land. In 1995, “the University of Botswana’s African Studies, PULA, ran a special issue dedicated to Schapera’s then 75 years of scholarship." Following his time at the University of Cape Town as a lecturer and professor Schapera returned to the London School of Economics as a professor and took over the very same office that Malinowski occupied during his time there. Schapera taught at the London School of Economics from 1950 to 1969. During this time he published further works on the Tswana as well as completing some editing work including the papers of missionary and explorer David Livingstone (1959-61). He was appointed an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Botswana and was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1958.

Method and Theory

Isaac Schapera is a theoretically ambiguous scholar and has been “criticized in some quarters for…explicitly atheoretical anthropology.” Schapera was outspoken against using a comparative method in anthropology and criticized Gluckman for his comparative efforts. Schapera’s work deals mainly with the Tswana and makes no attempt at comparisons. In a 1988 interview, when asked if a comparative anthropology is possible he replied: “unless you go to the extent of eliminating everything but the lowest common denominators [but] then you miss everything worthwhile, don’t you?” Schapera emphasized that this method is reductive and that comparison is not as useful as contrasting. Schapera acknowledges a historical perspective that is traceable through his work with the Tswana yet remains honest to his functionalist roots: “the functional method was drilled into us: describe them as you find them at the moment you are there.” Schapera always carried a notebook with him for they did not have tape recorders for ethnography in the early 20th century. Schapera made great use of informants and assistants; he also lived in the homes of the people he was studying. Schapera is known for his note taking; Comaroff commented to him “your work is also known for the immaculate notes you kept. We have been able to work with your ‘raw’ material almost 50 years later.” This prowess is indicative of the care and attentiveness to which Schapera applied in his ethnographic work. Suzette Heald of Brunel University in Uxford, West London wrote: “His passing marks the end of that remarkable generation of 'founders' from whom we all continue to draw inspiration” Isaac Schapera has made recognized contributions to the field of social anthropology.

Positions and honours

• Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, 1934
• FBA, 1958
• Chairman, Association of Social Anthropologists of the British Commonwealth, 1954-57
• President, RAI, 1961-63

Publications

• The Khoisan Peoples of South Africa, 1930
• A Handbook of Tswana Law and Custom, 1938
• Married Life in an African Tribe, 1940
• Native Land Tenure in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1943
• Migrant Labour and Tribal Life, 1948
• The Ethnic Composition of Tswana Tribes, 1952; The Tswana, 1953
• Government and Politics in Tribal Societies, 1956
• Praise Poems of Tswana Chiefs, 1965
• Tribal Innovators, 1970
• Rainmaking Rites of Tswana Tribes, 1971
• Kinship Terminology in Jane Austen's Novels, 1977
• Editor of:
  • Western Civilization and the Natives of South Africa, 1934
  • The Bantu-speaking Tribes of South Africa, 1937
  • David Livingstone's Journals and Letters 1841-1856 (6 vols), 1959-63
  • David Livingstone: South African papers 1849-1853, 1974

Archives

• Catalogue of the papers of Isaac Schapera held at LSE Archives
• Catalogue of books from the library of Isaac Schapera, mainly on the subject of David Livingstone

Works Cited

Comaroff, Jean and John L. Comaroff (1988). “On the Founding Fathers, Fieldwork and Functionalism: A Conversation with Isaac Schapera”. American Ethnologist 15(3), 554-565.

Heald, Suzette (2003). “The Legacy of Isaac Schapera (1905-2003)”. Anthropology Today 19(6), 18-19.

Schapera, Isaac (1952). “Sorcery and Witchcraft in Bechuanaland”. African Affairs 51(202), 41-52.

Roberts, Simon (July 2, 2003). “Isaac Schapera: Pioneering Anthropologist Who Documented African Life”. The Guardian.

Category:1905 births Category:2003 deaths Category:South African anthropologists Category:Academics of the London School of Economics Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics Category:British anthropologists Category:British Jews Category:Fellows of the British Academy Category:Jewish scientists Category:South African Jews Category:University of Cape Town alumni