SCHAPERA, Isaac, b 1905, social anthropologist

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0097 SCHAPERA
Held at	: British Library of Political and Economic Science   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.lse.ac.uk/library ›
Full title	: SCHAPERA, Isaac, b 1905, social anthropologist
Date(s)	: c1929-c1982
Level of description	: collection
Extent	: 19 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Schapera, Isaac, b 1905, social anthropologist

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Isaac Schapera was born in 1905 in Garies in Little Namaqualand, south of the Orange River in the Northwestern Cape. Here he acquired a fluency in Afrikaans and an interest in the peoples around him. He enrolled at the University of Cape Town where he intended to study law, but after attending a course of lectures by A R Radcliffe-Brown, he changed to anthropology. After completing his masters degree in 1925, Schapera was accepted as a doctoral candidate at the London School of Economics. He joined Malinowski's seminar and was for a time his research assistant. His supervisor was C G Seligman. He held an assistant lectureship at LSE for a year, 1928-1929, and then returned to South Africa. He lectured for a year at the University of Witwatersrand and then returned to the University of Cape Town, where he was made Professor in 1935.In 1950, he returned to the LSE where he accepted a chair in anthropology. He retired from teaching in 1969. Over the years, Schapera made many trips to Botswana and had a deep interest in the history of the Tswana people. As part of his historical research, he made a study of missionary records, and undertook the editing of Robert Moffat's journals and letters and the unpublished writings of David Livingstone.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Schapera's field notebooks from his work in Botswana (then Bechuanaland), recording work on the Kgatta, Kwena, Ngwato and Ngwakelse tribes; working papers and notes, including genealogies of royal families, correspondence, drafts of an unpublished book on David Livingstone; various printed documents on the subject of Botswana; and books from Schapera's library on the subject of David Livingstone.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

This collection is arranged in 3 sections: 1. Field Note Books, 1929-1938; 2. Papers, 1940-1964; 3. Printed Material, 1848-1982.

Conditions governing access:

OPEN

Conditions governing reproduction:

COPYRIGHT IS HELD BY THE DONOR

Finding aids:

Printed handlist and online catalogue available.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Output from CAIRS using template 14 and checked by hand on May 29, 2002

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
May 29, 2002