Papers of Sir Edward Evan EVANS-PRITCHARD (1902-1973), social anthropologist
14 boxes of material, relating to Evans-Pritchard’s research in South Sudan, especially the Azande people
Related Resources
Collections of objects, photographs, etc.: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford; Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
National Register of Archives: Pritchard, Sir Edward Evans Evans- (1902-1973) Professor of Social Anthropology Link to record (external site)
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Pritchard, Sir Edward Evan Evans- (1902-1973), social anthropologist Link to article (external site)
Enquiries: ms-photo.colls@prm.ox.ac.uk
Introduction
Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973) was a key figure in the development of social anthropology in the UK in the mid twentieth century, but he also had a very significant international reputation. His ethnographies of the Azande and Nuer peoples of South Sudan are still among the most widely cited works of social anthropology. The Pitt Rivers Museum also holds Evans-Pritchard’s fieldwork photographs, and a sizeable collection of artefacts purchased from him over the years.
The collection consists of three parts: part one is a major collection of Zande vernacular texts, as well as a copy of Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (1937) annotated by E-P with original Zande versions of the English translations quoted in the book. Part two is a number of off-prints and ephemera, and part three is a box of miscellaneous manuscript material that has been in the Pitt Rivers Museum for some years, mostly original handlists to his fieldwork photographs.
The majority of the Evans-Pritchard manuscript collection (except section 3) was transferred from the Tylor Library at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, in 2013. The first detailed catalogue was made by Margaret Buckner in 1988, which was then revised by her in 1999. An electronic version of the revised 1999 catalogue was made by Danielle Damren in 2014, which was checked against the box contents.
A system of archival referencing was developed that gives each group of texts in the collection a sequential number, with a box number preceding it for location purposes. Within each group of texts each individual text is described, and page numbers are often noted. References to published versions of the texts, where known, are also given in the right hand column.
EP papers
Full listing
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