(1902–73), British social anthropologist, born in Crownborough, Sussex; noted for his investigations of African cultures; studied at Winchester College (1916–21), Exeter College of Oxford Univ. (1921–24), and London School of Economics; doctorate from Univ. of London 1927; started field trips to Africa 1926; taught sociology at Egyptian Univ., Cairo, 1931–34; lectured at Oxford prior to World War II; served in Middle East during the war; named professor of social anthropology at Oxford 1946; president of Royal Anthropological Institute 1949–51; knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1971; author of ‘Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande' (1937), ‘The Political System of the Anuak of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan' (1940), and three studies of the Nuer of the Upper Nile region.