This evening lecture and one day symposium are organised jointly by the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Learned Society of Wales, The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, and the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data, and Methods.
The public lecture will be given by Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern, FBA and Honorary Fellow, the Learned Society of Wales (University of Cambridge), on ‘The Language of Relationship: Anthropology’s commitment to comparison’.
The day symposium examines the development of social anthropology in Wales from the perspectives of both national scholarship and international engagement. It begins with a consideration of the proto-anthropology of Gerald of Wales. It then traces the emergence of a distinctive style of Welsh social anthropology. Here, the relationship between folklore and anthropology, especially in language, customs, religion, and music, is important. The symposium also examines the role of Welsh scholars of the past, such as Iorwerth C. Peate, William Jones, and Alwyn D. Rees.
This is followed by consideration of modern and contemporary social anthropology in which community studies are used to examine issues of diaspora, labour, language, and identity. The symposium concludes with a keynote presentation on ‘Languages of Class in Industrial and Post-industrial South Wales’ by Professor Chris Hann, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany.
It is intended to publish the symposium papers in the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Country Series, Sean Kingston Publishing, London.
This event will be of interest to academics and those with an interest in Welsh history, the origins and development of contemporary Wales and community studies.