Editing Adam Kuper

{{Short description|South African social anthropologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2015}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Adam Kuper
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| birth_place       = [[Johannesburg]], [[Union of South Africa]]
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| fields            = [[Anthropologist]]
| workplaces        = [[London School of Economics]]
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| education         = [[Parktown Boys' High School]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of the Witwatersrand]]<br/>[[University of Cambridge]]
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| children          = [[Simon Kuper]], Jeremy Kuper,  Hannah Kuper
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{{Anthropology}}
'''Adam Jonathan Kuper''' (born 29 December 1941)<ref>[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U23469 KUPER, Prof. Adam Jonathan], ''Who's Who 2014'', A & C Black, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014</ref> is a British social anthropologist.

==Background==

{{BLP sources section|date=June 2013}}
Kuper was the son of [[Simon Meyer Kuper]] and Gertrude Hesselson.<ref name=niehaus>{{cite book|last=Niehaus |first=Isak|title=Culture Wars: Context, Models and Anthropologists' Accounts|chapter=Adam Kuper: an Anthroplogist's Account|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sDQETNMtWsMC&pg=PA170|pages=170–188|year=2010|publisher= Berghan Books|isbn= 9780857456625 |editor1=Deborah James|editor2=Evelyn Plaice|editor3=Christina Toren}}</ref> Born in [[Johannesburg]],<ref name=niehaus /> he attended [[Parktown Boys' High School]] and took his first degree at the [[University of the Witwatersrand]] in [[Johannesburg]]. His doctorate, from the [[University of Cambridge]], was based on field research in the [[Kalahari Desert]] in what is now [[Botswana]]. After graduation Kuper did further field studies in Botswana, and Jamaica, and taught at Universities in Uganda, Britain, Holland, Sweden and the United States. The sociologist [[Leo Kuper]] and anthropologist [[Hilda Kuper]] were his uncle and aunt.<ref name=niehaus/>

He married Jessica Cohen (1944-2013) of Johannesburg in 1966 and taught from 1967 to 1970 at [[Makerere University]] in [[Kampala]].<ref name=niehaus/> From 1970 to 1976 he taught at [[University College London]]. From 1976 to 1985 he was professor of African anthropology at [[Leiden University]] in the [[Netherlands]]. From 1985 to 2008 he was a professor at [[Brunel University]], where he was the first head of the Department of Human Sciences, and latterly head of the Anthropology Department. In 2000 and in 2007 he was, respectively, awarded the [[Rivers Memorial Medal]] and the [[Huxley Memorial Medal]] of the [[Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland|Royal Anthropological Institute]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.therai.org.uk/awards/honours-prior-recipients/rivers-memorial-medal-prior-recipients/|title=Rivers Memorial Medal Prior Recipients|website=www.therai.org.uk|language=en-gb|access-date=2017-11-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.therai.org.uk/awards/honours-prior-recipients/huxley-memorial-medal-and-lecture-prior-recipients/|title=Huxley Memorial Medal and Lecture Prior Recipients|website=www.therai.org.uk|language=en-gb|access-date=2017-11-14}}</ref> Kuper was the first president of the European Association of Social Anthropology. He was a visiting professor at [[Boston University]], 2011–14, and a Centennial Professor, [[London School of Economics]], from 2013-14 where he still holds a visiting appointment.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bu.edu/anthrop/people/faculty/a-kuper/|title=Adam Kuper » Anthropology » Boston University|website=www.bu.edu|access-date=2017-11-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.lse.ac.uk/anthropology/people/kuper.aspx|title=Professor Adam Kuper|work=London School of Economics and Political Science|access-date=2017-11-14|language=en-gb}}</ref><ref>Personal correspondence</ref>

He has lived in [[Muswell Hill]] for over 40 years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thesouthafrican.com/business/sa-power-100-2012-adam-kuper.htm |title=SA Power 100 - 2013: Adam Kuper &#124; the South African |accessdate=2013-06-16 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117173204/http://www.thesouthafrican.com/business/sa-power-100-2012-adam-kuper.htm |archivedate=17 January 2013 |df=dmy }}</ref>

==Research==

In the early 1970s Kuper did fieldwork in [[Jamaica]], on attachment to the National Planning Agency in the Office of the Prime Minister. However his main ethnographic focus continued to be the societies of Southern Africa, on which he has published several books. In 1973 he published a history of British social anthropology, and since then he has continued to study and publish on the intellectual history of anthropology, including critical studies on the idea of "primitive society" and of "culture", and on the development of museums of anthropology. He was awarded a [[Leverhulme]] Major Research Grant for two years (2003-5) which allowed him to spend more time on research. The topic was cousin marriage and incest in nineteenth century England.

He has supervised many [[PhD]] students on Southern African ethnography, history of anthropology, family business, and kinship.

==Retirement dispute==
In January 2009 it was revealed that Brunel had reneged on an agreement to let him stay until 2010. Instead, he was forcibly retired in late 2008, just after the census date for publications submitted to the [[Research Assessment Exercise]] had passed. Kuper responded by suing the university for breach of contract.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=405176|title=Professor sues Brunel as 'promised' post is scrapped|date=2009-01-29|work=Times Higher Education (THE)|access-date=2017-11-14|language=en}}</ref> In 2011, employment laws were changed to permit phased retirements past the age of 65. This was because of changes to the 2006 Employment (Age) Regulations making mandatory retirement imposed by the employer unlawful.

==Selected publications==
*''Wives for Cattle: Bridewealth and Marriage in Southern Africa'', (Routledge, 1982)
*''The Invention of [[Urgesellschaft|primitive society]]: Transformations of an Illusion'', (Routledge, 1988)
*''The Chosen Primate: Human Nature and Cultural Diversity'', (Harvard University Press, 1994)
*''Anthropology and Anthropologists: The Modern British School'', (Routledge, 3rd edn, 1996)
*''The Social Science Encyclopaedia'' Adam Kuper, Jessica Kuper (eds.). (Taylor & Francis, 1996)
*''Culture: The Anthropologists' Account'', (Harvard University Press, 1999)
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=aoldc5fJeH8C ''Incest and Influence: The Private Life of Bourgeois England''], (Harvard, 2009, {{isbn|978-0-674-03589-8}})
*''The Museum of Other People. From Colonial Acquisitions to Cosmopolitan Exhibitions'', (Profile Books, 2023, {{isbn|978-1-800810-91-4}})

==References==
<references/>

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuper, Adam Jonathan}}
[[Category:1941 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Anthropology educators]]
[[Category:Anthropology writers]]
[[Category:Social anthropologists]]
[[Category:South African anthropologists]]
[[Category:South African science writers]]
[[Category:Academics of Brunel University London]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Leiden University]]
[[Category:Academics of University College London]]
[[Category:People from Johannesburg]]
[[Category:University of the Witwatersrand alumni]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Alumni of Parktown Boys' High School]]