Paper short abstract:

Should we recognise Raymond Firth as the founder of the approach known as 'the anthropology of/at home'? Using archival and creative collaborative techniques, this paper contends as much by exploring his pre-Tikopian research in Aotearoa/NZ amongst the Māori.

Paper long abstract:

Intellectual biographies are becoming central to the way in which many humanities and social science disciplines write their own histories. This presentation traces the early career path and initial written output of one of the longest lived and most influential ethnographers/ethnologists to have ever lived - Raymond Firth. It contributes to expanding the biographical genre - both regarding antipodean academic history, as well as in terms of dealing with international migration, the movement of ideas and social anthropology's diasporic intellectual landscapes. The paper examines Firth's pre-Tikopian research amongst the Māori, in the country of his birth and early upbringing. This paper not only provides an overview of his MA and PhD research, but also demonstrates the use of experimental methods in creating an 'archaeology of us'. Despite there being two Festschrifts honouring Firth's contributions to the discipline, there is as yet no lengthy biography of this internationally acclaimed economic anthropologist. Using archival and creative collaborative techniques to look at anthropology's contemporary past, I contend that Firth could be recognised as the founder of the ethnographic approach known as 'the anthropology of/at home' but for work which well pre-dates his involvement with examining English kinship in London.