GORER, Geoffrey Edgar Solomon. London 26.3.1905 — Sussex 24.5.1985. British Anthropologist, noted for his application of psychoanalytic techniques to anthropology. Born in a non-practising Jewish family, educated at Carterhouse. Studies at Cambridge, graduated 1927. Further studies at Sorbonne 1922-23 and Berlin 1927-28. First worked as author, writing one novel and several plays (not staged). In the 1930s travelled in Sikkim, South-East Asia and Africa. In 1939 moved to the U.S.A., studied behaviorism at Yale. Returned 1947 and lived the rest of his life in Sussex. He was somewhat a dilettant and never held any academic positions. Friend of George Orwell.
Publications: Bali and Angkor, or, Looking at Life and Death. 234 p. L. 1936.
– Himalayan Village. An Account of the Lepchas of Sikkim. 503 p. 32 pl. L. 1938, repr. as The Lepchas of Sikkim. 1984.
– Several books not related to South Asia.
Sources: *J. Macclancy, “G.G., ‘Britain’s Margaret Mead”, Anthropology in the Public Arena: Historical and Contemporary Contexts. 2013, 81-109; Wikipedia; archiveshub.ac.uk/data.
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