The Rhodes-Livingstone Institute (RLI) was the first local anthropological research facility in Africa; it was founded in 1937 under the initial directorship of Godfrey Wilson. It is located a few miles outside Lusaka. Designed to allow for easier study of the local cultures of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, it became the base of operations for a number of leading anthropologists of the time.
Among the participating anthropologists at the RLI, In addition to Wilson, were Monica Hunter Wilson, Max Gluckman, J. Desmond Clark, Elizabeth Colson, E.L. Epstein, J. Clyde Mitchell, and William Watson.
Others have called attention to what they regard as misguidedness on the part of the RLI anthropologists, stemming from the fact that they were embedded in the colonial system and blind to its reality as a component in dialectic study.Ferguson, James. 1999, Expectations of Modernity, Berkeley, LA, London. University of California PressMagubane, Bernard. 1971, "A Critical Look at the Indices Used in the Study of Social Change in Colonial Africa". Current Anthropology. 12(4/5): 419-445 Contrasting views are presented in a study by Lyn Schumaker (2001) and a chapter by Richard Brown (1973).Schumaker, Lyn. 2001, Africanizing Anthropology: Fieldwork, Networks, and the Making of Cultural Knowledge In Central Africa. Durham, London. Duke University Press.Brown, Richard, 1973, "Anthropology and Colonial Rule: Godfrey Wilson and the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute". In Talal Asad, ed. Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter. New York, Humanities Press.
Publications The Institute published a series of papers: No. 1 - 1938 - The land rights of individuals among the Nyakyusa by Godfrey Wilson No. 2 - 1938 - The study of African society by Godfrey Wilson and Monica Hunter Wilson No. 3 - 1939 - The Constitution of Ngonde by Godfrey Wilson No. 4 - 1939 - ?? No. 5 - 1941 - An Essay on the Economics of Detribalization in Northern Rhodesia - Part 1 by G.Wilson. No. 6 - 1942 - An Essay on the Economics of Detribalization in Northern Rhodesia - Part 2 by G.Wilson. No. 7 - 1941 - Economy of the Central Barotse Plain. By Max Gluckman. No. 8 - 1942 - Good out of Africa. By A. T. Culwick No. 9 - 1968 - The African as suckling and as adult. by J.F. Ritchie No. 10 - 1943 - Lozi Land Tenure No. 12 - 1946 - Fishermen of the Bangweulu Swamps No. 13 - 1948 - Rooiyard by Ellen Hellmann. No. 18 - ???? - Gusii Bridewealth: Law and Custom by Philip Mason No. 20 - 1951 - Marriage in a changing society by J.A. Barnes No. 21 - 1951 - ? on the Luapula No. 22 - 1953 - Accommodating the spirit amongst some North-Eastern Shona tribes by J.F. Holleman No. 26 - 1956 - A Social Survey of the African Population of Livingstone. by Merran McCulIoch. No. 30 - 1961 - [unreadable]
Also a series of Occasional Papers
References