Welcome to the Royal Anthropological Institute
Welcome to the home page of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, a scholarly association dedicated to anthropology in all its many fields and applications.
Honorary Obituary Editor
Expressions of interest – Honorary Obituary Editor
Closing date 1 Feburary 2020
The Manuscripts and Archive Committee of the RAI invites expressions of interest in the position of Honorary Obituary Editor, following the highly successful inaugural tenure of Dr Nichola Kahn. The aim of this position is to facilitate and otherwise commission obituaries of distinguished deceased anthropologists (especially, but not restricted to RAI Fellows). The postholder will liase closely with academic anthropologists, the Anthropological Index Online (AIO) at the British Museum, and the Chair of the Manuscripts and Archive Committee.
FAII Exams
The latest FAII exams were held this summer and we are delighted that all three applicants, Alison Brough, Micol Zuppello and Helen Langstaff, were successful in passing. I am sure you will join us in congratulating all three on their achievement. This means we have increasing numbers of Forensic Anthropologists moving through the certification process. This is the first time that these exams were run with the new format and everyone on the exam board worked hard to ensure that the exams ran smoothly. The call for the next round of FAII applications is open and closes on the 6th January 2020. Practical examinations will be held in June 2020.
Dr Lucina Hackman, Chair of the RAI Forensic Anthropology Committee.
Revisiting anthropology’s past
Treasures from the RAI’s photo archive have been featured in The Guardian online. The photo essay – part of The Guardian’s ‘In Pictures’ series – includes some of the remarkable physical type portraits taken by Northcote Thomas in Nigeria and Sierra Leone in the early twentieth century.
Thomas was an Assistant Secretary of the RAI and subsequently serves on its Council. He was also the first Government Anthropologist to be appointed by the British Colonial Office. In this capacity he conducted a series of anthropological surveys in what were then the protectorates of Southern Nigeria and Sierra Leone. During the surveys, Thomas took thousands of photographs, made hundreds of sound recordings and assembled large collections of artefacts and botanical specimens. The RAI holds the original glass plate negatives of Thomas’s photographs and is a partner in the AHRC-funded Museum Affordances / [Re:]Entanglements project that is investigating the ‘archival legacies’ of Thomas’s surveys.