Ancestors

Our library, formerly known by the name of Charles Gabriel Seligman who was chair of ethnology at LSE, was renamed in 2019 as a result of extensive discussion between staff and students over the course of 2018/19.

We opted to rename it Old Anthropology Library. In the process, we decided to celebrate a wider and more diverse set of founders, students, lecturers and professors who have been members of or contributed to the department. Their images are displayed on the Old Anthropology Library Ancestors Wall.

In keeping with the practices of many of our research interlocutors, we celebrate here only those who are no longer living and who can be said to have joined the ranks of the ancestral shades.

To read about some of our departmental ancestors, please click through to view or download a pdf.

Contributions, suggestions and research by Rita Astuti, Deborah James, Itay Noy, Giulio Ongaro, Hans Steinmuller.