ARCHIVING A LIFE

Born 20 December 1941 in Shillong, India
Address 25 Lode Road, Lode, Nr. Cambridge CB25 9ER or King's College, Cambridge, CB2 1ST, United Kingdom. (e-mail am12@cam.ac.uk; website: www.alanmacfarlane.com)
Education Dragon School, Oxford; Sedbergh School, Yorkshire. Read Modern History at Worcester College, Oxford, 1960-3, B.A., M.A. D.Phil. in Modern History at Oxford, 1963-7, on 'Witchcraft prosecutions in Essex, 156O-168O: a sociological analysis'. M.Phil. in Anthropology at the London School of Economics, 1966-8, on 'The regulation of marital and sexual relationships in 17th century England'. Ph.D. in Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, on 'Population and resources in central Nepal',
Employment Senior Research Fellow in History, King's College, Cambridge, 1971-4. University Lecturer in Social Anthropology, Cambridge, 1975-1981. Reader in Historical Anthropology, University of Cambridge, 1981-1991. Professor of Anthropological Science, University of Cambridge (Personal Chair), 1991-2009; Emeritus Professor 2009 on. Fellow, King's College, Cambridge, 1981-2009; Life Fellow 2009 on.
BACKGROUND

It often happens that when an aged academic finally goes mad (or dies) his family and friends have to sort out a large collection of papers and books. This is both a chore for them and often means that much is destroyed or misplaced. The mass of materials has little meaning or coherence for those who did not collect them. I have experienced this on several occasions when trying to sort out the papers of my older colleagues and have had to spend much time (and money) on saving precious sets of academic research which would otherwise have been lost.

This problem would be particularly difficult for our family and friends because of the large and complex set of materials which we have accumulated over our lives. At a very rough estimate, we have accumulated something like 20,000 books, the equivalent of 700 A4 box files of paper [400 in the lower barn, 200 in the upper, 100 in the bindery], 1000 hours of moving film, five thousand photographs and a range of objects from around the world.

The size and complexity of the collection is the result of various factors. One is that I have specifically tried to keep a detailed historical record of my life, preserving many of the letters and other papers I sent (copies) and received, since about the age of fifteen. This has led to a large archive. As a historian and anthropologist, I have wondered what it would be like to have the fairly complete papers of a life as a kind of time capsule for future generations.

Since my grandmother (and to a certain extent my mother) were also hoarders and have passed on their papers to me, the total collection, going back to the eighteenth century, is very extensive; it includes not only many papers, but also collections of photographs, films and objects associated with British life and the Empire over two and a half centuries.

Because we have not moved for over forty-five years and have a large barn and another smaller ‘bindery’ it has not been necessary to throw away much.

My wife Sarah Harrison and I have also collected books. In our own private collections of poetry, novels and other books, as well as my academic collection, we have something like ten thousand books. Sarah has also run a second-hand bookshop (‘Bracton Books’) for thirty years and has accumulated another twelve thousand or so books.

As we approach our 79th birthday, it seems appropriate to devise a plan for what should happen to these materials. The overseeing of this plan and taking stock and analysing the collection should be an enjoyable process. Making sense of this large set of materials may well confirm Kierkegaard’s observation: ‘We understand our life backwards, but we have to live it forwards.’

Originally, I had hoped all the materials could be kept together in one place and if I had limitless funds, I might have attempted to do so. As it is, I have decided to split the collection for various reasons.

Firstly, there is the practical problem: probably no single archive would be prepared to take the whole collection. Enquiries with various British archives (Cambridge University Library, King’s College Library etc.) have suggested that this is the case. If the collection is broken into two or three parts, it will be possible to deposit it in a number of archives and libraries.

Over the next ten years we hope also to scan and also to type in a good deal of the most important material and to place them in a searchable database on the web. This database would be accessible from any of the archives. Those who are interested would know what was held elsewhere and have a chance to look at least parts of it online. We have already started to work out a prototype in the form of my website (www.alanmacfarlane.com). This will soon be enriched and transformed by a very large amount of material we have already scanned, digitized and edited, but which is not yet publicly available.

When archives are deposited they have much more value and interest if they are properly listed, catalogued and described. We intend to do this with each of the archives. In particular, we aim to write a series of accounts – which will be available both on the web and in published form – about various parts of the archive.

So far, we have published the following volumes on various segments of the archive.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

All of the following are available on Amazon, and also as free pdf downloads at www.alanmacfarlane.com under ‘Life’
India: Beginnings and Endings [1939-1946]
Dorset Days [1948-1954]
Becoming a Dragon: The Dragon School, Oxford, 1950-1955
Sedbergh Schooldays: An English Boarding School Experience, 1955-60
Lakeland Life, 1954-1960
Oxford Undergraduate, 1960-1963
Oxford Postgraduate, 1963-1966
Becoming an Anthropologist, 1966-1971
TWENTY YEARS IN TEA, The letters of Iris Macfarlane from Assam Tea Gardens, 1946-1965
These volumes cover the first thirty years of my life until I arrived in Cambridge in 1971.

In relation to the extensive papers left to me by my family, Sarah has edited and published the following and three or four more are in preparation.

FAMILY PAPERS

All of the following are published on Amazon, and are also available as free pdf downloads at: www. Alanmacfarlane.com under ‘Life’
A Jamaican Master in Chancery, The Letter-Books of Herbert Jarrett James 1821-1840and The Journal of William Rhodes James, Written between 1836 and 1841, both edited by Sarah Harrison, with the James Family Tree
Stirlings of Ardoch and Grahams of Airth, Family Letters: A Personal View of the Value of Kinship, transcribed and edited by Sarah Harrison, with the Stirling Family Tree
Letters from John Jones 1791-1822 edited by Sarah Harrison, with the Jones Family Tree
Letters of a Victorian Family, Caroline James of Aldeburgh, Suffolk transcribed and edited by Sarah Harrison, with the James Family Tree
Measurements of the archive

Most of the material consists of papers, either loose, in filing cabinets or in A4 box files.



One twentieth of the A4 files of material



Some of the films of the 250 interviews



Some of the films of family, anthropological investigations, lectures etc


The number of box files in each archive (converting loose papers and filing drawers into Box File equivalents) are indicated by BBBB (four boxes) etc.

Some of the material consists of small digital films, which are stored in drawers.

The drawers for the Interview series each hold about 30 tapes.
The drawers for other films each hold about 36 tapes. Each drawer of tapes is indicated - D
Smaller numbers of tapes are itemized, each tape being T

[Early archives which should be sorted first] - +
Sensitive items - *
 

Searching the archives

A general overview of the materials is provided by my website, www.alanmacfarlane.com




An overview

An overview of my life, describing briefly various contexts for the papers, is to be found in the one volume autobiography, Magic and Modernity, currently in draft.






Databases of materials

Particular parts of the archive have been indexed in a series of databases. The se allow both Boolean (and/or/not) searching, and also ‘free text’ searching. So, for example, I could find all the photographs of a certain person doing a certain thing in a certain year in Nepal. This employs an information retrieval system called ‘Bamboo’ which we developed over a period of nearly twenty years specifically for our materials. Here is the list of current databases with the number of records (which might be a film, photography, piece of music or text) in each.




 

ARCHIVES OTHER THAN RESEARCH AND TEACHING

The major segments of the archive are as follows:

1. Up to my life: my ancestors and their papers: family papers and photographs of the James, Swinhoe, Jones and other families up to and including my mother’s papers.

This is an important collection, which I largely inheritd from my grandmother, including some important photographs of late nineteenth century Burma, papers concerning slave plantations in Jamaica, numerous letters concerning life in India and elsewhere in the nineteenth century.

Early family papers down to my grandparents
Robert Swinhoe – BB
Swinhoe family papers – BBBBBBBBB
Early James/Swinhoe Archives 1BBBBBBBBBB
Family Photos – BBBBBBBBBB
Family papers – James, Stirling etc. – BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
Family genealogies – 1 box
Grandmother Violet – box of paintings
About 200 loose photographs by Felice Beato
About 10 albums of photographs by Beato and my great-grandfather and others
About 10 large scrap books of later nineteenth century cuttings etc.

Iris Macfarlane Papers
Iris writings on Hebrides – B
Iris – poetry, diaries etc – B
Iris Non- Hebrides writings – BB
Mac letters to Iris – B
Iris ‘Going Back’ text – B
Iris – School – B
Iris – ‘Ballad/ Four Generations – B
Iris Letters to her mother – B
Iris letters to Mac - B
Daughter Fiona letters to Iris - BB
Assam Slides – Iris –BB
Iris letters to Violet – later – B
Important documents – B
Iris Diaries - B

Papers of others I hold
Tarring family papers (Sarah) –BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
Sarah personal papers - BBBB
Gerry Martin writings –BBB
Swavis Mongrelian (Andrew Morgan) – BBB
Some papers of Neville Moray on China – B
John Barnes – confidential papers on Rudi Dutscke and other confidential affairs – B *
Uncle Robert Rhodes James – album of reviews etc
Paintings and other materials of grand-children Lily and Rosa – BBB
Fiona and Anne school materials - B

2. Papers relating to my first proper school, the Dragon School, Oxford, where I was a pupil 1950-1955. I have written a detailed account based on these papers (Dragon Days, co-authored with Jamie Bruce Lockhart). Four boxes. The four filing boxes of materials from that period of my life will be deposited in the Dragon School Archives, which has already agreed to take them.

Original papers – BBB [some more general papers have been given to the Dragon School archive]

3. Papers relating to my public school, Sedbergh School, Cumbria, where I was a pupil 1955-1960, and home life in the Lake District. The papers – some eight filing boxes of materials. Published account in Sedbergh School and Lakeland Life.

Original papers - BBBBBBBBB

4. Papers relating to my undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Oxford (1960-1966). There are about fifteen or so filing boxes of materials, including work notes, for this period. Published account in Oxford Undergraduate and Oxford Postgraduate.

Letters to and from Oxford female friends – BBBBBB
Letters to and from Oxford male friends – B
Papers from undergraduate and graduate days - BBBBBBBBBBBBBB

5. Papers relating to two years at the London School of Economics, doing an M. Phil in anthropology (1966-1968). Some two boxes. Published in Becoming an Anthropologist.

Papers - BBBBB

6. Papers relating to my time at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University (1968-1971). Since I was mainly in the field, or writing my thesis in Yorkshire, there is very little directly about SOAS. So, these papers probably belong with the materials to do with my work in Nepal.

Papers - BBBB

7. Papers relating to my years as a Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge,

First as Senior Research Fellow (1971-4), then as a Fellow (1981), and finally a Life Fellow (from 2008 onwards). These include numerous committee and other papers, showing the life of a Don. There are also papers concerning my supervisions and teaching for the College. A good deal of the material is private and confidential.

Various College Committees, King's College, Cambridge (Fellowships, Research Managers, Convenor (Director) of Research Centre (twice), Library Planning, Estates (Finance), Library, Gardening, Finance; Director of Studies in Anthropology, 2002-3.
Miscellaneous box of King’s material – BBB
Social history seminar run while a Research Fellow – B
Carol Services and KC Annual Reports – B
King’s College, various social and academic and admin. BBBBBBBBB
[Trinity College, Director of Studies – B]

8. Papers relating to my formal career at the University of Cambridge, as a Lecturer, Reader and Professor in Anthropology (1975-2009). There is a great deal of material, perhaps more than fifty boxes relating to the administration. Again, this contains a good deal of private and confidential material.

Details below

9. Personal papers relating to ourselves, our family, friends and others over the last fifty years. This is a large collection, between fifty and a hundred boxes, including our personal diaries (all of which have been put into a database linked to all the photographs and films, since 1978), account books and letters and other materials relating to our children and grandchildren and others. There are also extensive sets of film, photographs and other materials. Again, some of the material is confidential.

‘Log of a Life’ (main activities each day) and overviews of work – B

Photographs
Alan – photos – B
Family Photos –B
Box of Negatives, mainly Grandparents – all scanned - B

Letters - personal
Family letters – B +
Letters between Alan and Iris his mother – BBBBBB
Letters between Alan and Sarah 1972-3 * - B
Family Letters unsorted. C. 1975 – B +
Family Letters – unsorted 1975-1985 – B +
Personal letters - B +

Letters and papers with other academics
Letters from academics A-Z – BBBBBBBBBBBBBB
Offprints of particular anthropologists/historians Goody, Beteille, Laslett et al – BBB
Gellner – Letters/lectures etc. B

Diaries
Personal Account Books – BBB
University Diaries – BB
Family diaries since 1978 – BBBBBB
Desk appointment diaries - BB

Financial and account books
Account books – BB
Bank and financial – BBBBBBBBBBBB

Other personal
Passports and personal docs – B
Income Tax 2001-7 – B
Pensions, car, taxes etc. – BBBB
Stamp Albums – Sarah – 10 vols
Books and maps on Lode Village – BBBB
Purchase of Lode house – B
Political involvements and charities – BB
Personal invitations and parties – B
Divorce – B*
Job Offers – B
Personal – passport/medical – B
Membership of associations and clubs – B
Personal – boating – B
Personal – treasure hunts badges – B
Personal – cards, medals, subscriptions, funerals
Personal – Amnesty, Lode Environment, Lode School – B
Box of picture postcards from various – B
Astrid and Inge growing up – BBB*
Christmas cards to AM – 5 large boxes
Personal papers to 1978 – B +
Misc. Letters and cards to 1978 – B +
Cherry and Michael – letter etc – B
Collection of Vinyl 33rpm classical, jazz and pop music c. 1970 onwards – c. 100 records
Collection of VHS video tapes, pe-recorded and recorded off air, c 1985 on – c. 100
Collection of DVDs of films etc. 1990s 0n – c.100
Collection of music DVDs – mainly classical, but some Jazz – c. 300

Academic visits to various places
Slovenia/German/Hungary visits – BB
San Marino visit – B
America Visits – B
India Visit 1995 – B
Florence 2001 – B
Calcutta/Assam 2001 films – DDDDDDDD
Venice films – TTTTT
Films in Slovenia TTTTT
Films of American lectures and tours TTTTTT
Visiting cards for China and Japan - B

Notebooks of ideas on various subjects
Small thoughts notebooks – BB

Trusts
Anthrop. Initiatives Trust – B
Martin Trust – BBBBBB

Films of a personal, family and other, kind
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Boxes and Files of Papers as yet unsorted
Various files, work and family, loose, to be sorted BBBBBB +
Loose papers to sort – 2007-9 – B
Loose papers unsorted 2016-9 – B
Personal materials 1972-4 – B +
Out Tray Barn 202-3 – B
Personal – Asti school, legal, phone calls etc – B
Out tray 2017-19 – BBB
Out tray unsorted 2017-2020 – BBB
Out tray unsorted 2020-11 - BBB

RESEARCH AND TEACHING MATERIALS

This is a large collection, including not only about ten thousand books, but the equivalent of three quarters of the papers and most of the films and other materials.

The following is a description of the thirty major sections of my library and manuscript and film collection. It is very roughly, though not always, in the order in which I started the work on various themes.

VARIOUS

Drafts of articles by A.M. – BBB
Correspondence with publishers and reviews of AM books – BBBB
Reviews by A.M. – BB
Offprints of A.M. articles – BBBBBBB
CVs and articles on A.M. – B
Website – printout of papers on – BBB
Anthropological and historical offprints of others – BBBBB
Literary sources historical – BB
Notes on historical diaries – B
Notes on historical books and archives– BBB
Workings in the Public Record Office - BBBB
Project with Gerry Martin – 1
Drafts/articles on History and Anthropology – B
Unsuccessful Research Applications – B
Talks – arrangements and refusals – B
Cambridge Group/ Gerry/ Research – B
Correspondence with publishers – BB
Research Grants – B
Notes on Seminars attended – 1970s & 1980s - B
Cortes publishing project – B
Material progress – 1999 – Glass – B
Research and work – Misc. unsorted to 1970 – B +
Correspondence re. talks 1971-1990- B
Talk arrangements 1975-90 - B
Personal – sabbaticals, job offers, Who’s Who

Films
Films of lectures by AM, at the time or recorded later - DDDD
Copies of films shown on Television, including AM – TT
Conferences in Oxford, London, Cambridge and elsewhere – films of – D

Materials of other organizations and individuals which AM is conserving
The Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge, Sound Archive, 1983-2009 – DDDDD
The World Oral Literature Project, Cambridge – BBB
The Audio-Visual Aids Unit, Cambridge –DDB
‘Epistemology’ group run by John Ziman – BBB

Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge, 1975-2009 Admin and Teaching Materials

Secretary of Department of Social Anthropology, 1982-3, Easter 1995, Lent & Summer 1999, Lent and Easter 2006. Acting Head of the Department of Social Anthropology, December 1979 to April 1980, October l988 to September l989; October 1991 to March 1992, July 1991 to March 1992; October 1992 to September 1993. Chair of the Mongolian and Inner Asian Studdies Unit, c.1995-2003.
Faculty Administration
Secretary of the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, 1975-7; Member of the Museum Committee of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1991-3, Chair, 2003-5. Chairman of Library Committee, Haddon Library, 1982-1984, 1996-7. Chairman, Williamson Fund Committee, 1988 on. Member of Appointments Committee of Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1985-6 and later. Chairman, Faculty Board of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1984-1986, Easter 1987, Michaelmas 1989. Member of Council of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences 1984-86, Easter 1987, Michaelmas 1991. Chairman of the Degree Committee, 1998-1999. Chair of Part I Committee, 2001-2.
Examining
Examining – Part II and M. Phil 2000 – B
Ph.D. examining – BBB
Part I Exams 1989-1999 – B
Old Exam Papers – BB
Exams – Tripos and MPhil. – B
Part II Exams 1990 onwards – B
MPhil. Examining 1980s-1990s B

External Examiner: School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1983-1985. University of Wales (Lampeter), 1996/7 - 2000
Teaching

Department Teaching Committee 1994-2005 – BB
Part II Archival 1989-94 – B
Undergraduate teaching – B
Part II Archival 1986-9 – B
Supervising Ph.D. students BBBBBBBBB

Administration

Department Finances and Accounts – B
Department Social Anth. Confidential papers on loan – B*
Department – Wyse Chair, Funds, New Needs etc – B
Research Assessment Exercises – BB
Miscellaneous Department – B
Department Publicity - B
Department and Faculty – historical - B
Department Unsorted 1995-1999 – B
Department Unsorted – 1970s - B
Faculty and Dept. – Block Grant and Information Technology - B
Degree Committee 1970s/1980s, 1997-8 – BBBB
Unsorted late 1970s, 1990s, 2008-9 – Dept. – BBBBBB
Various Dept Committees – B
M.Phils and Certificate students – BB
Dept. Unsorted 1998-2009 – BBB
Visitations and research applications, Leverhulme etc. 1990s – B

Letters

Alphabetical set of files of academic letters 1975-1990 – BBB +
Miscellaneous letters re. Dept, unsorted 1989-90 - B

Various National and International Boards

National: Member of the Social Anthropology Committee of the Social Science Research Council, 1978-80, Vice-Chairman of Committee 1980-1. Member of Research Grants Board, Economic and Social Research Council,1988-1989; Member of the Research Resources Advisory Group, Economic and Social Research Council, 1991-5; Member of the Humanities and Social Sciences Advisory Board of the British Library, 1997-2001. Honorary Vice President of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2003-2005.

Learned societies Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Royal Anthropological Institute (Honorary Vice President 2002-5), Association of Social Anthropologists; Fellow of the British Academy (1986); Fellow of Academia Europaea (199O); International Who's Who (1989 on).
Boards and Trusts Editorial board of Social History, 1976-8; Editorial Board of British Records Society, 1976-8; Board of Social History Society 1977 to 1990; Trustee of Radcliffe-Brown Memorial Fund, 1980 - 1986; member of Faculty Board of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1975 onwards ; Board of Social and Political Sciences Committee 1975-1980, 2001-4; Board of Management of Audio Visual Aids Unit, 1984-1986; Editorial Board, BBC 'Domesday' Videodisc Project,1985-1987; Trustee of the Tom Harrison Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex, 1991 - 1998. Member of Commission of Documentary Film of China, 2005; Trustee of the Vanishing Worlds Foundation (2010 onwards).
Economic and Social Research Council Meeting – sample 1981 – B
ESRC Research Board – 1% sample - B
Various boards and committees – mass Observation, Local records etc. – B
Royal Anthropological Committee c.2000 – B
British Academy to 1991 – B
British Library Board – B

Research organiser
Director, project on computers and history, King's College, Cambridge, Research Centre, 1973-6.
Co-director, research project on computers and history, Social Science Research Council, 1974-82.
National convener, two-year seminar on history and anthropology, sponsored by the Social Science Research Council, 1975-7.
Director, project on the records of the Portuguese Inquisition, funded by King's College Research Centre and the Gulbenkian Foundation, 1982 to 1987.
Director of Rivers Video Project, Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge, 1983 on (with some funding from the Renaissance Trust).
Adviser to BBC 'Timewatch' series. Contributor to BBC television series (6 part) on British Archives (2000). Principal contributor, with numerous appearances, to six one hour Channel 4 television series programmes on the history and anthropology of the world (broadcast, June 2000 as 'The Day the World Took Off').
Director of the 'Cambridge Experimental Videodisc Project' on the Nagas of Assam, 1985-1992 (funded by Nuffield, Leverhulme, and Economic & Social Research Council).
Director of project on 'Social and Economic Change in the Central Himalayas', 199O-1993 (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council).
Director of project on modern information technologies and their application, 1990 to present (funded by the Renaissance Trust).
Research Seminar on Asian and European Technologies, funded by Renaissance Trust and King's College Research Centre, 1996-1998. Director of project to put an English village on the Internet, funded by Renaissance Trust and King's College Research Centre, 1996-2000.
Co-director of project on 'Digital Himalaya', funded by Royal Anthropological Institute fund and Renaissance Trust, 2000 on
Co-director of 'Digital Orient' project, 2003 on, with funding from the Renaissance Trust.
Director of project on the minorities of China, 2003-2009, funded by the Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research

PARTICULAR THEMES

1 Witchcraft, inquisition and magic in England and abroad (1963 onwards)

My book Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England (1970), including drafts of chapters and the Oxford D.Phil. upon which the book was based and a paper card index from which the book was created; a number of published and unpublished essays and lectures; notes from books on the history of witchcraft; collection of source books on the history of witchcraft and the Inquisition (c. 100); a collection of books on terrorism; materials on the Portuguese Inquisition; a collection of anthropological works on witchcraft and sorcery (c. 50); a draft of an unpublished work entitled ‘The Hammer of Evil’ with working papers; the materials for reconstruction of witchcraft in three Essex villages.

Papers relating to thesis: BBBBBBBB – and copy of DPhil. Thesis
‘The Hammer of Evil’ drafts – BBBB
Portuguese Inquisition Project with Gulbenkian - BBB

2 The life of Ralph Josselin and English diaries (1967 onwards)

The books The Family Life of Ralph Josselin: An Essay in Historical Anthropology and The Diary of Ralph Josselin (edited for the British Academy, 1976) The working notes for these two works. A collection of classic English diaries, autobiographies and letters (about 350 volumes)

Josselin Family life – B
Josselin Diary Brit. Acad. – B

3 Fieldwork in Nepal among the Gurungs (1968- to present)

I wrote the book Resources and Population: A Study of the Gurungs of Central Nepal (1976) and the Ph.D. upon which it was based. Also, I translated and edited work of Bernard Pignède (originally in French), The Gurungs (1993) with working notes on this. There are a number of essays, pamphlets and published and unpublished writings on the Gurungs. There are working papers for the construction of these books, with extensive notes on early works on Nepal. There is a card index for the creation of the book. There are many folders of fieldwork notes on the 20 visits to Nepal over fifty years. A database containing many hours of film in a Nepalese village and thousands of photographs, as well as fieldwork diaries and other materials collected over a period of more than forty years. A full of the first year of fieldwork has been published in Becoming an Anthropologist.

Gurung fieldnotes 1968-70 – BBBBBBB
Gurung – later visits and background – BBBBBBB
Gurung photos – BBBBBBB
Dilmaya Project – Gurungs – B
Gurungs – soil, plants etc – B
Nepal Notebooks and Thoughts in field – BBBB
Thak Gurung Genealogy – B
Gurungs fieldwork notebooks – BBB
Texts of myths – Yarjung shaman – B
Pignede Projects on Gurungs – B
Digital Video Plans and Dilmaya – B
Films of Nepal since 1968 - DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

4 Population problems and Malthus (1967 onwards)

A monograph on T.R. Malthus published as an e-book in 2011, Secrets of the Modern World: T.R. Malthus, as well as numerous essays and lectures on population and resources. A monograph on Resources and Population (1976). Notes behind publications on demography. Background notes and photocopies on population, and a collection of books (about 100) on demography.

5 Kinship, marriage and love in England (1968 onwards)

The book Marriage and Love in England, 1300-1840 (1986) and numerous published and unpublished articles, lectures and other publications on kinship and marriage in England and around the world. The notes for these publications and extracts from many sources. A collection of books on the history and anthropology of marriage and the family (c. 300 books).

Marriage and Love – BB

6 The history of an English village 1380-1850 – Earls Colne (1972 onwards)

A number of articles and an unpublished book on Earls Colne in Essex. Samples of the materials collected which lie behind the database of the records of an English village which is held on the Cambridge University Library website. (The background papers for this project which lasted for almost thirty years. Also, some background books on the history of Essex county and local history sources (c. 100 books). A sample of the paper indexes which show how the project was constructed.
See http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/FILES/earlscolne.html There are about 30 boxes of materials generated by this project.

Earls Colne Notes– BBBBBB
Strife of Two Tides and Rose Partridge – Earls Cone – drafst – BB
Earls Colne – drafts of books on institutions –BB
Earls Colne SSRC Project 1973-7 – B
Earls Colne – workings – B
Earls Colne – Project Archives – BBBB
Microfiche Experiments Earls Colne – B
Diagram of all who lived in village – rolls
Earls Colne Manor Court Rolls – slides – 6 boxes

The parallel project on a Westmorland Village and other villages
Kirkby Lonsdale – B
Hatfield Peverel and Boreham - BB

7 Database of quotations and cross-references (Topics database) (1961 onwards)

From my undergraduate days at Oxford onwards I started to gather references and thoughts into an indexing system based on the principle of ‘one fact one card’. By about 1980 I had over 20,000 cards referring to numerous subjects, which I used in my writings. At about this number, the paper index became too large to use. Then I converted the whole system to a computer retrieval system and added another 40,000 or more cards. The whole database of quotations is available in a dedicated database.

Topics Database – B

8 Computer databases and information retrieval systems (1973 onwards)

From 1973 onwards, with the help of Sarah Harrison, and in collaboration with a number of information retrieval experts at Cambridge University, I have been developing high level database and information retrieval systems. We have been at the forefront of developments in this field in the and I have worked on sophisticated Boolean and Bayesian (probabilistic) systems pioneered in Cambridge. I have written introductory manuals on earlier versions and currently am finalizing a sophisticated system which allows multi-media databases of materials to be held and searched efficiently. About thirty boxes of materials on the history of these projects - and a number of interviews of leading computer scientists who were working with us or more generally in this field.

Computer manuals and software – BBB
CDSi database macros and Muscat Cataloguing system – BBB
Videodisc – Snyder, Grants etc – B
Computing/ RVP - Accounts etc. – BB
Rivers Video Project – early papers - B

9 English individualism and the origins of the modern world (1977 onwards)

I have long been interested in the history of England as the first capitalist and industrial nation and much of my work has revolved round this theme. My book The Origins of English Individualism; the Family, Property and Social Transition (1978) caused a considerable discussion when it was first published. Since then I have published a number of, books articles and lectures on the theme. The early drafts of the book and other working papers – extracts from books and photocopies of materials – as well as a basic collection on the history of England, both primary and secondary (about 500 books). About 20 boxes of material.

Origins of Eng Individualism – BB

10 Methodology of historical research, Reconstructing communities (1976 onwards)

The new social history of the 1960’s and 1970’s in England was based on the exploitation of new sources becoming available and their linking to provide new answers. I have been interested in the techniques and quality of English historical records and alongside writing summaries of findings have published two books, Reconstructing Historical Communities (1977) and A Guide to English Historical Records (1983) and a number of articles on this subject. The drafts of these books and articles, as well as background books on the philosophy and craft of history (about 200). About ten boxes.

Reconstructing Hist. Communities – B

11 Law and violence in England and abroad (1980 onwards)

I have long been interested in English law, which was the central institution of England and has had a world-wide influence. I wrote a case study of its working in The Justice and the Mare’s Ale; Law and Disorder in Seventeenth-Century England (1981). I have also written a number of articles and lectured on the anthropology of law. The background materials to these publications as well as an extensive collection of books on the history of law (c.250) and the anthropology of law (c.50). About ten boxes.

Justice and Mare’s Ale – BBB

12 The Naga peoples of Assam – database, videodisc, exhibition (1983 onwards)

My early childhood was spent on the edge of the Naga hills in Assam and have always been fascinated in the rich material culture and intricate culture of some of the best documented of all tribal peoples. For about ten years I worked extensively in a collaborative project on a multi-media database of materials on the Nagas and their history. This comprises a book,
The Nagas; Society, Culture and the Colonial Encounter, by Julian Jacobs with Alan Macfarlane, Sarah Harrison and Anita Herle, a number of articles, a large computer database of thousands of photographs, films and documents of many kinds which is now available on the Internet, as well as a Museum exhibition and a number of Naga artifacts which are in my collection. Some of the extensive documentation for this project has been deposited in another archive in Germany (http://www.spnh.com/Pages/English/SPNH_aims-and_projects.html), and the whole database is available at http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/FILES/nagas.html. There are about 40 boxes of materials generated by this project.

Naga Videodisc project – BBBBBBB
Rivers Video Project (RVP) – Nagas/archives –B
Tea – Nagaland/Assam – B
Assam – B
Films related to the Nagas - DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

13 Professor Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf and Digital Himalaya Project (1983 onwards)

My Ph.D. supervisor Professor Haimendorf was one of the great fieldwork anthropologists and anthropological film-makers in the history of the discipline. Towards the end of his life I worked with him to copy and document his extensive film collection, and made up a set of over 50 hours of film from his early materials. I also worked on his photographs and some of his field notes. I would like to donate a copy of these important films and the accompanying documentation, which record otherwise unrecorded tribal cultures in India, Nepal and elsewhere (including about twenty books by Haimendorf and thirty on visual anthropology.) This work is part of a wider project to digitize and save materials on the Himalayan region which I set up with Dr Mark Turin in about 2002, namely the Digital Himalaya Project (www.digitalhimalaya.com).

Digital Himalaya and Mark Projects and Websites – BB
Furer-Haimendorf archives – BBBBBB
Sound tapes of interviews or commentaries by Furer-Haimendorf, D
Digital copy of c. 50 hours of Haimendorf films

14 The Culture of Capitalism – various aspects (1980 onwards)

The central question in my life has been the nature and origins of the modern world, and in particular the character of the capitalistic and individualistic civilization of Britain. I have written numerous articles, and given many lectures, around these themes and some of these were collected into a book titled The Culture of Capitalism (1987) [CT]. The background writings for these articles and the book, along with a considerable library of books on the peculiarities of British culture (c.1000) will be donated.

Culture of Capitalism – BBB

15 Interviews with distinguished thinkers and artists (1982 onwards)

From 1982 onwards I have been filming interviews with distinguished thinkers. At first, I concentrated on anthropologists and social scientists, including historians. Later I widened this to all subjects, including, scientists, and a handful of musicians, administrators, lawyers, artists and others. Up to the present there are over 250 of these long interviews which are watched very widely on the western and increasingly Chinese internet. The originals of these interviews, along with the documentation of how they were made and correspondence with a number of the subjects, including a few Nobel Prize winners and others (including a few of their personal objects) comprise about ten boxes of materials as well as the original tapes and DVD copies of the tapes.

Dv films of the interviews: DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

16 Encounter with Japan: Japan through the looking glass (1990 onwards)

I first went to Japan in 1990, intrigued by some curious similarities with England (island, feudal, single heir inheritance, early capitalism, similar family system). From that date, I have written numerous articles, published and unpublished, and lectured on Japan. This culminated in my book Japan Through the Looking Glass (2007) I have a large collection of books on Japan (c. 750) and numerous drafts of writings, notes from various sources and photocopies of other materials. There are about twenty boxes of materials. There are also many hours of films and photographs and diaries of our seven trips to Japan. The encounter is described in my book Discovering Japan (2020).

Japan Seminar at King’s, 1993 – B
Japan Correspondence – B
Visits to Japan – BBBBBBBBBBBB
Japan secondary materials – sample – B
Writings on Japan - BBBB
Films taken in Japan - DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

17 Demography, medicine and material life in England and Japan (1992 onwards)

As part of my attempt to understand England and Japan and to explore their similarities and differences, I wrote my longest and most complex book, The Savage Wars of Peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian Trap (1997). While writing this and a number of articles and lectures, I accumulated a library of books on material culture at the two ends of the world, as well as medicine and other technologies (c.200). The drafts of this complex book, along with the diary accounts and analysis of how it was written, form a diverse collection. About ten boxes.

Autobiography of ‘Savage Wars’ and ‘Riddle’ – B

18 Encounters with great social theorists: Montesquieu onwards (1997 onwards)

In my pursuit of the question of the nature and origins of the modern world I decided to try to stand on the shoulders of past giants, to see what great thinkers had made of this problem. I started with Montesquieu and continued with Adam Smith, Tocqueville, Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Henry Maine, Fukuzawa Yukichi, F.W. Maitland and Ernest Gellner, as well as a number of other thinkers. This led to the publication of The Riddle of the Modern World: Of Liberty, Wealth and Equality (2000) and The Making of the Modern World: Visions from the West and the East (2002). These books, and a number of articles and lectures were based on a considerable library of classic social theory (c.500 books), as well as notes on other sources. About twenty boxes of materials.

Small sample of original workings - B

19 The Day the World Took Off – films and diaries and other materials – and also the Domesday Disc and other films

In 1998-2000 I was involved in a major six-part television series on the history of the world over the last ten thousand years. I was principal presenter and advisor. For this I was given copies of the 300 hours of the film taken in Nepal, China, Japan and elsewhere. I have edited much of this and put it up on my ‘Youtube’ channel. The materials are described in http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/global/day.htm - about ten boxes of material.
I was also a board member of the BBC ‘Domesday Project’ which made a videodisc cross-section of British life in 1986. The films and papers relating to these media projects, and other television series. About five boxes.

C4 ‘Day’ TV series – BBBBBB
Films of the Television series – DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
VHS copy of all the rushes for the televisions series – c. 500 tapes
BBC Domesday project 1986 – background papers BB and copy of Domesday discs

20 Encounter with China: visits and travels 1996 onwards

I first visited China for two weeks in 1996. From 2002 I have visited China sixteen times. I have travelled extensively in many parts of China: Liaoning, Hunan, Wuhan, Shanghai, Fujian, Chonqing, Sechuan, Yunnan, Guanxi, Guizhou and elsewhere. I have been on lectures tours (for example as the Li Ka Sheng visiting Professor) and visiting Professor at the Minorities University at Nanning, as well as lecturing in Beijing in various capacities. On these visits, I have interviewed a number of people, from villagers to Professors, and filmed extensively in parts of China. I have also travel diaries and other papers. I am particularly interested in the documentation of the rapidly vanishing culture of ethnic minorities and have supervised a number of Ph.D. students working in remoter areas of China, as well as helping to set up an Institute of Anthropology at Sichuan University. I would like to continue and expand this work and finally to donate the collections. I also have a considerable collection of English language books on China (about 600 books).
There are about 30 boxes of materials on China. An overview of this material has recently been published as Understanding the Chinese; A Personal A-Z.

China Visits – BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
Xu and Cambridge B
Chinese Education – B
China – Pomerantz – B
China Projects – B
King’s Seminar on China – BBB
Possible book on China – B
Films taken in China – DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Films taken with professional film-makers up the Yangtze - D

21 Technology and science: the impact of glass and other technologies (1992 onwards)

I am interested in the way in which technology and science have developed in the East and the West. I have lectured on this theme and written a number of articles on technology. In particular, with Gerry Martin (a successful businessman and engineer) I wrote a book on The Glass Bathyscaphe; How Glass Changed the World (2002).

22 The impact of tea on the world (2003 onwards)

I was born the son of a tea planter in Assam in 1941 and consequently am interested in the nature and impact of tea. I visited Assam several times and with my mother published a book Green Gold; The Empire of Tea (2003). For this I collected a number of articles and books on consumption more generally (about 100 books). About five boxes of materials.


23 The basic patterns of history and anthropology: (2003 onwards)

I would like to communicate my findings in history and anthropology to a wider audience and decided to draw together many of the themes in 30 letters to my grand-daughter in Letters to Lily; On How the World Works (2005). This analyses the long-term tendencies of the world in relation to many areas such as love, friendship, war, terrorism, education, population and others. I have all the working papers for the writing of this book and a selection of works on the philosophy of history which related to it (about 100 books). In the last ten years, I have published ten small sequel volumes to Letters to Lily, all for young readers (especially Chinese), around the themes of education and exploration and creativity. They are listed at the end and the papers for all this are about 10 boxes.

Drafts of various ‘letters to young Chinese’ – BBBB
‘Letters to Lily’ – BBBBBB
‘Batipedia’ - B

24 The nature of Universities in the west: Reflections on Cambridge (2007 onwards)

As I came to the end of my almost fifty years of engagement with British universities – Oxford, London School of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies, Cambridge – I decided to write an anthropological and historical account of how the university system works in Britain. I chose as my example the system I know best from almost forty years of ching in Cambridge, and published Reflections on Cambridge (2009). This was based on widespread participation and observation which created many files of various materials, as well as a collection of books on tertiary education in the west (c. 100). Subsequently I have written four more short books on Cambridge - one on the Department of Social Anthropology, two on King's College, and one on the University and City. There are about 10 boxes of materials on this.

Books on Cambridge – BB
Writing of book on Cambridge - BB

25 The creation of the modern world and comparative civilizations.

In 2010, I was invited to give the Wang Gouwei lectures (funded by the Kaifeng Foundation) at Tsinghua University and delivered them in 2011. These were published as The Invention of the Modern World. They draw on all my knowledge of English history and culture and specifically on a number of books in my library dealing with the peculiarity of the English (c. 200). All these and the notes for the lectures/book would be donate. I have subsequently published several books and articles on the comparison of East and West. About ten boxes of materials.

Civilizations notes –BBBB
Great thinkers – notebooks on –BBB
Montesquieu and great thinkers – notes on – B
World Disorder – B

26 The educational system in Britain, through my life and schools (2009 onwards)

In 2009, I decided to start a project which I have looked forward to all my life. I have thrown away very little since my childhood and as my parents were in India for my first twenty-five years, I have a particularly rich collection of letters between myself and them, and between my mother and father, who were often parted. I decided to write an autobiographical account of my education and have now completed the first two volumes, which cover my life between the age of six and thirteen – in other words kindergarten and ‘preparatory’ school.
I went to one of the most interesting and distinguished preparatory schools in Britain – the Dragon School, Oxford – and in the book, I have written with Jamie Bruce Lockhart, Dragon Days (2012) (and my home life in Dorset Days (2012)) we have provided an unusual insight based on more than 300 letters from small boys to their parents, of how British boarding education at the younger age works. This is an anthropological analysis and has implications for educational theory more generally. I have also drafted out a first version of the next volume(s) on my public school, namely education from 13-18 in the English boarding system. This interest in education and childhood has also led me to take over fifty hours of film of children in Nepal and England from infancy to age eleven.

27 The history and nature of the British Empire, through my family archives (2009 on)

The project on my life and education is part of a larger project to examine the history and culture of the British Empire from the seventeenth century to the present through the archives of a single family (my own). I have very extensive archives back to the seventeenth century (letters, diaries, accounts etc), as well as a large collection of photographs, which cover Jamaica, India, Burma, Australia, China and elsewhere.

28 The collection, preservation and dissemination of endangered cultural materials (1968 onwards)

Ever since I started fieldwork in a Himalayan village in Nepal in 1968, working under the great collector of materials on vanishing tribal peoples Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, I have been aware that much of the cultural heritage of human beings is being erased. The myths, stories, music, crafts, dance, arts of non-literate peoples who have survived for ten thousand years is being obliterated very rapidly by economic and political changes. In another generation, almost all will be gone. I have therefore tried to encourage the collection of such materials in the Himalayas and elsewhere through starting, with my younger colleague, Dr Mark Turin, the Digital Himalaya Project (c. 2002), and more recently the World Oral Literature Project (2009) and the Vanishing Worlds Foundation (2010). I have also raised funds to set up a cultural centre in Pokhara, Nepal, and supported fieldwork in China, especially at an Institute which I helped start at Sichuan University.

29 Teaching and communicating about how the world works

I have been a lecturer at the University of Cambridge for over forty years. During that time, I have given over 1200 lectures in Cambridge and lectures in many other universities, including the Frazer, Malinowski, Marrett and Huxley memorial lectures in England, the Maruyama Memorial lecture in Berkeley, the Silver Jubilee lecture at the Delhi School of Economics, the 150th anniversary lecture at Keio University and the Wang Guowei lectures at Tsinghua, China. As well as lecturing, I have been interested in communicating through new media and have experimented with film and video, including setting up ‘Youtube’ site with over 700 films of lectures and travels, and a large website of my teaching and research work (www.alanmacfarlane.com).
I have also experimented with intensive ‘virtual travel’ days and other methods in Cambridge. I would like to donate copies of all my lectures and drafts of lectures, and also a number (perhaps 200 books) on the use of media and multi-media in teaching.

Lectures, seminar papers Lectures in the History Faculty and Archaeology and Anthropology Faculty in Cambridge. In the latter, lectures at Part I, Prelim and Part II levels in the fields of: introductions to social anthropology, kinship and marriage, politics, law, economics, demography, visual anthropology, history of technology, research methods etc. Lectures at seminars and conferences at many British Universities, Scandinavia, Portugal, the States, Japan, India, China etc.
Distinguished lectures and honours Frazer Memorial Lecture, University of Liverpool, 1974; Burrows Lecture, University of Essex, 1977; Malinowski Memorial Lecture, London School of Economics, 1978; Radcliffe-Brown Memorial Lecture (British Academy), 1993; Marrett Lecture, Oxford, 1995; Rivers Memorial Medal for Anthropological Fieldwork (1984), Royal Anthropological Institute; William J. Goode medal of the American Sociological Association 1987; first British Council Distinguished Visiting Lecturer to Japan, invited by the University of Hokkaido July 1990; invited by the Japanese Ministry of Education to lecture in Japan, July, 1993; visiting Professor invited by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tokyo, Japan, September-December 1997; Guest lecture, Speaking Hall, Keio University, Japan, April 1999; Golden Jubilee Lecture, Delhi School of Economics, Sept. 199; lecture at National Library, Beijing 2002; Annual Lecture at British Nepal Association 2003; Maruyama Masao visiting lectures at the University of Berkeley at California; Sir Li Ka Sheng distinguished Cambridge visiting scholar with lectures at Yunnan, Chengdu, Shantou and Hong Kong (Chinese) universities; Lecture at British Library to celebrate 150 years of Keio University, Japan, 2009; two lectures at the Keio University 150th anniversary meetings, 2009; first annual Wang Guowei lectures at Tsinghua University, 2011; Huxley Memorial Medal and Lecture (2012).
Lectures, seminar papers Lectures in the History Faculty and Archaeology and Anthropology Faculty in Cambridge. In the latter, lectures at Part I, Prelim and Part II levels in the fields of: introductions to social anthropology, kinship and marriage, politics, law, economics, demography, visual anthropology, history of technology, research methods etc. Lectures at seminars and conferences at many British Universities, Scandinavia, Portugal, the States, Japan, India, China etc.
Undergraduate teaching Taught approximately two hundred and twenty undergraduates by personal supervision in almost all the fields of social anthropology (and examined in almost all of the fields of anthropology). Supervision in English social history of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
Graduate teaching Supervised some sixty taught M. Phil (previously Certificate) students and approximately fifty Ph.D. students. Of the latter, five are currently in progress, the rest have all completed their courses and received a degree (two received a B. Litt rather than a Ph.D.).
Lecture Texts and Notes by A.M. – BBBBBBBBBBBBB
Notes on students taught and other teaching materials in anthropology - B

30 Bibliography and book collecting

Since 1982 I have been an advisor to ‘Bracton Books’, a second-hand social science book business run by my wife. Through association with the Royal Anthropological Institute and contacts in Cambridge and elsewhere, this book business has accumulated some good second-hand collections in arts, humanities and the social sciences. I have been on many of the book-hunting expeditions and advised on purchases. About fifty boxes of materials.

Bracton Books 1990s – B
Older Accounts and Materials (selected) – BBBBBB