Primitive Mentality, Modern Civilization and the Fate of Anthropology: A Conversation with Professor Christopher Hallpike

This article begins with Geoffrey Clarfield describing how by becoming an anthropologist, going to graduate school, shipping out to Kenya in the mid-1980s, and doing field work among a Cushitic speaking group of camel nomads in the desert lands of northern Kenya, he was able to achieve his goal of both experiencing and understanding the difference between preindustrial and industrial societies, socially, cultural, and psychologically. He goes on to explain that because he was studying an East African Cushitic speaking people he had read articles by a British anthropologist, Christopher Hallpike, who had done field work among the Konso, a Cushitic people who live north of the Rendille in southern Ethiopia. Hallpike later wrote a book called "The Foundations of Primitive Thought" (1979) which Clarfield describes as an enlightening and glorious read for those who have swum in the anthropological literature for decades. It is a work that has not only been ignored by mainstream anthropology but vilified because of its political incorrectness. Hallpike is now retired and living in England (where he was born, raised, and educated). He has managed to take on the neo-Darwinians in an extended essay/book called "Darwinism, Dogma and Cultural Evolution" and published a series of essays on modern anthropological myths called "Ship of Fools: An Anthology of Learned Nonsense about Primitive Society." The remainder of the article provides a transcribed interview between Clarfield and Hallpike. Some of the topics discussed include: social and cultural anthropology during the last twenty to thirty years; the work of Richard Dawkins, Jared Diamond and other cultural materialists; Hallpike's developmental writings; "Foundations of Primitive Thought"; and Hallpike's advice for young aspiring anthropologists.