M. G. Smith

Michael Garfield Smith
Born	(1921-08-18)18 August 1921
Died
Nationality	Jamaican
Education	Jamaica College McGill University University College, London (Ph.D in social anthropology)
Employer	Franklin M. Crosby Professor Emeritus of the Human Environment, Yale University Senior Research Fellow, Research Institute for the Study of Man, and Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of the West Indies Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles Professor and Head of the Department of Anthropology, University College, London
Known for	Poet and social anthropologist
Spouse(s)	Mary F. Smith (née Morrison)
Awards	Wellcome Medal for Anthropological Research Curle Bequest Essay Prize Amaury Book Prize (Royal Anthropological Institute) Order of Merit (Jamaica 1972)

Michael Garfield Smith OM (18 August 1921 - 5 January 1993) was a Jamaican poet and social anthropologist.

Biography

Smith was the son of a descendant of English army officers and merchants, and his mother was a "coloured" nurse who died in childbirth. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Smith attended Jamaica College, one of the island's leading secondary schools, where he developed a passion for poetry. In the early 1940s he won the Island Scholarship and went to study English Literature at McGill University in Canada. Joining the Canadian army during the war, he served briefly on the frontline in Europe, in France, Holland and Germany. After being demobilized he enrolled at University College, London, which awarded him the Ph.D in social anthropology. He subsequently carried out extensive field research in Northern Nigeria, Jamaica, Grenada, and Carriacou.

Smith served as Franklin M. Crosby Professor Emeritus of the Human Environment at Yale University. He also served as Senior Research Fellow at the Research Institute for the Study of Man, and the Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of the West Indies (Jamaica); Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles; and as Professor and Head of the Department of Anthropology, University College, London, where he was one of the first professors of colour in Anthropology.

Personal life

Smith was married to the anthropologist Mary F. Smith (née Morrison), with whom he shared a lifelong collaboration. They had three sons.

Poetry

Smith's poetry was published in regional journals and literary magazines in the 1950s and 1960s and has been widely anthologised. It has been noted: "He often decorates his work with classical references and titles, although his subjects are usually West Indian." His patriotic poem "I Saw My Land in the Morning" has also been set to music.

Bibliography

A prolific writer, Smith authored or co-authored numerous books and articles on theory, on Northern Nigeria, and on the West Indies.

• Baba of Karo (1954)
• Government in Zazzau, 1800-1950 (1960)
• West Indian Family Structure (1962)
• Kinship and Community in Carriacou (1962),
• Dark Puritan (1963)
• The Plural Society in the British West Indies (1965)
• Stratification in Grenada (1965)
• Pluralism in Africa (1969)
• Corporations and Society: The Social Anthropology of Collective Action (1974)
• The Affairs of Daura (1978)
• Pluralism, Politics and Ideology in the Creole Caribbean (1991)
• Government in Kano, 1350-1950 (1997)
• The Study of Social Structure, (1998)
• Education and Society in the Creole Caribbean (2008 - posthumously by the Comitas Institute for Anthropological Study

Further reading

Douglas Hall, A Man Divided: Michael Garfield Smith - Jamaican Poet and Anthropologist 1921 - 1993, The Press UWI Biography series, 1997.

Awards

Among his awards are the Wellcome Medal for Anthropological Research, the Curle Bequest Essay Prize, and the Amaury Book Prize from the Royal Anthropological Institute. In 1972, Jamaica bestowed upon him its Order of Merit (OM) and the same year the Institute of Jamaica awarded him their Musgrave Gold Medal.