Max Gluckman

Max Gluckman, born 26 January 1911 in Johannesburg of Russian Jewish parents, died 1975, was a South African social anthropologist.

He grew up in South Africa, working later under the British Administration in Northern Rhodesia (esp. on the Barotse law, in what is now the Western Province, Zambia). He was called to professorship at Manchester University and was widely known for his radio lectures on Custom and Conflict in Africa (later published in many editions at Oxford University Press), being a remarkable contribution to conflict theory.

He was of considerable influence on several anthropologists and sociologists (J. Clyde Mitchell, A. L. Epstein, Bruce Kapferer, Victor Turner et al.).