Welcome to my website. I thought it was about time I got one. I am currently Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
It has been a varied and interesting road on the way. I left school at the age of fifteen to work in an iron foundry, but an injury to my hand led me to travels and to be a tea-planter in Malawi. I later gained a BEd from Brighton College of Education, and then a PhD in Social Anthropology (London School of Economics, University of London).
I carried out field work for my PhD research among the hunter-gatherer people in Southern India. I have published books on the anthropology of religion, conceptions of the self and on herbalism in Malawi. I have also written articles on a wide range of topics and issues in the areas of ethnobiology, ecology, philosophy, religion, ritual and symbolism, hunter-gatherer societies, herbalism and fungi. I have also carried out fieldwork on a number of occasions in Malawi, most recently researching human-insect interactions.
I express my thanks and appreciation to many people over the years who have given me encouragement and support: my early mentors; kinfolk and friends; and friends and colleagues at Goldsmith College.
I was a bit shocked recently to find there was an entry about me on Wikipedia .