Paul Spencer

Background

Paul Spencer was born on March 25, 1932, in London, United Kingdom. He is a son of Douglas Arthur and Eleonor (Marguerite) Spencer.

Education

Paul Spencer attended Woodhouse Grove school. He studied at Christ's College Cambridge where he received a Master of Arts degree in 1956. He also attended Wadham College where he received a Bachelor of Letters degree in 1957 and Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1962.

Career

Paul Spencer started his career as a researcher on local government at Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in 1962. He held this post until 1971 and then became a lecturer at SOAS University of London. In 1982, he was appointed a senior lecturer and in 1988 he became a reader. In 1993, Spencer took up a post of a professor of African anthropology and held it until 1997.

Paul Spencer published his first book The Samburu: A Study of Gerontocracy in a Nomadic Tribe in 1965. Later he published such books as Nomads in Alliance: Symbiosis and Growth Among the Rendille and Samburu of Kenya, The Maasai of Matapato and The Pastoral Continuum: The Marginalization of Tradition in East Africa. His last work Youth and Experiences of Ageing among Maa: Models of Society Evoked by the Maasai, Samburu, and Chamus of Kenya was published in 2014.

Achievements

• Paul Spencer is an English social anthropologist, educator, and writer who is famous for his books about Maa-speaking people living in the central Rift Valley from northern Kenya to northern Tanzania. His most famous books are The Samburu: A Study in Geocentracy, The Pastoral Continuum: The Marginalization of Tradition in East Africa and Youth and Experiences of Ageing among Maa. Paul Spencer received the Curl Bequest Essay Prize in 1975.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Youth and Experiences of Ageing among Maa: Models of Society Evoked by the Maasai, Samburu, and Chamus of Kenya

    (Here it is argued that understanding another culture can ...)

    2014
  • The Maasai of Matapato

    (When first published in 1988, this classic study was the ...)

    1988
  • The Pastoral Continuum: The Marginalization of Tradition in East Africa

    (Spencer presents the definitive study of the ways of life...)

    1998
  • The Samburu: A Study of Gerontocracy in a Nomadic Tribe

    (In an era of rapid change for Africa, this nomadic tribe ...)

    1965
  • Nomads in alliance: Symbiosis and growth among the Rendille and Samburu of Kenya 1973
  • Time, Space and the Unknown: Maasai Configurations of Power and Providence 2003

Connections

Paul Spencer married Rosalind Scott in 1967. The marriage produced two children. In 1991, Paul and Rosalind divorced. In 1995, Paul Spencer married Diane Wells.

Father:

Douglas Arthur Spencer

Mother:

Eleonor Marguerite

ex-wife:

Rosalind Scott

Wife:

Diane Wells

Son:

Aidan Spencer

Son:

Benet