David Montgomery Hart

David Montgomery Hart (18 May 1927 – 22 May 2001) was an American anthropologist and historian who specialised in Berber tribes. He spent time living amongst Berber tribes like the Ait Waryagher of the Rif and the Ait Atta.

Life and career

David Montgomery Hart was born on 18 May 1927, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He did his doctoral studies under Carleton S. Coon.

Historian Sarah Barringer Gordon described Hart as an "anthropologist of the old school" and Islamic scholar and anthropologist Akbar Ahmed noted that Hart's brand of anthropology reflected an old tradition where anthropologists would go and rely on their senses for notes and live amongst the people they are studying.

Hart was a prolific letter-writer with Ernest Gellner saying in Tribe and State: Essays in Honour of David Montgomery Hart that Hart "has developed and perfected a distinctive literary form, the long ethnographic letter". His correspondence with Ross E. Dunn and other scholars which totalled over 10,000 pages was entrusted to the Moroccan National Archives.

He was married to Ursula Cook Kingsmill [ar] who lived with him amongst the Berber tribes. He died on 22 May 2001 in Garrucha, Spain aged 74.

Published works

Books

  • The Aith Waryaghar of the Moroccan Rif: An Ethnography and History. U. of Arizona P. 1976. ISBN 978-0-8357-5290-9.
  • Dadda 'Atta And His Forty Grandsons: The Socio-political Organization Of The Ait Atta Of Southern Morocco. Avalon Publishing. 1981. ISBN 978-0-906559-06-2.
  • The Ait 'Atta of Southern Morocco Daily Life & Recent History. United Kingdom: Middle East & North African Studies Press. 1984. ISBN 9780906599150.
  • Guardians of the Khaibar Pass: The Social Organisation and History of the Afridis of Pakistan. Vanguard Books. 1985. ISBN 9789694024356.
  • Banditry in Islam: Case Studies from Morocco, Algeria and the Pakistan North West Frontier. Middle East & North African Studies Press. 1987. ISBN 978-0-906559-22-2.
  • Tribalism and Rural Society in the Islamic World. Cass. 1999. ISBN 978-0-7146-4928-3.
  • Tribe and Society in Rural Morocco. Psychology Press. 2000. ISBN 978-0-7146-5016-6.
  • Muslim Tribesmen and the Colonial Encounter in Fiction and on Film. Het Spinhuis Publishers. 2001. ISBN 978-90-5589-205-1.
  • Qabila: Tribal Profiles and Tribe-state Relations in Morocco and on the Afghanistan-Pakistan Frontier. Transaction Publishers. 2001. ISBN 978-90-5589-204-4.

Articles

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gordon, Sarah Barringer (2001). "David Montgomery Hart: an obituary". The Journal of North African Studies. 6 (2): 7–8. doi:10.1080/13629380108718431. ISSN 1362-9387.
  2. ↑ "David Montgomery Hart (1927-2001)". data.bnf.fr. Retrieved 2025-02-08.
  3. 1 2 Stoolman, Jessie Serene (2020). Writing Letters and Reading against the Grain of Anthropology’s Past (PDF) (Master of Arts thesis). University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
  4. ↑ "Paid Notice: Deaths HART, DAVID MONTGOMERY". The New York Times. 2001-06-10. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-02-08.
  5. ↑ El Guindi, Fadwa (1979). "Review of The Aith Waryaghar of the Moroccan Rif: An Ethnography and History". American Anthropologist. 81 (4): 936–938. ISSN 0002-7294. Retrieved 18 March 2025.
  6. ↑ Seddon, David (1977). "Review of The Aith Waryaghar of the Moroccan Rif: An Ethnography and History". Middle East Studies Association Bulletin. 11 (2): 59–60. ISSN 0026-3184. Retrieved 18 March 2025.
  7. ↑ Joffé, E. G. H. (1977). "The Moroccan Rif". The Journal of African History. 18 (4): 626–628. ISSN 0021-8537. Retrieved 18 March 2025.

Further reading