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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|British anthropologist}}<br />
{{About|the anthropologist||David Pocock (disambiguation){{!}}David Pocock}}<br />
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{{Anthropology}}<br />
'''David Francis Pocock''' (3 September 1928 – 25 November 2007) was a British [[anthropology|anthropologist]] whose main field of study was the people and [[diaspora]] of the Indian state of [[Gujarat]], and in particular the [[Patidar]] community of that state.<br />
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David Pocock was born on 3 September 1928 in [[London]]. After early education at Highbury School, he attended [[Pembroke College, Cambridge]], where he studied [[English Literature]] under [[F. R. Leavis]]. During the 1950s, he moved to the [[University of Oxford]] to take a PhD in anthropology under the guidance of [[Edward Evans-Pritchard]]. It was at this time that he began to translate the works of [[Emile Durkheim]] and he also conducted fieldwork in Gujarat, as well as among the Indian diaspora in East Africa and London.<ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |title=Obituary: David Pocock:Anthropologist whose research embraced India and east Africa |first1=Paul |last1=Yates |first2=Jock |last2=Stirrat |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London & Manchester |date=24 January 2008 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jan/24/mainsection.obituaries |accessdate=8 January 2013 |archive-date=5 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205103507/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jan/24/mainsection.obituaries |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=David Pocock |url=http://www.soas.ac.uk/anthropology/rural-change-and-anthropological-knowledge-in-post-colonial-india/david-pocock/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420020625/https://www.soas.ac.uk/anthropology/rural-change-and-anthropological-knowledge-in-post-colonial-india/david-pocock/ |archive-date=April 20, 2021 |accessdate=8 January 2013 |publisher=SOAS University of London}}</ref><br />
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Pocock moved to a post as [[Reader (academic rank)|reader]] at the [[University of Sussex]] in 1966, having become disenchanted with life in Oxford. Sussex provided a more relaxed social environment and was at the time a centre of challenging intellectual ideas. ''[[The Guardian]]'' describes how, at Sussex, "He soon developed a wide range of friendships and famously celebrated his 40th birthday with a legendary "black party", draping the house in crepe and serving only black velvet and caviar, both in copious quantities."<ref name="Guardian" /><br />
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A [[personal chair]] was awarded to Pocock by Sussex in 1977.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The point of death: A comparative anthropological approach |first=David F. |last=Pocock |doi=10.1177/006996671004400306 |journal=Contributions to Indian Sociology |date=October 2010 |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=361–382 |s2cid=141486696 }}<!--|accessdate=8 January 2013--></ref> While there, he was influential in the foundation of the [[School of African and Asian Studies]] and also in rescuing the archives of [[Mass Observation]]. He was an inspirational teacher but became tired of changes occurring in the university system and retired early, in 1987. Although he then gave up formal study, he remained an intellectually rigorous and curious person. In particular, ''The Guardian'' notes, "...&nbsp;forgoing his long and intense association with Roman Catholicism, he looked to a deeper involvement in the mystery of human consciousness through his investigations of Buddhism". He also became a [[prison visitor]].<ref name="Guardian" /><br />
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Pocock died on 25 November 2007.<ref name="Guardian" /> He had been awarded the Rivers Memorial Medal by the [[Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland ]] in 1974.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.therai.org.uk/awards/honours-prior-recipients/rivers-memorial-medal-prior-recipients/ |title=Rivers Memorial Medal Prior Recipients |publisher=Royal Anthropological Institute |accessdate=8 January 2013 |archive-date=18 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118221521/https://www.therai.org.uk/awards/honours-prior-recipients/rivers-memorial-medal-prior-recipients/ |url-status=live }}</ref><br />
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==Works==<br />
[[Louis Dumont]] was among the influential social anthropologists that Pocock met while at Oxford. As well as taking over Dumont's lectureship in Indian sociology while at that university, Pocock joined with Dumont to found ''[[Contributions to Indian Sociology]]'', an academic journal. in 1957. The pair worked together on this for five years.<ref name="Guardian" /><br />
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Much of his work remains unpublished, despite being influential<ref name="Guardian" /> and despite the existence of a lengthy bibliography.<ref>{{cite journal |title=A bibliography of the writings of David F. Pocock |first=David F. |last=Pocock |journal=Contributions to Indian Sociology |year=2010 |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=383–388 |doi=10.1177/006996671004400307 |s2cid=143807584 }}<!--|accessdate=8 January 2013--></ref> Among his published writings were:<br />
*{{cite book |title=Kanbi and Patidar: a study of the Patidar community of Gujarat |url=https://archive.org/details/kanbipatidarstud0000poco |url-access=registration |first=David Francis |last=Pocock |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1972|isbn=978-0-19-823175-2 }}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Mind, Body and Wealth: A Study of Belief and Practice in an Indian Village |first=David Francis |last=Pocock |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=1973 |isbn=9780631150008 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/mindbodywealth00poco }}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Understanding Social Anthropology |first=David |last=Pocock |year=1975 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton}}<br />
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==References==<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
*{{cite journal |title=David Pocock's ''Contributions'' and the legacy of Leavis |first1=Jonathan |last1=Parry |first2=Edward |last2=Simpson |journal=Contributions to Indian Sociology |year=2010 |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=331–359 |doi=10.1177/006996671004400305|s2cid=145357518 }}<br />
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[[Category:1928 births]]<br />
[[Category:2007 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge]]<br />
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford]]<br />
[[Category:Academics of the University of Sussex]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century British anthropologists]]</div>TeresaBrousseau