- Changing Swahili cultures and identities in a globalising world: an approach from anthropology. Caplan, Pat. 2013. Changing Swahili cultures and identities in a globalising world: an approach from anthropology. Swahili-Forum, 20, pp. 31-47. ISSN 1614-2373
- An anthropologist among the film-makers: A cautionary tale’. Part 1. ‘The politics of production’ Caplan, Pat. 2013. An anthropologist among the film-makers: A cautionary tale’. Part 1. ‘The politics of production’. Anthropology Today, 29(6), pp. 23-26. ISSN 0268-540X
- ‘Cull or vaccinate? Badger politics in Wales’ Caplan, Pat. 2012. ‘Cull or vaccinate? Badger politics in Wales’. Anthropology Today, 28(6), pp. 17-21. ISSN 0268-540X
- A ‘clash of civilizations’ on Mafia Island? The story of a dance festival. Caplan, Pat. 2011. A ‘clash of civilizations’ on Mafia Island? The story of a dance festival. Anthropology Today, 27(2), pp. 18-21. ISSN 0268-540X
- Something for posterity or hostage to fortune? Archiving anthropological field material Caplan, Pat. 2010. Something for posterity or hostage to fortune? Archiving anthropological field material. Anthropology Today, 26(4), pp. 13-17. ISSN 0268-540X
- Death on the Farm: culling badgers in North Pembrokeshire Caplan, Pat. 2010. Death on the Farm: culling badgers in North Pembrokeshire. Anthropology Today, 26(2), pp. 14-18. ISSN 0268-540X
- ‘Child sacrifice in Uganda? The BBC, ‘witch doctors’ and anthropologists’ Caplan, Pat. 2010. ‘Child sacrifice in Uganda? The BBC, ‘witch doctors’ and anthropologists’. Anthropology Today, 26(2), pp. 4-7. ISSN 0268-540X
- ‘Food, environment and entitlement: local perceptions in three globalising settings: Case studies from Tanzania, South India and West Wales, UK’ Caplan, Pat. 2009. ‘Food, environment and entitlement: local perceptions in three globalising settings: Case studies from Tanzania, South India and West Wales, UK’. Literature and Environment, (Korea), 8(1), pp. 207-226.
- Freud in Minazini? Consulting a Swahili diviner Caplan, Pat. 2009. Freud in Minazini? Consulting a Swahili diviner. Utafiti, 7(2),
- Crossing the veg/non-veg divide: practising commensality among middle class women in Chennai Caplan, Pat. 2008. Crossing the veg/non-veg divide: practising commensality among middle class women in Chennai. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 31(1), pp. 118-142. ISSN 0085-6401
- Between socialism and neo-liberalism: Mafia Island, Tanzania, 1965-2004 Caplan, Pat. 2008. Between socialism and neo-liberalism: Mafia Island, Tanzania, 1965-2004. Review of African Political Economy, 34(114), pp. 679-694. ISSN 0305-6244
- 'Never Again': Genocide Memorials in Rwanda Caplan, Pat. 2007. 'Never Again': Genocide Memorials in Rwanda. Anthropology Today, 23(1), pp. 20-23. ISSN 0268-540X
- ‘But the coast, of course, is quite different’: academic and local ideas about the East African littoral’ Caplan, Pat. 2007. ‘But the coast, of course, is quite different’: academic and local ideas about the East African littoral’. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 1(2), pp. 305-320. ISSN 1753-1055
- 'Is It Real Food?' Who Benefits from Globalisation in Tanzania and India? Caplan, Pat. 2006. 'Is It Real Food?' Who Benefits from Globalisation in Tanzania and India? Sociological Research Online, 11(4),
- Terror, Witchcraft and Risk Caplan, Pat. 2006. Terror, Witchcraft and Risk. AnthroGlobe, ISSN 1481-3440
- ‘In search of the exotic: a discussion of the BBC2 series ‘Tribe’’ Caplan, Pat. 2005. ‘In search of the exotic: a discussion of the BBC2 series ‘Tribe’’. Anthropology Today, 21(2), pp. 3-8. ISSN 0268-540X
- Towards a feminist ethics of anthropology Caplan, Pat. 2005. Towards a feminist ethics of anthropology. Lova: Landelijk Overleg Vrouwenstrudies in de Antropologie/ Tijdschrift voor Feministiche Antropologie (Journal of Women’s Studies in Anthropology / Feminist Anthropology), 26(2), pp. 3-23.
- ‘Can Risk Management Be Universal? The Significance of Cultural and Social Differences’ Caplan, Pat. 2004. ‘Can Risk Management Be Universal? The Significance of Cultural and Social Differences’. Journal of Medical Safety, 10, ISSN 1349-5232
- Anthropology, History and Personal Narratives: Reflections on Writing ‘African Voices, African Lives Caplan, Pat. 1999. Anthropology, History and Personal Narratives: Reflections on Writing ‘African Voices, African Lives. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 9, pp. 283-290. ISSN 0080-4401
- Why do people eat what they do? Approaches to food and diet from a social science perspective. Caplan, Pat. 1996. Why do people eat what they do? Approaches to food and diet from a social science perspective. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1(2), ISSN 1359-1045
- Distanciation or differentiation - what difference does it make? Caplan, Pat. 1994. Distanciation or differentiation - what difference does it make? Critique of Anthropology, 14(2), pp. 99-115. ISSN 0308-275X
- Perceptions of gender stratification Caplan, Pat. 1989. Perceptions of gender stratification. Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute, 59(2), pp. 106-208. ISSN 0001-9720
- The cross cultural validity of feminism - a case study from Tanzania Caplan, Pat. 1989. The cross cultural validity of feminism - a case study from Tanzania. Garcia de Orta. Série de Antropobiologia, 6(1-2), ISSN 0870-0168
- Engendering knowledge: the politics of ethnography (Part 1) Caplan, Pat. 1988. Engendering knowledge: the politics of ethnography (Part 1). Anthropology Today, 4, pp. 8-12. ISSN 0268-540X
- Engendering Knowledge: The Politics of Ethnography, (Part 2) Caplan, Pat. 1988. Engendering Knowledge: The Politics of Ethnography, (Part 2). Anthropology Today, 5, pp. 14-17. ISSN 0268-540X
- Women's Voluntary Social Welfare Work in India: the Cultural Construction of Gender and Class. Caplan, Pat. 1985. Women's Voluntary Social Welfare Work in India: the Cultural Construction of Gender and Class. Bulletin of concerned Asian scholars, 17(1), pp. 20-31. ISSN 0007-4810
- Development Policies in Tanzania: Some Implications for Women Caplan, Pat. 1981. Development Policies in Tanzania: Some Implications for Women. The Journal of Development Studies, 17(3), pp. 98-108. ISSN 0022-0388
- Joiners and non joiners: an Indian city suburb and its women's club Caplan, Pat. 1980. Joiners and non joiners: an Indian city suburb and its women's club. Sociological Bulletin, 29(2), pp. 207-221. ISSN 0038-0229
- Indian Women, Illusion and Reality: a Review of Some Recent Books Caplan, Pat. 1979. Indian Women, Illusion and Reality: a Review of Some Recent Books. Women's studies international quarterly, 2(4), pp. 461-479. ISSN 0148-0685
- Ascetics in Western Nepal Caplan, Pat. 1976. Ascetics in Western Nepal. Eastern Anthropologist, 26(2), pp. 174-182. ISSN 0012-8686
- Boys' circumcision and girls' puberty rites among the Swahili of Mafia Island Tanzania Caplan, Pat. 1976. Boys' circumcision and girls' puberty rites among the Swahili of Mafia Island Tanzania. Africa, 46(1), pp. 21-33. ISSN 0001-9720
- Cognatic Descent Groups on Mafia Island, Tanzania Caplan, Pat. 1969. Cognatic Descent Groups on Mafia Island, Tanzania. Man; a monthly record of anthropological science, 4(3), pp. 419-431. ISSN 0025-1496
Professor Pat Caplan MA PhD
A founding member of the department, Pat has researched gender, social inequality and food, health and risk.
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Professor Caplan was one of the founding members of the Anthropology Department at Goldsmiths. She taught in the department from 1977-2002, as well as at other universities in the UK, USA, Canada and South Africa.
Her interests have included gender and social inequality; food, health and risk; reflexivity and anthropological ethics; social justice and human rights; personal narratives and biography. Fieldwork has been carried out on Mafia Island, Tanzania since 1965; Chennai (Madras) since 1974, and West Wales since 1992.
Professor Caplan has authored five monographs, edited five books and co-edited a further four, in addition to publishing some 80 journal articles and book chapters. In addition, she has constructed a number of websites about her research and made a film about Mafia Island.
Academic qualifications
- School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. B.A. Hons. African Studies (Swahili branch) 1963
- University of London. M.A. Social Anthropology (by dissertation) 1965
- Ph.D.in Social Anthropology, University of London. 1968
Research interests
Current projects
•Research on food poverty in UK
Past projects
UK
Concepts of Healthy Eating (in the UK)
•Phase I (Lewisham)
•Phase II (West Wales)
All of the data from the ESRC food projects have now been archived in the ESDS ESRC Qualidata Archive.
Tanzania
• Local Understandings of Global Processes: Food as a Vehicle of and Metaphor for Modernity on Mafia Island
• A website on and for Mafia Island, Tanzania
• Historical photo gallery of Mafia Island
• Writing a historical biography of a man from Mafia Island, Tanzania
• Archiving of textual, photographic and audio material from Mafia Island, Tanzania' for the British Library (Digital archive of music recordings made on Mafia Island in the 1960s - pdf) and the School of Oriental and African Studies
India
Changes in Food Consumption Patterns in Middle-Class Households in Chennai (Madras), India
Nepal
Research in Nepal, 1969
Featured publications
Publications and research outputs
Book
- Mikidadi: individual biography and national history in Tanzania Caplan, Pat. 2016. Mikidadi: individual biography and national history in Tanzania. Sean Kingston Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907774-48-5
- About Mikidadi: Individual Biography and National History in Tanzania Caplan, Pat. 2016. About Mikidadi: Individual Biography and National History in Tanzania. Hertfordshire, United Kingdom: Sean Kingston Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907774-48-5
- ‘Mikidadi wa Mafia: maisha ya mwanaharakati na familia yake nchini Tanzania’ (Mikidadi of Mafia: the life of an activist and his family in Tanzania). Caplan, Pat. 2014. ‘Mikidadi wa Mafia: maisha ya mwanaharakati na familia yake nchini Tanzania’ (Mikidadi of Mafia: the life of an activist and his family in Tanzania). Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Press. ISBN 978-9987082957
Edited Book
- Swahili Modernities: Identity, Power and Development on the East African Coast Caplan, Pat and Topan, Farouk, eds. 2006. Swahili Modernities: Identity, Power and Development on the East African Coast. Africa World Press. ISBN 978-1592210466
- SWAHILI MODERNITIES : Culture, Politics, and Identity on the East Coast of Africa Caplan, Pat and Topan, Farouk, eds. 2004. SWAHILI MODERNITIES : Culture, Politics, and Identity on the East Coast of Africa. Lawrenceville, NJ: AFRICA WORLD PRESS. ISBN 978-1592210466
- The Ethics of Anthropology: Debates and Dilemmas Caplan, Pat, ed. 2003. The Ethics of Anthropology: Debates and Dilemmas. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415296434
Book Section
- ‘The Transcendent Subject? Biography as a medium for writing ‘life and times’’ Caplan, Pat. 2015. ‘The Transcendent Subject? Biography as a medium for writing ‘life and times’’. In: N. Rapport; James Staples; Isak Niehaus and Katie Smith, eds. Anthropology and Biography. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Publications.
- ‘Two weddings in northern Mafia – changes in women’s lives since the 1960s’ Caplan, Pat. 2015. ‘Two weddings in northern Mafia – changes in women’s lives since the 1960s’. In: Erin Stiles and Katherine Daly Thompson, eds. Gendered Lives in the Western Indian Ocean: Islam, Marriage, and Sexuality on the Swahili Coast. Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0821421871
- ‘Death on the farm: badger culling in North Pembrokeshire’ Caplan, Pat. 2013. ‘Death on the farm: badger culling in North Pembrokeshire’. In: Hilary Callan; Brian Street and Simon Underdown, eds. Introductory Readings in Anthropology. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books and RAI. ISBN 0857459694, 978-0857459695
Article
- Struggling for food in a time of crisis: Responsibility and paradox Caplan, Pat. 2020. Struggling for food in a time of crisis: Responsibility and paradox. Anthropology Today, 36(3), pp. 8-10. ISSN 0268-540X
- Big Society or Broken Society?: Food Banks in the UK. Caplan, Pat. 2016. Big Society or Broken Society?: Food Banks in the UK. Anthropology Today, 32(1), pp. 5-9. ISSN 0268-540X
- ‘An anthropologist among the film-makers: A cautionary tale’. Part 2. ‘The politics of circulation’ Caplan, Pat. 2014. ‘An anthropologist among the film-makers: A cautionary tale’. Part 2. ‘The politics of circulation’. Anthropology Today, 30(1), pp. 15-19. ISSN 0268-540X
Conference or Workshop Item
- 'Changing Swahili cultures in a globalising world: An approach from anthropology’ Caplan, Pat. 2009. ''Changing Swahili cultures in a globalising world: An approach from anthropology’'. In: ‘Cultural Dynamics of Pre-colonial and Colonial Swahili society’. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea, Republic of 14-15th May 2009.
- 'But is it real food? Responses to globalisation in Tanzania and India Caplan, Pat. 2006. ''But is it real food? Responses to globalisation in Tanzania and India'. In: SCOFF panel of the BSA Annual Conference on Order and Disorder. Harrogate, United Kingdom.
- 'Towards a feminist ethics of anthropology' Caplan, Pat. 2005. ''Towards a feminist ethics of anthropology''. In: LOVA (Gender and Anthropology) conference. , Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Report
- Food Poverty nd Charity in the UK: Food Banks, the Food Industry and the State Caplan, Pat. 2020. Food Poverty nd Charity in the UK: Food Banks, the Food Industry and the State. Working Paper. Goldsmiths, University of London, London.
Professional projects
• British Association for the Advancement of Science: Committee member; 1994-8: President, Anthropology and Archaeology Section 1994-5.
• Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 1998-2000
• Chair of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth 1998-2002
• Board member and Trustee, Actionaid UK, 2007-2010. During this period served on evaluations of AA country programmes in Uganda, Nepal, India and Rwanda.
• Member, Advisory Board, Progress in Development Studies, Arnold Publishers
• Member, Advisory Board, Journal of the Humanities, Dodoma University Tanzania
• Member, Advisory Board, Anthropology in Action
• Member, Editorial Board, Swahili Forum (e-journal from University of Leipzig)
• Fellow, Royal Anthropological Institute, 1995-present, Trustee and Council member 2014-2016
• Advisor, Research Programme on food poverty in Switzerland
Food Research in UK
• Digital archive of research on food and health conducted in South London and West Wales, 1992-6
• Wellcome Library. 2011. Pat Caplan collection of secondary material on food
Research on Mafia Island, Tanzania
• Research on Mafia Island website
• British Library 2008. Pat Caplan collection (field recordings made during research on Mafia Island Tanzania on Swahili poetry and performance genres). British Library collection-number C1335.
• 2011: Caplan photo collection: Zanzibar and Kilwa, Tanzania
• 1978. Pat Caplan participated in the making of two BBC film anthropological series ‘Face Values’ and ‘Other People’s Lives’ which included material on her field site of Mafia Island. See 'Chole — Circumcision' and 'Chole — A woman's Place'
Research in Nepal, 1969
• Primary material on research in Nepal is held at the archives of the School of Oriental and African Studies
• Nepal Historical Photo Gallery. They are also available, together with those of Lionel Caplan, on the Himalayan website of the University of Virginia. See the Caplan Collection held by the Tibetan and Himalayan Library and the collections held by SHANTI, the scholarly collections at the University of Virginia
Media engagements
Teaching
When Pat Caplan was appointed to Goldsmiths College in 1977, there was no anthropology department in existence and only one other lecturer, Brian Morris, teaching the subject. By the mid 1980s, there were full degrees at undergraduate, masters and doctoral level, new courses, and a department which is now recognised as one of the best in the UK, receiving top ratings in recent assessment exercises.
While most of Pat Caplan’s curriculum development and teaching has taken place at Goldsmiths, she has also taught at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, the London School of Economics, Birkbeck College London, and the University of Cape Town and given lectures at the University of Bergen, University of Oslo, York University Toronto, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Kyoto, University of Tokyo. She has also and acted as external examiner for a wide range of universities both in the UK and abroad.
Although no longer teaching full-time, Pat Caplan continues to give occasional lectures both in Goldsmiths and elsewhere. She gave the Gold lecture in Anthropology in 2015 and the Mary Douglas Memorial Lecture in 2017