British anthropologist, born in New Zealand; studied under Malinowski (he was his first student) at London School of Economics. Fieldwork in Oceania (Maori, and, most prominently, Tikopia). A pioneer of economic anthropology, where he is considered the first exponent of a formalist approach. While British anthropology, under the leadership of Radcliffe-Brown and Evans-Pritchard, was almost completely dominated by structural functionalism, Firth continued Malinowski's functionalist program. During the 1950's, he, and his former student, Edmund Leach, became leading figures of the methodological individualist movement at LSE and Cambridge.

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