Hocart, Arthur Maurice (1884–1939) |
British anthropologist; fieldwork in Polynesia (Fiji, Tonga, Samoa). Hocart's work was original, in focusing on ritual and social hierarchy. His work, which shows certain similarites to that of the French structuralists, was badly received in the contemporary British anthropological milieu (dominated by functionalism and structural functionalism, and his innovative study of caste was first published in French. Hocart is referred to extensively by Louis Dumont, in his famous book on hiearchy and the Indian caste system.