John Comaroff
| John Comaroff | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 1, 1945 |
| Fields | Anthropology |
| Institutions | Harvard University |
| Alma mater |
University of Cape Town London School of Economics |
| Doctoral advisor | Isaac Schapera |
John L. Comaroff (born 1 January 1945) is Professor of African and African American Studies and of Anthropology, Oppenheimer Fellow in African Studies at Harvard University. He is also Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation. He is recognised for his decades of African and African-American societal study. John and his wife, Jean Comaroff, have collaborated on landmark publications examining post-colonialism and the Tswana people of South Africa. He has written several well-received texts describing his research, and has presented peer-reviewed anthropological theories of African cultures that have relevance to understanding global society.
Comaroff was born in Cape Town in 1945 and received his BA at the University of Cape Town in 1968. After college he and his wife left South Africa for the United Kingdom, where he received his PhD from the London School of Economics in 1973. His field research focus is on the Tswana people of Southern Africa. He researches and publishes independently and in collaboration with his wife, Jean Comaroff. His interests also include corporate Christianity, witchcraft, political culture, colonialism, the history of consciousness, politics, and historical anthropology.
Louis later moved south to Cape Town where he would meet his wife, Jane Miller. Like John's father's family, his mother's family also migrated to South Africa from Lithuania in the early 1900s. Jane was born just outside Cape Town where her father worked as a small trader. Jane and Louis met during WWII in Cape Town. John recalls with admiration, "My mother is an extraordinary brilliant woman who ought to have gone to college but never did" (John Comaroff, personal communication, April 2013). Instead, as the war continued, Jane worked in an arms factory while Louis worked as a trader in the furniture business. Throughout Jane's lifetime she exhibited a commitment to voluntary work in their community. She was a major leader in the South African Jewish community and just before her death in 1972 she was named the head of the World Woman's Zionist Organization. John's parents were both Jewish, however as John remarks, "They were not especially religious" (John Comaroff, personal communication, 17 April 2013). John is conscious of being Jewish and holds an interest in Jewish music, history and literature. However, for John, Judaism plays more of a cultural role in his life. John has no active belief in god and considers himself an atheist, which he has been since a young age.
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