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{{Short description|British social anthropologist, ethnographer and professor}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Julian Pitt-Rivers
| honorific_suffix =
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1919|3|16}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2001|8|12|1919|3|16}}
| death_place =
| resting_place =
| education = [[Eton College]]
| alma_mater = [[Worcester College, Oxford]]
| father = {{nowrap|[[George Pitt-Rivers]]}}
| mother = [[Mary Hinton (actress)|Mary Hinton]]
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Pauline Tennant]]|17 August 1946|1953|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Margarita Larios y Fernández de Villavicencio|1955|1971|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Françoise Geoffroy|1971}}
}}
| children = 0
| occupation = {{nowrap|Anthropologist}}
| relatives = [[Michael Pitt-Rivers]] (brother)
}}

'''Julian Alfred Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers''' (16 March 1919 – 12 August 2001) was a British [[social anthropologist]], an [[ethnographer]], and a professor at universities in three countries.<ref name="ODNB-Julian">{{cite web|title=Rivers, Julian Alfred Lane Fox Pitt-(1919–2001) |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|accessdate=29 November 2012|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101076137/Julian-Pitt-Rivers}}</ref>

==Family background==
Pitt-Rivers was a great-grandson of the [[archaeologist]] [[Augustus Pitt Rivers]]. His father was the anthropologist and propertied [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocrat]] [[George Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers]] and his mother, [[Mary Hinton (actress)|Mary Hinton]], was an actress and daughter of the [[Governor-General of Australia|governor-general of Australia]], [[Henry Forster, 1st Baron Forster|the 1st Baron Forster]]. His parents divorced in 1930, and through his father's second marriage (1931–1937) he gained as his stepmother Dr [[Rosalind Pitt-Rivers]], an eminent biochemist. He had two brothers, one by each of his father's marriages. His elder brother [[Michael Pitt-Rivers|Michael]] inherited their father's substantial estates, and in the 1950s was caught in a legal case which contributed to national debate. His younger half-brother Anthony was born in 1932. After the war, his father fell in love with [[Stella Lonsdale]]; she changed her name to his, but they never married. When George Pitt-Rivers died in 1966, he left much of his fortune to her.<ref>{{cite web|title=Stella Lonsdale|url=http://www.conscript-heroes.com/Art08-Stella-Lonsdale-960.html|website=www.conscript-heroes.com|accessdate=20 December 2017}}</ref>

==Education and scholarship==
Julian Pitt-Rivers attended [[Eton College]] and [[Worcester College, Oxford]]. Through his work as an ethnographer of empathic considerations for cultural diversity, he rebelled against his father, a [[Oswald Mosley|Mosleyite]] [[eugenics|eugenicist]] who was [[Defence Regulation 18B|interned by the British government]] in the early years of [[World War II]].<ref name="ODNB-George">{{cite web|title=Rivers, George Henry Lane Fox Pitt-(1890–1966)|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|accessdate=29 November 2012|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101075512/George-Lane-Fox-Pitt-Rivers}}</ref>

Pitt-Rivers received his doctorate in 1953, which was derived from his fieldwork in [[Andalusia]], Spain, that led to his publication of the classic anthropological text ''[[The People of the Sierra]]'' in 1954. The introduction was provided by his Oxford professor, [[E. E. Evans-Pritchard]]. He taught at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] and the [[University of Chicago]]. In addition, he taught at the [[London School of Economics]] and several universities in France, including the [[École Pratique des Hautes Études]] in Paris (now the [[École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales]]).

==Personal life==
Pitt-Rivers was married three times. His first wife, whom he married on 17 August 1946, was [[Pauline Tennant|Pauline Laetitia Tennant]], daughter of actress [[Hermione Baddeley]] and aristocrat [[David Tennant (aristocrat)|David Tennant]]. They divorced in 1953. In 1955, he married Margarita Larios y Fernández de Villavicencio, the former wife of [[Miguel Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia|Miguel, duke of Primo Rivera]]; they divorced in 1971. His third wife, whom he married in 1971, was [[Françoise Geoffroy]], who survived him. He had no children. During his last years, he was affected by [[dementia]] that set in nearly five years before his death in 2001 and while he was still producing excellent work.<ref>{{cite news |author=Jonathan Benthall |title=Professor Julian Pitt-Rivers |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-julian-pitt-rivers-9153369.html |accessdate=14 November 2019 |work=[[The Independent]] |date=25 August 2001}}</ref>

==Publications==
* Pitt-Rivers, Julian. ''The fate of Shechem:or, The politics of sex: essays in the anthropology of the Mediterranean''. Cambridge [Eng.]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
* Pitt-Rivers, Julian, Ed., ''Mediterranean countrymen;essays in the social anthropology of the Mediterranean'', Paris: Mouton, 1963.
* Pitt-Rivers, Julian Alfred, ''The people of the Sierra''. Introd. by E. E. Evans-Pritchard. New York: Criterion Books, 1954.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Benthall, Jonathan. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20071001032211/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article35543.ece Professor Julian Pitt-Rivers]: [Obituary]", [https://www.independent.co.uk/ ''The Independent''], 25 August 2001.
* Corbin, John. "[http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,551848,00.html Julian Pitt-Rivers]: [Obituary]", ''[[The Guardian]]'', 14 September 2001.
* Freeman, Susan Tax. "Julian A. Pitt-Rivers (1919–2001): [Obituary]", ''American Anthropologist''. Vol. 106, No. 1. (2004), pp. 216–218.
* "Julian Pitt-Rivers: Obituary", ''The Times'', 12 September 2001.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt-Rivers, Julian A.}}
[[Category:1919 births]]
[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century British scientists]]
[[Category:20th-century British anthropologists]]
[[Category:Academics of the London School of Economics]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the École pratique des hautes études]]
[[Category:Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford]]
[[Category:British ethnographers]]
[[Category:Forster family]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty]]
[[Category:University of Chicago faculty]]
[[Category:Pitt-Rivers family]]

Julian Pitt-Rivers - Revision history

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