Correspondence file: Victor Turner

Includes:

• GLU/10/1, a typescript of Turner's "A study of religious congregations in Britain: a scheme of research" (n.d).
• GLU/10/6, Turner's c.v. (1960) [appears to be connected with Turner's promotion to a senior lectureship in 1960].
• GLU/10/15, copy letter 16 Oct 1961, Gluckman discusses state of the Manchester anthropology department.
• GLU/10/16, 16 Dec 1961, Turner discusses his sabbatical at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences, Stanford University.
• GLU/10/18, 27 Feb 1962, re. the selection of a professor of sociology at Manchester, Turner disagrees with suggestion of Leo Kuper, advocates Clyde Mitchell or A H Halsey.
• GLU/10/21-22, 21 Mar 1962 discuss Robert LeVine's article "Anthropology and the study of conflict" [Journal of Conflict Resolution V.1 March 1961] which commented on Gluckman and Turner's interpretation of "conflict", which both felt seriously misrepresented their views'.
• GLU/10/19, 24, 5 Mar 1962 & 2 Apr 1962, a planned conference of "Internal conflict and social structure", Burg Wartenstein, Austria, 1963.
• Discussion of Gluckman's planned research programme in Israel, esp. GLU/10/25, 35.
• GLU/10/35, copy letter, 15 Jun 1962, Gluckman discusses departmental matters in detail, admits to financial difficulties, but "research school is flourishing"; also refers to the difficulties of Norman Long in Malawi.
• GLU/10/38-43 13 Mar 1963-26 Sep 1963, correspondence concerning Turner's move to Cornell University.
• GLU/10/44, 27 Oct 1963, Turner's application for visa to the USA, says had to declare his former membership of the Communist Party.
• GLU/10/46, copy letter 5 Feb 1964, Gluckman comments on Turner's Drums of affliction.
• GLU/10/51, 15 Mar 1964, Turner comments on new students at Cornell, work of Cornell's Africa program:"reports "a thrilling experience to put across the [Manchester] viewpoint to bright kids to whom it's brand new and exciting".
• GLU/10/53, 16 Apr 1964, Turner's plans to teach 'Manchester theory of conflict' at Cornell; plans for research programme on Africa, poss of link with Manchester including study of villages
• GLU/10/56, 19 May 1964, research ideas for African rural resettlement, criticism of Robin Horton's article in Africa, which he feels tries to portray Manchester School as antagonists; maintains ritual symbols to beunderstood in several analytic frameworks; and GLU/10/57, copy letter 20 May 1964, Gluckman offers his views.
• GLU/10/59, 20 May 1964, copy letter, Gluckman's nomination of Turner for the Rivers Medal.
• GLU/10/70, copy letter, 11 Nov 1964, Gluckman makes critical remarks on Mary Douglas's review of Bronislaw Stefanitsyn's book [prob.Social and Ritual Life of the Ambo of Northern Rhodesia (Oxford 1964)], which he considers to be "part of the turn against sociology", also represented by Raymond Horton. Michael Banton told him that the Manchester School was under attack, because it was "the strongest representative of the sociological tradition of the subject"; also notes the decision of the new university of Zambia not to teach anthropology, which feels is symptomatic of a "severe attack" on traditional anthropology.
• GLU/10/78, 17 Aug 1965, Turner expresses his discontent at Cornell, due to overemphasis on applied anthropology. Also Gluckman's contributions to a volume edited by Turner Profiles of change: African society and colonial rule (Cambridge 1971.

Vic Turner (1920-1983) was a noted cultural anthropologist. He worked at the Rhodes-Livingston Institute from 1950-1954, before being appointed to a research position at Manchester. In 1957, he was made lecturer in the department of social anthropology and was promoted to senior lecturer in 1960. In 1963, he was appointed professor of anthropology at Cornell University, and in 1968, he moved to the University of Chicago, where was professor of anthropology until 1979. From 1979 until his death he was professor of anthropology and religion at the University of Virginia.