David Brooks Papers

David Brooks published relatively little during his lifetime, and his collection includes a number of conference papers, and draft book chapters describing Bakhtiari life, and related subjects such as Islam, religion, pilgrimgage, political leadership, women and dance. There is copious raw material from his fieldwork in the form of field notes, and also lecture notes and drafts for papers, and also a quantity of photographic, film and audio tape/cassette material. There are also files of archival research notes, especially from the National Archives in Kew and the India Office, index cards, some administrative papers from his time at Durham University, including grant applications, and quantites of newspaper cuttings on post-revolutionary Iran, and offprints, magazines, pamphlets and some books on Iran.

David H.M. Brooks was born on 27 June 1940, the second son of Alexander Brooks of Carluke, Lanarkshire, where the family had owned a High St store for 6 generations. He graduated from Glasgow University in 1962 with a BA in Psychology and went on to Balliol College, Oxford where he was awarded a Diploma in Social Anthropology in 1963. The next four years were interspersed with research trips to Iran and efforts to make contact with the Bakhtiari nomads in the south-west of the country, whose Spring migrations he accompanied in 1964 and 1966. He was accompanied by his wife, Marianne, a nurse who established a medical clinic in the region and worked in a Tehran hospital during their visits. Whilst in Iran he almost died from cholera and was later almost killed when, in 1966, a car ploughed into the one in which he was sitting. As a result of the latter, he lost his spleen, part of a lung and severely damaged his diaphragm which compromised his health for years to come.

He was appointed lecturer in Anthropology of the Middle East at Durham’s newly formed Anthropology Department in 1968. David taught at Durham for over two decades, during which time he established himself as an inspirational and invigorating teacher and, in the words of one colleague at the time, ‘a true intellectual’. He was well known for spending evenings and sometimes the entire night before a lecture, preparing new and deeply thought-provoking material delivered with an engaging mix of authority and humour, and mostly from memory. Judith Okely, a colleague in the 1970s described how some students would go down to the banks of the River Wear just to sit with their heads spinning after his lectures. His appeal was puzzling to some and it was suggested that on occasion, colleagues would try and listen outside his seminars in order to understand his draw.

His academic interests covered the Middle East, particularly Iran, and also Afghanistan, and Morocco, nomadic and tribal populations, Sufism, Shi'a Islam, tribal organisation in Iran with special reference to the history of tribe-state relationships and problems of settlement, religious and cultural symbolism, ritual and the performing arts - music, dance, poetry - in Iran, cognitive and cultural anthropology, structuralism, semiology and hermeneutics. He was also an adviser and script writer for the Oscar nominated film People of the Wind.

In 1986 David was diagnosed with lung cancer and had to have one of his lungs removed. Unfortunately, it was his good lung that was removed and he was left with the lung that had already been badly damaged in the earlier car crash. He had also been a heavy smoker for many years. He was a man of remarkable spirit and tenacity. David was reliant on a ventilator for the last few years of his life, but always ensured he had plenty of oxygen available when friends came round to talk.

David Brooks died on 29 April 1994 at the age of 53, a few years after his wife Marianne passed away. He left behind two sons, Ruaridh and Robb.

The 10 boxes of the collection currently (February 2017) comprise:

1. Field notes

2. Reading and teaching and administration

3. Photographs and sound recordings

4. Draft papers on Islam, religion, and pilgrimage

5. Field notes and photographs on migration and political leadership

6. Notes and papers on women and dance, and for films People of the wind and Grass

7. Public Record Office and India Office notes

8. Post-revolutionary Iran materials and newspaper cuttings

9. Index cards

10. Offprints and literature

The collection has not yet been sorted or catalogued. For this reason, it is not normally possible to consult the collection.

Given by Prof Susan Wright of Aarhus University, Denmark, (David Brooks's literary executor) 20 December 2016 (Acc No Misc.2016/17:58).

Digital copies of a quantity of his papers, some transcribed, and photographs are accessible on the Durham University Anthropology Department website

Online catalogue

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Sub-Librarian, Special Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

The contents of the collection have not yet been fully appraised.

After his death, many of David’s books were donated to libraries (many went to the growing anthropology library at Queen’s Campus, Stockton) and others were distributed amongst his students.