Distinguished anthropologist and scholar of Africa, John Peel passed away in November. Two of Peel’s colleagues from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, Paul Gifford and Richard Rathbone, have published moving accounts of Peel’s legacy as a scholar and friend, which can be read here.
He published widely, in development studies, sociological theory, and diverse aspects of African religion, including religious change, conversion and gender. His strength was to combine history, social anthropology and sociology. He was a beautiful stylist, and incapable of writing an unintelligible sentence. His thrust was generally Weberian, insisting that religion could not be reduced to material or class interests.
University of California Press is proud to be publishing Professor Peel’s final work, Christianity, Islam, and Orisa-Religion: Three Traditions in Comparison and Interaction, which will be available early next year.
