David Montgomery Hart


David Montgomery Hart was an American anthropologist and historian who specialised in Berber tribes. He spent time living amongst Berber tribes like the Ait Waryagher of the Rif and the Ait Atta.

Life and career

David Montgomery Hart was born on May 18, 1927, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He did his doctoral studies under Carleton S. Coon.
Historian Sarah Barringer Gordon described Hart as an "anthropologist of the old school" and Islamic scholar and anthropologist Akbar Ahmed noted that Hart's brand of anthropology reflected an old tradition where anthropologists would go and rely on their senses for notes and live amongst the people they are studying.
Hart was a prolific letter-writer and Ernest Gellner said in Tribe and State: Essays in Honour of David Montgomery Hart that Hart "has developed and perfected a distinctive literary form, the long ethnographic letter". His correspondence with Ross E. Dunn and other scholars which totalled over 10,000 pages was entrusted to the Moroccan National Archives.
He was married to Ursula Cook Kingsmill who lived alongside him amongst the Berber tribes. He died on May 22, 2001 in Garrucha, Spain aged 74.

Published works

Books

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