Siegfried Nadel was born on April 24, 1903 and died on Jan. 14, 1956. He was a Social Anthropologist from Vienna. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Vienna in Psychology and Philosophy in 1925. He studied Anthropology at the London School of Economics with Bronislaw Malinowski and Charles G. Seligman.
From 1934-36, he worked with the Nupe and other groups in northern Nigeria. From 1941-46, he joined the Sudan Defense Force in order to have a personal involvement with the destruction of the Nazi forces. After the war, he was a Lecturer at the London School of Economics for a year. Then, he was appointed Reader in Anthropology and Head of the Department at King's College, Newcastle, University of Durham. In 1950, he accepted the Chair in Anthropology at the New Australian National University, which he held until his death.
He produced outstanding ethnographic writings. Nadel was also a major theoretician who attempted to develop a new synthesis of social science. He did this in his books, The Foundations of Social Anthropology and A Theory of Social Structure. He wanted to link the "Study of Man with the whole universe of scientific knowledge."
Major works by Nadel include: "Nupe State and Community," Africa, vol. 8 (1935), "Gunnu: a Fertility Cult of the Nupe in Northern Nigeria," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 67 (1937), A Black Byzantium: the Kingdom of Nupe in Nigeria, The Nuba: an Anthropological Study of the Hill Tribes in Kordofan The Foundations of Social Anthropology, "Witchcraft in Four African Societies: an Essay in Comparison," American Anthropologist, n.s. Vol.54, and The Theory of Social Structure.
Written by Students in an Introduction to Anthropology Class, Minnesota State University, Mankato, Minnesota 2002