Legal anthropology is a sub-discipline of anthropology which specializes in "the cross-cultural study of social ordering".[1] This broad definition of the field captures the wide array of research done by legal anthropologists today. Earlier legal anthropological research often focused more narrowly on conflict management, crime, sanctions, or formal regulation. Bronisław Malinowski's 1926 work, Crime and Custom in Savage Society, explored law, order, crime, and punishment among the Trobriand Islanders.[2] Further early works by anthropologists on the topic of law include Henry Sumner Maine’s 1861 work, Ancient Law, and Lewis Henry Morgan’s 1877 work, Ancient Society. Malinowski, Maine, and Morgan are often thought of as founding thinkers in legal anthropology.
There are a number of useful introductions to the field of legal anthropology (see, e.g.,[3]). Sally Falk Moore, a leading legal anthropologist, held both a law degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology. Today a growing number of legal anthropologists hold both J.D.s and advanced degrees in anthropology, and some teach in law schools while maintaining scholarly connections within the field of legal anthropology; examples include Rebecca French, John Conley, Elizabeth Mertz, and Annelise Riles. Such combined expertise has also been turned to more applied anthropological pursuits such as tribal advocacy and forensic ethnography. See e.g. Allen C. Turner, Ph.D., J.D.[4] Justin Richland, a legal anthropologist who holds both a J.D. and a Ph.D., has served as Justice Pro Tempore of the Hopi Appellate Court in addition to performing highly-regarded academic research in legal anthropology.
If looking for Anthropology departments with faculty specializing in legal anthropology, try the following schools and professors: University of California, Berkeley (Laura Nader), University of California, Irvine (Susan Bibler Coutin, Bill Maurer, Justin B. Richland), University of Chicago (John Comaroff), Duke University (William M. O'Barr), Princeton University (Lawrence Rosen, Carol J. Greenhouse), [5] State University of New York at Buffalo (Rebecca French), New York University (Sally Engle Merry), and Cornell University (Annelise Riles).
The Association for Political and Legal Anthropology, a section of the American Anthropological Association, is the primary professional association in the U.S. for legal anthropologists. It publishes PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, the leading U.S. journal in the field of legal anthropology.