Franz Baermann Steiner (1909-52) provided the vital link between the intellectual culture of central Europe and the Oxford Institute of Anthropology in its post-Second World War years. This book demonstrates his quiet influence within anthropology, and how his remarkable poetry reflected profoundly on the slavery and murder of the Shoah.

List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: A Brief Life Part I: An Oriental in the West: A Brief Life Chapter 1. Beginnings: The Prague German-Jewish Community Chapter 2. Student Days in Prague and Jerusalem Chapter 3. First Ethnological Studies in Vienna and London, and Fieldwork in Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia Chapter 4. The Impact of the Early English Years Chapter 5. The Exile Chapter 6. The Oxford Anthropologist Part II: Orientpolitik, Value and Civilization: The Social Thought Chapter 7. Beyond ‘Culture Circles’: The Field Trip Revisited Chapter 8. Zionism, Political and Cultural Critique Chapter 9. On Slavery Chapter 10. Radcliffe-Brown and Evans-Pritchard Chapter 11. Labour and Value Chapter 12. Civilization and Taboo Chapter 13. Simmel and Aristotle Part III: The Poet Anthropologist Chapter 14. Conquests Chapter 15. Kafka in England Chapter 16. The Chief Sociological Principle Chapter 17. Suffering and Value Chapter 18. In Search of the Universal Mathesis References Manuscript Sources F.B.S.’s Unpublished Writings in the Schiller Nationalmuseum, Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach am Neckar Unpublished Letters to and about F.B.S. and Memoirs Concerning him at the Schiller Nationalmuseum, Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach am Neckar F.B.S.’s Unpublished Writings and Other Sources in the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford Letters and Other Written Communications to the Editors Published Sources A Selection of F.B.S.’s Published Writings Published Sources Cited Index