Raymond Firth

Sir Raymond William Firth (1901-2002) was a pioneering New Zealand-born social anthropologist renowned for his studies of Maori culture and the Polynesian island of Tikopia in the Solomon Islands. A key figure at the London School of Economics, he founded British economic anthropology, emphasizing empirical fieldwork, individual agency in social organization, and the application of economic principles to non-industrial societies. His seminal works include *Primitive Economics of the New Zealand Maori* (1929) and *We, the Tikopia* (1936).[1][2][4]