Papers of Dr Melvin Lee Perlman

The collection comprises Melvin Perlman's correspondence; research data gathered during 1959-1962 for his study on Toro marriages in Uganda; data gathered for his research on Tea Estate Workers in Uganda, and his articles and lectures.

Melvin Lee Perlman was born in 1933, in Pampa, Texas. He entered Yale University in 1951 having won a four-year fellowship to do a B.A. degree in Human Culture and Behaviour. From 1955 to 1956 he studied Hebrew language and culture at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. After securing a Graduate Assistantship at Oxford University he did a one-year diploma in Anthropology at Oxford and passed with distinction in 1957. During 1957 and 1958 he read for a B.Litt degree in Social Anthropology at the same university. In 1963 he obtained the degree of D.Phil in Social Anthropology from Oxford University.

Between 1959 and 1962 he was engaged as Research Fellow of the East African Institute of Social Research (EAISR) of Makere University College, Kampala, Uganda, where he undertook a research study on marriage and family life in Uganda with special reference to Toro. In 1961, while on contract to the EAISR, he also undertook a study with recommendations for the Uganda Company on: Factors Affecting Labour Stability on the Uganda Company Tea Estates in Toro District, Uganda. Melvin Perlman died in May 1988.

The collection has been arranged into six main sections: correspondence and personal; research material on Toro court cases; research data on Toro marriages; research data on Uganda tea estate workers; articles and lectures, and reports, societies and miscellaneous.

Open

Donated in 1989.

Unpublished handlist