A few words for Jim Ferguson: from Liisa, Roberto, George, Jess, Bóris and Márcio

Abstract

Here are a few words to pay tribute to anthropologist James Ferguson, who died on February 12, 2025, at the age of 65. Ferguson was a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University in California, USA. He was trained in Cultural Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1979) and in Social Anthropology at Harvard University (1981/M.A. and 1985/PhD). He has had a widely recognized professional career in anthropology, particularly due to his studies and ethnographies on political economy, development anthropology, and international social assistance programs. Ferguson’s critical view of these themes, sustained by fieldwork in southern African countries, also extended to works on anthropological theory and methodology. During his postgraduate studies at Harvard, Ferguson met and came to live intellectually and personally with anthropologist Liisa Malkki, since then also his wife, and with his friends, anthropologists George Bisharat and Roberto Kant de Lima, in what they called the “Bacardi School of Anthropology.” His early departure surprised and dismayed all of us and, specially and emotionally, those closest to him. In recognition of his professional and intellectual career and personal qualities, Antropolítica immediately welcomed the initiative of our colleague and professor Roberto Kant de Lima to publish a series of texts in tribute to James “Jim” Ferguson.