Nick Allen

Nick Allen interpreted the fourth function as an heterogeneous outsideness with both positive and negative aspects. [NordicSkogsra j18]Nicholas Justin Allen.For about 15 years I concentrated on Himalayan topics. I conducted fieldwork for twenty months in the east of Nepal with one Tibeto-Burman speaking tribal group (Thulung Rai), and spent a shorter period later with another group north of Simla (Kinnaur). I wrote one book describing the Thulung language, but most of my writings concentrated on comparative studies of Himalayan social structure, kinship, ritual and mythology.From the early or mid 1980s I diversified into three new areas. (a) I developed an interest in the history of the French tradition in anthropology, in particular in the work of Durkheim, Mauss and Dumont. (b) I tried to develop, at a certain level of abstraction, a world-historical theory of kinship, starting with systems such as occur in very small-scale societies where ‘everyone is related to everyone else’. (c) Building on experience with Tibeto-Burman mythology, I have been developing the comparative approach to Indo-European cultures, along the lines pioneered by the French scholar Georges Dumézil. I believe that, with certain modifications (notably a ‘fourth function’ having positive and negative ‘aspects’), Dumézil’s approach can help us to identify certain enduring patterns in Hindu/Buddhist thought and culture, casting light both on their origins and on their subsequent transformations. However, the relevance of this line of work is not confined to the Indian subcontinent, for it relates to the history of the Indo-European-speaking world in general. For instance, if, as seems clear, the Homeric epics can be shown to be cognate with the Sanskrit Mahâbhârata, this has implications not only for the study of early Greece but also for the history of European literature.Articles:
* 1987        The ideology of the Indo-Europeans: Dumézil's theory and the idea of a fourth function.  Int. J. Moral and Social Studies 2(1): 23-39.
* 1991        Some gods of pre-Islamic .  Revue de l’histoire des religions 208(2): 141-168
* 1993        Arjuna and Odysseus: a comparative approach. SALG Newsletter 40:39-43.
* 1993        Debating Dumézil:  recent studies in comparative mythology.  JASO 24(2): 119-131.
* 1994        Primitive Classification: the argument and its validity.  Pp. 40-65 in W S F Pickering and H Martins (eds) Debating Durkheim.  :  Routledge. [Revised version as Ch 2 in my Categories…, see 2000e]
* 1995        Why did Odysseus become a horse?  JASO 26(2): 143-154.
* 1996a      The hero’s five relationships: a Proto-Indo-European story. Pp. 1-20 in J Leslie (ed) Myth and Myth-making: continuous evolution in Indian tradition. : Curzon.
* 1996b      and the fourth function.  Pp. 13-36 in E C Polomé (ed) Indo-European religion after Dumézil (JIES Monograph Series 16).  : Institute for the Study of 
* 1996c      Homer’s simile, Vyasa’s story.  Journal of Mediterranean Studies 6 (2): 206-11.
* 1998a      The Indo-European prehistory of yoga.  International journal of Hindu studies 2: 1-20.
* 1998b      The category of substance: a Maussian theme revisited. Pp. 175-191 in W James and N J Allen (eds.) Marcel Mauss: a centenary tribute. : Berghahn.
* 1998c      Varnas, colours and functions: expanding Dumézil’s schema.  Z. für Religionswissenschaft 6: 163-177.
* 1998d [2001] Cúchulainn in the light of the Mahâbhârata and the Odyssey.  Pp. 51-6 in E Lyle (ed) Cosmos 14 (1).
* 1999a      Hinduism as Indo-European: cultural comparativism and political sensitivities.  Pp. 19-32 in Johannes Bronkhorst and Madhav M Deshpande (eds.)Aryan and non-aryan in : evidence, interpretation and ideology. , : Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, .
* 1999b      Arjuna and the second function: a Dumézilian crux.  J. Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 9(3): 403-418.
* 1999c      Hinduism, structuralism and Dumézil.  Pp. 241-260 in E C Polomé (ed) Miscellanea Indo-Europea. [JI-ES Monograph No. 33.] : Institute for the study of 
* 1999d      Les crocodiles qui se transforment en nymphes. Ollodagos 13: 151-167.
* 2000a       and Hanuman: Odysseus’ dog in the light of the Mahabharata. J. Indo-European Studies 28(1-2):3-16.
* 2000b      Cúchulainn’s women and some Indo-European comparisons. Emania 18: 57-64.
* 2000c      Scripture and epic: a comparativist looks at the biography of the Buddha. Visvabharati Quarterly 9: 51-62.
* 2000d      Imra, pentads and catastrophes. Ollodagos 14: 278-308.
* 2000e      Reflections on Mauss and classification; Magic, religion and Indo-European ideology.  Chapters 6 and 7 in N.J. Allen Categories and classifications: Maussian reflections on the social.  : Berghahn.
* 2001a      Athena and Durga: warrior goddesses in Greek and Sanskrit epic.  Pp. 367-382 in  and A Villing (eds) Athena in the Classical World.  : Brill.
* 2002a      The stockmen and the disciples. J. Indo-European Studies 30: 27-40.
* 2002b      Pénélope et Draupadî: la validité de la comparaison. Pp. 305-312 in A Hurst and F Létoublon (eds) La mythologie et l’Odyssée.  Hommage à Gabriel Germain. : Droz.
* 2002c      Mahābhārata and Iliad: a common origin?  Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Institute 83: 165-177.
* 2003        The Indra-Tullus comparison.  In B Drinka & J Salmons (eds) Indo-European Language and Culture: Essays in Memory of Edgar C. Polomé, part I. General Linguistics 40: 148-171.
* 2004        Dyaus and Bhīṣma, Zeus and Sarpedon: towards a history of the Indo-European sky god.  Gaia: Revue interdisciplinaire sur la Grèce archaïque 8: 29-36.
* 2005a      Bhīṣma and Hesiod’s Succession Myth.  Int. J. of Hindu Studies 8/1-3 (2004): 57-79.
* 2005b      The articulation of time: some Indo-European comparisons.  Cosmos 17/2 (for 2001): 163-178.
* 2005c      Romulus et Bhishma: structures entrecroisées.  Anthropologie et sociétés 29/2: 21-44.
* 2005d      Asceticism in some Indo-European traditions. Studia Indo-Europæa 2 (2002-5): 37-51.
* 2005e      Thomas McEvilley: the missing dimension. Int. J. of Hindu Studies 9/1-3: 59-75
* 2006a      Indo-European epics and comparative method: pentadic structures in Homer and the Mahābhārata. Pp.243-252 in T. Osada (ed) Proceedings of the Pre-symposium of RIHN and the 7th ESCA Harvard-Kyoto Roundtable, : Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN).
* 2006b      The Buddhist Wheel of Existence and two Greek comparisons. In Marco V. García Quintela, Francisco J. González García & Felipe CriadoBoado (eds) Anthropology of the Indo-European World and Material Culture: 5th International Colloquium of Anthropology of the Indo-European World and Comparative Mythology, pp. 219-228. Budapest: Archaeolingua.
* 2007a      The close and the distant: a long-term perspective. In G. Pfeffer (ed.) Periphery and Centre: Studies in Orissan History, Religion and Anthropology, pp. 273-290. , Manohar.
* 2007b      The shield of Achilles and Indo-European tradition. Cuadernos de filología clásica: Estudios griegos e indoeuropeos 17: 33-44.
* 2007c      Bhīsma as matchmaker.  In  and Brian Black (eds) Gender and narrative in the Mahābhārata, pp. 176-188.  :Routledge.
* 2007d      Śiva and Indo-European ideology: one line of thought. In Int. J of Hindu Studies 11/2: 191-207.
* 2007e      Dumont e Dumézil: una comparazione e una combinazione. Quaderni di Teoria sociale 7: 11-29.
* 2007f      The Pāṇḍavas’ five journeys and the structure of the Mahābhārata. Religions of  1/2: 165-181.
* 2007g      The Heimdall-Dyu comparison revisited. J. Indo-European Studies 35: 233-247.
* Selected Reviews and Comments
* 1987        Review of Myth, cosmos and society by B Lincoln.  Man 22: 375-6.``
* 1988        Review of Comparative mythology by J Puhvel. Man 23:  587.
* 1998        Review of Le mytho-cycle héroïque dans l’aire indo-européenne by C Vielle. JRAS 8(1): 104-6.
* 1999        Review of The Sanskrit epics by J Brockington. JRAS  9 (3): 445-6.
* 2000        Review of How to kill a dragon by C Watkins. JRAI 6 (1):159-160.
* 2000        Comment:  Miller on Dumézil: the current state of play. Religion 30: 293-4.
* 2000        Review of Balarâma im Mahābhārata by A Bigger.  JRAS 10(3): 411-13.
* 2001        Review of Composing a tradition, eds M Brockington and P Schreiner.  JRAS 11(2): 290-2.
* 2001        ‘Indoeuropäische Religionen’. Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 4th ed, 4: 110-1.
* 2003        Review of Imagining Karma:  Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist and Greek Rebirth by G Obeyesekere.  H-Net:   http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=4601070867937
* 2007        Review of Indo-European poetry and myth by M.West. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.10.53.
* in press  ‘Indo-European traditions’. RoutledgeCurzon Encyclopaedia of Hinduism, eds. Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson, Michael York.
=== CV (Nicholas Justin Allen) ===
Born 8 July 1939 in London. Married; two grown-up daughters.
Publications
* seven books (authored, edited or co-edited); around eighty articles (plus eight in press); about a hundred book reviews or brief communications. I am one of two General Editors of the Series World Anthropology (published by James Currey), and am or have been on the editorial panels of three journals (International Journal of Hindu Studies, Journal of Indo-European Studies and Studia Indo-Europaea (Bucharest)). Research Interests. Himalayan Studies; World-historical approach to kinship systems; Anthropology of Durkheim and more especially Mauss; Indo-European cultural comparativism.
====   Education. ====
# 1952-7: Rugby School; Classics Scholarship to New College, Oxford.
# 1957-64: studied medicine at Oxford, and then at St Mary's Hospital, London. Work at Oxford included one year of research in neurophysiology.
# 1965-72: studied social anthropology at Oxford (fieldwork in Nepal 1969-71).
====   Degrees ====
# 1964: BA (now MA), BSc (Neurophysiology); BM, BCh.
# 1966: Diploma in Social Anthropology (now redesignated M.St).
# 1969 BLitt ('Some problems in the ethnography of the peoples of Nepal and their neighbours').
# 1976: DPhil ('Studies in the myths and oral traditions of the Thulung Rai of East Nepal'). Employment and Selected Activities After qualifying, spent twenty months as hospital doctor in UK. 1969-71: Associate Research Officer, SOAS, University of London.
# 1972-6: Lecturer in Anthropology at University of Durham.
# 1976-2001: University Lecturer (from 1997 Reader) in the Social Anthropology of South Asia, and Governing Body Fellow at Wolfson College.
# 2001-. Emeritus Fellow, Wolfson College.
# Fieldwork, Positions and Activities
# 1969-71 twenty months in East Nepal
# 1981, 1983 nine months in Kinnaur, H.P.
# 1982 Directeur d'études associées at EHESS, Paris (one month).
# 1985-7 Vice-gerent (= Vice-president), Wolfson College.
# 1994 Golden Jubilee Lecturer, Utkal University, Orissa.
# 1998 Following AAA conference in Philadelphia, gave lectures in Montreal, Chicago and Stony Brook.
# 2001 Exchange Visitor at Perm State University, Russia (one month). Keynote Speaker, Conference of Orissa Research Programme, Salzau, Germany.
# 2001-2 After retirement spent one year in India (half in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, half in Pune, Maharashtra). Anniversary Lecturer at Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune.