非洲习惯法学的开创者:评沙佩拉的法律人类学

The Pioneer of African Customary Law:Review of Schapera’s Legal Anthropology

艾萨克·沙佩拉出生于南非的犹太家庭,师从于英国人类学功能主义学派,先后任教于南非金山大学、开普敦大学以及英国伦敦政治经济学院。由于偶然的原因,他开启了对贝专纳保护国境内的茨瓦纳人的野调查,并持续了数年的时间。在法律人类学领域,他出版了两部专著以及近二十篇关涉茨瓦纳人习惯法的论文。在代表作《茨瓦纳人法律与习惯手册》中,他主张大而全的行文结构,区分法律与习惯,呈现习惯法的复杂性,并超越了功能主义视角。沙佩拉全面开创了法律人类学的非洲研究,其作品对于今天的博茨瓦纳依然有着重要影响,他是法律人类学领域一位承前启后的重要学者。

Isaac Schapera was born in a Jewish family in South Africa,then studied under the functionalist school of anthropology in the United Kingdom,and taught successively at University of the Witwatersrand,the University of Cape Town in South Africa,and the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom.Due to accidental reasons,he started a field survey of the Tswanas in the Bechuanaland Protectorate,which lasted for several years.In the field of legal anthropology,he has published two monographs and nearly twenty papers on the customary law of the Tswana.In his masterpiece Handbook of Tswana Law and Custom,he advocated a large and comprehensive structure,distinguish between law and custom,presenting the complexity of customary law,and transcending the perspective of functionalism.Schapera pioneered the African study of legal anthropology in an all-round way,and his works still have an important influence on Botswana today.He is an important scholar in the field of legal anthropology.