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Downingbury Farmhouse, Pembury, Tunbridge
Wells, Kent TN2 4AD
Tel: +44 (0)1892 822815 or 822941
Alternative telephone no.: +33 (0) 2 99 46 13 91
Email: jonathanbenthall@hotmail.com
Born in 1941 in Calcutta.
1968. MA, English Language and Literature, University of Cambridge.
1974-2000. Director, Royal Anthropological Institute. (Founding Editor, Anthropology Today, 1985-2000).
1993. Anthropology in Media Award, American Anthropological Association
1994-current. Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology, UCL
2001. Patron's Medal, Royal Anthropological Institute.
1997-2003. Chair, International NGO Training and Research Centre (INTRAC), Oxford
2004-current. Member, Publications Committee, RAI
2008-current. Member, Advisory Group, Religions and Development Research Programme, School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham.
2009-current. Associate Fellow, Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
1993. Disasters, Relief and the Media. London: I.B. Tauris. Reprinted with a new Preface, 2010, Wantage: Sean Kingston Publishing
2002. The Best of 'Anthropology Today' (Editor). London: Routledge.
2003. The Charitable Crescent: Politics of Aid in the Muslim World (with J. Bellion-Jourdan). London: I.B. Tauris. Paperback edition with new preface, 2008.
2007. 'Les ambiguïtés du jihad dans la pratique des ONG musulmanes' in K. Rousselet, F. Mabille and B. Duriez, eds., Croyants et solidaires : l'action internationale dans les ONG confessionnelles, Paris: L'Harmattan.
2007. 'Islamic charities, faith-based organizations and the international aid system', in J. Alterman and K. van Hippel, eds., Islamic Charities, Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies.
2008. 'The Palestinian zakat committees 1993–2007 and their contested interpretations', Occasional Paper 1/2008. Geneva: Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Program for the Study of International Organization(s). Available online:
or http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital-Library/Publications/Detail/?id=94618&lng=en
2008. Returning to Religion: Why a Secular Age is Haunted by Faith. London: I.B. Tauris.
Video interview: conducted by Professor Alan Macfarlane, December 2005, in his 'Anthropological Ancestors' series of interviews, accessible online in Cambridge University DSpace.
Full bibliography for publications since 1995 is also supplied (below)
GENERAL INTERESTS
Jonathan has studied the relationship between contemporary Islam and humanitarian aid since 1993, and has published widely on the topic. More broadly, his interests extend on the one hand to the international aid system, and on the other to the growth of new quasi-religious movements and their interactions with traditional religions.
CURRENT RESEARCH
At a practical level, he is continuing his studies of Faith Based Organizations with special reference to Islamic charities. He has been retained as an adviser on projects relating to Islamic charities by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs: see the web page of the Islamic Charities Project, CCDP, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva: http://graduateinstitute.ch/ccdp/religion-politics-islamic-charities.html
He has also been retained by a number of American legal teams, including the American Civil Liberties Union.
More theoretically, he is exploring how a 'polythetic' definition of religion can fruitfully be applied to a number of ideological movements that are in appearance wholly secular.
Bibliography since 1995
1995. Foreword ‘From Self-Applause
through Self-Criticism to Self-Confidence’ to Akbar S. Ahmed and Cris N. Shore
(Editors), The Future of Anthropology: Its Relevance to the Contemporary
World (London: Athlone Press).
1995. Missionaries and human rights. Anthropology Today 11:1. February.
1996. The religious provenances of anthropologists. Anthropology Today 12:4. August.
1996. Entry on Mass Media in Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology (Macmillan and HRAF) also served as member of the Editorial Advisory Board.
1996. 'Enlarging the context of anthropology: the case of Anthropology Today' [adapted version of 1990 French article] in Popularizing Anthropology, ed. J. MacClancy and C. McDonaugh (London: Routledge).
1997. Repercussions from the Eglise Saint-Bernard [on Undocumented migrants]. Anthropology Today. 13:4. August
1997. The Qur'an's call to alms. Times Higher Education Supplement 3 Jan. Reprinted in ISIM Newsletter.
1997. The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Islamic Societies, with Special Reference to Jordan. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 24(2), 157-177.
1999. Two takes on the Abraham story. Anthropology Today. 15:1, February.
1999. Financial Worship: the Quranic Injunction to Almsgiving. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 5:1, March, 27-42.
1999. The critique of Intellectual Property. Anthropology Today. 15:6. December.
1999. 'Our Genius for the Equivocal' / 'Notre génie de l'équivoque. Article in special issue of Diogenes / Diogene (UNESCO journal), no. 188, vol. 47: 4, on anthropology as a science, ed. Georges Guille-Escuret. Published in English and French.
2000. Middle East scenarios. Anthropology Today. 16:1. February.
2000. Civil society's need for de-deconstruction. Anthropology Today. 16:2. April.
2000. 'Loei 1993 - Karnataka 1998' [poem] in Anthropology and Humanism 25.1, 2000.
2000. 'Interpretando el movimiento islamico actual: el caso de la élite educativa de jóvenes británicos. pakistaníes' in C. Lison Tolosana (ed.), Antropologia: horizaontes interpretativos (Granada: Universidad de Granada).
2001. Indigenism and Intellectual Property Rights. Anthropology News, April.
2001. 'Matea te urofa (with great friendship): a salutation to Sir Raymond Firth on his 100th birthday'. Anthropology Today. 17:2. April.
2001. Comment: 'Speculations on Islamic financial alternatives', Anthropology Today 17.3, June, 29.
2001. Guest editorial: `Time to look 'The Gift' in the mouth' [on academic research on charity] Anthropology Today 17:4, August, 1-2.
2001. Obituary, Julian Pitt-Rivers, The Independent, 25 August.
2001. Comment on article by Richard T. Antoun, 'Civil society, tribal process and change in Jordan: an anthropological view', International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 33.4, Nov., 668-70.
2002. The Best of 'Anthropology Today' (Editor). London: Routledge.
2002. 'Organized charity in the Arab-Islamic world: a view from the NGOs'. In Interpreting Islam, ed. H. Donnan (London: Sage Publications).
2002. 'Firstfruits in the Quran'. In Sacrifice in Religious Experience, ed. A. Baumgarten (Leiden: Brill).
2002. Guest editorial: 'Imagined civilizations?' [on Samuel P. Huntington] Anthropology Today, 18.6, December, 1-2.
2003. Chapter on 'Humanitarianism and Islam' in Monitoring Trends in Humanitarian Action: Humanitarian Action After September 11th, ed. J. Macrae and A. Harmer. London: Overseas Development Institute Humanitarian Policy Group. (Also a shorter briefing paper on the same subject.) Available online: www.odi.org.uk/hpg
2003. Commentary in American Anthropologist, June issue, on Mahmood Mamdani's article 'Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism', September 2002.
2003. The Charitable Crescent: Politics of Aid in the Muslim World (with J. Bellion-Jourdan). London: I.B. Tauris. Paperback edition with new preface, 2008.
2003. 'When is a call for alms a call to arms?', Times Higher Education Supplement, 5 September, 20-1.
2003. 'The raising of the Red Crescent'. New Humanist, 118.4, November.
2003. 'The greening of Islam?' [Islam and environmentalism]. Anthropology Today, 19.6, December.
2004. Reprint of the ODI briefing paper referred to above, in International Development and Assistance: Where Politics Meets Economy, ed. A. Bolesta (Warsaw: Leon Kotminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management)
2004. 'Naturally divine: are 'universal' values a religious legacy?' Daily Star (Beirut), 29 May.
2004. 'Waiting for a Muslim Gandhi? Islam and non-violence', Daily Star (Beirut), 21 August. (Reprinted in Islam and Muslim Societies (New Delhi), 1.1, 201-3).
2004. 'Religious NGOs in the ascendant: the Muslim case', Nouveaux Mondes no. 14 (special issue 'Les ONG au coeur de la mondialisation', Geneva: CRES).
2005. 'Confessional cousins and the rest: the structure of Islamic toleration'. Anthropology Today, 21.1, February.
2005. 'Universal' values in action - with their faith legacies, Islam and Muslim Societies (New Delhi), 1.1, 1-8.
2006. L'humanitarisme islamique', Cultures et Conflits, no. 60.
2006. Introduction, Summary of discussions and Conclusion to Religion, Politics, Conflict and Humanitarian Action : Faith-Based Organisations as Political, Humanitarian or Religious Actors, ed. S. R. Simkhada and D. Warner, Geneva: Graduate School of International Studies.
2006. 'Islamic aid in a north Malian enclave', Anthropology Today, August 2006, 22.4.
2006. 'Arch[aeology]. and anth[ropology]. as religioid movements', Anthropology Today, October 2006, 22.5.
2007. 'Animal liberation and rights', Anthropology Today, April, 23:2.
2007. Poem, 'Abrasion and ecstasy', Anthropology and Humanism, 32:1, 91-2.
2007. Obituary, Brownlee J. Kirkpatrick, Anthropology Today, August, 23:4.
2007. 'Les ambiguïtés du jihad dans la pratique des ONG musulmanes' in edited collection Croyants et solidaires : l'action internationale dans les ONG confessionnelles, ed. K. Rousselet, F. Mabille and B. Duriez, Paris: L'Harmattan, based on conference held in Paris by the Association de Sciences Sociales de Religion, February 2004.
2007. 'Oxford social anthropology since 1970: from schismogenesis to a new testament' in P. Rivière, ed., A History of Oxford Anthropology, New York and Oxford: Berghahn.
2007. 'Islamic charities, faith-based organizations and the international aid system', in J. Alterman and K. van Hippel, eds., Islamic Charities, Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies.
2007. 'The overreaction against Islamic charities', ISIM Bulletin, 20. Leiden: Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World. https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/1887/12453/1/Review_20.pdf
2007. 'Islamic charities in southern Mali' in Islam et sociétés au sud du Sahara, 1 (new series). Paris : Les Indes savantes.
2008. 'Have Islamic aid agencies a privileged relationship in majority Muslim areas? The case of post-tsunami reconstruction in Aceh', Journal of Humanitarian Assistance (online), www.jha.ac, posted 26 June 2008.
2008. 'The disaster–media–relief nexus'. Anthropology Today, August, 24:4.
2008. 'The Palestinian zakat committees 1993–2007 and their contested interpretations', Occasional Paper 1/2008. Geneva: Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Program for the Study of International Organization(s). Available online:
or http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital-Library/Publications/Detail/?id=94618&lng=en
Also available online in Arabic translation.
2008. Returning to Religion: Why a Secular Age is Haunted by Faith. London: I.B. Tauris.
2008. Entries on 'Relief', 'International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement', 'Oxfam'. 'Médecins Sans Frontières' and 'Islamic Relief', for Dictionary of Transnational History, Palgrave Macmillan.
2009. ‘Beyond belief’, lead review (of five books on religion), Times Literary Supplement, 11 December.
2010. ‘Powers of writing’, review of Jack Goody’s Renaissances: The one or the many?, Times Literary Supplement, 14 May.
2010. ‘Distress of nations’, lead review (of four books for and against ‘constructive engagement’ with the Islamic world), Times Literary Supplement, 13 August.
2010. ‘Mainstreaming religion in development: FBOs ride the wave’, ontrac (INTRAC newsletter), 46, September, p.3
