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In it he made some responsibly volatile, but brilliantly novel excursions into comparative biology and Darwinian evolutionary theory. His first produced three daughters: Kate, an anthropologist; Ellie; and Anne.^[1] He later married Lin Fox, who held an Ed.D. Fox claimed Willie had no talent for acting and should not give up his job in a bank.

In 1966, Robin Fox appeared in a cameo role in the film Modesty Blaise, as a man who rings a doorbell.

Fox married Angela Muriel Darita Worthington, an actress and the natural daughter of the English playwright Frederick Lonsdale.

Career

Julia Neilson was married to Fred Terry, brother of Dame Ellen Terry. I approached him to remark that I shared those emerging if perhaps eccentric interests that I hoped to embellish in future work.

Novel yes, but nonetheless still in the demanding context of traditional anthropology.

He was invited to tea by Claude Lévi-Strauss (!) who admired his remarkable Kinship and Marriage. In February 1945, he was awarded the Military Cross.

He rose to the rank of acting major.

As well as representing many performers, including Julie Christie, Paul Scofield, Marianne Faithfull, and Maggie Smith, he also acted on behalf of film-makers, of whom one was Joseph Losey.

We had, we thought then, to rewelcome Darwin (– rewelcome Darwin!)  – and his methodologicalism for anthropology in particular, and within social science in general. In 1970, Fox and Oscar Lewenstein jointly succeeded Neville Blond as chairman of the English Stage Company, but Fox died from cancer only six months later.

At the time of his death Fox was living at Ockenden Cottage, Cuckfield, Sussex.

He left an estate valued at £102,625.

For example, he produced a history of his own grammar school education. Throughout his career he brought an international flavor, scepticism and competence to all his professional associations. from Columbia University and taught health sciences at Kean University in New Jersey.^[1] The couple resided on a small farm outside Princeton, New Jersey.^[4]Fox died on January 18, 2024, at the age of 89.^[8][2]

Theoretical Contributions

Kinship and Alliance Theory

Robin Fox's kinship and alliance theory, primarily developed in his 1967 book Kinship and Marriage: An Anthropological Perspective, posits that human kinship systems universally derive from four biological and social premises that structure descent rules and marital alliances.^[9] These premises form a deductive foundation for analyzing kinship logic across societies, emphasizing empirical universals over cultural relativism.^[10] Fox argued that kinship constitutes the core discipline of anthropology, akin to logic in philosophy, as it systematically organizes mating, gestation, parenthood, and socialization.^[11]The four structural principles are: (1) women bear children through gestation; (2) men impregnate women; (3) children recognize the gestational mother as kin; and (4) children recognize the impregnating male as the father, establishing genealogical paternity.^[12] These axioms underpin descent systems, which transmit social status, property, and identity biologically via mother-child or father-child links, and alliance systems, where marriages forge inter-group bonds to mitigate conflict or secure resources.^[10] Fox's approach reconciles structuralist descent theories (e.g., unilineal inheritance) with alliance perspectives (e.g., Lévi-Strauss's emphasis on exchange), demonstrating how both emerge from the same premises without contradiction.^[9]In descent, Fox highlighted matrilineal (tracing through mothers) and patrilineal (through fathers) variants as adaptations to paternity certainty and resource control, with bilateral systems blending both for flexibility in modern contexts.^[13]Alliance theory, per Fox, views marriage not merely as individual union but as strategic pacts between descent groups, often exogamous to expand networks while incest taboos—rooted in the principles—prevent inbreeding.^[14] He critiqued overly descriptive ethnographies, advocating deductive modeling: for instance, in Australian Aboriginal systems, section totems enforce alliance via prescribed marriages, ensuring lineage continuity.^[9]Fox integrated evolutionary biology, positing that kinship rules evolved to maximize inclusive fitness by aligning social recognition with genetic relatedness, challenging cultural determinism in mainstream anthropology.^[8] This biosocial lens influenced later sociobiological debates, though Fox maintained anthropological focus on observable institutions over speculative genes.^[9] His framework has been applied to predict variations, such as why patrilineal systems dominate pastoral societies for male heritable assets.

Biosocial Anthropology and Evolutionary Explanations

Fox advanced biosocial anthropology as an interdisciplinary approach that synthesizes evolutionary biology, ethology, and cultural analysis to elucidate the biological underpinnings of human social organization.

While we mourn the loss of a visionary scholar, we also celebrate his enduring legacy.

 

Link to Robin Fox Emeritus Faculty Dept of Anthropology at Rutgers
https://anthro.rutgers.edu/people/emeritus-faculty/91-robin-fox

Link to Obituary for Robin Fox
https://www.captivasanibel.com/2024/02/22/robin-fox/

Link to festschrift in honor of Robin Fox
https://www.amazon.com/The-Character-Human-Institutions-Biosocial/dp/141285377X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407786420&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Character+of+Human+Institutions%20

Link to Wikipedia information about the life and work of Robin Fox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Fox