His principal contribution to this development is found in the Queens University Papers in Social Anthropology, Vols. 1-4 (1976-1979) and in two works edited/co-authored with the late Milan Stuchlik, The structure of folk models (1981) and Actions, norms and representations: foundations of anthropological enquiry (1983).

Despite an enduring concern with general issues in the theory and praxis of anthropology, Holy's writings were always informed and inspired by his extensive fieldwork undertaken amongst the Berti of the Sudan and the Toka of Zambia, as well as in the Czech Republic.

The Ladislav Holy Memorial Trust, which was set up in his memory as an independent charitable trust, has provided conference funding and small travel grants to assist students' field research.

Ladislav Holy was an academic of the old mode, combining the best in British and continental approaches to scholarship, and never comfortable with the audit culture prevelant in today's universities.  It is hoped that this web site will make the wealth of Holy's work more accessible to his fellow social and cultural anthropologists, as well as to future generations of students.
 
 

born Prague  4 April 1933
died Kingsbarns, Fife, Scotland  13 April 1997

* Assistant Keeper, Naprstek Museum, Prague, 1954-56
* Research Officer, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, 1956-65
* Head of African Department, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, 1965-68
* Director, Livingstone Museum, Zambia, 1968-72
* Lecturer in Social Anthropology, Queen's University Belfast, 1973-75
* Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology, Queen's University Belfast, 1975-79
* Reader in Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews, 1979-87
* Professor of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews, 1987-97
* Visiting Professor, Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo, 1994-95

married 1956 Alice Sucikova (died 1990)
married 1996 Kate Mortimer