Paul Hockings

Paul Hockings (born February 23, 1935) is an anthropologist whose prime areas of focus are the Dravidian languages, social, visual and medical anthropology.

He studied archaeology and anthropology at the University of Sydney, the University of California, Berkeley, and at the universities in Chicago, Stanford and Toronto. He taught anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and he has been the dean of United International College's Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. In 2024, he retired as the editor-in-chief of Visual Anthropology.

Early life and family Hockings was born on February 23, 1935, at Hertford and was raised in Hampshire, England.

Education Hockings studied Near-Eastern archaeology at the University of Sydney, and completed two majors in the subjects of archaeology and anthropology at that university. In 1962, after receiving a grant for field studies from American Institute of Indian Studies, he moved to the Nilgiris in India and did research on the Badagas of the Nilgiris, completing a Ph.D. on this subject in 1965. He also studied anthropology at the universities of Chicago, Stanford, Toronto, and at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1969, he was signed as an anthropologist by MGM Studios to make a film on mankind's origins for NBC television, entitled The Man Hunters; it drew a large North American audience. About the same time he served as the last research assistant for Ruth St. Denis, and was on an expedition to India with the photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt. He was the editor-in-chief of Visual Anthropology for a third of a century; and the University of Oslo has described him as "a pioneer in the fields of ethnographic film and visual anthropology".

Hockings is a professor emeritus of anthropology from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

He has studied the cultures of South India, He has researched their medical anthropology, culture and language.

Works Hockings made several documentaries and published about 20 books and more than 200 papers.

Books Hockings, Paul, and Christiane Pilot-Raichoor (2023). A Badaga and English Dictionary: Glossary and Gazetteer. New Delhi: Manohar. ISBN 978-93-91928-17-9.

Selected papers

Documentaries