Article

Richard Frank Salisbury

Published Online May 19, 2008

Last Edited October 20, 2014

Richard Frank Salisbury, anthropologist (b at Chelsea, Eng 8 Dec 1926, d at Montréal, Qué 17 Jun 1989). Educated at Cambridge, Harvard and Australian National University, Salisbury was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1974 for his contributions to Canadian anthropology.

Richard Frank Salisbury

Richard Frank Salisbury, anthropologist (b at Chelsea, Eng 8 Dec 1926, d at Montréal, Qué 17 Jun 1989). Educated at Cambridge, Harvard and Australian National University, Salisbury was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1974 for his contributions to Canadian anthropology. He founded the McGill University Anthropology Department, serving as its first chair from 1966-70 and teaching there until his death. He was cofounder and director of McGill's Centre for Developing Areas Studies, served on the board of the Canadian Human Rights Foundation, was a member of the 1977 Québec Commission on Higher Education and became Honourary Secretary of the Royal Society of Canada Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Author of numerous articles and books in the field of economic anthropology, he was best known for From Stone to Steel (1962) and A Homeland for the Cree (1986). With the help of McGill researchers led by Salisbury, the Québec government and the Crees of Québec turned confrontation into dialogue over the JAMES BAY AND NORTHERN QUEBEC AGREEMENT (1975).