Peter Livesay Macnair, Canadian Anthropologist (1940–Present)

Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the son of Dorothy Livesay

Dorothy Livesay

Dorothy Kathleen May Livesay, was a Canadian poet who twice won the Governor General`s Award in the 1940s, and was "senior woman writer in Canada" during the 1970s and 1980s.-Life:...

 and Duncan Macnair.

From 1965 until 1996 Macnair was the Curator of Ethnology

Ethnology

Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...

 at the Royal British Columbia Museum

Royal British Columbia Museum

The Royal British Columbia Museum is a natural history and human history museum in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 1886. The "Royal" title was approved by Queen Elizabeth II and bestowed by HRH Prince Philip in 1987, to coincide with a Royal tour that year...

. During this time he was responsible for ground-breaking work in museum anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 and the participation of aboriginal peoples in the creation of museum exhibits.

Since his retirement from the Royal British Columbia Museum

Royal British Columbia Museum

The Royal British Columbia Museum is a natural history and human history museum in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 1886. The "Royal" title was approved by Queen Elizabeth II and bestowed by HRH Prince Philip in 1987, to coincide with a Royal tour that year...

, Macnair has been as active as ever and has curated exhibits for the Vancouver Art Gallery

Vancouver Art Gallery

The Vancouver Art Gallery is the fifth-largest art gallery in Canada and the largest in Western Canada. It is located at 750 Hornby Street in Vancouver, British Columbia...

, The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is a Canadian art gallery located in Victoria, British Columbia. Opened in 1951, the gallery possesses notable works by artists such as Emily Carr, and has one of Canada's most significant collections of Asian art...

 and the National Museum of the American Indian

National Museum of the American Indian

The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum operated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native Americans of the Western Hemisphere...

.

Selected works

• The Legacy: Tradition and Innovation in Northwest Coast Indian Art (1983)
• The Magic Leaves: A History of Haida Argillite
  Argillite
  An argillite is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and oozes. They contain variable amounts of silt-sized particles. The argillites grade into shale when the fissile layering typical of shale is...
  
   Carving (1984)
• Down from the Shimmering Sky: Masks of the Northwest Coast (1998)
• To the Totem Forests: Emily Carr
  Emily Carr
  Emily Carr was a Canadian artist and writer heavily inspired by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the first painters in Canada to adopt a post-impressionist painting style, Carr did not receive widespread recognition for her work until later in her life...
  
  and Contemporaries Interpret Coastal Villages (1999)
• Listening to the Ancestors : The Art of Native Life in the Pacific Northwest (2005)