author
Walter William Skeat
1866–1953
A pioneering English anthropologist and ethnographer, he is best remembered for bringing the beliefs, customs, and daily life of the Malay Peninsula into clear view for English-language readers. His writing helped lay the groundwork for later studies of the region.
1 Audiobook
Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula
by Walter William Skeat
About the author
Born in Cambridge on October 14, 1866, he was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and later joined the civil service in Selangor in the Malay Peninsula. That experience shaped the research he became known for: careful, wide-ranging studies of local religion, folklore, and social life.
His best-known work is Malay Magic, and he also co-led an expedition to northeastern Malaya around 1899–1900 that informed later publications on the peoples of the peninsula. Reference works describe his ethnographic writing as foundational for later scholarship on the region.
He died in London on July 24, 1953. Today he is remembered less as a literary stylist than as a patient collector of detail whose books preserved a large body of cultural material that might otherwise have been lost or overlooked.