Department of Anthropology
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Dr Stephen M. Lyon, BSc (Goldsmiths'), PhD (Kent)

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Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology
Approved First-Aider, Department of Anthropology
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 41597
Senior Lecturer in the Health and Human Sciences
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 40246

(email at s.m.lyon@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

History and Anthropology

Stephen Lyon obtained a BSc in Social Anthropology from Goldsmiths' College, London in 1993. After several years teaching English as a foreign language in France he returned to Britain to do a PhD in social Anthropology from the University of Kent. His doctoral research was on local politics, patron-client networks and cultural models in Punjab Pakistan. While carrying out his field research in northern Punjab, Stephen worked as research assistant on an ESRC funded project examining ethnicity in the ethnically diverse area of Attock District, Punjab, Pakistan. In addition he worked closely with the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council on an agricultural development project. In addition to his ongoing interests in Pakistan and Islamist politics in the Muslim world, Stephen conducts research on eSocial science and is part of an ESRC/EPSRC funded project developing Grid services for anthropologists working on indigenous knowledge. He was general editor of the revived Departmental e-journal,Durham Anthropology Journal, from 2004-2009. He is currently one of the managing editors of Structure and Dynamics and is co-editor (with Professor Paul Sant Cassia) of History and Anthropology.

Main research themes

I argue throughout the body of my research that, operationally, the only defensible concept of culture is one of competing specialised cultural systems. Such systems are not all equally powerful, nor are they all equally pervasive; an important thread throughout my work is a focus on those cultural systems which would seem to be core to the culture in question. So for example, from the ethnographic body of evidence available, it would appear that the symbolic systems which generate genealogical relationships between people (i.e. kinship terminologies), is a core cultural system in most, if not all extant cultures. Indeed, it may be that some rudimentary form of kinship terminology exists among the great apes suggesting that something we might call proto-cultural systems must have been present in our common ancestors. Other core cultural systems for specific cultures (such as that found in and around both halves of Punjab in South Asia) almost certainly must include basic floral and faunal taxonomic hierarchies, colour classifications, basic principles of honour/self control and of social organisation such as the logic factions. Other cultural systems then build upon core cultural systems and in real life, people must respond to shifting contingencies in ways which best maximise their attainment of their own goals (within the context). Hence, we have unpredictability because there is not a single cultural system guiding attitudes and behaviours, but rather sets of discreet cultural systems which have informed non-core cultural systems (such as legal or religious systems).

Academic Software

Working with the Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing at the University of Kent, I have been involved in trialling purpose built software to deal with the complex data types we typically produce in anthropology. The software tools I have been most involved in testing are the CSAC XML Fieldnote Editor, VideoGROK, the CSAC XML Kinship Editor and KAES (the Kinship Algebra Expert System). For more information on these and other potentially useful software tools for working with disparate data types please visit AnthroMethods.net

Indicators of Esteem

Research Groups

Research Projects

Research Interests

  • Conflict resolution, political and legal anthropology
  • E-Social Science
  • Islam
  • Pakistan

Teaching Areas

  • Computational Methods for the Social Sciences (Masters level)
  • Fieldwork & Interpretations (Masters level)
  • Power & Governance (3rd year option)

Selected Publications

Books: authored

Books: edited

Books: sections

Edited works: contributions

Essays in edited volumes

  • Lyon, Stephen M. 2010. Putting social engineering on the back burner teaching priorities in formal education in rural Punjab, Pakistan. In Shaping a Nation: An Examination of Education in Pakistan. Lyon, Stephen M. & Edgar, Iain R. Karachi: Oxford University Press. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Lyon, Stephen M. & Edgar, Iain R. 2010. Society, Culture and Politics: Examining Education in Pakistan. In Shaping a Nation: An Examination of Education in Pakistan. Lyon, Stephen M. & Edgar, Iain R. Karachi: Oxford University Press. 1-15. (Additional information) (View publication online)

Journal papers: academic

  • Lyon, Stephen M. 2010. Genealogy, kinship and knowledge: A cautionary note about causation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33. (Additional information)
  • Lyon, Stephen M. 2010. Motivation and Justification from Dreams: Muslim decision making strategies in Punjab, Pakistan. History and Anthropology 21(3). (Additional information)
  • Lyon, Stephen M. & Fischer, M.D. 2006. Anthropology and displacement: Culture, communication and computers applied to a real world problem. Anthropology in Action 13(3): 40-53. (Additional information)
  • Bolognani, M. & Lyon, Stephen M. 2006. Celebrating 20 years of the Lake District Pakistan Workshop. (in Special Issue on the Pakistan Studies Group, edited by M. Bolognani and S.M. Lyon). Contemporary South Asia 15(3): 255-262. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Lyon, Stephen M. & Magliveras, Simeon S. 2006. Kinship, Computing and Anthropology. Social Science Computer Review 24(1): 30-42. (Additional information)
  • Lyon, Stephen M. 2005. Culture and Information: An Anthropological Examination of Communication in Cultural Domains in Pakistan. Cybernetics and Systems: An International Journal 36(8): 917-929. (Additional information)
  • Fischer, Michael D., Read, Dwight & Lyon, Stephen M. 2005. Introduction (to Special Issue on Cultural Systems, edited by M.D. Fischer, D. Read and S.M. Lyon). Cybernetics and Systems: An International Journal 36(8): 719-734.
  • Lyon, Stephen M. 2004. 'Indirect' symbolic violence and rivalry between equals in rural Punjab, Pakistan. Durham anthropology journal 12(1): 37-50. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Lyon, Stephen M. 2004. Modeling Context in Punjabi Conflict Resolution: Social Organizations as Context Agents. Cybernetics and Systems 35(2-3): 193-210. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Lyon, Stephen M. 2002. Local arbitration and conflict deferment in Punjab, Pakistan. Anthropologie 40(1): 59-71. (Additional information) (View publication online)

Edited works: journals

  • Bolognani, Marta & Lyon, Stephen 2006. Special Issue: Celebrating 20 years of the Lake District Pakistan Workshop. Contemporary South Asia, 15 (3): Taylor and Francis. (Additional information)
  • Fischer, M.D., Read, D. & Lyon, S.M. 2005. Special Issue on Cultural Systems. Cybernetics and Systems: An International Journal, 36 (8). (Additional information) (View publication online)

Other media: research

Show all publications

Related Links

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

  • Computers: E-Social Science
  • Anthropology: Cultural systems
  • Conflict and resolution: Pakistani politics
  • Anthropology:
  • Conflict and resolution:
  • Politics & Society:
  • Middle eastern and Islamic studies:

Grants Awarded and Grant Applications

  • 2005: From the Horse's Mouth: Integrating Video and Teaching in Higher Education in Anthropology. C-SAP £6000.
  • 2004: Contextual instantiation of indigenous domain knowledge: An e-science approach. ESRC £5000.
  • 2003: Genealogies of Knowledge - Developing Anthropological Middleware to Support Fieldwork-based Social Science (Investigators: M. Fischer, D. Zeitlyn, N. Ryan (Kent) P. Sillitoe, S. Lyon (Durham)). EPSRC £204,959

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Last modified: 18th September 2009 | Disclaimer | Trading name